Download location:
2shared - download EC-Classic-Music.zip
One additional update file for Pinco's UI version 5.1a
http://www.2shared.com/audio/4zd18s2U/Lord_British_Castle.html
Enhanced Client - Early Classic Client Music Addon for Pinco's UI
Version 1
assembled by "A Thought Elemental" from the UO Stratics forums, November 22, 2011.
This addon causes the Enhanced Client version of Ultima Online to play a recreation
of the music which the Classic Client utilized from 1997 until a few years after.
It requires Pinco's UI version 5.1 or later (due to the updated EC Playsound).
With this addon, you will hear:
Stones as the login screen music,
The classic zone cities' (Britain, etc) music as it was,
Various other music (forest/wandering music, and more) similar to how it was.
Depending upon how you install it, you can cause the War-mode music to never play,
and you can choose to include or exclude the other music that was included with Pinco's
UI version 5.1. Instructions on the 2 installation methods are in a separate file within the
zipfile.
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ultima Online (as of its 1997 music version) had a rich history surrounding its music.
The musical themes within that version of the client date back to the Ultima series,
which predates Ultima Online. This music was included with the first release versions
of the Ultima Online "Classic Client", and then was replaced some years later with
different music. The "Enhanced Client" never had this early version music.
I have had a great appreciation for this early version music since I first heard it in 1998.
Back then, I even created several MP3s utilizing a professional-quality soundfont
for my own personal, out-of-game listening.
I was disappointed when I logged into Ultima Online in 2006 and found that the music had
vanished from the game. I could not understand who thought it was a good idea
to strip that amazing music out. After all, it could have been realized with a great soundfont
(the way I had years before) and shipped in whatever format the more modern client needed
(instead of old midi, of course). So each time I logged in, I missed hearing Stones, and
the wilderness music, and Trinsic, and... all of it.
Jump forward quite a few years.
On March 5th, 2011, professional sound designer Scott Lee
(Scott Lee | LinkedIn) released a realization of the
1997-era Ultima Online music. Part of his original description is below:
Jump forward 7 months.
I was searching for some of the original game's midi files and stumbled upon the Scott Lee MP3
release. I listened to it - all of it - and found it to be more than just a high quality realization of the original
UO midis. A musical interpretation had been applied to some of the instrument selections as well as
what sounded like some clean-up work. The result was a high quality version of the original music
which was sensitive, and stayed true to the music while having a unique sort of sound. The sound was
in most cases lighter than the first 1997 producer's was. All in all it was a superb, quality realization.
Jump forward 2 more weeks.
November 22, 2011, Pinco's UI (an addon for Ultima Online's "Enhanced Client") version 5.1 was
released. One of the new features was that Pinco's EC Playsound executable had been expanded
to be able to play custom game music. Before this, it had been impossible to link custom music
into the Enhanced Client.
Pinco's UI came with its own large selection of MP3s for use - - none of them were actually the Ultima
music, however. Right then, I knew what I had to do ...
..and that was, create this mod.
As I did this, I found EC/EC Playsound to have some bad habits with music, some of which I was able
to correct.
One of the problems was that it starts playing the music the very moment a zone loads instead of
waiting a few seconds. This means that the beginning of the music is obscured by the sound of the
character's last-casted spell. I was able to address this by adding a 2 second silence at the beginning
of each track.
Another problem is that the EC Playsound would loop certain music tracks without pausing in between
the repetitions, or in some cases would cycle among tracks without pause. This sort of music handling turns
the music into an annoyance after a while if the user cannot turn it off (and the Classic Client did not do this).
I added several-minute-long silences after the MP3s which mimics the original Classic Client's playback
characteristics in this regard, giving periods of silence in between the music selections.
It was necessary to amplify the original MP3s in order for them to play back in the EC Playsound at a
comparatively correct sound level. Some of the amplifications were complicated because of dynamic
variation within pieces which essentially had to be leveled by hand. I used Audacity for the necessary
sound edits.
There are not enough "slots" to be able to play back all of the "wilderness/wandering" themed pieces
that the classic client naturally did. This EC Playsound has 5 slots for this type of music but the old client
was utilizing at least 8. So, some of the wandering sort of music which you would have heard in the old
client do not appear at this time (you have a chance to hear those while entering a tavern, for the time
being).
Also, there is music available for Lord British's Castle but this EC/EC Playsound seems to have no slot
for it.
My personal preference is to have no "war-mode" music, no death music, and no dungeon music. This
release version 1 is a match for this personal preference and does not include those selections.
I might do further version of this where I use some of the more or less unimplemented Scott Lee MP3s for the
cities which presently have no music.
2shared - download EC-Classic-Music.zip
One additional update file for Pinco's UI version 5.1a
http://www.2shared.com/audio/4zd18s2U/Lord_British_Castle.html
Enhanced Client - Early Classic Client Music Addon for Pinco's UI
Version 1
assembled by "A Thought Elemental" from the UO Stratics forums, November 22, 2011.
This addon causes the Enhanced Client version of Ultima Online to play a recreation
of the music which the Classic Client utilized from 1997 until a few years after.
It requires Pinco's UI version 5.1 or later (due to the updated EC Playsound).
With this addon, you will hear:
Stones as the login screen music,
The classic zone cities' (Britain, etc) music as it was,
Various other music (forest/wandering music, and more) similar to how it was.
Depending upon how you install it, you can cause the War-mode music to never play,
and you can choose to include or exclude the other music that was included with Pinco's
UI version 5.1. Instructions on the 2 installation methods are in a separate file within the
zipfile.
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ultima Online (as of its 1997 music version) had a rich history surrounding its music.
The musical themes within that version of the client date back to the Ultima series,
which predates Ultima Online. This music was included with the first release versions
of the Ultima Online "Classic Client", and then was replaced some years later with
different music. The "Enhanced Client" never had this early version music.
I have had a great appreciation for this early version music since I first heard it in 1998.
Back then, I even created several MP3s utilizing a professional-quality soundfont
for my own personal, out-of-game listening.
I was disappointed when I logged into Ultima Online in 2006 and found that the music had
vanished from the game. I could not understand who thought it was a good idea
to strip that amazing music out. After all, it could have been realized with a great soundfont
(the way I had years before) and shipped in whatever format the more modern client needed
(instead of old midi, of course). So each time I logged in, I missed hearing Stones, and
the wilderness music, and Trinsic, and... all of it.
Jump forward quite a few years.
On March 5th, 2011, professional sound designer Scott Lee
(Scott Lee | LinkedIn) released a realization of the
1997-era Ultima Online music. Part of his original description is below:
The release location for that project is here: Original MP3 Download
Jump forward 7 months.
I was searching for some of the original game's midi files and stumbled upon the Scott Lee MP3
release. I listened to it - all of it - and found it to be more than just a high quality realization of the original
UO midis. A musical interpretation had been applied to some of the instrument selections as well as
what sounded like some clean-up work. The result was a high quality version of the original music
which was sensitive, and stayed true to the music while having a unique sort of sound. The sound was
in most cases lighter than the first 1997 producer's was. All in all it was a superb, quality realization.
Jump forward 2 more weeks.
November 22, 2011, Pinco's UI (an addon for Ultima Online's "Enhanced Client") version 5.1 was
released. One of the new features was that Pinco's EC Playsound executable had been expanded
to be able to play custom game music. Before this, it had been impossible to link custom music
into the Enhanced Client.
Pinco's UI came with its own large selection of MP3s for use - - none of them were actually the Ultima
music, however. Right then, I knew what I had to do ...
..and that was, create this mod.
As I did this, I found EC/EC Playsound to have some bad habits with music, some of which I was able
to correct.
One of the problems was that it starts playing the music the very moment a zone loads instead of
waiting a few seconds. This means that the beginning of the music is obscured by the sound of the
character's last-casted spell. I was able to address this by adding a 2 second silence at the beginning
of each track.
Another problem is that the EC Playsound would loop certain music tracks without pausing in between
the repetitions, or in some cases would cycle among tracks without pause. This sort of music handling turns
the music into an annoyance after a while if the user cannot turn it off (and the Classic Client did not do this).
I added several-minute-long silences after the MP3s which mimics the original Classic Client's playback
characteristics in this regard, giving periods of silence in between the music selections.
It was necessary to amplify the original MP3s in order for them to play back in the EC Playsound at a
comparatively correct sound level. Some of the amplifications were complicated because of dynamic
variation within pieces which essentially had to be leveled by hand. I used Audacity for the necessary
sound edits.
There are not enough "slots" to be able to play back all of the "wilderness/wandering" themed pieces
that the classic client naturally did. This EC Playsound has 5 slots for this type of music but the old client
was utilizing at least 8. So, some of the wandering sort of music which you would have heard in the old
client do not appear at this time (you have a chance to hear those while entering a tavern, for the time
being).
Also, there is music available for Lord British's Castle but this EC/EC Playsound seems to have no slot
for it.
My personal preference is to have no "war-mode" music, no death music, and no dungeon music. This
release version 1 is a match for this personal preference and does not include those selections.
I might do further version of this where I use some of the more or less unimplemented Scott Lee MP3s for the
cities which presently have no music.
