Ultima 7 Black Gate Soundtrack Remake

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 10:25 pm

I decided to start a seperate thread since this soundtrack is now complete and the other thread was becoming too long. Since I'm always trying to improve upon this soundtrack, this thread will be used for song updates and improvements.

I've gotten my hands on a copy of CineBrass Core to replace my old outdated brass library, and a copy of Berlin Solo Woodwinds to replace my old outdated woodwinds library.

So below are some songs that have been updated with the new libraries.

Title:
- Bootup
- Market Place
- Victory
- Orchestral I
- Orchestral II
- Fight's End
- Fanfare of Lord British
- Fanfare of Progress
- Fanfare of Courage

Available: http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/album/ultima-7

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sun Feb 15, 2015 12:32 am

UPDATE!

Title: Fellowship Theme

Available: http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/track/35b ... ship-theme

Comments:

Used the new Berlin Flute and Oboe and replaced the Brass with CineBrass Core and Pro. It sounds so pretty now. Gloomy, but pretty.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 4:28 pm

Beautiful rendering! Would love to have this on vinyl. Well, one can dream.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Mon Jun 01, 2015 9:04 pm

The remake soundtrack is now gone.

That's all I'll say about it here.

If you follow me on Tumblr; you already know why.

NOTJDHARDING · Post by **NOTJDHARDING** » Tue Jun 02, 2015 7:30 am

This is (probably) the latest version downloaded under the creative commons license that was linked to at JD Harding's bandcamp site
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
These files were created by JD Harding and can be freely downloaded and shared (in any medium or format).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6lo5gaevd5qy7 ... 7.zip?dl=0

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Mon Aug 31, 2015 11:21 pm

I've returned.

The Ultima 7 soundtrack was uploaded to Bandcamp again several months ago, and I've recently begun work on updating all of the songs again.

Some of these have been updated with new orchestral libraries, and some have new orchestral drums. Most should sound improved over the original versions.

Here's a list of the songs that have been updated thus far.

- 01. Bootup Screen
- 02. BG Intro
- 04. Title Screen
- 11. Fellowship Theme
- 20. Mysterious Murders
- 25. Stones
- 31. Wilderness
- 34. Battle ~ Combat
- 35. Battle ~ Danger
- 36. Battle ~ Fleeing
- 37. Battle ~ Flight
- 38. Battle ~ Hidden Danger
- 39. Fanfare ~ Courage
- 40. Fanfare ~ Lord British
- 41. Fanfare ~ Orch I
- 42. Fanfare ~ Orch II
- 43. Fanfare ~ Progress
- 44. Fanfare ~ Fight's End
- 45. Fanfare ~ Victory

Eventually I'll begin work on adding new tracks from Serpent Isle.

The album is also free to download again as a whole.

http://jdhardingmusic.com/album/ultima-vii

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 12:36 am

Several songs updated today. Some have replaced instruments.

19bg. Market Place
20bg. Seedy Bar
21bg. Sea Shanty
26bg. Theme of Love
30bg. Camping
36bg. The Beauty
37bg. Love, a Virtue
41bg. Instrument ~ Music Box
53bg. The Emps
54bg. Bee Cave
55bg. The Wisps
56bg. Instrument ~ Xylophone
57bg. Instrument ~ Harpsichord
58bg. Instrument ~ Harp
59bg. Lute

Available at: http://jdhardingmusic.com/album/ultima-vii

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 9:12 pm

Some more updated songs today. There's only about 15 songs left to update.

28bg. Passion Play
33bg. Magic Tricks
42bg. Shrine ~ Honesty
43bg. Shrine ~ Compassion
44bg. Shrine ~ Valor
45bg. Shrine ~ Justice
46bg. Shrine ~ Sacrifice
47bg. Shrine ~ Honor
48bg. Shrine ~ Spirituality

Available at: http://jdhardingmusic.com/album/ultima-vii

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sun Sep 06, 2015 4:57 am

Just one song today.

29bg. Chamber Music

This took more work than I had planned due to replacing all of the instruments with better libraries.

Available at: http://jdhardingmusic.com/album/ultima-vii

Updates will probably come slower from now on due to the amount of extra work each of these songs will require to bring them up to my quality standards.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sun Sep 06, 2015 9:19 pm

4 songs updated today.

These two were not much work. Just simple updates. No instruments replaced.

02bg. Intro ~ Guardian
endcr02. Ending ~ Quotes

These two were a lot of work. All instruments replaced and recorded.

23bg. Britannia Rule
31bg. Fortune Teller

Available at: http://jdhardingmusic.com/album/ultima-vii

Only 9 songs remain that need updating.

I've found midi files for the "Caves" and "Arrival of the Guardian" songs from The Black Gate, so I'll eventually get those two finished. Then The Black Gate soundtrack will be complete.

Kirinn · Post by **Kirinn** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 9:57 am

Hey, sweet. I'll need to get the latest versions and give them a listen.

Thank you!

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 7:24 pm

Two songs updated today.

25bg. Dragon's Flight
32bg. Ghosts

I replaced all of the old instruments on both of these.

Available at: http://jdhardingmusic.com/album/ultima-vii

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sat Sep 12, 2015 8:55 pm

A couple songs updated today.

end01bg. Guardian Arrival
endcr01. Ending ~ Credits

I finally got the credits song updated with all the new versions of the songs.

Available at: http://jdhardingmusic.com/album/ultima-vii

Only 5 songs left to update!

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sun Sep 13, 2015 7:40 pm

Just one updated for now.

39bg. Kilrathi Theme

Replaced all of the instruments.

Available at: http://jdhardingmusic.com/album/ultima-vii

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sun Sep 13, 2015 10:16 pm

I updated the last song for The Black Gate.

40bg. The Isle of Fire

Replaced most of the instruments for this one.

Available at: http://jdhardingmusic.com/album/ultima-vii

I've already finished the cave theme, so there's really only 1 song remaining to remake for The Black Gate.

Serpent Isle updates will be over in my Serpent Isle topic thread.

Post by **nadir** » Thu Nov 12, 2015 11:58 am

Hi JD, really enjoying these. The missing track is also my favourite: Torture. Any plans on doing that ?

Post by **nadir** » Fri Nov 13, 2015 7:38 am

Ah, sorry, Isle of Fire corresponds to Torture.

LPS · Post by **LPS** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 7:10 pm

These are awesome. They totally made it worth it for me to replay U7 (again). They are very faithful to the original, yet so much better. Truly a treat for an Ultima aficionado.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Fri Jan 01, 2016 9:28 pm

I haven't checked on these topics in several months now.

The Black Gate soundtrack is nearly fully finished. Only 1 song remains for that soundtrack, which is the "Guardian Finale" song. I think it plays after you defeat the Guardian and destroy The Black Gate (oops, spoilers).

I will not be doing ambient tracks for this game since I cannot find good sources for ambient sounds other than going out and recording them myself from actual nature sounds. And my MIDI synth is incompatible with the sounds the ambient MIDIs used, so I can't record them off of that.

Serpent Isle still has 10 songs I need to work on. The list of them is below.

- Bane's Theme
- Batlin's Theme
- Conversation with Gwenno
- Dupre's Death (oops, spoilers)
- End Game
- Ghost
- Gwani Theme
- Serpent
- Wall of Lights
- War

I'll eventually start work on these, but currently I'm taking a break from music to focus on Lets Play videos I record and produce for Youtube.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sun Jul 10, 2016 7:11 pm

Here's a little update for this soundtrack project.

I've renamed all of the songs over on my Bandcamp's Ultima VII page with the code names for use in Exult. You can download the album and rename these. There's really no easy way to do this other than renaming each one individually. Just make sure to download the OGG version since it's the only one compatible with Exult.

I haven't decided yet if I want to split the album up into 2 so Serpent Isle is separate. It would make for easier downloading.

Bandcamp Album :
http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/album/ultima-vii

But there's now an easier option. I've renamed them myself, put them into proper folders, zipped it up using 7zip, and uploaded it to my Google Drive. You only need to install Exult and configure it to use the digital audio in the setup, then open the zip and drag and drop the "Data" folder into the main Exult directory. When you start up Exult again the music should play.

This pack already has the ambient tracks from the digital audio downloads found on the Exult download page. I won't be making new ambient tracks. I've also kept several of the Serpent Isle songs since I have not finished covering all of them.

Google Drive :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6oN3 ... TVoUnRBbFE

Have fun.

galneon · Post by **galneon** » Mon Jul 11, 2016 8:59 pm

Great that it's available conveniently packed on Google Drive now. Might even be linkable as a 'mod' of sorts if you finish those last SI tracks.

Post by **Dominus** » Tue Jul 12, 2016 1:16 pm

We have the ability to "patch" the digital music files. Meaning you can just place the files in the "music" subfolder of your patch folder and it overrides the normal digital music. JFYI

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Wed Jul 13, 2016 5:07 pm

You can patch it?

But how does that work? It wouldn't know which songs were which without the codes. Or does it work as long as the code is somewhere in the song filename?

Post by **Dominus** » Wed Jul 13, 2016 6:58 pm

It's basically working as it is right now.
Instead of overwriting the ogg files in data/music, you put your tracks in gamename/patch/music (e.g. If your Black Gate is installed in c:\exult\blackgate, the music files go into c:\exult\blackgate\patch\music) with the same ogg filename of the track it replaces.

Only when I converted a patch to a mod did I realize we have this digital music patching capability (AND had to ask Marzo if we can do that already).

(Note, gamename/patch/music is the default patch folder location if you haven't changed it in the exult.cfg - see http://exult.info/docs.php#patch_install )

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sat Jul 16, 2016 10:53 pm

-- NEW SONG --

Title : Guardian's Finale

Code : end02bg

Link : http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/track/end ... ans-finale

Comments : I finally got a new one finished. This is the last of the Black Gate songs.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sun Jul 17, 2016 4:38 am

-- NEW SONG --

Title : Bane's Theme

Code : si08

Link : http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/track/si08-banes-theme

Comments : Here's another new one for today. I think it sounds okay, though it lost some of it's original charm.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sun Jul 17, 2016 4:52 am

Also, I've updated the link to the Google Drive file on the Bandcamp page. I won't post the link here any more since I'll be updating this every time I add a new song. Google Drive won't let me just replace the file.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sun Jul 17, 2016 7:32 pm

-- NEW SONG --

Title : Batlin's Theme

Code : si07

Link : http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/track/si07-batlins-theme

Comments : This was relatively simple and easy to complete.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Wed Jul 27, 2016 2:23 am

-- NEW SONG --

Title : Conversation with Gwenno

Code : si06

Link : http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/track/si0 ... ith-gwenno

Comments : This was pretty easy to record with orchestral instruments, though some of the sounds I had to leave out since they can't be reproduced with my orchestra sounds. Again, it's another synthesizer vs real instruments limitation.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 2:08 am

I created a folder on my Google Drive where I'll keep the zip file of the soundtrack in for use with Exult. This way I can just share the folder link, which won't change, but I can replace the zip when it needs to be updated. Simple enuff.

Google Drive : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6oN3 ... FdWVExqTWs

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Thu Jul 28, 2016 9:15 pm

-- NEW SONG --

Title : Dupre's Sacrifice

Code : si10

Link : http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/track/si1 ... -sacrifice

Comments : This was pretty quick and easy to record. I added harp into the mix to give it a little flava.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 6:47 pm

-- NEW SONGS --

Title #1 : Gwani Theme
Title #2 : Ghost

Code #1 : si05
Code #2 : si11

Link #1 : http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/track/si05-gwani-theme
Link #2 : http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/track/si11-ghost

Comments : These were fairly easy to record.

Only 4 songs left before the entire soundtrack is complete!

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Fri Jul 29, 2016 9:29 pm

-- NEW SONG --

Title : Serpent Theme

Code : si04

Link : http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/track/si04-serpent-theme

Comment : I made this one different from the Ophidian Scroll one. I didn't want the 2 sounding too similar.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sat Jul 30, 2016 6:59 pm

-- UPDATE --

I re-balanced all of the song volumes so none of them are louder than others. Everything should be equal volume now. This should make using them in Exult more enjoyable to the listener.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Tue Aug 02, 2016 7:09 am

-- FINALE --

The final song was added to the Serpent Isle part of the soundtrack.

The soundtrack is now fully complete! All 70 songs!

Link : http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/album/ultima-vii

Post by **Dominus** » Tue Aug 02, 2016 12:37 pm

Thanks and congratulations for finishing that huge project!!!

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Tue Aug 02, 2016 6:06 pm

Thanks.

Now that this project is complete I'll continue work on finishing my orchestral remake of the Ultima Online music. I think UO uses OGG or MP3 music by default now, so it's easier to use the remade songs. I know they updated the music, which sounds nothing like the original MIDIs.

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 6:03 pm

Excellent work.
So as a summary to the thread, what is the best way to get this working in Exult? I know it's in the thread, but I figured I would confirm everything because I have a simple brain.

We are better off downloading from your google drive and then putting it in the patch folders?

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Wed Aug 03, 2016 6:54 pm

Putting it into the patch folders keeps it from overwriting or replacing other songs, like the ambient tracks. I didn't do any ambient tracks (birds, trees, wind, waves, rain, etc.).

So for example..

If you have Black Gate and Serpent Isle installed in:

C:\BlackGate
C:\SerpentIsle

You create folders like this:

C:\BlackGate\Patch\Music\
C:SerpentIsle\Patch\Music\

Then put a copy of all of the OGG files from each 7-zip archive into each of the music folders.

You could also put them into the Exult folder, but I think you need to download the ambient tracks and the Exult title song off the Exult downloads page.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 2:16 am

I added a Readme file to the folder that has instructions on how to get the soundtrack working in Exult, with both methods of how to do it.

The Exult main theme is from one of the Ultima games, right? I could remake that too and add it to the soundtrack. Or I could choose a different Ultima song for it.

The ambient files I'm not so sure about. I thought about trying to recreate them with ambient sounds, but I haven't decided yet. I also can't find MIDI files of those tracks anywhere.

Post by **Dominus** » Sat Aug 06, 2016 4:14 am

Exult's main theme is not from an Ultima game. It was made by Matt Kimmich for "Age of the Dragon" project and is called "Medieval Town". Matt gave us permission to use his songs for Exult.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Mon Aug 08, 2016 6:03 pm

-- NEW --

I found all of the ambient MIDI files, so here's an ambiance track for the wind and rain. This is just a test to see how it sounds in the game. If I like it, I might do the rest of the ambient tracks.

Link : http://jdharding.bandcamp.com/track/04b ... -wind-rain

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Wed Feb 22, 2017 3:19 am

Just as a reminder, this entire soundtrack can be downloaded for use in Exult from the link below. This link will never change, so if anyone wants to link to it via their website, go for it. And you have my permission to use it in any sort of Ultima videos on Youtube. Just give me credit for the work I did.

The version in the link provided is the OGG file version, which is compatible with Exult. There's a read me file there with instructions on how to get the soundtrack to work in Exult.

Complete Ultima VII Soundtrack Remake : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6oN3 ... FdWVExqTWs

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Mon Feb 27, 2017 6:36 am

I'm doing a remastering for the entire soundtrack project. This is to make sure all of the tracks are level with each other when using them in Exult. I'm noticing some tracks are much louder than others. So I'll focus on fixing that. I will not post updates when I'm done with individual tracks. I'll only post an update when I'm done with the entire soundtrack. Hopefully this doesn't take too long.

The OGG copy on my Google Drive will be updated after I'm done with the entire remastering process.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Sun Mar 05, 2017 5:30 am

I'm noticing a lot of these older songs I went the lazy route on and used really cheap instrument libraries instead of the nicer stuff I used in the Serpent Isle songs. I may need to do more than just a simple remastering. I may need to re-record a lot of these. So this will take longer than expected.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Tue Mar 07, 2017 6:36 am

I've decided to post periodic updates when I get at least 10 of these songs updated. So here's a list of what I've updated thus far.

00bg. Black Gate Bootup
01bg. Black Gate Introduction
02bg. Guardian's Introduction
04bg. Ambiance : Wind & Rain
05bg. Ambiance : Wind
15bg. Fight's End
24bg. Theme of Lord British
26bg. Theme of Love
34bg. Progress
36bg. The Beauty
37bg. Love, a Virtue
38bg. Theme of Courage
41bg. Music Box
55bg. The Wisps
56bg. Xylophone
57bg. Harpsichord
58bg. Harp
59bg. Lute

Several of these songs were re-recorded with better instrument libraries. I hope everyone likes the changes.

galneon · Post by **galneon** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 7:07 pm

Great. Could you possibly post the remastered supplemental packs on Drive as well?

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 8:56 pm

Not until they're all finished.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 9:54 pm

More finished remasters. Not quite a minimum of 10, but I posted them here anyway. All of these had huge parts re-recorded.

---

03bg. Title Screen
09bg. Victory
10bg. Danger
11bg. Combat
13bg. Orch I
14bg. Orch II
17bg. Wilderness

---

There's still 47 songs remaining to remaster, and 70% of them require full re-recordings.

jdharding · Post by **jdharding** » Thu Mar 09, 2017 9:40 pm

Here's some more songs remastered/re-recorded.

---

19bg. Market Place
20bg. Seedy Bar
21bg. Sea Shanty
22bg. Stones

---

I wanted to do a quick post here because I did a lot of extra work on "Stones" due to it being an iconic Ultima theme song. So all of the strings were expanded upon and widened out. I hope you guys like the changes.