Jump to content

Expressions of Interest: An all-purpose "Halo" album (Fall 2027 release date)

gravitygauntlet
 Share

Recommended Posts

gravitygauntlet Contributor

gravitygauntlet

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hey all, I wanted to put feelers out for a Halo album since there's not much OCR content for it. Some notes:

Timeline/Production
- I'm gauging interest now and would plan on formally starting production in January/February 2026.
- The plan would be to have it out-the-door right around Halo 3's 20th anniversary date of September 25th, 2007.
- For visual assets, I can do a lot of branding and stuff directly. My girlfriend and I team up on art a lot (she illustrates), so we could most likely do key art for it as well.

Remix Guidelines
- Even though it's Halo 3's release date, sources from all Halo games are allowed. No "original trilogy only", spinoffs permitted, etc. to maximize the number of sources.
- Similarly, no restrictions on genre or production style as long as it fits OCR's submission standards.
- No tracklisting set in stone. We would just see what gets finished and sequence the tracks by vibes. If needed it could be more than one side/volume/disc.
- Related, no "slots", within reason. If 3 people want to all cover Covenant Dance, that's fine, as long as we have more than like 5 tracks.
- References to songs other than the source tune, non Halo-tracks, etc. are fine as long as the source is dominant.

I have a list of popular/interesting source tunes in my next post, which covers Halo 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (Infinite), as well as Wars, ODST, and Reach, which are spinoffs. There's a couple other spinoffs I'm not familiar with, mainly Halo Wars 2.

Halo's early soundtracks are somewhat unique because they have a lot of Medieval and World influence despite being military sci-fi shooters. Each game tends to lean into a few genres for flavor - Halo 2 incorporates New Age and Alternative Rock, while ODST is a noir-influenced spinoff set in Kenya, so incorporates a lot more piano and saxophone, pounding tribal drums and basslines, etc.

Additionally, if anyone is interested but is unfamiliar with the sources, you can give me some info on your style (or even reference tracks) and I can look for some specific source tunes for you.

Edited by gravitygauntlet
gravitygauntlet Contributor

gravitygauntlet

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Halo - source tune selection
This list isn't all-inclusive, it's just popular or interesting/remix-able tracks from across the franchise.

Resources:

  • Halopedia is Halo's most popular wiki, with some Halo staff collaborating with them and vice-versa, and is a good/accurate source for looking into its music. In particular 2, 3, ODST, and Reach have most of their songs combined into suites on the soundtrack, which is broken down in detail on the wiki.
  • Rampancy.net has a lot of Halo MIDI / sheet music in addition to vgmusic.
  • A large number of Halo's early synth and drum sources have been identified, similarly to Metroid Prime. A spreadsheet is available here.

Halo: Combat Evolved (and its remaster Halo CE Anniversary)
From 2001 (2011), by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori
Ambient / electronic / modern classical / rock / world

Halo 2 (Vol 1, Vol 2) and its remaster Halo 2 Anniversary
From 2004 (2014), by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori; guitar by Steve Vai
Electronic, rock, alternative rock, world

Halo 3
From 2007, by Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, and C. Paul Johnson.
Less rock and more orchestral. Remixes a lot of Halo 1 and 2 songs, which is broken down here. 

Halo Wars
From 2008, by Stephen Rippy - the Ensemble Studios composer/producer who also scored the Age of Empires and Age of Mythology games. Halo Wars is an RTS and the only non-FPS game in this list.
Features a mix of more ambient/"cerebral" tracks during gameplay, some similar to Halo 1 (with short piano/guitar hooks), while cutscene tracks are more orchestral/arranged-feeling.

Halo 3: ODST
From 2009, by Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, and C. Paul Johnson.
ODST has a high-concept noir/mystery theme where you navigate an Afrofuturist metropolis in Kenya; has a lot of jazz/industrial influence, and uses FM8 a lot in its synth production.

Halo Reach
From 2010, by Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, and C. Paul Johnson.
Reach is a gritty prequel and is less high-concept than ODST, but still uses a lot of FM8 for its ambient/synth production.

Halo 4 (Vol 1, Vol 2)
From 2011, by Neil Davidge (from Massive Attack) and Kazuma Jinnouchi (composer for Metal Gear Solid 4).
Tracks rarely get grouped into suites from 4 onwards; Vol 1. is all Neil Davidge (sans "117"), Vol 2. is mostly Kazuma.

Halo 5
From 2014, all Kazuma Jinnouchi.
I personally really like 5's arrangements - a lot of them show a technical understanding of Halo's "DNA" without being straight remixes. "Unearthed" explores a couple basslines from Halo 3, cutscene songs like "Keeper of Secrets" use repeating trumpet stabs similarly to the cutscene arrangements for Halo Wars, etc. It also uses u-he's "The Dark Zebra" expansion for Zebra2, so some later tracks have a very The Dark Knight / Inception sort of feel.

Halo Infinite
From 2021, by Gareth Coker, Joel Corelitz and Curtis Schweitzer
Infinite is kind of the "anti-5" musically - there's a lot more direct remixes and the instrumentation/arrangements are very conservative, mostly using strings, choir and ambient synth. It's the Halo 3 to 5's 1 or 2, in a way. This is partially because Infinite is open-world so the music cues behave closer to Minecraft, Breath of the Wild, etc. in-game. Halo 5's level/encounter design is very "arcadey" by comparison.

Edited by gravitygauntlet

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...