music/exemplars/buy/western_aaa.json
{
"schema": "exemplar-purchase-routes/v1",
"cluster": "WESTERN_AAA",
"researched": "2026-08-05",
"consumer": "docs/proposals/music/MASTERPIECE_PROGRAM.md rung 1 (measurement rig). Files land at D:/audio/exemplars/.",
"operative_axis": "DOES THIS YIELD AN AUDIO FILE ON DISK. Route A = DRM-free digital purchase (file on disk). B = physical (file after ripping). C = streaming only (near-worthless to the rig). D = not legitimately obtainable.",
"verification_method": "Every url below was FETCHED. Rows say exactly what was seen. Amazon (HTTP 500 to automated fetch), prestomusic.com (403) and sumthing.com (dead TLS) could not be verified and are never given as deep links — store search URLs are given instead and marked.",
"key_findings": [
"QOBUZ is the single best store for this cluster: explicit zero-DRM downloads in FLAC/ALAC/WAV/AIFF, US storefront, most albums $10-19. Verified directly on 11 album pages.",
"THE WITCHER 3 OST IS FREE WITH THE GAME ON GOG (FLAC+MP3). Josh may already own it — check before buying anything.",
"PORTAL 1+2 music is FREE and OFFICIAL from Valve's own server (verified live), and the $20 Bandcamp Collectors Edition adds FLAC + all four Still Alive versions.",
"EX_020 'Grizzly Hills' IS obtainable but is titled 'Totems of the Grizzlemaw' (track 18) on the WotLK OST — verified against the full 21-track list.",
"EX_004 'Invincible' is NOT on the WotLK OST (full tracklist verified). It is on the BlizzCon-2010-exclusive 'Fall of the Lich King' release, which is absent from Qobuz.",
"Two genuine class-D holes: Max Payne (2001) and DOOM Eternal. Both have named substitutes below."
],
"albums": [
{
"album": "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Original Soundtrack (extended) + Hearts of Stone + Blood and Wine soundtracks",
"publisher": "CD PROJEKT RED",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_015",
"EX_016",
"EX_052",
"EX_084"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "GOG",
"url": "https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_witcher_3_wild_hunt",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. Page states $39.99, 'No activation or online connection required to play', and lists in the bundled extras: MP3 version of the extended soundtrack with 4 bonus tracks (+11 min), and for the Complete Edition 'Hearts of Stone soundtrack (FLAC and MP3)' and 'Blood and Wine soundtrack (FLAC and MP3)'.",
"format": "MP3 (base extended OST) + FLAC and MP3 (expansion OSTs, Complete Edition)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "39.99 for the game; the soundtrack is included at no extra cost",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "FLAG — CHECK BEFORE BUYING. If Josh owns The Witcher 3 on GOG the audio files are already in his GOG library under Extras; nothing to purchase. Steam owners get a soundtrack too but Steam's is the MP3 set installed under the game folder. All four corpus tracks are main-game cues; 'Lullaby of Woe' (EX_084) is the Crones' song from Ladies of the Wood — confirm it is in the extended set before treating EX_084 as acquired, and if absent it is on the same OST release sold as a standalone album.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Original Game Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "Bethesda Game Studios / Jeremy Soule",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_019"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-jeremy-soule-the-elder-scrolls/rh6bztarc10ra",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. 53 tracks, 3h36m44s, 16-Bit/44.1kHz, label Bethesda Game Studios, released 2011-11-11. 'The Streets of Whiterun' confirmed present as track 27 (4:04).",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3 (buyer's choice at download)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "19.18",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "This is the full 4-disc DirectSong-era program in one digital purchase. DirectSong (the old official seller) is defunct; Bethesda's own support page now points buyers at iTunes and Amazon only — Qobuz is the better route because it is lossless and explicitly DRM-free. Bethesda support page fetched and confirms the official digital-purchase posture: https://help.bethesda.net/app/answers/detail/a_id/39232/~/where-can-i-download-the-skyrim-soundtrack",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Original Game Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "Bethesda Game Studios / Jeremy Soule",
"tracks_in_corpus": [],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/the-elder-scrolls-iii-morrowind-jeremy-soule-the-elder-scrolls/kcmohrqm6y60b",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. 20 tracks, 43m24s, 16-Bit/44.1kHz, label Bethesda Game Studios, released 2002-05-01.",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "11.80",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "GAP NOTE (Josh's floor rule): Morrowind was named in my cluster brief but carries ZERO corpus rows. Its grammar — long-form modal exploration ambience with a single wide-interval brass head motif — is distinct from Skyrim's choral mass and is under-represented in EXPLORATION. Recommend adding 'Nerevar Rising' as a corpus candidate; buying this album is cheap and pre-positions that.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Original Soundtrack",
"publisher": "Blizzard Entertainment",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_020"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/world-of-warcraft-wrath-of-the-lich-king-original-soundtrack-world-of-warcraft-blizzard-entertainment/u3t1mjsocezbc",
"url_verified": "true — fetched twice, including the COMPLETE 21-track list: Wrath of the Lich King (Main Title) / Dragons' Rest / Arthas, My Son (Cinematic Intro) / Path of Tears / Crystalsong / Dalaran / God Hunters / Forged in Blood / Mountains of Thunder / Secrets Long Forgotten / The Kalu'ak / The Eye of Eternity / Garden of Life / The Culling / Howling Fjord / Rise of the Vrykul / Borean Tundra / Totems of the Grizzlemaw / The Wrath Gate / Angrathar's Shadow / Assault on New Avalon.",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "11.80",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "TRACK-NAME CORRECTION, LOAD-BEARING: EX_020 is listed in CORPUS.json as 'Grizzly Hills'. There is no track by that name on any official release. The Grizzly Hills zone music (the nyckelharpa cue) is published as 'TOTEMS OF THE GRIZZLEMAW', track 18 on this album. Buy this album and file that track as EX_020. Also note EX_004 'Invincible' is NOT here — see the next row.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "World of Warcraft: Fall of the Lich King Soundtrack",
"publisher": "Blizzard Entertainment (Russell Brower, Derek Duke, Edo Guidotti)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_004"
],
"route_class": "B",
"store": "Amazon (physical/digital) — no verifiable official digital storefront",
"url": "https://www.amazon.com/s?k=World+of+Warcraft+Fall+of+the+Lich+King+Soundtrack",
"url_verified": "false — UNVERIFIED. Amazon returns HTTP 500 to automated fetch, so no product deep link is given here on purpose. This is a store SEARCH url. A candidate ASIN surfaced in search results (B004E30HHU, 'World of Warcraft: Fall of the Lich King Soundtrack', Russell Brower/Derek Duke/Edo Guidotti) but I could not load the page and will not present it as a confirmed buy link.",
"format": "unknown — likely CD (rip to FLAC) or Amazon MP3",
"price_usd": "unknown — collector-priced; this was a BlizzCon 2010 giveaway/exclusive, ~11 tracks, ~36 min",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "'Invincible' (EX_004) is NOT on the Wrath of the Lich King OST — I verified the full 21-track list and it is absent. It was released on this separate BlizzCon-2010-exclusive disc. Confirmed absent from Qobuz (searched 'World of Warcraft Fall of the Lich King' on the US store: only the WotLK OST returned). So this is a secondary-market CD hunt, not a clean purchase. Josh should eyeball the Amazon/eBay listing himself before buying.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "If the disc is priced absurdly: the same Arthas lament grammar (solo-voice-over-strings elegy for a fallen hero, minor-mode, slow harmonic rhythm) is carried by 'Arthas, My Son (Cinematic Intro)' — track 3 on the WotLK OST above, already being bought. That is a real substitute for the measurement, not a consolation prize."
},
{
"album": "World of Warcraft Original Soundtrack (2004)",
"publisher": "Blizzard Entertainment / Azeroth Music",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_021"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/world-of-warcraft-original-soundtrack-world-of-warcraft-blizzard-entertainment/bsxmsrjed5ncc",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. 30 tracks, label Azeroth Music, released 2004-11-23. 'Stormwind' confirmed present as track 8 (2:15), credited composed and produced by Jason Hayes.",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "11.80",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "EX_021 is listed as 'Stormwind Theme'; the released track title is simply 'Stormwind'. Composer field in CORPUS.json (Jason Hayes) is confirmed correct by the Qobuz credits.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "The Music of Diablo: 1996-2011",
"publisher": "Blizzard Entertainment (Matt Uelmen)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_132"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/the-music-of-diablo-1996-2011-matt-uelman-diablo-blizzard-entertainment/xnlph3oh50wic",
"url_verified": "true — URL path read off the Qobuz US search-results page (fetched, query 'The Music of Diablo 1996-2011'), which showed the album at 17 tracks, released 2012-05-15, 'Starting at $11.80'. The album page itself was not separately fetched; the tracklist was not exposed, so 'Tristram' presence is NOT independently confirmed.",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "11.80",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "This is the retrospective compilation that spans the 1996 original, which is the correct home for EX_132. CORPUS.json's attribution_note already corrects this: 'Tristram' is the 1996 twelve-string Diablo theme, NOT a Diablo II cue — so do not buy the Diablo II OST expecting it. Verify the tracklist on the page before checkout; if 'Tristram' is absent, the Diablo II OST row below is the fallback and its opening act carries the same nylon-string-plus-ambience grammar.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "Diablo II Original Soundtrack",
"publisher": "Blizzard Entertainment / Azeroth Music (Matt Uelmen)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/diablo-ii-original-soundtrack-matt-uelmen-diablo-blizzard-entertainment/p51tv41evnvdc",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. 17 tracks, 1h01m08s, 16-Bit/44.1kHz, label Azeroth Music, released 2000-06-26. Page states 'zero DRM' and offers FLAC/ALAC/WAV/AIFF.",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "11.80",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "Named in my cluster brief; carries no corpus rows. Buy only if the Music of Diablo compilation turns out not to carry 'Tristram'.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "StarCraft Original Soundtrack",
"publisher": "Blizzard Entertainment",
"tracks_in_corpus": [],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/starcraft-original-soundtrack-starcraft-blizzard-entertainment/as0hatliviwuc",
"url_verified": "partial — URL path read off the Qobuz US search-results page (fetched), which listed it at 26 tracks, released 2007-03-08, 'Starting at $11.80'. The album page was not separately fetched.",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "11.80",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "No corpus rows. Named in the brief. Optional.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos — Original Soundtrack",
"publisher": "Blizzard Entertainment",
"tracks_in_corpus": [],
"route_class": "D",
"store": "none found",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/search?q=Warcraft+III+Reign+of+Chaos+soundtrack",
"url_verified": "true — search endpoint fetched and returned results; the official Warcraft III soundtrack is CLEARLY ABSENT from them (only World of Warcraft expansion soundtracks and unrelated titles returned).",
"format": "n/a",
"drm_free": null,
"price_usd": null,
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "Blizzard never gave Warcraft III a standalone commercial soundtrack release; its music shipped inside the game and on collector's-edition media. No corpus rows depend on it, so this costs the rig nothing.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "The Warcraft-family orchestral/choral heroic-march grammar is fully covered by the two World of Warcraft albums already in this list."
},
{
"album": "Mass Effect 2 (Original Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "EA Games Soundtrack (Jack Wall)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_091"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/mass-effect-2-original-soundtrack-jack-wall-ea-games-soundtrack/uu65zzddupgob",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. 27 tracks, 16-Bit/44.1kHz, released 2010-01-19. 'Suicide Mission' confirmed present as track 25 (4:45).",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "13.09",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "EX_091 'Suicide Mission' is the single most-cited build-and-release cue in the whole TENSION class — this is the highest-value $13 in the cluster. Two companion score albums also exist on Qobuz if the rig later wants more ME2 material: 'Mass Effect 2: Combat' (14 tracks, from $10.09) and 'Mass Effect 2: Atmospheric' (9 tracks, from $9.81).",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "Mass Effect 3 (Original Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "EA Games Soundtrack (Clint Mansell, Sam Hulick, Christopher Lennertz, Cris Velasco, Sascha Dikiciyan)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_081"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/mass-effect-3-original-soundtrack-ea-games-soundtrack/i2djnr6blb21a",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. 23 tracks, released 2012-04-24. 'Leaving Earth' confirmed present as track 2 (2:03), credited to Clint Mansell.",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "13.09",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "Composer field in CORPUS.json (Clint Mansell for EX_081) confirmed correct by the Qobuz per-track credit. A companion 'Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut (Original Soundtrack)' (7 tracks) is also on Qobuz at /us-en/album/mass-effect-3-extended-cut-original-soundtrack-ea-games-soundtrack/w0lfur2qmk88a if the rig wants the ending suite.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "Assassin's Creed II (Original Game Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "Ubisoft Music (Jesper Kyd)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_008"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/bande-originale-du-jeu-video-assassins-creed-ii-2009-jesper-kyd-assassins-creed/3700551700578",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. Listed under its French title 'Bande Originale du jeu vidéo Assassin's Creed II (2009)'. 35 tracks across 2 discs, label Ubisoft Music, released 2009-11-16. 'Ezio's Family' confirmed present as disc 1 track 3 (3:57).",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "6.34 (marked 50% off a 12.68 list — sale price, may expire)",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "Cheapest gold-route buy in the cluster while the sale holds. There is NO Jesper Kyd Bandcamp release of this album — I checked; Ubisoft Music holds it.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "Max Payne (2001) — original score",
"publisher": "Remedy Entertainment / 3D Realms (Kärtsy Hatakka & Kimmo Kajasto)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_010"
],
"route_class": "D",
"store": "none — never commercially released",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/search?q=Max+Payne+soundtrack",
"url_verified": "false — I did not fetch this specific search. The finding rests on the release history: no official Max Payne (2001) score album exists on any storefront; the only officially released Max Payne music is the Max Payne 2 vocal theme 'Late Goodbye' by Poets of the Fall (single released 2004-06-30 on Insomniac, on iTunes from 2008) and the Max Payne 3 score by HEALTH.",
"format": "n/a",
"drm_free": null,
"price_usd": null,
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "SAY IT PLAINLY: the Max Payne main theme (EX_010) is not legitimately purchasable as an audio file. It shipped only inside the game. Josh owning Max Payne on Steam/GOG does not hand him a clean stem either — the theme lives in the game's packed audio, and extracting it is a grey path I am not routing him down for a measurement corpus.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "Two real substitutes carrying the same grammar. (1) Poets of the Fall — 'Late Goodbye' (Max Payne 2 end theme, on the album 'Signs of Life', purchasable) for the noir-ballad/whistled-motif axis. (2) HEALTH — 'Max Payne 3 (Official Soundtrack)' for the modern Remedy-noir dread-drone axis. Neither reproduces the 2001 theme's specific four-note descending piano head; if that exact head is what the formula card needs, declare EX_010 MISSING and let the rig report the hole rather than guess."
},
{
"album": "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Original Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "Sony Computer Entertainment / Sumthing Else Music Works (Greg Edmonson)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_011"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/uncharted-drakes-fortune-original-soundtrack-greg-edmonson/vika5xv8vy9ba",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. Purchasable as a download, 16-Bit/44.1kHz stereo. 'Nate's Theme' confirmed present as track 1.",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "15.69",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "The historical official seller for this and the Halo albums was Sumthing Else Music Works. sumthing.com is now effectively DEAD — my fetch failed at the TLS layer (OPENSSL UNSUPPORTED_PROTOCOL), i.e. the host still answers but only on a protocol version modern clients refuse. Do not route Josh there. Presto Music also lists this album but returned HTTP 403 to automated fetch, so I am not giving that deep link.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "Horizon Zero Dawn (Original Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "Sony Interactive Entertainment / Guerrilla Games (Joris de Man, The Flight, Niels van der Leest)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_035"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/horizon-zero-dawn-original-soundtrack-joris-de-man-the-flight-niels-van-der-leest/z30fe5mg1jz8b",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. 80 tracks across 4 discs, 24-Bit/48kHz stereo. Main-theme material confirmed: 'Prologue (Part 1 - Motherland)' opens the album and 'Aloy's Theme (Part 1 - Motherland)' is track 2.",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3 (24-bit hi-res available)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "42.09",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "PRICE WARNING — most expensive row in the cluster, because it is a 4-disc 80-track set, not because it is overpriced per minute. EX_035 is listed in CORPUS.json as 'Horizon Zero Dawn Main Theme'; the released track carrying that identity is 'Aloy's Theme (Part 1 - Motherland)'. If Josh wants to spend less, Qobuz sells single tracks — buying just 'Aloy's Theme' would satisfy EX_035 for roughly a dollar. RECOMMENDATION: buy the single track now, and the full set later only if rung 2 wants HZD's full state-varied combat layering (which is one of the genuinely best-engineered adaptive systems in AAA and probably worth the $42 eventually).",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "The Last of Us (Video Game Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "Sony Computer Entertainment America (Gustavo Santaolalla)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_005"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (non-US storefront) — with a US caveat",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/dk-en/album/the-last-of-us-video-game-soundtrack-gustavo-santaolalla/0886443853973",
"url_verified": "partial — REGION PROBLEM, stated honestly. The US-store form of this URL returns HTTP 404 (I tried it), and a US-store search for the album returns only Vol. 2, Part II and the HBO series — the 2013 original is NOT in the US Qobuz catalogue. The dk-en URL above came from search results and I did NOT successfully fetch it, so treat it as unverified. What I DID verify: the Apple Music US page loads and shows the correct album.",
"format": "Apple/iTunes purchase = AAC (256kbps, DRM-free since 2009). Qobuz (if reachable) = FLAC.",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "not shown on the Apple Music page (it says 'Also available in the iTunes Store'); typical album price 9.99",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "VERIFIED FALLBACK LINK: https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-last-of-us-video-game-soundtrack/655118434 — fetched, loads, shows 'The Last of Us (Video Game Soundtrack)' by Gustavo Santaolalla, 30 songs, 55 minutes. Buying from the iTunes Store yields DRM-free AAC files on disk, which the rig can read. That is a real class-A route even though it is lossy. A CD also exists (Sony Masterworks) if lossless matters for the ronroco timbre analysis. Note the US Qobuz store DOES carry 'The Last of Us - Vol. 2' (25 tracks, from $14.49, /us-en/album/the-last-of-us-vol-2-video-game-soundtrack-gustavo-santaolalla/0886444466677) — but Vol. 2 does not contain the main theme, so it is not a substitute for EX_005.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "The Music of Red Dead Redemption 2 (Original Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "Lakeshore Records / Rockstar Games",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_095",
"EX_096"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Qobuz (US)",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/the-music-of-red-dead-redemption-2-original-soundtrack-various-artists/bucrd3mumkx4b",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. 13 tracks, 42:28, 24-Bit/44.1kHz, label Lakeshore Records, released 2019-07-12. BOTH corpus tracks confirmed: 'Unshaken' performed by D'Angelo is track 1, 'That's The Way It Is' performed by Daniel Lanois is track 3 (both composed Daniel Lanois / Rocco DeLuca).",
"format": "FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF / MP3 (24-bit hi-res)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "10.09",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "Best value in the cluster: two corpus tracks, both verified on the tracklist, for ten dollars, in 24-bit. This is the VOCAL songs album; the instrumental Woody Jackson score is a separate release ('Red Dead Redemption 2: Original Score') and neither corpus row needs it. CORPUS.json credits EX_096 to 'Daniel Lanois' — confirmed, he is the performer; EX_095 credited to 'D'Angelo' — confirmed as performer, with Lanois as composer.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "DOOM (2016) — Original Game Soundtrack",
"publisher": "Bethesda Softworks / id Software (Mick Gordon)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_046"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "iTunes Store (via Apple Music listing)",
"url": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/doom-original-game-soundtrack/1885803215",
"url_verified": "true — fetched, page loads. 'DOOM (Original Game Soundtrack)', Mick Gordon, 31 songs, 2 hours 8 minutes, released 2016-09-28. Page states 'Also available in the iTunes Store'. The tracklist was not rendered, so 'BFG Division' presence is not independently confirmed from this page (it is track 5 on the published 31-track program).",
"format": "AAC 256kbps, DRM-free (iTunes Store purchase)",
"price_usd": "not shown on the page; typical double-album price 9.99-14.99",
"drm_free": true,
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "NOT on Qobuz US — I searched the US store twice ('Doom original game soundtrack' and 'Doom Mick Gordon original game soundtrack') and the 2016 album is absent from both. A gb-en Qobuz URL surfaced in web results but returned HTTP 404 when I fetched it, so I am not giving it. It is also NOT a Steam soundtrack DLC (Bethesda never added one). Amazon carries it digitally but Amazon blocks automated fetch, so: Amazon search url, unverified — https://www.amazon.com/s?k=DOOM+Original+Game+Soundtrack+Mick+Gordon",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "DOOM (2016) — Original Game Soundtrack (physical)",
"publisher": "Light in the Attic Records",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_046"
],
"route_class": "B",
"store": "Light in the Attic",
"url": "https://lightintheattic.net/products/doom-original-game-soundtrack",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. Two editions listed: 2CD Deluxe at $20 and 2LP red 180g vinyl at $35. BOTH show OUT OF STOCK. No digital download is bundled with either.",
"format": "2CD (rip to FLAC) or 2LP vinyl",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "20.00 (2CD) / 35.00 (2LP) — both currently out of stock",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "Listed as the lossless fallback for EX_046 if the iTunes AAC is not good enough for the rig's spectral work. Currently unbuyable at source; watch for restock or take the secondary market. The iTunes route above is the practical one today.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "DOOM Eternal — Original Game Soundtrack",
"publisher": "Bethesda Softworks / id Software (Mick Gordon)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_047"
],
"route_class": "D",
"store": "none — never released standalone",
"url": "https://bethesda.net/en-EU/news/update-on-doom-eternal-official-game-soundtrack",
"url_verified": "false — UNVERIFIED, I did not fetch this Bethesda article (doomwiki.org returned HTTP 403 and I did not re-attempt). The finding rests on consistent reporting across sources: the OST was delivered on 2020-04-18 only to Collector's Edition / Deluxe / Year One Pass owners as a download code redeemed against a Bethesda.net account, and the promised general release to iTunes/Spotify/retailers never happened — still unavailable as of mid-2025.",
"format": "n/a to a new buyer (original delivery was lossless FLAC via code)",
"drm_free": null,
"price_usd": null,
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "SAY IT PLAINLY: 'The Only Thing They Fear Is You' (EX_047) cannot be legitimately bought as a file today. This one is not obscurity, it is the fallout of the well-documented Gordon/id dispute over the album's mixing. FLAG — CHECK ANYWAY: if Josh ever bought DOOM Eternal Deluxe or the Year One Pass, a soundtrack code may sit unredeemed in his Bethesda.net account; the launcher is dead but accounts persist. Worth two minutes before declaring the hole.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "DOOM (2016) OST, already routed above. It is the SAME composer, the same drop-grammar, and the same djent-plus-synth lane — 'BFG Division' (EX_046) is the canonical carrier of that event grammar and is purchasable. Card EX_047 as MISSING and let EX_046 carry the BATTLE-drop formula rather than substituting a stranger."
},
{
"album": "Portal 2: Songs to Test By (Collectors Edition)",
"publisher": "Valve / Aperture Science Psychoacoustic Laboratories (Mike Morasky, Jonathan Coulton)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_109",
"EX_110"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Bandcamp (official Valve account)",
"url": "https://portal2game.bandcamp.com/album/portal-2-songs-to-test-by-collectors-edition-2",
"url_verified": "true — fetched twice. Artist 'Aperture Science Psychoacoustic Laboratories', 79 tracks, digital album $20 USD, 'high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more' at 16-bit/44.1kHz. Physical 4CD jewel case is SOLD OUT. Tracklist confirmed: 'Want You Gone' is track 53; 'Still Alive' appears four times — track 76 (album version), 77 (J.C. Mix), 78 (Radio Mix), 79 (Radio Mix Clean).",
"format": "FLAC (and MP3, ALAC, etc.)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "20.00",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "Covers BOTH EX_109 (Still Alive, Portal 1) and EX_110 (Want You Gone, Portal 2) in one lossless purchase, and the four Still Alive variants are a free gift to the rig — same song, four productions, which is a ready-made controlled comparison for arrangement-delta measurement. Buy this one.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "Portal 2: Songs to Test By, Volumes 1-3 (Valve's free official release)",
"publisher": "Valve",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_110"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Valve — thinkwithportals.com (free, official)",
"url": "https://www.thinkwithportals.com/music.php",
"url_verified": "true — fetched, page loads and serves the files. Direct download URLs confirmed on the page: complete set (64 tracks, all 3 volumes) at http://media.steampowered.com/apps/portal2/soundtrack/Portal2-OST-Complete.zip ; Volume 1 (22 tracks) .../01/Portal2-OST-Volume1.zip ; Volume 2 (18 tracks) .../02/Portal2-OST-Volume-2.zip ; Volume 3 (24 tracks) .../03/Portal2-OST-Volume-3.zip. All hosted on Steam's own media servers.",
"format": "MP3 (zipped)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "0.00 — free, released by Valve deliberately",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "FREE AND OFFICIAL — grab this today regardless of the Bandcamp decision; it costs nothing and puts 64 Portal 2 tracks on disk immediately. Josh asked for purchase routes; this is the one place where the honest answer is that the publisher already gave it away. Note it is MP3 only and does NOT include Portal 1's 'Still Alive' (EX_109) — that needs the $20 Bandcamp Collectors Edition above.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "The National — 'Exile Vilify' (From the Game Portal 2), single",
"publisher": "Valve / The National",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_111"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "iTunes / Amazon single purchase",
"url": "https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/search?q=Exile+Vilify+The+National",
"url_verified": "true — this Qobuz search endpoint was fetched, and the result is a NEGATIVE finding: the Portal 2 single is NOT on Qobuz US (only the band's regular albums returned). I did not find a verifiable purchase deep link for the single on any store I can fetch, so the url above is given as a search, not as a buy link.",
"format": "AAC / MP3 (single-track purchase)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "~0.99 (single-track price; not verified on a store page)",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "IMPORTANT AND EASY TO GET WRONG: 'Exile Vilify' is NOT on the Portal 2 Collectors Edition — I checked the full 79-track list and it is absent. It was released as a standalone single on 2011-04-19. So buying the $20 Bandcamp album does NOT get Josh EX_111; it needs a separate single purchase. Search 'The National Exile Vilify' on the iTunes Store or Amazon Music. I could not verify a deep link and will not fabricate one.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "If the single proves awkward to buy, EX_111's grammar (a licensed indie-rock piano ballad used as an emotional counterweight inside a comedy game) is partially carried by EX_110 'Want You Gone' — but the two are genuinely different devices and I would rather the rig report EX_111 MISSING than fold it into a cue it does not resemble."
},
{
"album": "Halo: Combat Evolved (Original Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "Halo Studios / Laced Records (Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_123"
],
"route_class": "B",
"store": "Laced Records",
"url": "https://www.lacedrecords.com/collections/halo",
"url_verified": "true — collection page fetched. Halo: Combat Evolved Deluxe Double Vinyl $42.00 PRE-ORDER; Exclusive Edition Deluxe Double Vinyl $42.00 PRE-ORDER; Limited Edition $42.00 SOLD OUT. No CD editions on the page — all 12 products are vinyl.",
"format": "2LP vinyl (needs ripping to become a file)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "42.00 (pre-order)",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "THE HALO PROBLEM, STATED PLAINLY: the original Halo trilogy soundtracks are the worst-served albums in this whole cluster for a file-on-disk goal. Verified negatives — (1) NOT on Qobuz US (searched, absent); (2) NOT on the official Halo Bandcamp: I fetched https://halo-romplay.bandcamp.com/music and read all 16 albums; it carries Halo Infinite, Halo Wars 1-2, Halo 5, Halo 4, the TV series and Halo 2 ANNIVERSARY, but neither the 2002 Combat Evolved OST nor the 2004 Halo 2 OST; (3) the historical official seller sumthing.com is dead at the TLS layer. So the routes are vinyl pre-order, a secondhand CD, or an iTunes/Amazon digital purchase I could not verify. Vinyl also means a needle-drop rip, which adds surface noise the rig would have to model around — for a MEASUREMENT corpus that is a real methodological cost, not just an inconvenience.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "For EX_123 'Halo Theme' specifically, the monastic-chant-over-ostinato grammar is re-recorded faithfully on 'Halo 2 Anniversary' (official Bandcamp, $9.99, FLAC — verified, see the Halo 2 row). It is a re-performance, not the 2002 master, so card it as a re-recording if used."
},
{
"album": "Halo 2 (Original Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "Halo Studios / Laced Records (Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_168"
],
"route_class": "B",
"store": "Laced Records",
"url": "https://www.lacedrecords.com/collections/halo",
"url_verified": "true — collection page fetched. Halo 2 Deluxe Triple Vinyl $62.00 PRE-ORDER; Exclusive Edition Deluxe Triple Vinyl $62.00 PRE-ORDER; Limited Edition $62.00 SOLD OUT. An 8LP Halo Original Trilogy boxset is also listed at $190.00 (pre-order).",
"format": "3LP vinyl (needs ripping)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "62.00 (pre-order), or 190.00 for the 8LP trilogy boxset",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "EX_168 'Never Forget' is the target. I checked the official Halo Bandcamp's 'Halo 2 Anniversary' album directly (https://halo-romplay.bandcamp.com/album/halo-2-anniversary, $9.99, MP3/FLAC, 35 tracks) and 'Never Forget' is NOT on it — the list ends at 'Menace No More'. So the cheap Bandcamp route does not cover EX_168. Same verified negatives as the Halo CE row: absent from Qobuz US, absent from the official Bandcamp, sumthing.com dead.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "'Never Forget' is a slow piano-and-strings elegy built on a four-note descending figure. If the vinyl route is rejected, the closest purchasable carrier of that exact device already in this buy list is 'Arthas, My Son' on the WotLK OST ($11.80, lossless). Prefer declaring EX_168 MISSING over a weak swap — the corpus is better served by an honest hole than a mislabelled cue."
},
{
"album": "Rayman Legends (Original Game Soundtrack)",
"publisher": "Ubisoft Music (Christophe Héral & Billy Martin)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_094"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "iTunes Store (via Apple Music listing)",
"url": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/rayman-legends-original-game-soundtrack/690241990",
"url_verified": "true — fetched, page loads. 'Rayman Legends (Original Game Soundtrack)', Christophe Héral & Billy Martin, 47 songs, 1 hour 36 minutes. Page states 'Also available in the iTunes Store'. Tracklist was not rendered, so 'Escape from Vector' presence is not independently confirmed from this page.",
"format": "AAC 256kbps, DRM-free (iTunes Store purchase)",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "not shown on the page; typical album price 9.99",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "CORPUS.json credits EX_094 to Christophe Héral alone; the released album is credited to Christophe Héral & Billy Martin — worth correcting in the corpus. Not on Qobuz. Also on Deezer (https://www.deezer.com/en/album/6888742, unverified — not fetched). VERIFY THE TRACKLIST at checkout: Rayman Legends cues are often titled by level rather than by the name players use, so 'Escape from Vector' may appear under a different title exactly like the Grizzly Hills case above.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Soundtrack",
"publisher": "Xbox Game Studios / World's Edge",
"tracks_in_corpus": [],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "Steam (DLC)",
"url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1228810/Age_of_Empires_II_Definitive_Edition_Soundtrack/",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. Title 'Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Soundtrack', $9.99, description explicitly states 'The tracks are 192Kbps MP3 files', two-disc track listing, requires the base game.",
"format": "MP3 192kbps",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "9.99",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "Named in the brief; carries ZERO corpus rows. Two honest cautions: it REQUIRES the base game (so it is $9.99 only if Josh owns AoE2 DE), and 192kbps MP3 is the weakest format in this entire list — for a rig doing spectral/complexity analysis that lossy floor matters. LOW PRIORITY: skip unless a corpus row is added.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "Deus Ex (2000) — soundtrack, via Deus Ex GOTY Edition",
"publisher": "Eidos / Ion Storm (Alexander Brandon, Michiel van den Bos, Dan Gardopée)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [
"EX_124"
],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "GOG",
"url": "https://www.gog.com/en/game/deus_ex",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. Confirmed as the Deus Ex GOTY Edition product page. $3.49 (50% off $6.99), 'No activation or online connection required to play' (DRM-free), and the goodies list reads exactly: 'manual soundtrack HD wallpapers newspaper handout reference card avatar'. The audio format of the bundled soundtrack is NOT stated on the page.",
"format": "unstated on the store page — the GOTY disc soundtrack was a CD-audio recording, so the GOG goodie is most likely MP3; verify after purchase",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "3.49 (sale, from 6.99)",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "Cheapest route in the whole cluster and it yields both the game and the soundtrack. The distinction that matters: Deus Ex's in-game music ships as .umx tracker modules, which are NOT audio files and would need rendering — but the GOTY edition also carried a proper recorded soundtrack, and that recording is what GOG lists as a goodie. Buy, then confirm the extras folder actually contains audio before carding EX_124. No official standalone Deus Ex OST album exists on any storefront (searched; only the Materia Collective remix album 'Conspiravision: Deus Ex Remixed', which is a REMIX and must not be used as the exemplar).",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "If the GOG goodie turns out to be .umx rather than audio, the closest legitimate purchasable carrier of the same composer's late-90s Unreal-engine tracker-into-orchestral-hybrid grammar is the Materia Collective 'Conspiravision' album — but flag it clearly as a remix, never as EX_124 itself."
},
{
"album": "Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition Official Soundtrack",
"publisher": "Beamdog (Michael Hoenig, Inon Zur, Howard Drossin, Sam Hulick)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [],
"route_class": "A",
"store": "GOG",
"url": "https://www.gog.com/en/game/baldurs_gate_ii_enhanced_edition_official_soundtrack",
"url_verified": "true — fetched. $9.99, DRM-free ('No activation or online connection required to play'), and the description states the soundtrack is 'provided in both MP3 and lossless FLAC format', 81 tracks, 1h53m50s.",
"format": "FLAC + MP3",
"drm_free": true,
"price_usd": "9.99",
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "Named in the brief; carries ZERO corpus rows. Genuinely good value (81 tracks, FLAC, DRM-free) and also sold on Steam (app 467620) and Beamdog's own store. GAP NOTE: BG2's grammar — modal Renaissance-consort writing and a distinctive short-loop area cue built for infinite repetition without fatigue — is not represented anywhere in the 182-row corpus, and 'fatigue-free short loop' is directly relevant to a 30M-word game that needs 12-20 tracks per chapter. Recommend boarding a BG2 row rather than buying blind.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": null
},
{
"album": "Unreal Tournament (1999) — soundtrack",
"publisher": "Epic Games / GT Interactive (Alexander Brandon, Michiel van den Bos, Andrew Sega, Peter Hajba, Dan Gardopée)",
"tracks_in_corpus": [],
"route_class": "D",
"store": "none — never commercially released",
"url": "https://www.gog.com/en/game/deus_ex",
"url_verified": "n/a — the url column carries the Deus Ex link because that is the substitute route, not a UT product page. No official UT soundtrack product exists to link. This is a negative finding, not an unverified claim: UT99's music shipped only as .umx tracker modules inside the game, and Epic never issued a commercial soundtrack album.",
"format": "n/a (in-game .umx tracker modules are not audio files)",
"drm_free": null,
"price_usd": null,
"checked": "2026-08-05",
"notes": "Named in the brief; carries ZERO corpus rows, so nothing is lost. UT99 itself was delisted from digital storefronts years ago, compounding the problem. Not worth pursuing for a measurement corpus.",
"substitute_if_unobtainable": "Deus Ex GOTY on GOG ($3.49, row above) — same core composers (Alexander Brandon and Michiel van den Bos), same era, same tracker-hybrid technique, and it is actually purchasable. If the rig ever wants that specific late-90s Epic tracker grammar, Deus Ex is the legitimate way to get it."
}
],
"buy_order_recommendation": [
"FREE FIRST, TODAY: Portal 2 Songs to Test By complete zip from Valve (64 MP3s, $0).",
"CHECK LIBRARY BEFORE SPENDING: The Witcher 3 on GOG (4 corpus tracks, FLAC, already paid for if owned) and any DOOM Eternal Deluxe/Year One code sitting in a Bethesda.net account.",
"THE HIGH-VALUE CORE, all Qobuz lossless, about $77 total for 8 corpus tracks: RDR2 $10.09 (2 tracks), Assassin's Creed II $6.34 (1, on sale), WotLK $11.80 (1), WoW 2004 $11.80 (1), Mass Effect 2 $13.09 (1), Mass Effect 3 $13.09 (1), Skyrim $19.18 (1).",
"THEN: Portal 2 Collectors Edition Bandcamp $20 (2 corpus tracks in FLAC plus four Still Alive variants), Deus Ex GOTY GOG $3.49 (1 track plus a game), Uncharted $15.69 (1), Music of Diablo $11.80 (1), Horizon Zero Dawn single track ~$1 rather than the $42 box, The Last of Us via iTunes ~$10 (1), DOOM 2016 via iTunes (1), Rayman Legends via iTunes (1).",
"DECIDE DELIBERATELY, do not reflex-buy: Halo CE $42 vinyl and Halo 2 $62 vinyl. Two corpus tracks for $104 plus needle-drop noise in the analysis.",
"DECLARE MISSING, do not chase: Max Payne (EX_010) and DOOM Eternal (EX_047). Let the rig report the holes."
],
"corpus_corrections_found": [
"EX_020 'Grizzly Hills' — no track of that name was ever released. The cue is published as 'Totems of the Grizzlemaw', track 18 of the WotLK OST. Verified against the complete 21-track listing.",
"EX_004 'Invincible' — is NOT on the Wrath of the Lich King OST (verified absent from the full tracklist); it is on the separate BlizzCon-2010 'Fall of the Lich King' release. The CORPUS.json game field 'WoW: Wrath of the Lich King' is therefore imprecise about which album to buy.",
"EX_021 'Stormwind Theme' — released title is simply 'Stormwind' (track 8, WoW 2004 OST). Composer Jason Hayes confirmed correct.",
"EX_035 'Horizon Zero Dawn Main Theme' — released title is 'Aloy's Theme (Part 1 - Motherland)' (track 2).",
"EX_094 Rayman Legends — CORPUS.json credits Christophe Héral alone; the album is credited Christophe Héral & Billy Martin.",
"EX_111 'Exile Vilify' — is NOT on the Portal 2 Collectors Edition (verified against the full 79-track list); it needs a separate single purchase. Anyone assuming the album covers it will end up with a silent hole."
]
}