"Since you have nothing better to do than hang out here with me, listen to a tune that I've been working on"
Steve Freund <skfreund@inetdirect.net> pointed out some time ago that there were 7 audio tracks on the Marathon CD. The tracks were:
Track 1: Music 13
Track 2: Music 07
Track 3: Music 08
Track 4: Music 05
Track 5: Music 02
Track 6: Music 03
Track 7: Music 12
Steve also wrote:
Ok, the music # has nothing to do with the level #. That's why you might here a few songs being repeated about 4 or 5 times. The Music file consists of 16 MIDI files entirely in the data fork. Here's another interesting thing: the music files are numbered 00 through 15! If you have the QuickTime musical instruments ext installed then you can listen to the individual MIDI files by means of a utility called Marathon Music Exploder.
You can get the Marathon Music Exploder from the Story page here.
Marathon Music Exploder actually splits the Marathon Music file into separate QuickTime movies and saves them as "Music 00", "Music 01", etc. You can easily play these back using the Apple utility MoviePlayer. Marathon Music Exploder was created by Bo Lindbergh <d88-bli@nada.kth.se> who also created the Durandal Terminal Browser and Hex.
Some interesting things about the music. It was composed and performed by Alex Seropian. To hear it at its best you need to listen to the digital versions burnt into the Marathon CD. As Steve mentions above there are seven tracks on the CD. Some are quite long, see below.
Track 1: Music 13 (Time 04:05)
Track 2: Music 07 (Time 03:02)
Track 3: Music 08 (Time 03:39)
Track 4: Music 05 (Time 02:14)
Track 5: Music 02 (Time 01:37)
Track 6: Music 03 (Time 01:27)
Track 7: Music 12 (Time 01:47)
Track's 1 and 3 are particularly good, indeed Track 3 has an almost Enya like sound. If you think the music in Marathon rocks it's worth getting the CD for these tracks alone. Bungie were giving away the Marathon CD last I heard. You owe it to yourself to hear what the final level "Ingue Ferroque" should have sounded like.
The music track used on each level is as follows:
|
Music 07 Music 08 Music 02 Music 03 Music 14 Music 00 Music 01 Music 04 Music 07 Music 06 Music 15 Music 05 Music 08 Music 14 Music 12 Music 03 Music 09 Music 00 Music 10 Music 11 Music 08 Music 11 Music 10 Music 09 Music 14 Music 07 Music 13
Music 07 |
Level 0. Arrival Level 1. Bigger Guns Nearby Level 2. Never Burn Money Level 3. Defend THIS! Level 4. Couch Fishing Level 5. The Rose Level 6. Smells Like Napalm, Tastes Like Chicken! Level 7. Cool Fusion Level 8. G4 Sunbathing Level 9. Blaspheme Quarantine Level 10. Bob-B-Q Level 11. Shake Before Using... Level 12. Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Level 13. Colony Ship For Sale, Cheap Level 14. Habe Quiddam Level 15. Neither High nor Low Level 16. Pfhor Your Eyes Only... Level 17. No Artificial Colors Level 18. Unpfhorgiven Level 19. Two Times Two Equals... Level 20. Beware of Low-Flying Defense Drones... Level 21. Eupfhoria Level 22. Pfhoraphobia Level 23. Ain't Got Time Pfhor This... Level 24. Welcome to the Revolution... Level 25. Try again Level 26. Ingue Ferroque
Level 27. Mars Needs Women |
From this list it is obvious to see that all 16 tracks were used at least once in the solo levels. The six Pfhor levels only used three tracks. Three tracks were repeated four times and a further three tracks were only used once.
Nick Gaston <Ranchoth@aol.com> writes:
Assuming I read the music chart correctly, I came up with the following peculiarities;Out of the 16 (16: 1 + 6 = 7 ) tracks there were:
3 tracks played once,
8 tracks played twice,
2 tracks played 3 times,
3 tracks played four times.
3 + 8 + 2 + 3 = 16
16 - 3 - 3 - 3 = 7
Sounds like our old friends at Bungie slipped in some more 7's!
and at the end of the section(P.S. I'm absolutely sure you wrote this on purpose);
<<From this list it is obvious to see that all 16 tracks were used at least once in the solo levels. The six Pfhor levels only used three tracks. Three tracks were repeated four times and a further three tracks were only used once. >>
7 tracks were not mentioned.
Let's look this sentence over;
<<The six Pfhor levels only used three tracks. >> 3 <<Three tracks were repeated four times >> 3 <<and a further three tracks were only used once. >> 3
3 + 3 + 3 = 9
9 + 7 = 16
Erie, huh?
Yes, very! As I keep telling everyone it's Bungiematics. All numbers round down to either 3, 7, or 10. ;-)
Mike Gaines <starman@cnj.digex.net> sends in an email that he received some
time ago from Matt Soell (Bungie Software) concerning the names of the Marathon
music tracks. It's reprinted below:
Subject: Re: M1 & M2 short questions Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 18:21:16 -0500 From: BUNGIE1@aol.com To: starman@cnj.digex.net Hey Mike- Long time. You keep a low profile these days, eh? I don't have a list. I asked Alex, and he couldn't remember. I know we have one lying around here somewhere....AHA! Well, it's only a partial list, and I can't figure out which title goes with which tune, but you may find this elucidating: AliensAgain Chomber Fat Man Flippant Flowers In Heaven Freedom Guardians Landing Leela New Pacific New Pacific (reprise) Rapture Rushing Splash (Marathon) Swirls All I remember is that "Leela" was the first song in the game. I realize this doesn't really answer your question, so I'll try to find out more. Matthew Soell Online Liason Bungie Software matt@bungie.com
Unfortunately as you can see it's not possible as yet to match all the names to tracks. However it is nice to know that the tracks did have names. :-)
Miguel Chavez <JMChavez@aol.com> points out that Bungie's webmaster reveals
the truth about the 26 seconds of silence on the "Jingle Bells" track
on the Marathon 2 CD. Apparently it's got something to do with the number of miles
in a Marathon. =)
Forrest Cameranesi <Pfhorrest@aol.com> writes:
I just noticed, all the songs on the M1 CD are three seconds into their respective tracks.
Forrest points out that this is not a normal feature of music CDs nor is it his specific CD player... it's a Marathon CD thing.
In a letter (see above) to Mike Gaines back in Dec '95 Matt Soell (Bungie Software)
revealed that the Marathon music tracks had official names at one stage. Matt
listed 15 of these (one short of the original 16) but was unable to match the
names with the right tracks. It looked like this information was lost for good.
But maybe not.
Nick Roemer <stompbox@wolfenet.com> made an interesting discovery on a long forgotten FC archive and sent it along to the Story page.
It's a folder called "Marathon Songs".
It contains 16 QuickTime movies. Each movie has a name. Playing them reveals that they are the 16 music tracks from Marathon.
The creation dates on the files range from Aug 24 to Oct 28 1994 which are well before the final release of Marathon. The modified date is exactly the same for each file - Wed, Nov 16 1994. Again this is before the release date of Marathon.
The files names (exactly as they appear in the folder) are as follows:
AliensAgain
Chomber
Fat Man
Flippant
Flowers In Heaven
Freedom
Guardians
Landing
Leela
New Pacific
New Pacific (Reprise)
Rapture
Rushing
Splash (Marathon)
Swirls
What About Bob?
This list of names is similar to Matt Soell's list (see above) except that it contains an additional name. The extra track is called "What About Bob?" and is the music used on "Bob-B-Q". There are also some subtle differences between this list and Matt's one.
Could this be the original list of Marathon track names?
Based on information supplied by Alex Seropian (Bungie CEO) it is known that the track called "Splash (Marathon)" was used for the final level "Ingue Ferroque". Now if you number the music files found in the "Marathon Songs" folder from 00 to 15 while they are in alphabetical order you get the following list:
00: AliensAgain
01: Chomber
02: Fat Man
03: Flippant
04: Flowers In Heaven
05: Freedom
06: Guardians
07: Landing
08: Leela
09: New Pacific
10: New Pacific (Reprise)
11: Rapture
12: Rushing
13: Splash (Marathon)
14: Swirls
15: What About Bob?
"Splash (Marathon)" is listed as Track 13 which is the same track number used for "Ingue Ferroque" in the game (see above). Also "What About Bob?" is listed as Track 15 which is the track number used on "Bob-B-Q" (see above). Could this then be the right order?
The only problem with this listing is that "Leela" is listed as Track 08 and "Landing" is Track 07. Matt Soell had said that "Leela" was the first song in the game which should make it Track 07. The title "Landing" however would make sense as the name for the opening track but then again you could also agrue that "Leela" is an appropriate opening name. It is interesting to note that in the beta version of Marathon "Bigger Guns" appeared before "Arrival". In the above list track 08 "Leela" is the track used for "Bigger Guns". Perhaps this is what Matt was referring to when he said "Leela" was the opening track?
So is this the definitive version of the Marathon track names? Well only Bungie can say for sure but they appear unable to do so. :-(
What is puzzling is how these 16 "named" Marathon tracks came to be on the net in the first place. Their creation and modified dates are older than the release of Marathon. The dates correspond to the time when the beta leaks occurred. The first beta appeared on the net at the beginning of Oct '94, the second a month later. Could the tracks have been leaked too? The second version of the leaked beta had a Music file. Could the tracks have come from this file? Extracting the tracks from the final release Music file only gives tracks listed as numbers (00 to 15) not names. Did the beta Music file have names and was somebody able to extract them? Or where the tracks leaked(?) as separately named files?
Could this be a hoax? If it is it's a very elaborate one. The list of track names is more complete than the one supplied by Matt Soell and is also subtlely different. However the evidence to suggest that it isn't comes not from the music files but rather the archive itself. The archive contains a number of other pre-Marathon release files. Some of which have not seen the light of day for over THREE years. The Story page is suitably impressed by one recovered item to be convinced that this is NOT a hoax archive. The archive would appear to contain some or all of the Marathon files stolen from Alex Seropian's computer back in Nov '94.
Mr Roemer has been sworn to secrecy concerning the location of the archive.
Interesting to note that the Music file that comes with the Marathon demo contains
five music tracks, yet only the three solo levels have music.
The demo versions of "Arrival" and "Bigger Guns Nearby" play the same tracks as in final release
but "Blaspheme Quarantine" plays music track 05 which is the track
used on "Shake Before Using..." in the final release. The unused tracks in the
demo music file are Track 02 (used on Never Burn Money) and Track 13 (used on Ingue Ferroque).
The net level "Mars Needs Women" doesn't play a music track because it is set to
play track 6 which doesn't exist since there are only five tracks. Oh well.
Why do some Marathon CDs come with no music tracks? This was a question raised in the
Sounds in Marathon section but better addressed here.
Mike Srstka <mike.srstka@yebb.com> writes:
I know 2 reasons why some of the marathon/marathon2 CDs don't have music on them. Some Marathon 1 CDs were on discount, which was the one I got, and later found out it didn't have much on it. At macmall they had a deal that says if you order anything you get marathon 2 with it free, and that one didn't have music, so I guess it was one of Bungie's discount CDs. The second reason is Bungie has run out of the old Marathon/Marathon2 CDs and they made new ones that don't have any music on it nor the marathon goodies which contained that beta I wanted. I did trade a CD with my friend and got the old type of marathon CD so I got to see the beta, thank god. Well, I hope this helps you out:)
Jim Gillespie <ender@city-net.com> writes:
There are no musical tracks on the Win95 Marathon2 CD's either.
Scott Jaeger <pablo@izzy.net> writes:
The reason that these do not have music are not that they were produced for 'discount', rather for promotional use. Promotional items usually have less or different content than a retail version, and usually are illegal to _sell_. However, these can be given away or surrendered back to the distributor.
Ian James <jamesfam@swbell.net> writes:
About March of this year ('97) I bought Marathon Infinity at the full price (presumably not a "discount" CD) and it has no music on it at all. However, about a month later I received the free Marathon 2 CD with another order, and it has the Marathon startup music on the second track. It seems odd that I got the music on the promotional disk, but not on the one that I paid full price for.Additionally, a friend of mine bought the Marathon Infinity CD earlier than I did, and he got the "Blue Danube" Bob song on the second track. I'd like to know just what CD's have what on them and when they were produced.
Odd stuff indeed!
Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net> writes:
...could the Cheat Code "FATMAN" be related to the soundtrack "Fat Man"?
Cheat Code FATMAN!!!???
Michael Park <macgamer@ohana.com> writes:
I know that when I've been surfing around your page, that there were users complaining about having the Marathon 2/Infinity track either on or off the CD. A friend of mine has a CD that is somewhere in between.It only has the main theme song for M2, it does not have the Jingle Bobs song. I would also like to point out that his CD had a top that was half yellow, and half black. I have a M2 CD myself (well, somewhere) and I remember the CD being more or less like a picture of a fireball coming out of the middle of the CD.
So what kind of CD is my friend's? Is it the free M2 CD you get from ordering from a catalog? Some promotional CD? A really old version of the CD or a really new one?
Odd stuff. It seems that some CDs have no music tracks while others have only certain tracks. Just how many different CD versions are there in the Marathon series?
Michael Park <macgamer@ohana.com> adds to what he wrote above:
I recognized that my version of the Marathon 2 CD is an older one (mine is from 1995). The reason is that my friend's version has an advertisement for the Abuse game (by using cleverly placed folder icons) and has demos of Abuse and Marathon Infinity: two newer games that came out *after* Marathon 2.If I remember correctly, my old Marathon 2 CD contained only two demos: the Marathon 4L Demo and the Pathways Into Darkness Demo. Also,when you opened up the CD from the Finder, it had a cool picture of part of the first chapter screen of M2.
So whatever happened after the 1995 version? Bungie supposedly chucked the Jingle Bobs track for whatever reason. It could possibly be a promotional or a newer version of the CD. It cannot be a CD featured in the Marathon Trilogy since there would be no point in including the Marathon Infinity demo when you've got the full version of Infinity featured right there in the Trilogy!
Jeremy Parish <ejp95w@timon.acu.edu> writes:
I may be able to help pin down the origins of the M2 CD that's missing the Jingle Bobs track. I have one of those as well - I received it as a freebie from MacWarehouse about a year ago (well after the release of Infinity). It came in "promotional" packaging (namely, a plastic wrapper) and all documentation is included on the CD. It has the opening theme by Power of Seven, but that's the only redbook audio track. Fortunately, I bought Infinity in its original incarnation so it has both audio tracks, but I woudn't be surprised if the free-with-any-order Infinity currently being offered by MacWarehouse is also different than the first release.
Anthony Bathgate <bathgate@bellatlantic.net> writes:
I discoved a little secret in the Marathon 2 menu music. Immediately after the seemingly garbled voice says that "MarathonMarathon" thing the second time you hear a tiny voice only if you have stereo sound turned on, ambient sounds turned on and headphones plugged into your ears. It says fairly quickly "I'm with you all the way Bob" I think this may be a decent quote if you cold talk in the game. I couldn't think of anyone else to tell because you have the website documenting the strange things.It does not show up on anything other then headphones. I simply discoved it by forgetting to unplug my headphones from the computer and my ears from a music preview on the web and decided to go play Marathon 2. All of the sudden I get this blaring music in my ears and even though I usually don't do it I sit there listening to the music and looking at my prefs as well as trying to decide which map and which physics model to use. After a while I hear this "I'm with you all the way Bob" in my ear. I promptly quit Marathon and call my brother in and put the headphones on him and ask him to listen for it. He hears it to.
"I'm with you all the way Bob"? Strange stuff.
Anthony went on to point out:
...the loudest point in the music track and that other comments play continuously throughout the music.
Chadd Nervig <drmemory@gte.net> writes concerning the background voices
on the Marathon 2 theme music:
It does sound like it to me. "I'm with you all to way Bob"? Aren't you supposed to 'never ever, leave a single Bob alive'!!!
Yes indeed! What's up with this?
Charles Srstka <csrstka@earthlink.net> also writes concerning the same
background voices
I found a few more sounds in Marathon's music. Weird. Is Bungie sending us subliminal messages?!Besides the thing that is allegedly saying "I'm with you all the way Bob" there are some more parts of the music that include talking. One of them is here. I'm still trying to figure out what it says. I tried screwing around with a sound editor program, and managed to make it a bit easier to hear, but I really don't know what I'm doing :) Maybe a sound pro can have a bit more luck with it. Still, I'm sending you what I have. Maybe you can make some sense of it.
My current theories.....
I can show you around? (doesn't make any sense)
I control you along (doesn't make sense either, maybe Durandal would say that)Or whatever. I'm no good at figuring it out. Best to leave it to someone else...
Charles also points out that the background voices issue was raised on Bungie's letter page some time ago. Judging from the reply the Bungie Webmaster was not aware of any background voices. Here is the letter and reply in question:
1) Will there be a Marathon theme (a song like the one for Marathon 2) for Marathon Infinity?2) Will there be any background music during the levels?
3) Who did the music for the Marathon 2's theme?
4) What is being said in the background of the Marathon song? It sounds a bit like a launch sequence or something.
Jared Falvo, luposian@ktb.net
Jared-
1) Yes, there will be a Marathon Infinity theme song. It's done already. It's cool.
2) There won't be any background music during the levels. We'll stick with ambient sounds.
3) The music was composed by a group called Power of Seven.
4) The only word in the Marathon 2 theme is "Marathon."
Since Power of Seven were responsible for the Marathon 2 theme music it is
very likely that Bungie were not aware of the background voices. Certainly
the Bungie Webmaster was not aware of them. Strange stuff.
Simon Brownlee <simon.brownlee@pobox.com> points out that the issue of the
background voices was also discussed on alt.games.marathon. Here are some of the
posts:
Subject: hidden message in the marathon II music From: eek@escape.ca (Tony Mantler) Date: 1996/01/02 Message-ID: <eek-0201962321320001@ts1dl28.escape.ca> Newsgroups: alt.games.marathon I'm aware of the voice saying "marathon" in the music track, but there's also another voice which is quite hard to hear, often appearing right after the "marathon" voice... I wonder if this is bungie's way of hiding their little easter eggs? anyways, I've tried listening to it again and again but I just can't get anything sensible out if it; I imagine it's recorded in reverse or something silly like that. Unfortunatley I don't have the tools to either record, or play in reverse, the sound track. anyone else wanna take a crack at it? -- /=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=\ : [ Tony Mantler ] : : [ http:// ] : : This space for rent. [ www.escape.ca ] Mail me for more info. : : [ /~eek ] : : [ eek@escape.ca ] : \=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=/ Subject: Re: hidden message in the marathon II music From: ceicher@inav.net (Charles Eicher) Date: 1996/01/03 Message-ID: <ceicher-0301961342430001@ceicher.inav.net> Newsgroups: alt.games.marathon In article <eek-0201962321320001@ts1dl28.escape.ca>, eek@escape.ca (Tony Mantler) wrote: > I'm aware of the voice saying "marathon" in the music track, but there's also another voice which is quite hard to hear, often appearing right after the "marathon" voice... I wonder if this is bungie's way of hiding their little easter eggs? > > anyways, I've tried listening to it again and again but I just can't get anything sensible out if it; I imagine it's recorded in reverse or something silly like that. Unfortunatley I don't have the tools to either record, or play in reverse, the sound track. anyone else wanna take a crack at it? yep, everyone knows about it. It says "Paul is dead"... ---------------- Charles Eicher ceicher@inav.net ---------------- Subject: Re: hidden message in the marathon II music From: botbml@luff.latrobe.edu.au (Ben Long) Date: 1996/01/05 Message-ID: <botbml-0501961426010001@biochem.bot.latrobe.edu.au> Newsgroups: alt.games.marathon In article <eek-0201962321320001@ts1dl28.escape.ca>, eek@escape.ca (Tony Mantler) wrote: > I'm aware of the voice saying "marathon" in the music track, but there's also another voice which is quite hard to hear, often appearing right after the "marathon" voice... I wonder if this is bungie's way of hiding their little easter eggs? > > anyways, I've tried listening to it again and again but I just can't get anything sensible out if it; I imagine it's recorded in reverse or something silly like that. Unfortunatley I don't have the tools to either record, or play in reverse, the sound track. anyone else wanna take a crack at it? I had a posting to this newsgroup about 2 months ago about this music. I played the song over and over with SoundMachine and had to change the sample rate to make any sense out of it. The best I could come up with is "Attention Everyone" which is repeated over and over, sometimes slow and sometimes a little faster. Anyone else have their own ideas of what they are saying? Cheers, Ben.
Well over two years on and we seem to be getting close to the tru7h. Hopefully someone will be able to extract all the voices... soon.
Francesco Poli <bpoli@mbox.vol.it> writes:
Well, after reading about the voices in the Marathon 2 music, I decided to go home and play with my Win95 version. Well, Cool Edit Rulez! :) Here's what I found after an hour or two of toying around:1) The voices are ONLY on the right channel, there is nothing on the left channel - except the MARATHON voice.
2) There are TEN voices. They all sound alike - except two (or, more probably, THREE...)
The first one sounds like 'We're going all the way in, Bob' just slowed down a bit.
The second one sounds like 'For the rest (?test) of my life you're on your way (?own) Bob'.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Chadd Nervig <a7s7t7r7o@hotmail.com> writes:
After opening up a dusty old sound program I have, and runing special effects and other filters and stuff to it, i have the answer! 20 times throughout the music, it says "I'm AFTER you all the way, Bob!", in a low pitch, like he was after the bob to kill him. 5 times, (specifically, all the times right after "Marathon"), it says "I'm ready to launch you, Bob!", in a high pitch. I think this is a reference to one of the 'Unused' shots, from the M1 physics model. There was an unused shot, that when fired, shot screaming Bobs, which then exploded. It was quite intertaining. What follows is a list of all the times of the sounds, and what they say:00:32#
00:38*
00:46#
00:52#
00:57#
01:02#
01:09*
01:16#
01:22#
01:27#
01:32#
01:39*
01:46#
01:52#
01:57#
02:04#
02:11*
02:18#
02:23#
02:28#
02:34#
02:41*
02:48#
02:53#
02:59##-I'm after you all the way, Bob!
*-I'm ready to launch you, Bob!
I really have a bad feeling about all this!
Just when you thought it was safe to bop to that Infinity CD beat...
Simon Brownlee <simon.brownlee@pobox.com> points out that there was also
some question over what the voice on the Infinity CD says. Simon sent in some
old alt.games.marathon posts on the subject.
Subject: Marathon Infinity Title Theme? From: "David Morgan" <m0rgman@airmail.net> Date: Thu, 06 Nov 1997 22:31:54 +0000 Message-ID: <A5897476041D3EB8.827839E8912D2B9C.F2FADB5212B1112B@library-proxy.airnews.net> X-Orig-Message-ID: <63u1u9$ho8@library.airnews.net> Newsgroups: alt.games.marathon I have two quick questions on the Infinity title theme? 1. About 20 seconds into the theme it sounds like someone says something. "It's a dream" or something. Everyone at my office has been trying to figure it out. Anyone know for sure? 2. That's a cool song! I recorded from my Mac and my son wants me to play it for him again and again. Is there a longer version? I think the one I got with the Trilogy is about 60 seconds. I'm gathering my office group of Marathon players and we're all going to play lasertag. Of course they don't know where we're going yet. I just told told them it was a new level and to bring $15. I want to surprise them by having the Marathon theme played while we shoot each other in the lasertag arena. Hehehe. Thanks! David Subject: Re: Marathon Infinity Title Theme? From: forrest@west.net (Forrest Cameranesi) Date: 1997/11/07 Message-ID: <forrest-0611972237480001@term1-7.vta.west.net> Newsgroups: alt.games.marathon In article <see-below-0611972112300001@user-36sac8o.dialup.mindspring.com>, see-below@not-my-address.com (Matthew Vaughan) wrote: > In article > <A5897476041D3EB8.827839E8912D2B9C.F2FADB5212B1112B@library-proxy.airnews.net>, > "David Morgan" <m0rgman@airmail.net> wrote: > > > I have two quick questions on the Infinity title theme? > > > > 1. About 20 seconds into the theme it sounds like someone says something. > > "It's a dream" or something. Everyone at my office has been trying to > > figure it out. Anyone know for sure? > > Ummm...it says "Infinity". Go figure. Actually, it doesn't sound at all like "Infinity" to me. I can kinda see how he would g4et "it's a dream", but to me it sounds most like "X-factor". Whatever that means. I wrote to someone at Bungie (forget who at the moment - either Matt or Tuncer) and he said he had no idea what it was, and to ask the Power of Seven guys. Unfortunately that work at HeadSpace now so I have no idea where to reach them, since I don't know their names... > > > > 2. That's a cool song! I recorded from my Mac and my son wants me to play > > it for him again and again. Is there a longer version? I think the one I > > got with the Trilogy is about 60 seconds. 61.98, to be exact. > > > > I'm gathering my office group of Marathon players and we're all going to > > play lasertag. Of course they don't know where we're going yet. I just told > > told them it was a new level and to bring $15. I want to surprise them by > > having the Marathon theme played while we shoot each other in the lasertag > > arena. Hehehe. > > I don't know of a longer version, but you can play the song as is in any > CD player. Just put it in and choose track 2. (Track 1 is the computer > data). No need to listen to track 3... Or you can play the actual "Music" file on the computer with SoundApp or any AIFF/AIFF-C player. All M2 (including Infinity and all scenarios) music files are are AIFF (Bungie's are specifically AIFF-C, but a normal AIFF will do) sounds with their filetype changed to "mus2". > > .................................................... > > MATTHEW VAUGHAN > > matthewv at mindspring dot com (damn spammers...) > > http://matthewv.home.mindspring.com/ > > .................................................... -- -Forrest Cameranesi forrest @ west . net (damn spammers) Obsidian Software - Writer, Designer, Webmaster Subject: Re: Marathon Infinity Title Theme? From: c1ndyh@aol.com (C1ndyh) Date: 1997/11/07 Message-ID: <19971107192801.OAA04077@ladder01.news.aol.com> Newsgroups: alt.games.marathon > >In article ><see-below-0611972112300001@user-36sac8o.dialup.mindspring.com>, >see-below@not-my-address.com (Matthew Vaughan) wrote: > >> In article >> > ><A5897476041D3EB8.827839E8912D2B9C.F2FADB5212B1112B@library-proxy.airnews .net>, >> "David Morgan" <m0rgman@airmail.net> wrote: >> >> > I have two quick questions on the Infinity title theme? >> > >> > 1. About 20 seconds into the theme it sounds like someone says something. > >> > "It's a dream" or something. Everyone at my office has been trying to >> > figure it out. Anyone know for sure? >> >> Ummm...it says "Infinity". Go figure. > > >Actually, it doesn't sound at all like "Infinity" to me. I can kinda see >how he would g4et "it's a dream", but to me it sounds most like >"X-factor". Whatever that means. I wrote to someone at Bungie (forget who >at the moment - either Matt or Tuncer) and he said he had no idea what it >was, and to ask the Power of Seven guys. Unfortunately that work at >HeadSpace now so I have no idea where to reach them, since I don't know >their names... >-Forrest Cameranesi >forrest @ west . net Sounds like they say "I heart Satan" to me. If you record it to a reel-to-reel tape and play it backwards, it says "Turn me on, assimilated BoB." Go figure.... Cindy Subject: Re: Marathon Infinity Title Theme? From: "David Morgan" <m0rgman@airmail.net> Date: 1997/11/08 Message-ID: <A62066B524BF53ED.425D092463208A8E.8C22FF72D492D781@library-proxy.airnews.net> Newsgroups: alt.games.marathon >Sounds like they say "I heart Satan" to me. If you record it to a reel-to-reel > tape and play it backwards, it says "Turn me on, assimilated BoB." Go > figure.... Oh no! You mean you've listened to it backwards?!?!?!?!? That means you're already been a victim of unconscious mind control. In other words, you've been assimilated! Quick! Someone shoot her once with the pistol and see if she bleeds green! Seriously, I listened to it again about 4 times on the way home and it really sounds more like, "It's a date!" then anything else. Of course so far I think everyone hears something different. This is sort of like an ink blot test for your ears! David
"...ink blot test for your ears!" no kiding! ;-)
Chadd Nervig <a7s7t7r7o@hotmail.com> writies pointing out that he
used the program "Sound Sculpter" to heard the background voices he mentions
above. If you have this you should be able to hear them. :-)
More missing music mysteries! Aaron Freed <aaron@packet.net< writes:
My Infinity CD has no music. I did not get it as a promotional, I bought the whole package Jan '97. I'm not sure why my CD has no music while everyone else in the world's does. One of my friends (who bought the package Dec '96) says he has a different manual than me...any knowledge about two different manuals in existence?
If anyone can shed some light on this please send it in.
Ben Irwin <lirwin@humboldt1.com> writes:
While I was searching for the "I'm with you all the way, Bob" (which I found a few minutes ago) I noticed a soft Wild Eep sound in the theme music. An alert sound. Could this possibly be Power of Seven messing around with their theme music? Possibly hiding a secret message and recieved an error message while copying the theme? Hmmm... makes you wonder what they were doing.
Curious to know where this occurs in the track? Ben explains:
Hmm... 18 seconds into the Marathon 2: Durandal theme song. It's soft, though. You can hear it with or without using headphones, but you'll have a better chance of hearing it w/ headphones. It's quite strange, really. I am using the song track from the CD as we speak, but you can still hear it in the game theme.
Michael Nelson <mnelson1282@earthlink.net> writes:
I could never find the band Power of Seven, the closest I could find was a song called Power of Seven, by the english band System 7. this song appears on the CD of the same Name (Power of Seven). Has the band Power of Seven released any of it's CD's? The only other song on System 7's Power of Seven CD that I think might be relevant to Marathon is the song Hanger 84 (84 which you already know reduces to 3) kinda like Hanger 7a in Arrival.
This has become something of an FAQ so here are the details.
Power of Seven Inc. were a Minneapolis-based digital music content publisher headed by Paul Sebastien. Paul was responsible for writing and producing the theme music for Marathon 2 Durandal and Marathon Infinity. Power of Seven Inc. were acquired by Headspace Inc., a leader in Internet music and audio technology, in May 1995 and relocated on-site to Headspace's San Mateo headquarters. Paul Sebastien assumed the role of Director of Production for Headspace.
Paul Sebastien is also the leader of the platinum record award-winning electronic/alternative group Psykosonik.
Psykosonik's first album "Psykosonik" was recorded in 1992 at Chicago Trax Studio in Chicago, and released in 1993 on Wax Trax/TVT Records. This is what the band had to say about it:
During our early days of songwriting in 1991, which was before any of the mainstream media hype about cyberspace, the Internet, or cyberpunk; things like techno-empowerment and Net surfing were considered decidedly un-cool by many...so many in fact, that we really felt like shaking things up a bit. Hence, our first album is quite overtly techno-oriented, conceptually and musically. We wanted to explore areas of man/machine duality, the role of religion in cyberspace, VR hallucinations, and connectivity.
Simon Brownlee <simon.brownlee@pobox.com> who has the Psykosonik CD maintains that some of the tracks are like the Marathon 2 and Infinity themes. He went on to say that "the tracks ReWl!". His words not mine. But if you like the techno sound this is worth getting apparently. You can hear samples of Psykosonik tracks on the Psykosonik album page.
Psykosonik can also be found on irc: #psykosonik on Efnet.
Psykosonik's first CD "Psykosonik" can be ordered from CD Now. Yes copies are still in stock.
The CD contains 10 tracks, the 10th track being entitled "I am God". Didn't the 10th military Mjolnir Mark IV cyborg become a God by the end of Infinity? Coincidence?
Track 3 "Teknojihad" has parts which are similar to the Marathon 2 Durandal theme. The Psykosonik CD is worth getting if you like the Marathon techno sound.
Concerning the background voices on the Marathon 2 theme music
Muhsin Miski <mmiski@hotmail.com> writes:
First of all, I found out what the radio messages were really saying in the Marathon 2 music. Using SoundMachine, I played the music as an AIFF file and I listened the music VERY carefully. I was able to pick out that the radio message we hear says "42, 70, 25 hundred yards apart, pretty well."In the entire Marathon 2 music, we hear the word Marathon being spoken by a weird whispering voice, we also hear some radio message which I was able to pick out (closely if not exactly), and we also hear another shorter radio message (which I still have to look into). The radio messages are repeated throughout the entire music in different order. The one I was able to pick out is the first long radio message we hear after the whisper says "Marathon".
Also, try reducing the sample rate of the Marathon 2 music down to 20,000 Hz. This sounds like the normal song they recorded in the studio. It appears they increased the sample rate before putting it into Marathon 2 music final format. This is a guess, but it may be right.
Another thing unique about the Marathon 2/Infinity music files is that they both have some odd sounds when played backwards. Try playing the Marathon 2 music file backwards using SoundMachine. Near the end, we hear an awesome music sample that actaully sounds like music. Now, ignoring all the sucking sounds we hear when played backwards, we can actaully hear some other music. I also tried playing the Infinity music backwards and near the middle part we hear some music that sounds like electric guitars melting or something.
So what is "42, 70, 25 hundred yards apart, pretty well." all about then?
Nick Mason <dmason@spin.net.au> writes:
A while ago I was browsing through the Macwarehouse catalogue, and noticed a bundle deal where you get a Honeywell two button mouse and the full version of Marathon 2 (shipped in promotional packaging of course ;) for $34.95 ($AU).The M2 CD has the startup music on it, but no extra tracks :( The manual was on the CD. It seems to me about 39 seconds into the M2 theme, it says "You're in violation of every law." The M2 CD of mine is the one where half of it is black, and the other half is yellow. Its got "Marathon 2: Durandal" written at the top on the yellow half, and the Bungie symbol and some copyright info on the bottom.
A while later, I bought Infinity, in its proper packaging, paid full price for it etc. I really liked the * music, so I stuck it into a CD player, but the music wasn't on it :(
Weird stuff.
Weird indeed.
Keith Palmer <krjpalme@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca> writes:
I've read the complaints from people on the Marathon's Story web page about the changes to the M1 music under QuickTime 3. I followed a tip listed a few months ago that changing the "Solo Vox" instrument to "Aah Choir" restores most of the old sound, but I wanted to compile a definitive list of changes. When I got a new G3 All-in-one with QuickTime 2.5 still installed, I resolved to go through the music files and determine the instruments that were substituted in the old, limited QuickTime Musical Instruments file, to produce music tracks that sound as close to the original as possible without actually making up a self-contained instrument file as somebody suggested.After some work, I've made determined the original instruments from the original music tracks, the instruments that substituted for them, and where to find the substitutes if they aren't in the same instrument category. Actually changing the instruments to the substitutes produces music files that sound more or less like the originals. To actually change the instruments, I opened the Get Info window for each movie using the old MoviePlayer 2.5.1 application, switched to the "Music Track" section and "Instruments" subsection, then double-clicked on each instrument name. The instruments not included in the old instrument file were listed in italics, and it was easy enough to figure out what instrument substituted for it. I made up a new Music file using entirely substitute instruments, and it sounds closer to the original Marathon sound (and works), but I'm not sure if it can be legally distributed. As a substitute, I've created a table so that people can assemble their own remixed Marathon soundtracks.
---(table begins)---
Original Instrument Substitute Instrument Location Music 00 Solo Vox Aah Choir Ensemble Room Kit Standard Kit Acoustic String Ensemble OK Music 01 Hammond Organ OK Room Kit Standard Kit Room Kit Standard Kit No Instrument ? Solo Vox Aah Choir Ensemble Music 02 Hammond Organ OK Charang Distortion Guitar Guitar Room Kit Standard Kit Rock Organ Hammond Organ Music 03 Room Kit Standard Kit Acoustic Grand Piano OK Room Kit Standard Kit Acoustic String Ensemble OK Aah Choir OK Music 04 Ice Rain Warm Synth Pad Acoustic String Ensemble OK Music 05 Solo Vox Aah Choir Ensemble Room Kit Standard Kit Music 06 Acoustic String Ensemble OK Acoustic String Ensemble OK Ice Rain Warm Synth Pad Music 07 Solo Vox Aah Choir Ensemble Halo Warm Synth Pad Room Kit Standard Kit Ice Rain Warm Synth Pad Music 08 Tremolo Strings Acoustic String Ensemble Ice Rain Warm Synth Pad Room Kit Standard Kit Ice Rain Warm Synth Pad Muic 09 Ice Rain Warm Synth Pad Acoustic String Ensemble OK Solo Vox Aah Choir Ensemble Music 10 Halo Warm Acoustic String Ensemble OK Room Kit Standard Kit Polysynth OK Music 11 Solo Vox Aah Choir Ensemble Whistle OK Acoustic String Ensemble OK Bottle Blow Pan Flute Music 12 SynthStrings 1 Acoustic String Ensemble Room Kit Standard Kit Tinkle Bell OK Solo Vox Aah Choir Ensemble Music 13 Solo Vox Aah Choir Ensemble Room Kit Standard Kit Acoustic String Ensemble OK Ice Rain Warm Synth Pad French Horn OK Melodic Tom OK Music 14 Ice Rain Warm Synth Pad Ice Rain Warm Synth Pad Ice Rain Warm Synth Pad Music 15 Dulcimer OK Room Kit Standard Kit Acoustic String Ensemble OK Acoustic String Ensemble OK---(table ends)---
I included where to find the substitute instrument if it isn't in the same "Category" submenu as the original in the dialog box used to select instruments. As a personal note, I would say that a good-sounding soundtrack can be compiled only by changing "Solo Vox" to "Aah Choir" and changing "Ice Rain" to "Warm". I should also note that I discovered that changing "Ice Rain" to "Echoes" will probably make the tracks sound more like they did under QuickTime 2.5. It's a personal opinion; I enjoy the smoother sound of "Warm", although it does warble a bit. As well, no matter what substitutes are made, I would warn that the QT3 tracks simply won't sound exactly like the QT2.5 tracks. They may sound a little more realistic; they may sound a little worse. Your mileage may vary.
I hope this table helps Marathon fans improve their music files.
Charles Srstka <csrstka@earthlink.net> follows up his earlier suggestion
of using Rescompare to make a patch for the Marathon music with the folllowing
helpful advice:
To further persuade people to make a ResCompare patch for the music file, I'm going to describe in detail how to do it. It's actually very easy to do.1. Download ResCompare 2.6 (freeware).
2. Open ResCompare. Choose "Open..." from the File menu and open the original Marathon music file from the CD.
3. Choose "Compare With..." from the File menu and select the modified music file.
4. Choose "Select All" from the Edit menu to select all resources to be patch.
5. Choose "Make Patch" from the Change menu. If a dialog box comes up bugging you about version numbers, click "Create." A dialog box comes up, asking if you want to create a new patch or append an existing one. Click "New." A new dialog box comes up. Click OK.
6. You're done. If you like, you can add a little message to the patch by editing its TEXT ID 128 resource with ResEdit. If you do, the message will display right after the user double-clicks on the patch, and before the patching.
Dan Munter <d_munter@yahoo.com> writes:
enclosed is a .sit of the m1 music file, with the replaced instruments to make it qt3-compatible. i tested it on my computer (marathon v1.2) and it works fine. you can even use it under quicktime 2; for some reason the instruments aren't changed under qt2. yippie! a universal music file!
You can get Dan's Marathon music file here (53K). Dan followed Keith Palmer's instructions in the Marathon Music section. I've played a number of levels using his edited music file but found some unfortunate distortion. Nevertheless you might find it an improvement over the present sounding music under Quicktime 3.
Remember if you are looking for the old Quicktime 2.5 files you'll find them in the FAQ section or here (1987K).
Michael Park <macgamer@ohana.com> writes
Your "Marathon Music" webpage section speaks of some odd background voices emanating from the music track. There is one in particular no one can really pinpoint, but is possible to hear.Use SoundApp or some other sort of AIFF player and play it until it hits the 12-14 second mark of the track (this is the AIFF file we're playing, not the CD). The voice sounds like a "Psst" at first, but if you play it several times over, you can make out some sort of unintelligible set of words. This voice is followed by an echo of some guitar that fades out several seconds after the voice.
What exactly it says is still a mystery, but I agree with that post from your webpage on the Marathon Music section. I think they do say "It's a dream."
James Lanfear <jclanfear@presys.com> writes:
I just found an unexpected benefit to the Deluxe CD Player packaged with Plus 98 for Windows 98. One of its features is that it can grab album info from a few sites (I forget which ones) so you don't have to enter the track names, etc, manually. It also works for game CD's--including all three Marathon discs.So, the track names from the three are:
[first track is data]
2: Splash (Marathon)
3: Landing
4: Leela
5: Freedom
6: Fat Man
7: Flippant
8: RushingM2:
2: Marathon 2 Soundtrack
3: I've Got A Bad Feeling About This...Infinity:
2: Marathon Infinity Soundtrack
3: Does He Look Dead To You?
James explains further:
The program is 'Deluxe CD Player' and comes with Plus! 98, Microsoft's expansion pack for Windows 98.Most PC and Mac CD players allow you to enter infomation about the discs you are listening to--name, artist, track names, etc, creating a database with the info about each disc. Then when you load a disc the progs will compare it to your database and call up any info you have previously entered. With the Deluxe CD Player you load a disc (with an internet connection open), then it will run the same scan, but in addition to your database, it also checks Tunes.com (where the Marathon names came from) or Music Boulevard (your choice). If it finds a match at either site it transfers that info to your personal database, saving you from having to enter everything by hand. It also works with game discs (I believe Quake II was the first game I used it on).
I'm not sure how it detects which disc you have loaded when it runs the scan, but it works for almost everything I've got, so there probably isn't any info on the CDs themselves. I'm guessing that it just checks the number of tracks, track length (probably in bytes, and by address), etc, then compares that to the database. It is very reliable--all of the problems I've had are with not finding the disc, never with finding the wrong one.
I am unaware of any other program that will do this--the last one I heard of was fairly expensive shareware, and this was a couple years ago.
Has anyone else experienced this? The list of song names identified by the Deluxe CD Player corresponds with the music track file names found by Nick Roemer some time ago (see above). But in addition we now have names for both Bob songs on the Marathon 2 and Infinity CDs. If the Deluxe CD Player looks these names up in a database on the web who put them there in the first place? Was this Bungie?
Devin O'Reilly <QuasiDevin@aol.com> writes:
If I remember correctly, CD info grabbers (such as the one used recently to extract info on the track titles for the Marathon CDs) identify the CDs from a serial number CDs have. Each has a different one. Sort of a CD fingerprint. I haven't tried them, but for the Mac users [I'd imagine the majority of Marathon fans], there are a number of programs they can use similar to James's Windows program. There is a Mac-specific one I can't seem to find the title of, but there is also a Java program called InCDius. (download.com link: here ). Needs MacOs Runtime for Java 1.5 or higher though.
Mihai Parparita <mihai@mscape.com> writes:
Most (all?) of the CD player programs which use a database for automatically naming tracks use the CD Database (CDDB) site. There are a few Mac players which do this too, and you can also search directly on their internet site for your favorite CDs, artists and tracks. Here are the addresses for the Marathon CDs:M1: http://www.cddb.com/xm/cd/soundtrack/796b328b865a745044b3eb5a532f6ea8.html
M2: http://www.cddb.com/xm/cd/data/59b00139cafe336f5181400661d63bb8.html
Moo: http://www.cddb.com/xm/cd/data/02ceb6417dd55aa850d8ba6064c8b759.htmlThe main page is (obviously) at http://www.cddb.com/
Jonathan Andrews <vidboi@bellsouth.net> writes:
I was roving about the internet when I found the following link... http://www.cddb.com/ which is a database of track titles and cd's. Did a search for Power of Seven and found this... http://www.cddb.com/xm/search?q=power+of+seven&f=artist&f=discI don't think the first Power of Seven listing is the one that did Marathon 2 and Infinity, though. Just a guess.
My question is what is the Unknown track?
Interesting find. The CDDB site info would suggest that Power of Seven released a music CD called Marathon 2: Durandal, containing two tracks:
1.Unknown
2.Marathon 2: Durandal Main Theme
Did they? Or is this simply the Marathon 2: Durandal CD ROM being confused as a Power of Seven music CD?
Mihai Parparita pointed out (above) that CDDB already had an entry for the CD ROM of Marathon 2: Durandal. The list of tracks on this CD are as follows:
1.(Data Track)
2.Marathon 2 Soundtrack
3.I've got a bad feeling about this...
The track lists are different. While the "Unknown" track listed on the Power of Seven CD may be a data track (hence unknown) why isn't the Bob song listed? Perhaps this is one of those CDs with the missing 3rd track? ;-)
Also if the Marathon 2: Durandal CD ROM is being confused as a Power of Seven music CD why isn't the same happening to the Marathon Infinity CD ROM?
The other Power of Seven CD listed at CDDB is by a Soul/R&B group.
James Gurnee <harness@access1.net> sent the following email to Paul Sebastien of Psykosonik/Power of Seven:
I hear you did the Marathon 2: Durandal Theme Music for Bungie, and I was wondering, what do those voices say on the right speaker? I can at least make out 5: "I'm after you all the way, BOB" in a low pitch, "We can do seventy-five mile hundred years, and thirty-three, BOB" in a highpitch, "Run for your life, BOB" in a very low pitch, "Our hero is thirty-three, BOB" in a high pitch, and "I can't stay away from my BOB" (although this may be saying "I'm after you all the way, BOB") in a low pitch. Also, why is there an '*eep*' ~18.9 seconds into the music?
This is the reply he got back from Paul:
Received: from imo23.mx.aol.com [198.81.17.67] by mail.access1.net with ESMTP (SMTPD32-4.07) id AF2A267034C; Mon, 22 Mar 1999 23:13:46 PST Received: from Psykosoni@aol.com by imo23.mx.aol.com (IMOv19.3) id yBPBa13430 for <harness@access1.net>; Tue, 23 Mar 1999 02:15:46 -0500 (EST) From: Psykosoni@aol.com Message-ID: <a930baac.36f73fa2@aol.com> Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 02:15:46 EST To: harness@access1.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: Re: Hidden Lyrics Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 205 Hi James, Wow, very perceptive! It's funny, I get asked this question a lot...people really want to know what the voices are saying. Well, in truth, it's just random chatter from a military airplane movie of some sort, the guy is just saying something stupid like 'I'm about 35 miles from the land base' or something like that, unrelated to Marathon completely. Sorry to burst any bubble there! :) Paul
Well there you go! Mystery solved. :-)
Hate the Marathon background music under Quicktime 3 and 4? I do and have been playing Marathon without
background music for a number of years now. A sad loss I know but those days are now over! A reader who wishes to remain anonymous writes:
Since I note you're still maintaining the Marathon story page, and you still have the comments about the problems with the original music and later versions of Quicktime, I thought you might like to try this patcher. Along the lines of the suggestion on the music page of replacing some of the improperly-substituted instruments from the rather poor set in QT2, it makes use of the much richer set in QT4 (including the native GS instruments as well as the GM ones, which are what it now refers to as "substitutes") to get as close as possible to the original sound. In my opinion it's slightly better than the Music file you currently have a link to (though the choices are quite similar), and distributing a patcher is more legal as well as smaller. You have my permission to do so.I also put the song titles and comments on which game level each originally appeared on in the Quicktime annotations, so if you use the music exploder on the patched file and open the MIDI movies you'll get nice titles. Yippee.
There is still some distortion on the first song (Landing/Arrival), perhaps because the Marathon app is mixing it down to play it. The others are all pretty clean now.
You can grab the patcher here (29K), I've tried it and it works very well. The music is very like the original with just a few differences but much... much... better than before. If you get an error while trying to patch grab a fresh copy of the original Marathon Music file, the one you presently have may have been altered in some way.
Marathon Music Sucks!... was a common complaint following the release of Quicktime 3.0 in March 1998.
The search for an acceptable solution for playing Marathon's MIDI files was a frequent endeavour in the years
that followed but without any satisfactory long term solution. A whole generation of Marathoner's have grown
up not knowing the original Marathon Music sound.
But what if... you could go back to 1995 and listen to that original sound and somehow capture it in AIFF format, burn it to CD and bring it back to the future for everyone to hear.
But what if... you could go back even further, to say November 1994, before the release of Marathon and listen to the original Marathon Songs by Alexander Seropian. Those same songs that mysteriously appeared on the net around the time of the Marathon gamma leak. And what if you captured that sound in AIFF format, burnt it to CD and brought it back to the future for everyone to hear.
But what if... you accidentally burnt Alex's Marathon Sounds folder (containing the original named tracks before they were released) to CD and also brought that back to the future.
Great Scott!... if opened that could create a time paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum, and destroy the entire Marathon universe! Granted, that's a worse case scenario. The destruction might in fact be very localized, limited to merely the Story page.
You have been warned.
Original Marathon Songs in Apple Lossless format (iTunes ready with original 1994 cover artwork) (125MBs .zip)
Original Marathon Songs in AAC format 256 kbps (VBR) (iTunes ready with original 1994 cover artwork) (77MBs .zip)
Original Marathon Songs folder (Absolutely Do Not Open This... and definitely not iTunes ready) (original unopened .sit)
Happy listening.
Concerning the original Marathon Songs posted (above), treellama <wolfy@treellama.org>
correctly points out that QuickTime 2.5 didn't come out until 1996. And that Quicktime 2.0
(released Feb 1994) would give the true original 1994 listening experience.
QuickTime 2.0 was in fact the first version to add support for music tracks in the form of MIDI data. But it didn't come free which meant that many people didn't have it when the Marathon Demo was released in Nov 1994. Without it you couldn't play the background music which lead some people to go to extraordinary lengths to get the necessary files to play the music.
Realising that their game was turning people to the Dark Lord or Sarah McLachlan, Bungie eventually bundled QuickTime 2.0 on the Marathon CD and the Marathon 4L Demo CD. What happened to Kazem Edmond nobody knows. ;-)
Although finding QuickTime 2.0 was easy, getting conversion software to work with QT 2.0 installed is proving challenging. Time to don those boxers once more...
The Marathon MIDI Music to AIFF under QuickTime 2.0 project. Tougher than you think...
It is quite clear now that to get the authentic Marathon Music sound you must play the music with Quicktime 2.0 installed. But finding software that will convert the Marathon Music MIDIs to AIFF with QuickTime 2.0 installed is proving very difficult.
If you want to help in the Marathon MIDI Music to AIFF under QuickTime 2.0 project drop by the Story forum.
The authentic Marathon Music deserves to be heard by everyone.
The Marathon MIDI Music to AIFF under QuickTime 2.0 project. When the going gets tough... the tough get a cable. ;)
If you yearn for the original Marathon Music sound or are just curious to know what the Marathon MIDI Music originally sounded like under QuickTime 2.0 (the version available when the game was released) then you are in luck.
Here is a test comparison of the track Flippant (used on Defend THIS! and Neither High nor Low) recorded under QuickTime 2.0 (released Feb '94) and QuickTime 2.5 (released July '96). Both are in AIFF format which can be played by most audio software.
Judge the difference in the sound for yourself.
The Marathon MIDI Music to AIFF under QuickTime 2.0 project. When the going gets tough... the tough hand over to the experts. ;)
Yes, we will have original high quality Marathon Music soon. Check the Story forum for the audiophile wars!
Thanks to Jeremiah Morris (aka Hopper) for digitally recording the Marathon Music tracks
under QuickTime 2.0. Not only is this the authentic Marathon Music sound but it's as close to audiophile quality
as we've ever had it. You can grab the music in:
Apple Lossless (best for iTunes) (109MBs .zip)
WAV format (for programs that can't read ALAC) (111MBs .zip)
MP3 format (for M1A1)
Here is the Read Me for the Apple Lossless tracks if you want to read before downloading.
Another piece of Marathon preserved for future generations. :)
Here's some cover art (600X600) for the Marathon Music tracks (above).
It's taken from the opening screen of the Marathon demo v0.0 so it's authentic and original as you can get. Oddly, when the full game was released Bungie dropped the Marathon symbol from the opening screen.
After seven (yes, seven) years Craig Hardgrove has released the last of his Marathon Music remakes.
You can listen to them all at his new site - The Marathon Music.
You will also find the original Marathon Music tracks there too, along with an interview with
Alex Seropian (creator of the original Marathon music).
Using a process of audio normalization, fracai <arno@alum.wpi.edu> provides 'louder' versions of
Marathon Music recorded under QuickTime 2.0 by Hopper (see above). In this Story forum post
he desribes the process and tools used to achieve the desired affect.
You can download them here in either Apple Lossless (128MBs .zip format) or MP3 format (39MBs .zip format).