Minecraft - Volume Beta

Minecraft - Volume Beta is the second Minecraft soundtrack album by C418, the first being Minecraft - Volume Alpha. It was released on November 9, 2013 on Bandcamp and Apple Music, with a later release on Spotify.

Minecraft - Volume Beta

Album by	C418
Released	November 9, 2013
Genre	Ambient
Length	140:49
Available as	LP, CD, digital download
Discogs	955222
Link	C418's Website Bandcamp Amazon Music Apple Music Deezer Spotify YouTube YouTube Music

{
    "title": "''Minecraft - Volume Beta''",
    "rows": [
        {
            "field": "(link to C418 article, displayed as C418)",
            "label": "Album by"
        },
        {
            "field": "November 9, 2013",
            "label": "Released"
        },
        {
            "field": "Ambient",
            "label": "Genre"
        },
        {
            "field": "140:49",
            "label": "Length"
        },
        {
            "field": "LP, CD, digital download",
            "label": "Available as"
        },
        {
            "field": "[https://www.discogs.com/C418-Minecraft-Volume-Beta/master/955222 955222]",
            "label": "(link to wikipedia:Discogs article, displayed as Discogs)"
        },
        {
            "field": "\n*[https://c418.org/albums/minecraft-volume-beta C418's Website]\n*[https://c418.bandcamp.com/album/minecraft-volume-beta Bandcamp]\n*[https://music.amazon.com/albums/B00GJMEROS Amazon Music]\n*[https://music.apple.com/album/minecraft-volume-beta/739831644 Apple Music]\n*[https://deezer.com/us/album/9236763 Deezer]\n*[https://open.spotify.com/album/7CYDRyFCKtAYJBSpfovLyX?si=X5GcKQviS0aOj2k54xftyg Spotify]\n*[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mXLyLTu2QXhNXsPJzF4q3oBKjDdXR5aVQ YouTube]\n*[https://music.youtube.com/browse/MPREb_I9wV3a2MIb3 YouTube Music]",
            "label": "Link"
        }
    ],
    "invimages": [],
    "images": []
}

The album includes 30 songs for a total length of about 140 minutes. It features many music tracks that were "silently" added to Minecraft in the Music Update a few days after the album's release, as well as the music discs that were missing from the first album (except for "11"). Similarly to Volume Alpha, Volume Beta includes short bonus tracks that are not in the game.

With a less minimalistic style, longer track lengths with more complex structures, 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 on his website, saying:

"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'."

C418 considers Volume Beta to be "dedicated to America and Asia", while Volume Alpha "might be a love record to Europe". One can notice the Asian influence on tracks such as "Aria Math", "Biome Fest", "Dreiton", "Haunt Muskie", 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.

Track listing

No.	Title	Filename in Minecraft	Length	Track preview	Description
1.	"Ki"	—	1:32		Serves as a sequel to "Key" and only available on the album.
2.	"Alpha"	alpha.ogg‌ credits.ogg‌	10:03		This song plays during the credit sequence, either through the main menu or by entering the exit portal after defeating the ender dragon.
3.	"Dead Voxel"	dead_voxel.ogg‌ nether2.ogg‌	4:56		This song plays in every Nether biome except for warped forest.
4.	"Blind Spots"	blind_spots.ogg‌ creative2.ogg‌	5:32		This song plays while the player is in Creative mode.
5.	"Flake"	—	2:50		This song plays while using the Festive Mash-up pack on Legacy Console Edition.
6.	"Moog City 2"	moog_city_2.ogg‌ menu2.ogg‌	3:00		This song plays in the main menu.
7.	"Concrete Halls"	concrete_halls.ogg‌ nether1.ogg‌	4:14		This song plays in every Nether biome except for warped forest.
8.	"Biome Fest"	biome_fest.ogg‌ creative1.ogg‌	6:18		This song plays while the player is in Creative mode.
9.	"Mutation"	mutation.ogg‌ menu1.ogg‌	3:05		This song plays in the main menu.
10.	"Haunt Muskie"	haunt_muskie.ogg‌ creative3.ogg‌	6:01		This song plays while the player is in Creative mode.
11.	"Warmth"	warmth.ogg‌ nether3.ogg‌	3:59		This song plays in every Nether biome except for warped forest.
12.	"Floating Trees"	floating_trees.ogg‌ menu4.ogg‌	4:04		This song plays in the main menu.
13.	"Aria Math"	aria_math.ogg‌ creative4.ogg‌	5:10		This song plays while the player is in Creative mode.
14.	"Kyoto"	—	4:09		This song plays while using the Festive Mash-up pack on Legacy Console Edition.
15.	"Ballad of the Cats"	ballad_of_the_cats.ogg‌ nether4.ogg‌	4:35		This song plays in every Nether biome except for warped forest.
16.	"Taswell"	taswell.ogg‌ creative6.ogg‌	8:35		This song plays while the player is in Creative mode.
17.	"Beginning 2"	beginning_2.ogg‌ menu3.ogg‌	2:56		This song plays in the main menu.
18.	"Dreiton"	dreiton.ogg‌ creative5.ogg‌	8:17		This song plays while the player is in Creative mode.
19.	"The End"	the_end.ogg‌ end.ogg‌	15:04		This song plays in The End.
20.	"Chirp"	chirp.ogg	3:07		Included as a music disc which can be obtained from drops by creepers killed by skeletons.
21.	"Wait"	wait.ogg	3:54
22.	"Mellohi"	mellohi.ogg	1:38
23.	"Stal"	stal.ogg	2:32
24.	"Strad"	strad.ogg	3:08
25.	"Eleven"	—	1:11		Only available on the album.
26.	"Ward"	ward.ogg	4:10		Included as a music disc which can be obtained by drops by creepers killed by skeletons.
27.	"Mall"	mall.ogg	3:18
28.	"Blocks"	blocks.ogg	5:43
29.	"Far"	far.ogg	3:12
30.	"Intro"	—	4:36		Only available on the album.

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" that was on Notch's YouTube channel, Nizzotch, but has since been deleted (this is the original link, 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 dark, 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.
• Two extra songs were left out of this album, those being Boss, which plays when the player is battling the Ender Dragon, and 11, which is replaced with a unique song.
• The music disc tracks are in stereo, as opposed to their in-game versions, which are in mono. It is likely that the in-game versions are in mono so as to make it seem as if the sound is coming from one single source (a jukebox) instead of from all around the listener.

Gallery

• 

  Cover for Minecraft - Volume Beta

See also

• The C418 Wiki's article on Minecraft - Volume Beta
• The Wikipedia article on Minecraft - Volume Beta