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Posted: |
Mar 9, 2012 - 5:12 PM
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By: |
losher22
(Member)
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Mass Effect 3 Director - Casey Hudson Music Direction - Rob Blake and Mike Kent 01-The Fate of the Galaxy 02-Leaving Earth 03-Mars 04-A Cerberus Agent 05-The View of Palaven 06-A Future for the Krogan 07-Surkesh 08-The Ardat Yakshi 09-Rannoch 10-I’m Sorry 11-The Cerberus Plot 12-The Scientists 13-Aralakh Company 14-Prothean Beacon 15-Defeat 16-Reaper Chase 17-Stand Strong, Stand Together 18-I was Lost Without You 19-The Fleets Arrive 20-We Face Our Enemy Together 21-I’m Proud Of You 22-An End, Once and For All 23-Credits 24-Betrayal (Extra track for Collectors Edition) 25-Creation (Extra track for Collectors Edition) Total Length: 68:05 SAM HULICK composed tracks 1, 3, 4, 18-21, and with Clint Mansell, track 22. He is best known for being the co-composer for the original Mass Effect soundtrack with Jack Wall, and contributed a good portion of the tracks for Mass Effect 2. CHRISTOPHER LENNERTZ composed tracks 5-7, 11, 17, and 24. He recently scored Horrible Bosses and is still the composer for the series Supernatural. He previously scored two of the DLC packs for Mass Effect 2. CRIS VELASCO and SASCHA DIKICIYAN composed tracks 8-10, 12-16, and 25. They previously worked together on the soundtrack for Borderlands and the wonderful DLC ME2 pack Arrival. More recently, they also collaborated on the highly-recommended Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Soundtrack. After the jaw-dropping credits song "M4 (Part II)" from the original Mass Effect, FAUNTS returns for track 23, which is actually a track called "Das Malefitz" from their previously-released Feel. Love. Thinking. Of. album from 2009. Finally, oddly enough, CLINT MANSELL is only credited fully for composing track 2, and with Sam Hulick, track 22. I had anticipated more contributions, either directly or indirectly, from Mansell, but at least on this soundtrack that's not the case. Perhaps he contributed more to the uncredited musical tracks. On to the review... Simply put, if you're a fan of the previous Mass Effect, ME 2, or DLC packs, you will undoubtedly love Mass Effect 3. Though Mansell's representation on this soundtrack isn't as prevalent as expected, that in no way means these aren't quality tunes. Far from it, in fact, I'd even go so far as to say that this is the best Mass Effect music collection thus far. However, unfortunately, it's only available as a download for purchasing the Mass Effect 3 Collector's Edition for PS3, Xbox 360, or PC. The fact that the final two tracks are tagged specifically as "extra tracks" implies, at least to me and hopefully, that there will be either a more official release digitally or on CD for others to enjoy. I can't express enough how much I'd love to see a "Music of Mass Effect" box set or the like. (LaLa, my musical savior, are you listening??? ) All in all, a completely astounding release, just as expected!
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My impression is that Mansell wound up acting primarily as a producer. They wanted a big name in electronic music attached, and they got it. My impression is that it didn't work out, and the one Mansell track on the soundtrack is all he had composed before they moved on and brought in the other 4 composers. The pretty concrete proof of this is that EA never actually announced that he was working on the game. The only reason people knew was because he blurted it out in an interview, even though he probably wasn't supposed to. If they wanted a big name, they would have made a big deal about it, but instead EA never even publicly admitted they had even hired him.
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Posted: |
Mar 18, 2012 - 10:53 PM
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By: |
losher22
(Member)
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I just finished the game, and in that regard...wow. Regarding the music, given the hour-long soundtrack album, and the massive amount of cues used in the game that are not a part of that album, I wholeheartedly agree with orion_mk3: this score is painfully and woefully incomplete. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that there is a soundtrack to begin with, but I still hold out eternal hope that someone, *anyone*, issues a complete and expanded score for at least the third game entry, if not the entire series. Now that I've heard the whole thing, and LOVED it, I still think it might be slightly better than ME2's, but only slightly so. Anyone else play and/or finish the game on this board? Thoughts on the score?
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I'm pretty sure they'll release the rest of the score digitally as was the case with ME2. I for one am content with the CE of the soundtrack and having finished the game, there's really nothing that stood out for me as far as unreleased cues are concerned. Mansell's piano theme fits the (godawful) ending perfectly, even though it reminds me of The Fountain a little bit too much. The arrangement from the beginning of the game on the other hand sounds like a synth-demo to me, even Lennertz's samples seem to sound a lot more real. I also had to chuckle at the BRAAAAWWNNN sound ala Inception. But I guess that was the direction... I think my favorites are yet again Chris Lennertz's cues, as was the case with ME2. They should've let him compose the entire thing in my opinion. Given the scale of the things happening in the game I felt that overall the score was a bit underwhelming. In this day and age they could've at least hired a live orchestra. I wonder what the likes of Brian Tyler could've done with such a rich tapestry.
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I also had to chuckle at the BRAAAAWWNNN sound ala Inception. But I guess that was the direction... That bass hit pops up when you're navigating the multiplayer menu. My friend Dave and I always say "INNNNNNNNCEPTTTTIOONNNNNNNNN" along with the note. A lot of the ME3 score sounds derivative of other things and seems to want to be "taken seriously" as "filmscore" instead of something else (video game music? dramatic underscore?) Yes, I wanted to find out about that myself. Because that's the sound the Reapers make, it's like a blitz of digital code being blasted out, and I wanted to know if the developers got that from Inception and then the music took its cue from Inception and the Reapers, or was it movie --> music --> game, or what? Still, the sound as it is produced by the Reapers is chilling and fitting for them as characters.
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Posted: |
Mar 19, 2012 - 11:47 AM
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By: |
orion_mk3
(Member)
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Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed the Inception influence, though it was definitely in the music and not at all related to the Reaper SFX. I will say that the music was definitely a mishmash. ME1 was the only game in the series that had a set of cohesive and developed themes, even though most of them were cut off its woeful soundtrack album, and hearing the cues out of context was bizarre. They really should have just gone with the original team of Wall, Hulick, Jacques, and Kates, especially since the latter two had a ton of their music tracked in anyway. I'm not sure about subsequent releases solving the problem, either...the extra ME2 music was nice, but the real problem with that album was that the best parts were buried 5 minutes into a 9 minute suite. And I'm still waiting for an official release of the Ilos ride and battle music and the Matriarch Benezia battle from the first game! Unfortunately, the only way to make a satisfying and complete version is to buy the PC port, rip the OGG files, and do it yourself.
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