The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Today, 27th October,  we are happy to tell you all that we have finally released the Official remix addon 1: Super Melee!

We hope you enjoy the music!

- Riku  8) & The remixing group

ps. remember to visit our brand new site: http://www.spacesynth.net/precursors/

Congrats!
It was an almost covert operation.
The only revealing trace was the spacesynth name of the precursors mystery site.
I tremendously enjoy the new music.

Thanks a lot y'all.

The new ditties are superb. I haven't listened to the longer tunes yet, but the ditties are awesome - only ones I don't like better than the original. are Thraddash (which was never very good) and VUX.

EDIT: There ARE ditties there too.

But to get them you must download the zipped version from the sc2.sourceforge site.

The first remix package which we made available on this site today does indeed contain ditties for all the races. The package is called Super Melee! after all. :)

The package includes ditties for all the ships. Almost all of the ditties rock. There are also about 15 bonus ditties in the extras file.

Here are my thoughts on the new tracks:
Commander - It's very different from the original (I only recognized a couple of samples), but I like it. Can't decide which one I prefer. This one does suit the humans a little better though - it gives more of a feeling a great struggle against hopeless odds.

Solar System - Vastly superior to the original. It's a new tune with a lot of old samples. I never did like the original one, and this one is so much more better. :) It's quite calm, and during the song it smoothly transitions between despairing, peaceful, and hopeful. It reminds me of some of the Lord of the Rings music - not the main theme, but some of the slower stuff.

Orbit 1 - You've probably heard it already. It's basically the original orbit song, only with more depth.

Battle - It starts out a little rocky - the first 20 or so seconds feel unrefined with no ambient background to accompany the main theme. But after that, it's excellent. It stays true to the original, only much cooler, better quality, and a bit of new stuff in some places. The klaxons sound awesome BTW. Great job!

Outfit - It starts out sounding like a weaker version of the original, then it changes a lot.  It has more variety, a bigger beat, and a lot more techno. Not a huge improvement, but it's an improvement nonetheless.

Shipyard - A mixed bag. One the one hand,a lot of the samples sound very good. On the other hand, I think the main tune tune is too "sharp", and those high-pitched squeaky sounds really bother me. It's not bad, but it's my least favorite and the only one which I think is worse than the original.

EDIT: Starbase - Wonderful, once again much better than original. It's a bit despairing through most of the song, and really says "This is our last hope?" Happy now tilt? ;D

Overall, the remixes are AWESOME! I was worried after hearing the Ilwrath and Shofixti mixes, but you guys did a great job with these.

Ahem, you forgot the Starbase remix. ;)

i just got done listening to the remixes and i must say, very good job! i like the remix of battle encounter especially. the old one was just too loud when trying to play at night when your kids are asleep. again...  GREAT JOB!

~DEFIANT

The idea is that you put them all together in the same add-on dir. Then they'll all be loaded with one '--addon' switch. Besides, eventually, you won't need to bother with switches anymore.

And my worst fears are confirmed:  the remixes sound so good that the rest of the game sounds absolutely terrible!

The original 4-track MOD music used samples with a rate of around 8kHz, which made the 11kHz voice tracks sound positively hi-fi in comparison.  The new music is 44.1kHz full stereo, and when put underneath the starbase commander, you hear just how much fidelity was thrown out so that they could fit all of the audio on a CD.  And I'm not even what you would call an audiophile.

Maybe I'll resample the OGGs down to 32kbit or somesuch so that they can slum it with the rest of the data.  Hey, it'd make for a smaller download, too..  :)

Oh dear. I guess that means we have to rerecord the speech, too. ;) That way, we could have voice on both the PC and the 3DO scripts. Problem: where do we get a bunch of competent voice actors and audio technicians on a total budget of $0 (€0, ¥0 or whatever)?

The nice thing about UQM, though, is that the fans themselves are both capable and eager; this remix package demonstrates that quite clearly (more comments about that when I've had the chance to try it out in UQM properly). I don't think it's entirely unrealistic to assume that some of us can get together and improve on the voice acting in the same way we have so far improved on the code and the music.

It's trickier.  Maritza Campos, the cartoonist for the webcomic College Roomies From Hell (http://www.crfh.net/), tried to develop an animation with voice acting for her comic's 2-year birthday.  Calls went out to the fans for voice acting and editing and the like.

I wound up handling most of the submissions -- and as a result of this I think it's fairly safe to say that unless we can recruit people with access to a decent sound studio, we aren't going to be able to equal the current voice acting.  (The animation itself eventually fell through due basically due to overwork and an inability to make it look right, and an inability to get anything presentable ready by the actual anniversary day while still doing the many other aspects of the strip.)

Now, if there are a bunch of people out there that *have* access to sound studios or can produce CD-quality voice recordings without noise, then we can talk seriously.

(EDIT: One of these days I'm going to learn that I can't put HTML in posts.)

I'm curious.  A lot of these remixes seem to be very techno, and very heavy on the bass.  Now, the original in this selection were kind of heavy on the bass too (one of the reasons none ranked up in my favorites tunes from the game).  Is this just an effect of the selection, since many of the originals were techno pieces, or will the remix effort as a whole have a techno/dance lean?

There are several other styles in here too. More ambient/new age. Also some synthpop, dance, experimental, electronica. The first pack was/is quite techonish (you must admit yourself too, that the tracks selected were techno in the original as well), but we did have some great ambient/new age tracks in this pack as well.

It is truely amazing.
It is amazing that technology has advanced such that today's game music can easily match retail quality music.
It is also amazing that so many talented people have agreed to participate in this remixing project.
But most of all, it is amazing some of the original composers have returned and with new force.

If it's any help, I might be able to get access to one of the UC San Diego studios. I also have a friend who works at the student radio station, and I'm pretty sure he both has access to and knows how to use their studio (now I'm wishing I took that recording class last summer).  I also have 24bit, 48k, low noise level audio interfaces for both of my computers that I use for recording my synthesizer.  My mic's probably not the best for recording voices, but it would work.  That still leaves the problem of finding the voice actors.

The problem isn't good place to record audio, or skills to do that and process it. I could do my voice overs quite easily (I have good mic), although problem would be more of the acting. And personally I think it's not problem if the actor doesn't speak fluent english, after all we are talking about aliens (and the voices would be post-processed at some degree anyway).

Anyway. This thread is about the remixes. not voice overs  ::)

Getting back to the remixes, I'd like to say that I'm quite impressed with the remixes so far.

• "Under a Red Sky" is instantly recognisable as the good old starbase tune but takes the tune to an entirely new level. The only problem is that few people look at the starbase menu long enough to appreciate the music.
  
• "To Mine the Heavens" is spot on. Ambient, professional, yet instantly familiar to any SC2 fan.
  
• "Outfit the Vindicator" and "Rough Repair" are quite good electronica. The 3DO versions placed a greater emphasis on the industrial feel and in my opinion the 3DO versions seemed to fit the game a bit better.
  
• "The Battle of the Sa-Matra" certainly adds a lot of atmosphere to combat. The quality of the arrangement is also far superior to the original. It makes me want to play SuperMelee for hours on end (again).
  
• "Corridor Nine" is good in its own right and suits the first contacts with the starbase especially well, but it really doesn't resemble the original very much.
  
• "Exploration" is some very relaxing ambient. It actually makes piloting a flagship with minimal thrusters around our solar system an enjoyable experience.
  
• The victory ditties are also good. The Yehat ditty is a bit substandard compared to the rest, but this is outweighed by some impressive interpretations (Thraddash, Umgah, Supox, Mmrnmhrm, Shofixti, Syreen, both Ur-Quan, Mycon).
  

All in all, I'd like to say that the remix project has so far produced some very good music that without a doubt suits UQM. I can't wait for the next remix pack!

Not saying that Greg Szymanski's ditty wasn't good, but I'd like to remind that the extras pack contains some alternative ditties. Mostly ditties which were left out, which includes alternative Yehat ditty which you might want to check out. Seems that Riku put all the versions I had made, so some of the bonus ditties are just a bit different versions of the ones in the pack :)

Maybe I should contribute my own comments as well.

• Under a Red Sky - I really like this remix, even though it's long and not many people hear it all during the game. The start of the remix fits very well to the game as it should be. This song is really something you can listen separatly too. The smooth transitions go really nicely from different moods. As fOSSiL said, quite enigmatic.
  
• Corridor Nine - Well, the song name was something I came up with for Riku. Just browsed the dialogs and spotted those words (everybody likes a bit details). This is third version of the remix Riku made, and I think this is the best one of those three. It is good song, but I do like the original more.
  
• Orbit I - Not much to say about this. I just feel it's not best remix you could do. *being self-critical*
  
• The Battle of the Sa-Matra - I made this remix in 8 hours, and I must say it turned out really well. Fits the game. Although I planned this to be the final battle music, and the other battle remix I made to be the normal battle.
  
• Outfit the Vidicator - Was made around the same time as the battle remixes. I just jammed a bit with the same bassline sound which was rather cool. So it turned out to be a bit technoish. Yes, 3DO versions are really good, so hard to get better.
  
• Rough Repair - I miss the machine sounds from the 3DO version. This remix is too straight techno to my taste.
  
• Exploration - Yes, I love to make ambient and improvise a lot. Used sound samples from the original space module song, but beside that it is mostly improvisation from me. Floaty and spacy, I have used this for my relaxation as well.. :) yes I like to listen the music I make.
  

Ditties.. well most of them are remixes from me, so I won't comment much. Mycon, Syreen, Mmrnmhrm, Chenjesu, my favourites from my own ditties. The Thraddash ditty by Espen & Tore is really great. That Red Alert shortie was probably the most painful one to remix. I did make atleast four different versions of it until I was happy with it and it fit the game.

So, we'd like to read more of your reviews. Big thanks for those who already have contributed :)

Yeah,

we count the posts you write and decide then if we release more packs or not ;)

Thanks for your comments!

- Riku  8)

my 2 cents:
Corridor 9: At first I couldn't even listen to it, but then it grew on me and became one of my favourites. Riku's work never ceases to amaze me.
Under a Red Sky - The best tune and definitely my favourite. I like ambient music a lot, especially those of good quailty, and this one is such. The added "Around The World" flavours to the music is a great idea. I can actually see the red earth spinning just by listening to it, and I listen to it a lot.
Rough Repair - A decent techno track which adds a lot of spirit. I like it too.
Exploration - So much better than the original. A work done well - as I've come to expect from Mark Vera.
Orbit1 - I've heard it before. It is nicer than the original.
Battle of Sa Matra - So much better, now I can play long battles without getting a head ache. And I do like this new tune a lot.
Outfit The Vindicator - Nice take on that, I don't reckon anyone could have done it better.
Overall - excellent job guys.

EDIT: Genetic Modification - Very amusing indeed, could even replace the Umgah original.

So, not special sa-matra music? I kind of looked foward to it. Oh well... Great job anyway! Almost perfect...

The Battle of the Sa-Matra was the special music for Sa-Matra and the othe battle remix (not released yet, name is Mortal Melee! so you "know" what to expect ) I made was going to be the battle music. However as the 0.3 game supports currently only one melee, we decided that The Battle of the Sa-Matra was better one and more true to the original. There's more battle music too.. but you'll hear them later. :)

Oh good, you scared me!

Just to be sure, where do I need to unzip the file?

Ok, I am getting pissed off... None of the remixs works! I have put them in the add on dic(and the winzip did the path job) and I see them marked in the add-ons section in uqmloader. Still nothing works.

There's installation instructions earlier in this thread, and in the uqm website and in the readme file in the extras pack! Not to forget the general instructions in manual.txt.

Inside the directory where The Ur-Quan Masters content is installed, in the content/packages/ directory, there is a directory 'addons/'. In this directory, you need to create a directory 'uqmremix' where you need to place all the Remix Add-On pack .zip files. When you specify the command-line option '--addon uqmremix', the .zip files inside the directory content/packages/addons/uqmremix/ will be included in the game and you will hear all the remixed music instead of the original ones.

Do not unzip the pack! Just put the zip file as is (the original one, if you repack yourself, be sure that the ogg files aren't compressed).

Oh ok thanx! Once again if newbies or anyone who missed it, you can download uqmloader from this thread: http://uqm.stack.nl/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Gendiscuss;action=display;num=1063089192
Just put the file in the uqm folder where uqm.exe is and use it instead of the uqm.exe

P.S I suggest to make that thread sticked. It is as important as remix pack or updates! It helps you to control the game with ease, for the ones who are not programmers( or are just lazy to learn this simple "code" ).

The new 1.1 version should work from any directory if your UQM installation is properly installed.

Excellent work.
I am going to write a full review of each track when I get the time.
But for now, they are all great.
The new Starbase music is a MASTERPIECE.

I think it should be noted that the tracks sound a bit different in game, especially with OpenAL turned on.

I listened to all the tracks in winamp and was all ready to come on here and critique them, then I listened to them in game with OpenAL and now I dont have a single compaint.

I cant believe noone has mentioed the startrek sample in battle.ogg !
Nice touch !

It really shows how much of a great game Starcontrol II really was,  for it to have such a dedicated fanbase.

I dont know any other fan community that has produced such great work as the SC2 community has.

And Kudos to Fred and Paul for giving us enough background material in the original so that we can feel like we can fill in the blanks properly to create new media for UQM
Not many games are as rich in atmosphere, character, and background as SC2 is.

Ooh, thanks! :)

I have finished listening to all of them, and what can I say, some where good, some were great and some need a little bit more work. But then again, I prefer these instead of the original ones. Great job remix team!

P.S

When the full remix pack is about to be released? I know this one is just a sample, still missing the in-game music with aliens( unless I have missed them ) and the mid-battle music ( like fusion shots, unless you didn't plan to change those, and if you didn't I strongly recommand you to change. Like Nic said, and I agree with him 100%, the new music makes the "old" one to be even "older", it just doesn't fit there).

Another P.S
I wish I could help you with these but unlike most of you, I played this game when I was 7 or some, and only 2 months ago I have started to learn how to program. I am not a musician too so please once again, I am sorry I just "complain" and don't help you instead :'(

Last P.S

About the multiplayer game ( or should I post it in another thread?), how about creating a "new" game for it, thus not rewriting the whole game code, just the melee part? But again, I am not a programmer. But... If you will tell me how I can learn how to program this game without know c or c++ I will gladly help you with this project. Hope I will learn before you finish it ;D

The full remix pack *is* four different packs. You just put those different zip files to the same addon directory and then you got full pack.

Ditties suck!  >:(  I like the other remixes but ditties are horrible. Aaaaaarghhh! I'll pray to PEEWEE that you change those horrible ditties back to the originals.

You can do it yourself by repacking the remix pack so that it suits you.

I didn't like the ditties either. There is too much buzzing and weird noises. Flute in some ditties sounds ridiculous. Biggest disappointments must be both Ur-Quans' ditties. Now they don't sound like bad asses that they used to be. Only good ditties are Orz and Thraddash. Other remixes are good, but ditties are... worse than hot hot heat.

Here is my review on ditties:

Ilwrath: Too high and bright sound. Too fast and it should have more bass.

Androsynth: Good

Arilou: Sound is bad.

Kohr-Ah: Bad sound, should be more threatening.

Chenjesu: Too fast and confusing.

Chmmr: First second was good, it should have lasted longer. Altough the original wasn't better.

Druuge: Good... "hiinä ja hiinä" -Juti

Hunam: Ending...nah... all else is good.

Melnorme: Backround bad, all else is moderate.

Mmrnmhrm: Too much techno, moderate.

Mycon: "Bow, bow, bow" -end is bad.

Orz: Good

Pkunk: Good

Shofixti: Good, but original ending is much better than this one's ending.

Spathi: Good

Supox: Bad ending.

Syreen: Original ending is better.

Kzer-Za: Should be more threatening. Too confusing and bad sound.

Utwig: Buzzing, bad sound.

Vux: Flute should not be used in ANY ditty.

Yehat: Bad sound and bad ending.

Zoq-fot: Bad ending, but all else is good.

Overall, victory music are average. Some of them are good but the rest is quite horrible.

I would presume that their ditty has a techno edge because they are supposed to be machines.  What did you expect, a waltz?

You are right, but they use TOO much techno compared to original and it sounds little confusing.

In Slylandro-ditty they are using flute. And Probe-captains are machines. Why don't they use techno-stuff there?

Probe ditty is nice pair for the actual remix (which has changed quite a bit from the version already published - to the better).

Mmrnmhrm was testing. I wanted to use drums more in one of the ditties, also it fits quite well with the feeling of Chmmr theme remix (coming later in other packs). The genre is industrial techno btw. Chenjesu is almost 1:1 tempo to the original if I recall. Although the original tempo was a bit problematic to reproduce right. So I took liberty of creative remix and wanted to bring chenjesu ditty sound into this millennium. Personally I think it's one of the best remixes I made of the ditties.

Syreen ending, yes it is different. Again, creative remixing, the original ending just didn't feel "right" to me. So changed it.

Probe ditty is quite good buttttt... it doesn't fit to probe captains' personality. If you think it as slylandro gasbags' music then it's fine, but probe captains are machines, not gasbags.

Check the extras pack for alternative probe ditty which I made. It's more true to the origina and sounds really like computer.

I think that the alternative probe ditty is better for probe. It would be great if every body listen this alternative ditty and then tell their opinions about it.

Valterri, I have to disagree with you on most of the ditties. Are you sure nostalgia isn't clouding your judgement? No offense intended. But a lot of the ones you labeled "bad sound" are clearly much higher quality than the original.

Probe: Yep, alternative is better.

Ilwrath: I like it! Sounds much more menacing.

Androsynth: Awesome.

Arilou: Good.

Kohr-Ah: It suits the kohr-ah, but the "horror organ" is a bit cheesy.

Chenjesu: I agree, too confusing.

Chmmr: Never liked the first one, this one is worse.

Druuge: Good

Hunam: Very good

Melnorme: Decent

Mmrnmhrm: It's much better than the sc2 one, but it's still inferior to the sc1 mmrnmhrm ditty, which was vastly superior.

Mycon: Very good.

Orz: Good

Pkunk: Good

Shofixti: Very good

Spathi: Very good

Supox: Decent

Syreen: Good

Kzer-Za: Awesome, sounds very threatening

Utwig: Good

Vux: The alternative vux ditty is great!

Yehat: Decent

Zoq-fot: Decent

Thraddash: It's bad, but the original was horrible.

The Umgah ditty reminds me of Toejam and Earl, actually.  Given that the fellows responsible for those games seem to be buddies with TFB (if the TFB website is any indicator) this amuses me.

And hey, I like the Mmrnmhrm theme.  (That one reminds me of the game music from Chromium BSU.)

I dont have any complaints about the ditties
But I _DID_ notice the overabundance of sound shifting effects.

When I said "bad sound", I usually meant that it sounds bad for that race's personality. There could be more "good"-words if there would be used different sounds. One big problem was that many ditties' ending doesn't fit there as well as the original one did.

Yes, it can be 1:1 tempo to the original, but it still sounds too fast. Original one doesn't sound too fast, but this one does. There's too much weird sounds and then it sounds pretty confusing. It doesn't have tp be 1:1 tempo to the original if it doesn't sound good. But Chenjesu's victory music isn't very good even in the original one.

Where can I find the alternitive ditties? Or you talk about the original ones?

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/sc2/uqm-remix-pack1-extras.zip?download

Download that pack. There you can find alternative ditties which aren't in the Precursor's Super Melee! -pack.

Actually the pack consists of two zip files, so if you want to have whole pack, you "need" the both zips. The extras zip contains the readme and credits about the tracks as well.

Ok thanx... but just for the record, I need to put them (and the other files I want in the remix pack) in the same zip and then to put it in the correct location in the add-ons, right?

As Mark Vera said, in the extra-zip, there is a readme.html-file where is instructions.

By the way, overall remixes are pretty good. Can anyone say when the next pack is coming?

You haven't paid attention that carefully, I let you do some searching, but the date is said :)

Allrighty then...
November 10th

I see you are new in this forum, don't you? I, and many more here are lazy, and I have no shame to say that I am the lazyness king. I would like to add "Lazy" song here, but it isn't allowed. So usally when someone asks for instructions, don't send him elsewhere, because usally he won't go. Thank you.

*all contect of this post about me is fully/partly false.*;D

If you give everything on plate to those lazy people they never learn. And if they don't learn, it's their loss, not mine :) (we're going offtopic again)

I have learned. Thanx guys. :P

EDIT:
Should I quote how I was before I have learned?

Ah... You live in Israel, Deep_Jiffa? There must be so hot that you are to tired to do anything. You just don't know that here in Finland is so cold, that we have to move to keep us warm. So it's better to go to the readme-file to check things out than sit here cold and writing something. :)

EDIT:


Actually I have registered last year, but I haven't wrote much here.

Yes I am, got a problem with that? We are all children of god ( with diffrent names ).

Vatteri, that was not good of you.

DJ, laziness is no virtue.

What problem do you mean? That you live in Israel? Why do you think so? Sorry, if you guys don't know what I want to say. My english is so good ;).

Guys. Your problem is offtopic.

I posted earlier and said that Probe's alternative ditty is better and so said JWJ too. If you have more alternative ditties and even if you think that some ditty is better than another, why won't you ask from us, which one is better? Then there would be more happy people.

I think all the ditties which have been ever made are in the two zip files. Or not all, three Red Alert versions are missing, but those suck. Riku put some early versions there too of the ditties I made.

???

What on earth happened to the Starbase Commander track?  :-[ The original was my favorite song out of the entire game. :'( This remix is nice, but it's not Starbase Commander.  :(

PS: Emoticons rule.  8)

It helps if you know how we thought when we made these remixes. While we'd like to be loyal to the originals in many cases, there are also situations where we feel that, for one reason or another, we have ideas that are better than the originals.

Take the Starbase remix made by Tore Fjellstad and I, for example. The original was pretty plain and straightforward. We took that as a basis and made something completely different, that arguably represents the scene where it is played far better than the old one could.

In some of the upcoming remixes, we took this further than in the remixes you've heard so far. Some remixes are very very different from the originals and only contain subtle references that link them at all. To enjoy these properly, you need to approach the music with a fresh perspective, and see how the music fits the race instead of how the music fits the old music. I know that some of you won't be able to do that. For you, there's always the option of using the old music instead. :)

Well, not all of us are unhappy with the remixes.
Although I liked the commander's tune a lot, it WAS rather simplistic and somewhat boring while the new one has an interesting sound.
The starbase is really a good example of how one (or two in that case) can take a regular boring tune and transform it into one of the best ambient tunes I have ever heard.
Therefore, we should wait and see what the other tracks will sound like when they come out.

the starbase commander was one of my favorites, but its not like you ruined it. you made a very good, fitting music, that i will enjoy in the game, and if i want the old one, i still have it on my computor.

A question: If all remixs( or at least 2, because you already have releasing dates) are ready, why not releasing all 4 parts toghether/the completed parts togheter?

 

If it's any consolation to me, I just noticed that Riku made the original Starbase Commander as well as this remix. He does have the right to replace his old track. I don't like the new one nearly as much, but I agree that it fits the mood a little better.

Now for the ditties I didn't like:

Chmmr: Bah. I'd like it if it were badass or maybe mystical. This is neither.

Slylandro Probe: Flutes are nice, but there's nothing flutey about these. I even liked the VUX ditty a bit, which also has a flute.

Yehat: Sounds like a buzz or something. Don't like it.

Illwrath: It's not evil. It's not creepy. It's not much of anything.

Because not all the remixes are finished. Splitting them up in this way made it possible for us to release most of the remixes earlier than if we'd just waited for all to be finished. Not even the next package is 100% finished yet, although it's very close and will be released at the announced date.

Not to mention that you have easier time giving reviews and getting used to to the remixes this way. Or would you guys want to give reviews of 69 songs at one time? Probably no.

I will want to hear 69 new songs....;D

COT(completely off topic) strange, 69 songs? From all numbers 69? hehehehe

Well actually there are more than 69 (alternative remixes, etc), but the 69 is the number of original songs.. that's what Riku counted for the number of mod files in the UQM (ditties included). :)

Again, I'd just like to say Starbase - Percursors fucking rocks.
I especially like the part from 4:20 to 5:30

An aural masterpiece.. very original and just really good to listen to.. I listen to it even out of game.

Under A Red Sky and Mine the Heveans are both excellent along with Exploration. Rough Repair and Outfit are ok but I miss the machine sounds from the 3do versions and they are a little electonic for my tastes.
I don't like the new Starbase commander music, not because it is bad but because the original is my favourite in the whole game and SC2 just isn't SC2 without it. Same with melee although the first couple of seconds are pretty bad IMHO.
The ditties are the only thing I really don't like. Too many weird noises and echos. There were a couple I didn't mind but I can't remember them off the top of my head.

My review of ditties

Androsynth: fits well
Arilou: fits well
Chenjesu: fits well
Chmmr: fits well
Drudge: fits well, but I would prefer more "drum like" melody
Ilwarth: fits well
Melnorme: fits well
MMrditty: fits well
Orz: fits well
Pkunk: fits well
Shofixti: fits well
Venedictor: fits well
Spathi: fits well
Supox: fits well
Syreen: new melody, but fits well
Thraddash: fits well
Umgah: fits well
Utwig: fits well
ZoqFotPik: fits well

Slylandro: sounds well, but doesn't fit well for a computer controlled probe
Uq-Quan: it's not bad, but I would prefet deeper tones like in original
Kohr-Ah: Evil Organs from Space, good for comic relief (BOW! The DEATH is here!), but doesn't fit well here
Yehat: too dark, doesn't fit for bird-like race (more like some dark off-shot for SC4)
Vux: flute doesn't fit to Vux
Mycon: gains worst ditty award


Bonus ditties:
Pkunk: good alternative
Shofixti: good alternative
Spathi: good alternative
Umgah: good alternative
Utwig: as good as original remix, maybe even better, since it's without those "strings"

UrQuam: sounds same as original remix
Ilwarth: bad, at least it sounds evil
Tharddash: doesn't sound right
Tharddash v2: maybe too much drum-like
Vux: ugh... bad
ZoqFotPik: don't like it

Slylandro: suits more then original remix, I'll use this one as replacement
Yehat: better then other original remix, I'll use this one as replacement

Syreen should have the same melody as original, except for the additional (more dominant) harp arpeggions following the chords. Also ending a bit different.

Bonus urquan is pretty much same, only difference is in the stereo picture/width which is wider in the version which is in the add-on zip.

Nobody's mentioned the Umgah "noitacifidoM citeneG" mix in the bonus pack yet. It's great fun. I'm still trying to ascertain its correct temporal orientation. ;D

I have no means to verify this, but I think that its just Umgah song played backward.

Actually, it's a pretty neat (and slightly weird) Umgah mix played backwards. The easiest way to listen to it forwards is to load it into a sound editor with OGG import (e.g. Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)), reverse it and listen to the result.

Is this how you do previews, Mark? :)

You forgot to review one ditty mates. The precurser ship ditty! So I will review it!

It is nice, but not masterpiece and it sounds the same. Besides the quality of the sound is better I prefer the older one, it just sounds better. Sorry.