My copy of the soundtrack was shipped today so I'm going to hold off listening to the whole thing until that gets here. But I listened to a few tracks and now im just dying to hear the rest. I loved the Theme Song and Green Hill Zone. Those little intros were pretty awesome as well as the extended ending for the theme. I kind of wished they used that version of the theme for generations but without the plane sounds. There's nothing wrong with the one they have now but I prefer the demo verison. I also listened to Mystic Cave Zone aswell. For that one I prefer the Megadrive version but I still think the demo sounds cool. Im looking forward to the rest though. don't know if I'll be able to restrain myself for a week but I'm hoping I can lol.
So, does anyone know what the deal is with the crazy track order on the Sonic 2 tracks after Metropolis Zone?
The idea that Sonic Team's sound engineers had to recreate Nakamura's music "by ear" seems ludicrous. The demos are obviously sequenced and not performed live... I'd assume he gave the team the MIDI sequencing data to create the YM2612 versions.
I'm not sure about the Scrap Brain Demo... It starts really well, but then it just sounds like a cave for the rest of the song. And it's a bit quiet, too. I expected scrap brain to use more loud, jarring noises, but I suppose then people wouldn't listen to it.
God I wished he remembered the specific guidance he got for each song....or JUST Hidden Palace. I know its purpose changed during the course of development but to have knowledge of the original concept would be amazing! But I wouldn't expect anyone to remember something about a video game 20+ years ago, even if the experience as a whole was a life changer. Yuji knows and won't tell us shit. But then again, would anyone want to toot their horn regarding an unfinished and ultimately cut product?
Just the tapes? Seriously? Although if that's true it's a great testament to the sound team's attention to detail, it just seems a little backward. Musician employed to make music for computer game, musician (assumedly) sequences all the music ON a computer, and then only sends a tape of the final mixdown with the instructions "there you go lads, copy that the best you can"? If I'd been employed to make a soundtrack for a game back in those days, I'd have given the team responsible for converting it every resource that could be of use, not just the tapes. Notation, Cubase files, the whole shebang.
The tracks seem a little strange without the bass I'm used to. But I really like the way Sonic 2's Special Stage and Hidden Palace sound. Labyrinth Zone has also found another way to grow on me as I used to hate everything about it when I was little. Now I love that tune.
..On second thought, I guess it's entirely possible that they were also sent the MIDIs along with the tapes, but I was just told about the tapes. So, sorry for nope-ing you so quickly. =P
I've always loved Labyrinth and Hidden Palace Zone's music, even if Labyrinth did torture me, ruin my childhood and made millions of people around the world get upset that they thought they had a continue on the boss, when all they really had was one life and a shield, but no rings.
Tapes, files, one or the other, or both, this would have been my dream job back then. I absolutely love arranging music. Believe me when I saw this sound team was GOOD. I've heard to many crappy midi copy-cats who ignore wrong notes and wrong beats, so I know this from experience. They literally did the best that could be done at the time, given the tools and other resources they had at the time. EDIT: I just can't get enough of that Hidden Palace. I wish I could animate a scene (surely what was meant to be) for it...as Sonic jumps onto the giant emerald, the song reaches it's climax in the last few seconds....the emeralds appear to be floating around him....they disappear into his body causing a blinding light flash as he's about to turn Super...seconds later...you see him floating....and the song closes out as he flies up the steep as hell ramp to who knows where... This is what I see.
I'm pretty sure the sound team would get sent the sequence files, along with a recording to illustrate what it's supposed to sound like, so they could come up with fitting FM instruments. Also: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2AI6_ftrNI[/youtube] Hmm.
Are you just trying to put this music to Wood Zone? We know the zone is where Mushroom Hill came from. I tend to think of Mushroom Hill as "Wood Zone: Not Boring as Fuck Edition." I know Wood Zone wasn't truly "finished" but I couldn't see where too many more improvements could have been made (in terms of looks, not level layout).
The first disc I'm trying to figure out what model Mega Drive (Genesis) was used. It's obivous that it was cleaned up. It's got the PSG of the typical model 2 with ASIC-based modified YM3438 sound chips intergration with 315-XXXX, but I hear something else that saids model 1 discrete YM2612 chip, could be the artifacts from cleaning up the sound that I'm hearing though or something intentionally added. The second disc was inspiring and thrill to hear. I was suprised how much better the finals were, but how good much of the demos were. The third disc, the last two tracks is the first time I heard any Sonic 06 music... Yeah I never got a chance to play that game.
Hmmm. The artifacts of Ashram's encoded MP3 make it difficult tell by difference of left and right if it came from a hardware device. If you can hear what was panned in the center on a CD using this techinque, you'll see if it came from analog source or not with an analog amp. The Mega Drive (Genesis), usually leaks off to the side (though differently for each model and make) due to the analog sound amp. An emulator is typically has no center in the side channel as it's all digital and only clipping can cause phase differences. Mastering can effect this a little, if poorly done. Edit: I thought about checking the title song in Sonic 1 with the above methad. I can hear a little bit of something that sounds analog at the end. I'm thinking it was noisegated and than equliazed with a later model 2. It's obivous they would use one as the hats and cymbals are audiable in the demos, so they probally wanted something that had that in the Genesis and decided to clean it up.
Having finally got back from work and having had time to actually listen to the real recordings = these are awesome. By the way, for anyone like me who was thinking of scrolling back to find the answer as to whether these tunes were used in any old commercials, like the Plasticine Sonic jumping around a crowd in a car at night with Green Hill Zone music playing, or the Sonic 2 adverts, or the Sonic 2 3D advert- no, none of them were used.
