Sonic Soundtrack

While I agree with your points, there are still some common elements to the composition style that makes the Sonic music classic.
First of all, the strong melodies. A strong catchy melody that can get stuck in your head like nothing else. This is what makes a tune memorable almost 20 years later. Also, a strong beat. Even with the variety of styles and different composers, there was a strong beat. Sometimes this would just be a straight up driving rock beat, like CPZ or MZ, or sometimes it would be something a little bit percussive and syncopated, like MHZ and ARZ, with some other percussion thrown in to create a dense percussion section. But regardless, it was always something that motivated you to be Sonic and roll around at crazy speeds.
Also, the songs were quite layered considering the limits of the console. You'd often have your drums, bass playing an interesting groove, melody, melodic fills, some kind of counter melody in the background (sometimes just a simple arpeggio pattern, sometimes more complex), and an accompanying chord pattern that often creates an additional melody of it's own rather than simply playing whole notes to fill in background noise. For examples see the intro to CPZ, MZ, and MHZ.
On top of that, the limitations of the console also meant we had a smaller range of instruments, many of which became distinctive trademarks of the music, such as the drum samples, the various bass sounds, and that distinctive lead sound that was often used. They created a sense of character that was common among all of the Sonic games. Whether it was jazz, or rock, or even Indian, chances are you were going to hear those same instruments in there somewhere.

Even with the variety of the old tunes, and the vague nature of trying to define "classic Sonic" music, there were some common elements in the arrangement of the songs that made it identifiable with Sonic. At the end of the day though, I think the most important thing is just to have catchy tunes, and for me modern Sonic games don't generally have that.

 

Sonic games should sound up-beat and poppy. Songs need to have a clearly defined "melody" to them, almost like they're karaoke versions of songs that have lyrics.

 

I am torn by this. I loved SA2's soundtrack, including all the vocal tracks, however Unleashed's soundtrack was beautiful. I feel that either of those styles would be acceptable to me for the 3D games.

In the 2D games however, I would definately like to hear more S3&K style music.

 

I think Sonic music as a whole is generally just awesome. The classic games had their own various vibes, from sweet and cute, to rock (Flying Battery Zone?), hip hip and electro.

I like all of the theme Songs in all of the Sonic games up to Colours, which I'm not particulary sure on. I like rock and metal music any way, and I'm a fan of bands like Queen (Which Crush 40 often sound a lot like, especially on their album), Magna-Fi, Julien-K, and I've listened to a whole load of other bands featured previously, which are pretty decent, like Bowling For Soup and Zebrahead. Granted, I don't like Akon, but that Sweet Dreams mix was barely ever heard, and I didn't buy the game anyway.

The Rush games have some crazy music, and it seems like an advanced, orgasmic version of Sonic 3's music, with lots of samples and things. The Advance series music was particulary awesome; Leaf Forest Zone, Music Plant, Angel Island Zone and Route 99 are all epic. Sonic Battle was more like the Adventure series, giving us some hard rock, and some real beats to tunes too. If you haven't heard Death Egg Zone and felt a bad-ass vibe from it, then you're dead inside.

My only annoyance is that SEGA seem to keep changing the themes. The character themes from Sonic Adventure's series have been used sometimes, more recently in Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing, but they need to be used more often. Knuckle's theme from Adventure is just Knuckles all over. His Adventure theme 2 is probably more suited to his character now though, at least from a lyrical perspective.

 

*reads thread, notices nothing about orchestral masterpieces*

You're all wrong, Sonic 4 clearly has the music right. If there's no dying animal noises then it's just not Classic Sonic as you imagined it. :v:

EDIT: Oh, wow, that's a new filter.

Anyway, I always figured Sonic CD got the Sonic sound just about perfect. If I had to choose any game after that though, Sonic Adventure was a pretty good modern Sonic sound.

 

Personally, I thought Sonic CD (Sonic Boom Version, whatever one that was, I've confused my self about it over the years- North American, right?) had incredible music. Also, some of the tracks bear some great similarities to music for Sonic Adventure, notably Wacky Workbench Bad, which sounds so much like Final Egg sometimes that it's not even funny.

 

I agree about the bouncy and cheerful music being the most well suited for Sonic. It urges the player to keep playing, at least for me. Unleashed is still bouncy, but it also urges to go fast, which is one of the reasons why I bring some songs with me while going for a round on the treadmill but will not listen to them while driving. Games that have had different styles of music, such as SA2 have a few that I like, but most are hit and miss. I can't say I care for Rush sountrack. It's too repetitive for me.

 

I think the soundtrack should be as broad as the level content in the game.

But if you wanna talk about who should do music for a Sonic game, well....

 

I do like the direction of the music used from Sonic 06 and afterwards. For classic stuff however, don't make it sound like this gay shit:

Meow, meow meow meow meow meowwwwwwwwwww.

 

I wouldn't mind hearing a soundtrack that sounded like this. Sounds like Sonic CD US and beyond.



But yeah, a lot of directions can work fine in a Sonic game. Above all though, it needs to be lively, and preferably diverse. Unleashed did a great job on this, especially on the latter.

 

Thing is, I actually started that and left it playing for the whole 15 minutes, ...and now I was singing the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to it thanks to that damn remix and now that's all I can think of when I hear that, not fighting Eggman, but Will Smith singing, it's been ruined for me before the games even out!

 

Actually yeah both of those songs are awesome. I guess I was saying it weird... by "totally dislike" I didn't mean "dislike every song". I meant "dislike as a whole". Those two songs are great but Secret Rings also has gems like the songs for Evil Foundry (WHO'S GONNA ROCK THE PLACE PLACE PLACE) and Dinosaur Jungle (DINOS, IN THE JUNGLE, WICKED WILD) not to mention that terrible main theme that plays on every result screen, every menu screen, and the final boss fight.

 

That's fucking awesome. I'd nominate him if he threw a bit of electronica in there. Then it'd really sound Sonicy.

 

It's funny, coz I suggested the very same artist a couple of months ago for a Sonic soundtrack, and I got shot down for it "not sounding sonic-y enough". Rock music or not, this guy can make some amazing music to fit any style required. This reminds me of a final zone, probably space themed. Another artist, Jeff Beck, would also be capable. I heard this, and it reminded me of something I'd expect on Ecco the Dolphin, so perfectly fitting for an underwater zone. These artists know how to compose and play music, Senoue hasn't got a fucking clue.

 

If I had to pick a particular style, I'd have to go with the style of Masato Nakamura in the classic MegaDrive age. Something like Mystic Cave or Star Light is still memorable because of how simplistic it is.

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't give love to the Hataya soundtrack for Sonic CD. I think what sells that for me is that Hataya effectively used vocals and sound effects through most of the opus, never drowning out the actual notes but rather utilising them to work in tandem (Collision Chaos Present, Tidal Tempest Present, Stardust Speedway, Metallic Madness Bad Future). For much the same reason, I also like entries from S3&K such as Carnival Night and Launch Base.

As for modern Sonic, Naganuma's soundtrack to Rush (and those tracks from Rush Adventure that emulated his style, like Whisker and Johnny or Machine Labyrinth) captured the feel most properly for me. Again, vocals and sound effects. In comparison, Sonic Adventure 2's vocals, while not insufferable on their own in the OST, became drastically grating in-game: I got lost in Aquatic Mine for a half-hour the first time I played...oh, the horror. Unleashed's move toward a more classic, ambient feel was a good one, although the recent trend to use rock bands for a main theme that has no thematic connection to any of the in-game music is pathetic.

Long story short: the ideal composer list for the next game would contain Masato Nakamura, Naofumi Hataya, Fumie Kumatani, Toyoma Ohtani, Howard Drossin, Hideki Naganuma, and Richard Jacques.

 

I liked all of Knuckles' Music, personally. They're pretty good examples of how rap can sound good without spewing profanity and using actual instruments.

And I agree on the Naganuma bit - Sonic Rush's soundtrack remains my favorite Sonic soundtrack after the American Sonic CD soundtrack.

 

If only they could get the lyrics right. They always sound so dumb...

I like his jazzy-sounding rap theme from the Adventure games, especially Adventure 1..

 

I loved the lyrics to Pumpkin Hill and Aquatic Mine, personally. And yeah, his theme kicks ass. I get chills when it gets to the "Stand up to all the pain and turmoil" part.

 

To be honest I think they should keep the team that has done the music for Unleashed and now doing it for Colors. They seem adaptable and capable of some great songs to different styles, but maybe different vocalist.

 

That's ironic considering Sonic Rush's soundtrack consists mostly of samples instead of "actual instruments." It even samples rap songs. And there's plenty of rap that sounds similar to the songs in SA2, you're just too closed minded to look for it.