I love video games soundtracks and without lying this is one of most awesome soundtracks I’ve heard in games! I listen to it for few days already, sometimes for few hours and I can’t stop myself from doing it!
Gonna take a guess while Joel gets round to replying: everything but some guitar parts synthetic or sample-based. There are some fantastic libraries/physical modelling synths out there. If you want to have a go, getting a half-decent music software setup has got insanely cheap these days, and there’s a heap of tutorial material on the web. The one thing I wish I’d learned day one: spend time learning how to use Reverb properly! It’s not hard to get roughly right, but not obvious if you’re just starting out how important it is. Get a soft synth and sequencer, make some very simple boring beep melody, get a decent software reverb like EoS audiodamage. Cheap (for a reverb!) and very lovely. As for a sequencer, Ableton Live for me beats anything like Cubase.
Anyone with a half-decent gaming machine just needs a good soundcard (gaming good not always same as music-making good). Some of them probably come with bundled versions of basic sequencers, or some bits of hardware do.
Point being: you can have a go without having a whole recording studio and access to an orchestra!
Thanks! Any websites or software you recommend?
Sound on Sound has a stack of stuff. You’ll see some other links on the left there for specific things like Ableton.
There’s a cheaper version of Ableton for people starting out. I’ve never gone back to Cubase from Ableton: it just allows a more natural creative, experimental process and has got pretty good in its sequencer side. It also comes starting with a stack of good plugins (though if you end up getting a better reverb, like I mentioned, you’ll quickly see the difference it makes. Ableton’s own is fairly shoddy.)
Have a look at Native Instruments’ soft synths too. Plenty of demos to try for long enough to see if it’s something you want to do more of. If you play guitar (or actually if you don’t) you can also get Amplitube for free with a couple of good plugins and buy bits when you want them (though note you’ll need to think about how you’re getting the guitar sound in.)
Ableton also comes with a very good set of internal tutorials to get you started.
On the full computer setup, google around for getting-started in computer music guides, there’s a whole bunch out there.
You would replace On A Rail 2 with the old track from the leaked video.
This is just alphabetical order. I use it because this is how it’s been sitting on my computer for the past few years. I usually listen to it in this order, and decided to release it this way as well. Obviously you can number the songs in any order you wish.
As mentioned previously, there are an additional 8 ambient tracks in the game, that aren’t in the soundtrack.
Yes, I listened closely to the Ep1/2 and portal 1 music. (the soundtrack was finished by the time portal 2 was released) My goal was never to copy anything specifically, but have the music tie into the universe.
On this topic, I used some 90’s retro elements to help give the music a feel of sounding earlier than the events of hl2/1/2. (some people seem to not like this decision, but I think it fits well, especially if you play from black mesa through to ep2.)
A large portion of the soundtrack is live. (drums, guitars, violin) The piano was performed live, but recorded digitally. Everything else is synthetic, (ie. virtual instruments / synthesizers) but still performed live.
If you use the +quote button instead of reply you could probably save yourself a bit of time Joel.
Are there any Xen specific tracks that aren’t on the soundtrack?
My software’s telling me 40 kbps. 
Good news on the FLAC though, and great job overall.
Just for feedback’s sake (and I realize this is completely subjective), I liked the original versions of the Main Theme and End Credits better than the new ones.
We could heard a little of the amazing bms soundtrack way way way before…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkfilw4EMng&feature=plcp#
-Trololo grammer
[COLOR=‘Red’]Mod Note: This doesn’t need it’s own thread.
Check out the mp3s using winamp, the kb/s show up properly, and you can see what it bounces between, live.
Thanks. While I’ve got your ear and if you don’t mind humoring me, what kind of hyper-compression did you use? The whole soundtrack is ‘louder’ than even most modern commercial productions I own (which is saying a lot, given the modern day loudness wars). 
Joel, you should consider releasing the OST on C-cassette… a limited edition , say…500pcs. ? Numbered of course. Or why not Vinyl…that would be awesome.
I would buy it/them asap. But then again…I’m an old fart who likes collectables…
EDIT: hmm just talking about c-cassttes made me think, how many cassettes would it take to release BM on them.
660 kilobytes per side of a 90-minute tape would be 1.3MB per tape. BM is around 3 Gb …so…is there a chance that
the devs would release BM on 3000 cassettes? Or roughly the same amount of 1.44MB floppies? let’s say the floppy transfers at best @ 100KB/s…
so my math tells me that installing BM from around 2500 floppy discs should take about 10 hours…not counting the discswaps.I never was any good at math.
:fffuuu:
lol!~
@ Joel: Did you use a bass guitar for the new instrumentation on Surface Tension 1 and We’ve Got Hostiles? Or did you tune an electric guitar to bass range?
I’ve already listened to “Forget About Freeman” 7 times in a row (and counting). Is this normal?
I could´ve sworn that was a live mandolin in end credits part 2…
Oh, I totally support that vinyl idea btw, but I guess that´s not going to happen. Not the cheapest form of distribution.
I do that with songs I love.
The soundtrack is great, btw. Only listened to a few tracks, and only one time at that, because I want my experience of the game to be as fresh as possible. I was going to wait for the game to come out to hear it, but I gave in to all this hype about the soundtrack.
Nothing of Xen has been released. Xen will consist of around 4-5 new music tracks, as well as a couple ambient tracks.
Haha. I’m actually still a touch ‘under’ most professional grade music. (probably 2-3db RMS) One of the few studio pieces I lack is a high end mastering compressor… instead, I own the Waves Mercury plugin library, and settle for some of them to achieve the loudness.
Good ear. It is in fact a bass guitar with distortion.
Live, plucked violin. (they are similar in tone though)
I have a question. Did you perform all of the instrumentals yourself or did you enlist the help of other musicians?
Dat bass tone, how did you get that?
Joel, how much work was done on the soundtrack post 2009?
After listening through a few times, I recognized ‘Residue Processing’ from the teaser and ‘Surface Tension 3’ from the trailer. I’m just wondering, where they changed much after this, and how far along was the soundtrack at that point.
Oh, and by the way, it’s brilliant. Joel is credit to Black Mesa team.