DKC Atlas Forum

One of the most substantial changes made to the GBA port of Donkey Kong Country 3 was the entirely new soundtrack composed by David Wise. Rare could have just sent watered-down copies of the SNES version's tracks our way, but instead, we lucky fans have been treated to dozens of fresh and unique pieces of music, many of which are very atmospheric and emotive; not an easy thing to achieve with the GBA's sound hardware.

There have been numerous mentions of DKC3 GBA's soundtrack on these boards already, but now we have a topic dedicated to it, so please share your thoughts here - be they positive or otherwise. If you haven't heard these new tracks, check out the download below...

Download DKC3 GBA Soundtrack (33 MP3s @ 128kbit, ZIP archive - 72.7 MB) ← download fixed! (August 2012)
An Enormous thank you to Cody for recording and providing these tracks for download.
(Your time, effort, generosity and attention to audio quality is very much appreciated!)

Update - 26 November '11
Three high quality, studio-mastered tracks (created by David Wise himself for E3 2005) - see this post

So, what do you think of DKC3's GBA soundtrack?

Now definitely as a DKC3 GBA Fan I should have an opinion regarding the new soundtrack

While the SNES version's soundtrack is of course, better quality, better sounding... it falls through the GBA version one. The DKC Series was actually Dave Wise's work! In DKC there were 8 out of 26 tracks that weren't Dave's work, all DKC2's work was from him; but DKC3 only gave him the extra music. Eveline did a good job, she just couldn't give players the feel David gave DKC & 2. Of course, some songs are still better in the SNES version, but the most part is better in the GBA side.

We can say the GBA is still a downgrade from the SNES version; it has no Death Music, no Level Depending Ending; but I prefer having a new soundtrack than having a MIDI quality SNES one =)

Thanks so much for uploading this! I was about to ask about it, to be honest.

There are a lot of good tunes for the GBA game. I just don't like how they've been adapted to the levels, to be honest. So it'll always be a bigger pleasure for me to listen to them on their own without the gameplay.

Honestly, some of these tunes are just far too long to be listened to during a level play through without dying, entering a bonus barrel or finishing the level. There's no chance of you being able to listen to them unless you pause the game for a good couple of minutes :/

In relation to your last point, yeah, I noticed that too. It was good on some levels (Riverside) but on others, it was unneccesary (Lake). I liked the old overworld better, Wrinkly's Save Cave better and the old Bear/Funky music.

I agree that they're too long, but that's David Wise for ya. He really took a lot of time and effort to create these tunes, and I must say, I never get bored of them. In fact, I keep listening to regularly and it's been like that for almost 3 years. I've listened to each track enough times to fully memorize most of them. They're that great.

Qyz, I highly recommend finding a copy of DKC3 GBA. Having the actual game would benefit you in more ways than one (the batteries to the GBA/DS, for example, last a really long time with GBA games. That's also a good way to preserve battery life for other items you may listen to music from) and of course, it's Donkey Kong Country. The DKC and DKC2 ports might not be SNES quality, but I feel this one surpasses the SNES version.

The link to download the DKC3 GBA soundtrack say's the the file is "temporarily unavailable". Could somebody please post a working link?

I think DKC 3 GBA music is a little better than DKC 3 SNES', except for bonus, intro and Swanky's Sideshow. David Wise made a good work in this port.

Another point on the tracks being too long: when you return to the level from a bonus, the music doesn't restart which was a nice touch. You get restarted sometime in the track, which changes per level.

I can say the longest track in the game, of all the stage BGMs, is Rockface Rumble.
Here's a list of all the tunes in DKC3 GBA not including "Win" or "Lose" themes, with their lengths and the SNES lengths for comparison.
Stilt Village - 2:36
Mill Fever - 2:25
Northern Kremisphere - 0:33
Intro Tune 1 - 0:40 (Intro Tune 2's just a shorter version)
Frosty Frolics - 2:14
Treetop Tumble - 1:48
Rockface Rumble - 3:27
Pokey Pipes - 2:00
Arich Boss - 2:17
Jangle Bells - 2:23
Water World - 2:26
Boss Boogie - 1:20
Jungle Jitters - 2:36
Brothers Bear - 0:25
Nuts and Bolts - 2:01
Cascade Capers - 2:33
Cavern Caprice - 2:34
Bonus Time - 0:50
Crystal Chasm - 0:02
Enchanted River - 0:58
Cranky's Dojo - 0:33
Cranky's Dojo 2 - 0:31
Game Over - 0:20
Chase - 0:41
Funky's Games - 1:30
Credits - 2:17

The GBA version of Rockface Rumble is not only the longest tune in the game, but the longest tune in the entire DKC series, and that is all ports and remakes. The 2nd longest tune in the entire DKC series including remakes, is the GBC version of "Northern Hemispheres" (which is actually a remix of "Ice Cave Chant"). It goes for 3:14 before looping. The reason for its length is because for some reason they made it so that it plays through once, then the second time it plays without the main melody track. So, technically both the melody loop and non-melody loop counts as one loop -- it was also done with the Tree Top Rock tune. It's a similar thing with the Super Mario Sunshine tunes in Super Smash Bros Brawl. E.g. Ricco Harbour's normal length is about 1:53, but then it starts playing with the "Yoshi Drums", then it plays without the drums. If you include both parts, the total loop is 3:49. This is also the longest tune in Brawl.

Well, the music of the GBA version of DKC3 is a mixed bag for me. Sure, I was mighty annoyed at first by some of the new tracks, but the more I listened to them, the more I could tolerate them. Rockface Rumble for one, consider me being a huge fan of the original, at first I was like 'dude wtf man' but after listening through it fully I actually began to enjoy the track! Sure, some of the tracks are really different, but they're just as amazing if you just listen to them without thinking they replaced other tracks.

I can never learn to accept the overly cheery Treetop Tumble, though... Most of the newer, cheerful tracks work better with the lighter color pallette of the game, but... it just doesn't fit when you're being chased by a giant saw. It just doesn't.

Pokey Pipes and the newer underwater song are amazing, though.

Yes, I'm bumping this. Today I finished a random playthrough of the DKC3 GBA port... and the music. Is. Amazing. It's portable, yet at the same time epic, sometimes even just as ambient as the original when it wants to be. It's just beautiful and brings back a lot of memories from my childhood.

Also, is 128 kbps the highest possible quality we could've ripped this...?

Nah, I can rip 320kb or even .wavs if you'd like.

...would you like that?

YES! Thank you sir... I consider myself somewhat of an audiophile.

EDIT: I can handle those WAVs uncompressed too if that's reasonable.

Tiptup Jr. wrote:WAVs uncompressed too if that's reasonable.

To interject; that would probably be at or over a gigabyte, knowing how large my Glover PS2 rip was (done for Kong-Fu).

Why don't you download Winamp and a *.gsf plugin? Better than having huge hundred-meg WAVs in my opinion.

Well he could just put them in a zip file or something, right? I use iTunes (I know, I know) so I was probably just gonna convert them to Apple Lossless anyway. The point is I just want highest possible quality. You can convert down, but you can't convert up.

I know it's kinda irrelevent to this topic but, does anyone know where I can find the soundtracks to the other GBA ports?

No idea.

So how's that soundtrack rip coming Cody?

I love the waterfall music

I love the Treetop Tumble GBA music, because when I was younger, I was stuck on Springin' Spiders, when My Gym Partner's A Monkey came on. And while I watched it, this show reminded me of that music. That's the reason why I loved My Gym Partner's A Monkey. Aaaah, good times.

Well, anyway, I think that Treetop Tumble GBA fits My Gym Partner's a Monkey too.

A treat for lovers of the DKC3 GBA soundtrack...

A few days ago, a member of the DKU community posted a link to three high quality, studio-mastered DKC3 GBA tracks created by David Wise himself. These were apparently produced back in 2005 for use in an E3 promo video that never came to be, and they may have been lost forever if not for Rare co-founder Tim Stamper a former Rare employee kindly 'leaking' the tracks to us grateful fans under the pseudonym "StAmP0Rz".

The tracks are Arich's Ambush, Ripcurl Reef and Squeals On Wheels.

These remixes/remasters/re-whatever-you-wanna-call-thems sound amazing! It's a shame it's only those three tracks, but I have to say they're three of my favourites from the (in my opinion) rather hit-and-miss DKC3 GBA soundtrack. Definitely worth checking out.

Grab them, or just have a listen on this DKU page.

Gives me a little false hope that we'll someday get to hear studio masters like these for other music from the DKC trilogy...

Further reading:
"Stamped Out!" DKU 'feature' (more info about this leak, and other DKC GBA tidbits, etc.)
DKU Forum discussion

I just wish we could have the entire soundtrack like this. I wish Nintendo would get their sh*t together and learn how to release a soundtrack. All of Rare's games for the 360 have had a major soundtrack release at retail, not a Nintendo Power gift or Club Nintendo reward. Ugh.

But yeah, I really enjoyed the GBA DKC3 soundtrack. It's not really fair to compare it to the original, they made it from the ground up specifically to be enjoyed on-the-go. Heck, if my mind serves me right, Donkey Kong Country 3 was one of the games used to promote the Game Boy Micro. (?) All I remember is one issue of Scribes where they said the soundtrack was meant to be more "portable".

Actually, Tim Stamper didn't really leak those. It's another former Rare employee whom would rather have the DKU keep their identity secret, so they jokingly refer to the guy as Tim Stamper himself. He's been leaking a stream of interesting info about the gba development for a while now.

Oh really? Those DKU japesters! This is why I generally don't use their journalism as a source of information. Haha. I did think it was mighty odd, but stranger things have happened. Still, wonderful to have this pristine audio to wrap our ears around - regardless of the source.

*edits previous post*

I'd really like to hear the rest of the GBA soundtrack done like this. Especially Rockface Rumble.

Qyzbud wrote:Oh really? Those DKU japesters! This is why I generally don't use their journalism as a source of information. Haha.

Well, without their journalism these finds never would've been leaked; this was all due entirely to one of my DKU colleague's personal interaction with said former employee after making contact with him over a youtube leak. The actual story behind it was that the guy made some comments on Youtube revealing information as a supposed ex Rare employee, and Matt used his detective skills and the lack of privacy on the internet to find out the guys actual name, and then post an update about who he was and what he said. We were then told that Rare could get pretty upset over the spilled beans (in a "legal ramification" type of upset), so it was decided to heavily edit the guy's personal information out of the update, and that from now on all anonymous former Rare employees would be referred to as Tim Stamper himself. See here for the first update.

Instead of saying Tim Stamper, why can't the DKU just say "an anonymous Rare employee?" Ugh.

Once again, hella good tracks though.

These aren't remasters. They're remixes, clearly.

Although these remixes are pretty good, what would be really awesome, is, yeah... you know you want it as well.
Remastered versions of the original soundtrack (the ones in the game) — IN STEREO! Yes, STEREO!
Or 7.1 surround sound ... whatever floats your Knautilus.

After listening to all three tracks, I now start to realize why OCRemix brought David in to redo "Donkey Kong Rescued" alongside Grant Kirkhope and Robin Beanland.

David Wise will be remixing DKC3 GBA's Jungle Jitter for Double the Trouble!, the upcoming OC ReMix 'DKC3 SNES & GBA' remix album. Wise will also be performing live sax on Monkey Kong's Stilt Village GBA remix, as well as doing mixing/mastering on the remix in question

I'm co-director of the project and have heard both tracks in WIP and final form, several times, and I can personally vouch that they're brilliant remixes that absolutely nail each respective track.

Unnecessary quote removed by qyzbud

Nice

WATER WORLD IS AN AMAZING SONG! My favourite DKC song in the series on GBA.

Tiptup Jr. wrote:[...] how's that soundtrack rip coming Cody?

Forgot all about it...

You may have to deal with the regular MP3s, if possible. They're not so bad!

SUPER BUMP!
Sorry for the bump, but the download for the entire soundtrack no longer works, due to MegaUpload being shut down.
I'd like it if it were changed.

geno wrote:SUPER BUMP!
Sorry for the bump, but the download for the entire soundtrack no longer works, due to MegaUpload being shut down.
I'd like it if it were changed.

I can reupload those three 'Studio' tracks, though I never had the opportunuity to download the whole soundtrack (which dissapoints me greatly ).

I can upload the full game rip in FLAC, or MP3 whatever you prefer.

But just one question. For Enchanted Riverbank, I have both the "land" and "underwater" versions, which were recorded from the game with SFX turned off.

Do you want just those 2 versions separately, or do you want the separate versions, and the combined versions, as heard in the GSF rips?

I.e.

Enchanted Riverbank (Land)
Enchanted Riverbank (Water)
Enchanted Riverbank (Mix)

Am I the only one who has this kind of thing happen when saving something in Audacity?
http://www.mediafire.com/?t1ldqeyo1uffgrv

I did use VBA-M to record the music, since for some REALLY annoying reason, the GSFs are crap.

No matter WHAT I do, the Game Over theme is ALWAYS "clipped" and distorted.

TheUltimateKoopa wrote:I can upload the full game rip in FLAC, or MP3 whatever you prefer.

Do you want just those 2 versions separately, or do you want the separate versions, and the combined versions, as heard in the GSF rips?

Are the files you uploaded to mediafire in MP3? If not I don't even know what a FLAC is so it'd be really cool if you could do that.

About those different versions of the 'Riverbank' track, it'd be nice if you could upload all three versions

I can't upload anything..... (See my previous post, above yours)

geno wrote:SUPER BUMP!
Sorry for the bump, but the download for the entire soundtrack no longer works, due to MegaUpload being shut down.
I'd like it if it were changed.

I told Qyzbud the situation, and he fixed it!

Awww Qyz's the man!

I love the new soundtrack they gave this game. It's almost a direct contraction to the Super Nintendo's soundtrack in that it's something completely new.

Aww, shucks.

Thanks for the broken link report PM, Gaz — and for the original report, Geno... Thank you also, TheUltimateKoopa, for trying to lend a hand.

geno, I should have noticed your post, but the 'active topics' system wasn't configured quite right to show activity in this forum. I had better double-check the rest of the forum settings so I don't miss anything in the future.

Ah, I see.
Maybe that's why no one's noticed my MIGHT BE VERY SERIOUS I DON'T KNOW GLITCH in the DKC2 glitches forum.

Has anyone ever tried to remake the soundtrack with the Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES) soundfont?

I didn't know they made DKC soundfonts! Where are they? Have they got all the instruments?

Well I know there is a DKC1 soundfont. I'm just assuming that there are soundfonts for the other two.

Here is a link to the DKC soundfont: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzm-lgmkpak

If it hasn't already be done, it would be an excellent project to create high quality soundfonts/sample collections for each of the DKC games — this may even allow particularly clever hackers/sequencers to bring studio quality sound to the original soundtracks! The games' samples are already of reasonable quality, but they could certainly be improved upon.

Note: If this conversation continues/becomes substantial, I'll split it off to create a new topic.

R3fan2 wrote:Well I know there is a DKC1 soundfont. I'm just assuming that there are soundfonts for the other two.
Here is a link to the DKC soundfont: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzm-lgmkpak

Just tried it out, it kinda sucks. Only about half the instruments are there and many samples sound horrible or have distortion or don't even sound like they came from the game at all. The wood bass and drum kit were particularly pleasing though. I found an unused guitar wah-wah sample in the drumkit

Fischer made all my favorite tracks in DKC1. Most notably Ice Cave Chant. Oh man.

Qyzbud wrote:If it hasn't already be done, it would be an excellent project to create high quality soundfonts/sample collections for each of the DKC games — this may even allow particularly clever hackers/sequencers to bring studio quality sound to the original soundtracks! The games' samples are already of reasonable quality, but they could certainly be improved upon.

Note: If this conversation continues/becomes substantial, I'll split it off to create a new topic.

You know what really disappointed me?

If you've heard of GBAMusRiper, you'll know what I'm talking about, if not, it's hard to explain, but basically, it rips high quality samples from GBA games, makes a soundfont, rips MIDIs from the game, and then with BASSMIDI and the MIDI foobar plugin, allows you to hear GBA Music in really high quality.

For example, listen to Riverside Park from a GSF rip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UOkXYxfHQM

Then compare it to what it sounds like with GBAMusRiper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYfMjihqWQk

So, what disappointed me? Only CERTAIN games work... and guess what... all 3 DKC games.... do NOT work

If it did work, then, since they're MIDIs, you'd be able to manually create pan effects, and make them stereo, basically, and they'd potentially be high quality.

But AFAIK, there's no way of getting the DKC GBA music in MIDI format from the ROMs.

It is rather dissapointing, it would be nice to have the GBA DKC3 soundtrack in at least SNES quality.

However, King of Swing IS supported.
http://www.mediafire.com/?02hqhuaot998pqm