[StratComm]

Wow, very nice, though I agree that it was unexpected.  Thanks for going ahead and getting the cinema music; I know people have wanted that for ages.

As for brief4 cutting off abruptly, I seem to remember that track always having trouble with the transition.  While FS has a good method of blending tracks for its own purposes, it's sort of backwards to most players so don't expect it to sound perfect in WinAmp.  Putting in a crossfade may actually hurt it in-game, so until you get it modded in don't play with the transition effects.

[CP5670]

I have the Winamp fade thing turned off. The old version sounds fine in it; this only occurs with the new one (you can tell the volume increases a lot at the end before it abruptly stops). I think FS just loops the briefing/debreifing tracks normally and doesn't do any additional blending with them.

As for the endpart1 music, is this one better (in terms of quality) than the one we already have? That used to be one of the music files available in 44khz from Volition's website. It's been in my music directory for years, anyway.

[Nix]

I'm not sure, I thought the files were encoded in 128K MP3, although the source file was a 44Khz wave.  And, strangely, there's a few different files of Brief4, but they're all the same.  I think the files were a bit over-normalized, as when you look at it in sound forge, the waveform's constantly hitting the ceiling.  I used a bit of click and crackle removal on it because the highs were so bright and loud they made my headphones crackle pretty bad.  It's too bad that there's not a softer, well rounded version of this track.  As for adding fades in and out, that's going to be left up to the listener, because I'm posting these as naturally as they can be.

For timing.. well that's gonna be easy, then again it might be harder than I think because all I have to do if the tracks are the same exact length in seconds, I just need to double the number of samples in the table, cause I'm leaving all the tracks at 44K. 
It's gonna be a big download, but it's worth it in my opinion, to have hi fidelity music with awesome graphics... this will be interesting to behold once it's all done!

BTW, since I'm super familiar with MP3 but honestly getting my feet wet with OGG in this project, what do you think about the file format itself, bitrate, and such.  I'm getting between 6-7 MB from a song that's about 15-20 MB large in WAV format.  My current settings is VBR quality 9, usually around 160K/s.  Anyone have any reccomended settings they could suggest would be greatly appreciated!

[Taristin]

I would love to get the originals >..>; But I have no use for them, so thats kinda dumb

[Nix]

The level of compression I'm doing retains an awful lot more fidelity than the original ADPCM compression.  There's hardly any difference between the source files I have and what will be available in the VP.

[Ferret]

I never ever before realized that the choir sings Agnus Dei in endpart1. This is the first time I even noticed they actually have anywords in the music at all.

All of the gregorian choir stuff is from Spectrasonic's Symphony of Voices, it's a 4 CD set of brilliant choir samples.

It's quite funny because not only do I use them, but I hear them aaaaall the time in tons of TV programs and films, and I can't help but giggle when I hear yet something else going "Aaaalelujaaa.... Luuuluuulaaaluuu...."

[Nix]

Audio directory updated again, will post a few more next week then get down to the nitty-gritty.

[Herra Tohtori]

All of the gregorian choir stuff is from Spectrasonic's Symphony of Voices, it's a 4 CD set of brilliant choir samples.

To be exact, the chanting in endgame part 1 is not Gregorian, unless they found some eunuchs to sing it. At least it sounds to me it's women singing it, and women don't actually sing Gregorian chant. It becomes something else... perhas neo-gregorian would be better term.

It's quite funny because not only do I use them, but I hear them aaaaall the time in tons of TV programs and films, and I can't help but giggle when I hear yet something else going "Aaaalelujaaa.... Luuuluuulaaaluuu...."

I can imagine.

I have to start listening for them so I can laugh at them too...

[Mars]

You posted M2!!!! I love you now.

[At]

Nix : I usually find VBR 5 to be near CD quality and good for general use, and 4 to be a bit below that.  artifacts are more noticeable in 4 when turning up the preamp too much in the EQ...

I don't think I've ever formally compared file sizes, though.  Most of my music is OGG quality 4, with newer stuff in 5 (About the time I got a new HD...), and it sounds well enough.  IIRC, file size wise that equates to approximately 1 meg a minute, where the source WAV or AIFF is about ten times that.  And it sounds mucho better than an MP3 of equivalent size.

My conjecture from there is that VBR 9 will be preeety damn close to the original...  Though perhaps not so bad if you're trying to preserve as much info as possible. :P

Now... mor mux plz.

... :P

[Dark Hunter]

Another request:

FS1 M10 music.

Those of you who don't recognize it: it was played only in the final mission of Silent Threat, when the Hades was fought. Crappy mission, but spectacular music! 

[Ferret]

To be exact, the chanting in endgame part 1 is not Gregorian, unless they found some eunuchs to sing it. At least it sounds to me it's women singing it, and women don't actually sing Gregorian chant. It becomes something else... perhas neo-gregorian would be better term.

Most of the ones used in FS2 are from an all male Gregorian choir of which there are lots of young boys sampled in there. Gregorian doesn't nessesarily mean deep brooding voices you know.
There's a couple of women bits used in FS2 from the London choir stuff but they're usually nothing more than mmms and aaaahs.

[Flipside]

Wel, not all latin chanting is Gregorian either, however, I'd say it's probably not Gregorian more for the melody it follows than the people singing it.

[Ferret]

You'ld be surprised what classes for Gregorian, I also have two full audio CDs of the stuff (my mum had them for some reason...) It's lovely but can have some really unusual melodies, it's sometimes rather lush.

[Herra Tohtori]

At least it sounds to me it's women singing it

Most of the ones used in FS2 are from an all male Gregorian choir of which there are lots of young boys sampled in there.

M'kay. I stand corrected.

That's the reason I mentioned that it sounds to me very much like women - I wanted to leave myself a backport in case it wasn't women after all. It's just that I've seen horrid examples of some... things... being dubbed "gregorian" with no real connection to actual traditional gregorian chanting at all, or at least the connection was very feeble.

Gregorian doesn't nessesarily mean deep brooding voices you know.

Yeah, I know that... I've studied the history of western music a bit. Not on university level, but...well, here in Finland we have a very capable istitutional system for teaching music. And while the main thing is to learn to play some instrument, the higher levels also include studying the theory of music as well as history of music and stuff like that. Been playing cello for about 11 years and also went through all the theory/music knowledge courses that system had to offer... If I wanted to study more music I would have had to go to a conservatoire to actually study music, or possibly Sibelius Academy, but I really wasn't that interested in it. But it gave me some kind of a knowledge basis about music nevertheless.

[Cobra]

WOOT! He posted the Monolith battle track and March! YES!

[CP5670]

Any further updates with this? I've been constantly listening to the ones you have released so far during the last few days. I think M10 and M3 in FS1 would be especially good to have, as those not only sound good but would benefit a lot from the high quality versions.

[Nix]

Unfortunately, I don't have M10, and I will get in touch with Dan about it to see if it's lost or if he may have it somewhere.  Oddly enough, I have a completely different (Better, IMO) version of M1 than what was included with the game, which has been posted.  I'll be updating here and there, but I'm going to get down to VP construction.  I will try to fufill requests as best as I can.  I'm sure Dan will be happy to hear the community is very quite pleased over the release of these materials.  There's actually a few things that I'm missing that I need to list up and see if Dan can find them in the next short while.  He's been awfully busy lately, I might not get these for a while. 

[Gregster2k]

What is the exact filesizes of the original masters anyway? I want to get my hands on these things and burn some soundtrack CDs --- We need FLACs!!!

P.S. Didn't Dan Wentz also do the Red Faction soundtrack (which was ALSO incredibly awesome)? >.>

[Nix]

I just found out that I've been.. well.. overdoing what I've posted.  I've been using VBR Qual 9 and it does compress the hell outta the originals, but it's a bit overkill.  I'll be compressing them further, hopefully to keep as much fidelity as possible.  If people want FLAC, after this is all done, I could possibly do that.  I honestly cannot hear a difference between VBR Q9 and a medium-high bitrate FLAC of the same file.  Keep in mind that some of these masters might be meant to not sound crystal clear perfect.  I'm just trying to keep everything in its purest form.

And yes, Dan did the soundtrack for RF, which was pretty darn good too.