In this installment of guest blogger Frank Klepacki’s series on music production, Frank begins a three-part series on remastering the audio for Command & Conquer. If you missed Frank’s previous post, you can read it here.

GETTING STARTED

Command & Conquer is one of the most iconic franchises in video game history. I was glad to be a part of that history in composing all the music for the majority of the series. For as long as I’ve been doing this, however, here was a career first: remastering the music and audio for a collection of games I’d worked on over 25 years ago. Most people have heard of remastering music albums, or even movies in higher definition, but video games? How does that work?

Well, the basics are similar. You need to start by finding the best available high-quality versions of the source content contained within, not only in the hopes of having audio and visual improvement, but also having code support so that the game can run on a modern operating system.

It’s a lot more complex of a process than just finding a “master tape” somewhere. There is code, internet compatibility, interface, playability, and all the stitching that makes everything work together. When it came to the audio, the challenge was how to approach high fidelity as authentically as possible to the original.

We weren’t just remastering one game, we were doing the first two games and their three expansions: Command & Conquer, Red Alert, and the expansions Covert Ops, Counterstrike, and Aftermath. So that meant that I had to remaster, level balance, and EQ all music, sound effects, and voices across all those games.

THE MUSIC

The soundtracks alone clock in at over seven hours of material! It’s the equivalent of an uber-boxed set of music to remaster. Fortunately, I was able to find 95% of my original mixes to work with, on the original DAT tapes they were recorded on! There were, however, a handful of tracks that I could not find, which meant that in order to have high-quality versions, I’d have to recreate them from scratch. This is where holding on to old gear you love pays off.

Back in the ’90s and early 2000s, during my time at Westwood Studios, I mirrored my home studio to the one at work. Meaning that I bought the same audio hardware, synths, samplers, and software for myself too. It was for the purposes of compatibility – if an idea or inspiration struck me at home on my own time, I could bring those ideas and sessions to work and finish them there. After 25 years, I still had that very gear! So, I was able to recreate what I needed to, with exactly the same instruments and sounds I used back in the day for the truest re-creation possible.

In my search for all the original mixes, I came across some finished, unreleased music that I’d written and recorded in that time that wasn’t used and felt it would make a nice addition to the bonus content we were including. We made it unlockable as you complete missions in the game, and it appears in the game’s general jukebox. The jukebox feature was in the original game and allowed players the option to select their favorite songs to battle to. For the remastered version we refined the functionality to allow players to customize their playlists in the jukebox and choose which mode the game audio is in (classic or remastered).

Finally, another bonus we included, was the studio recordings of the live arrangements of some of this music I performed as Frank Klepacki & The Tiberian Sons. I put together the show and arrangements to perform this music live in 2019, kicking it off at MAGFest. Because of that performance, which was broadcast and later released on video, our games producer asked if we’d be interested in professionally recording it to include as a bonus album with the remastered collection.

The Command & Conquer Remastered Collection is available on Steam and Origin:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1213210/Command__Conquer_Remastered_Collection/

https://www.ea.com/games/command-and-conquer/command-and-conquer-remastered

The Command & Conquer Remastered Collection soundtracks are available on various streaming services:

C&C Remastered: https://open.spotify.com/album/6diK51gAlxp4pbpmoe8Ahc

Red Alert Remastered: https://open.spotify.com/album/0PVfiTe7jFoMIcKr4yvkEk

Frank Klepacki & The Tiberian Sons – Celebrating 25 Years of Command & Conquer:

https://open.spotify.com/album/1BdrAyFCmYxsu3aGzQwIt0

Frank Klepacki is an award-winning composer, sound designer, audio director, recording artist, touring performer, and producer. He has worked on top video game titles such as Command & Conquer, Star Wars: Empire at War, and MMA sports television programs such as Ultimate Fighting Championship and Inside MMA. For more info, visit www.frankklepacki.com

Follow Frank on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frankklepacki

Twitter: https://twitter.com/frankklepacki

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frank_klepacki

Come back next week to check out the second part in this series!