treeleaf49
11-07-2018, 04:30 AM
"Hello, extremely!"
What started out as a search for the music of "Thumpin' Wumpa Island" from Imaginators turned into this! While I am biased towards Spyro (who isn't?), Lorne Balfe's music is one of the great aspects the Skylandersseries has. Since all of the games have music I like, I figured, "You know what? I'll just rip them all."
Inspired by the likes of KBABZ, Infernus Animositas, and Bar, these rips are the best quality I could find and tracks are listed in the order (more or less) where they play in the games. Nevertheless, as my first major ripping endeavor, these rips are less than perfect. The lack of a FLAC version is proof of this. With these rips, I was going for a soundtrack-esque execution. Some results are better than others, but I am proud of the outcome as a whole.
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1c7FbauTm0WlD4cqPoc3JV94XPihh-7Ep
When I heard Hans Zimmer would be composing the game, I was intrigued. It turns out he only composed the main theme and Lorne Balfe composed the game. Still good stuff. This game gave me the hardest time to rip. For starters, I first tried to rip the Wii version, but there were still tracks missing. So I tried other versions, and the PS3 version had more music. But, my ripping method ripped tons of audio files with the filenames as hex memory addresses in a single folder. So I had to weed through and find the music, which took a long time. And some tracks found in the Wii version were still missing, so I put the two rips together. I'm still not sure if I had ripped everything. Just to explain the differing sample rates on certain tracks, the sample rate also differs between the Wii and PS3 versions, with the latter being higher, and FMV sequences are 48khz all throughout the series.
Skylanders: Giants
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QJkSK2nzkPJzrSuoGgY0OLjsoBiJPkIE
Giants was a more organized rip. While the audio files were not in just one place, they were extracted into separate folders.
Skylanders: Swap Force
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sKm9PUEmvbSYWovnBsZqVeDE9VJTuJAP
For this rip, the audio files extracted largely consisted of multiple channels, upwards of 5 stereo channels. This would have made so many different combinations that would have been way too daunting. Solution - YouTube walkthroughs. Going through a walkthrough, I would add a channel combination that was heard either in part or in whole so that no mix that is definitely heard in-game would go unaccounted for. Some tracks that are referred to as "Unused" are mixes that make use of channels that otherwise go unheard or channel combinations that I think ought to have been included. Audio files that were completely not used are included closer to the end of the rip.
Skylanders: Trap Team
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1k6kp0Ih0i_A0sNqvyV2x2iIFeFMYmw6J
The files for this game were stored in the same format as Giants. However, while converting the files for this game, I learned that Audacity doesn't like 32khz files. So, halfway through, I had to make new .mp3s. Also, tracks 137 (Old Mill Stream by the Gecko Chorus) and 167 (Steam Puzzle Solved) are not included because I could not find their files. I tried ripping the game several times and could not find them. Also, since much of the music is from APM Music, I credited whatever tracks I could with their respective composers (in varying degrees of consistency, but the tracks are mostly accurate).
Skylanders: SuperChargers
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1q7vcIEGC4l8H5w4Cp6uDWg4N-SrudHMp
The same as Swap Force, following walkthroughs, I tried to include all mixes that played, included unused channels, and channel mixes I thought should be included. The jingle for "Cap'n Cluck's King Sized Chicken" has an instrumental version that I included with the same track number as the version with vocals.
Skylanders: Imaginators
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1m_mZJtClKi5bug167QhYOLEEZUpv6D9H
Since Balfe did not return for this game, the majority of the game is APM Music. The remaining music was composed by Matt Pirog. The way the audio was stored in this game was a mix between Giants and Swap Force - files were mainly in respective level folders, but some files had more than one stereo channel. Since "Thumpin' Wumpa Island" was developed by Vicarious Visions, the level's music format was the same as Swap Force and SuperChargers. In the level, I included "Bonus" versions of two tracks that had Tiki vocals in-game. These "Oohs" and "Aahs" were not a separate channel and had to be put in by hand, so the timing may be slightly off. This rip even includes music from the two DLC levels, "Cursed Tiki Temple" and "Lost Imaginite Mines", as well as extra "Create Your Own Skylander" themes, 8-Bit and 8-Bit (Lite).
Special thanks go out to:
-DarkSpyro Forums, who documented the APM Music tracks and when they are used in-game
-Skylanders Music Channel on YouTube for guidelines if I missed any music
-Halley's Comet Software Forums for their fancy game-ripping do-dahs and know-how
-Everybody who rips games for these forums
"Boom."
What started out as a search for the music of "Thumpin' Wumpa Island" from Imaginators turned into this! While I am biased towards Spyro (who isn't?), Lorne Balfe's music is one of the great aspects the Skylandersseries has. Since all of the games have music I like, I figured, "You know what? I'll just rip them all."
Inspired by the likes of KBABZ, Infernus Animositas, and Bar, these rips are the best quality I could find and tracks are listed in the order (more or less) where they play in the games. Nevertheless, as my first major ripping endeavor, these rips are less than perfect. The lack of a FLAC version is proof of this. With these rips, I was going for a soundtrack-esque execution. Some results are better than others, but I am proud of the outcome as a whole.
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1c7FbauTm0WlD4cqPoc3JV94XPihh-7Ep
When I heard Hans Zimmer would be composing the game, I was intrigued. It turns out he only composed the main theme and Lorne Balfe composed the game. Still good stuff. This game gave me the hardest time to rip. For starters, I first tried to rip the Wii version, but there were still tracks missing. So I tried other versions, and the PS3 version had more music. But, my ripping method ripped tons of audio files with the filenames as hex memory addresses in a single folder. So I had to weed through and find the music, which took a long time. And some tracks found in the Wii version were still missing, so I put the two rips together. I'm still not sure if I had ripped everything. Just to explain the differing sample rates on certain tracks, the sample rate also differs between the Wii and PS3 versions, with the latter being higher, and FMV sequences are 48khz all throughout the series.
Skylanders: Giants
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QJkSK2nzkPJzrSuoGgY0OLjsoBiJPkIE
Giants was a more organized rip. While the audio files were not in just one place, they were extracted into separate folders.
Skylanders: Swap Force
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sKm9PUEmvbSYWovnBsZqVeDE9VJTuJAP
For this rip, the audio files extracted largely consisted of multiple channels, upwards of 5 stereo channels. This would have made so many different combinations that would have been way too daunting. Solution - YouTube walkthroughs. Going through a walkthrough, I would add a channel combination that was heard either in part or in whole so that no mix that is definitely heard in-game would go unaccounted for. Some tracks that are referred to as "Unused" are mixes that make use of channels that otherwise go unheard or channel combinations that I think ought to have been included. Audio files that were completely not used are included closer to the end of the rip.
Skylanders: Trap Team
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1k6kp0Ih0i_A0sNqvyV2x2iIFeFMYmw6J
The files for this game were stored in the same format as Giants. However, while converting the files for this game, I learned that Audacity doesn't like 32khz files. So, halfway through, I had to make new .mp3s. Also, tracks 137 (Old Mill Stream by the Gecko Chorus) and 167 (Steam Puzzle Solved) are not included because I could not find their files. I tried ripping the game several times and could not find them. Also, since much of the music is from APM Music, I credited whatever tracks I could with their respective composers (in varying degrees of consistency, but the tracks are mostly accurate).
Skylanders: SuperChargers
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1q7vcIEGC4l8H5w4Cp6uDWg4N-SrudHMp
The same as Swap Force, following walkthroughs, I tried to include all mixes that played, included unused channels, and channel mixes I thought should be included. The jingle for "Cap'n Cluck's King Sized Chicken" has an instrumental version that I included with the same track number as the version with vocals.
Skylanders: Imaginators
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1m_mZJtClKi5bug167QhYOLEEZUpv6D9H
Since Balfe did not return for this game, the majority of the game is APM Music. The remaining music was composed by Matt Pirog. The way the audio was stored in this game was a mix between Giants and Swap Force - files were mainly in respective level folders, but some files had more than one stereo channel. Since "Thumpin' Wumpa Island" was developed by Vicarious Visions, the level's music format was the same as Swap Force and SuperChargers. In the level, I included "Bonus" versions of two tracks that had Tiki vocals in-game. These "Oohs" and "Aahs" were not a separate channel and had to be put in by hand, so the timing may be slightly off. This rip even includes music from the two DLC levels, "Cursed Tiki Temple" and "Lost Imaginite Mines", as well as extra "Create Your Own Skylander" themes, 8-Bit and 8-Bit (Lite).
Special thanks go out to:
-DarkSpyro Forums, who documented the APM Music tracks and when they are used in-game
-Skylanders Music Channel on YouTube for guidelines if I missed any music
-Halley's Comet Software Forums for their fancy game-ripping do-dahs and know-how
-Everybody who rips games for these forums
"Boom."