Tales of Monkey Island MIDI soundtrack

[Udvarnoky]

One of the unfortunate side effects of TMI's production being influenced by WiiWare constraints was that the soundtrack had lower production values than the previous two Monkey Island games as well as the Sam & Max games Telltale had put out previously. As far as I know, there are no live instruments employed at all.

 

Despite that, Michael Land's score is totally on point. The compositions are memorable, and the music is overall one of the strongest features of the game for my money. There's a Monkey Island 2 vibe going on to my ears and it's such great stuff that it makes the low budget aspect a surmountable issue.

 

The WiiWare's version of the music is even further synthesized than the PC version - in fact, I'm pretty sure it's literally MIDI tracks. The thing is, having played the WiiWare version of Tales, I really dig this version. It works quite well, has a certain nostalgic quality to it, and I actually think it's different enough from the PC version to justify seeking it out.

 

Which brings me to my reason for making the thread...I want the MIDI tracks made available somehow! Is this even a theoretically possible bit of hackery?

[s-island]

The Wii version has straight MIDI files played back using a .DLS sample bank. The PC soundtrack is the same MIDI files recorded with a different sample bank.

 

This should be all of them: http://s-island.mixnmojo.com/stuff/TMI_MIDIs.zip

[Udvarnoky]

Well, say! Thanks for the clarification and the goods. I'm enjoying the hell out of these MIDIs; this soundtrack holds up.

 

See, the forums do still serve a purpose.

[s-island]

I recommend you use a softsynth that can play back the MIDIs using the monkeybank2.dls file.

[Benny]

I extracted those midis from the Wii versions years ago. I shared them privately with a few people, I was a bit dubious about posting them publicly (Lucas legal was infamous for shutting down things like this at one point). I'm glad they are finally public and that Zaarin is 100% responsible for all issues arising from this! Some remixes or high quality re-recordings using the midis would be excellent.

 

I will also record for posterity that the resource files for one of the versions of the game has Land's original cubase source files for the episode 1 music inside.

[NotTheMindProbe]

Sorry for replying so late to this thread... the link in s-island's first post doesn't work for me right now, so I can't get the MIDIs.

 

A bit funny how long interest in this has been going...the last post is already from about a month before the first trailer to Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released!

[Zum]

A bit funny how long interest in this has been going...the last post is already from about a month before the first trailer to Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released!

 

Tell me about it. I only found this thread a few days ago even though I still lurked Mixnmojo from time to time so I can't imagine how the heck did I miss it.

 

That said, the download actually works now, and those midis are nothing short of amazing, the Wii soundfont sounds even better than what Land did with Cubase and of course you can make it sound like anything. Making a Wii-music mod for Tales wouldn't be that much of waste imo, it might give you more appreciation for Land's last ever work (that I'm not a big fan of except for a number of tracks).