The Age of Chaos: A Warcraft 1 Arrangement Album. < Playing the waiting game >

"The Age of Chaos" is a orchestral album based on the classic Blizzard RTS "Warcraft: Orcs & Humans." The goal of the album isn't to re imagine the games themes into other genres, but to update them so they wouldn't feel out of place in newer games in the series. No techno here folks! 9 total tracks are planned: the 6 battle themes, 2 of the unique victory themes, and the intro/title screen.

The project is still in it's early stages, as show by this the progress below:

Intro Melody

Remixer: "gosugame"

Track Name: "Prelude to War"

Progress: WIP

(Source)

Human 1

Remixer: Peter Gresser

Progress: WIP

(Source)

Orc 1

Remixer: Archangel

Progress: WIP

(Source)

Human 3 - OPEN

(Source)

Orc 2

Remixer: "auzebaman05"

Progress: WIP

(Source)

Human Victory

Remixer: DarkeSword

(Source)

Orc 3 - OPEN

(Source)

Human 2

Remixer: dannthr

(Source)

Orc Victory - OPEN

(Source)

Bonus tracks!

Bonus #1

Remixer: Fishy

Bonus # 2

Remixer: Tentitive

WIP date for nearly everybody: July 31st.

The ordering of the tracks is my attempts to loosely fit the tone of the music with the basic plot of the game, while still alternating between the Orc and Human themes. That's the plan anyway... we'll see how it turns out.

In the case of bonus tracks,.. I felt there were some remix ideas that fell outside the theme of the album, but still felt appropriate when taken in the context of Blizzard music. Plus I thought they would be fun! Just be careful if you play the completed album on shuffle.

If the above list has any unclaimed tracks, feel free to contact me via a private message, e-mail (josephblanchette - at - gmail.com), AIM (brimfiremortis) or MSN (josephblanchette - at - live.com). Or you can just say hello and show your support.

Also, if you're a skilled artist that can do realistic or serious art, we'll be needing a album cover in the future!

- Joseph

Wuuuut, I was literally just re-watching your stuff for the first time in years yesterday. Random.

D'awww no electric guitars. That's me out.

(If it looks like it's going somewhere real good, I can submit it for official OCRemix Album status!)

If you have any intention of ever going official OCR with this, make sure they aren't just enhanced sound covers of the music. OCR usually expects some form of re-arrangement. It's a solid theme for a project though doing proper orchestrated arrangements in the style of the newer games. Best of luck dude.

I've had a couple recurring questions asked when talking to potential remixers, so I wanted to clear up a few things.

1) While the idea is to update the original Warcraft music, it can also be a arrangement. Like all good remixes, the more unique it sounds the better! Don't feel like you should stick 100% to the source material.

Frankly, some of the tracks have areas that don't hold up... so improvements should be made!

2) The question of the genre of the album was brought up almost immediately when I asked my friend if he wanted to contribute to a track. He defiantly wanted to, and said "I bet I could add some cool modern techno elements to it." He assured me it wouldn't interfere with the theme of the album. He's going to have a basic WIP for me in "soon" so I can see what he's talking about.

If the WIP sounds appropriate, I think I can give a little leeway for stuff like that. The premise remains to keep it as true to modern Warcraft as possible... but if you want to add a little electric guitar in there it probably won't break the feel.

So I don't want to go back on my original idea, but at the same time i want to make sure I'm not being restrictive. We'll play it by ear!

3) As for a few things personal thoughts when listening to the tracks.... I feel "Human 2" has a lot of potential as a slower piece with strings, piano, and maybe even a organ near the end. "Human 3" could have some vocals, but not lyrical ones per say. More like the nonsensical choir that appear is a lot of WoW music.

The feel of the barbaric nature of the Old Horde should be present in the "Orc" tracks. Wardrums and chanting and stuff like that. I'm not exactly sure which Orc track would benefit form this the most, but at least one should.

It would be nice if each track gave off a different vibe as well. Like one is the "we're marching into battle!" theme for each race. Or a "This is our finest hour / last stand!" theme. Story-wise, the Humans are the losers and the Orcs raze their capital of Stormwind. It would be nice if the music reflected this in someway.

Anyway, I hope to hear from more of you! At the moment I have 3 tracks potentially filled, with "Orc 1" being claimed by a friend.

Woah, you're actually the Legendary Frog? I thought the name was a parody, or something. Nice to have you around here.

It's damn tempting (I'm eyeballing 'Human 3', right now). What's the time frame? Once you set that down you'll probably have better luck with people's responses.

Yep! It's me.

Well I didn't set a date because I wanted to see if there was any interest first. At the moment there's no WIP deadline. (I wanted to see peoples schedules first. If you're interested though, contact me and send me some prior works!

Hi. Thanks for contacting me.. through my email... x_x No electric guitars or technos? What do you want, a 2 minute recording of cars driving by?

Hi. Thanks for contacting me.. through my email... x_x No electric guitars or technos? What do you want, a 2 minute recording of cars driving by?

My apologies. I didn't see a "Contact Info" tab on your profile page. and the Send Message button would only let me post on your message wall. I just wanted to send something more private.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say with your comment though. The idea is to make a arrangement of the old songs without using old Remix standbys such as techno or metal... or anything "modern." After listening to your stuff I thought maybe you fit that description because you had several mixes with other instruments, and you might want to try something more fantasy sounding.

But maybe that's not your style, or I misjudged what it was. It won't work out if thats the case. Thanks for checking it out though!

My mixes either have electric guitar or acoustic guitar...

Like I mentioned, I heard elements that weren't. Its possible I mistook a collab track as a solo piece. Anyway, its' not your thing, and thats fine. (although acoustic guitars would be allowed if it fit the tone of the song) Again, thanks for responding!

Like I mentioned, I heard elements that weren't. Its possible I mistook a collab track as a solo piece. Anyway, its' not your thing, and thats fine. (although acoustic guitars would be allowed if it fit the tone of the song) Again, thanks for responding!

I'm sorry d00d, I've only made a couple songs out of like 40 that have no real-life instrumental backing of some kind. One got direct rejected from OCR. The other I subbed on November 8th and it's not listed on the panel yet, hehee..

Depending on your time-line you could put me down for Human 2.

I actually was working on the title theme for a WC3 mod to update WC:O&H long, long ago:

http://www.dannthr.com/samples/sketches/doc/doc_title_a.mp3

Update on the project:

All 6 battle tracks have been claimed! That was original the goal of the album, so I'm glad I was able to fulfill that in a short amount of time. I think we have some quality people here, so I'm hoping to hear some good stuff in the coming weeks. I'm both eager and nervous about what I will hear...!

Schedule wise we have some people who can work on stuff fairly soon, but some won't be free for a couple months. I'm working out some WIP deadlines for the different schedules.

The priority of this album are the 6 battle tracks. However since starting it I took another good listen to some of the other songs. The Human and Orc Victory themes definitely have potential to be full blown tracks. Also, I think a good start to the album would be a melody of the "Intro", "Briefing," and "Title" screen mashed into one track. Although these songs aren't required to complete the album, I do think they could add some meat to the overall project.

I've also been brainstorming album and track names. The plan is to still go with the "tell a story with the tone of the music" so I'm trying to reflect that in the names as well. My current thought is to title the album "The Age of Chaos," which was the name given of the conflict in Warcraft 1.

Thanks to everyone who help get this off the around! And if you're interested in the other tracks, just let me know!

- Joseph

Put me down for Orc Victory. When do you want a WIP done by?

*see's theres a Warcraft project*

.______.

o_____o

O_____O

^_______^

color me excited.

I got my first sample in yesterday, so that means the album has officially started! Which means soon I'll transform the recruitment post into a progress page. I won't be posting updates aside from the WIP status and major milestones... but I'll probably me making comments on my Twitter page for anyone interested:

http://twitter.com/#!/Joseph_LFrog

Now everyone think positive thoughts so this project goes smoothly!

Over the weekend the last track got claimed by DarkeSword... a OCR judge no less! Welcome aboard! Kinda crazy how I have a few remixers I've been a fan of for years on the project. I remember people like Vampire Hunter Dan and Ghetto Lee Lewis' music being some of the first remixes I really got into.

I've been talking to each remixer personally about schedules and deadlines.. and other things I probably won't post on the progress page. At least not now. But the way things are looking, we'll be looking at around Fall to start wrapping things up. Just setting some expectations for any of you interested in the project! Some of the members have very busy schedules in the immediate future, and I decided delays are worth it to make sure everything is a high quality. I think thats especially important for a small and specialized album like this.

When I was talking to various remixers about the project, a couple of them expressed interest but didn't make music in the right style. We talked a bit about Bonus tracks, and at the moment there will potentially be 2 non-instrumental bonus tracks on the album by Fishy and AkumajoBelmont.

I'm not officially opening this up for the inclusion of MORE bonus tracks, but if anyone is interested in doing some Warcraft related remixes to be included in the project, then drop me a line. It might broaden the audience a bit if we do! Or it could totally ruin the feel of the album. I'm not really sure!

Now I play the waiting game as people work on their tracks.

Joseph L Frog, when you say Warcraft related remixes, do you mean WC:O&H specifically or just any good 'ol Warcraft mix?

Joseph L Frog, when you say Warcraft related remixes, do you mean WC:O&H specifically or just any good 'ol Warcraft mix?

I guess I worded it to seem that way, but I didn't really mean to. The idea of having other Warcraft games is appealing... but then it becomes more than just a few bonus tracks and more of a idea for another album or a 2nd disk.

Hmmm... *ponders*

Haaa... Bonus tracks until people claim enough to fill a second album, then?

Haaa... Bonus tracks until people claim enough to fill a second album, then?

I decided that having more traditionally remixed songs on the album would kinda ruin the feel I'm going for.

HOWEVER!

I think the bonus track Fishy is going to do is appropriate for it, because Blizzard tends to do similar stuff in their own soundtracks and games. What is it? Why... its a secret!

I know things can move a bit slowly on this board, so I'll post this now rather than later.

Since I can't help with the music on the album, I spent some time designing the cover art for the album. A bit early I know... but it was fun to do! And now I don't have to do it later and be rushed. But one thing I knew from the start is that I wouldn't be able to draw the actual characters for it. So I figured it wouldn't hurt to do ask for some volunteers. I'll be making this request both here and on the my deviantART page.

This is the what I'm working with for the album cover:

Notice the question marks? Thats where you come in! This is what I'm looking for:

1) I want this to mimic a few classic Warcraft concepts. One is the apposing Orc and Human seen in the WC1 and 2 box art. In this case, a Grunt http://www.wowpedia.org/Grunt and a Footman http://www.wowpedia.org/Footman ... who are both ironic Warcraft units. I'm not sure if they should be a close up headshot like the old game covers, or full body shots. Likewise I don't know if they'll be posing or just standing there.

2) I want it to be similar to the Warcraft II menus. Meaning, it'll be like concept art displayed on the page. This can be digital or on paper, but it needs to look sketchy. http://talk.maemo.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=11505&stc=1&d=1277644928

3) It should to fit the Warcraft of Warcraft style. This means a more "westernized" look, and not cartoony or anime. When I was designing the cover I was using this picture as a placeholder: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/media/artwork/wow-wrath?keywords=&view#/death-knight02 I'm not saying it has to match the level of Blizzard's artist 100%, but I want it to have the same feel.

As always, if you think you can fit these, you can send me a PM, or send me a IM at any of the addresses below.

AIM: BrimfireMortis

MSN: josephblanchette -at-live.com

Yahoo: morits765 (I don't really use this often)

E-Mail / Google Talk josephblanchette -at- gmail.com

I'm going to be picky for what I ultimately choose, but that doesn't mean I can't include alternate versions. So if you have other ideas, you can pitch them to me.

Thanks all!

Bumping the thread, so people will notice the open spot.

Should be sending out some samples to project members pretty soon!

This thread seems pretty dead...

I'm still planning on finishing my track. I'd like to see if the other people on this project want to do the same, though.

Eventually, just been busy, workin' on an iPhone game, and writing curriculum for audio implementation for Unreal.