Music: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 03:29, 13 March 2024


The original promotional CD

Oni's soundtrack is a mix of symphonic, techno, and ambient pieces. As far as who composed it, these are the names credited on the back of the CD, but see below for an in-depth investigation:

“	Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori - TotalAudio Paul Sebastien - Power of Seven	„

Contents	1 TotalAudio 2 Power of Seven 3 Specific attribution

Subpages
Promotional soundtrack CD In-game music data Myth music in Oni Fan-made music

TotalAudio

TotalAudio is a music and sound production company founded by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, apparently incorporated officially under the name O'Donnell/Salvatori Inc. The company was contracted to score Bungie's games starting with Myth: The Fallen Lords. In 2000, Marty would join Bungie as an employee, but TotalAudio continues to operate (at least for the purpose of copyright maintenance and royalty collection). O'Donnell and Salvatori have individually gone on to compose for various games.

Regarding Oni's music, O'Donnell stated in this interview that the first work on the soundtrack was done by Power of Seven and that TotalAudio then composed as much new music as they did, making the soundtrack a 50/50 product between the studios. Since O'Donnell and Salvatori worked closely at the time, we do not attempt to distinguish which of the two men composed each piece assigned to TotalAudio in the table at bottom.

Based on findings by Odyssey Sound Team, who are recreating unreleased music that was produced by TotalAudio for Oni and other games, certain tracks can be assigned to TotalAudio based on the same synthesized instruments being used for Halo CE. These tracks include Searching and The Hunt, as well as the music in the mus_amasian OSBD (named by fans as "Up and Away") and the ending of End Titles. The beats in Searching, The Hunt, and End Titles originally come from the E-MU Phatt Beats collection, which TotalAudio used in other projects; the unused Halo CE tracks HERE and HERE use beats from the same collection, as well as "A Walk in the Woods" from Halo CE. "Up and Away" also shares samples with "Perchance to Dream" from Halo CE and "Dream Again" from Halo 3.

The atmospheric ambient tracks in Oni (collected here), some of which were strung together to make the CD's Ambient Suite and some of which are only heard in-game, are quite different from the other music in Oni, but these are also the product of O'Donnell/Salvatori. Similar ambient work can be heard in TotalAudio's score for the 1999 game Septerra Core, specifically "Secrets of Marduk", "Holy Guard", "Mystic Delving", "Biomech Heart", and "The Chosen Ruins". Five of Oni's ambient tracks are actually reused from Myth I/II, TotalAudio's previous work for Bungie.

Power of Seven

The name echoes Bungie's "cult" of the number 7, but Power of Seven was an independent digital music content publisher founded in Minnesota and headed by Paul Sebastien. Bungie fans also know them for producing the opening themes to Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity.

In 1996, Power of Seven was acquired by audio company Headspace, Inc. and the studio was relocated to Headspace's HQ in San Mateo, California. In 1999, Headspace renamed themselves Beatnik, Inc. (The California company which currently creates meditation audio programs under the name Headspace is unrelated.) Beatnik became defunct in 2011.

The "trio"

Although the original entity known as Power of Seven ceased to exist when it was integrated into Headspace, Paul Sebastien was allowed to use the name for contracted work outside of the Headspace business. When Oni's upcoming soundtrack first began to get some press, this article from spring 2000 called Power of Seven a "trio, consisting of musicians NVerse, Brian Salter and Kim Cascone."

"NVerse" was apparently an alias for Paul Sebastien. In 2023, Sebastien confirmed by email that he created Trailer as well as other possibly unreleased tracks. Sebastien was also a founder of the techno band Psykosonik; over the course of the band's existence (1992–1997), four of their electronic dance songs charted in the Billboard Top 40 even though they only released two albums. The style of Trailer resembles the output from his band, as exemplified by songs like Teknojihad and Killjoy.

Brian Salter, who has composed for other games, also released his own album called "Missing Scenes (1997-2005)" under the artist name Plektric in 2005. The following tracks are very clearly alternate versions of tracks from Oni:

1. Furies (Konoko Chase)

4. Two New Villains (Whirled Piece)

5. Ellipse (Oni Fever)

6. Mr. Bailout (East Wind)

7. Drop Zone (Pursuit)

Salter released additional alternate versions of two of these pieces on Smartsound.com: Terminus (Konoko Chase) and Crucial Dossier (Whirled Piece). The article Konoko Chase documents all versions of Salter's piece.

When asked by email in 2023 about the bonus MP3 No One Left to Trust, released as promotional material, Salter recognized it as his work, and he also recalled making Fight and Internal Space.

Kim Cascone is a noted experimental electronic composer, and his work (some of which can be found here) is way more avant-garde than what you'd expect to hear in a game – though he did score Obsidian, a 1997 surrealist puzzle game. Cascone briefly mentioned that he was working on "sound design for a Japanese anime game" at the end of this 1998 interview, which he confirmed by email in 2022 to have been Oni, however he referred to his contributions as "spec work" and didn't think that his "sound design" was used in the final game. Paul Sebastien's recollection in 2023 was that Cascone's work was on "audio sound FX areas such as gunshots and foley sounds etc. primarily — not music".

Specific attribution

The art used for Marty O'Donnell's Bandcamp re-release of the OST (no longer online).

Based on the styles of the musicians, their public statements, private correspondence with them, and their released music, we can attribute these individual pieces with a fair amount of confidence:


CD track	Name	Composer
1	Oni Anime	O'Donnell/Salvatori
2	Trailer	Paul Sebastien
3	East Wind	Brian Salter
4	Searching	O'Donnell/Salvatori
5	Pursuit	Brian Salter
6	Loss	O'Donnell/Salvatori
7	Hurry	O'Donnell/Salvatori
8	Fight	Brian Salter
9	Ambient Suite	O'Donnell/Salvatori
10	Internal Space	Brian Salter
11	Farewell	O'Donnell/Salvatori
12	Konoko Chase	Brian Salter
13	Oni Fever	Brian Salter
14	The Hunt	O'Donnell/Salvatori
15	Whirled Piece	Brian Salter
16	End Titles	O'Donnell/Salvatori
--	No One Left to Trust (bonus MP3)	Brian Salter
--	All in-game ambient tracks	O'Donnell/Salvatori
--	mus_amasian ("Up and Away")	O'Donnell/Salvatori
--	mus_xgrv1 ("X-Groove")	O'Donnell/Salvatori

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{|align=right width=425px
+{| style="float:right; margin-left:10px;"
 |-
-|[[Image:OST case front.jpg|200px]]
+|[[Image:OST case front.jpg|x200px]][[Image:OST case back.jpg|x200px]]
-|[[Image:OST case back.jpg|200px]]
 |-
-|colspan="2" align="center"|The original promotional CD.
+|colspan="2" align="center"|The original promotional CD
 |}
-[[Oni]]'s soundtrack is a mix of symphonic/cinematic, electronic/techno, and atmospheric/ambient pieces. As for the question of who composed it, these are the names credited on the back of the CD, but see below for an in-depth investigation:
+[[Oni]]'s soundtrack is a mix of symphonic, techno, and ambient pieces. As far as who composed it, these are the names credited on the back of the CD, but see below for an in-depth investigation:
 {{Pullquote|Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori - TotalAudio<br>Paul Sebastien - Power of Seven}}
-;Subpages
+{| style="white-space:nowrap"
-:[[Music/CD|Promotional soundtrack CD]]
+|
-:[[Music/Ingame|In-game music data]]
+{| cellpadding=10 style="width:50%; text-align:left; border-color:#d0d0d0; border-width:1px; border-style:solid; border-collapse:collapse; border-spacing:0px; empty-cells:show; background-color:#f9f9f9;"
-:[[Music/Myth|Myth music in Oni]]
+!Contents
-{{TOClimit|2}}
+|
+[[#TotalAudio|TotalAudio]]<br>
+[[#Power of Seven|Power of Seven]]<br>
+[[#Specific attribution|Specific attribution]]
+|}
+|
+{| style="width:50%; style="vertical-align:top; text-align:left;"
+! style="padding-left:50px"|Subpages
+|-
+| style="padding-left:50px"|
+[[Music/CD|Promotional soundtrack CD]]<br>
+[[Music/Ingame|In-game music data]]<br>
+[[Music/Myth|Myth music in Oni]]<br>
+[[Music/Fanmade|Fan-made music]]
+|}
+|}
+__NOTOC__
 ==TotalAudio==
 [[Image:TotalAudio logo.jpg|right]]
-TotalAudio is a music and sound production company founded by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, apparently incorporated officially under the name O'Donnell/Salvatori Inc. The company was contracted to score Bungie's games starting with [[Myth|Myth: The Fallen Lords]]. In 2000, Marty would join Bungie as an employee, but TotalAudio continues to operate (at least for the purpose of copyright maintenance and royalty collection) while O'Donnell and Salvatori have individually gone on to compose for various games.
+TotalAudio is a music and sound production company founded by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, apparently incorporated officially under the name O'Donnell/Salvatori Inc. The company was contracted to score Bungie's games starting with [[Myth|Myth: The Fallen Lords]]. In 2000, Marty would join Bungie as an employee, but TotalAudio continues to operate (at least for the purpose of copyright maintenance and royalty collection). O'Donnell and Salvatori have individually gone on to compose for various games.
-As for the music written for Oni, O'Donnell stated in [https://halo.bungie.org/misc/nico_marty_interview.html this interview] that he personally composed the half of the soundtrack which Power of Seven did not. It's not clear if Salvatori did any composition for Oni. In the same interview, Salvatori is referred to as a producer and engineer working with O'Donnell, not as a composer, but then again, the interview happened three years after Oni released. O'Donnell seemed to take credit for Oni Anime and Farewell on his [https://web.archive.org/web/20010203124800/http://mp3.com/artists/18/totalaudio_bungie.html mp3.com artist page]. When O'Donnell released the Oni soundtrack on Bandcamp for a short while, the sheet music for Hurry was included as an extra, credited to O'Donnell/Salvatori Inc. but not either specific person. Since O'Donnell and Salvatori worked closely at times, we do not attempt to distinguish who composed which piece in the table at bottom.
+Regarding Oni's music, O'Donnell stated in [https://halo.bungie.org/misc/nico_marty_interview.html this interview] that the first work on the soundtrack was done by Power of Seven and that TotalAudio then composed as much new music as they did, making the soundtrack a 50/50 product between the studios. Since O'Donnell and Salvatori worked closely at the time, we do not attempt to distinguish which of the two men composed each piece assigned to TotalAudio in the table at bottom.
-Based on findings by [https://odysseyaudio.org/ Odyssey Sound Team], who are recreating unreleased music that was produced by TotalAudio for Oni and other games, certain tracks can be assigned to TotalAudio based on the same synthesized instruments being used for Halo CE. These tracks include Searching and The Hunt, as well as the music in the mus_amasian and mus_xgrv OSBDs (named by fans as "[[Music/CD#Up And Away|Up and Away]]" and "[[Music/CD#X-Groove|X-Groove]]"). The unused Halo CE tracks [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U53VnSjP94 HERE] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puXwE00GGDM HERE] use the same samples as Searching, The Hunt, and "X-Groove". The Hunt also shares samples with [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmVILMlaKJk Perchance to Dream] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJgXTeQXx3Y A Walk in the Woods]. "Up and Away" also shares samples with Perchance to Dream.
+Based on findings by [https://odysseyaudio.org/ Odyssey Sound Team], who are recreating unreleased music that was produced by TotalAudio for Oni and other games, certain tracks can be assigned to TotalAudio based on the same synthesized instruments being used for Halo CE. These tracks include '''Searching''' and '''The Hunt''', as well as the music in the [[Music/Ingame#mus_amasian1|mus_amasian]] OSBD (named by fans as '''"Up and Away"''') and the ending of '''End Titles'''. The beats in '''Searching''', '''The Hunt''', and '''End Titles''' originally come from the E-MU Phatt Beats collection, which TotalAudio used in other projects; the unused Halo CE tracks [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U53VnSjP94 HERE] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puXwE00GGDM HERE] use beats from the same collection, as well as [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDVDwgCQ6Qo "A Walk in the Woods"] from Halo CE. '''"Up and Away"''' also shares samples with [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmMvyjuSa60 "Perchance to Dream"] from Halo CE and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIojM_JA2bU "Dream Again"] from Halo 3.
-The ambient tracks starting with "mus_" (collected [https://iritscen.oni2.net/wiki/ambient/ here]) are probably written by O'Donnell/Salvatori, which we can say because five out of nine are [[Music/Myth|reused from Myth I/II]].
+The atmospheric ambient tracks in Oni (collected [https://iritscen.oni2.net/wiki/ambient/ here]), some of which were strung together to make the CD's '''Ambient Suite''' and some of which are only heard in-game, are quite different from the other music in Oni, but these are also the product of O'Donnell/Salvatori. Similar ambient work can be heard in TotalAudio's score for the 1999 game [[wp:Septerra Core|Septerra Core]], specifically [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S75KEwqVC8A "Secrets of Marduk"], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6chnK88LpQ "Holy Guard"], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5lMvMaHz0c "Mystic Delving"], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBp7cIsjYg4 "Biomech Heart"], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKWpK77vV2o "The Chosen Ruins"]. Five of Oni's ambient tracks are actually [[Music/Myth|reused from Myth I/II]], TotalAudio's previous work for Bungie.
 ==Power of Seven==
@@ Line 33: / Line 48: @@
 Although the original entity known as Power of Seven ceased to exist when it was integrated into Headspace, Paul Sebastien was allowed to use the name for contracted work outside of the Headspace business. When Oni's upcoming soundtrack first began to get some press, [https://www.gamespot.com/articles/bungies-mp3-contribution/1100-2451769/ this article] from spring 2000 called Power of Seven a "trio, consisting of musicians NVerse, Brian Salter and Kim Cascone."
-"NVerse" was apparently an alias for Paul Sebastien. In 2023, Sebastien confirmed by email that he created Trailer as well as other possibly unreleased tracks. Sebastien was also a founder of the techno band Psykosonik; over the course of the band's existence (1992–1997), four of their electronic dance songs charted in the Billboard Top 40, but they only released two albums. The style of Trailer resembles the output from his band, as exemplified by songs like [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIHANekdtvU Teknojihad] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH2Pslw8BkI Killjoy].
+"NVerse" was apparently an alias for Paul Sebastien. In 2023, Sebastien confirmed by email that he created '''Trailer''' as well as other possibly unreleased tracks. Sebastien was also a founder of the techno band Psykosonik; over the course of the band's existence (1992–1997), four of their electronic dance songs charted in the Billboard Top 40 even though they only released two albums. The style of '''Trailer''' resembles the output from his band, as exemplified by songs like [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIHANekdtvU Teknojihad] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH2Pslw8BkI Killjoy].
-[http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Brian_Salter Salter], who has composed for other games, also released his own album called "Missing Scenes (1997-2005)" under the artist name Plektric in 2005. The following tracks are very clearly alternate versions of tracks from Oni:
-:1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kQ5dSisqq8 Furies] (Konoko Chase)
-:4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPUztY78Mmk Two New Villains] (Whirled Piece)
-:5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gszaqu5fneQ Ellipse] (Oni Fever, aka Strikers)
-:6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WIphvcQx6k Mr. Bailout] (East Wind)
-:7. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBZAwe3ZkIc Drop Zone] (Pursuit)
-Salter released additional alternate versions of two of these pieces on Smartsound.com: [https://www.smartsound.com/royalty-free-music/Eclectic+Lounge/Terminus/ Terminus] (Konoko Chase) and [https://www.smartsound.com/royalty-free-music/Atmospheric+Energy/Crucial+Dossier/ Crucial Dossier] (Whirled Piece).
+[https://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Brian_Salter Brian Salter], who has composed for other games, also released his own album called "Missing Scenes (1997-2005)" under the artist name Plektric in 2005. The following tracks are very clearly alternate versions of tracks from Oni:
+:1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kQ5dSisqq8 Furies] ('''Konoko Chase''')
+:4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPUztY78Mmk Two New Villains] ('''Whirled Piece''')
+:5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gszaqu5fneQ Ellipse] ('''Oni Fever''')
+:6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WIphvcQx6k Mr. Bailout] ('''East Wind''')
+:7. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBZAwe3ZkIc Drop Zone] ('''Pursuit''')
-When asked by email in 2023 about the bonus MP3 "No One Left to Trust", released as promotional material, Salter recognized it as his work.
+Salter released additional alternate versions of two of these pieces on Smartsound.com: [https://www.smartsound.com/royalty-free-music/searchresults?album=Eclectic%20Lounge Terminus] ('''Konoko Chase''') and [https://www.smartsound.com/royalty-free-music/searchresults?album=Atmospheric%20Energy Crucial Dossier] ('''Whirled Piece'''). The article [[Konoko Chase]] documents all versions of Salter's piece.
-The atmospheric ambient tracks in Oni starting with "atm_" (collected [https://iritscen.oni2.net/wiki/ambient/ here]), some of which were strung together to make the CD's Ambient Suite and some of which are only heard in-game, are quite different from the other music in Oni. However, about nine days before the press release that named the Power of Seven "trio" which would be making music for the game, Paul Sebastien [http://oni.bungie.org/newsarchives/2000/apr00.html#pos stated in an interview] (now lost) that Power of Seven would also be making "atmospheric ambient" tracks for the game. Some resemblance to Salter's atmospheric work for Headspace can be heard, for instance in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlmOe31LHpM Headspace Vol. 8]'s tracks Creeping Fear, Curious, Grandeur, Mystical, and Quietude (note that these are recordings of RMF files, Headspace's proprietary [[wp:Module file|MOD music]] format, so they are limited in terms of sound production). The track Then The Moon Fell, from Salter's album Missing Scenes, is another atmospheric piece. Although it is more structured than Oni's ambient pieces, the bell tones heard from 00:12–00:31 are a close match to the tones from 2:47–3:11 in Ambient Suite.
+When asked by email in 2023 about the bonus MP3 '''No One Left to Trust''', released as promotional material, Salter recognized it as his work, and he also recalled making '''Fight''' and '''Internal Space'''.
-[[wp:Kim Cascone|Cascone]] is a famous experimental electronic composer, and his work (some of which can be found [https://bandcamp.com/tag/kim-cascone here]) is ''way'' more avant-garde than what you'd expect to hear in a game, though he did score [[wp:Obsidian (1997 video game)|Obsidian]], a 1997 surrealist puzzle game. Cascone briefly mentioned that he was working on "sound design for a Japanese anime game" at the end of [https://web.archive.org/web/20170314155110/http://www.spiderbytes.com/ambientrance/cascone.htm this 1998 interview], which he confirmed by email in 2022 to have been Oni, however he referred to his contributions as "[[wp:Speculative work|spec work]]" and didn't think that his "sound design" was used in the final game. Sebastien's recollection in 2023 was that Cascone's work was on "audio sound FX areas such as gunshots and foley sounds etc. primarily — not music".
+[[wp:Kim Cascone|Kim Cascone]] is a noted experimental electronic composer, and his work (some of which can be found [https://bandcamp.com/discover/kim-cascone here]) is ''way'' more avant-garde than what you'd expect to hear in a game – though he did score [[wp:Obsidian (1997 video game)|Obsidian]], a 1997 surrealist puzzle game. Cascone briefly mentioned that he was working on "sound design for a Japanese anime game" at the end of [https://web.archive.org/web/20170314155110/http://www.spiderbytes.com/ambientrance/cascone.htm this 1998 interview], which he confirmed by email in 2022 to have been Oni, however he referred to his contributions as "[[wp:Speculative work|spec work]]" and didn't think that his "sound design" was used in the final game. Paul Sebastien's recollection in 2023 was that Cascone's work was on "audio sound FX areas such as gunshots and foley sounds etc. primarily — not music".
-==Tentative attribution==
+==Specific attribution==
 [[Image:OST digital cover.png|200px|thumb|right|The art used for Marty O'Donnell's Bandcamp re-release of the OST (no longer online).]]
-Based on the styles of the musicians, their public statements, private correspondence with them, and their released music, we can confidently attribute some tracks and speculate on the rest:
+Based on the styles of the musicians, their public statements, private correspondence with them, and their released music, we can attribute these individual pieces with a fair amount of confidence:
 {| class="wikitable"
@@ Line 66: / Line 79: @@
 |2
 |Trailer
-|Sebastien
+|Paul Sebastien
 |-
 |3
 |East Wind
-|Salter
+|Brian Salter
 |-
 |4
@@ Line 78: / Line 91: @@
 |5
 |Pursuit
-|Salter
+|Brian Salter
 |-
 |6
@@ Line 90: / Line 103: @@
 |8
 |Fight
-|Salter?
+|Brian Salter
 |-
 |9
 |Ambient Suite
-|Salter?
+|O'Donnell/Salvatori
 |-
 |10
 |Internal Space
-|Salter?
+|Brian Salter
 |-
 |11
@@ Line 106: / Line 119: @@
 |12
 |Konoko Chase
-|Salter
+|Brian Salter
 |-
 |13
 |Oni Fever
-|Salter
+|Brian Salter
 |-
 |14
@@ Line 118: / Line 131: @@
 |15
 |Whirled Piece
-|Salter
+|Brian Salter
 |-
 |16
@@ Line 126: / Line 139: @@
 | --
 |No One Left to Trust (bonus MP3)
-|Salter
+|Brian Salter
-|-
-| --
-|In-game ambient "atm_" tracks
-|Salter?
 |-
 | --
-|In-game ambient "mus_" tracks
+|All in-game ambient tracks
 |O'Donnell/Salvatori
 |-