Sonic Soundtrack

Did I strike a nerve or something? Sorry if I don't go looking for music the same way you do. If you wanna talk real irony, some guy with a guitar as his avatar is bitching at me about rap.

 

My point was that you were blatantly applying a double standard. You didn't like some music and you blame the methods used to create it, then you praise another artist who used the same methods.

You could have asked if anyone knew of similar music instead of declaring it as an example of what rap should be without considering that other examples exist. For instance the Roots have been around for over two decades and they meet that description, and they've influenced plenty of others. And I don't see what my avatar has to do with this. I like music with guitars, but it's not the only music I like, and I don't view other music as inferior just because of the tools someone used while making it.

Getting back to Sonic music, Red Hot Skull is one of my favorites from SA1. It combines guitars with sampling.

 

Whoever's behind the Ace Attorney series' soundtrack should try their hand at doing a sonic game's sound track.

... Though, I'm not sure if the world could deal with such epicness all things considering.

 

Sonic music should always sound fun, to be very vague. Even darker sounding songs should have that bouncy mood to it. An example is Scrap Brain Zone.



It starts off as sort of tough, and then there's a bass part with the a drum break and then it goes into this weird sort of harmony about 40 seconds in. It's that strange, fun change in the song and then it starts over again.

Another attempt to explain this fun sound is to think of an arcade game, particularly run 'n' guns, fighting games, and other fast paced action titles. Sonic's gameplay, while having a strong basis in platforming (it used to, anyway), is certainly quick, especially if you know what you're doing. I believe that because of this fast pace that songs should also be driven by a strong melody.



A bias of mine is that synths fit Sonic really well. Maybe have one or two real instruments here and there so there's more variety. I do like Sonic Unleashed's soundtrack though, and so far what I've heard from Sonic Colors is pretty good. An experiment I would like to try is to take an upbeat big band song and then re-imagine the song with the synthy stuff of Sonic games and the like, as I think that would also make a strong, pumping arcade sort of sound. As far as what the synth stuff could sound like, maybe something like this?



The sound effects should be equally loud and titillating to match the music, too. Make the music and sound effects to where people just can't sit still when playing the game. That's about it. I wish I was better at describing this.

Edit: Oh and I forgot, maybe a final zone or act could sound like this! Unlike Jun Senoue rock, rock 'n' roll done right!

 

Where did I ever say that there is absolutely no rap outside of SA that isn't good? Nowhere, right. Also, sampling a rap song doesn't make it rap. In that sense, putting salt on french fries makes them salt. And the avatar bit was just a joke. Lighten up a little.

On top of that, I'm just a big fan of sampling in general if it's done right.

Here's a nice example.

 

It was the way you framed the statement that seemed to imply it. I guess I went a little too far in my response, but the problem's still there. I don't want to make it so I'm blaming you personally for it, but a lot of people express similar opinions when talking about hip hop as a genre. They're fine with things like sampling and offensive lyrics in other genres, but if they talk about rap, the standards change.

In your post, you complimented the rap in the game by comparing it in negative terms. Rap seems to be the only genre where it's 'okay' to do this. I can't imagine anyone saying something like "Crush 40 is an example of how rock can sound good without sex and drugs."

I didn't say it did, I was just pointing out that hip hop was a major component of that sound.

Sorry if I came off as accusatory, as it's not about you personally but a wider issue with implications beyond just music. I won't go into them here since it would completely derail the conversation. If you're interested in talking about it you can send me a PM, and if not that's fine too, I just wanted to clarify some things.

 

I always thought that Classic Sonic music generally revolved around the electronic genre and how evolved from the eighties.

The first two Sonic games sounda lot like mid-to-late 80's/early 90's pop music among the likes of OMD or Fine Young Cannibals. The drums have that gated-reverb sound that is characteristic of that era.

The soundtracks Sonic CD (JP) and Sonic 3 sound like the composers finally crossed over from the 80's-ish upbeat synth pop to the europop/house genre that dominated the 90's. Sonic 3's percussion has a resemblance to the drum machine that owes its late success to the house genre: the Roland TR-909. Even the use of samples (very characteristic of techno/house) of Michael Jackson's voice for some of Sonic 3's soundtrack makes it more comparable to the genre. Sonic Adventure actually did a great job of creating a fusion of house/techno and rock with memorable sounds of Speed Highway, Twinkle Park, and Windy Valley. They didn't overdo it with rock music and made a great fusion of the two genres.

Rap can sound good if it's properly mixed in with the house genre. Methinks that it can possibly be done right with Rusty Ruin's tracks on Saturn version of Sonic 3D. It sounded awful when they attempted to mixed rap with Sonic Adventure 1's buttrock music. They really over did it with rap by going for a "gangsta" feel in Sonic Adventure 2.

I really don't like the direction they took with Sonic 06 and Unleashed's orchestrated soundtracks. Don't even mention Sonic Rush. Rock or orchestrated music should not be in a Sonic game. I really missed hearing the poppy, upbeat sounds that characterized the classics and I'm glad that Sega went back to synth-driven music for Sonic 4...even if some of the used synth leads sound very out of place.

 

Ah don't worry about it, man. My favorite genre is electronica, and when ever I tell someone that, their first reaction is to mock me by going "unce unce unce unce" because they're close minded idiots. I'll send you a PM.

 

Wow, you just nailed my thoughts for this topic.

I always thought the electronic genre is the way to go when it comes to Sonic games especially after playing SCD and S3. It could be because my favourite type of music is just that. The rock and orchestra tracks for the recent games are good but not great in my opinion.

 

Saying your favorite genre is "Electronica" is a pretty broad statement. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of wildly different genres under the "electronica" umbrella. Aside from the well known techno and its spinoffs, there's house, Drum & Bass, the various versions of dub, glitch, trip-hop, eurodance, etc.

 

Most of the electronica songs I've heard, I've liked. I could care less about what subgenre it is. Then again I don't really go looking for music that often. The most recent electronica album I downloaded was the Tetrisphere soundtrack, which as a whole is parts electronica and parts ambiance.

Generally though, I don't like the songs that have the deep, overbearing bass. AKA, Unce unce.

 

You mean hardstyle? Yeah, I think that kind of music sucks, too. The problem with it is that it's really formulaic, and relies on musical elements that are some of the most unlikeably annoying on the planet.

 

Personally, I think the only Sonic soundtrack that I've listened to and nearly completely hated was Heroes'. They really tried too hard to bring back the classic games' style, and it ended up being really bad techno-ish music on the whole as a result. Which seems to just be what happens when they try too hard to make the music sound like the Genesis-era games', as seems to be the case with Sonic 4.

Other than that, I love just about all the Sonic games' music, from the Genesis/Game Gear's catchy chiptunes, to Sonic CD JP's late-80s-influenced techno-y, hip-hoppy soundtrack, to the Dreamcast games' mixture of techno-y stuff, jazz and rock (yes, I like Senoue's work in Adventure/Adventure 2, deal with it), to the later emphasis on jazz and techno over rock (think parts of '06, and Unleashed). As long as the greats like Fumie Kumatani, Kenichi Tokoi, Mariko Nanba, etc. remain on Sega's sound team, I anticipate that I'll continue to love the music well into the series, no matter the quality of the games.

...Well, just so long as they don't take the "Sonic = Speed" line of (il)logic to its conclusion and replace all the music with speedcore. I'd probably ragequit Sonic forever.

 

Jun Senoue, Fumie Kumatani and Hideaki Kobayashi or GTFO.

 

Thats true for Sonic CD definitely, however I disagree about Sonic 3. Sonic 3's soundtrack, save ice cap which would fit your description, feels like it was influenced primarily by late 80s\90s hip hop\pop with 70s funk syncopation. The swung beats, hits, sound bytes. It was all New Jack Swing.





There's also a bit of James Brown, Heatwave, etc. What do they all have in common? Michael Jackson influences lol.

 

The Music I found basically sums up what my ideas of what Sonic Tracks should sound like.






You could hear more on this TeeZords YouTube Channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/teezord#p/u/3/4gdh5FEWg6o

I prefer this kind of music than any other music that Sega has gievn us. (Unleashed is good though.)
The Solos played by this guy is amazing, and I would definitely hire him if I were SEGA.

I reallly hate the vocals though. Especially Crush 40. They ruin Sonic's image.

 

Knuckles levels were fun but the music made it better. I love the direction that Sega is heading though toward music. Its nice to hear some orchestrated music that can both be exhilarating and calming. What I do miss is the music that is representative of the different characters. It was more of a personal connection made with the characters. In a way I began to understand the characters more after hearing their songs that revealed their personality.

 

sonic games need more Richard Jacques

That is all

(seriously, I could play Saturn/pc's version of Gene Gadget acts 1 and 2 all day and night on repeat and would STILL enjoy the fuck out of it)

 

^ This, although Kenichi Tokoi, Tomoya Ohtani and Tomonori Sawada should be included.

 

<!--quoteo(post=533511:date=Nov 26 2010, 06:38 AM:name=::CMG (UTOPIA):--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (::CMG (UTOPIA):: @ Nov 26 2010, 06:38 AM) </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->sonic games need more Richard Jacques

That is all

(seriously, I could play Saturn/pc's version of Gene Gadget acts 1 and 2 all day and night on repeat and would STILL enjoy the fuck out of it)[/QUOTE]

RJ nowadays is more just meh. See how Free Riders was filled with ridiculous vocals (SHAKE IT SHAKE IT SHAKE IT BABEH), which was assumed to be bringing up some Sonic R but kinda went wrong and totally ruined the better parts built up by other instruments.
Man, I do miss him around the Sonic 3D days. He's much better at making purely instrumental songs. (Rusty Ruin > Regal Ruins)