All-New X-Com Soundtrack! (Sans-intro music)

[Gifty]

Greetings to you! I want to say that this port is a thing of beauty -- the way the menus move so much faster than in DOSbox, and the cursor doesn't huff and puff across the screen like it's having a baby. It's great. It's inspired me to write X-Com music, because after 100+ hours of (consecutive) play you can't really write anything else. It's now grown into a full-on soundtrack replacement. As perfect as the vanilla music is, I figure you guys are like me and hear those songs in your sleep. Some variety is always nice. So voila, here she is!

Full Soundtrack:
[Download]

Individual Tracklisting:
[MENU - "X"]
[GEO1 - "Contingency Plan"]
[GEO2 - "The Lab"]
[GEO3 - "Project Bluebook"]
[GEO4 - "The Big Board"]
[INTERCEPTION - "Avalanche"]
[TACTIC1 - "Greys"]
[TACTIC2 - "They're Here"]
[BRIEFING - "Jetlag"]
[DEBRIEF - "Dates and Names"]
[TERROR - "Worst-Case Scenario"]
[MARS - "Cydonia or Bust"]
[WIN - "Big Red One"]
[LOSE - "Colony Earth"]

These were created with Ableton 9 and a towering pile of Amiga chipset samples. If you're a fan of the Straylight Productions tracker-based soundtracks of the early 90s, you'll know where I was coming from with this. Stuff like Crusader: No Remorse, Unreal, Jazz Jackrabbit, etc. I'm a huge fan of that general sound, and I also liked that it was period-appropriate for X-Com, so that's what I went with. You might think of this as: "if Alexander Brandon scored X-Com." (These were mixed on an old pair of Steelseries headphones, which I tried to get as level as possible; hopefully it'll sound alright on your end. If it doesn't, I can always bust out the old studio monitors and do'em up all nice)


Bonus Tracks:
["Big Red One," Long Version]
["Dates and Names," Long Version]
[Untitled - Alternate win music 1]
[Untitled - Alternate win music 2]
["Ghost Rockets" - Alternate battlescape music]

[All bonus tracks]

[luke83]

Nice work mate, i have had a quick listen to a few and they will definitely get a spin from me

[Daiky]

I'm listening at them on a pair of KRK RP8 studio monitors and it sounds good enough for a game I think, I'm no specialist at mastering tracks though. The lo-fi / retro sound really fits the game. You should really check out this soundtrack, I think you will like as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8SM3aWjRZ8 

I started remaking some tracks from the xcom game a while ago (also using ableton live btw) , but they ended up very similar than the original, using the same notes, actually stealing whole melodies, mostly replacing the instruments... You used some new tunes, so that's a lot more creative. great job.

[SupSuper]

Great work. I didn't think X-Com could get any more retro, but you sure showed me! I'm a huge fan of this style of music, it really takes me to the old DOS/Amiga days of tracker music everywhere.

[xracer]

i like it!!! it sounds really nice

[Gifty]

Whoops; the version of GMWIN in the zip was the long version, not the for-gameplay version. This has been rectified.

Aside from that, thank you guys very much! I was a little nervous there, for a minute.

[Yankes]

your music is overall good, but music form battlescape is great If rest of music was a bit more (not exactly) like that your soundtrack would be perfect.

[Mr. Quiet]

I love Retro style. Thanks Gifty you are very talented
You also made it easy to throw in. Thanks again Gifty!

The Geoscape tracks are really nice, though you should add more silence parts with eerie sounds

Just heard the Battlescape tracks. Both tracks are a go, I repeat, both Battlescape tracks are A GO!

Side question here: Is it possible to add multiple tracks to one area like in the UFO Extender? For example six Geoscape tracks are chosen at random and it'll loop one track until you come back to the Geo from either the battlescape or Interception.

[Gifty]

Side question here: Is it possible to add multiple tracks to one area like in the UFO Extender? For example six Geoscape tracks are chosen at random and it'll loop one track until you come back to the Geo from either the battlescape or Interception.

I was curious about this myself, but I'm not sure. It would certainly be cool to have a few more battlescape tracks in the rotation.

You should really check out this soundtrack, I think you will like as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8SM3aWjRZ8 

Yes! I have yet to play the game, but I heard Powerglove's soundtrack and it's great. Another good artist in that style is Perturbator, of Hotline Miami fame.

The soundtrack is now up on the OpenXcom mod site, which you have Luke to thank for! Thanks again for the warm reception, guys.

[SupSuper]

I was curious about this myself, but I'm not sure. It would certainly be cool to have a few more battlescape tracks in the rotation.

As I say a lot around these parts, "not yet" my TODO list is long enough to wrap around the Earth.

[cj]

i really like this, the mid 90s tracker sound fits xcom perfectly!

are you planning on releasing new soundtracks as time goes on? I feel like after a while this may become permanently seared into my brain 

[Gifty]

As I say a lot around these parts, "not yet" my TODO list is long enough to wrap around the Earth.

Of course! Far more important to squash bugs and the like than to be fiddling around with audio niceties at this stage.

are you planning on releasing new soundtracks as time goes on? I feel like after a while this may become permanently seared into my brain 

I'd like to do a similar pack for TFTD once it's supported! Before settling on the Amiga sound, I was also trying out some more modern-sounding stuff which I may eventually go back and finish, but probably only if people want it, since modern synths are tons harder.

[Daiky]

Any chance you would release the ableton live project file(or as a midi). I could dust off a few old synths and try re-recording your tracks with them (once my hobby room is finished, it's under construction atm)

[Gifty]

Any chance you would release the ableton live project file(or as a midi). I could dust off a few old synths and try re-recording your tracks with them (once my hobby room is finished, it's under construction atm)

Sorry, I meant to reply to this earlier; but yeah, of course that can be done! I'm honored that you would take such an interest. I'm kind of indisposed at the present time, but I'll have that all packaged up for you before the day is out.

EDIT: Here they be! Ableton 9 project files are, unfortunately, incompatible with previous versions. If that's a problem, the zip also includes basic MIDI files, which are just as good.

[Gifty]

Uh oh! What is this? Some sort of mystery song?

(Hint: it's not actually a mystery if you look at it)