Sound Remixer Stephan Vankov Talks Support of Stewart Copeland in Spyro Reignited Trilogy

Stephan Vankov, the music remixer attached to the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, knew he had a challenge ahead of him when developer Toys for Bob signed on to remaster the series. Recapturing the magic of a classic bears plenty of weight, especially when placed against the original soundtrack of Stewart Copeland. But Vankov assures that the original soundtrack will be implemented in the Reignited Trilogy with both care and respect, giving players a fresh new way to experience the original trilogy’s beloved themes:

To create the “reignited” music, we reconstructed all 120+ themes from the original trilogy, transcribing each piece note-by-note. This gave us the flexibility to update some of the instrumentation and also gave us access to individual instrument parts for use in our dynamic music system, which allowed us to add a whole new dimension to the music experience.

Vankov even met with Stewart Copeland on several occasions to share some of their progress, which managed to “trick his ears” on a few tracks. Vankov expressed plenty of joy in getting to collaborate with the series’ original composer, whose energy and enthusiasm apparently never wavered since his work all those years ago:

He was appreciative of how we were handling his music and it gave us a lot of wind-in-the-sails to know that we had his support behind us. We also showed him what we were doing with dynamic music and were happy to find out that there were discussions about having dynamic music in the original games but they were unable to achieve it at the time due to technical limitations. It was great to know that we were aligned with, and in a position to fulfill, his creative vision for the music.

It’s comforting to hear that Copeland had a hand in achieving certain aspects of his music within the Spyro series that past technologies couldn’t afford to make. Whatever they’ve come up with is sure to please both newcomers and fans of the original. Our own Chandler Wood has high praise for the studio’s efforts, he himself being a longtime fan of the series. For those that wish they could just listen to the originals, you needn’t worry. You’ll be able to switch back and forth between both the old and new soundtracks at your leisure. If you’re interested in seeing some gameplay, you should check out the gameplay footage of Spyro icing his way through the Frozen Altars.

[Source: PlayStation Blog]