JWPlayer is what I have been using on SHP. I have had no problems with it.

I promise I shall get off my ass soon and start populating that database.

 

Do any of you have the power to create the soundtrack section in the menu? I'll be happy to fill in the copy, or use whatever information Spikey wants to put there. And also, as I said, create new artwork for the soundtracks, if you want.

 

I think, even though Spikey is putting together some special editions, that the original soundtracks, i.e. the ones currently available in the archives, should be featured as well. They still sound fantastic. Your thoughts?

Do you think it should go under the Database or what?

Do you think it should go under the Database or what?

 

Yeah, definitely. "Music" could be a header under the database.

 

Under that could be "Original soundtrack recordings" and "Fan covers" sub-headings.

 

"Original soundtrack recordings" would be subdivided into each game, and in turn several soundtrack packs from the same game could be posted (e.g. the SQ4 soundtrack as MT-32 and as Sound Canvas, or as Spikey's special edition soundtrack).

 

How's that sound?

Sounds good. Should be all set up now. :y:

I use the XSPF player on my website. It's just a bit of embedded HTML code. You don't need to have any other files or anything other than your MP3s.

Yeah, that just loads a remote Flash file.

Just noticed, yeah, it's a bit of a discrepancy having "Fan music" under the "Database," now that we've got a top-level menu called "Fan content."

 

That one's on me; go on, grab a stone and get in a good toss. Really silly when I think about it.

 

Maybe there needs to be a "Music" section under both "Database" and "Fan content," then?

Added Music category to Fan content. I'll leave it in the database as well while you transfer it over.

Would whole fangame soundtracks be permitted there? Cause I would love to have the VSB and SQInc soundtracks in the "Fan content"-section, and I'd definitely urge Brandon and Zeek to get the SQ2VGA soundtrack in there as well.

Yes, of course.

I definitely agree that there should be sections for both "original music", i.e. original unadulterated MT-32 (SQ1VGA/3/4) or Sound Canvas (SQ5/6) soundtracks, and then other versions like mine. I'd have them all linked together, so people can choose what they want rather than having to visit different sections.

 

Troels, we need to talk about artwork sometime, as well..

Yes, of course.

 

Awesome! I'll look into some cover art for them once you get the sections set up.

We can offer FLACS alongside MP3's. I prefer M4A's myself as a good go-betweener. Diskspace is not really an issue for SQN. The hosting account I'm using has more than enough resources.

Hey, if Frans is paying, let's host my master archives, 20 GB! ;) (Just kidding.)

 

But this is cool news. Thankyou, Sir.

Oh, man, I really wish I could get my ass into gear about this. I'm on a piece of shit laptop I stole from work with the tiniest screen you've ever seen, and it's not really the sort of computer you want to be doing CMS editing with. Hell, it barely has room for the forum, and it looks ginormous!

 

Okay, I'm done with my poor excuses. I haven't had time to fix the music section! But let me tell you what I had in mind, so maybe we can help each other out getting it happening.

 

Under "Database" -> "Music," I was thinking we host the original soundtracks. (Duh.) But since there are many variations of the original soundtracks, depending on sound card, I'm proposing we divide the "Music" section into sub-sections for each game. I've tried to think of soundtracks that could go under each heading, and I'm probably leaving out some really obvious ones -- forgive me, this is off the top of my head:

 

-> Space Quest I

-> -> MT-32 soundtrack

 

-> Space Quest I VGA

-> -> Spikey's MT-32 soundtrack

-> -> Original MIDI files

 

-> Space Quest II

-> -> MT-32 soundtrack

 

-> Space Quest III

-> -> Spikey's MT-32 soundtrack

-> -> Original MIDI files

 

-> Space Quest IV

-> -> Spikey's MT-32 soundtrack

-> -> Spikey's "Special Edition" soundtrack

-> -> Original MIDI files

 

-> Space Quest V

-> -> MT-32 soundtrack

-> -> Spikey's "Special Edition" soundtrack

-> -> Original MIDI files

 

-> Space Quest VI

-> -> Sound Canvas soundtrack (I think is the one currently available?)

-> -> Original MIDI files

 

You'll have to help me out here, Spikey; I've lost track of how many cool Space Quest-related soundtrack projects you've got cooking/have cooked in the past. :)

 

Also, there's Tom Lewandowski's recordings to consider. Anyone heard from Tom lately?

Under "Fan efforts" -> "Music," I was thinking subdivisions like thus:

 

-> Fan covers / medleys

-> -> Brandon's kick-ass medley

-> -> James' kick-ass medley

-> -> My lick-ass medley

 

-> Fan game soundtracks

-> -> Vohaul Strikes Back

-> -> -> -> Frederik Olsen's soundtrack

-> -> Space Quest: Incinerations

-> -> -> -> Frederik Olsen's soundtrack

-> -> Space Quest II VGA

-> -> -> -> Infamous' soundtrack

 

(Probably leaving someone out; again, forgive me. Get used to hearing that a lot.)

Edited version of Troels's timeline:

 

-> Space Quest I

-> -> AGI soundtrack

(No MIDI soundtrack, just a PC Speaker and possibly other chiptune score on Apple II/et al)

 

-> Space Quest I VGA

-> -> QuestStudios enhanced soundtrack

-> -> Original MIDI files- QuestStudios

(I need to record a new soundtrack, the one that's out there is bad.)

 

-> Space Quest II

-> -> AGI soundtrack

(No MIDI soundtrack, just a PC Speaker and possibly other chiptune score on Apple II/et al)

 

-> Space Quest III

-> -> QuestStudios MIDI-based MT-32 soundtrack (on SQN)

-> -> QuestStudios short enhanced soundtrack

-> -> Original MIDI files- QuestStudios

 

-> Space Quest IV

-> -> Spikey's MT-32 soundtrack

-> -> QuestStudios MIDI-based Sound Canvas (General MIDI) soundtrack (on SQN) - or not, depending on preference, this could be deleted- the score is MT-32 and the General MIDI score is purely converted from the MT-32 MIDI's

-> -> Spikey's "Special Edition" soundtrack

-> -> QuestStudios enhanced soundtrack

-> -> Original MIDI files- QuestStudios

 

-> Space Quest V

-> -> QuestStudios MIDI-based Sound Canvas (General MIDI) soundtrack (on SQN)

-> -> Spikey's "Special Edition" soundtrack

-> -> QuestStudios enhanced soundtrack (basically just the GM score again with minor modifications)

-> -> Original MIDI files- QuestStudios

 

-> Space Quest VI

-> -> QuestStudios MIDI-based Sound Canvas (General MIDI) soundtrack (on SQN)

-> -> Spikey's "Special Edition" soundtrack

-> -> QuestStudios enhanced soundtrack

-> -> Original MIDI files- QuestStudios

 

If I can be bothered, I will take my MIDI's (before enhancement) and make them playable for the masses.

Also, I will get to SQ1VGA and SQ3 if time allows or if interest is sufficient.

 

The QuestStudios thing- I'm not sure, but I put them in there for completeness. I love Tom Lewandowski, that's why I started a webpage to continue his efforts, even though he's not recording anymore.

But- his works on SQ scores have many missing tracks, and some recordings, like SQ1 and 6, are vastly different from the original music, nearly unrecognisable in places. I'm trying to add to the scores while keepng the original feel and vibe.

That's why i'm not sure about having them there. Maybe a link to the webpage on the original music page? I dunno.

 

As for Tom himself, he has had health issues that have kept him out of the limelight for a while now, sadly enough. I'm hoping he'll be able to make an appearance in this Sierra revival, but for now, it doesn't look likely. :(

 

Anyway, let's discuss this. Let everyone know what you all think, so we can make this section grand.

That's a great timeline!

 

Any idea how we get in touch with Tom about getting permission to post his files?

 

Also, afaik, his music files are .ogg encoded. At the risk of opening old wounds, maybe we should have a standard on file formats here? I mean, I love .ogg as well, but my mp3 player feels otherwise.

Well, that's another reason to delay hosting the QS files. My advice is to have a link to the QuestStudios website or direct link to the particular SQ soundtrack in question- e.g http://queststudios....q1cd/sq1cd.html .

 

Maybe also a link to Rarewares (www.rarewares.org) which hosts the largest amount of transcoding/encoding/decoding software for MP3,Ogg,WAV,FLAC. Might be a good idea to link to them anyway..

This way, fans can convert the QS scores if desired, and we don't have Ogg files on SQN, and keep it all separated out.

 

BTW, I don't think there's any old wounds- I used to flog the Ogg whip, but at the end of the day, MP3 is a good format nowadays, identical to toher lossy codecs at adequate bitrates, and universally adopted. That's the way we want to go. And if we can host lossless FLAC's on Frans's money, even better.

Nice, Frans! Lossless hosting would be awesome. I think FLAC is the better way to go, however. I don't know the official legal ramifications of M4A, but FLAC is definitely royalty-free and open-source and much much much easier to decode. I remember having to decode some lossless Apple codec files a while back and it was a much more grueling process.

 

But whatever, as long as it's lossless that's huge!

 

I still see MP3s larger than OGGs when I encode. I've got all the latest software, too. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong I don't know. OGG is nice for being royalty-free, though. Which doesn't really make a case for it being necessarily better for personal listening, rather it just means it's a better format for use with program/game development. Still, I like supporting open-source software.

-> Fan game soundtracks

-> -> Vohaul Strikes Back

-> -> -> -> Frederik Olsen's soundtrack

-> -> Space Quest: Incinerations

-> -> -> -> Frederik Olsen's soundtrack

-> -> Space Quest II VGA

-> -> -> -> Infamous' soundtrack

I would probably choose to go with this order instead:

 

-> -> Space Quest II VGA

-> -> -> -> Infamous' soundtrack

-> -> Vohaul Strikes Back

-> -> -> -> Frederik Olsen's soundtrack

-> -> Space Quest: Incinerations

-> -> -> -> Frederik Olsen's soundtrack

 

To me, it feels more appropriate to go for the in-story chronology for some reason.

How much diskspace are talking about? Just to be sure I'm not shooting my own foot here.

To be more accurate, SQ5's lossless archives are 775 MB. So all 5 major SQ scores would be about 4-5 GB insize. Add a couple of fan scores in lossless and you have between 5 and 6 GB in size, worst case scenario. And probably not a TON of people are gonna DL this option.. But in this climate maybe they will.

I'd like to politely add another voice requesting FLAC audio files. Anyone can very easily transcode FLAC to MP3 (yes, they have to at least understand what that means, or possibly ask for help) but it's not possible to add lost information. Yes, there are number of reasons why that's meaningless, but if there was ever a reason to wish to preserve audio archivally, we currently have no better way than a highly-compressed lossless format. Of those, FLAC clearly leads.

 

If Frans has sufficient space, or such space becomes affordable, then I see little reason not to host low-bitrate MP3's alongside them (128kbps seem to make all the MP3 people happy). Regarding Tom's music archive... well, I'm still on the Ogg Vorbis bandwagon, and as such, I think it would be better to at least mirror his original files (again, for the best archival quality) and transcoded 128kbps MP3's alongside them. So, original format plus small MP3 files would be ideal. There is really never any reason for high-bitrate MP3 files, in my opinion. Also, IIRC, JWplayer supports Vorbis now, as well.

 

If there is insufficient space, then perhaps you should consider putting a PayPal button to Frans's account on the front page somewhere so that the community can contribute to making that possible.