By BILL WERDE

LIKE many struggling young musicians who live at home and

lack a job, Kellin Manning was chastised by his mother for

spending too much time playing video games. "One time she

took my Playstation and hid it from me," he recalled.

Unlike most, however, Mr. Manning - who has since left his

mother's home in Tucson for his own apartment in Long

Beach, Calif. - found a way to spin his gaming into

professional gold.

Last month Mr. Manning, 30, and his 24-year-old sister,

Taryn, who perform as the electro-funk duo Boomkat,

released their debut album, "Boomkatalog One," on the

DreamWorks SKG label. The band's first single, "The

Wreckoning,'' reached No. 24 on the pop charts, and their

music videos now rotate on MTV. They also contributed songs

to the soundtracks for the recent movies "8 Mile,''

featuring Eminem, and "Crossroads," a Britney Spears star

vehicle; Ms. Manning, a rising actress who lives in Los

Angeles, had supporting roles in both.

Mr. Manning said they owed their success partly to the

video game MTV Music Generator, from Codemasters. The game,

essentially a crude console version of PC and Mac music

software packages, allows Playstation users to create, edit

and play songs in a 24-track format, drawing on hundreds of

prerecorded sounds, riffs, vocals and drumbeats.

Mr. Manning initially rented the game on a whim. But when

he discovered its potential, he got busy.

"I had been struggling with my traditional four-track," he

said. "And I was sort of anticomputer. I thought you had to

make music the old-school way. This game was a revelation.

It totally opened my mind to sequencing and editing."

He used the game to "sketch" songs, and five of the

sketches - most of them rerecorded on more sophisticated

studio equipment - made the band's final cut.

Mr. Manning liked the game's portability as well as its

ease of use. "When Taryn was shooting 'Crossroads,' " he

said, "I'd be in her trailer with the game, working out new

song ideas."

They auditioned for MCA and later recorded a demo. "I'd hit

'play,' and Taryn would sing,'' he said. "And they'd be

tracks we made with the game." The audition did not result

in a record deal, but it gave the band some momentum.

Representatives of MTV and Codemasters say that while it is

the first time that tracks made on Music Generator have

achieved this level of success, the game has spawned

amateur recordings aplenty.

"I've got a drawer full of CD's," said Christopher Green,

the North America marketing manager for Codemasters.

"People send me the music they've done with the Generator,

and others call to ask what to do with the music they've

created. They ask for music companies who might be

interested. I tell them they have to find that on their

own."

Mr. Green, who worked in the music industry for six years

before joining Codemasters, describes the music he is sent

as "fair - nothing that blows me away."

Tony Calandra, director of interactive products at MTV,

said that Boomkat's success was "a great thing for the

product and the franchise."

"This is the first time we've seen an MTV artist whose

videos we've rotated actually use the game,'' he said.

Unfortunately, Mr. Manning said, the version of the game he

used, which was for the original Sony Playstation, is no

longer sold, and he has lost his copy.

He contends that the newer edition, for the Playstation 2

console, is not as satisfying. The original let users add

their own samples by simply slipping a CD into the console.

"I'd record stuff with my CD burner, throw them into the

Playstation, and be able to work with any sample I wanted,"

he said.

To insert one's own voice or music into the Playstation 2

game, the user must buy an optional component called a

Sampler Kit, and when Mr. Manning tried it out, he did not

care for the sound. He said he hoped to find the older

version of the game on eBay.

In the meantime, in the liner notes for "Boomkatalog One,''

Mr. Manning thanks Playstation 1 and 2 and the MTV Music

Generator, then offers this piece of unsolicited advice.

"Kids," he writes, "don't let your parents tell you that

video games will get you nowhere in life."