81454A: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Official Soundtrack

[CHz]

Presumably going to be a reprint of this → http://vgmdb.net/album/1678

[KriztofferSwank]

With the picture only showing one disc, I can't help but think it'll be a condensed soundtrack. Unless the Club Nintendo description cites two discs; the site's down right now.

[CHz]

The initial text description said it was a single CD, but they later updated it to 2 without changing the picture.

[TerraEpon]

Now if only they made an OOT soundtrack with two discs...

[_if]

I must say, I bought both this and the old Nintendo Power Majora's Mask soundtrack and this one sounds way better. They're not merely different masterings, they're different recordings and the Nintendo Power has a harsher, grainier, mid-rangey sound that is especially bad when you compare them back to back. And it has more extreme stereo panning that I think sounds somewhat less natural. It also has less reverb, which sometimes works, but I actually felt the need to add a little bit while listening because it can be too dry. Sometimes it's mixed in a way that the instruments are more clear and that is nice, but overall the drawbacks outweigh the positives, in my opinion. This new album also has much closer sound to the game, but neither is a perfect representation of it.

There are some mistakes on this version though: I would be willing to wager the disc 2 tracks 7, 47, 48, 49, 50, and 53 were all intended have their volumes about doubled. The album as a whole is very conservatively leveled, especially for a 2013 album, but these tracks are still oddly quiet. They appear to have been turned down 5.999 decibels (half would have been 6.021 dB), except for 7 and 47 which can be be precisely doubled without clipping, and boosting them makes them feel right. It was probably some oversight of the mastering engineer, who I'd otherwise commend for letting the music be as it's supposed to be.

So if anyone's in the market for Majora's Mask, I'd definitely recommend picking up this version. It's also conveniently not extravagantly priced right now.

[FPI]

I agree that the volume on this seems a bit unbalanced on occasion. Another example would be "Deku Palace" on disc 1, which seems to be a lot louder than everything that came before on that disc.

[Boldizar]

Originally Posted by _if

I must say, I bought both this and the old Nintendo Power Majora's Mask soundtrack and this one sounds way better. They're not merely different masterings, they're different recordings and the Nintendo Power has a harsher, grainier, mid-rangey sound that is especially bad when you compare them back to back. And it has more extreme stereo panning that I think sounds somewhat less natural. It also has less reverb, which sometimes works, but I actually felt the need to add a little bit while listening because it can be too dry. Sometimes it's mixed in a way that the instruments are more clear and that is nice, but overall the drawbacks outweigh the positives, in my opinion. This new album also has much closer sound to the game, but neither is a perfect representation of it.

There are some mistakes on this version though: I would be willing to wager the disc 2 tracks 7, 47, 48, 49, 50, and 53 were all intended have their volumes about doubled. The album as a whole is very conservatively leveled, especially for a 2013 album, but these tracks are still oddly quiet. They appear to have been turned down 5.999 decibels (half would have been 6.021 dB), except for 7 and 47 which can be be precisely doubled without clipping, and boosting them makes them feel right. It was probably some oversight of the mastering engineer, who I'd otherwise commend for letting the music be as it's supposed to be.

So if anyone's in the market for Majora's Mask, I'd definitely recommend picking up this version. It's also conveniently not extravagantly priced right now.

Thank you for the comparison. I came here hoping to find this exact information!