Master Emerald, on 29 May 2012 - 04:00 PM, said:
The remix IS playing on top of the original. That's why the bass seems doubled.
Well, shit. That's... lazy.
SpeedStarTMQ, on 29 May 2012 - 06:31 PM, said:
Wow, I'm the only person who likes the Sonic 4 music as it is now, boss music included. I wouldn't say no to an update, but I don't give a shit that in its current state it's synthy and is sometimes short- it sounds like the classics and it's not something I'd have on my iPod anyway. Jun's obviously told what direction to go in- he makes the music happen. He's done some amazing stuff with past games, so I would imagine limitations are because he's given a standard and asked to do it that way.
Not that I'm trying to defend him or anything, I think the Sonic 4 music is decent as a whole- it changed in Episode II and became less predictable, but also got a lot more funkier and used a closer sound font to the originals.
Some of the remixes above I'm digging, some.. errr, not so much. I love the Oil Desert remix, but that Sylvania Castle one- definitely not. I'm sure I also posted that Olympics Mix a week or so ago- it's exactly like what we should have had to begin with though I am currently happy as I've said. The problem that people have with Sonic 4 is that it doesn't try to emulate actual music, it's trying to emulate well used MegaDrive sound fonts and sounds stereotypically associated with that system, rather than trying to emulate real music with that same limitation. We had Sonic 3 & Knuckles use awesome drum beats and throw in loads of Michael Jackson style grooves and digitized "OWWW"s and "C'MON!"s, whereas Sonic 4 is trying to sound like a tribute to the soundfont used in Sonic 1 & 2. It just about gets away with it based on what Sonic 4 is trying to achieve, but with universally mixed results.
I can see where the disappointment lies, but meh.
I'd like to have it on my nonexistent iPod, but being tried-and-true average fare prevents that. Or would.
He's composing the same way he always has -- half finished pop songs. I've noticed since Heroes, and later when replaying SA2 that most of his songs have always followed the same formula -- four-beat patterns; sets of four chords, one chord per pattern, going up or down the scale; repeat these chords a few times then whip up a "bridge" for variety and loop the whole thing as needed. Whip up some melody on top that loosely follows the same notes as the chords themselves.
The rare times that he tried something different (I'm thinking Metal Harbor and Green Forest-- okay, "different" for the Sonic series) wound up becoming the "awesome sound" that everyone equates with him.
Naturally using his tried-and-true formula for what I consider standard fare when he's got song length limitations to consider makes things even more noticeable and flaky than before.
Listening to Metal Harbor and Pyramid Cave, there's still a pop-song vibe that's very much there, but christ is there a difference even going from one pattern to the next. Personally I dig Green Harbor because it's an all-out punk performance from pop-happy Jun - even though it still carries the flow of a pop song, and takes obvious influence from the Tony Hawk-enamored times. It's different enough among SA2's tracks to stand out, though obviously good or bad depending on preferences.
Hahaha, what'dya know. Skimming through his experimental rock/techno hybrids (Boss themes, Final Rush, Shadow/Eggman/Tails' stages) are where I notice Jun's normal operational procedures. Back in the day I thought they were cool but it's rather apparent they just handed off this stuff to Jun as they didn't have a go-to guy for electronic music like they do now with Lee Brotherton/Cash Cash/etc.
...I know, I know; I just mean that they're clearly in their element as electronic musicians just as Jun Senoue, Kenichi Tokoi, and Fumie Kumatani are clearly at their best when working on rock, jazz, and... whatever Kumatani does as a jack-of-all-trades.
Edit: Sorry, I didn't realize how off-topic that was.
This post has been edited by Ch1pper: 29 May 2012 - 08:58 PM
As a result, it's hard to really hear anything else. It all sounds so soft in comparison. If the bass were fixed I guess it'd be fine. I certainly didn't notice that remix nearly as much as the original, which is a good thing. Although the remixed instruments chosen sound very similar to the original anyway, almost to the point that I wondered if the remix was playing on top of the original.