UT2: The Lost Songs

Description
Let's start the night off with a little audio. This archive contains five songs from the second generation of Unreal Tournament (UT2003/UT2004) that never made it past the cutting room floor. Four of these are cut "Level" tracks by composer Starsky Partridge (UT2003, UT2004, Unreal Championship), while the other cut track is KR-Outrage from Kevin Riepl (UT2003, UC2, UT3, GoW2).

Level01 provides a similar sound but notably different texture from UT2004's released soundtrack. There's a synth beat over the top of the whole track, opening with some quiet mechanic ambience which builds throughout the track into a flowing techno rhythm. It's easy to see it as UT BGM, but at the same time it's easy to see why it was dropped.

The second track, Level04, runs on a similar pattern. Synth beat throughout, starting with some light percussion over the top, and developing into a subtle electro beat. Definitely a grunge feel to this one, until the last quarter in which it develops into a soft rendition of the flowing techno style evident throughout UT2003. As Roy Walker would say, "It's good, but it's not right!". This track suits a tense atmosphere far more than an active one, so it may not fit well in UT2004, despite the game's soundtrack taking a slower pace overall.

Level10 starts out more dramatic, trading out the synth beat for a tense building intro. This continues for much of the track, fading in and out with synth effects grating over the top. About halfway through the track cuts into another building segment more in-line with UT2003's driving tech-rock style, which is ultimately accompanied by a crystalline, ambient effect. Not very action-packed and not easy on the ears, so again easy to see why it was dropped.

Level12 sounds the part more than the previous four tracks. There's a slow pondering pace, combining several layers of the same synth effect types used throughout the other tracks. This one, being more overtly loud, tends to grind on the ears with it's synth interjections, and overall it has a more sleazy feel than UT2003's released tracks.

Now onto the one track by Kevin Riepl. KR-Outrage features a grinding rock overlay with minimal interference from the tech sounds which permeate most of UT2004's tracks, using them merely as subtle background ambience, until the halfway point when the track transforms into a faster-paced energetic bridge segment which is definitely the kind of thing you'd expect to hear beside KR-Hyperblast-Redux and KR-Infiltrate. The flaw with this track is the mastering - it's rather quite and flat in it's tone.

Overall five tracks which will be handy for mappers who want that genuine UT feel. Just be aware that as they're in MP3 format, they will need to be converted to OGG Vorbis format. [url="http://audacity.sourceforge.net"]Audacity[/url] is recommended for the conversion process - it's fast and it's free.

~Mikouen