Alex Brandon

[cairey]

Is Alex Brandon doing the music for Unreal II? If not I will not be getting the game.

Also I hope they include that song "Dig" from the original Unreal. I loved that song.

Chris Airey

 

[Matthias Worch]

So, did you buy the original Unreal game or just the soundtrack?

 

[Hellscrag]

Cairey, looks like you'll be disappointed, since Alex stopped doing contract work and is now working permanently for Ion Storm, probably on Deus Ex II.

If Michiel Van Den Bos comes back, I'll be happy.

 

[cairey]

Yes I bought Unreal, Unreal: Return to Na Pali
and Unreal Tournament.
I am a big fan of Unreal

Matthias Worch, I enjoyed playing your Nali village level in Na Pali.

I am also a big fan of Michiel Van den Bos

Just make sure you include Dig by Alex Brandon.

 

[Kail]

Something I found over at the Straylight web site:

February 11 1999
........
Straylight to work on Unreal Level Pack and Unreal 2 by Legend Entertainment!

Yet again Alex and Dan will be penning some new work for these two upcoming sequels, still in development but will be serious sequels to contend with. Legend Entertainment is also producing the "Wheel of Time" Unreal Engine title...

So it seems that Straylight Productions have composed the soundtrack. I remember reading a note on the site saying they had finished work on the scores for Unreal II. I couldn't find it now though.

I believe that Alex Brandon is among today's best game music composer. I became a great fan of his work when I heard the excellent soundtrack of Jazz Jackrabbit II. Awesome.
The immersive and atmospheric score of Unreal just blew me away. Dig is a great song although not my favorite song, Dusk Horizon is.

I'm looking forward to see the upcoming previews. Legend has promised to launch a web site but that hasn't happened yet.

If you want some sneak peeks at the current state of the Unreal engine go here:

http://www.dailyradar.com/features/game_feature_page_1444_1.html

Watch the 42 MB MPEG movie as well. The new height-map system is utterly cool not to mention the skeletal animation system based on MOCAP captured motion. The skeleton animation system of Half-Life looks pathetic when compared.

 

[Matthias Worch]

No final music for U2 has been recorded yet, and the composer is yet to be announced. Any more information we'd give you would probably be subject to change, so we won't

 

[Kail]

Ok. But why has Straylight went official with that info if it's incorrect or not confirmed by neither Epic nor Legend?

Kind of curious...

 

[cairey]

I hope Straylight do music, but I read in an Alex Brandon Interveiw he asked someone else to do the music. Maybe someone else at Straylight.

Dig and Dusk Horizon are both good songs I won't argue there. I wished they used Dusk Horizon more through the game as I remember it was only used once, which was the second level.

 

[Hellscrag]

and the fifth level

and twilight horizon (dusk remix) was the 1st level of the mission pack ;p

 

[We are many]

The sunspire (spire) has a pretty cool music. I just hope unreal2 will have original music not some jackass rap!

 

[Kail]

The Unreal score kicked ass, the Half-Life score can't compare to it. The first game with music as good as Unreal that comes to my mind is Command & Conquer. I extracted the tracks and burnt them onto a CD, pity the sound quality is so low.

 

[Do_Or_Die]

Yeah Alex Brandon is at ION Storm Austin now as a permanent employee after his work on Deus Ex 1 so I think it's safe to say he won't be working on U2. Don't forget though, that he wasn't responsible for all of the music and I'm sure Legend (when they get to that point) will improve upon Unreal's music greatly by getting someone even better than Brandon to do the work. I loved the soundtrack too and game developers are realizing now how important music is in setting the mood of the game.

Another music composer you might want to check out is Bill Brown. He's making the music for Undying and it sounds great (of what I've heard so far). Check out his site at http://saturn.spaceports.com/~composer/index.htm

 

[Kail]

Alex Brandon wrote most of the music although Michiel van Den Boss and Basehead wrote a substantial part too. Necros also added to the score with the track "Isotoxin".
I don't care whether they choose a composer "who is better" than Brandon. It's up to your personal judgment to determine which composer who is "the best".
My point is that Brandon's songs have a sound which is closely connected to the atmosphere in Unreal. You take it away and you change the mood of the game.
I can't think of any other composer who'd do the soundtrack better than Alex Brandon, with additional songs by Michiel van den Boss (who also writes great songs).

 

[Kail]

I listened to some of the pieces by Bill Brown. To me it sounds like typical Hollywood soundtrack à la John Williams. I'm sure it fits movies and such but I don't want that guy to do the soundtrack for Unreal. He's lacking uniqueness and style.
Brandon's music is so unique and characteristic. And, all the music for Unreal wasn't made using the most expensive gear (logic audio, samplers, hardware synths and stuff). It was made using a tracker and a few samps and instruments (the tracker term "instrument").
The Unreal 2 soundtrack will probably be in MP3 format, however all of us who have played Wheel of Time know how much it drained the hardware. If Unreal 2 is going to look absolutely stunning and make use of the latest 3D hardware technologies (such as T&L) it'd be wiser to use tracker modules for audio. The audio quality is great, the filesize is low and it doesn't require much computing power for playback.

 

[cairey]

Yeah, I converted some of Alex Brandons and Michiel van den Boss's tracks.
Inpulse Trackers into wav formats, stole my friends MP3 player and listen to their songs in school. I play thier tracks solidly in History.

 

[ravenus]

Unreal's music was way cool, although I also love Quake2's abrasive rock tunes (not too many people do, though)
My fav unreal track was Temple of Vedora, also the one for the mercenary encounter. In ut I love SaveMe, Superfist, Razorback etc.
Hey Cairey what program do you use to turn IT's to wav/mp3 I'd love to know. I'd like to burn Ut tracks onto CD.

 

[ravenus]

Question to Matthias Worch, did you make the Glathriel Village for Na Pali? If so I've got great expectations for U2. I'va noticed a good deal of visual glitches in the pack though (Unreal Gold ver), lots of creatures trying to attack thru walls, objects sticking out etc. I wonder if its because I saw it in software mode or what.

 

[Kail]

Ravenus:
MODPlug Tracker can be used to export umx-files directly to mp3 or wav.
You can also play the UMX-files as they are using MODPlug Player.

Get these for free at:

http://www.modplug.com

 

[Hellscrag]

ravenus, yes, Glathriel was Mr. Worch's work. As was the Prometheus.

Should be interesting...

 

[Matthias Worch]

Glitches

Yeah, those glitches were because of software mode. The z-buffer in software doesn't work correctly because of speed reasons, shouldn't happen in accelerated mode