I have no idea how I missed this news. True, Black has been getting some major hype due to its "blow-everything-up" gameplay. But I didn't know about the music until just now.

Simply put, Chris Tilton and Michael Giacchino are back. ESPECIALLY Chris.

http://www.christilton.com/black.htm

In a move similar to the Mercenaries soundtrack, Michael helped create the main theme and offered some advisement, but otherwise this is Chris's baby once more. (I expect that MI3 is keeping Michael busy.) I'm listening to it on Rhapsody right now, and it's clear that he's really coming into his own.

The actual CD isn't out yet...I think. Rhapsody has it, and so does iTunes. And, of course, you can hear some samples at Chris's site. It'll be a short album - about 1/2 an hour - since the music is apparently reserved for some of the more intense moments in the game. (If you are so inclined, the game does have a "custom soundtrack" feature, but I think a lot of players are loving what they're hearing already.)

EDIT: Actually, I was just talking with Chris, and he didn't remember seeing it at iTunes. The distributors seems to be REALLY dragging their feet. (How DID Rhapsody get a hold of it first?!?)

Just checked it out on Rhapsody.
I like it. I really like "A Bridge to Close."

Oh yea "Ambush" and "Bunker Buster" are also cool .

I got a Rhapsody account just to listen to the Black soundtrack, and it was worth it.  The music is great, and I think the collaboration even worked better than Mercenaries.  The only thing that disturbs me is the trend I've noticed recently of publishers only releasing soundtracks digitally instead of having a CD album manufactured or allowing one to be manufactured.  Chris, is there a chance for a CD release of Black in the future, or are we doomed to the MP3s for all eternity?  I was hoping for a La-La Land release since they always have great liner notes and they did the LucasArts soundtracks for Giacchino & Tilton, but perhaps that was too much to ask from EA.  Heck, I'd settle for a Sumthing Else release even though they don't particularly do liner notes.  I guess at this point I'd settle for a promo soundtrack in a cardboard sleeve...

I can only hope that a CD is released, since I won't/don't pay for low quality downloads...

If they want to offer it in lossless. I would probably reconsider however.

Eternity is a rather harsh amount of time, but unfortunately we are indeed doomed to the mp3s.

They didn't drop the CD release COMPLETELY, did they?
Or do they simply have no clue what they're doing?

No it's still coming out, but digital only, there were never plans to release a physical CD.

Sucks.
:-(

Hope they at least put it on eMusic like some of the other EA stuff...

-Joshua

...and they did. Will probably get a couple tracks...

-Joshua

Thankfully, eMusic encodes their music using LAME --alt-preset standard, so they're of higher quality than iTunes 128 AAC.  Of course, that assumes that the services have a high-quality master to encode from.  Chris, do you know what source eMusic and iTunes used to encode the Black OST from?  Was it a CD or lossless files someone mastered and sent to them?

The files that were sent to them were 16bit/44K uncompressed wave files, which were dithered down from the 24bit/96K masters.

Well, it seems Nettwerk Records learned it's lesson and has put up the album in lossless FLAC. It costs $10.99 as such...

http://www.werkshop.com/store/item.acti … em_id=4284

Anyway, I just bought the album! Will do so for more such releases if/when they follow suite! Overall, a nice score!

Somewhat related, I just noticed this page with Chris Tilton getting some photo and interview love during the recording session for the Jumper video game:

http://www.scoringsessions.com/news/124/