The Sounds Of HALO: Combat Evolved
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- Опубликовано: 4 июл 2024
- A look at some of the equipment used by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori to score Halo: Combat Evolved, released in 2001.
Huge thank you to Neo Te Aika, Frostbyte, Booey, Noelle, Yewlyn, Python Blue, Jafet Meza, RenSFX, meowsandstuff, Fleetwire, AtlyxMusic, PunkGalFuryn and anyone else at Project Odyssey for their incredible work identifying many of the sounds that I showed in this video.
Check out Project Odyssey:
odysseyaudio.org/odyssey.html
Thank you also to my Patrons on Patreon.
0:00 Intro
0:50 Halo
3:21 Terminate
5:27 India Garden
7:12 TarzansDance
8:41 St. Choir
9:14 Beauty Vox
10:12 Kit 424
11:06 Symphonique
12:25 Biosphere
12:53 Cascade
14:09 Albion
15:01 Oasis
15:51 SoundtrkDANC
16:38 Summary 
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😎
The man himself. 😀
This is legendary. LASO level
LOVE YOU MARTY.
You're one in a million Marty ! Halo's soundtrack is on the best musical pieces ever made, period.
Beautiful!
My father passed away a month ago, and left me all of his Roland’s and pedal mixers and keyboards and I had no idea what to do with it all… thank you for showing this!!! I can recreate halo now and make him angry from beyond with his precious music being created for some 343 guilty spark sounds haha!
"...but looking around at my studio, I've learned nothing." - I feel seen. lol
oh god hard same. NOTHING
Soon, there is going to be the rapture. It's when there will be trumpet sounds, and after the trumpet sounds, God will lift his people from here. Also, God said people should be living by the Bible. Amen, and God bless you.
❤Jesus loves you guys. Dont wait, please. He will welcome you with arms wide open.❤
❤* John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life". ❤
@@allenvayner4987 Will those be FM Trumpets? DX7 perhaps?
It makes you wonder how people have any money left by the end of it.
That Beauty Vox sound alone is a personal time machine. Brings back memories of not just Halo, but so many other little aspects of life in the 90s/early 00s
The Beauty Vox sounds like OG Xbox games look. Kinda chunky, but still so sleek and cool and retro-new.
The technological leap we were given with Halo in the early 2000s is something I wish everyone could experience at some point in their lifes. Not sure if kids these days will really ever feel the same sense of complete awe that we all felt seeing this game for the first time back 20 years ago.
I think we got pretty close with RDR2 and TLOU II around 2018, the latter being especially mind blowing if you play it on PS5 now. But yeah Halo was incredible and still looks better than so many games because of the art direction and sheer passion they put in it. ❤
Playstation 1 my guy. Halo is nothing in comparison
They will absolutely experience it like you can't even imagine
@@bunnypeople oh tell me the ways, daddy
@@RKisBae I mean it may not feel so groundbreaking because it's not the world transitioning to a digital way of life from analogue, but technology is progressing faster now than it was even back then.
Many people forget that a good chunk of music from games was created using tech from the decade before them~ Wonderful that composers at the time were squeezing out catchy tunes and memorable pieces using "out of date" tech to most people- it's not always the age of your instrument that counts... it's how you use it!
You can't expect much from people online. To this day the "latest" is the "bestest" according to many gear forums. Or analogue is more better than digital. Pick your poison
@@jumpingman8160 Meanwhile I dabble in standard windows GM midi ;P
Though the 90s and early 00s I worked at a rather famous developer with it's own internal music studio. They had a lot of up to date digital kit like the big korg workstations, and various analogue classics. Also everyone raided the amazing sample CDs back then. CDs created by teams that would go onto create software like omnisphere. A lot of 90s kit sounded great and is still used now. Games studios were using the same gear that made all the classic pop and dance we still love now.
Once games moved to CDs only budget and time limited quality.
@@moonmonkey303 Those sample CDs were so prevalent in everything! Games, music, TV, movies... "X sounds like X!" etc
The power of arrangement
You have no idea how happy the Doom and Duke Nukem pieces made me.
Ah, the 90s. 😍
@@AlexBallMusic cause i'm a nice guy i'll challenge you to a 1v1 and i'll ONLY use the pistol
Born to be willld , I don't have time to play with myself
Remember in dukenukem the level with the shrink ray, where you can step on your friends in deathmatch..
Used to play Doom in college on SGI workstations as ID software released a version to run on them.
FINALLY A SOURCE OF EVERYTHING IN THE HALO CE OST. I've literally been looking for something like this for like 2 years now, since I got really into making music with DAWs. Thank you.
I was playing Halo CE yesterday and thought, "man this sound design is way better than what we have in modern games today". Good video!
I feel like modern game soundtracks have a bit less character to them. A lot of things nowadays just sound very "Hollywood," whereas older games didn't always sound like a corny movie score. I think a big reason is because nowadays, big studios can afford to just commission a Diet Hans Zimmer from Hollywood to make music for them. And said Hollywood/Music Industry composer probably isn't too familiar with video games and just goes "uh, here ya go. Made the entire soundtrack in less than a week. What was the game about again?"
Back in 2001, composers for video games probably either liked video games or were involved in making them. If that's the case, it shouldn't be a wonder old soundtracks feel more unique to the experience even if the soundtracks were produced with "lesser" gear and production quality.
@@urphakeandgey6308 "uh, here ya go. Made the entire soundtrack in less than a week. What was the game about again?" what an insane statement... Soundtracks take months if not years to compose and master.
Sound design is generally not related to the soundtrack
@@urphakeandgey6308you really don’t know how soundtracks are composed and recorded
Halo 4 sounds very horrible
The Roland XV range must have scored countless soundtracks. They still sound great today.
Yep! It's a very familiar sounding box.
Would 100% watch a livestream of Alex playing the original Halo.
Which difficulty level? 😂
@@AlexBallMusic Legendary
Yeah that's called Onlyfans.
@@RandomShit169 I completed every level on Legendary, except the Truth and Reconciliation where I got stuck in the launch bay with all the Covenant on the different levels and the hunters. One day I'll do it.
Why am I not surprised
Yes, the exotic vocals. The old trick of working at the studio late when nobody else is around and just singing gibberish in a highish range, and adding lots of reverb.
Surprisingly that worked pretty well. I believe he also did the other "female exotic voice" that is in one of the main themes, kinda a yodele kinda thing. I believe he was asking one of his men choir guys to do it, and when demonstrating it the guy just said "why don't you just do it".
Great vid, Alex! Super to see our documentation go out there to good use. Cheers!
Thanks for all the amazing work with Odyssey.
As someone who has appreciated Halo deeply for the past couple decades, along with being an electronic musician that absolutely loves the history of equipment/composition/etc., this video was tremendously special to me. It was simply an absolute joy to watch! Thank you for sharing what Project Odyssey has done and making a video sharing your own discoveries and such as well, I really loved it.
And many of the XV sounds are straight from the JV-1080/2080. 😄
Yep! You know it sir.
And the XV has many of the waveforms from the JD as well as the effects processor. (Which was brilliant for me because my XV handles both the JD and JV sounds in my live rig after I retired my JD800 and JV2080.)
@@AlexBallMusicI used the JV to make a halo themed album a few years back, awesome to see you made a video on these Roland synths!
Aaaah the JV-1080 🤤
it was a lot of fun sitting in discord calls with neo and booey listening to old demo disc's and patches to try and find halo sfx and music. Very cool to see their project getting some recognition.
So many hours. I forget that HALO was an evolution of Bungie's MARATHON, another game that had some great music and background effects. Thanks!
Don’t forget about Myth and Oni!
I like this video, thanks Alex!
The sound of that era of samplers/rompler is fantastic! And they still sound futuristic to me. I find it fascinating how many working composers used unaltered presets and sample CDs back then. The soundtrack of Metroid Prime, for example, is basically "just" a bunch of Proteus 2000 presets, a Korg Electribe, MS-2000(?), MicroKorg and the Uncivilized Grooves sample CD. But it totally works. And blew me away at the time. Synamax here on RUclips did a splendid job figuring out what sounds were used for Metroid Prime.
Yep! The joys of rack mount romplers and a controller. 😀
I don't know Metroid Prime, so I'll have to check that out.
@@AlexBallMusicThere’s remarkable music throughout that entire series. The Smash Bros Ultimate OST is a good jumping off point as it has medleys, remixes, and other highlights of many of the best tunes.
Another great example that's also lauded for it's soundtrack is Half Life. Like 80% of the music made for the first game includes samples from like 3 or 4 different sample CDs and yet all put together it's incredible.
As a massive Halo fan, thank you so much for this video. At times you've covered music and sounds that are deeply fascinating, but never has the subject of one of your videos been so close incredibly close to my sense of self.
Glad it hit home! Was a pleasure to explore these sounds.
Finding out the Halo choir isn't real choir is like finding out the Seinfeld bass isn't real bass.
11:29 I've always loved that XV Symphonique patch with the timpani in the lower register. It's perfect for playing the Indiana Jones theme! 🧡
Cheesy symphony in a box. Works a charm in the Halo score.
Great video! A friend at school bought me an Xbox when we were about 15. Out of nowhere. Was very odd and out of the blue but boy did I love that guy! Halo came with it and many many hours of fun. Especially on Assault on The Control Room. And the silent cartographer too. What times!
I wouldn’t have expected you to go into video games!
It’s amazing seeing you delve into these iconic sounds. And thank you Project Odyssey!
Amazing Job. Now, it would be cool to have a video about the Metal Gear Solid (PS1) soundtrack. That was an amazing piece of art. Probably my favourite videogame soundtrack ever
Been a follower of yours since the Terminator vid. Gotta say, I've been quietly hoping you would do something like this for a while. And I loved every bit of it! Great to see Neo and the Odyssey team's work getting some well-deserved recognition.
The Terminator video. That's some years ago now! Thanks for sticking around, I'm glad this was something you were hoping for.
The Kit 424 Audition sample blew my mind. That little demo has gotten stuck in my head so many times, it's a very unique beat, and on the track the bass kick that follows it is perfect.
Fun video! So many great classic synths used on the Halo stuff, and many other games from that time
The XV and XP series are always too often slept on for how great they were and still are, I'm still a ride or die fan of them. Honestly, most of these Y2K era 'do everything' machines get next to no respect. I've got a K2000 and an XP80 and I'm still finding all these weird little quirks and tricks to use with them, and they sound really, really good
I have a bunch of library albums from the early 2000s that are all about travel documentary cues, and they are 99% Roland JV and XV units.
Such a glorious vibe.
Yep! Such a familiar sound.
@@AlexBallMusic I've also been watching some videos about game scores relying heavily on Spectrasonics' Distorted Reality sample libraries and stuff by Zero-G as well. A weird sort of nostalgia to have but, I love it!
Metroid Prime also uses the Proteus 2000 (and MS2000) and also has a great soundtrack
I loved the music for Halo. Many of the chord sequences influenced my own productions.
Halo has had some of the greatest scores in gaming history and it’s so cool to see the gear that went into the Combat Evolved score. Keep up the great work Alex!! ✨🎶✨
Such a classic.
This was fantastic! Back in the late 90s I worked for a large, American music retailer… a center for guitars if you will. I worked in the keyboard department.. and sold a ton of the XP-50 keyboards; the forerunner of the XV series. They just had such a great (for the time) sound.
I can imagine that they sold well!
As someone who was all in on the CD-ROM era of gaming, this was so awesome. Halo was a leap forward, but it's soundtrack was still very much like the "Redbook audio" era of gaming. I know many consider the sound of those modules "canned" but they have such a soft spot in my heart and have been a major influence in my own compositions.
Awesome video! Don't get me wrong, I love quirky analog gear, but the 90s and early 2000s ROMplers hold a special place in my heart.
Probably because that's the sound I grew up hearing the most as a kid, hehe.
Still one of if not the best synth channel on RUclips.
Yes thank god, such an underanalyzed element of the incredible atmosphere of the first game
I used to bring my lil green madcatz controller and the memory card with my live tag on it everywhere with me cuz i knew the chance we end up jammin halo 2 at someones house was damn near 100%
A couple years back I got the sudden craving for an early 00s DnB , Trip Hop , and general “ Electronica “ sound design revisit . Got a $50 dollar mini Pc running E-MU Emulator X3 and it’s libraries, SM Pro V-Machine for a few prehistoric 32 bit VSTi’s , Pi400 I already had running Atari Cubase 2 and an Akai Miniak off Goodwill for about $150 as an Access Virus stand in . I doubt I’d have gone to that much effort had it not been during lockdown , but post the tech hurdles it was fun to revisit and the results where authenticity pleasing for the rabbit hole project. Cheers !
9:14 - One of the coolest tracks! I also love the way it's incorporated into the game. The track starts the moment you snipe your first enemy. So great. And yeah, finding out who the "ethnic voice chick" really is, was a shocker.
Yeah! Love it when that comes in.
And it is now forever ruined by the voice reveal. 😂
Such an awesome video! I really appreciate your ability to dive as deeply as you do with the original hardware.
The Proteus 2000 + Korg MS-2000 was heavily used by Kenji Yamamoto on the Metroid Prime soundtracks and shares a lot of the same sonic DNA.
Hey Alex! Cheers, it was fun to explore.
Someone else mentioned Metroid Prime and so I'll have to check it out.
You have to mention the Roland SC88 as well.
I am absolutely blown away!
I can't believe they ripped the "Demo" straight off of it! Thats funny.
Soil your pants territory 😂 Alex's terminology for sounds 😂😂
I just want you to know that I was desperate for a wee, but watched your vid, then when you did the ‘egg box’ gag, I let out a loud laugh and little bit of wee. Now I have a small wet patch. I’ve cleaned myself up and come back to watch the rest of the vid and make this comment
Hearing that devils, monsters bit has me hoping for a complete remaster of that
"Ive learnt Nothing" really cracked me up :D
This video is something I have wondered about for such a long time! I have always wondered if anyone else dived into old audio gear to find the patches and Im mega grateful that you have demo'd these for us! Amazing work man
My XV5080 finally made it bros!
Terminate was also used by Frank Klepacki in Command and Conquer Red Alert for the track titled... TERMINATE.
A video about the Silent Hill OST would be amazing... Also Mass Effect 1 I feel had some interesting synths being used.
That soundtrack was something of an enigma.
I still listen to the Halo CE soundtrack almost daily at work and this was so cool to learn more about the technical side of it. Thank you!
This video is amazing! Thank you for this
I'm loving this video, thank you so much!
Can't express how much I love this channel! HUGE thanks to you Alex!
Omg one of my favorite RUclipsrs dropping a video about one of my favorite soundtracks! Great video, a mass effect one would be awesome as well!
Really enjoyed this, thank you. Excellent soundtrack.
Hello Alex: The "I've learnt nothing" gave me a genuine laugh. I am much, much older than you and I haven learnt absolutely nothing. This is an excellent video. Have a lovely day.
Good to know that we will continue to learn nothing going forward. 😂
your whole channel is a whole treasure trove of cool sounds and things that go bleepbloop but of course it’s halo that led me to it all i love this so much
Absolutely class video!
It wa slike seeing behind the magic curtain, facinating to see where the sounds came from,
Would love to see more videos like this, also quite interesting to realise how many sounds and techniques were subsiquently used in the later games too!
This is why you're the GOAT... make a Silent Hill one and you'll have captured my highschool days.
A video on Silent hill would be awesome!
yes PLEASE
It would be amazing to see a video like this about Half Life 2. It has an amazing sound design, still the best for me.
Incredible video! I just love old synthesizers, such a charm to their sound.
Alex, these videos are amazing!! I never stop learning with you!!❤
oh my god now THIS is the video for me. Honestly as a huge Halo fan and Synth fan and fan of your channel thank you
Bravo! Big fan of the Halo: CE ost and finding out the magic behind music. Well done to you and the Odyssey team!
THIS IS SUCH A COOL VIDEO! Hats off to you for this one, man. Absolute gem.
Fascinating video. I loved Halo at release and it got back into gaming. The score also got me back into music!
incredible!! what a cool video! :D i love when you can see / hear about the different music tracks / sounds from games n media n such! i'd love to see if you can find any other sounds that were used in other games too!
Fantastic video! Makes me miss the summer of 2000 -something when I got into these games with a 360 and Halo 3. Also read the some of the books - the first one was great - which enhanced the experience. Never cared for going outside with friends, that was my way of enjoying the summer!
Just checked and most of the Roland XV sounds are presets in the current Fantom range of synths.
Mind blowing video 👏
So dedicated, thank you for this amazing Video Alex 😇
Oh wow... I'm just realising that if I had a spare lifetime I'd do exactly this with Deus Ex and Tiberian Sun, the two games of my teenage years that had STUNNING soundtracks. Sadly I don't even have the time to continue being at the cutting edge of understanding Rammstein's use of keyboards and synths (something I was totally dedicated to at one point). I'm am kinda content in the sense with being a musician who can hand on heart say that video game music has inspired a chunk of my work in ways I'll probably never know, but nor will anyone else.... hey. who cares, that influence is absolutely there, along with fond memories of playing some epic games!
This was awesome. Halo has really been in my algorithm lately, and here you come with an amazing breakdown of the iconic sounds of my childhood. Thanks for this video!
Must be in the air. 🙂
I love this video so much, thank you!!!
Your commentary and presentation makes this so much easier to follow! Especially for someone not into the technicalities of music like me :D
This is amazing! We'll have to have a look at this spreadsheet that you mentioned.
Subscribed to you for years, you have no idea how happy I am to see you do a video on one of my favourite games and composers (that Flood music still gives me the creeps lol)
Really loved the video! Hoping to see you cover some other VG soundtracks in this format for the future.
Once again, fantastic work 🙂
Super cool video, I could watch this type of stuff for hours. I would love to see more video game soundtrack dives; video game music I feel is very overlooked
That Roland JV/XV sound engine was magical. I still prefer it somehow, to anything else. Organic, emotional, human.
Thanks for the video. Again a prove that sampling in combination with layering is a very powerful sound form.
Don't know if it's your cup of tea, but I'd love to see a video like this about the sounds of silent hill 1. Great video, thanks!
I learned so much from this! Thank you!
This video had me feeling like a kid again. Thank you so much.
Love this dude
Yesssss! Thank you alex for this video.
this is awesome!!!!
As a Sound Design masters student currently, your channel has really been a godsend for inspiration and for information that’s incredibly helpful to me, thank you Alex!
Just amazing to hear where those iconic sounds came from!
Can't get enough of these sounds... the memories, dang! Part two? More please!!!
Oh God, I smiled like you did - all through this Alex. Took me right back :)
I just found this video 2 weeks after it has been uploaded but I just wanted to say that I got chills and goosebumps hearing all of these beautiful pieces of Halo music! I admit I smiled the whole time and nearly shed a tear as the memories of when I played Halo CE came flooding in :)
I've had a non-stop grin on my face all the way through this one! I've been obsessed with the Halo soundtrack since I first heard it's influenced SO MUCH of the music I make - especially the use of all those ambient pads. But despite being obsessed with Under Cover of Night in particular, it, I somehow managed to miss the fact that I've had that ACTUAL vocal pad sitting in my rack for the past 15 years! Surely a sign I have too many sample libraries...
You should look up the Super Mario World remakes. The people behind that have done the same thing and tracked down all the synthesizers and presets, and that sounds WILD because its not crushed into oblivion to run on the SNES hardware.
4:18 that ambiance is from the Sim City 3000 soundtrack! The song "Power Grid". It's burned into my brain forever.
The brass samples out of the Rolands *scream* Roland. Roland has always had really rubbery brass sounds even to this day.
Cheers. Yeah, I started finding other game sounds in the XV. Seems it (and its predecessors) were staples of game scores.
Perhaps other things to explore in the future.
Great video! Congrats on the writing gig over at SoS, Alex. Loving the column so far.
Cheers! Got some more of those coming.
Looking forward to it!
god damn memories
thank you Alex you are the best
Your mention of the Terminator 2 theme sent me down a rabbit hole of listening to Brad Fiedel's score for that and the first film. Awesome stuff, up there with John Carpenter's finest and Gerald McMann's "Cry Little Sister" from the Lost Boys soundtrack.
Great video ! Excellent ! :-)
I think some of these modules were also used to produce Myth 1 & 2 soundtracks.
Nice video!