Video Game soundtracks are probably the most complex form of soundtracks I think exist out there today. There are a ton of areas to consider when you choose to present your music onto a track based medium. Why? Because most of the music we hear in games loop, seamlessly blend into the next on the character's whim and change "on the moment" based on the player's action even on the same track.
Aquaria's soundtrack is one that I can find to be one of the simpler soundtrack releases compared to all the other game soundtracks I have. By no means am I saying the soundtrack will be a walk in the park to produce, but when compared to a lot of other game soundtracks out there, the music is simple in it's presentation in the game.
Of course, the most typical handling of music in Aquaria, like a lot of other games, is through the use of loops. The music will loop itself when it reaches the end, and the transition between the end and beginning are made to seamlessly integrate into one another. The most common handling of video game soundtracks is usually to have the music loop two times. Sometimes the music will fade out by the end of the first loop, but the most common fade out I find in soundtracks occurs when the music loops itself for a second time and fades out in the opening seconds of the second loop, providing two full plays of the song. While not entirely essential to have full two play throughs of the track, the most essential is at least having a full play through of the track so we can hear it unedited.
That's my experience on how soundtrack companies produce their tracks, now things get tricky. The track to track transition.
This is where a lot of my critical points in my soundtrack reviews stem from. The transition between one track to another I find to be very crucial element to the music's presentation. For instance, Blizzard released the official StarCraft Soundtrack during Blizzcon 2007. I was ecstatic about it because I couldn't find any way of accessing the music files from the game itself. When I finally listened to what I heard, I was let down. The way the transitions worked was that the ending to one track was integrated into the opening of the other track. So if you wanted to listen to track 8, you would instantly hear the last 5 seconds of track 7 abruptly before the music of Track 8 started playing over it. I found this type of transition annoying and didn't feel it represented the tracks as their own individual piece like they were presented in the game. However, the music in Aquaria does have it's instances where each track fades into the other when the player goes from one area to another, so maybe this is the route the soundtrack will take? My opinion regarding this soundtrack is the hope that each track piece will be presented as a stand alone music piece where it doesn't rely on the next track to end. Just an opinion of course.
But what about other areas like what music will actually be in the soundtrack, and what music won't be? If you've ever seen the original Resident Evil 2 soundtrack release, you pretty much know what I'm aiming at. The first CD release had all the pieces of music that were essential to the plot like boss encounters, room music that you spend most of your time in, opening and closing themes. It wasn't until later that they released a second CD entitled "Complete Track" that contains all the remaining music that didn't make it into the previous soundtrack. So the question in regards to Aquaria is if all the music from the game will be able to be presented on a release? Which music pieces will be left out? And on a related note, what bonus material will there possibly be? One of the neat little bonuses of the Resident Evil 2 "Complete Track" release was the inclusion of not only the remaining music and stinger pieces, but also a second mini disc containing a ton of sound effects from the game, and an interview with the composers conducted in a........jungle?
Either way, I'm insanely curious on how the Aquaria Soundtrack will be handled. It's without a doubt one of my most anticipated soundtrack releases to date and I hope it all works out. Heck, I'm more excited about Aquaria's soundtrack than the 5-disc Bayonetta soundtrack that's been announced!
