Brad Fiedel - The Terminator [Soundtrack Remastered Edition] (1984/2016)

The Terminator: Original Soundtrack is a soundtrack album by Brad Fiedel, composed and performed on synthesizer for the 1984 film The Terminator. Fiedel described the film's music as being about "a mechanical man and his heartbeat". Almost all the music in the film was performed live.

The Terminator theme is played over the opening credits and during certain scenes at varying tempos, including a piano version during the love scene and a slowed-down version when Reese dies. It has been described as having a "deceptively simple melody" line and "haunting synthesizer music". It is in a time signature of 13
16, which came about as Fiedel experimented with the rhythm track on his music equipment, a Prophet-10 and an Oberheim. Originally intending the meter to be something simpler like 7
8, his finger was rushing when he activated the loop; however, Fiedel found that he liked the "herky-jerky" "propulsiveness" of 13
16 and decided to keep it, not even realizing the number of beats because he did not write any notation.

Fiedel created music for when Reese and Connor escape from the police station that would be appropriate for a "heroic moment". Cameron turned down this theme, as he believed it would lose the audience's excitement. "Factory Chase" features an electric violin played by Ross Levinson. The track "Love Scene" is a softer piano-based version of the main theme that was described as "bittersweet".

The soundtrack to the film The Terminator was released in 1984. The first six tracks of the soundtrack make up the Terminator score. The second half is performed by various artists and has been described as synthesizer-based and dance-oriented pop rock. The songs by Tahnee Cain & Tryanglz contain hard rock rhythm guitar. "Pictures of You" has an emphasis on synthesizer and differs from Jay Ferguson's hit songs. "Intimacy" has been described as "latter-day new wave and primitive, early techno".