Sam Hulick is a BAFTA nominated and multiple award-winning composer, best k… Read Full Bio ↴Sam Hulick is a BAFTA nominated and multiple award-winning composer, best known for creating the signature music for BioWare’s epic sci-fi franchise Mass Effect and the dramatic score for Tripwire Interactive’s groundbreaking Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad. With a penchant for injecting powerful emotions and memorable themes, Sam’s original scores range from sweeping sci-fi and orchestral bombast to fantasy landscapes.

Graduating from Indiana University as a computer programmer, Sam sought to combine his passion for writing imaginative music and interactive media. In 2003 he won the Game Audio Network Guild award for young composers. His first foray into the profession of scoring music for video games was Capcom’s Maximo Vs. Army of Zin.

Sam’s career propelled to new heights when he was approached to co-write the score for Mass Effect with Jack Wall. Sam penned various memorable compositions such as the iconic “Mass Effect Theme,” as well as “From the Wreckage,” “Sovereign’s Theme,” “Victory,” “Uplink,” and many more. The ‘80s inspired electronic score was lauded by critics as “One of the most memorable and unique soundtracks in gaming,” (Game Informer) and won Best Original Score awards from IGN, GameSpy and GameSpot.

For Mass Effect 2, Sam was again tapped for his adept skill of inventive blending of analog synths with orchestral instrumentation. The soundtrack featured a suitably darker and more cinematic musical experience to complement the sequel’s heavier subject matter. Mass Effect 2 received British Academy (BAFTA) and Spike TV VGA nominations for Best Original Score.

After enjoying the collaborative process on the Mass Effect franchise, Sam branched out as a solo composer, composing ninety minutes of classical-influenced orchestral score for Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad. Sam composed the evocative, emotional and haunting music that sets the mood for one of the most brutal battles in all of human history – the battle for Stalingrad. Red Orchestra 2 features a unique dynamic music system that adapts the emotional mood of the soundtrack to match the morale of the player based on the flow of the battle. To highlight the differences between the two warring powers Sam wrote a completely unique soundtrack for both the German and Russian perspectives.

In 2012 Sam returns to the sci-fi genre, contributing original music for the highly anticipated Mass Effect 3. The soundtrack features gripping musical arrangements that set the captivating tone for Commander Shepard’s struggle to take Earth back from an ancient alien race known as the Reapers.

Sam resides in Chicago and is currently writing his debut artist album.

TRACKS

Genre not found

Artist not found

Album not found

Search results not found

Song not found

Wake Up
Sam Hulick Lyrics

No lyrics text found for this track.

The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos

Comments from YouTube:

IVAN BELKOV

7y↑13

Mass effect become more than a game ... the philosophy ,, the major ideas about life and death, the universe and other thoughts about humanity and existence ...
and this soundtrack is simply amazing ,,
it is said once, whatever human mind thinks about or imagine it is doable

Linkenski

11y↑1

This soundtrack screams "what it could have been" It's amazing and I hope Bioware keeps Sam Hulick around for more space themes! His atmospheric soundtracks are just amazing.

TheDarkreaper224

12y↑4

imo, Sam Hullick did an amazing job with the whole extended cut!

NASTAR01

12y

Oh, and this music's beautiful. So mysterious, alien, and very subtle. It suits the scene, and the catalyst as an eons old construct. It inspires me when writing my game design document, or when I'm out travelling. It puts me in the right frame of mind - drowning out the world around me - to think up ideas.

Chapter-7

11y

One of my favourite tracks of the series

Killchrono

12y

I always liked this music. It's just whenever I listened to the old track I would want to throttle my screen because it reminded me of the Starchild. Now that they've fixed that sequence, I can actually appreciate this music much, much more. Regardless, great work from Sam, as always.

Dajman1594

11y↑6

If I believed in any sort of afterlife, I imagine this would be playing on repeat for eternity.

Joey Garcia

sounds... ghostly interesting and could very well be... eerily true.

ParagonRenegade

11y↑1

I also feel the Extended Cut was a vast improvement :) The original was a abysmal failure, but the EC alongside Leviathan make it... bearable

Silver Chevalier

9y↑22

Ha. I was watching 'American Genius' on Nat Geo... They used this song in the soundtrack. I wasn't really watching it but I heard the song from the other room... caused my ears to perk up.

Austin Newman

5y↑1

I feel like I heard it in Michael Steven's latest episode of Mindfield: How To Talk To Aliens around the twenty minute mark

miminepho

5y↑2

Just heard the track in the MARS: Inside SpaceX documentary also from Nat Geo (10:02 onwards)
It really surprised me. Brought back lots of good memories in an instant.

Patrick Schulz

6y↑2

Three years later, the same thing happened to me. : O

Juan

6y↑3

You could say your ears... woke up

Doodad

12y

I don't know why this music (the original) wasn't in the soundtrack furnished with the collector edition. I like this music so much. I love all the Mass Effect's soundtracks.

Nicholas

12y

All of the endings are good, i just thing that they should evolve their own way, not be forced. I liked the control ending but not many people do :(

Jacktheinfinite101

12y

Uh huh, sure. I listened to the epilogue and when I heard "Eternal, infinite, Immortal." and when I heard "there is strength in using your enemy's tactics" I knew control was a renegade ending, whereas in the destroy epilogue, we get a harmonic tone where the galaxy is in peace because of Shepard's actions in uniting them together. Also if you have low EMS, the one option available to you depends on whether you destroyed or kept the collector base.

infantryrko

12y

Sam Hullick himself said that the original 1 minute long version was insufficient for the extra scenes. Personally, I love what was done with this!

MainHeretic

10y↑6

I wish I could include a fifth ending. "Negotiate". Convince the Catalyst to send the Reapers back to Dark Space. You would lose the Citadel, but the relays would remain, allowing Organics to "police themselves". The future would be very open ended.

It would hinge greatly on choices made during the trilogy, EMS, moral consistency, etc.

hammer326

12y

that last bit... I salute you for summarizing the modern bioware fanbase.

SnakeEater866

11y↑4

I disagree about the ending, I think the Extended Cut DLC improved it enough to make it a satisfying conclusion, it's still nowhere near as good as the endings of the first 2 but I was still really satisfied with the Extended Cut DLC.

AkkuEnzeru

12y↑1

To people who are fighting over which ending is better, just remember that BW still lied to us about what they were going to give us.

Ignacio de Regoyos

12y

It is without a doubt. It goes against everything Mass Effect was until that moment: Unity despite differences and not uniformity, that's what the reapers wanted from the beginning.

Jacktheinfinite101

12y

It's so tempting to just shoot at him like I used to before the EC, but I won't because then he wins.

chiffmonkey

11y

The true ending involves Beings of Light. Trust me there are things far worse out there than Reapers.

MCP/ChronicBuzz

"I fight for freedom. Mine and everybody's"

ReptilianPoopsBR

9y↑1

Dem feels.

Xeladaine

12y↑1

Doesn't anyone else think that this songs feels to be much longer than just 2 minutes. I thought it was about 5 minutes long.

Deniz Vakarian

12y

I think they changed it a little because the conversation is now longer. Makes it less monotone. I love both versions.

ParagonRenegade

11y

Mass Effect 3 entered production several months before Mass Effect 2 was released

Jacktheinfinite101

12y

I hoped that if I could survive that ending they could too, but the dialogue does imply that EDI and the Geth could be rebuilt and we do see the citadel, which is the physical body of the Catalyst, being fixed. Either way I had to pick that ending, because my Shep made a promise to one of his squad-mates that he'd come back to her.

Annihilator27

12y

One does not simply shoot the Catalyst and get away with it.

Jacktheinfinite101

12y

I got something different from that. After hearing that I began to feel bad for the Reapers, they're slaves to the Catalyst, they represent an army of trillions of extinct species being forced to eradicate countless lives and continue building that demonic army. In a way, destroying the reapers is an act of mercy: Shepard: You! Whatever species was used to create you, they're dead! They died thousands of years ago *reaper powers down* Shepard: And now they can rest in peace.

Thang Huynh

This theme gives me PTSD from that horrible ending :(

SaturnFX

12y

Naa, Synthesis was the best imo. Giving life to AIs..sort of been the whole theme of the series. It eludes many because of its complex sci-fi aspect, but game 1: synthesis with AI creatures, Game 2, Shep becomes half/half and teams up with synthetics, along with furthers geth progression (my playthrough), 3rd game. Demonstration of quarian and geth benefits (geth almost rebuild quarians immunity, etc). Synthesis has been the subplot all along. Rejecting that is devolution

ParagonRenegade

11y

... Write like a Human being please :3 That being said, the dialogue in this game is vatly superior to the other two.

sonic the hedgegod

12y

Yeah. It even made sense to me in a "Rogue AI misinterprets parameters" kind of way. Really the only problem with the ending that wasn't just people being too stupid to figure out how it worked was that it just ended, and you didn't see any consequences. Which was fixed by the Extended Cut. Sometimes, we're allowed to be surprised.

IndiaNDS

12y

I also believe it is partly a God portion of this, above the reapers, above life, that "Shepard" is the first organic to meet the catalyst, "Mass Effect energy". in terms of plot, would a God like figure destroy Shepard right there and then? No, a encounter would lead to Shepard setting up the Universe's fate. Yes, the ending is not explained well enough still, but from ME 1 it's explained the Reapers intentions are beyond our understanding. oh well, miss Shepard : (

Linkenski

11y

At least 2 had a great ending to top it all off in terms of climax and epicness. ME3 was a huge carwreck.

Samus7000

11y

You know that's an extremely short time to make a game, right?

II_Hylander

11y

In the future I will tell my children how we has a galaxy fought the corporate reapers only known as EA.

supertyflash

12y

And later on the Shepard AI will decides to attack again. The cycle continues. Yeah, awesome.

ParagonRenegade

12y↑1

Ignoring for a second that the name of the song is never stated in-game, the title is a reference to the Catalyst's first words to you, "Wake Up"

Willikins

12y

I noticed this in game, I like it. :)

sonic the hedgegod

12y

No problem. We're on youtube, it's to be expected. As for the ending, the only real problem I had with it was fixed with the EC. That one problem was enough for me to kill the whole thing; it's simply a matter of show-don't-tell, which is exactly what the EC fixed. The only thing that wasn't foreshadowed was that The Catalyst would look like the little boy. The decisions were made using the energy from the Crucible, it's not like some Deus Ex Machina came and solved everything like people say.

Cadet Oxton

6y↑1

"Chaos... You bring it among yourselves."

wildlizzy112

12y

Yes! I noticed this right away. They added a new part at @0:46 that extends to the end. I wonder why? Sounds nice nonetheless.

NASTAR01

12y

I also agree that Control is renegade. Throughout ME2 the renegade choice was to not completely shut down Illusive Man's ideals. Shepard seemed to be more willing to understand his perspective. I didn't like that Shepard, both paragon and renegade, was against Illusive Man in ME3, but I think it's still something that was perhaps festering in his mind. Having him unable to entertain Illusive Man's perspective even a little bit made the decision to pick Control not as natural, though.

Daniela Espinoza

10y↑1

Crying again ;_; when can i overcome mass effect ending? It's been months!

Juan

Daniela Espinoza

It's been years....

5cyp43r

9y↑3

Same here. I am afraid it is not possible for true fan, to overcome it.

Daniel

9y↑1

Use mods. always works.

Hartzilla2007

12y

and yet the paragon conversation options with the Illusive Man would seem to support destroying the Reapers, as control is considered more power than anyone should have.

josend

12y

why did u dislike it? i actually thought it was the best :)

Jacktheinfinite101

12y

Oh I agree. I mean look at the control epilogue. Blue or not, there is no doubt that is the renegade ending, and Synthesis is the "give in to the Reapers and appease them" ending.

TheSovietPenguin

11y↑4

Wake up, Shepard.

ParagonRenegade

11y

Most of the time, the options were identical, or they railroaded you towards the end of the cnversation faster

ParagonRenegade

12y

Mass Effect 3 was made over 2 1/2 years

ParagonRenegade

11y

I have to disagree across the board: The plotholes in ME3, barring the lol-inducing ending, are no larger than the ones in the previous two How were the character designs bad? The dialogue, especially from Mark Meer, was vastly superior to that of the previous two The ending was a disaster, nobody disagrees. And you're right, it's a good game. That being said, none of the three games are exceptionally good alone, only when shown together are they special.

sonic the hedgegod

12y

And as for The Catalyst, all he did was explain things; he didn't really affect much besides give the Reapers orders. The crucible used his network to distribute his energy. If he acted outside of your actions, and outside of the crucible, without EMS or anything playing into it (which it was, prior to the EC), then it would be complete Deus Ex Machina. But I think that The Crucible/Catalyst was handled well enough to not be completely bad, for me at least.

sonic the hedgegod

12y

sonic the hedgegod

12y

I'm not sure if it counts if it was known since the beginning. And it depends on your performance, so while it greatly affects the whole plot, it can backfire and kill everything. If your EMS didn't play into it, and if it really was completely out-of-nowhere, then I see that it's a complete Deus Ex Machina. But it's not quite. And even then, even Deus Ex Machina isn't always inherently bad. It's not perfect, but I don't think it's anywhere near "bad".

sonic the hedgegod

12y

meredpool2003

12y

SO BE IT the cycle continues

Hanzo "Scorpion" Hasashi

12y

it's space magic, best not too screw around with the space wizard who made the space cuttlefishes that destroy the space people that made space robots who rebel against the space people.

Pesty

12y

What happens when you shoot the "Godchild"? Just last night, I realized you could still use the gun and I thought "Hey, I'm going to shoot the Godchild for no goddamn reason". When I did it, the thing said "SO BE IT" and I was like FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK DASHBOARD! DASHBOARD IT! So I quit before I saw it. I chose the destroy ending lol

Jacktheinfinite101

12y

And that's why I am reluctant to do a renegade playthrough (thought I was tempted when Miranda said she wanted to make me have the same morals as before XD) but I do look for renegade lines I like and use them in my l playtorughs, such as "I'm sorry I'm having trouble hearing you. I'm getting a lot of bullshit on this line". Though when I talk to the Catalyst, I pick the lower dialogue options because I have reservations on his choices.

gidioter

12y

Refusal - fight for free will and die (neutural) Control - neutural and depends on Shepard (Is he renegade or paragon) Synthesis - sacrafise yourself for great advance of the galaxy race , but no idea how long it will keep peace (neutural too) Destroy - sacrafise geth and EDI for independence of the galaxy , also unkown how long peace will last.Shepard survives so he can warn everyone about the confilct between organics and synthetics. Truly paragon.

Bobby3OOO

12y

That's a feature. It was dumb that he ignored it before -- and awesome that it plays out fully now. You'd whine about ice-water being too cold, wouldn't you?

Dajman1594

12y

And what if someone chose Destroy simply because they find Control and Synthesis unethical? That has nothing to do with fearing the unknown. Wiping out the Geth is an atrocity, but killing somebody or fundamentally changing the very being of them are very different things, as is enslavement of an entire race.

Nicholas

12y

Synthesis isnt a bad ending, for me personally its not as good as the other two. we all have our opinions and i see where your coming from

Queenan

12y

The extended cut helped clear some shit up and shit

Fatherjohncrispy

12y

The one reason I'm disagreeing with you is because if you saved the Collector Base you get control; as saving it was obviously renegade, while you get destroy if not, the Paragon choice

Jacktheinfinite101

12y

The irony is you have to destroy the Collector Base to get it.

leonthesleepy

12y

And in 20 short minutes, the Mass Effect series was brought to its knees and executed

KraeganWolf

12y

I disagree, Renegade is and has always been 'Shoot first and ask questions later' also throughout the series the color Red has been associated with Renegade. The control ending is the paragon choice, especially if you listen to Shepard's epilogue. Deal with it.

ParagonRenegade

11y

ME3 had ten times the RPG mechanics of ME2 It's k, I enjoyed this, pretty funny :D

Douchiemcgigglestein

11y

This song plays in the decision chamber and is called "wake up"? The whole indoctrination theory plot thickens...

sonic the hedgegod

12y

How fucked would it be if the Synthesis ending made everyone's Sims alive?

PitchBlackYeti

5y↑2

ME3 has done a lot of things horribly wrong, music was not one of them...

Jacktheinfinite101

12y

I think that ending was made to piss on people who thought Shep was being indoctrinated. I myself did not think s/he was dreaming, but I did believe that the catalyst was a hallucination so when I first played the EC, I was as cynical and spiteful of him as I could be, and when he said "SO BE IT!" I actually thought I was right and I had broken free of the reapers hold..........then everyone died and I was like "Fuck!"

sonic the hedgegod

12y

Sometimes I really wonder if I'm the only one who isn't a moron when it comes to Mass Effect.

ParagonRenegade

11y

I know there are moments where the dialogue wheel should have been there, And I have no clue what you said for the rest of this lol

Khyron56

12y

Were you watching those ancient Cave Johnson recordings again, sir?

Ottifant

11y

Before ME3 came out, Casey Hudson mentioned something about 16 different endings. He did not lie. There are actually 16 endings. It depends on the War Assets. Oh, and stop writing bullshit about EA, it's BioWare's fault.

ParagonRenegade

11y

One mission being rushed doesn't mean the whole game is. That being said, I think you be trollin' meh

IndiaNDS

12y

I don't think the Catalyst's point was to explain, but as mentioned the catalyst explains the cruible adds a new perspective and options to his cycle but the choices however are no different, the synthesis option is what the catalyst wants, to end synthetic and organic war, the destroy is also the same, lets you repeat the cycle several thousands years in the future. The control is controlling the reapers to repeat and harvest when time is ready.

Tristan Werbe

11y

whered you find this?

SupaCaliTomik

12y

You should be all happy that you got what you got. BioWare could have still put the more logical and consistent sounding ending (more logical and consistent if you put the Reaper mythos and background, from the entire game trilogy, into perspective) that had the basic premise neatly outlined in the fanfic 'Mass Effect: Conception' posted on "SpaceBattles 'dot' com" forums..for once I am happy that EA Games executive meddling stopped BioWare from doing it.

chunkyloverv2

11y

Implying the dlc wont suck

ParagonRenegade

11y

The dialogue in ME3 is superior to both preceeding games, and the story in ME2 was awful. Still don't know if I'm being trolled or not

AkkuEnzeru

11y

I understand you when you say how if they did it all, that it would be a much larger game, impossible no but a big feat yes. But the main problem was that they didn't even follow throught most of the big decisions of the past games. They should've put more resources into the project of put back the release date. But becuase they bit off more than they can chew and disbelief into what they advertised shouldn't give them an excuse to away with it,

deadlybox73

12y

Parts of this remind me of the menu music in Arkham city.

Doctor Proteus

12y↑1

To be fair, Bioware had to rush Mass Effect 3 because EA demanded the game be completed from scratch to finish in only 11 month's. We only even got what we did because they mashed the Squad Assault Multiplayer game they were also working on into it to save time and give ME3 a bunch of resources to work with right away. EA in charge of being unreasonable.

Jacktheinfinite101

12y

Oh lol. It's funny, despite being colored red, I don't associate Destroy with Renegade. I'm mostly paragon in my files but the control ending seems totally Renegade if you listen to the Epilogue and destroying the reapers fits with almost everything Paragon Shep fights for outside of the loss of EDI and the Geth.

D4K44R1

12y

you can rebuild the geth? they're down but not out.

Conrad Verner

12y

Marauder Shield of course...

Jacktheinfinite101

12y

Fine, enjoy playing god when you shouldn't. My Shep will enjoy living in a galaxy where the Geth are rebuilt by the Quarians and EDI is possible rebuilt and everyone get along not because I'm forcing them to, but because they want to.

ZiggyIsGrape

11y↑3

I find it ironic that this theme is named Wake Up. Atleast when I think about the should-be indoctrination theory :P

Not the coolwhip

12y

I see your point but i still could have had warning that it would fuck the ending up for me :(

ParagonRenegade

11y

Most Valve Games, Halo games and Gears of War Games are made over that time frame. As was The Legend of Zelda: Orcarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Not going to mention almost every F-Zero game, Pikmin, Metal Gear... No, it's the average amount of time

Illusive Man

12y

I ain't afraid of no ghost!

23jakesmith23

12y

People who complain are disgraceful for acting so stubborn and greedy, be thankful for the great game that Bioware has given you, everyone's complaining because the ending didn't happen the way they wanted it to happen. And honestly, if Shepard survived, then the ending would make less sense than this one, he survived Saren's geth, he survived a suicide mission (hint on the suicide part), and then you expect him to survive a fucking reaper invasion??

sonic the hedgegod

12y

Also, I haven't played the Leviathan DLC yet.

MrlspPrt

12y

I make a copy before to choose, but when I reload, the boy isn't there.

sonic the hedgegod

12y

The Extended Cut to me was like.... It's almost like Casey just got drunk and accidentally saved the ending to his porn folder instead of onto the disc, or accidentally burnt it onto a pirated copy of Avatar instead of Mass Effect 3. That must have been what happened to the vanilla release. Because the EC just felt like...Well, the ending. That wasn't on there in the first place for some reason.

Jacktheinfinite101

12y

She died? What happened?

jackmarston927

12y

I don't really know why so many people hate on the Catalyst. His only real purpose is to explain the choices to Shepard. Sure his explanation for the reapers is strange but all that really matters is that the reapers are killing everyone and you have to stop them. I mean you're not supposed to sympathize with the reapers anyway because they're the bad guys.

Load More Comments...

More Comments

just now