Storytelling with soundtrack and MEAs failure

I am now going to complain about an issue that pisses me off more than the whole animations controversy: The soundtrack, its implementation in the game and Biowares obvious ignorance to the important aspects of a good soundtrack.

Let's begin with the scoring for important cutscenes:
In the Trilogy there are a bunch of tracks unique to certain important cinematic moments. Examples:
Victory, from the wreckage, an end once and for all, I'm proud of you, leaving earth, the Normandy reborn, Betrayal, the lazarus project, jump drive, a cerberus agent, the fleets arrive....
I probably missed some but all of these tracks you will hear just once in the game.
Scoring for major cutscenes made those moments stand out, memorable and if the music is right you can manipulate your players/audience to feel certain emotions.

Let's see how MEA handles this: Not a single scene has its own unique track. I stopped counting how many times I heard “A better beginning” and “A trail of hope” during important moments.
Don't get me wrong, these two tunes are fantastic but criminally overused.

Storytelling with music

When Jack Wall was scoring for ME1 he was aware of the plotpoint that involves the citadel.
He made sure to include some subtle dissonances in “the presidium” and especially “the wards”, so you get the feeling that there is something wrong underneath the facade. You might call it musical foreshadowing. I think that is pure genius.
I don't even have to tell you that there isn't something like that in Andromeda.
The Nexus doesn't even have a music. The citadel has TWO unique tunes. What a fucking oversight.

Character/Locations Themes:

So let see:
For ME2 every single companion got its own soundtrack, not just a motive, every loyalty mission has been uniquely scored by Jack Wall, Sam Hulick and the other composers.
You can close your eyes and know just by the soundtrack what loyalty mission you are playing.
The Illusive Man is important, he needs his own theme, Sovereign is important, he needs his own theme, Saren is important, he needs his own needs. And to hear Sarens Theme during the mission failure screen is another good example of storytelling with music. No such thing in Andromeda.

There are also unique tracks to important locations:
Feros, Noveria, Palaven...
Granted those kind of tunes are also present on the MEA soundtrack but do me a favor listen to one areal theme of the trilogy and then try to sing or hum one of the motives. I think you will succeed.
Try that with MEAs Soundtrack and you will see what the problem is with the soundtrack.

Even worse there are so many locations and moments without music, moments that scream for a nice authentic sci fi track.

Say what you will about Casey Hudson but he was experienced director who may screw up occasionally but the following excerpt from a Jack Wall interview shows that Andromeda desperately needed someone like him:

One of your latest projects is Mass Effect. How challenging was it for you to find the right sound for this futuristic title? Are there any cues/musical passages that you are especially proud of?
Thank you! I love Mass Effect. It’s such a unique title and I’m so proud to have been the franchise composer for both the first one and this latest one. Casey Hudson, the director of the game, really drove the vision for what the score was to become. I have to give him props for that. He wanted that 80’s sci-fi sound recalling Bladerunner and various other scores from Tangerine Dream (Risky Business) and then we pulled in some other sci-fi references like the score to the remake of Solaris and popular movie themes from Tangerine Dream. We wanted the feeling of these influences while striving for something unique and new.

Casey Hudson and the leads of the trilogy knew about the importance of a good soundtrack.
I don't blame John Paesano for this. Changes are that he just didn't know what a AAA game needs in terms of soundtrack.
The leads of Andromeda should have made that clear to him. They didn't or even worse, they had no idea themselves what a probably done soundtrack for a massive game like MEA requires.

To wrap it up, some words to the sounddesigners/engineers/whatever.
The music and the ingame sounds are often in conflict which each other. Meaning certain frequencies are cut off. You need to master the tracks according to their intended use. Play with the EQ until it is acceptable.
I can't believe that I need to tell that to professionals. It is almost embarrassing.

And no I am not one of those people who bitch about every minor aspect of the game.
I liked the game. 7.5/10 for me