Number of Files: 194
Total Filesize: 631 MB (MP3), 1,989 MB (FLAC)
Date Added: Feb 27th, 2025
| Change Log
Album type: Gamerip
Uploaded by: laughinthefields
And a special thanks to Benmarshall801 (https://www.youtube.com/user/benmarshall801) and Kaidon (https://www.youtube.com/user/thertas)
And also, a honorary thanks dedicated to the creatives : Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, Steve Vai, John Mayer, Breaking Benjamin, Incubus, Hoobastank, Nile Rodgers, Nataraj, Daniel Estrin and everyone else who was involved in creating this masterpiece of a soundtrack.
=== CHANGELOG ===
(v2 - 26/02/25) : Fixed missing tracks
(v1 - 24/02/25) : Release
=== INFO ===
-- DESCRIPTION --
HALO 2 : THE COMPLETE SOUNDTRACK (v1)
Happy (late) 20th anniversary Halo 2 !
This is a custom re-arrangement of Halo 2's entire soundtrack that follows benmarshall801's mix he posted on YouTube which includes every single possible music tune, both in game and from the OST. The music files were directly ripped from a post release dev build of the Halo 2 Vista's mod tools (thx Ibra !) that has not only all of the tracks from retail, but also obscure, never heard before tracks.
All of the raw Xbox ADPCM .wav files were converted to regular lossless .wav using Refinery. Refinery fixes the weird crackling or shifting tempo audio from the older gamerips (which the actual culprit of these bad rips is ffmpeg's broken decoder which finally got fixed a few months ago). I then mixed the rips using Audacity, since Halo 2's music files are separated by sections to make tracks loop depending where on the situation you are in game and exported the final result in ALAC (Apple Lossless). In any way, the final output is uncompressed and lossless.
This roughly follows benmarshall801's mixes with some differences in names (some official sections from the tracks weren't named as they were in the OST, for example the opening cutscene in Cairo Station has an official name "Walking Spartan") and mixing (most notably, to stay as a gamerip release, the cinematic tracks are separated just like they are on the game files and not merged together)
Tracks that are re-used and minimally blend together in game are skipped to make the size of this album not excessive. The tracks go by chronological appearance, when they are first used in game. Songs that are blended together are in a multi track format so you can mute or remove them when you want to listen to each song individually.
-- PARTS --
CHAPTER 1 : GAMERIP
CHAPTER 2 : BONUS
CHAPTER 3 : UNUSED
CHAPTER 4 : TEST/MISC
=== INFO ON Halo 2 (Mjølnir Mix, Seperate Stems) ===
Official release but no longer available to buy anywhere online. It's Halo 2's theme in separate stems. From the now defunct sumthingdigital.com (https://web.archive.org/web/20070925171704/https://www.sumthingdigital.com/StemDetails.aspx?albumid=677). This is in a .wav format and not in FLAC/ALAC as FLAC does not support more than 8 tracks in a single file.
1 & 2 : Bass Guitar - Dry mix of bass (vai_bass)
3 & 4 : Guitar FX - Ambience from the Steve Vai (vai_fx)
5 & 6 : Steve Vai Lead Guitar - Wet mix of Steve Lead Guitar (Distortion, Reverb) (vai_guitar_lead)
7 & 8 : Steve Vai Rhythm Guitar - Wet mix (distortion, reverb) (vai_guitar_rhythm)
9 & 10 : Monks - Sub-Mix of the monks (vai_monks)
11 & 12 : Drum Kit (vai_perc_new)
13 & 14 : Percussion - Nice mix of a variety of percussion (vai_perc_orig)
15 & 16 : Strings - Strings sub-mix (vai_strings)
=== IMPORTANT INFO (POSSIBLE LOST MEDIA) ===
Stems of "Reclaimer" (https://web.archive.org/web/20071021083956/sumthingdigital.com/stemdetails.aspx?albumid=702) and "Never Surrender" (https://web.archive.org/web/20070925174041/https://www.sumthingdigital.com/StemDetails.aspx?albumid=803) exist and were made for a remix contest (h2v2) but no copy of them has surfaced online beyond the main theme and it seems to be lost media now. If you happen to own it, please share it !!
Yes, John Mayer was secretly involved in the making of Halo 2's soundtrack, most notably for "Beholden" (the first part of Halo 2's credits), he wanted to keep it a secret. https://www.halopedia.org/Epilogue_(Halo_2)#Beholden
"John Mayer's involvement was kept a secret by Martin O'Donnell until the 2014 documentary https://www.halopedia.org/Remaking_the_Legend - Remaking the Legend. According to O'Donnell, there was no contractual agreement between the parties, and neither Microsoft nor Mayer's agent were aware of his contribution. Mayer wanted to keep it a secret so he could tell his friends he was featured in the game."
laughinthefields
03:19 Feb 27th, 2025Offline