Halo Music Outtakes

These were originally posted at Bungie.net back in June 2002.

For years, movie aficionados have bought laserdiscs and DVDs, not only for their superior reproduction of the original film but also for the cavalcade of bonus features. In some cases you can see how the final movie differed from the original script, or see an alternate ending that was cut because an illiterate test audience wanted big explosions instead of big words. But it's rare to hear an alternate soundtrack for the movie, or hear musical pieces the composer discarded or abandoned before they were finished. This week, Bungie's audio overlord Marty O'Donnell graciously gives you a peek behind the curtain at some of the music that didn't make it into Halo.

"During the course of working on music for a project the size of Halo, many musical ideas and 'sketches' come into being," says Marty. "Some of these little recordings go on to develop and mature into full-fledged produced works, and many don't make it past puberty. While I was putting together the Halo Soundtrack CD, I came across several of these 'children' that I had at one time loved enough to record. Some are good, some bad, some laughable, some interesting, but none in what I would consider a 'final' form." Of course, Marty's fans are always up to hear new O'Donnell compositions, "finished" or not. After the tremendous response to our interview with Marty, which drove our soundtrack sales well beyond our initial expectations, we knew the public would love to hear some "rougher" material from the same sessions. We persuaded Marty to share a handful of them with the public. (Keep in mind, however, that these are all still copyrighted TotalAudio productions, so all the usual laws apply.)

Music File	Description
Battle Sketch	A pretty horrible initial improvisation that actually grew up into a nice piece eventually.
Fast Sketch	Too many notes. Not enough time.
Tron	Named for the mellotron string sound that comes in towards the middle. A sort of cool piece that probably belongs in some other game.
String Sketch	Variation on the Halo theme. An interesting meandering improvisation that never found a reason to be expanded upon.
Old Stuff	This one actually made it into the game, sort of.
What?	The second half is almost interesting but can't possibly make up for the travesty that is the first half.
Rythm Variant Sketch	I don't think this one ever had any hope of surviving into adulthood.
Seriously	Test of time? I think not.
Club	So what game is this again?
Halo Love Theme Sketch	Not exactly the Siege of Madrigal but has some interesting moments. Frankly I couldn't think of any possible place in the game where any part of this would have been of use. The ending is pretty funny too (hey I ran out of gas).
The Lost Song	A fan named Micah Allen found a song in Halo that wasn't represented on the Halo Soundtrack CD. Originally it was only a minute long but if you play the section of the game in which it appears on legendary it could last quite awhile, since we also forgot to put the 10 minute limit on it. So here it is for anyone who missed it.