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The Halo: Combat Evolved soundtrack is the musical score to Halo: Combat Evolved.

Development

 * Composition (inspiration, music styles)

The composition of the soundtrack for Halo began with the Halo Theme in July of 1999. The music was composed by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, who were co-partners in the freelance production company TotalAudio. Together they had composed commercial jingles as well as music for past Bungie games, including Myth: The Fallen Lords, Myth II, and Oni. O'Donnell and Salvatori were asked by Director of Cinematics Joseph Staten to compose a backing track for the Halo MacWorld demo, five days prior to the presentation. Staten told O'Donnell that the theme needed to evoke the game's "ancient, epic and mysterious" atmosphere. To best convey this impression, O'Donnell drew inspiration from his studies on Middle Ages music and decided to incorporate Gregorian chant into the theme, which has since become a staple of the Halo series.

With Microsoft purchasing Bungie in May 2000 and Halo being shifted from the PC/Mac to the Xbox, O'Donnell and Salvatori encountered some obstacles in the project, having to take into account the music implementation system on the audio specifications of the Xbox. O'Donnell and Salvatori completed the rest of the soundtrack over the course of 2001. O'Donnell, having joined Bungie before Microsoft's acquisition to work on Oni and Halo, had moved to Seattle with the rest of Bungie, while Salvatori remained at Chicago to run TotalAudio. The two sent their music to each other for feedback and suggestions. Different aspects of the Halo Theme, including the Gregorian chant and string melody, were adapted into other musical pieces in the game. The composers also made use of patches and samples from their instruments, the Proteus 2000 and the Kurzweil K2500X synthesizers.


 * Design directions (structure, in-game engine)

The composers worked closely with the level designers to understand where the different points of tension and release would come into play within each level. The music was cut and edited into chunks that the game audio engine played dynamically based on the player's actions. The music used MIDI recordings, featuring keyboards, synths, and samplers as well as digital recording equipment controlled by computers. The composers added live instrumental performances to those recordings where needed. Certain tracks only adapted the live performance.


 * Performer credits

Musical Themes

 * Halo theme and its adaptation into other tracks
 * Appearances and influences on other Halo games

2002 Release
O'Donnell was approached by Nile Rodgers who founded the recording label Sumthing Else Music Works for distributing video game soundtracks.

2003 Special Edition
A special edition of the soundtrack was released with bonus features on Halo 2.