Community:Zelda Reorchestrated

Zelda Reorchestrated (ZREO) is a musical project that originated in October 2004. It was created by FireGS. ZREO's goal is to transcribe and reorchestrate every song in The Legend of Zelda video game series using digital sequencer synthesizers. The project has created some controversy with fans, for not using a real orchestra. However, the project has garnered so much attention that a strong and very loyal fan-base has originated. The uniqueness of the project has led the site to receive numerous site awards.

History
ZREO has experienced quite a bit of change during its short lifespan. It can be separated into four distinct phases.

zreo.tk
(Oct 2004 – Dec 2004) Zelda Reorchestrated was first established under the domain http://www.zreo.tk in October 2004. It was here where ZREO first began its goal of reorchestrating the complete soundtrack from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

zreo.net
(Dec 2004 – May 2005) The next step was obtaining an independent domain name without the troubles of the free .tk service. In December 2004, zreo.net was born. It was the same site, but different (and more flexible) domain. It was here when FireGS revealed that he intended on reorchestrating the music from every Zelda game.

zeldamusic.org
(June 2005 – December 2005) In April 2005, FireGS wanted to achieve a much larger goal than simply reorchestrating music. He wanted to provide a more general service to the Zelda community. Zelda Music and Media (also known as ZeldaMusic, ZM, or ZM.org) was born under the domain http://www.zeldamusic.org. ZREO continued producing music, but along with that came new community forums, an online radio station (WZMR), and general information about Zelda music! The site came to a close due to financial barriers.

zreomusic.com
(December 2006 – Current) Throughout 2006, HTLOZ II preserved the work of ZREO during its absence. ZREO now presides under the domain http://www.zreomusic.com. It's primary focus is reorchestrating the music from The Legend of Zelda games, re-establishing the community forums, and providing a vehicle for budding artists to present their work to the world!

Heavens Accusations
(April 2007) In mid-April, The Heavens membership boldly accused the ZREO Team for exploiting MIDIs to make their music. The entire event took place on the HTLOZ II forums. It led to a false announcement that ZREO was going to shut down, a decline in ZREO's and The Heavens' face, the deletion of the ZREO Forums from the HTLOZ II Boards, as well as the split of the three entities involved. The Heavens and ZREO amended their differences and apologized to HTLOZ for the war that broke loose on their forums, but The Heavens, ZREO, and HTLOZ II still went their separate ways. All three groups/sites, despite separating, still have good relations with one another.

Soundtracks
The ZREO Team is still continuing its work on all of the soundtracks. None of the games have been completed yet, but Ocarina of Time (the teams first goal) is almost finished.

Art
In 2005, Master of Zelda began producing CD art for the various soundtracks being reorchestrated by ZREO. These art pieces were made using Macromedia Fireworks MX.

During 2006, the year of ZREO's absence, HTLOZ II preserved the songs and art files from ZREO. It was during this time when MoZ released a few more covers to improve upon his previous work.

Now for 2007, a whole new set of CD covers and wallpapers are being produced by Master of Zelda with a more realistic theme in mind.

World Zelda Music Radio
(June 2005 - September 2005) Synonymous with ZeldaMusic.org, WZMR was one of the most unique aspects about the ZREO Project. It was an online radio station, known as World Zelda Music Radio (WZMR) where DJ's would host radio shows, interact with listeners, and air the music produced by ZREO. Often times, new songs were aired on WZMR before they were available on the site for download. The excitement of new music and interaction allowed WZMR to be one of ZREO's biggest successes. Unfortunately, it was shut down due to financial instability.

Currently, the station is functioning as a side project of Zelda Reorchestrated, but is nearly separate in terms of staff and site. WZMR plays a continuous stream of ZREO songs as well as other songs made by fans. The radio does not plan on having regularly scheduled showtimes, but intends to have periodical "features" which will serve in place of shows. ebuch is currently director of the project, as well as a member of the Zelda Reorchestrated team.

Redux Tracks
With ZREO's relaunch in December 2006, FireGS created a new set of quality standards for the site. Songs that had been released before that do not meet these new quality standards are identified and reprized as REDUX tracks.

Soundscapes
ZREO produced two albums under the 'Soundscapes' name. The two albums featured reorchestrated themes from a variety of titles from different Zelda games. What makes these two albums stand out is that atmospheric sound effects were added to them to make the listener feel as if they were in the environment itself. The best example of this, is the Soundscapes track "Market." When compared with the original, or non-soundscape version, you can clearly note the difference of overall feel, and atmosphere.

Soundscapes: Volume 1 earned ZREO's web site 3 million hits during the week it premiered, when an article on Digg captured the attention of music lovers. ZREO has sustained a high number of visitors ever since.

Soundscapes: Volume 2 did not receive as much attention, but was received well within the community all the same. Like the first album, it featured a unique blend of music and environmental sounds to put listeners in the middle of Hyrule. This project was also the last project released by ZREO.

The Soundscapes albums literally rocketed ZREO into popularity and illustrated ZREO's ambitious attempts to do something different. The importance of unique projects such as this has become a tradition that ZREO proudly continues today. It can be said that as a result of the Soundscapes albums, ZREO is one of the most-visited web sites within the Zelda community.

While the old albums are currently still available, the team is no longer releasing full albums of soundscape tracks. Instead, they are released individually, or with the original song. This makes the Friday Updates exciting!

Open Symphony
Open Symphony is the project that is currently the most active in recent months. This is also the newest project that brings in a little bit of original composing talent into the ZREO community. Mathazzar is the individual in charge of arranging various Zelda songs, as well as adding a bit of his own flavor by incorporating various melodies, and counter-harmonies to make a song with a Zelda flare like no other.

This is the first ZREO project that allows fans to view the score for the songs that are released. The score is divided into all of the parts that make up the song, but the whole score is available for viewing and downloading as well.

One of the other ideas for the project is to make it so that a live orchestra can perform the movements if they choose to. This is the case for two youth orchestras in Texas, US. Mathazzar has been contacted by the orchestras, and they have agreed to perform and record some, or all, of the movements composed by him. It is likely that the recordings will be available for download by the end of 2008.

For downloading these songs, just visit the ZREO downloads page. If you are interested in viewing/printing the score or individual parts, you have to go to the ZREO projects page, and click on Open Symphony. New songs are scheduled to be released once a month.

Zelda Battlescapes


Zelda Battlescapes is ZREO's most recent project currently in production. Though a project of a much darker nature and tone, it is considered to be part of the 'Soundscapes' album series. This ZREO project is a large scale audio fan-fiction created by Master of Zelda. The project is being directed by Master of Zelda and produced by FireGS. The story is yet to be revealed, but connections to The Wind Waker are assumed. According to the Zelda Battlescapes web site, the project is a story told through voice acting, music, and sound - similar to the 'Soundscapes' series, but more reminiscent of old radio shows of the 50s. A 78 page script has been written and professional voice actors will be cast to portray the legendary characters. In an interview with Rough Gem Gaming, FireGS stated that there will be no Link in Battlescapes. This is because the story is set during the time that Link left Hyrule for Termina after defeating Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. No word on when the project will be released.

Forums
ZREO also has their own forums, which are now hosted by Zentendo. The address for the new forums is: http://www.zentendo.com/forums/index.php?board=67.0 The ZREO fan base is forever growing and they have some very active members. Some of the members have even post their own projects and re-orchestrations - some of whom are incredibly talented. The forums also boasts a variety of topics and is open to new threads, ideas, comments, and especially users.

Current Members
ebuch, Enzuru, FireGS, Fruityfire, F3, Master of Zelda, Mathazzar, Shadow-AH, Starerik, Stephen, Vruliic

Past Members
The Inspector, TheodorKrueger, Fusion2004, IpsoPhatso, Joseph Burrell, Kanjika, Lance9384, Dave, Advent Goddess, ArmyofOne, B1itz Lunar