The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

FYI; Yehat is finally remixed. Check out Riku's and Harri's (he composed "Credits" with Riku) weird new "TÄDÄÄ" project at www.mikseri.net/tadaa (http://www.mikseri.net/tadaa)

 8) IQ & Mr Fobias  8)

Strange remix, I was expecting it to be more orchestral, although the synth work makes them feel more alien. I have to say though, I don't like the tempo of it, If they would slow it down, then I think it'd sound closer to the original feel...

8/10...
Okay, tweaking the Mp3 on Audicity. By slowing it's speed down my 15% (Change Speed, -15% on the bar) the whole feel of the song changes. It changes from being up-beat and dancish to ambient and rather striving. Like they're actually Galactic Warriors, with their precious goal lost. I'd say it improves it a heck of a lot.

Hm...

I like it. You guys can make this the official remix if you want.

Thats a very cool mix, definetly likin it

It's not bad, but I think it lacks the same feel as the original, which I consider to be perhaps the finest game song ever composed. It just feels kind of upbeat and party-ish, an atmosphere nothing like the first one and not really fitting for the Yehat. It also seems too "busy" with all the beats and techno sounds.

I'm not always down on remixes different markedly from the original, but I'm a little disappointed with this one.

I like it!
It also fits perfectly their Scottish accent. Not that the original has something wrong, but I like changes.

Like many others here, I was expecting a symphonic remix, so this one came as a bit of a surprise. However, it's still a remix (as opposed to an original replacement track like some of the Precursors' stuff), even though the remix leaves the original melody behind quite a lot.

It took me quite a few listens to really form an opinion on this one precisely because it's different to what I expected. I feel it captures the spirit of the original quite well while bringing it into a more ambient style that works better with speech and is also very listenable. Implementation of the chosen style is, as always, top-notch (although this tune in particular exposes limitations of cheap headphones very well!).

I'm curious as to why this has not been released by the Precursors but as a side project; is this one of the mixes the Precursors team wasn't happy with as a whole or are you testing the waters, so to speak?

Yeah, it is quite different to what we were expecting, although I have to say it is one top notch remix.

Although, this makes me think if you guys would be able to "remaster" it with the requests of the community, like for instance, mine would be to slow down the mix by 15% (Making the theme more recognizable and making the mix in itself much more ambient). I can guess other people's requests would be to use the choir pads further :).

Please don't say so! Remember the Orz! *frumple*

Alright, here I go. (Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm...)
http://www.savefile.com/files/641469 (http://www.savefile.com/files/641469)

I've also uploaded a more remastered version here: http://www.savefile.com/files/641491 (http://www.savefile.com/files/641491) (a bit more Scottish feel)

I see you sloowed it down, but I DO NOT like the warble effect going on as it's deducting from the melody...

I can't hear much difference, although the lead with the Yehat Melody has a higher volume, which is good. Maybe if you could add the Sharp "epic" strings each time it finishes a segment (like in the begining, hard to explain :/).

I can't really hear anything scottish in this currently. (03:36)

All I'd say is get rid of the Warble, and maybe add some more stuff to it (like having a trance piano instrument echoing with the main melody, that'd be cool :D ).

Well, that was just a quick mock-up. I don't want to do more work right now, but I'd estimate there are about 0.5% chances that I'll do this in the appropriate (sic) future. Yeah, not near, only appropriate.  ;)

The samples sound good, even though I hate the synth. The tempo is good.

In my opinion the first 1:40 minutes sound empty, like a song without a lead instrument. After 1:40 it gets good.
I would either cut the first 1:40, shorten it (say the first 30-40 seconds are fine) or at least start the melody going with some other instrument (second run: I can hear the faint ambient playing the theme, but it's too low).

As for an official remix candidate..  I just can't get over that synth.. It's so not-Yehat IMHO.  But -->

(third run)
All in all I like the tune :)

(fourth run)
I won't be upset if this is the final mix, but I still believe that you should experiment with other (lead) instruments.
Good work :)


..
(tenth run at least)
ooh! is this still on? :P

For the record, releasing this remix was Riku's decision alone and came as a total surprise to the rest of the Precursors. VOiD and I have been working on our own remix for a while without really getting anywhere, so I guess it's a relief to see something getting made at all. We're still discussing how to handle this, but I have so far suggested that I can make it more orchestral if Riku wants me to. Whether or not this will be our official Precursors remix remains to be seen.

Personally I think it's a great remix, but I also agree that it's a bit slow in the buildup.

I don't mind the slow buildup, but the song seems to lose its direction for the last minute.

I like how it sounds when you slow it down by 15% and then play it backwards. :P

TiLT

I personally really like the Synth. I think it gets across the feeling of 'old sorrows' or regret (the ambient part I mean).

The Yehat aren't really about old sorrows or regret... Their problems are quite present; They agonize about it, but they're not sad as such.

The Yehat fight for what is right. (What they see as right, anyway.)

They seemed regretful that they had to forsake their honor and their friends and are now just enslaved warriors of their enemies. So I think it fits if the musical direction reflects this.

I don't think they're sad. I think they're pissed off!

They're not Utwig. They're sad, but they CAN live with it. And they're not ALWAYS sad about it. They're more like humans.

The Utwig are not as sad as the Yehat, they just lack the fight that the Yehat have as an additional primary emotion. But that reminds me that the Utwig have two variations of their original theme, for before and after ultron repairs. The same could be done for before and after the Yehat revolution. This one or a variant thereof could be the before, the after could sound more aggressive and maybe use some different instruments.

If there have been four attempts at the Yehat theme so far, it would be a shame to only use one of them.

*SPUTTER!*

What, you're telling me you really want another loooong wait? ;)


You're almost correct. The sentence should read: "..., it would be a shame to use any one of them."  ;D

awesome remix

TiLT

No, just that if you decide not to use this one and make another, you can instead use both, each for different event periods. I did not mean to suggest more work, just not scrapping that which is already done.

If you decide to use this version or a slightly modified version, I think that would be great as well.

Hmm, I have mixed feelings about this remix.

The good: Well, it sounds good. It emphasizes the alien-ness of the Yehat, and it's a good track to have running in the background while coding or writing. Also, it actually includes the basic theme of the original.
The not-so-good: ....but with that said, I don't think it fits the Yehat as well as the original did. There's some unidentifiable (at least by me) quality to the original that captures the "spirit" of the Yehat so well: It combines a feeling of melancholy (the Yehat lost their honour, their freedom and their children) with a strong sense of perseverance (despite their loss, the Yehat still follow their old ways and their old values). For whatever reason, the original makes me think exactly of "proud, warlike starship clans", I think this is somehow lost in the new one.

I'd gladly accept another looooooong wait. I suppose there's a looooooong wait for both the intro and the Syreen (another great tune) as well, anyway. I like the idea of having a theme for the royalists and another for the rebels, by the way.

I'll wait :)

It's more than likely that you feel that way about the original track because that was the music you heard when you talked to the Yehat the first time you played the game. Whenever you hear that piece of music these days, your brain will automatically associate it with the Yehat pictures and dialogues, making you feel the way you do.

Nostalgia can be a bitch.

That explains why I don't think of "proud, warlike Starship Clans": I used to turn off the music when speaking to aliens.

I would purposely talk to aliens in order to listen to the music.

I liked that mysterious silence.

I don't mind waiting as long as I know that you guys are still working on it (I was worried before that you'd abandoned the project).

Yeah, its good to get the occaisonal update, even if its like "we tried a remix, but weren't satisifed"

turning off SC2 music? and above all, the Yehat theme??
that's sick dude!!

:P

When I finished the game, I turned on the music. You know, it needed not be as mysterious anymore.

Hey,

Thanks for listening & commenting new Yehat (years late) -remix.
Looks like there are many different opinions of the remix - some say it's awesome, and some would like it slower and even backwards... You're crazy ! ;D

Well, hopefully the release was a happy surprise to you anyway ! As you can see The PRECURSORS are not dead, we were just sleeping.

The remix was really a pain to remix. However I think it turned out quite good ... and it wins for sure all the previous versions we have done so far (damn, we have tried to mix it something like 10 times!!!). I am also happy that it is finally *done* after long wait !

So, keep on commenting, and thanks so far !

- Riku  8)

ps. why the song is at www.mikseri.net/tadaa (http://www.mikseri.net/tadaa) ? TÄDÄÄ (tadaa) is a new musical project between Riku & Harri. So, if you like our music, check out the site also later. Riku's and Harri's future co-op releases (not always UQM related) will be there online ! Did you like "The Colony" by the way?

I'm a relative new comer to SC, i first played uqm soon after 0.4.0 or something. even to my abjective ears the original yehat theme  did seem to capture the feel of their story quite well. apon listenning to it again just now i noticed that it did have an almost subliminal "scottishiness" to it, not necessarily in the instruments but in the melody and also in some parts of the tempo. overall i say use a  tempo more similar in style to the original, use more traditional scottish instruments, like bagpipes, keep the melody at the forefront and accent it with the harsh heavy terminator-esqu techno sounds like in the original to reflect the technological aspect of their culture.
sure it would just sound like a higher qual version of the original, but so what. the new remix is a good piece of music and should be used somehow, it just shouldn't be their only or main theme.

Good heavens man! SC2 is not SC2 without alien music! Who can forget the coolness of the Commander Hayes music when you first show up at earth, or the bizzareness of the slylandro music when you bizzarly find them on a gas giant. There is no dubt that it enhanced the game's awesome first impressions.

As for the remix, I agree with everything Simon K said a few posts back. - I also I agree with what TilT said is response. Strange is it not?

Its a quality piece of music, that offers more, in some ways than the original. On the down side it take a while to get into it and the melody is not as prominent as it could be.

I like it. While I admit it took until about 1:45 to actually be able to recognize the melody, once it got there, I thought it was pretty cool. Like many others, I'll echo the sentiment that it was not what I was expecting, but that doesn't make it any less good.

The Colony was pretty neat, too. Is that a remix or an original piece (suffice to say, I can't read what's written on the site, and if it's a remix, I didn't recognize the source).

On a final note, I will say that anyone who plays SC2 with the music turned off is a crackhead. That's a crime against nature!

You didn't spot the language selection box in top right corner, I gather. English version here (http://www.mikseri.net/artists/?id=65769&displ_lang=en), anyway.

The only times I turned off the music was in HyperSpace (which was a bit slow on a 386SX20 with Sound Blaster music on) after hearing the same tune thousands of times.

Hey, I didn't say that I play it with music turned off. I said that I played it like this when I played it for the first time.

Nope, guess I should be a bit more perceptive. Thanks.


Same song thousands of times, maybe I can understand (I never got tired of it, though). However, my friend was playing the game on a 286, and it sounded fine (the rest of the game was slow as hell, though. It's amazing how much certain ships gain and lose usefulness on a really slow computer). I don't know if the music speed was different because he was using the internal speaker (which I was shocked could actually even play music at all, at least music that didn't consist of beeps and boops).

I guess Riku should learn to link to the English version of pages when posting on international boards. ;D

Sorry, I meant HyperSpace travel was slow, not the music. The way SC2 uses the Sound Blaster (every single byte in the audio stream transmitted separately at the right time by the CPU, urgh!), there is little difference in CPU load between Sound Blaster and PC speaker music (and, for similar reasons, little difference in sound quality; for example, I remember that the playback speed went crazy like a jammed tape recorder every time the game touched the disk).

Actually, the first time I heard the Yehat tune was when I played through UQM --- I never had Star Control II; it wasn't released for the Amiga* to my knowledge, and when I switched over to PCs like the rest of the world, I decided to run Linux --- with no Star Control II available until UQM.

But I played SC1 on the C64 (C64 SC1 was a very poor implementation, by the way) when I was young, and I remember that reading through the manual would send my imagination flying: Here was a computer game universe that was potentially as elaborately thought out as some of the science fiction books I read.

I partly agree with TiLT: Nostalgia definitely has something to do with it, although in my case it was nostalgia for my very own image of the Yehat in SC1. Still, there is something to the melody itself, as well as the choice of instruments, that makes it fit well with the Yehat: I mean, you could hardly imagine the Spathi or Umgah melody for them, or even the Ilwrath or Thraddash.

I guess remixing this particular tune is a bitch; it seems to evoke strong feelings in pretty much everyone.

*) Now, the memories I have with that machine is pretty much the primary cause of me turning into a wretched mass of computing nostalgia every now and then....

I think this remix is good and fits Yehat, but is not as good as the original. :)
BTW there's some strange voice somewhere at 00.50; I hahve no idea what that is for.

Probably a subliminal message.

"YOU ARE FILTH. YOU MUST BE CLEANSED."

Its a nice piece of music, but it lacks the aggressiveness/boldness of the original theme. The sort of trance sound it has would make it a nice 'traveling through Yehat space theme' .  But it doesn't have the quick build up, or the strong beat that I associate with the Yehat.  Its a pity no one can do something similar to The March of Cambreadth.