Chorused/delayed Guitar
...is available in four versions:
1. The actual soundtrack. 96 KHz/24-bit FLAC, medium resolution. This is meant for standalone playback.
Download: Hexen-ST-96.zip, 1.91 GBs.
Good FLAC players are Foobar2000, XMPlay, VLC (cross-platform, MacOS/Linux/Windows). Or pretty much anything in a Linux distro, though you'll have to fiddle around with Linux soundsystem settings to make sure 96/24 is played correctly. XMPlay also has to have its sampling rate and bit depth set to at least 96/24. ASIO output is recommended.
2. ZDoom FLAC soundtrack. This is only 48 KHz/24-bit, low resolution. It does suffer from lack of proper space definition, expression, and cymbals aren't too realistic, but 48/24 is the most FMOD will do.
Download: Hexen-ST.zip, 1.08 GBs.
3. ZDoom/Doomsday Ogg soundtrack. 48 KHz, Q6 Ogg. Low resolution, and washed-out harmonics. Download and use this only if there's not enough space for the FLAC soundtrack. This sounds a tad hollow/cold and some pieces are noticeably lacking impact compared to FLAC. But it is the smallest file size.
Installation for Doomsday: copy Music-Ogg.pk3 to Doomsday\snowberry\addons, then choose the addon in Hexen startup options.
Download: Hexen-ST-Ogg.zip, 142 MBs.
4. ZDoom/Doomsday MP3 soundtrack. Sourced from 48 KHz/24-bit wave files, highest-quality 320 kbps MP3 files. Low resolution. Same as the Ogg soundtrack, this is only for when there's not enough hard drive space. Sounds blurry/plasticky compared to FLAC, but some spots might play better than Ogg.
This is rather larger than the Ogg soundtrack.
Installation for Doomsday: copy Music-MP3.pk3 to Doomsday\snowberry\addons, then choose the addon in Hexen startup options.
Download: Hexen-ST-MP3.zip, 266 MBs.
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Total running time: 1 hour, 51 minutes, 29 seconds.
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The Chartr.mid mix is included as a bonus - it's not used anywhere in the game, but some WADs may reference it, or mappers might be keen on including it in new levels.
A Chap_2r.mid mix is also included. Chap_2r.mid is only played in the Deathkings of the Dark Citadel expansion - it's soundtrack to MAP50, "Marketplace".
Low-res MP3 Demos
Hall.mid:
Seven Portals (Jachr.mid):
Darkmere (Swampr.mid):
Caves of Circe (Deepr.mid):
Heresiarch's Seminary (Voidr.mid):
Sixater.mid (Castle of Grief):
Borkesis (Borkr.mid, Vivarium secret level):
Chart (Chartr.mid, unused):
Chap_2r.mid (unused in Hexen, soundtrack to MAP50 - "Marketplace" - in Deathkings of the Dark Citadel):
Original MIDI scores for Hexen were composed by Kevin Schilder in 1995.
These new mixes were made by Aenn Seidhe Priest in 2001-2002, 2004, 2012-2014. Most of the mixes feature the new GM/GS drumkit and percussion sampler, Solar Battery.
In the new mixes especially, emphasis is on an otherworldly sound, which is why a lot of fancy percussion, synthetic and real, was used. Most of it is in Solar Battery, but some modelled drums have not been released.
A lot of virtual analogue and original software synths were played with newly crafted presets where possible.
Some other particular instruments were played, including a real electric guitar. In the Levelr.mid mix it even mimics a Celtic harp.
The soundtrack shouldn't really have any bugs, but if you run upon any quirks, you can always send a message.
ZHexen 2.7.1
The same as ZDoom 2.7.1, but with the following fixes:
1. The heresiarch shields no longer make them invulnerable - they'll only deflect projectiles, as in the original game. Arc of Death, mace, fighter gauntlets and axe and hammer in melee mode will still affect heresiarches.
2. Correct Hexen/Heretic flight model: view is decoupled from heading direction. Now you can fire on monsters from above and not crash into them!
3. Porkelator spelling fixed.
This is highly recommended.
Download: ZHexen.exe (installer), 3.55 MBs; ZHexen.zip, 2.06 MBs, Source Code, 5.21 MBs.
Other stuff: Sounds.pk3 1.1 (23 MBs)
This is just the sounds resampled to 48 KHz/24-bit. This might lighten the CPU load a tiny bit by the engine not doing any on-the-fly resampling. It does not fix the Serpent Staff clicking, unfortunately - that happens with the original wave file too and is a ZDoom looping bug.
Sounds.pk3 will improve mixing with music - sound effects won't interfere as much. The downside is, the wave files have been processed with DC gain correction, so they play weaker than the original sounds too. Therefore you'll have to adjust sound/music volume to taste when loading Sounds.pk3.
There's a lot of clipping distortion in the original 8-bit wave files, so this may occasionally sound worse than the original sound files (e. g. running the game without Sounds.pk3). A future release might fix these problems.
Use: add -file Sounds.pk3 to the command line.
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Legal
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Kevin Schilder has contacted the Activision legal department (copyrights for classic Raven games were sold to Activision) and they replied that any music can be used for non-commercial purposes freely. In other words, this soundtrack cannot be sold in any way on a CD or DVD, etc. without the permission of copyright holders.
But it can be freely downloaded and played.