://coversgallery.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/folder_alt2.jpg?w=300&h=300


http://www.peejeshare.com/files/362041631/D2CST.rar.html

About the Music:

The score of Diablo II is as iconic as you can get. Just the same as with Mario, Zelda, and the Final Fantasy series, you know what you are hearing as soon as it plays. Diablo II has long ago become the standard of the clickfest RPGs, in both it’s game mechanics as well as it’s musical landscape.

Uelmen did not go for an orchestral score with the core game, although he did for the expansion pack “Lord of Destruction” (represented in tracks 41 through 50). He often used guitars, both steel rimmed and electric, drums and a small arrangement of flutes, with some electronica in the background to give it that “experimental” edge. For larger than life instruments, such as the organ and chorus, he used samples.

There are no motifs here, although there is plenty of them in “Lord of Destruction”. There isn’t much in the way of the narrative links. Rather, Uelmen uses the music to describe the landscape of the regions that your character fights across. Also just as interesting is the lack of any typical action pieces. The closest is probably “The Lord of Terror” and “Siege” and even then they are slow paced.

Diablo II is an interesting score to be sure, but it suffers in the way of the personal. You never really get a sense of what the characters are feeling in all this madness. Hell is invading the world; why don’t we get a musical direction in terms of how bad they have it. Uelmen says plenty of the chaos of the world, but not much of the chaos in the world. It’s unfortunate, and can mostly be blamed on the game having practically no character scenes whatsoever. It’s nearly all combat, cutscenes aside.

While we are on that topic; Uelmen did not compose the cutscenes. That was done by Blizzard regulars Glenn Stafford, Jason Hayes, and Blizzard one timer Andrea Pessino. These tracks are a great deal more orchestral in nature, and they feel grander as a result. Some of the best music in the entire score are from these cinematics. And they aren’t brief either – they average around 3 or so minutes, with the longest “The Calling” measuring at 7 minutes. Unfortunately, they are also filled with dialogue and sound effects. Still, beneath it all is great music. I apologize for this, but I am no sound engineer.

Let’s talk about Lord of Destruction for a bit, because it is an interesting side note. It is very much influenced by Wagner. None of these tracks would seem out of place in any of his Operas or Symphonic Poems. In fact, “The End with Baal” contains a direct reference to “Tristan and Isolde”. All four of the pieces have a musical reference or quote. Most obvious to those with a good ear is “Siege”. At the 2:26 mark, the opening sequence of “Mars: The Bringer of War” from Holst’s “The Universe” is quoted.

The Lord of Destruction is musically the best part of the entire soundtrack. It is the most involving, it is Uelmen at his most creative, and it is just superb in every way. It is the shortest portion, but it is by far the sweetest. It also boasts the honor of having the two cinematic pieces that are the most “silent” and easiest to listen to.

About the Rip:

Okay, so this is what I don’t get. Diablo II was released in 2000. It is one of the most recognized and loved game soundtracks ever. Practically every PC Gamer knows Diablo when they hear it. It is archived in .MPQ files, which is easy to open thanks to an easily found MPQ Editor. On top of that, the files were organized in folders saying which act they were used in! On top of THAT, they had file names that were either the same as the soundtrack release or quite clearly showed what they were used for.

So, why is it that I was the first guy to think about doing an expanded release? On the fly no less! This came about because I was bored, and I was done in fifteen to twenty minutes. Getting the cinematics, and tracking down the e3 trailers took another forty or so. This was not a hard rip people. This was easy as pie. So, why was I the first one to do this? Boggles the mind.

This was encoded from .wav files to .mp3 VBR. It was set at 128 kbps in order to preserve the original sound quality of the source; any higher would have resulted in needless necessities.

List of Classical Quotes and References:

o Harrogath, inspired by variety of operatic scores, one of them would be Claude Debussy's Pell�as and M�lisande, with a direct musical reference to a phrase from the middle of "Scene 1: Je ne pourrai" from Act I of Debussy's play
o Ice Caves, inspired by fragments of Bernard Herrmann's "Vertigo" and a sequence of Carl Orff's Trionfo di Afrodite.
o The End With Baal contains a direct quote from Richard Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" Prelude to act one.
o Siege is inspired by fragments of "Mars" by Gustav Holst and contains a direct quote from it.

Credit goes to Wikipedia; I simply changed the track titles to correspond with my release.

1. Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino - Introduction: The Dark Wanderer (7:03)
2. Matt Uelmen - Main Menu (1:39)
3. Matt Uelmen - Options (2:47)
4. Matt Uelmen - The Encampent of the Sightless Eye (4:07)
5. Matt Uelmen - The Blood Moor (7:59)
6. Matt Uelmen - Caves (3:52)
7. Matt Uelmen - Den of Evil (0:16)
8. Matt Uelmen - The Domain of Blood Raven (4:30)
9. Matt Uelmen - Blood Raven's Release (0:15)
10. Matt Uelmen - Tristram (7:40)
11. Matt Uelmen - Monastery (5:07)
12. Matt Uelmen - Death of Andariel (0:20)
13. Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino - A Dark and Secret Burden (3:11)
14. Matt Uelmen - Lut Gholein (3:02)
15. Matt Uelmen - The Sewer (3:59)
16. Matt Uelmen - Radiment Falls (0:25)
17. Matt Uelmen - The Aranoch Desert (6:34)
18. Matt Uelmen - The Valley of Snakes (2:46)
19. Matt Uelmen - Decimating the Tainted Sun Altar (0:16)
20. Matt Uelmen - Lair of the Beetles (3:15)
21. Matt Uelmen - The Harem (2:28)
22. Matt Uelmen - The Horadric Cube (0:31)
23. Matt Uelmen - The Arcane Sanctuary (1:57)
24. Matt Uelmen - Seven Tombs (5:34)
25. Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino - The Wanderer and Tyrael (4:18)
26. Matt Uelmen - The Kurast Docks (2:09)
27. Matt Uelmen - Jungle (7:41)
28. Matt Uelmen - Spider (4:09)
29. Matt Uelmen - The Compelling Orb (0:16)
30. Matt Uelmen - Kurast Sewers (4:33)
31. Matt Uelmen - The Corrupted Capital (4:57)
32. Matt Uelmen - Death of Mephisto (0:17)
33. Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino - The Infernal Gate (3:27)
34. Matt Uelmen - The Pandemonium Fortress (3:55)
35. Matt Uelmen - The Burning Hells (5:25)
36. Matt Uelmen - The Hellforge (0:16)
37. Matt Uelmen - The Fallen Angel Redeemed (0:12)
38. Matt Uelmen - The Lord of Terror (2:34)
39. Matt Uelmen - The End of Diablo (0:30)
40. Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino - A Just Reward (3:03)
41. Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino - The Lord of Destruction (4:01)
42. Matt Uelmen - Harrogath (4:51)
43. Matt Uelmen - Siege (6:48)
44. Matt Uelmen - Ice Caves (4:40)
45. Matt Uelmen - Fall of the Overseer (0:20)
46. Matt Uelmen - Nihlathak's Temple (3:36)
47. Matt Uelmen - Death of the Traitor (0:22)
48. Matt Uelmen - The End with Baal (4:22)
49. Matt Uelmen - It is Done (0:21)
50. Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino - Epilogue: The World Stone (2:05)
51. Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino - Diablo II e3 1999 Trailer (2:10)
52. Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino - Lord of Destruction e3 2001 Trailer (1:59)

Nice. Thank you.

awesome! thanks for this!

Hmmm... Nice, I'm curious to see how this compares to the official releases. I tend to prefer them 'cause they offer a better listening-experience... Well, when compared to the game-rips which can be found on the Web, at least...

would love to hear your works on this release..thanks for the share!

When will this be uploaded?

When will this be uploaded?

Right now. :)

thank you

Awesome indeed! Thank you for doing this, Doublehex :)

Hmmm... Nice, I'm curious to see how this compares to the official releases. I tend to prefer them 'cause they offer a better listening-experience... Well, when compared to the game-rips which can be found on the Web, at least...

If you mean the rips done by VGM Legacy, which provides the files in their "natural state", then I can assure that it is a better listening experience. I arrange my rips into a proper soundtrack, doing my best to place them in chronological order, and giving them thematic title names. I also provide my own covers.

good stuffs...just finished listening and i enjoy it..thanks!!

Just to add to the info: Back in the days, Uelmen released all his major tracks (the short tracks for quest events weren't included, for example) on the Battle.net website as album-arranged tracks. You still can listen to these tracks in their website radio. However, many tracks were different (the "Desert" track for instance ist structured completely different compared to its in-game version).
Then, there was the soundtrack packed with the CE of DII and pre-order bonus for DII:LoD. At least the former has been released "to the public" on iTunes, I don't know about the latter. I didn't get to listen to them, so perhaps someone else can shed some light on them.
There WAS a gamerip version done by someone called Grawl from the Gamingforce Forums, but it lacked the thorough research and completeness of DoubleHex' rip (no LoD tracks, no cutscene music, no album-quality track names).

thanks for sharing :)

Then, there was the soundtrack packed with the CE of DII and pre-order bonus for DII:LoD. At least the former has been released "to the public" on iTunes, I don't know about the latter. I didn't get to listen to them, so perhaps someone else can shed some light on them.
If you want to listen them: Thread 82260

Thanks! :)

thank you!

I have compared the audio quality of the released soundtrack and the ripped wav files before, the wav files have far less clarity, which is a pity because the soundtrack missed a lot of tunes and does not contain the full tracks.

thanks

Holy shit THANKS!!!

I dled this a while ago, and It is definatly the best setup complete score for the game. Thank you for putting it together.

It's about damn time!! Thanks for this.

Hate to ask, but any chance of a reupload? I unfortunately lost this along with some other stuff due to computer problems.

It has been uploaded! Enjoy guys.

Thanks man.

*pokes Aden; runs back to STS*

Wow! Thank you Doublehex!

Thanks man, great music!

re-upload pls

Yes, a re-upload would be extremely appreciated.

Indeed, a re-up would be most amazing dear OP :)

re-upload pls

://coversgallery.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/folder_alt2.jpg?w=300&h=300

Diablo - Lord of Terror (https://mega.co.nz/#!6tYCGQYB!NKM7LhYO8vWEUneT8Mq4kUO7o8Z9Z4VxvVIatPI TawM)

Thank's

Ty for reuplaud Starfleet ;*

I love ya Starfleet!!

how can i rip my music files of the game? isnt all music included on the OST CD?

For some reason, once the download complete, the download dialogue box doesn't pop up. SO IRRITATING! I got 1 and 3. JUST NEED THIS ONE!

Just a massive thank you for this, it is awesome. Thank you! And for cody: with the link, you won't get a download prompt immediately, it will first cache the download and once done you will get a link; i.e. wait for the % download to finish as shown by the mega applet and then your browser will give you the download option.

Thank you very much ! Awesome music.

Any chance for a reupload? Please and thanks.

Any way to get this in lossless quality? Thank you!

The audio of the game wasn't in lossless quality to begin with, if I recall correctly.

thank you