Music of Halo 2

[Shadow20002]

Marty O'Donnell recently sent us word about the music recording sessions he's produced so far for HALO 2.

"On August 2nd, 2002 I produced the music for the Halo 2 Announcement Trailer at Triad Studios in Redmond WA. The engineer was Steve Culp and we recorded a 32 piece orchestra and a 16 voice choir. I tend to keep my groups small and then overdub or layer takes in order to get a bigger sound. This allows me to have more control over the final mix and have better separation between parts for future music arrangements. On May 2nd 2003 I produced the music for the E3 2003 Halo 2 Demo at Studio X in Seattle. Reed Ruddy was lead engineer and Sam Hofstedt was second. On both sessions the musicians were contracted by Simon James who was also 1st violin, Marcie O’Donnell (my wife) conducted the choir and I was the composer
and orchestrator.

Source@

[JediMasterChief]

The music in both trailers for Halo 2 was excellent and showed 100% effort for gaming composition. It's like the music for Halo, which was also great.

[l Maximus l]

I like how Halo 2 is basically Halo on steroids...but, still keeps the basic fundamentals of what the first Halo had...right down to the music

[SPARTAN VI]

Koopa has spoken with Marty via PMing at one of the bungie sites. Our orchestra plans on playing Halo music after Koopa brought in the Halo theme to show an example of gregorian monks. Now, Koopa has Marty on his XBL friends list and we're looking forward to getting our hands on some Halo scores. w00t, not only can I listen to the tune while playing Halo, but I'll be able to play it, too.

Go Koopa Poopa.

[Koopa]

Originally posted by SPARTAN VI
Koopa has spoken with Marty via PMing at one of the bungie sites. Our orchestra plans on playing Halo music after Koopa brought in the Halo theme to show an example of gregorian monks. Now, Koopa has Marty on his XBL friends list and we're looking forward to getting our hands on some Halo scores. w00t, not only can I listen to the tune while playing Halo, but I'll be able to play it, too.

Go Koopa Poopa.

he pretty much said no.

he said he didn't have a workable orchestral score, but i could feel free to arrange it myself...
but thats alotta work and im not good enuff.

[l Maximus l]

[mattgame]

Originally posted by Maximus-XBA
I like how Halo 2 is basically Halo on steroids...but, still keeps the basic fundamentals of what the first Halo had...right down to the music

Exactly. Although I wouldn't care if the music was the theme to Sesame Street as long as it plays great.

[CMX Jedi]

i like the music from halo 1 i hope the music in halo 2 is just as good.

[MerimacHamwich]

I hope it has custom soundtrack support. As much as I love the Halo music, listening to my own music on XBL is something I would love. Hard Rock + Halo = Amazing.

[l Maximus l]

Originally posted by MerimacHamwich
I hope it has custom soundtrack support. As much as I love the Halo music, listening to my own music on XBL is something I would love. Hard Rock + Halo = Amazing.

Yeah...I think the custom soundtrack support would be sweet for multi-player. But, definately not in the campaign...it would detract from the game too much, IMO.

Even with the multi-player, though...I doubt I would use the custom soundtrack feature (if it had one, of course), even in the first several months. Once I master every multi-player level...I would probably bust out the soundtracks. The main reason is due to the fact that I want to see how and why Bungie did what they did for the music and/or sound effects for each multi-player level.

Take Blood Gulch, for example...it wouldn't be the same without the birds chearping and stuff...that's just me. Or Derelict with it's brutal engine sounding background noise. There's something about the sounds of the multi-player levels that get me so much more pumped up than tunes...but, after time goes by, why not bust out some of your own music? I don't know, I may be in the minority on this one, but, this is what I would do, personally.

[JJaX]

I agree with Max...But ill take it even further.

When playing muliplayer, sound plays a pretty big roll in being successful.

[IlliniFan86]

I agree, the music is a big part of Halo, as cool as custom soundtracks would be it would take away more from the game than it would put in.

[smack_roscoe]

I love the music of Halo. Majestic is what comes to mind. It propels your forward.

Is it true that there will be female chanting voices to accompany the male monks chanting? Easily the best game music I ever heard. Wonderful, wonderful stuff.

[l Maximus l]

Originally posted by JJaX
I agree with Max...But ill take it even further.

When playing muliplayer, sound plays a pretty big roll in being successful.

Exactly...imagine playing an intense 4 v 4 match at Hang Em High and all of the sudden your XBox kicks on the soundtrack with some bump and grind type tune. Not cool....

[SPARTAN VI]

Originally posted by Koopa


he pretty much said no.

he said he didn't have a workable orchestral score, but i could feel free to arrange it myself...
but thats alotta work and im not good enuff.

Boooooooooo...

How is it possible to not have an orchestral score when there's clearly an orchestra playing the music? Is it synthesized or something? Blah, tell him you'll pay him to score an orchestral version... pay him with matzah....