Remaster Update and Soundtrack / Jukebox Preview
A legendary soundtrack remastered by Frank Klepacki
C&C Remastered
Fellow Command & Conquer fans,
I wanted to start this post by saying I’ve seen all the comments with the desire to see in-game footage, and thought it would be helpful to provide some context on the timing here. Essentially, we want to make sure we have all the supporting assets in place (like an updated C&C website) before revealing the in-game content. This will allow us to utilize some more flexible media components for the reveal, and ultimately help our awareness so we can get more gamers excited about C&C and the Remaster (which is beneficial for all of us). And while I cannot provide an exact date, getting all this in place is one of my top priorities and I’m crossing my fingers it can happen soon. But overall, our gameplay implementation is right on schedule, with Petroglyph currently focusing on getting the Nod campaign all stitched together.
In the meantime, we wanted to share some special content with you for this post. If you remember, earlier this year we asked the community to provide input on our approach for the soundtrack, including what versions of the tracks you wanted to see in the Remaster. All of us on the team listened intently, and we heard a general consensus for having the most variety possible. So with that request in hand, we pushed hard to include all the versions of the tracks. This means the classic low fidelity versions (without voices), the original soundtrack versions now remastered (with voices), and then of course the Remastered versions of all classic tracks. This will also include many of the rare / unreleased tracks, several of which have never been heard before in higher fidelity. But getting there wasn’t always easy, and here’s an overview from Frank describing the remastering experience:
“The process of going through every single piece of music and bringing it to a higher quality standard has been quite a journey back in time for me, and I’m really glad that all of these tracks will finally be heard in full high quality for the remastered game experience. After combing all possible archives, a handful of tracks were just nowhere to be found – this included ‘Snake’ and ‘Fogger’ from C&C Red Alert. One thing that I did back in the Westwood era, was mirror my home studio with the same gear I had at work, and fortunately I had kept much of it all these years. So I started there, and I went to painstaking detail and trial and error to track down and match as much of the exact original sounds and instrumentation I could find, to recreate these songs from scratch in order to have the best high quality versions once again for the remaster. Hearing these new versions, especially in stereo now, is a whole new experience.”
To add it all up, between the classic and remastered versions of the tracks, we’re clocking in at over 10 hours worth of music across 175 tracks!
Now, with that much music and variety, we figured players would need a way to organize all the music content. So we are excited to share that the Jukebox will be making a full comeback in the Remaster, and be more enhanced than ever before. The Jukebox will allow players to create their own playlist utilizing any combination of music to their desire. Easy to use filters help the sorting process, and for the first time you can listen to Red Alert music in Tiberian Dawn or vice versa. This feature was a labor of love for Frank and some of the original Westwood engineers on the project, who wanted to deliver the best music experience possible for the community. Overall we just can’t wait to put the Jukebox in your hands, and see all the unique playlists the community puts together.
As a special treat to celebrate this post about the soundtrack, Frank has put together a compilation of several Remastered tracks for your enjoyment. You’ll be hearing a sample of the Remastered versions of Act on Instinct (without voices), Demolition (which was never included on the OST), and Fogger (which Frank described above as being recreated from scratch in high fidelity). To help provide a comparison, each track also includes a short intro of the classic low fidelity version as heard in the original game.
And finally, you may notice there’s an unchecked box called “Bonus” in the Jukebox. Well, we haven’t forgotten about the voting you did earlier this year on your favorite tracks, and as such we’ll have a special surprise to reveal at a later date : )
As always thanks for your ongoing patience and support, and we’re looking forward to hearing your feedback on the soundtrack details, Jukebox, and the music itself.
Cheers,
Jim Vessella
Jimtern
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