Tom's Ultima MP3 Files - Recordings and Arrangements

Welcome to my collection! Most of these MP3 files have been encoded from recordings of Ultima MIDI files as played by the Roland MT-32. The MT-32 is a MIDI synthesizer from 1985 and it was the standard in high-end PC music for many years. If you haven't experienced music from a genuine MT-32 before, you're in for a real treat. The MT-32 has a unique personality and its outstanding digital reverb (which I have set to 80% for these recordings) really adds to the overall output quality.

Some of the files were recorded from a Roland SCC-1. This synth from 1993 still beats most modern consumer-level sound cards for MIDI playback quality. It is equivalent to the SC-55 which was the first synth to feature the Roland GS MIDI extensions. The SCC-1 has a very balanced and disciplined instrument bank, paying attention to the small details that collectively make or break a mix.

A few files were recorded from my Sound Blaster Live! Platinum. For the August 2000 update I used the 60MB Fluid soundfont combined with the 12MB Chaos soundfont. This is a powerful combination but it sometimes lacks balance and control. But when it works for a piece, it works beautifully! I also did a few arrangements with the sYnerGi 48 soundfont, which is much more balanced.

One file, the Ultima VI character creation music, is available as an arrangement done with the Roland SC-8850, a fine piece of equipment.

Updates:

April, 2007: De-coralized links, moved files to new host.
February, 2006: Added an arrangement of 'Forest' from Ultima Online.
September, 2004: Coralized links.
May, 2002: Added a Roland SC-8850 arrangement I made of the Ultima VI character creation music.
April, 2001: Added all of the missing (short) Ultima Underworld music, and all of the Ultima VII Part 2 music
October, 2000: Added some new Ultima VI MP3's recorded from the Sound Blaster Live! and arranged by myself using sYnerGi 48
August, 2000: Added some new Ultima VI and Ultima Online MP3's recorded from the SCC-1 and Sound Blaster Live!
July, 2000: Recreated UU2 MP3's with a much better encoder, also adding 5 new songs
December, 1999: First created the page, with music from UU1, UU2, U6, U7

All tracks below were recorded from the Roland MT-32 unless otherwise specified.

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992)

Music by: George A. Sanger (aka The Fat Man), Dave Govett

Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1993)

Music by: Jon Blackley, Dan Schmidt

Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990)

Music by: Kenneth W. Arnold, Todd Mitchell Porter, Herman Miller, David Watson, Kathleen Jones

Character Creation
Character Creation (arranged w/ SC-8850)
Bootup (SCC-1)
Introduction (SCC-1)
Rule Britannia (arranged w/ sYnerGi 48)
Ultima Theme (arranged w/ sYnerGi 48)

Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992)

Music by: Dana Glover, Kirk Winterrowd, Raymond Benson, Marc Schaefgen

Ultima VII Part 2: The Serpent Isle (1993)

Music by: Dana Glover, Marc Schaefgen, Raymond Benson, Kathleen Jones, Herman Miller, David Watson, Kirk Winterrowd

Ultima Online: The Shattered Legacy (1997)

Music by: Kirk Winterrowd, Joe Basquez

Cove (SB Live!)
Forest (arranged w/ Reason)
Minoc (SCC-1)
Trinsic (SCC-1)
Vesper (SB Live!)

Comments? Requests? E-mail me at .

Note: This music is the property of Origin. Since they don't seem to mind distribution of MIDI files from old Ultima games, I don't think they'll mind someone rendering those MIDI's into MP3's. Especially since they've now gone out of business. :-(