Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge OST Mystery

[DefinitelyReagan]

Time for a grail quest. I've got a bit of a mystery on my hands relating to the OST for Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.
 

The ScummBar has hosted the CD-quality OST for Monkey Island 2 for twenty years now. The strange part is that no version of Monkey Island 2 ever had this CD-quality audio. The tracks here are higher quality than MT-32, with more instruments and sound effects, and aren't featured in any of the CD versions I've found, nor floppys, nor FM-Towns.

As far as I can tell, this quality of the soundtrack is a total mystery. So where did it come from? Is there any way to play MI2 with these high quality tracks included? I have so many questions, and figure somebody here is likely smart enough to help answer them.

Checking YouTube playlists also featuring these tracks has many users asking the same question. Can someone help put this mystery to rest?

https://scummbar.com/mp3-midi/mi2

[Remi]

I'm unsure exactly what version you're talking about -- the PC one? I looked through the YouTube comments and couldn't find anyone asking the question. 🤷 (Though possibly they're under one of the non-Mojo videos that took the tracks and didn't credit Soundfont Island, Mojo, or TSB for them.)

 

Zaarin will know more about the process as he was the one who ripped them, but I'm fairly certain they were just recorded through MT-32. Attached is the soundfont I use with ScummVM. I think it's basically the same one used in the MP3s. Possibly.

 

 MT32_CONTROL.zip

[Laserschwert]

That's my version of the MI2 soundtrack (but only the version offered for download on the Scumm Bar site - the YouTube version they are linking to is a different one). I created it in the early 2000s for my website that would later become LucasArts Soundtracks. A handful of tracks came from Highland Productions and other artists, but most of them were conversions of the Highland MIDIs that I converted to MP3 using different soundfonts.

 

Here's the earliest snapshot of the site from archive.org:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040103014348/http://soundtracks.mixnmojo.com/

Edited yesterday at 08:24 PM by Laserschwert

[Remi]

18 minutes ago, Laserschwert said:

That's my version of the MI2 soundtrack (but only the version offered for download on the Scumm Bar site - the YouTube version they are linking to is a different one). I created it in the early 2000s for my website that would later become LucasArts Soundtracks. A handful of tracks came from Highland Productions and other artists, but most of them were conversions of the Highland MIDIs that I converted to MP3 using different soundfonts.

 

Here's the earliest snapshot of the site from archive.org:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040103014348/http://soundtracks.mixnmojo.com/

 

Ahhh, now I follow! Yes, you are of course correct.

 

We actually have the Soundtracks site archived (at the very least from when it was hosted by TSB, but probably from Mojo as well) if you want it returned to the web.

 

Here's a very early snapshot. https://web.archive.org/web/20030811084112/http://www.scummbar.com/mi2/site/

[DefinitelyReagan]

Thank you friends, this honestly feels like we're on the right track. It's so wonderful (and quite sobering) that after so many years you're still frequenting the site to share your knowledge and understanding.

Apologies if the original post wasn't clear enough - basically the link I posted hosts the MI2 OST in a soundfont I had never heard, and some YouTube videos that had uploaded those MP3s as the "official soundtrack" had comments also wondering where they came from.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrJw26Ld57s&list=PL764AD4C4DDCFD694 for example, although @Laserschwert's archived shot above does feature the tracks I'm referring to as well)

As I understand from your posts then, the versions currently hosted on ScummBar are actually covers and not any particular release? Thus, the tracks hosted on ScummBar aren't able to be played in any version of Monkey Island 2 natively?
Would that be correct?

Again, I truly appreciate the archived shots and information. Would be wonderful to lay my brain to rest at last on this subject after several decades.

Edited 23 hours ago by DefinitelyReagan