by Impossible » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:52 am
Lately I've been working on compiling MP3s of most major songs in The Way, but not just for the sake of listening to myself. Instead, I want to make a real soundtrack, like the kind an actual game would get, with proper track names, the songs in the order they appear in the game, and the best quality of music possible. I can't quite do this by myself, though... Well, I was going to replay The Way to get the song order (since it's often hard to find things in RM2K, which is what I'm doing at the moment), but every force possible seems to be trying to stop me. For some reason the music is selectively (for some tracks and not others, no idea why) only playing in piano, and I can't seem to fix it, and there was one case (the scene with the guy on the bridge in E1, before he plunges you), where the scripted music didn't play at all, AND the text font isn't displaying properly. Not sure why I'm suddenly encountering all these problems... Anyway, here are the ways people can potentially help:
1. Finding MP3s of songs from The Way. I have a lot of them already, but there are also some I haven't got, which I'll try to make a list of. Obviously I'm also going to be using MIDIs for the original compositions, and also for a few other songs where there isn't an MP3 that actually sounds like the MIDI. Not only NES music, but also some other tracks where the MIDI is intentionally different from the original song, and I want to capture the feel that song had in The Way. Of course, if I'm wrong and there's a good MP3 that I haven't found, someone needs to tell me. If you have a suggestion for any particularly good version of a song I could use, go for it... For example, I just realised that I can use the DS version tracks for FFIV (now where are those V and VI remakes? SE have never been a company to slack off in their rehashing like this).
2. Give me some suggestions for track names. I'll give a few examples of this below. While I've tried to incorporate the names the songs have, most of them aren't really appropriate, and I won't use anything based on where the song originally came from.
3. Go through the game and make a list of exactly where each song plays - both for the first time, and subsequent occurrences of the song, so that I can get a sense of the general usage of that song, not just the first scene it's used in (which I still need to know for ordering purposes). For this one, you'll want to play through RM2K with the MIDIs handy to check, most likely.
4. Find out what the unidentified songs are! I'm listing each song with both a name from The Way and its original name in brackets, but I can't do the latter if the song is unknown. Much more importantly, I can't find an MP3 of a song if I don't know what it is, so we're stuck with the MIDI. You can see what the unknown songs are in the music tracking topic. Listen to them, get all your friends and people on other forums to listen to them - think of it as a game, and you get super bonus recognition points if you can work it out. Not knowing what BVenturingdeeper is is driving me mad. Also, if we could confirm with Lun if any of those songs are original compositions (as I believe none of the unknown ones actually say they are, while others have Lun credited in the copyright of the MIDI), I would appreciate it. (Verb?)
5. If anyone wants to make a front cover of sorts to include with the soundtrack (although I don't think MIDIs can actually be burned to an audio CD, so you can't actually do that and use the cover), that would be great. Something like the opening screen of Rhue standing on the hill at the start (when "The Way" appears) would probably work well enough, or some good fan art if you want.
Also, once this is done, Jeramyu should really update the music tracking topic with some of the stuff I've found. I had to go searching through entire soundtracks in cases where the actual song wasn't specified in the topic (or where it says where the song plays, but not its name, so I still need to look for it in the soundtrack), that was really annoying.
Here are the songs I've ordered so far, through all of E1. You can get an idea of what I'm doing with the track names (feel free to suggest better ones), and I'll also note which ones are MIDIs, and what their original title is if it's not obvious (neither of those will be present in the actual files):
01 - Opening ~ Freedom (Radio Version)
02 - Opening ~ Freedom (Game Version) [MIDI]
03 - The Land Beneath the Sky ~ Wander the Way (ATheLagoon)
04 - Plunge 1 ~ Taking the Plunge (ABrave)
05 - Strata's Theme [MIDI]
06 - Battle ~ Into the Breach
07 - Darkness Approaches [MIDI] (BVenturingdeeper - I WANT to find an MP3 of this, but I don't know what the original song is! Also, a less boring name would be great)
08 - Boss ~ Confrontation
09 - Settlement (C+littletown)
10 - A Horror Awaits (I would include a reference to Serena, but I'm pretty sure this plays a lot outside of the Serena flashaback, one of those reasons people need to check throughout the game)
11 - Rhue's Story (BPeaceTown)
Hm, I'm not even sure what will come next, but it's probably Lide, and I haven't thought of a name for that track. And I should work out when the other Plunge themes first play (I know there's at least B+UrgentAction and B+sfbossa).
Songs I don't have definite MP3s for include:
Abachjesu - "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring," by Sebastian Bach (I do have one, but I could always use a better sounding one that's more like what's in the game)
BSomethingamiss - "The Puzzles" from "the 7th guest" for PC. (evidently impossible to find, not sure if there's a rip of this game's music at all)
B+BuildUp - "Message of Darkness", The password theme from Castlevania 2 (at the moment I'm likely to just stick with the MIDI, because while I did find a higher quality arrangement than the NES one, it ultimately doesn't sound enough like the version in The Way)
B-EasyWaiting - The Green Leaves of Summer, written by Paul Francis Webster (but first I need to know where in the game this plays... and I suppose there being a non-vocal version is too much to ask for?)
B+PlayOpeniningTheme - "Butterfly" from Dance Dance Revolution (there are a million versions of this song, and none of the ones I've found sound anything like the MIDI)
NewDetermination(playonce) - Requiem from the NES Ninja Gaiden (same as B+BuildUp, I'm probably going to keep using the MIDI because there isn't another version of the song that sounds like it)
Bar - Song called "The Barnyards of Delgaty" (This plays in Lide, right?)
B+Night - The village during the night in Brave Fencer Musashi (I can't work out what song this is!)
BSadromance - Rena's Sad Theme from Star Ocean 2, slightly remixed (Is there a version that better matches the MIDI, or did the remix come from nowhere?)
Another kind of song I might want to use MIDIs for are ones which have a vocal part that makes them sound really different from the original version. Of course, if anyone knows of any instrumental versions of those songs, they would be perfect.
Last edited by
Impossible on Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:03 am, edited 1 time in total.