I have Sycraft's OGG sountrack for each (and they're basically all I can find anywhere on the web)... I don't like them, much. Sadly the rendering seems to have ignored most volume effects, and the reverb is way too overdone.
I'm basically looking for something of the same quality as the Hexen 2 CD music. (And not the same "quality" as the Hexen 1 CD music.*) I've been rendering the songs through TiMidity, but the MIDI-ness is still a touch too obvious by comparison.
Maybe I'm just too picky.
Spoiler: *
It might as well not exist. Many of the songs are missing, and even DOS OPL sounds better than the cheap doinky-doink MIDI renders they included. Kevin Schilder is an amazing musician and his works deserve more than that: Hexen 2 demonstrated how it should be done.
Electric guitars have no place in Heretic or Hexen. They still appear sporadically in some songs, but it's wrong. The original OPL font for Heretic specifically used an instrument sound different from Doom's, and it sounded similar to a piano or such.
ETTiNGRiNDER wrote:
I could rip the PSX versions, but they also aren't a complete set.
That sounded cool until the horribly synthesized string instrument. No.
I don't know exactly on what platform they were recorded in, but even if you say "OPL SCHMOPL", the detail I was talking about exists and the changed OPL instrument seemed to drift away from an electric guitar likeness. Also notice how all the other instruments used in Heretic and Hexen represent acoustics. The e-guitar is out of place. I'd like to know the font Schilder used to record the music on (together with some music samples), to test my "overdriven OR distorted guitar = something else" theory.
The Hexen 2 remix of MUS_E1M1 also uses a piano (I know it's a remix and it's not a version NS prefers, but I'm putting it rather as an example regarding the instrument choice).
The music in Hexen is all kinda... muted and backgroundy. It's leaving the room for ambient sounds. Part of the grittier, dungeon-crawlier feel; whereas Heretic is closer to Doom with aggressive tunes that are front and center in the soundscape.
And OPL sucks and is therefore irrelevant. I never had any OPL soundcard.
Last edited by Gez on Sun Jan 22, 2012 1:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Electric guitars have no place in Heretic or Hexen
I disagree. The world of Heretic and HeXen takes after heavy metal/Frank Frazetta-esque fantasy (I haven't played HeXen II, so I dunno what it's like), and sometimes nothing nails that atmosphere like an electric guitar. I'm fairly sure Brom's art for the games were inspired from album covers.
Though I'll admit I'm all for it being used sparsely, preferably in a more ballad-esque manner rather than a Malmsteen guitar solo.
The Hexen 2 remix of MUS_E1M1 also uses a piano
The HeXen II remix also isn't as good. Coincidence? :p Okay, it's still pretty awesome, but I think the original stands miles above it.
TerminusEst13 wrote:The HeXen II remix also isn't as good. Coincidence? Okay, it's still pretty awesome, but I think the original stands miles above it.
I don't like any of the H2 remixes, really. I ended up replacing them with the Sycraft originals to use with H2. Passable!
Sadly the rendering seems to have ignored most volume effects, and the reverb is way too overdone. 
