Sierra Game Remix list (at my forums)

[Alistair]

Hey guys,

Since it seems quiet around these parts, I figure people might be interested in the list of Sierra game remixes I compiled tonight.

Took me freakin' forever!

http://users.boardnation.com/~sierramusic/index.php?board=1&action=display&threadid=242&start=0

- Alistair

[Tom]

This is quite a list -- thanks for posting it!

[Ari]

Way to go Alistair! 
It sure is going to give something to listen to in the next few days.

[Alistair]

Thanks guys. Nice to have someone appreciate it, it literally took me all night (5 hours!).

To be honest, I don't like a lot of remixes of Sierra game music. They're generally done very, very poorly. (Some of those KQ ones.. yecch.)

But a lot of the non OC Remix and VG Mix ones (those sites are good, but not for Sierra adventure game music!) are surprisingly good. The list was made because aside from the well publicised ones, equal access should be available to all remixes, especially to guys like us who care about the music. We also don't have time to simply Google "king's quest remix" every week and hope something comes up.

I wanted some nostalgia from hearing all these tracks (hadn't heard some of these before, even though they populated my hard disk).
Got plenty, as well. Man.. Quests of the King and Roger Wilco Ace Janitor!


BTW Tom, you need to put Lytton Litany and Quests of the King back on your "Music by QuestStudios" section! Sorry for hosting some of your files, but you got rid of some tracks, so..


Of course, as it says in the post, if you guys know of more..


I guess a MIDI one should also be made, since there's lots of MIDI remixes that exist too. Bah humbug.

- Alistair

[MusicallyInspired]

That's quite a service! I noticed you removed links to most of my mixes pending to get in contact with me. Anything you need?

[Alistair]

Yeah, it was painstaking work.


I didn't remove links, the links mostly pointed to your old site on my webspace, which no longer exists. I can't link to places that don't exist

So I'd appreciate it if you'd make a folder on your webspace and put every single Sierra remix you've done (except the Metalized Catacombs) and send me an email with the link.

As for KQ3, I'm not sure what to do. Let me know.

Regards,
- Alistair

[Ari]

Thanks guys. Nice to have someone appreciate it, it literally took me all night (5 hours!).

To be honest, I don't like a lot of remixes of Sierra game music. They're generally done very, very poorly. (Some of those KQ ones.. yecch.)

But a lot of the non OC Remix and VG Mix ones (those sites are good, but not for Sierra adventure game music!) are surprisingly good. The list was made because aside from the well publicised ones, equal access should be available to all remixes, especially to guys like us who care about the music. We also don't have time to simply Google "king's quest remix" every week and hope something comes up.

I wanted some nostalgia from hearing all these tracks (hadn't heard some of these before, even though they populated my hard disk).
Got plenty, as well. Man.. Quests of the King and Roger Wilco Ace Janitor!

I think Concerning Daventry is one of the better remixes in that list.
I also liked Laurent Roucairol & Olivier “Ozzy” Tamagna's Willy Beamish remix which sounds amazing with a real guitar, IMO, and Disturbed's SQ3 piano remix.

BTW, there's a cool new Day of the Tentacle piano remix. It's not perfect, but it's a fun listen. You can find it here.

[Alistair]

I like Concerning Daventry as well. Really, I like most of the non 'big site' ones.

I'd post a list of the ones I like, but that'd take me another few hours

The Boothnut Shuffle (QFG4) is a must though, as is the Kyrandia medley (but for the love of God, no other Kyrandia ones!!), and those QFG ones are generally pretty good.

KQ, Kyrandia and Gabriel Knight get a rough go though.

- Alistair

[Caliburn]

Neat list.  Thanks, Alistair, for tracking all these down and compiling them together.  There are definitely many things here that I didn't know existed.

Haven't listened to many of these yet aside from the ones you and Ari mentioned, but I will also add that I was pleasantly surprised by Danimal Cannon's "A Willow that Weeps" from KQ5.  It still preserves the melancholy core of the original, but it adds a resolute edge with the heavy strumming of the steel guitar and the quicker tempo.

Alistair, is one of the two unlinked KQ6 tracks that highly bizarre (but strangely, kind of effective) distortion guitar rendition of the Bookworm's Theme from the Isle of Wonder?

I was quite disappointed by Kadmium's long and ultimately somewhat uninspired medley of GK1 and QFG4 tunes, "Sins and Darkness."  Many of these songs are already rock- or metal-flavored in their original form, and the arrangements there were generally richer and more interesting than in Kadmium's version.  (Take Erana's Garden at the 11 minute mark, which is basically like a watered-down version of the in-game composition: what has changed is that the solo is more poorly performed and the supporting orchestration has been simplified, not for the better.)  Those songs that weren't already rock- or metal-flavored sometimes adapted well enough to that idiom, but often didn't.  (One that didn't is the GK1 map theme at 8:30, which desperately missed its power horns.  One that did, surprisingly, was Grieg's Anitra's Dance a.k.a. Hotel Mordavia.)

Any other recommendations?  There are a lot of songs here and it's nice to hear opinions on which ones are particularly worth checking out.

-Luke

[Alistair]

Hey Luke,

Nice to see you around- I get the feeling you must be really busy, since you're not here so often any more. (Me, I have no life. )

But seriously:

Yeah, no worries. SMC's forums have always had an adventure game remix section (which goes to show noone vists my forums ), but it was all over the place and me being I guess the best at finding Sierra music in the world (how's that for a useless record!), I figured eventually I was going to have to make a list of basically what others had found and then what I'd found.

Maybe I shouldn't have included QuestStudios stuff, since there's so much that could be included. But I figured I got the balance right.

The reason I posted this primarily is for a useful list, but the secondary reason is indeed to share lesser known remixes, much as my site is dedicated to lesser known soundtracks.


There are a lot of dumb Weeping Willow remixes (why would you even touch that track over other KQ5 tracks, even? It's not much of a track..), but I seem to remember liking that Danimal Cannon one as well. There's a story behind a bunch of the files with the "02 - title" titles, a game remixing site had an "American Adventure Month" month (they have a monthly contest), and most people did Sierra stuff that month. 'Course, most was terrible- but that one and a couple others were OK.


And yeah, you're right about the KQ6 tracks. I don't like them very much (yeah, that Bookworm one has a good moment, but only one moment) and just didn't want to upload them to my webspace. Really, remixes that have no soul or relation to the original audio aren't remixes- they're just cacophony, to me anyway.

Kadmium's Sins and Darkness is one of the contest tracks, I guess they were just trying to be cool. I was highly disappointed by it- I want 15 minutes of my life back!
Yeah, Hotel Mordavia was OK. I take the original over it still


Recommendations, recommendations. Do you want ones based on games you've played, or across the board?

The Jones in the Fast Lane one is excellent (the non-Socket City one). I know the guy, too. Very nice guy.

(scrolling) Well, I can see lots of tracks to NOT recommend

The LSL6 ones are great. So are the QFG1 ones.

Also, Mordavian Shuffle. If you hated Sins and Darkness, then the Shuffle should be candy to your ears. It's my non-QS pick of the list.

Pretty much anything by MusicallyInspired, and almost all the SQ tracks as well.

And the Willy Beamish tracks.

Regards,
- Alistair

[Caliburn]

I'm always around (logging in once or twice a day usually), I just post less frequently than I once did.  (I imagine that lack of posting is probably what you meant in the first place.)  But it is nice to be missed, which is certainly more pleasant than the alternative!

As for being too busy, no, it isn't really that.  I mean, obviously I have work and other obligations, but I don't feel those really get in the way that much.  If anything, it's more the conflict between different ways I can spend what free time I have.  That's an over-simplified explanation, but I decided the more long-winded version I originally wrote would diverge too much from this thread.  I'll just add the clarification that I don't mean my interest in Sierra games and music has at all diminished (on the contrary, I have recently been replaying all the Space Quests, and having a blast) and certainly not in the QS community either, but rather that there are times when I am sorely tempted to post and nevertheless resist, simply because I know I'll take too long writing my replies. . . .  So I guess that's a sort of busyness after all, but not the typical kind.

Anyway, thanks for the recommendations.  Sure, I'm open to good remixes even from games I haven't played (Sierra or non-Sierra), but obviously it will help me appreciate the remix as a remix if I have heard the game's original music.  Though if anything occurs to you where the original music is unavailable to me, I'm still not that adverse to hearing only the remix.

Mmm, yeah, the "Keeping up with Jones" remix is quite good.  (That's actually a perfect example of a game I don't own, but from which I've heard some of the music thanks to QS, including the main theme on which the remix is based.)  This does more of what I like to hear from a rearrangement or remix, making a song sound like it fits a different style so well, you'd think it might have been originally composed that way.

Wow, the Sega CD version of Willy Beamish really is very different.  Actually I have slightly mixed feelings about it, despite its quality.  I'll have to listen to it more to decide for sure my opinion of it.

I heard and enjoyed some of the others ("Mordavian Shuffle", Roucairol & Tamagna's Willy Beamish Main Theme remix, etc.) in my last sampling of some of these files based on the earlier comments from you and Ari.  But I will check out more of the ones you've just now mentioned some time tomorrow.

Fun stuff!  Looking at this list of remixes makes me think that we could really use more jazz re-arrangements of Sierra tunes that weren't originally designed as jazz but could work that way.  But then, I'm fond of jazz, so I am biased.

Take care,
-Luke

[Tom]

By the way, Alistair...I've been unable to log on to your forum.  Email requests to verify my login info aren't being sent, either.  Any ideas?

[MusicallyInspired]

Hmmm. The SMC forums are Boardnation. Seems like the same problem you had with my KQ2SCI forums which were also Boardnation, incidentally. Is your email maybe sorting apparent spam emails into a bulk/spam folder or trash?

[Caliburn]

Did some more listening this afternoon.  I could probably ramble about my impressions of each individual piece, but instead I'll just note that among several good rearrangements, a standout for me this time was "Candleborn" by The Wingless (located in the QfG1 section).  Very different orchestration from the original Faerie Ring, but full to the brim with whimsy and enchantment.

Oh, Alistair, the link to this piece is currently on the same line as the section header for QfG1.  (A product, no doubt, of being up so late graciously putting this list together.)  Next time you get a chance to edit the list, you might want add a carriage return so that a hasty reader doesn't miss this very nice piece.

-Luke

[Tom]

The SMC forums are Boardnation. Seems like the same problem you had with my KQ2SCI forums which were also Boardnation, incidentally. Is your email maybe sorting apparent spam emails into a bulk/spam folder or trash?

Definitely, or I'd be receiving about 100-200 spams per hour.  But the filters only catch known spam servers ... and a lot still get through.  And I review the 'junk' mail, especially when I'm expecting a particular email.

[MusicallyInspired]

Despite Alistair's tastes, I still love the KQ5 mixes in Forlorn Dream. That one won 1st place for a best random game remix competition on Dwelling of Duels, which is saying a lot since nobody really touches Sierra music a lot.

[Alistair]

Just briefly on SMC forums (more later)- what MI said could be right, as could that I changed the forum email- did you get an email from SMC, and what email address are you sending your request to?

Regards,
- Alistair

[Tom]

did you get an email from SMC, and what email address are you sending your request to?

I didn't get any email from SMC, and the email address I sent my request to is hidden when you use the 'forgot my password' option in logging into the forum.  But even so, I didn't forget my password; the forum isn't recognizing me, anyway.

[Alistair]

You should get an email from alistairg@dodo.com.auNOSPAM (minus NOSPAM), as this "Email Random Password to New Member Upon Registration?" is turned on in my admin preferences.

Logically, this would suggest the password was sent to you but removed by a spam filter or something. It's of course possible that there's a problem, but I haven't had anyone who's registered since I changed emails with the same problem- so I'm guessing it's on your end.

No time for anything else yet, hopelessly busy with school.

- Alistair

[Tom]

Ah well, that's okay.  I also use Spam Assassin, but I didn't see anything in the 'spam box' that resembled your email address.  I've received other email from you at that address, so I don't think it's a 'spam' issue on my end, either.  Don't worry about it.  Guess you don't have access to my password?  Or, you could always re-setup an account for me.  I used to be "Tom Lewandowski" on your forum.