[Thousand Pancake]

I noticed that for both of the tornado stages in Sonic Unleashed, they have a much more artificial, synthesized sound than the rest of the soundtrack. In fact, it sounds a lot like the Saturn Custom Sound Processor used in the Sega Saturn. I'm bringing this up because Tornado Scramble from the original Sonic Adventure sounds like it originally composed for the Saturn's sound chip, and then just never updated for the release. But Sonic Unleashed was released in 2008, and they should have long abandoned the Saturn's sound chip by then.

Then again, the game was originally going to be "Sonic Adventure 3" so maybe it isn't so far fetched if it indeed started development right after SA2.

Just interesting.

[The Taxman]

IIRC the saturn sound chip doesn't do any synthesis at all. It's all digital sample based. So what's happening is just the composers going through their library of equipment and sounds and picking what they like.

EDIT: On further inspection, the Saturn Custom Sound Processor (SCSP) can do 8 channels of FM synthesis of a similar standard to their arcade chips & the Mega Drive, but not many games used it. Most games either used samples (Nights, Sonic World, Scorcher) or CD Audio

This post has been edited by The Taxman: 07 February 2011 - 11:48 PM

[Kail]

I'm pretty sure work on Sonic Heroes started right after Sonic Adventure 2 because SEGA was a third party developer by that point and wanted to expand their appeal beyond the Dreamcast fans, which is why they didn't continue the Adventure series. Sonic Unleashed starting out as Sonic Adventure 3 was purely in name only, as any SA3 would be at this point.

[Andlabs]

The Saturn sound chip does contain I believe 4 channels of FM synthesis, however I doubt anyone ever really used it.

A synth is just a synth — there's nothing that makes it a "Saturn synth;" you can recreate synths almost anywhere and can find them easily if they came from a source (such as an existing synth) =P

This post has been edited by Andlabs: 08 February 2011 - 08:50 AM

[E102]

Sorry about what I previously wrote before: I could have sworn I was replying to a different thread.

But anyway, Tornado Scramble in Sonic Adventure was composed and arranged by Masaru Setsumaru (as well as "Fanfare for Dr. Eggman" and "Danger Is Imminent"), and also composed "Welcome to Station Square" (Arranged by Jun Senoue) and "Militant Missionary" (arranged by Kenichi Tokoi). The fact that he is not listed as a music composer in the credits is the most interesting part of all this if you ask me.

-"Missionary" is based off "Fanfare's" compositon, and Welcome to Station Square sounds like it's based off Sonic 3's Data Select.

*It should also be noted that Setsumaru is credited under "Compose & Arrange" [ala NiGHTS into dreams...] for Sonic Jam, where an arrangement of that same tune exists.

This post has been edited by E102: 08 February 2011 - 06:11 PM