
So seven years after I uploaded clear rips from the PS1 version I'm back with something I never thought was possible. I didn't have a PlayStation when this game came out, so I never knew they had their actual themes until years later. Instead, I grew completely used to the MIDI renditions of the N64 version. Fast forward 21 years later and I've finally come across a way to rip the MIDI sequences from the ROM, as well as a useable soundfont of the custom instruments. From there I just had to load both into a DAW that would allow me to isolate and render each of the sixteen tracks individually. The results are, as far as I know, the first recordings of the game available online that are sourced from the original MIDI, and not recorded straight off TV speakers or a WAV dump from an emulator. And since I have the separate tracks, I was also able to produce two alternate versions of each theme, causing this project to balloon from twenty-something tracks to almost seventy. Originally, the themes in the game were very narrow, with almost no stereo separation outside of a few uses with lead guitar lines. For these versions I've widened the image a decent amount and added a little saturation and reverb, as the raw MIDIs are naturally pretty dry sounding. I missed the twenty year anniversary but I'll be rolling these out daily until we pass the twenty-first anniversary on August 11th. Make sure you listen until the end of each one to hear the best ending I could squeeze out of the tracks, plus a few lines from Vince and JR. As for what's next, I'll probably take something of a break. I've been working on this off and on since December 2018. It would have been done a lot sooner but I also work full time. I still get new subscribers from my War Zone and Attitude uploads; so in case any of you are wondering, no, I don''t think this will be possible with Attitude because that music was compressed streams. But it should be possible to do with WM 2000 and No Mercy, so who knows!