Halo 4 OST Samples and Details Released

To Galaxy just sounds like Arrival To Earth from Transformers to me. No thanks. Still interested in the game, but really bummed about the OST direction.
 
Needs more samples if I'm to pre-order the SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION. I mean $75, that's pretty crazy. What's even crazier are these fucking sku's.... can they make it more confusing?

- Exclusive free download voucher for 3 Neil Davidge tracks on the Halo game but not on the OST plus 3 additional remixes

Tracks from the game but not on the OST, why aren't they on the OST? 3 additional remixes. Which remixes are they?

Available as a CD OST, a standard digital, a special digital (+ remixes) and a limited special edition box set, all are available for pre-order on this website!

Where is this sku? How much is it? Is it all the remixes? Or just the 3 remixes from the other sku?

Bonus remix CD of remix CD includes...

Remix of the remix?? REMIX! REMIX!

Is there a way to just get all the music? Can I just preview the tracks and buy the ones I want?

Pre-ordering these days...
 
Sounds like generic action game music. You could throw this music into Crysis or any other sci fi fps game and it would fit right in

He shouldn't try to emulate Marty, but this music just isn't very good overall. Lack of any coherent melody and just sounds overly distorted with multiple instruments that don't really work well together.

And especially when you compare it to a masterpiece like Covenant Dance it really falls flat. What always set Halo music apart was it's use of very specific instruments that did not try
to overpower each other. There was usually a base melody then two or three instruments layered on top of it playing their own melody. As a result, everything sounds extremely clean and easy on the ears.
 
The Marty magic is gone, and its absence is a gaping wound in this project. His music defines Halo as fully as John Williams' defines Star Wars and Howard Shore's defines The Lord of the Rings.

I think To Galaxy and Revival are striking and very well produced, but they are also numbingly generic. I'd never guess they were written for a Halo game. It's a truly dire mistake not to adapt and expand on Marty's iconic Halo scores. I'd be satisfied if most of Halo 4's tracks were in the vein of Sacred Icon Suite 2 from Halo Legends. Unfortunately, it seems we're going to get something else.

Regardless of all that, the remix album sounds pretty cool. The segment with the tribal vocals at 9:35 in this sampler is just fantastic.

Yeah.

The return of the Halo theme would potentially make for one of the most powerful moments in the game, especially if it was used sparingly.... right at the end, maybe.

It's not just a weird decision that Davidge is making, to totally abandon his inheritance -- it's a bad one.

I can understand why he'd want to start afresh, stylistically, but this is still Halo 4... blargh... at least the new material is 10x better than what most other VG composers manage.
All of this.

Sounds like generic action game music. You could throw this music into Crysis or any other sci fi fps game and it would fit right in

He shouldn't try to emulate Marty, but this music just isn't very good overall. Lack of any coherent melody and just sounds overly distorted with multiple instruments that don't really work well together.

And especially when you compare it to a masterpiece like Covenant Dance it really falls flat. What always set Halo music apart was it's use of very specific instruments that did not try
to overpower each other. There was usually a base melody then two or three instruments layered on top of it playing their own melody. As a result, everything sounds extremely clean and easy on the ears.
So fucking brilliant. I'm sad now.
 
I'd be satisfied if most of Halo 4's tracks were in the vein of Sacred Icon Suite 2 from Halo Legends. Unfortunately, it seems we're going to get something else.

UGHH, I completely forgot about how much I loved this track. Bring whoever did that in for Halo 5, please. And bring back everything that made Halo sound like Halo, and not the next summer action flick.
 
The Marty magic is gone, and its absence is a gaping wound in this project. His music defines Halo as fully as John Williams' defines Star Wars and Howard Shore's defines The Lord of the Rings.

I think To Galaxy and Revival are striking and very well produced, but they are also numbingly generic. I'd never guess they were written for a Halo game. It's a truly dire mistake not to adapt and expand on Marty's iconic Halo scores. I'd be satisfied if most of Halo 4's tracks were in the vein of Sacred Icon Suite 2 from Halo Legends. Unfortunately, it seems we're going to get something else.

Regardless of all that, the remix album sounds pretty cool. The segment with the tribal vocals at 9:35 in this sampler is just fantastic.

I think you're wrong about Marty's music having to stay. It became repetitive, and I'd argue Halo: Reach's music is a big departure from the trilogy's "traditional" sound.

And FYI, the Halo 4 announcement trailer had the iconic theme at the end.
 
I think you're wrong about Marty's music having to stay. It became repetitive, and I'd argue Halo: Reach's music is a big departure from the trilogy's "traditional" sound.

And FYI, the Halo 4 announcement trailer had the iconic theme at the end.

The songs shown for Halo 4 are far more repetitive than anything Marty made.

Halo Reach's music was significantly different, but no less brilliant. It's still immediately noticable that it's Halo
 
I think you're wrong about Marty's music having to stay. It became repetitive, and I'd argue Halo: Reach's music is a big departure from the trilogy's "traditional" sound.

And FYI, the Halo 4 announcement trailer had the iconic theme at the end.
Repetitive or not, it's part of Halo's core identity. Marty's music can't be mistaken for anything else. Let's hope 343 knows better than to amputate it from the series merely to give the new composer full creative freedom. When you're inheriting that sort of role, it's unwise to ignore your creative legacy unless you're a profoundly rare talent.
 
Repetitive or not, it's part of Halo's core identity. Marty's music can't be mistaken for anything else. Let's hope 343 knows better than to amputate it from the series merely to give the new composer full creative freedom. When you're inheriting that sort of role, it's unwise to ignore your creative legacy unless you're a profoundly rare talent.

I think they went and ignored that advice. Have you seen what the Covenant look like now?
 
The songs shown for Halo 4 are far more repetitive than anything Marty made.

Halo Reach's music was significantly different, but no less brilliant. It's still immediately noticable that it's Halo
Reach's music was lackluster and forgettable. Nothing really stuck out.
 
Reach's music was lackluster and forgettable. Nothing really stuck out.

Actually, there are very short (30 seconds to a minute) segments in different songs that stuck out to me. Pillar of Autumn, Winter Contingency, Sword Base, and Tip of the Spear come to mind.

Doesn't really redeem the entire OST but there was stuff I liked in it.
 
Actually, there are very short (30 seconds to a minute) segments in different songs that stuck out to me. Pillar of Autumn, Winter Contingency, Sword Base, and Tip of the Spear come to mind.

Doesn't really redeem the entire OST but there was stuff I liked in it.
While there are some really great short sting like sections, as a whole it is forgettable.
 
I think you're wrong about Marty's music having to stay. It became repetitive, and I'd argue Halo: Reach's music is a big departure from the trilogy's "traditional" sound.

And FYI, the Halo 4 announcement trailer had the iconic theme at the end.

I do not believe the announcement trailer was Neils work.

Wish we still had time to get Daft Punk working on this

In a way I think they would have been a better fit for Halo, but I think its still too early to call it yet.. Still, the Halo 4 song samples were lacking a noticeable level of depth and texture in the instruments. =/

While there are some really great short sting like sections, as a whole it is forgettable.

That said, I think the use of instruments in Reach was phenomenal, the texture and sound in provided was deep and rich. It really sounded good and complex, but it unfortunately needed more interesting themes at times. Still, I like the soundtrack a lot. It makes the jump to Halo 4s sound all the more difficult.
 
Eww... I know we're only getting samples, but everything so far has SCREAMED of "generic Hollywood blockbuster" music rather than actual video game music. Way too much in the vein of CoD.
While there are some really great short sting like sections, as a whole it is forgettable.
No way. It's not on ODST's god-tier soundtrack level, but Reach's soundtrack had serious darkness and a foreboding tone. I remember I heard the soundtrack before I played the game, and I could legitimately sense just how utterly hopeless the situation was on Reach. (Then I played the game and was disappointed with the story, but still.)
 
On balance I like what I hear, but my main worry is that the game and the trilogy will be heavy on standard AAA orchestra tracks and light on electronic inspiration*. The concept art trailer's soundtrack and tracks like "Haven" give me hope, however, and it's the weird and "electrorchestral" tracks such as these that the soundtrack is pretty much pinned on when it comes to what I love best about a Halo game's musical backing.

*It's for this reason in part that Halo 3's soundtrack more or less has wound up at the bottom of what I consider Marty's best work. It often reconstituted and stripped a heaping pile of tracks I loved in 1 and 2 of their electronic edge, and rendering them into bigger and "better" (at least in terms of instrumentation) bombastic orchestral theme after bombastic orchestral theme. There were some standout additions, of course, such as To Turn a Tide, This Is The Hour, and Farthest Outpost, and Three Gates (probably my favourite rendition of the Halo theme, brief, subtle, and used effectively), but in the end fantastic technical execution didn't really compensate for what was by and large a scavenged soundtrack that limited itself to the sound of what its orchestra could make.

ODST is second only to 1's score in my eyes, because it rested upon on its own music backbone and perfectly executed on the sort of ethereal, weird electrorchestration that I've come to associate with the series. Reach and Halo 2 are more or less tied for third position, there both feature a great deal of excellent work, and I feel they contributed more original compositions than Halo 3 did.
 
On balance I like what I hear, but my main worry is that the game and the trilogy will be heavy on standard AAA orchestra tracks and light on electronic inspiration*. The concept art trailer's soundtrack and tracks like "Haven" give me hope, however, and it's the weird and "electrorchestral" tracks such as these that the soundtrack is pretty much pinned on when it comes to what I love best about a Halo game's musical backing.

*It's for this reason in part that Halo 3's soundtrack more or less has wound up at the bottom of what I consider Marty's best work. It often reconstituted and stripped a heaping pile of tracks I loved in 1 and 2 of their electronic edge, and rendering them into bigger and "better" (at least in terms of instrumentation) bombastic orchestral theme after bombastic orchestral theme. There were some standout additions, of course, such as To Turn a Tide, This Is The Hour, and Farthest Outpost, and Three Gates (probably my favourite rendition of the Halo theme, brief, subtle, and used effectively), but in the end fantastic technical execution didn't really compensate for what was by and large a scavenged soundtrack that limited itself to the sound of what its orchestra could make.

ODST is second only to 1's score in my eyes, because it rested upon on its own music backbone and perfectly executed on the sort of ethereal, weird electrorchestration that I've come to associate with the series. Reach and Halo 2 are more or less tied for third position, there both feature a great deal of excellent work, and I feel they contributed more original compositions than Halo 3 did.

Another Walk, from Sierra 117's "Released" is a great version of Walk In The Woods.

I really like To Turn A Tide as well. Definitely a favorite from those levels.
 
On balance I like what I hear, but my main worry is that the game and the trilogy will be heavy on standard AAA orchestra tracks and light on electronic inspiration*. The concept art trailer's soundtrack and tracks like "Haven" give me hope, however, and it's the weird and "electrorchestral" tracks such as these that the soundtrack is pretty much pinned on when it comes to what I love best about a Halo game's musical backing.

*It's for this reason in part that Halo 3's soundtrack more or less has wound up at the bottom of what I consider Marty's best work. It often reconstituted and stripped a heaping pile of tracks I loved in 1 and 2 of their electronic edge, and rendering them into bigger and "better" (at least in terms of instrumentation) bombastic orchestral theme after bombastic orchestral theme. There were some standout additions, of course, such as To Turn a Tide, This Is The Hour, and Farthest Outpost, and Three Gates (probably my favourite rendition of the Halo theme, brief, subtle, and used effectively), but in the end fantastic technical execution didn't really compensate for what was by and large a scavenged soundtrack that limited itself to the sound of what its orchestra could make.

ODST is second only to 1's score in my eyes, because it rested upon on its own music backbone and perfectly executed on the sort of ethereal, weird electrorchestration that I've come to associate with the series. Reach and Halo 2 are more or less tied for third position, there both feature a great deal of excellent work, and I feel they contributed more original compositions than Halo 3 did.
Good post. I think you've articulated the main reasons Halo 3's soundtrack doesn't appeal to me as much as the others: not enough of Halo's classic electrorchestral sound, too many reworkings of older tracks.

A scavenged soundtrack. Definitely le mot juste.
 
There's also some curiosity as to what sort of musical identity Halo 4 will seek to create for the Forerunner remnants (if any, though I think there'd be a missed opportunity not to try to work them into the tapestry in a strong way). At the very least, 'big-bad globe lad' seems to have the foundations laid for a motif of some kind.

Another Walk, from Sierra 117's "Released" is a great version of Walk In The Woods.

I really like To Turn A Tide as well. Definitely a favorite from those levels.
Certainly is, though it's perhaps unsurprising that I prefer the original.
 
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