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Baldur's Gate Soundtrack

WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
edited June 2012 in Archive (General Discussion)
I know it's not exactly about EE, but I think this is the best place to ask.

1. Does ToTSC come with extra music, or does it reuse all the music from the original Baldur's Gate game?
2. The Baldur's Gate soundtrack, as part of The Original Saga release, features 33 tracks. Are these ALL THE SONGS from the original game?
3. The Collector's Edition of Shadows of Amn came with a soundtrack but I can't find any information about the tracklist. Does it contain ALL THE SONGS from SoA?
4. Were the Throne of Bhaal pieces ever released on CD?
5. If answer to Q1 is yes, were the pieces from ToTSC ever released on CD?

I'm trying to obtain every song from every release of Baldur's Gate on CD. I don't like MP3 downloads, I want hard copies.

If I wanted to I could illegally download all the songs from Youtube but that's no fun. I'd pay big money for all the songs, so if they release a soundtrack with EVERY SONG from the original game AND Tales of the Sword Coast AS WELL AS the new material from the EE content, I'll be a very happy man.

Comments

  • AndreaColomboAndreaColombo Member Posts: 5,533
    I'll be starting a thread about ideas for the boxed edition of BG:EE very soon, and one of my ideas is to include an updated soundtrack CD (or two, if the number of tracks is as great as to require it). Stay tuned ;)
  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    @AndreaColombo

    The number of CDs required would depend on the track quality. Higher sampling and bitrates, encoding, compression. If they're using the originals and not spicing them up I bet they could fit all four games on just one.
  • AndreaColomboAndreaColombo Member Posts: 5,533
    @Ward

    Actually, red-book CDs are always 16bit / 44.1Khz with no data compression (that's the whole point of having music on CD as opposed to different formats); the number of disks required entirely depends on the number of tracks and their length :-)
  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    @AndreaColombo

    I would expect absolutely no less than red-book. I dunno what the details are on the originals, or what source they'd get them from, but assuming they could get red-book quality tracks they should be able to fit atleast 30.

    The Icewind Dale soundtrack CD has 51 tracks, so if we assume those are top quality samples then maybe they could put a lot on there.
  • AndreaColomboAndreaColombo Member Posts: 5,533
    @Ward

    Absolutely. I'll be asking for a red-book CD mastered to audiophile standards (I'm an audiophile myself, and I'm positively anal about sound quality). I had no idea the IWD soundtrack CD had 51 tracks on it. Then they may as well be able to put all tracks from the BG:EE soundtrack on one disk.
  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    @AndreaColombo

    I'm one of those neurotic gits who surfs the internet for top quality rips of ancient and rare bootleg recordings. See there are songs and albums and artists out there who are so unloved that their music is lost, except for a few horrible 32 bitrate phone recordings.

    So I expect to recieve the best quality songs, EVERY SINGLE SONG from EVERY SINGLE BALDUR'S GATE on a CD. I also expect the best quality tracks to be used in game as well. I demand the best.
  • PhillipDaiglePhillipDaigle Member Posts: 654
    Maybe we'll use the incredibly popular DVD-Audio format
  • PhillipDaiglePhillipDaigle Member Posts: 654
    Or release the soundtrack on XD cards!
  • PhillipDaiglePhillipDaigle Member Posts: 654
    No - I've got it! MiniDiscs. MiniDiscs in each and every box!
  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    edited June 2012
    @PhilipDaigle

    You had me at MiniDiscs. Nevermind, you had me anyway (EDIT: Actually DVD-Audio sounds good too). A lot of music scores for games and other media aren't great, it's hard to pull people into the world you're trying to give, especially considering the niche. For a medieval game like Baldur's Gate, it just has to have that particular tone that harks back to Early music of the Middle Ages. That's hard to do in the 21st century.

    But this game did it! The instrumentation may not be technically 'medieval' (e.g. period specific replica instruments) but the feeling it gives you is authentic, that's all that matters. That's why the game's music deserves to be released in top quality and it's entirety.

    I trust Trent and his boys a hell of a lot more than the developers that made my other favourite games. By now they've gone onto better things (well... more profitable things, not better) and sold the rights to everything. I feel sure that anything we get will be top notch.

    Thanks for leaving a comment Phillip. I've never had a team member post on my topic before. I feel special.
  • AndreaColomboAndreaColombo Member Posts: 5,533
    DVD-Audio may not be a popular format, but it sounds really good (and better than its main competitor, SACD, if you ask me). Besides, it's fully backward compatible (plays a regular PCM stereo and/or Dolby Digital or DTS multichannel track on any DVD player with no DVD-Audio capability).

    I could settle for a well mastered CD, though. They're getting rarer by the day.
  • PhillipDaiglePhillipDaigle Member Posts: 654
    In all seriousness it would be a good idea to make the soundtrack available if we do a boxed collectors edition. The default position would be to include a CD, but I think that we could go the extra mile and include digital copies alongside the game data. More and more people are ditching CD players entirely, and ripping the soundtrack is an unnecessary step when we could do it for them.
  • RazorRazor Member Posts: 436
    I just want to say that BG2 soundtrack is perfect. It's really beautiful. If I had to make a game and had those songs available to add to it I would be a very happy man.
  • AndreaColomboAndreaColombo Member Posts: 5,533
    @PhillipDaigle

    I haven't ditched CDs at all (what with being an audiophile and all that). If you decided to include the soundtrack in digital form rather than on CD, please oh please make it a lossless format like FLAC and NOT mp3. mp3 really sucks, there is no two ways about it.
  • beobeo Member Posts: 144
    Providing the masters are available, you never know what else got lost over the years.. :)

    (that wouldn't be too funny I know..)
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    edited July 2012
    I love the soundtrack to BG too. However, the music professor in me just can't let this go - except for the tavern and temple music, the BG soundtrack is in the style of 20th century film music. There is no medieval period music there. In fact, large orchestras with percussion were unheard of until the late Renaissance period (Monteverdi), and didn't become widespread until hundreds of years after that during the 19th century Romantic period.

    The temple choir in BG sings a wonderful piece in very late Renaissance/early Baroque style. The tavern music is in late Renaissance style.

    None of this historical info subtracts from the awesomeness of the Baldur's Gate music. The main theme and the battle music capture the emotions of war, combat, and violence masterfully, and the terrain and evening music put you in exactly the right emotional frame of mind for those parts of the game.

    But it's not medieval. A medieval soundtrack would have unison Gregorian chants and motets with lute ensembles. The violin hadn't even been invented. It would sound very alien and unfulfilling for game music. So game composers know exactly what they're doing to make good game music, by using 20th century style.

    Sorry, I know that's not really on-topic, but I couldn't stand it.
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