Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter

(http://imgur.com/W70P2Dw)


From the Composer's Private Collection. Recorded in 1997, with the original equipment, the whole of this album has never been released, until now!

Format: MP3
Released April 6, 2017

Download: https://mega.nz/#F!ozxhFYLR!f_cm5jP7JYJBqam6-i0PnA




Important: Do not post this album on YouTube so you do not infringe on the composer / publisher's copyright, as you may lose the channel. I will not be liable for any damage that comes from a strike.

Nice man, thanks. Is there more of his private collection somewhere?

Unfortunately no friend. This is a collection that I bought on launch day, but have already removed some of the songs from the site.

Nice, thank you anyway :)

Is this not just the audio form the pc version? That was redbook so there's flac rips of it floating around.

I do not know. Like I said, I bought the album and I'm sharing it with you.

The link is this: https://darrenmitchell.bandcamp.com/album/turok-the-dinosaur-hunter

I do not know. Like I said, I bought the album and I'm sharing it with you.

The link is this: https://darrenmitchell.bandcamp.com/album/turok-the-dinosaur-hunter
Interesting. It's definitely different than the gamerip (see Thread 126974) which has 13 tracks (but has no underwater theme obviously). I guess the PC version used a different soundtrack altogether, unlike Seeds of Evil. Some of the game's tracks were featured in this release Thread 64743 and these ones sound correct for the N64 version, and match what's on bandcamp.

Definitely an interesting find. Wonder why there's no underwater theme though...

I like this. I wish for him to release the Rage Wars soundtrack in quality like this. I have no hope for that, though ...

Here is the FLAC of this for you guys and gals:
Mega (https://mega.nz/#!JAYHRQjT!7AWlIwMmr1yLrov1U8EVet3AnA1yU1A_saLz7GYuH4c)
Mediafire (http://www.mediafire.com/file/b62a3cs6gohp568/tdh2k17.zip)

Password: auri

Holy moly, Darren Mitchell just released these soundtracks on Bandcamp:

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil
Turok: Rage Wars

https://darrenmitchell.bandcamp.com/

I absolutely will have them but I am all out of money for a few weeks.
He made my evening, this is so great news, I have been waiting for a good version of the Rage Wars soundtrack for years!
Let us know if one of you wants to purchase the FLAC, they are 10$ each.

Have a nice evening!

I'll be grabbing them myself later today. 15 is pretty steep for Seeds of evil but I'll take it. Is there any difference between the 2 versions of dinosaur hunter other than the 1 having more tracks? I guess I'll buy the complete one and compare with the one you uploaded here.
Also any idea if Rage Wars is complete? 7 tracks seems short but I can't think of anything missing. Guess I could fire up the n64 and check

Double Edit: Ok, so the 2 Turok Dinosaur Releases have differing track times, at the least. Turok 2's times differ from the PC game rip that's been floating around in flac, it excludes the "intro" track from that rip (just insect sound effects mostly), but this release includes that 14 minute Oblivion track. Rage Wars is apparently complete according to youtube, other than missing some sort of death jingle that I don't ever recall hearing.

All in all, well worth it. Plus the underwater theme is finally released.

Yes, Rage Wars is complete. That is the one I want the most. Will you be sharing these?

I wrote Darren a message thanking him for all these uploads because it's fantastic. What a nice surprise so many years later.
When I asked where he found these files (and in FLAC) so many years later, he responded "Ummm, some things better stay unknown".
I saw that the Rage Wars last track is around 17 minutes long. As far as I know that length comes from people creating game-rips and saying because of its arrangement, the first loop is only complete after 17 minutes and then it repeats. So I wonder where he got the files from because I bet he did not create all tracks in normal length and this one three times as long as all the others. Hopefully he did not remaster a game-rip he found somewhere. I will run a spectral analysis and compare track duration as soon as we have the FLAC.

Yes, Rage Wars is complete. That is the one I want the most. Will you be sharing these?

I wrote Darren a message thanking him for all these uploads because it's fantastic. What a nice surprise so many years later.
When I asked where he found these files (and in FLAC) so many years later, he responded "Ummm, some things better stay unknown".
I saw that the Rage Wars last track is around 17 minutes long. As far as I know that length comes from people creating game-rips and saying because of its arrangement, the first loop is only complete after 17 minutes and then it repeats. So I wonder where he got the files from because I bet he did not create all tracks in normal length and this one three times as long as all the others. Hopefully he did not remaster a game-rip he found somewhere. I will run a spectral analysis and compare track duration as soon as we have the FLAC.

Interesting, he never replied to the message I sent him asking about Seeds and Rage Wars a few months back. Anyway, comparing with the gamerip at http://usf.joshw.info/t/ , the track times are all 3:05 and loop endlessly, including Starlight. The track titled "Ampitheatrer" in the rip is "Hopeless" on the bandcamp page, but they have different starting points; "Hopeless" doesn't hit the point where "Ampitheatrer" starts until halfway through its loop. So I think it's safe to say he didn't copy the gamerip, unless he moved some stuff around and randomly decided to loop Starlight for a long time. Also that death jingle is missing from the soundtrack but is included in the gamerip, so I think if he was copying he would probably include that as well. I just assumed he had all his work related files lying around at home since some people do that (and they should, for reasons like this).

Edit: Whelp. Maybe he did copy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSyl2Yj4IW0 is the same length (the bandcamp one takes 2 seconds to start and is 2 seconds longer) and the ending fades out at exactly the same place. "Mystic," "Rage" an "Retaliation" also have matching track lengths to the ones on youtube in the same playlist. Maybe he just decided to use the same lengths/start/stopping points? It still doesn't explain why "Hopeless" is half backwards.

---------- Post added at 07:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:01 PM ----------

Double Edit:

Well, it sure looks like a copy. With some slight improvements. Mystic looks pretty much identical to a 192 MP3 of itself.
Hopeless -
Bandcamp:
Youtube:

Starlight -
Bandcamp:
Youtube:

Mystic -
Flac:
192 MP3:

Strange that original Dinosaur Hunter release was full CD quality and these seem to not be.

While I'm at it,
Wicked Dance -



Retaliation -



Rage -



Mystic vs the gameripped mp3 -



Maybe this has to do with Rage Wars uniquely since it didn't get a PC version like Seeds and Dinosaur Hunter. Or maybe he copied those as well.
And I have no idea why imgur is now turning my pngs into jpgs. Thanks, Reddit.

Thanks for checking all that. I am very interested in his answer but I doubt he will reply a second time. Particularly if he copied these from the game-rips. That is kind of embarassing, is it not? You release something on your bandcamp that is taken from the internet somewhere. I hope the game-rips look the same because they are in really good quality and just so similar to the original files.
Let's see how this goes forward.

Those albums come from rips found on the net, as in those were rips I made ages ago and shared them here.

Thanks for checking all that. I am very interested in his answer but I doubt he will reply a second time. Particularly if he copied these from the game-rips. That is kind of embarassing, is it not? You release something on your bandcamp that is taken from the internet somewhere. I hope the game-rips look the same because they are in really good quality and just so similar to the original files.
Let's see how this goes forward.
Well the gamerip of Turok 2 PC that's in the lossless thread is full 44.1KHz, so I wouldn't call the Nintendo 64 equivalent good quality. They actually are the same, just the pc version uses better sounding instruments.


Those albums come from rips found on the net, as in those were rips I made ages ago and shared them here.
Do you have them in anything higher than 192 mp3? Or would that be redundant?

Do you have them in anything higher than 192 mp3? Or would that be redundant?
Not anymore sadly.

Not anymore sadly.
I see. How exactly did you go about ripping them, if you don't mind my asking? If it isn't highly technical then it shouldn't be too difficult to recreate the rip

I replied to Darren's mail with this:

glad to see your answer in my inbox.
... as long as you did not get some game-rip from the internet and remaster it from that :)
Made me raise an eyebrow to see that one track on the Rage Wars soundtrack is 17 minutes long, just like in the game-rip version which is so it is exactly one loop.

This is his reply:

I usually don't loop pieces over 4 or 5 minutes. Do you want to sit through a 10 or 15 min piece twice? I don't!
You will find this on all my albums, the longer songs only play once.
Thanks for writing!
Darren

I wrote him again after that. Did his answer sound as if he was a little upset or am I misreading? Anyway, I asked him once again to at least confirm that the albums stem from a good source and are not remastered rips he found on the web. Let's hope that he can answer that but I doubt he will.
Nice to talk to him anyway. I wrote him around five years ago asking him to release the Rage Wars soundtrack, I did not receive a reply then.

He probably won't reply again since you're being so persistent. I don't know that I would take it as him being "a little upset" but he did sort of dodge the question so to speak. Then again, you inquiring about it being like the game rip is pretty suggestive itself; you would likely only phrase it that way if you had already figured out that it's likely from the rip.

It's not that I don't want to support the guy, quite the opposite! Rage Wars tunes pop into my head all the time and I frequently listen to Port of Adia and Oblivion from the pc rip. Still, 35 shekels is quite a bit for some gameripped mp3s. I guess on the plus side, they're somehow better quality than the usf rips.

That is all true. Yes, I was pretty persistent but asking does not cost much. The only thing I can lose is his interest in answering. I would love to hear a confirmation of proper quality. There are so many fake FLAC files on web shops, I don't want to have that. So why not ask. I was friendly about it in my last mail. Let's see if I will have something in my inbox in the next days, I will let you know. I highly doubt it. And considering no answer, what is the result of your analysis? Are they web-rips? It's weird that the spectral analysis images match exacty, some are not even off a few miliseconds, that's worrying. And why would he keep the source a secret anyway if not for shady web files : D

So many questions!

And considering no answer, what is the result of your analysis?
It's pretty likely that Rage Wars at least is the same rip linked on the youtube video above, with some "remastering" as he put it. About the only other option is that the in game audio caps at the same spots as 192 mp3 and that he used that rip as a guide on how to structure his release (i.e. purposely using the same track lengths so those who listened to that rip wouldn't be thrown off by changes). I'm not sure why Hopeless was altered to start in a different spot or why other tracks have different lengths between rips, but the odd floating artifacts in the spectral for Rage match between both. They're sort of out of place, since they're above the cut off around 16KHz and there's nothing connecting them to the rest of the audio either. It's possible that's in the game's audio, but it's more likely that it's some sort of artifact introduced by how the game was ripped, I would think.

The page does say "Original N64 Soundtrack....with some slight remastering......" and I at least took that as the files being CD quality, the same as that earlier Dinosaur Hunter album. But maybe he really did mean it literally, as in he ripped it himself and the game audio really does cap out around 192 mp3. I couldn't be certain without trying it myself, but I suppose it was actually my mistake to assume it was CD quality.

The only other oddity is that both are higher quality than the usf rip, which caps at like 11.5KHz or something.

Interesting. After all that my bias goes towards him ripping it himself or using rips found on the internet. I have come across something like this before: Some weeks ago an artist uploaded an album to his bandcamp page which was a ten year anniversary edition including a lot of tracks that I had never had in FLAC before. And of course I freaked out and bought it only to find out later during spectral analysis that he had converted the 320kpbs mp3 that was everywhere on the internet to FLAC and put it on the album. One particular track was important but he did that with more tracks. That was so disappointing! Just like this is becoming if Darren won't answer.

Let's say he remastered some rip. Does he do that to gain lots of money with the bandcamp remaster?
And another thing: Don't all those spectral analysis images look horrible? As far as I know only web-rips or something of similarly bad quality have gaps in the waves.
... At least I found the Wipeout 64 soundtrack in true FLAC, that was another incredible find.

Let's say he remastered some rip. Does he do that to gain lots of money with the bandcamp remaster?
And another thing: Don't all those spectral analysis images look horrible? As far as I know only web-rips or something of similarly bad quality have gaps in the waves.
It's probably just to capitalize on his old work. The specs look horrible in that they're basically 192kbps mp3's, but most N64 games only did 32KHz instead of CD's 44.1KHz...which divided by 2 channels gives us a cutoff of 16KHz. What's odd is the usf rip should be the same quality, but it's actually less. The sample rate there is 22,047, which is what gives us like 11.5KHz for a cutoff. If the usf rip is 22.047KHz, then that means the game was using that for audio instead of the more common 32KHz, and if that's true, then there shouldn't be any audio information to be recorded between 11.5-16 KHz.

Ok, that's a little much for me to understand. 11.5–16KHz no audio is clear but then there can be audio again from 16 upwards?
Anyway, no answer yet. Do you treat it like a remastered game-rip now? Does it sound good? :)

I don't know about Rage Wars or 3, but about Turok 2, there was a french video-game magazine that was released with the whole soundtrack, N64 version, all the tracks included + unused one. I got a 320kbps rip of this one, and it clearly is not a game rip, at least it doesn't sound to me, sounds stellar for a N64 game and incredibly powerful - as it should be. Much better than any others rip I ever found of the game.

Check River of Souls here (right-click / save as, you know the deal): http://puu.sh/wxrpB/c1ca08909a.mp3

If this rip is not available already, I'll post it if someone wants it.

Never heard the Turok Dinosaur Hunter rip that was posted on Bandcamp beside that, this one clearly seems to be from his personal archives.

EDIT: About the flac version you posted, is it normal that some tracks are missing ? (Hub, Underwater etc...)

Ok, that's a little much for me to understand. 11.5�16KHz no audio is clear but then there can be audio again from 16 upwards?
Anyway, no answer yet. Do you treat it like a remastered game-rip now? Does it sound good? :)
In this case no, there shouldn't be anything above 16KHz. If there is, my only explanation is that it's some artifact that got added from the ripping process.

It sounds good. I don't know that it's better than the mp3 rip on youtube though since I haven't listened to that. I suppose I should try an abx test to see if the one actually does sound better or not. It's certainly not horrible sounding like most mp3 quality things do, and that's probably due to all the sounds purposely being lower quality in the first place.


I don't know about Rage Wars or 3, but about Turok 2, there was a french video-game magazine that was released with the whole soundtrack, N64 version, all the tracks included + unused one. I got a 320kbps rip of this one, and it clearly is not a game rip, at least it doesn't sound to me, sounds stellar for a N64 game and incredibly powerful - as it should be. Much better than any others rip I ever found of the game.

Check River of Souls here (right-click / save as, you know the deal): http://puu.sh/wxrpB/c1ca08909a.mp3

If this rip is not available already, I'll post it if someone wants it.

Never heard the Turok Dinosaur Hunter rip that was posted on Bandcamp beside that, this one clearly seems to be from his personal archives.

EDIT: About the flac version you posted, is it normal that some tracks are missing ? (Hub, Underwater etc...)
Do you mean http://vgmdb.net/album/4554 ? Turok 2 also got a soundtrack release in Japan http://vgmdb.net/album/1827 but it sounds awful. You're missing the point about the pc gamerip I've been talking about. It's full CD quality. It's redbook audio. It sounds the same as an official soundtrack. It's technically a gamerip but it's not lousy sounding like you are assuming.

The dinosaur hunter release lacks hub and underwater, caverns and the lava land cave theme. Guess he doesn't have those in his personal collection like the others.

The T2 pc rip is here Thread 126974 don't bother with dinosaur hunter, it's....bad.