NTDT-17288: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD Sound Selection

[OracleLink]

Does anyone here have this soundtrack? I was wondering about the quality of the files. Are they actually CD quality? Since I have the old Wind Waker soundtrack, but after ripping it in FLAC and doing a spectrogram rendering, it cuts off around 16 kHz, presumably due to the size constraints of GameCube discs or whatever that prevented them from using higher-quality music. Anyway, I was wondering if the sound samples used for the HD version do that as well

[_if]

I don't have the CD but I do have the game and, from looking at a recording of the audio from it (analog output), it appears to use 44.1 kHz. Don't know if that would be consistent across all music, including the stuff that's unchanged from the original, but it's not unlikely. I can't test at the moment because I haven't played past Outset Island yet (I found the bloom lighting way too off-putting to be eager to play it since I'd played through it on GameCube like four times; got my Wii U for other games but wanted the special game pad in the WWHD pack).

The reason for the 16 kHz cut-off isn't exactly size constraint. Most of Wind Waker's music was sequenced and therefore took up very little space on disc. The GameCube's (and Wii's) internal sampling rate was 32 kHz before it resampled to 48 kHz for output. 32 kHz seems to have been Nintendo's favorite number. It's a slight oversimplification, but the SNES and most N64 games used it as well.

[_if]

So I got the CD and I'm sorry to have led you astray but history has repeated itself on this one. The only ones that don't have a sharp cut-off of frequency at 16 kHz are tracks 5, 10, 11, 16, 17, 23, 25, 28, 29, 32, 37, and 46. Many others have little lines going up above there, like with the original game's OST, or something stronger for just a short time, but there will still be a definite difference between the below 16 kHz point and above it. Inexplicably, even the title theme and some others that were real 44.1 on the original game's OST are resampled 32 here. The original OST was also mastered very nicely, but this one is significantly louder. Not insanely overdone (except for the fanfares), but definitely noticeably louder.

I must add, though the Final Fantasy X HD Remaster soundtrack is controversial in value amongst people here, can we get a consensus that this thing is practically worthless? I cannot believe the synth downgrade. Like my complaint about Tsutomu Narita there, I don't know why they even have samples this bad anymore, especially when the originals from 12 years ago were superior, often greatly so. Just to take one example - and it's probably not even the worst one I could pick - compare "Helmaroc King" to the original. It's pathetic here. That trumpet sample is about as realistic as the awful bloom lighting the game is slathered in. Synth strings often sound like General MIDI, as in "Epilogue". All instruments in "Pirates" except the percussion are just unbelievably bad. Almost every track is tweaked at least minimally and I think the only ones I can imagine calling an improvement are maybe "Fairy Spring" (most marginally), "Gohma Battle Second Half", and "Makar's Prayer". Mixing is often clearly inferior, with key melodies sometimes getting buried, like in "Maritime Battle". The dynamic parts (that is, where the music changes in the battles to fit what's going on) of "Kalle Demos" and "Phantom Ganon" are sloppily spliced in.

I don't get it... the people who worked on this are better than this.

[BahamutZ]

Is it just me or are all the battle themes skippable in Windwaker? Out of all the amazing music in the Zelda series you would think that the battle themes would have caught up to the quality of the other pieces by now. Frankly, I can't recall a single battle theme in any of the games that I really enjoyed. Definitely not one that I could listen to outside of the game. Twilight Princess and Windwaker being the latest I played and listened to. There are some older games where I would have to go back and listen to the music again to say for sure though.

[CHz]

Wakai's battle themes are VERY easily my favorite tracks from Wind Waker, especially Molgera.

[strugglepoo]

I really enjoy the battle themes. Probably my favourite in the series. Spirit Tracks comes pretty close, though. Definitely check out that soundtrack.

[_if]

I love Wakai's battle themes, much like I love Wakai, but I don't get the singling out of "Molgera". I don't see it as better than "Jalhalla" or "Kalle Demos" or especially "Gohdan", a really weird and wonderful piece of music that they unfortunately cut a third out of (half a loop each of the two variations that make up the second half) on the OST. If I were in charge I think I would have told him to make somewhat thicker, fuller arrangements for some, but that's about all I'd change.

[Guitarist500]

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[_if]

You think Wakai and Minegishi worked on some tracks together, like "Gohma Battle First Half" but not "Gohma Battle Second Half"? You think Minegishi wrote "Ceremony in the Woods"? I've never encountered any evidence for that and I don't think it's right either. The most I've ever seen speculatively attributed to Minegishi are the first five in that list and I personally don't think he did all of those.

[Mac_Tear]

I just love how people spectaculate about this soundtrack It's pretty tricky, as there isn't that much information available, which composer had which role. While Nagata's and Kondo's compositions are obvious, as are most of Wakai's contributions, there are neverless tracks, which aren't that easy to figure out. Music for the Boss appearances (and other cutscenes), for example. Either the composer of the respective battle theme (Wakai for most part), or a composer specialized for this kind (Minegishi?).
"Ceremony in the Woods" is definitely one of Wakai's compositions, as it fits perfectly within the rest of Forest Haven's music. Minegishi is the real mystery here...

Edit: Here's what Game Music Online writes about his role:

On The Wind Waker, Minegishi was put in charge of the cinematically-inclined title’s event pieces. In order to synchronise music with the character animations, he meticulously dissected each scene of the game and also studied how many masters in film and theatre did it — taking particular influence from Disney’s feature animations, notably Alan Menken’s score for Aladdin.

[Guitarist500]

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[Mentalo]

I have two things to share with you regarding The Wind Waker HD !

First of all, as you know TWW HD does have part of its soundtrack re-arranged, but the other part was left untouched so I made a list of all the music that was arranged in this album and all the ones that weren't:

Reprises : 01, 03, 16, 18, 21, 23-24, 26-27, 31, 33, 35-36, 38-40, 42, 46-50*
Arrangements : 02, 04-15, 17, 19-20, 22, 25, 28-30, 32, 34, 37, 41, 43-45

*: Track 46 (Ganondorf Battle) seems to have been very VERY slightly modified (it makes me think of how the 3DS Zelda remakes songs were remade to be almost 100% similar to the originals)

Some other arrangements that are not featured on this album include : Inside a House, Grandpa's House, Tetra Discovered, The Forest of Outset Island, Encounter with Tetra, Inside the Pirate Ship, Imprisonment, Get Treasure Box, Game Over, Get Orb, Wind's Requiem, Get Baton Song, Song of Passing, The Deku Tree Crisis, Forbidden Woods, Get Master Sword, Hyrule Castle, Ballad of Gales, Earth God's Lyric, Wind God's Aria, Wind Temple, Gohma First Half (2nd Time), Gohma Second Half (2nd Time), Jalhalla (2nd Time), Molgera (2nd Time), Puppet Ganon (Transformation)

I made this list by comparing this album + TWW HD's sound files + some music heard in gameplay with TWW's original soundtrack, so there may be some arranged tracks that I did not notice.
Note that some of these arrangements are very subtle and won't be noticed unless you're directly comparing them with their original versions.

Secondly, as I stated in this post, I was able to look into TWW HD's music files. I already made my conclusions about the original TWW music featured in those files and their naming convention, but it happens that the arranged tracks I was able to find do feature this convention as well !

So here is the arranged tracks on this album + arrangements not featured in it and their matching files (for the tracks that were untouched, please refer to this post):

Spoiler:

02 - Select_CK.n
04 - ProloIsl_A_Intro_CK.n.32 (variants: ProloIsl_A_CK.n (without intro), ProloIsl_B_CK.n (without Aryll's Theme reprise))
05 - (not found)
06 - Baachan_CK.o
07 - Pirate_CK.n
08 - MajuIsl_CK.n
09 - TauraIsl_CK.n
10 - (not found)
11 - (not found)
12 - Diocta1_CK.aa (variant: Diocta2_CK.aa)
13 - (not found)
14 - (not found)
15 - (not found)
17 - (not found)
19 - Goma_A_CK.aa
20 - Goma_B_CK.aa
22 - (not found)
25 - (not found)
28 - (not found)
29 - (not found)
30 - Tower_Battle_CK.aa
32 - (not found)
34 - Elf_CK.o
37 - (not found)
41 - Moldgera_CK.aa
43 - Kugutu1_CK.w
44 - Kugutu2_CK.w
45 - Kugutu3_CK.w

Inside a House - House_CK.n
Grandpa's House - House_G_CK.o
Tetra Discovered - Find_Tetra_CK.w
The Forest of Outset Island - ProloForest_FadeIn_CK.n
Encounter with Tetra - Tetra_Meet_CK.w
Inside the Pirate Ship - Pirate_Cabin_CK.w
Imprisonment - MajuIsl_Jail_CK.n
Get Treasure Box - (not found)
Game Over - (not found)
Get Orb - (not found)
Wind's Requiem - (not found)
Get Baton Song - (not found)
Song of Passing - (not found)
The Deku Tree Crisis - Deku_Pinch_CK.aa
Forbidden Woods - D_Forest_CK.o
Get Master Sword - MasterSword_Get_CK.o
Hyrule Castle - Hyrul_On_CK.o
Ballad of Gales - (not found)
Earth God's Lyric - Tak8_MDR_CK.n
Wind God's Aria - Tak8_MKR_CK.n
Wind Temple - D_Wind_CK.o
Gohma First Half (2nd Time) - P_Goma_A_CK.w
Gohma Second Half (2nd Time) - P_Goma_B_CK.w
Jalhalla (2nd Time) - (not found)
Molgera (2nd Time) - P_Moldgera_CK.w
Puppet Ganon (Transformation) - Kugutu_Taraba_Intro_CK.w

Some tracks are missing, but many of the ones I was able to find have either .n, .w, .o or .aa at the end of them. I think that as that seems to be the case for Super Mario 3D World, it is indicative of who their composer in charge is.

Other Nintendo games also have this naming convention:
.n seems to be for Kenta Nagata and is also found in some of New Super Mario Bros. Wii's music files, a game for which he did compose some music.
.w seems to be for Hajime Wakai and is also found in some of Pikmin 2's and 3's music files, games for which he did compose some music.
.o seems to be for Asuka Hayazaki (whose maiden name is Ohta) and is also found in some of Pikmin 3's music files, a game for which she did compose some music.
.aa seems to be for Atsuko Asahi and is also found in some of Pikmin 3's music files, a game for which she did compose some music.

So that would make an incomplete arranger breakdown look like this:
.n = Kenta Nagata: 02, 04, 07-09, Inside a House, The Forest of Outset Island, Imprisonment, Earth God's Lyric, Wind God's Aria
.w = Hajime Wakai: 43-45, Tetra Discovered, Encounter with Tetra, Inside the Pirate Ship, Gohma First Half (2nd Time), Gohma Second Half (2nd Time), Molgera (2nd Time), Puppet Ganon (Transformation)
.o = Asuka Hayazaki (maiden name Ohta): 06, 34, Grandpa's House, Forbidden Woods, Get Master Sword, Hyrule Castle, Wind Temple
.aa = Atsuko Asahi: 12, 19-20, 30, 41, The Deku Tree Crisis
Unknown : 5, 10-11, 13-15, 17, 22, 25, 28-29, 32, 37, Get Treasure Box, Game Over, Get Orb, Wind's Requiem, Get Baton Song, Song of Passing, Ballad of Gales, Jalhalla (2nd Time)

Of course, keep in mind that all of this isn't official.

[Maskad]

I'd like to suggest two changes for the localized tracklist (I've submitted and reverted them earlier, sorry for that, I want to put them up for debate first):

12 The Second Maritime Battle → Maritime Battle - Part 2
I don't know if there is any place in the game, where track 11 and 12 are playing one after another (as part 1 and 2 of one battle or something), but I think to call this "Second Maritime Battle" isn't any closer to a properly localized naming than the literal translation. It depends on the enemy which theme is played, not the time/order you encounter them.

34 Fairy Spring → Fairy Fountain
This name can be read on a sign in WW according to the Zelda Wiki (https://zelda.gamepedia.com/Great_Fairy_Fountain)

If no one disputes these suggested changes, I will work them into this tracklist and the one for the OST (SCDC-00250~1) in a week or so.