Star Control II: Hyperspace Theme (2014 Update)

• published: 05 Jan 2014
• views: 91

With specific credit to original composer Riku Nuottajärvi, this update of the epic spacefaring theme from Star Control II is not a "mix" per se, but a thorough update of the original in honor of the franchise seeing new life. Stardock Software has acquired the rights to the franchise and is currently in development of a reboot of the series in the very near future. Star Control II was a hallmark title in PC gaming during the early 90's, and its eclectic and innovative soundtrack was also far ahead of its time. By using digital sound modules rather than MIDI hardware or FM synthesis software emulation, it brought a quality of sound to gamers even without the use of advanced sound cards. This music could even be played through a chintzy internal PC speaker like standard PCM audio, which blew my mind even as a 12-year old. Combined with the fact that the soundtrack was just flat out epic, it changed the way I saw music in games and ignited my interest and fascination in electronic music. Jump forward two decades and here I am, remastering this classic track originally used in the game while journeying amongst the stars. Remastering was performed in Renoise 2. I originally did a version of this in mid-2013 but was not completely satisfied with the result, so have reissued it as a 2014 release The arrangement has been preserved from the original, but I wanted to update this in the same way the original Star Trek theme from the 1960's television series was updated for the final credit sequence in the newly rebooted movies, with some homage to that classic "pulp sci-fi" feel. The original sound module from the game suffered from the limitations of the time by having only four distinct sound channels that could be played simultaneously, so there was not much polyphony (sounds could not overlap and there were only so many instruments that could play during each beat). That is no longer a limitation these days, so the sound space has been significantly widened, stereo panning effects added, sample clipping has been corrected, and significant sound processing and remastering applied to give this memorable classic a fresh new sound for the 21st century. Or should I say 23rd century?