Stardust Speedway US version especially sucks compared to the U.S. Version. I still can't tell the Good and Bad Futures apart. Cash Cash did give it life though. Even to this day I can't stand Acts that don't share a general melodic theme. Jun's work was piecemeal in Sonic 4. In Sonic CD (US) it was just a miss-mashed soup. The JP tracks were 100% cohesive in levels. The only other series to do this was Sonic Advance 1,2, 3, and the first Sonic Rush. Sonic and the Deadly Six came close. I'm probably just a music snob and believe all music has its place, but composition ideas should not mingle with radically different ideas. I'm all about variations on the same idea. How can we have multiple examples of 4 variations on a single theme in Sonic CD and Sonic Advance and then have Jun turn around and make 6 unique themes for Splash Hill and Sylvania Castle??? Pick an idea and stick with it and use the rest for other things!
Interestingly, Lava Reef demonstrates a way that a shift in composition can intentionally, completely change the tone of the atmosphere when necessary. Also, you both forgot about Sonic 3D Blast, and Sonic 3D; Flickies Island :v:/>
Considering that in Sonic 3, the Act 2 themes are literally just the Act 1 themes with one audio channel muted. />
I didn't hear the Japanese version until I was an adult, which is unfortunate because I enjoy the Japanese version considerably more. I don't quite get why some people act like the U.S. version was a lot more atmospheric. Take Tidal Tempest for example. The atmosphere of the Japanese version is absolutely wonderful, all while the U.S. version of that song kind of sucks with annoying vocals and a more messy composition overall. While the Stardust Speedway songs from the U.S. version were some of the strongest songs from the U.S. soundtrack, I feel the Japanese versions of those and the Cash Cash remixes were considerably better than what we got. Really would've loved to hear the original Japanese version when I initially played the game as a kid. It would've improved the hell out of my original perception of the game.
I was actually meaning post Genesis/Mega Drive era. I skipped Sonic 3 naturally because it was the first to do this and no it (almost) well. Those "muted" channels only refer to Carnival Night (which I swear that Act 2 has a slightly different bass line for like a second), Ice Cap, and Launch Base. Who ever composed that garbage was obviously not with it. Three zone fell out of sync with the rest of the game. Different drums, different voices.....like it was a different game. Especially when taking the S&K levels into account. Like, you are seriously going to sample JAM and get away with it???
In Re: to the questions for the 2011 edition. I imagine just from how the game is put together that the entirety of those were reverse engineered from the releases we already have and they had no code or sourcefiles. The the audio they have on there was likely ripped from CDs and fixed up the best they could. Etc. If they had access to source stuff from Sega, I do not imagine the opening and closing cinematics would be frameblended, and worse, obviously recompressed, like they are. They're like that because that's the way they were on the Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Gems and that's probably what 2011 sourced from. Whoever did MC/Gems had no idea what they were doing with video, unfortunately, and slowing down the ending in 2011 made it look even worse.