Minecraft - Volume Beta wiki article edit

{{Italic title}}
{{Album
|title   = ''Minecraft - Volume Beta''
|image   = Minecraft - Volume Beta cover.png
|author  = [[Daniel Rosenfeld]]
|date    = November 9, 2013
|genre   = Ambient
|length  = 140:49
|media   = LP, CD, digital download
|discogs = [https://www.discogs.com/C418-Minecraft-Volume-Beta/master/955222]
|link    =
*[https://c418.bandcamp.com/album/minecraft-volume-beta Bandcamp]
*[https://open.spotify.com/album/7CYDRyFCKtAYJBSpfovLyX?si=X5GcKQviS0aOj2k54xftyg Spotify]
*[https://music.apple.com/album/minecraft-volume-beta/739831644 Apple Music]
*[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mXLyLTu2QXhNXsPJzF4q3oBKjDdXR5aVQ YouTube]
*[https://music.youtube.com/browse/MPREb_I9wV3a2MIb3 YouTube Music]
*[https://deezer.com/us/album/9236763 Deezer]
*[https://music.amazon.com/albums/B00GJJ77IO Amazon Music]
*[https://c418.org/albums/minecraft-volume-beta C418's Website]
}}
'''''Minecraft - Volume Beta''''' is the second soundtrack album for ''[[Minecraft]]'' by [[C418]], the first being ''[[Minecraft - Volume Alpha]]''. It was released on November 9, 2013 on C418's Bandcamp website and on Apple Music, with a release later on Spotify.

The album includes 30 songs for a total length of about 140 minutes. It features many music tracks which were added to Minecraft "silently" in the '''[[2013 Music Update|Music Update]]''', as well as the [[music discs]] that were missing from the first album (except for "11") and a few bonus tracks that are not in the game (similarly to ''[[Minecraft - Volume Alpha]]'').

With a less minimalistic style and a much greater emphasis on lush, ambient synth sounds, the album has a noticeably darker and more dramatic tone than ''Volume Alpha'', which C418 acknowledges:

"The '''big''' difference of Volume Beta is that the tone is both more positive and at times very dark. Some of the songs even have percussion, which is something that was a complete rarity with Volume Alpha. For example 'Taswell' or 'Aria Math'."<ref name=":0" />

C418 considers ''Volume Beta'' to be "dedicated to America and Asia", while ''Volume Alpha'' "might be a love record to Europe".<ref name=":0" /> One can notice the Asian influence on tracks such as "Aria Math", "Biome Fest", and "Flake".

==Official description==

''The second official soundtrack of Minecraft. 140 minutes in length and extremely varied.''
''Featuring the all-new creative mode, menu tunes, the horrors of the nether, the end's odd and misleading soothing ambiance and all the missing record discs from the game!''

''It's my longest album ever, and I hope you'll love the amount of work I crammed into it.''<ref name=":0">{{Cite|url=https://c418.bandcamp.com/album/minecraft-volume-beta|title=Minecraft - Volume Beta|website=Bandcamp}}</ref>

==Track listing==
{{C418 agreement}}
{{-}}
{| class="wikitable sortable" data-description="Track listing"
!{{Tooltip|No.|Number}}
!Title
! scope="col" style="width:100px" |Filename in ''Minecraft''
!Length
! class="unsortable" scope="col" style="width:200px" |Track preview
! class="unsortable" |Description
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
|1.
|"Ki"
|—
|1:32
|
| This is a reprise (a similar but slightly different version) of "Key" from ''[[Minecraft - Volume Alpha]]'' (note that both have the same pronunciation). It starts off with "Key" but includes more electronic music.
|
|-
|2.
| "Alpha"
|credits.ogg
|10:03
|[[File:Alpha.ogg]]
|This track is an emotional orchestral reprise of some tracks from ''Minecraft - Volume Alpha'', including "Minecraft", "Mice on Venus", "Moog City", and "Sweden". It plays during the [[End Poem]], after defeating the [[ender dragon]]. At times hopeful and energetic, and at other times sad and contemplative, the whole track has an intense feeling of nostalgia.
|This is the first of two longer songs which are "Album Only" on the iTunes online store.
|-
|3.
|"Dead Voxel"
| nether2.ogg
|4:56
|[[File:Dead voxel.ogg]]
|The track begins with ambient music and distant, high-pitched synth sounds, similar to ones heard in "Ballad of the Cats", and later turns into a serene, but dramatic piano song with a fittingly warm ambient backing and an accompaniment of an oriental-sounding synth imitating a plucked instrument. The track is a less dissonant, more somber variant of "Concrete Halls", with softer percussion. At the end, part of "Beginning" can be heard.
| This, along with "Concrete Halls" and "The End", is present in {{El|lce}} as of [[Legacy_Console_Edition_version_history#TU9|TU9]].
|-
|4.
|"Blind Spots"
| creative2.ogg
|5:32
|[[File:Blind spots.ogg]]
|Starts off primarily featuring a major seven chord, and later introduces darker minor chords. The entire track is a piano song dominated by a repeated quarter note rhythm. The piano has a delayed echo effect on it before it gets joined by a synth orchestra, with some quiet synth percussion.
|
|-
| 5.
|"Flake"
| —
|2:50
|
|This song starts with calm, echoing bells backed by a synth, and then a scratchy beat is introduced.
| This track is used in the Legacy Console Edition Festive [[Resource pack/Mash-up pack|Mash-Up Pack]].
|-
|6.
|"Moog City 2"
|menu2.ogg
|3:00
|[[File:Moog city 2.ogg]]
|Sequel to "Moog City" from ''[[Minecraft - Volume Alpha]]'', with a grander scale and a more dramatic tone. C418 actually used a Moog synthesizer on this track, as opposed to the original.<ref name=":0" />
|
|-
| 7.
|"Concrete Halls"
|nether1.ogg
|4:14
|[[File:Concrete halls.ogg]]
|An ominous, rhythmic track that consists of dark, relatively dissonant piano chords supported by ambient synths, abrasive, heavily reverbed percussion, and distant [[ghast]] sounds.
|This track, along with "Dead Voxel" and "The End", is present in Legacy Console Edition as of TU9.
|-
|8.
|"Biome Fest"
|creative1.ogg
|6:18
|[[File:Biome fest.ogg]]
|This track begins with a dreamlike choir of synthesized voices, which makes way to an electronic song with bells and tribal percussion in the background.
|This track was previously used in a video by Notch to demonstrate biomes.<ref>{{Ytl|953XeQ3qwMM|Minecraft Biome Test|([{{ytl|bBP_sHdnXmk}} Archive]) Nizzotch|October 27, 2010}}</ref>
|-
|9.
|"Mutation"
|menu1.ogg
|3:05
|[[File:Mutation.ogg]]
|This track is a variation on "Minecraft" from ''[[Minecraft - Volume Alpha]]'' with string ensemble embellishments (this is likely where the name "Mutation" originated).
|
|-
|10.
|"Haunt Muskie"
|creative3.ogg
|6:01
|[[File:Haunt muskie.ogg]]
|An upbeat, ambient, rhythmic track. It begins with the growing sound of echoing chimes and clarinets that quicken in pace. A reversed piano, accompanied by a synthesized accordion or similar instrument, begin to play up and down a scale, shortly before echoing and fading away, after which the main portion of the song starts. A saxophone can be heard in the background throughout most of the piece. The piece concludes with an unexpectedly dissonant piano chord.
| The title is an anagram of the virtual singing character, {{W|Hatsune Miku}}.<ref>{{Cite|url=https://c418.org/albums/minecraft-volume-beta/|title=Minecraft Volume Beta|website=C418's Website}}</ref>
|-
|11.
|"Warmth"
|nether3.ogg
|3:59
|[[File:Warmth.ogg]]
|The song starts with loud, hollow sounds of something banging on a metallic object, which fades into synthesizer music with [[enderman]]-like sounds. Near the end, the music turns back into banging sounds, but louder and less muted. At the end are sounds of a large amount of a water-like liquid flowing.
|
|-
|12.
|"Floating Trees"
|menu4.ogg
|4:04
|[[File:Floating trees.ogg]]
|It is an ethereal and calming track in which times of rain(?) can be heard. It is written in the same key as "Minecraft". The end seems to contain the start of the melody from "Subwoofer Lullaby" from ''[[Minecraft - Volume Alpha]]''.
|This appears to be a reference to the well-known annoyance of leaving a tree only partially chopped down, thus leaving it “floating”.
|-
|13.
|"Aria Math"
| creative4.ogg
| 5:10
|[[File:Aria math.ogg]]
|The track begins with a main theme played on heavily echoed pan drums, and this pan drum melody continues throughout the song with electronic music to accompany it. Later, the main theme is played on an oriental plucked string instrument (likely a Koto), accompanied by a crescendo of orchestral strings near the end.
|Aria is a music term for a song of air.
|-
|14.
|"Kyoto"
|—
|4:09
|
|A downtempo song in two main parts. The first part features a piano playing the bass part, with a melody and countermelody in saxophone and flute, respectively. The second part features synthesized strings and celesta.
|Kyoto is a Japanese city and was formerly the imperial capital of Japan. This track was also used in the festive mash-up pack for the console edition.
|-
|15.
|"Ballad of the Cats"
|nether4.ogg
|4:35
|[[File:Ballad of the cats.ogg]]
|A period of techno-sounding music and then a break. Later a second period of peaceful music and then a techno-style ending. Near the beginning and end are distant, echoing [[ghast]] sounds.
|
|-
| 16.
|"Taswell"
| creative6.ogg
|8:35
|[[File:Taswell.ogg]]
|It starts off as a track of echoing, ethereal music and high-pitched beeping with odd static-like periods in between. After some percussive ticking noises and a brief interlude of echoing vinyl static and chirping noises, it suddenly becomes an upbeat, catchy song, with a high-pitched piano accompanied by a reverbed synth and steady synth drum beats. A flute joins in, as well as additional layers of percussion and a synth choir that intensifies in sound as the song continues. Later, the track expands into a more intricately layered, electronic track. It starts playing quieter static-like periods at the end. Strange, almost organic-sounding electronic chirping noises can be heard throughout the track, as well as quiet reversed chimes. The track ends with the synth choir echoing away as a wooshing synth static sound winds down and a muffled organ arpeggio loops and fades out. The whole track consists of many layers of electronic textures that fluidly move about.
|This track's title is a reference to the late Ryan Davis of Giant Bomb.
|-
|17.
|"Beginning 2"
|menu3.ogg
|2:56
|[[File:Beginning 2.ogg]]
| This track is a sequel of "Beginning" from ''[[Minecraft - Volume Alpha]]''. A variation of "Minecraft".
|
|-
|18.
|"Dreiton"
|creative5.ogg
|8:17
|[[File:Dreiton.ogg]]
|An ambient track that makes use of pan drums. It is a slow rhythm that slowly loudens, and then suddenly quiets down again, slowly crescendoing until dramatically quieting into a guitar piece.
|"Dreiton" is German for "three tone" and may be a reference to C418's earlier album,[https://c418.bandcamp.com/album/zweitonegoismus ''zweitonegoismus''] ("two tone egoism"), which itself may be a reference to an even earlier album, [https://c418.bandcamp.com/album/sine ''Sine''] (description: eins- "one" in German.)
|-
|19.
|"The End"
|end.ogg
| 15:04
|[[File:The end.ogg]]
|The track opens with vinyl static and the beginning part of the track "Minecraft", which slowly becomes more and more distorted and reverbed until it is barely recognizable. After it suddenly succumbs to excessive bitcrushing and glitching, it echoes out, and a low-pitched drone starts and grows slowly, eventually gaining a harmony of choir voices.
Throughout the track, extremely distorted and/or remixed versions of parts of the tracks "Cat", "Haggstrom", "Dry Hands", "Wet Hands", "Subwoofer Lullaby", "Oxygène", "Danny", "Clark", "Equinoxe", and "Beginning" from ''Minecraft - Volume Alpha'' can be heard, as well as "Floating Trees" from ''Minecraft - Volume Beta'', as ambient noises play in the background and build in intensity.

At the climax of this piece, a pulsing, one-note synth "ostinato" suddenly appears from the drone and is overlaid with a half-tempo rendition of the song "Sweden", which increases in volume until it abruptly stops with a motif from "Subwoofer Lullaby".

After a period of relative silence, the drone and ambience reappears, accompanied by soft, echoing chimes layered with reversed chimes, and then a sudden static hum brings in some very slowed down samples from "Minecraft".

The drone slowly fades away as a wind sound comes in waves and the track remains this way for a while.

Then, the drone and ostinato return for a very short time before another static hum interrupts the track and total silence except for vinyl static can be heard.

A stuttered loop of a small portion of "Minecraft" begins, once again underneath a layer of vinyl static. Someone apparently stops the track by pushing a button on a turntable, and nothing but vinyl static can be heard for the remaining few seconds. Overall, the track carries an ominous air of desolation and hopelessness.
| This is the second of two longer songs which are "Album Only" on the iTunes online store. The track was already present in Console Edition as of TU9, along with "Dead Voxel" and "Concrete Halls".
|-
|20.
|"Chirp"
| chirp.ogg
|3:07
|[[File:Chirp.ogg]]
| A retro tune with a sample from a 1970 MATTEL Program Disc: Bossa Nova Style playing in the background, along with a vaporwave-like version of Mall.
|From this track until Far (track 29) are all music discs available in the game (before Pigstep was added) excluding "Cat" and "Thirteen", and with the exception of "Eleven" being an exclusive music track. Second part is "Mall".
|-
|21.
|"Wait"
|wait.ogg
|3:54
|[[File:Where are we now.ogg]]
|An upbeat remix of "Minecraft".
|This track was originally titled "Where are we now" (likely because the phrase rhythmically fits the melody), and for a long time was in the record folder but was not added as a music disc due to issues with the spaces in its name. This was finally rectified by renaming it and it was added as a music disc in 1..
|-
|22.
|"Mellohi"
|mellohi.ogg
|1:38
|[[File:Mellohi.ogg]]
|A slow, slightly melancholic waltz with a sample from a mellotron playing in the background.
|
|-
|23.
|"Stal"
|stal.ogg
|2:32
|[[File:Stal.ogg]]
|A moderate jazz-like piece with a recorder.
|
|-
|24.
|"Strad"
|strad.ogg
|3:08
|[[File:Strad.ogg]]
|A tropical-sounding piece with the main melody being played on a handpan and steel drum, accompanied by a glitchy electronic beat and ending on some melancholy melodica chords.
|
|-
|25.
|"Eleven"
|—
|1:11
|
|The record static from the start of the music disc "11" can be heard, but is abruptly interrupted by a record scratching sound and the track switches to a new, slow, calm piano piece.
|This track references the music disc "11" in its name, length, and vinyl static intro, but features an entirely new track instead of the familiar, disturbing sounds of what sounds like a person running away from some unknown creature. It's likely that this was meant to be a bait-and-switch by C418, considering that it at first appears to be "11" due to its name, song length, and its inclusion on the same album as all the other music discs, and that it even begins the same way, but then immediately turns out to be something completely different. It's possible that C418 chose not to include the original track in order to add to its mystery and possibly its obscurity, or because a sudden interlude of non-musical sound effects would have interrupted the flow of the album.
|-
|26.
|"Ward"
|ward.ogg
|4:10
|[[File:Ward.ogg]]
|The record starts off with an excerpt from Chopin's Funeral March<ref>{{w|File:Frederic_Chopin_Piano_Sonata_No.2_in_B_flat_minor_Op35_-_III_Marche_Funebre.ogg|Frédéric Chopin - Piano Sonata No.2 - III ''Marche Funèbre''}}</ref> played on a synth organ but goes into an electronic, upbeat, exploration and adventure tune with a dark undertone.
|The old-sounding intro to this song is shortened in ''Minecraft - Volume Beta'', compared to the in-game music disc version.
|-
|27.
|"Mall"
|mall.ogg
|3:18
|[[File:Mall.ogg]]
|A calm, underwater-like, piece of serene music.
|
|-
|28.
|"Blocks"
|blocks.ogg
|5:43
|[[File:Blocks.ogg]]
|An upbeat, catchy tune with a shuffling rhythm.
|
|-
|29.
|"Far"
|far.ogg
|3:12
|[[File:Far.ogg]]
|A calm, relaxing, nature-like synth melody.
|
|-
|30.
|"Intro"
|—
|4:36
|
|This track is an improv piece<ref name=":0" /> consisting of C418 himself humming and playing notes on a piano. Strings, along with echoing synthesized sounds and other recordings of his voice, fade in afterwards, until the song ends.
|On C418's website, there is a description for this song: ''"See you next time"''.
|}

==Trivia==

*Only 2 tracks on this album feature descriptions of some kind; the first being "Biome Fest", which has a link to a video called "Minecraft Biome Test" on Notch's YouTube channel, Nizzotch, which has since been deleted ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=953XeQ3qwMM this] is the original link, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBP_sHdnXmk this] is a reupload), and "Intro", with the description "See you next time", which is fitting as it is the last song on the album.
**This is different from ''Volume Alpha'', as every song on that album had a description or joke of some kind. It may be that this unexpected "silence" is an intentional way to emphasize this album's much darker tone.
*The album cover is a darker, more surreal and heavily stylized version of the same grass block from the album cover of ''[[Volume Alpha]]'', which is likely meant to reflect the darker, more surreal style of ''Volume Beta'', in comparison to its predecessor.

==See also==

*[[C418]]
**''[[Minecraft - Volume Alpha]]''
*[[Lena Raine]]
**''[[Minecraft: Nether Update (Original Game Soundtrack)]]''
*[[Music]]
*[[Music Disc]]
*[https://c418wiki.absolutelywhizzer.co.uk/index.php?title=Minecraft_-_Volume_Beta The article on C418's wiki]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Soundtrack|Minecraft}}

[[de:Minecraft – Volume Beta]]
[[ja:Minecraft - Volume Beta]]
[[nl:Minecraft - Volume Beta]]
[[pt:Minecraft - Volume Beta]]
[[zh:Minecraft - Volume Beta]]