The MMAS & QSA Message Board

Spikey wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 3:30 pm Correct re KQ8, but KQ7 is 95% MIDI. The reason Tom never recorded it was I believe because of its length. It has something like 100 pieces (~70 for a typical soundtrack release with some merged tracks). I would love to do it someday, but it's a pain in the proverbial.

Thanks for the correction. I haven't played KQ7, so I really should have investigated that further before making the claim. Glad to have you back, Spikey!

Hey, Goat!

Sorry, I have one more correction..

For example, David Henry told me that "Betrayal In Antara" (one of my favorite Sierra scores) was mastered at 22 kHz mono for the CD-ROM; he never bothered to mixed a higher quality version at 44 kHz stereo because the game would only play at 22 kHz mono. LSL7 is like that, as are others.

David had told me something similar, except we know that isn't true. See even on QuestStudios original assorted MP3 pages where Antara 44.1 kHz stereo files exist- Inn, Shop.

What I remember him telling me when we chatted is he mixed a lot of tracks for mono panning, which although isn't true in those files I mentioned, is true in some unreleased files I got from Mark Seibert, based on Antara's introduction. It's a 44 kHz master, in stereo, yet panned in mono.

Spikey wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 3:46 am David had told me something similar, except we know that isn't true. See even on QuestStudios original assorted MP3 pages where Antara 44.1 kHz stereo files exist- Inn, Shop.

What I remember him telling me when we chatted is he mixed a lot of tracks for mono panning, which although isn't true in those files I mentioned, is true in some unreleased files I got from Mark Seibert, based on Antara's introduction. It's a 44 kHz master, in stereo, yet panned in mono.

You're certainly correct, but those are outliers; Henry said he only did 5 tracks at CD-quality as a personal request back in the day when he still had access to the MIDIs, and being unreleased, the 4 tracks from SSC2 never saw the light of day until 2007.

My point was that, as a general rule, the digital files embedded within the Sierra game resource files were of pretty 'poor' quality. Unless you're a QS or an SMC with those types of Sierra contacts, the likelihood of getting higher-quality tracks is practically nil for the average fan.

Agreed with the second part, but..

"the 4 tracks from SSC2 never saw the light of day until 2007."
Actually, some (not from SSCV2) were first released on QuestStudios, on 2001 or earlier.. The Inn, The Shop and Combat Theme #3, IIRC.

Spikey wrote: ↑Sat Aug 01, 2020 12:56 pm Agreed with the second part, but..

"the 4 tracks from SSC2 never saw the light of day until 2007."
Actually, some (not from SSCV2) were first released on QuestStudios, on 2001 or earlier.. The Inn, The Shop and Combat Theme #3, IIRC.

Yup, three of the five tracks that David was kind enough to send were definitely on QS earlier; likely 1999 or before (I have a saved QS HTML file that includes the four BIA tracks and is ©1999 at the bottom of the page).

The remaining two tracks (Antara-Combat 1 & Antara-Combat 2) were not on QS...

All three Combat tracks (originally received as WAVs, but now are FLAC8) are included in the ZIP below:
• Antara-Combat 1 - Lossless
• Antara-Combat 2 - Lossless
• Antara-Combat 3 - Lossless (Originally lossy on QS as an MP3)

I didn't bother including "Inn" and "Shop" to round out the five I received, as they are the same lossy MP3 files previously hosted by QS in the past:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gMZhir ... sp=sharing

(Sorry this "Weclome!" thread turned into a "BIA" thread; I just love the soundtrack so much -- I even have the Real Audio .ra files from the Sierra BIA website!)

Thanks a lot, man! This makes me wonder what else you have that isn't publically available.

Athyr?

But I vaguely recall in QuestStudios' last days, we got Tom to post that publicly, didn't we?

Spikey: Really, that's it. He's the only Sierra composer I've ever contacted who wrote back -- AND sent the only files he had left! Jan Paul Moorhead [Betrayal Of Krondor] was the other: no reply.

Marten: That sound familiar, but I can't find anything in my files. I've got Cindy Vanous's HTML files that she wrote for the game from her website (before she recently reorganized & culled it), but no music (so far). However, if the music didn't pique my interest, I might not have downloaded it...

Athyr was posted by Tom, I never downloaded it, sadly.

Background:

• In Spring 1998, Tom received a sample CD to review for a then-unannounced Sierra game, with music composed by Gary Spinrad.
• The game had multiple working titles over time - Ascension (before Origin trademarked it), Athyr (working title when Tom became involved), Raven's War
• All of this was under NDA long ago, but these files are old enough to go bar-hopping now.
• Tom's comments on Track #2: "This is the ORIGINAL version of the Un-named Game Introduction (Athyr). The music was later changed a bit, but I like this version much better. After hearing quite a bit of Gary's non-published music, I realized this guy must have studied a bit of Scottish music theory during his musical training. You hear it in a lot of his songs. When I was asked to critique the game, my first comment was that the story must be set in Scotland, based on the music. I was later told that's why Gary changed the music, trying to weave out the 'Scottish' feel, since it had nothing to do with Scotland."

Athyr (Unreleased Sierra Game) Demo Music