Originally, Myst didn't have any music because the Miller brothers thought music would interfere with the gameplay. But after a few tests, they realized background music did not adversely affect the game, saying that in fact it "seemed to really help the mood of certain places that you were at in the game."
Robyn Miller ended up composing 40 minutes of synthesized music that was used in the game and later released as Myst: The Soundtrack. Mixing and effects were done on an E-mu Proteus MPS synthesizer. The soundtrack was recorded over the course of two weeks' evenings.
Initially, Cyan released the soundtrack via a mail-order service, but before the release of Myst's sequel, Riven, Virgin Records acquired the rights to release the soundtrack, and the CD was re-released on April 21, 1998.
Robyn Miller composed Riven's music, which was later packaged and released by Virgin Records as Riven: The Soundtrack. Miller designed the liner notes and packaging, which included English translations of the language found in the game.
Miller established three leitmotifs for the game's three central characters, Atrus, Catherine, and Gehn. Gehn's theme is only heard in its complete form near the end of the game, but portions of the melody can be heard throughout Riven, highlighting his control of the Age. Miller tried to let the environment dictate the resulting sound in order to make the music as immersive as possible. He blended live instrumentation with synthesizers: "By mixing and matching conventional instrumentation, you can create an odd, interesting mood," Miller said. Ultimately, he wanted the music of Riven to reflect the game itself, which he described as having "a familiar-yet-strange feel to it."
Miller described his biggest challenge in writing Riven's music as reconciling the linear, pleasing construction of music with the nonlinearity of the gameplay. As players can freely explore all areas, Miller explained in an interview, "the music can't say anything too specific. If it says something, if it builds in intensity and there starts to be a climax, and people are just standing in a room looking around, and they're thinking 'What's going on in here? Is something about to jump out from behind me?' You can't have the basic parts of music that you'd like to have, you can't have a basic structure. It's all got to be just flowing, and continue to flow."
Jack Wall created the score for the third installment of the series. Irish stated that developing the music was one of the hardest aspects of Exile: "We had to match or exceed the surrealistic style of music that Robyn [Miller] had pioneered. It had to be recognizable as Myst, but unique and distinctive." Wall looked at the increasing complexity of games as an opportunity to give players a soundtrack with as much force as a movie score. Wall also echoed Irish's opinion that he wanted to make a very different score from the "wonderful sonic pastiche" of Myst and Riven, yet still recognizable as a sequel to the earlier games; Wall considered copying Miller's style as the "safe" yet unappealing route that was expected of him.
In preparation for his composition, Wall studied Miller's music, noting that he and Miller differed on their use of music theory. Miller, according to Wall, felt that "melody could easily get in the way of the experience of playing the game", but Wall felt that some melody provided something thematic for the player to grasp. Wall wanted the music to have a sense of purpose while still preserving interactivity, so he composed "reward music" for completing puzzles and recorded the score with a real orchestra.
Related: Ambient soundtrack - a fan-made compilation of ambient music used within the game
Jack Wall composed, conducted, and produced the music for Revelation; the game was his second game score, following the music for Myst III: Exile. Wall was initially a sound engineer and producer, and stated composing "was kind of like a next step for me, rather than something I decided to do early on". The success and recognition of Exile's score landed Wall the job of writing Revelation's music with a budget of $100,000—twice the amount he had worked with for Exile.
Wall reused, reorchestrated and expanded themes composed by previous Myst composer Robyn Miller; for example, Wall reused Atrus' Theme from Riven and the brothers' leitmotifs from the original game. Wall credited the Myst universe and story with allowing him to write music "Western ears are somewhat less accustomed to"; Revelation's score was inspired by Eastern European music that Wall enjoyed in the 1990s.
Uru's music was composed by Tim Larkin, who had started his career at game publisher Brøderbund, and lobbied hard to be included on Riven's development team. Larkin worked on creating different sound effects for Riven and was chosen to score Uru after composer and Myst co-creator Robyn Miller left Cyan in early 1998. The music for the game was collected as a soundtrack, Uru Music, that was released in 2003.
Larkin chose the instrumentation for each track based on the various digital environments in the game. When the player is in the game's representation of New Mexico, for example, Larkin used a resonator guitar and flutes, creating what he called something "indigenous to a southwest type of feel that's very contemporary". In other areas Larkin described the game's music as being "less typical than you would find in most games" because of the exotic landscape the developers had created. To create contemporary and exotic types of music in the game, Larkin employed a combination of real and synthesized instruments. Sometimes Larkin replaced synthesized performances with those of real musicians, as in the track "Gallery Theme", where a synthesized vocal part was eventually discarded in favor of soprano Tasha Koontz. To create an exotic feel, Larkin used a group of Maasai tribesmen's chanting, who were recorded during their visit to Spokane, Washington, where Cyan Worlds was located.
The Uru soundtrack received two Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) nominations in 2004—one for "Best Original Vocal Song (Choral)" for the "Gallery Theme" (which won), and another for "Best Original Soundtrack." Beyond its use in Uru, "Gallery Theme" was later used in the theatrical trailer for Steven Spielberg's film, Munich. The Uru soundtrack comes on an enhanced CD, containing a (nearly) four-minute music video called "Uru: The Makers" and an audio-only interview with Rand Miller and Tim Larkin.
Composer Tim Larkin, a sound designer and audio director at Cyan who had previously worked on realMyst and Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, was given the task of developing Myst V's musical score. Larkin stated that whereas earlier Myst games had been constrained by technological limitations, the available technology allowed End of Ages to have a more dynamic environment, with the music changing with various timings of different sound effects. Surround sound provided a more realistic and immersive gameplay experience.
A major challenge in writing the music was that the score had to be flexible enough to match the non-linear gameplay events. "Games are totally interactive experiences," Larkin explained. "You don't guide a player through, since you can't count on being at a certain place at a certain time. I can't write cue music to get the player to do this, this and then this. One player might hear the cue and run the other way!" Larkin had to step away from what he had learned as a jazz composer and musician writing pieces with a definite beginning and end, instead creating music with "less arc" and structure. Larkin admitted that some Myst fans would have preferred a musical style similar to Robyn Miller's scores for Myst and Riven, but replied by saying that change happens and players would find something to like in the new music if they kept an open mind.
Due to a tight budget, Larkin was unable to hire an orchestra to perform the music; all the instruments in the soundtrack aside from Larkin's own trumpet playing are sampled instruments. Larkin used a variety of synthesizers, samplers, and computers to create the score, working at his home studio and Cyan's offices. Larkin found that the biggest challenge with the score was finishing it on time for the game to ship. The soundtrack was released in CD format on October 25, 2005.
