Doublehex
06-20-2011, 03:40 PM
Dungeon Siege III
(
)
.MP3 VBR -0 @ 320 KBPS | 92 Tracks | Running Time: 2"57'30
https://mega.co.nz/#!SdByACQY!E5fQxCmynZBSnQyj6w79d1zedyEWHiN7daD17OM YADE
About the Music:
For all of the things that Obsidian Entertainment gets right – characters, plot, choices and consequences, merging of narrative and game mechanics, there are a few notable things that they almost get wrong. Lack of technical polish, and music. With the exception of Knights of the Old Republic II, and the two expansion packs for Neverwinter Nights 2, the music that accompanied Obsidian’s games were forgettable at best, and non-existent at worst.
Dungeon Siege III hits the ball right out of the park. The story deals with the death and resurrection of the Tenth Legion, and the soundtrack walks fine balance between requiem and heroic fanfare. Starting off with the somber “Main Theme”, we are musically introduced with slow strings and a soft, echoing chorus. The Main Theme never develops into a loud mouthpiece, never acting like a Marche, but more like a threnody. It speaks of the long, distant accomplishments of the Tenth Legion, and it gives a hint of what you – as one of the few remaining Legionnaires – will accomplish. It is not heroic, but that is not what the soundtrack aspires to be.
Even the theme of the Legion – personified in “The Rukkenvahl Chapterhouse” – has just reminiscent of heroism, instead of blasting it in loud horns and overwhelming chorus. The whole narrative deals with Death and Rebirth, and the soundtrack stays true to that idea with the “distant” feel of the music.
Oh, to be sure there is “loudness”, as is to be expected with any Fantasy score. The final boss theme, “The Corrupted Creator” is a wonderful example of how chorus can be used in a piece without overwhelming the rest of the instruments. It is empowering, adrenaline pounding, but it is also heroic and possessive of grace that is rare in a chorus piece. That applies doubly for a “final battle” theme. The same can be said of the second-to-last boss battle theme, “The Fires of Jeyne Kassynder”. There is just a near perfect balance of drums, thrusting strings and chorus. It is one of the best pieces in the entire soundtrack.
Nothing is perfect however. The high points of the soundtrack are whatever Jason Graves composed, with the worst being those written by Tim Wynn. This may fall to personal taste, but the Hans Zimmer/Media Venture inspired pieces not just feel out of place besides Graves’ orchestral pieces, but they are just plain boring. There is nothing by Wynn that you haven’t heard before in all the dozens of modern film scores. Fortunately, Graves’ music makes up the bulk of the soundtrack, with 72 of the 92 tracks.
Overall, this is a great score. Dunegon Siege III put Graves out of his element. Graves, who worked mostly in the realm of science fiction and horror, was put to the test with his first fantasy score. Thanks to his unconventionally somber approach, he came out on top.
About the Rip:
I am crazy. I am a madman, a lunatic, and I deserve to be locked up in any state funded asylum of your choice. That is the only explanation that would explain why I did this rip.
Let me explain myself. For whatever reason that escapes me, Obsidian’s sound engine decide to encode all of the music audio files – and not any of the sound effects, voiceovers, and ambience – as a random assortment of numbers. The music was given the exclusive privilege of giving you no idea what you are seeing until you double click the file and listen.
And there was 300 files when I started on this mad crusade. Two hundred and ninety-nine minutes worth of music. Great music to be sure, but I knew what I was getting myself into. A greater miracle yet was I able to come out of it with my sanity intact.
When I first got my hands on the .ogg files – and credits are due to bogol of the Final Fantasy Shrine for supplying them – I couldn’t make out even a quarter of the music. I recognized the final boss theme and the Main Theme without issue, but that rest was just a musical blur. The only way I was able to do an arranged soundtrack was for me to play the game again.
This was lessened thanks to the fact that the game is only 12 hours long. It’s not like The Witcher where I had to re-play a fifty hour game, so I suppose some things were looking in my favor.
Regardless, I will gladly tell you that finding some of these songs were atrociously hard. Blame it on me being obsessive with perfection, but I easily spent thirty minutes on finding a single song at times. And some of the times, I spent that much time looking for a song because I didn’t realize I had already numbered and named it.
With all that said, when I finally reached the game’s end I had around 12 or so files I was unable to “properly” organize. Since I refused to play through the game again just so for these 12 files, I decided to merge them or arrange them before/after with files that were “thematically similar and/or pleasing”. I didn’t so much as go for chronological integrity so much as I did with a better listening experience.
I also followed this idea with some of the files I had arranged properly but decided to move further ahead for climatic purposes. For example, “The Spire” was originally the fifth track “The Road of the Rukkenvahl”. The reason I did such a drastic change there was because it was only heard for 30 seconds at the beginning of the game before “The Burning Mansion” would cut in, and it just seemed more appropriate to have it listed as the Spire level’s theme.
Another example is “The Fires of Jeyne Kassynder”. It originally appeared several hours before hand, near the end of the Glitterdale Mines level. I moved it slightly forward so as to give it more thematic satisfaction, since it is also used when you fight Jeyne Kassynder. That file is also three different files merged together; the first two are major revisions of each other, the first being longer and more instrument heavy with the second being shorter and more chorus dependant. The last part is a short :23 piece that is all naked chorus. I put that there for a better conclusion to an already epic battle theme.
Many other files were merged due to the fact that they were very similar. They were essentially the same piece with added layers. Take note of this when you listen to “Gunderic Manor / The Dead Rise” and you will see what I mean. I merged these files for a better listening experience. Otherwise you would have had four files, one immediately following the next, with just different additions in instruments. I felt this was the better solution.
().MP3 VBR -0 @ 320 KBPS | 92 Tracks | Running Time: 2"57'30
https://mega.co.nz/#!SdByACQY!E5fQxCmynZBSnQyj6w79d1zedyEWHiN7daD17OM YADE
About the Music:
For all of the things that Obsidian Entertainment gets right – characters, plot, choices and consequences, merging of narrative and game mechanics, there are a few notable things that they almost get wrong. Lack of technical polish, and music. With the exception of Knights of the Old Republic II, and the two expansion packs for Neverwinter Nights 2, the music that accompanied Obsidian’s games were forgettable at best, and non-existent at worst.
Dungeon Siege III hits the ball right out of the park. The story deals with the death and resurrection of the Tenth Legion, and the soundtrack walks fine balance between requiem and heroic fanfare. Starting off with the somber “Main Theme”, we are musically introduced with slow strings and a soft, echoing chorus. The Main Theme never develops into a loud mouthpiece, never acting like a Marche, but more like a threnody. It speaks of the long, distant accomplishments of the Tenth Legion, and it gives a hint of what you – as one of the few remaining Legionnaires – will accomplish. It is not heroic, but that is not what the soundtrack aspires to be.
Even the theme of the Legion – personified in “The Rukkenvahl Chapterhouse” – has just reminiscent of heroism, instead of blasting it in loud horns and overwhelming chorus. The whole narrative deals with Death and Rebirth, and the soundtrack stays true to that idea with the “distant” feel of the music.
Oh, to be sure there is “loudness”, as is to be expected with any Fantasy score. The final boss theme, “The Corrupted Creator” is a wonderful example of how chorus can be used in a piece without overwhelming the rest of the instruments. It is empowering, adrenaline pounding, but it is also heroic and possessive of grace that is rare in a chorus piece. That applies doubly for a “final battle” theme. The same can be said of the second-to-last boss battle theme, “The Fires of Jeyne Kassynder”. There is just a near perfect balance of drums, thrusting strings and chorus. It is one of the best pieces in the entire soundtrack.
Nothing is perfect however. The high points of the soundtrack are whatever Jason Graves composed, with the worst being those written by Tim Wynn. This may fall to personal taste, but the Hans Zimmer/Media Venture inspired pieces not just feel out of place besides Graves’ orchestral pieces, but they are just plain boring. There is nothing by Wynn that you haven’t heard before in all the dozens of modern film scores. Fortunately, Graves’ music makes up the bulk of the soundtrack, with 72 of the 92 tracks.
Overall, this is a great score. Dunegon Siege III put Graves out of his element. Graves, who worked mostly in the realm of science fiction and horror, was put to the test with his first fantasy score. Thanks to his unconventionally somber approach, he came out on top.
About the Rip:
I am crazy. I am a madman, a lunatic, and I deserve to be locked up in any state funded asylum of your choice. That is the only explanation that would explain why I did this rip.
Let me explain myself. For whatever reason that escapes me, Obsidian’s sound engine decide to encode all of the music audio files – and not any of the sound effects, voiceovers, and ambience – as a random assortment of numbers. The music was given the exclusive privilege of giving you no idea what you are seeing until you double click the file and listen.
And there was 300 files when I started on this mad crusade. Two hundred and ninety-nine minutes worth of music. Great music to be sure, but I knew what I was getting myself into. A greater miracle yet was I able to come out of it with my sanity intact.
When I first got my hands on the .ogg files – and credits are due to bogol of the Final Fantasy Shrine for supplying them – I couldn’t make out even a quarter of the music. I recognized the final boss theme and the Main Theme without issue, but that rest was just a musical blur. The only way I was able to do an arranged soundtrack was for me to play the game again.
This was lessened thanks to the fact that the game is only 12 hours long. It’s not like The Witcher where I had to re-play a fifty hour game, so I suppose some things were looking in my favor.
Regardless, I will gladly tell you that finding some of these songs were atrociously hard. Blame it on me being obsessive with perfection, but I easily spent thirty minutes on finding a single song at times. And some of the times, I spent that much time looking for a song because I didn’t realize I had already numbered and named it.
With all that said, when I finally reached the game’s end I had around 12 or so files I was unable to “properly” organize. Since I refused to play through the game again just so for these 12 files, I decided to merge them or arrange them before/after with files that were “thematically similar and/or pleasing”. I didn’t so much as go for chronological integrity so much as I did with a better listening experience.
I also followed this idea with some of the files I had arranged properly but decided to move further ahead for climatic purposes. For example, “The Spire” was originally the fifth track “The Road of the Rukkenvahl”. The reason I did such a drastic change there was because it was only heard for 30 seconds at the beginning of the game before “The Burning Mansion” would cut in, and it just seemed more appropriate to have it listed as the Spire level’s theme.
Another example is “The Fires of Jeyne Kassynder”. It originally appeared several hours before hand, near the end of the Glitterdale Mines level. I moved it slightly forward so as to give it more thematic satisfaction, since it is also used when you fight Jeyne Kassynder. That file is also three different files merged together; the first two are major revisions of each other, the first being longer and more instrument heavy with the second being shorter and more chorus dependant. The last part is a short :23 piece that is all naked chorus. I put that there for a better conclusion to an already epic battle theme.
Many other files were merged due to the fact that they were very similar. They were essentially the same piece with added layers. Take note of this when you listen to “Gunderic Manor / The Dead Rise” and you will see what I mean. I merged these files for a better listening experience. Otherwise you would have had four files, one immediately following the next, with just different additions in instruments. I felt this was the better solution.
