Before we begin I just wanna clarify something. When it comes to music production, I’m very green, so for anyone like me, here’s the difference between a composer and an arranger: The composer is the musician that writes original music with instruments or computer programs, hence the “composition”. The arranger is the musician who takes the composer’s composition and interprets it in a new way, basically like a remix. Please keep this in mind as you read what’s below, it’ll come in handy. With that aside, I’d like to shed some light on a few of the composers and arrangers who are involved with Sonic music who I believe are not as recognized as others (along with my favorite songs from each of them). Let’s begin! Mr. Tomoya Ohtani. He’s probably the most well-known Sonic composer that I’m going to mention here, and I’m glad to see that he’s been gaining traction. He’s been the Sonic sound director for the main series since Sonic 06, with the first Sonic game he composed for being the Knuckles stages in SA2. My favorite aspect about his songs in particular is the depth and variation of his music. I don’t know about the rest of you, but if Sonic music had the same feel every game, I’d be pretty tired of it quick. Mr. Ohtani’s compositions are unpredictable each game; you just can’t tell what direction he will take each soundtrack in, which excites me personally. His music could be rock, it could be synth, it could be piano oriented like an anime ost, it could even be orchestrated. He has so much range. Mr. Hideaki Kobayashi. He’s composed and arranged for quite a few Sonic games including Sonic & the Secret Rings, Sonic Advanced 3, Sonic Unleashed, and most notably to many, Sonic Mega Collection. Like Mr. Ohtani, I love his musical range. Mr. Kobayashi is skilled in two really cool areas. Not only is his computer programmed music amazing, but he is very talented with orchestrations too. His computerized music has this very relaxing, jolly, feel. But his orchestrations? They’re bombastic, and just plain out epic in scope! Mr. Naofumi Hataya. He has such a robust history of composing for Sonic & Sega games. I’m pretty sure he’s composed for almost every commonly known Sega franchise there is. Please, I implore you to check out the link to see what he’s composed for; same for the other artists too, they do much more than just Sonic. Back to Sonic, though, he’s composed for Sonic CD (basically all the popular songs in the JP soundtrack like Palmtree Panic, Metallic Madness, Stardust Speedway, and Cosmic Eternity), Sonic Heroes, Sonic Colors, and the Classic Sonic music in Sonic Forces. For that last one though I feel that the problem wasn’t with the compositions, but the arrangement of the compositions. I don’t know, something about the synths in Sonic Forces ost just did not sit right with me. Ms. Fumie Kumatani. She composed for Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Advance 3, and Sonic Unleashed to name a few. However, she left Sega in 2008 but subsequently returned to compose for Sonic Colors. She has this distinct pop/jazz feel to her music that is really catchy. It’s like listening to the score for a spy movie. It’s pretty ironic, though, because she composed the songs for Rouge’s levels and SA2 and some of the Werehog levels for Unleashed (those sound like the long-lost sequel to the Rouge music). Mr. Kenichi Tokoi. He might just be my favorite composer alongside Mr. Ohtani. He composed and arranged for Sonic Jam, basically every mainline Sonic game since Adventure, and the M&S series. His music is this glorious fusion of rock and jazz, sometimes he leans more to one side of the fusion than the other, and it’s awesome. There are quite a few songs of his like Sweet Mountain or Dragon Road that people might think were composed by Mr. Ohtani or Mr. Jun Senoue of Crush 40 fame, but no, they’re the work of Mr. Tokoi. Up and Coming Spotlight Mr. Hidekuni Horita. I wouldn’t call him a rookie as he’s been composing with Sega since 2014, but boy is he underrated. His first foray into the Sonic series was M&S Rio 2016, and then he returned for Team Sonic Racing and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. I have a feeling that the latter is a foreshadowing for the future of Sonic music-wise because Mr. Horita was the Sound Director for it. Only time will tell. His music is very piano-oriented, and it has a very “anime-opening” vibe that I enjoy. I hope to see his name in the credits of more Sonic games in the future. To show how different these musicians arrangements are, below is one of my favorite songs in the M&S series composed and arranged by Mr. Senoue. Three other Sega Sound Team composers arranged Mr. Senoue’s song. Let’s hear them. Mr. Kobayashi Mr. Ohtani Mr. Tokoi Source: Sega Retro So, what do you guys think? Who do you want to see compose for the series in the future? And who do you think is an understated Sonic composer? Feel free to post a song from your favorite composer if you want. Edit: Original plan was to put my favorite songs from each composer under their descriptions in this post, but that's not possible, so I'll link my favorites in the posts below Tomoya Ohtani Favorites Hideaki Kobayashi Favorites Naofumi Hataya Favorites Honorary Mention: Sugar Lane (Sonic Lost World) Fumie Kumatani Favorites Kenichi Tokoi Favorites Hidekuni Horita Favorites
So, a few things. 1: Please don't sextuple post to fit embeds in when ordinary links will do the trick. There's no need for post after post after of this. I don't have the time right now to consolidate all of these links to your opening post, so if I or another mod don't get to it later please just keep that in mind going forward. 2: Creating "games" and ordaining closures of polls before giving answers isn't really what we do here. We're here to talk with information and opinions presented to each other, not to withhold it for artificial reasons like games. Especially when the answers are on our sister wiki. There's no discussion value to encouraging a week worth of "guessing". I will leave this topic open for now in case anyone wants to talk about the composers to any depth, but I'd suggest lurking and reading some recent threads to get an idea of how discussion tends to work here.
Jeez, sorry about that. I initially had all the videos in the topic post, but it wouldn’t let more than 5 send, so I opted to do what I ended up doing instead. Sorry about this too. I thought it would be an engaging thing to do for someone out there, but I guess not. Also, the composer credits for M&S 2014 for specific songs don’t seem to be on Sega Retro, hence why I used that specific song for the poll. Unless there’s someone here who’s really thorough with research, the credits should be hard to find. Thanks, but I’ve known this site for quite a while, that’s part of the reason why I wanted to make a thread different from the (frankly repetitive) norm. However, due to your feedback, this won’t happen again.
It really just boils down to the site regulars wanting to keep things pretty serious and straightforward in here, which I understand. I basically had to re-teach myself how to interact online to get used to things in here lol. However, I will not let it go unsaid- I adore your spunk and spirit!
The spirit is fine, and I'd be happy to bookmark a blog or follow on Twitter. If you find information not on the wiki though, feel free to put it there. That's what it's there for.
Nice thread. Despite loving the music in this series, I've never taken the time to familiarise myself with the composers outside of Jun Senoue and Tomoyo Ohtani, so I'm looking forward to rectifying that with what you've provided.
@Swiftbix I like your informative posts, but I'd prefer it if you guided the topic to an actual point of discussion. Even if it's something basic like "who do you prefer as a composer" or "who do you think is underappreciated". Because at the moment, all you are really doing is putting out some (admittedly interesting) information about Sonic Team and then kind of ending it there. I think that's why people say it would be best to put this stuff on a blog or wiki. You did say to list your favourite composers, but not much to discuss there lol. Not an attempt to backseat moderate, because I'm the last person on the planet to be qualified for that, but just what I would like to see from your posts going forwards.
@Laura I hear what you’re saying. That’s what I’m trying to get at, I should have made it more clear. I think that’s where I’d like this discussion to go to. Thanks for giving me feedback. And please, if you or anyone else on here have any criticisms about my posts, fire at will (or should I say…). It would help tremendously. Thanks, but I’m not into either of those. I will update the wiki though, if I find anything in the future. With all that said, I’m going to delete the poll. And to anyone who would like to, please feel free to discuss who you’d like to see compose for Sonic, who you think is underrated, and a song from that musician so that we can form some opinions. Music is very subjective, so this could get interesting.
Whoever it was who composed Crackers's Electoria. They are a saint. That song has literally changed my life in ways you don't even know (not to mention it's just really well composed imo)
It was Ms. Mariko Nanba of 06 and Unleashed fame who composed that one. Not gonna lie though, I don’t really like it. For me the music of the classic games has this “samey” feel to it.
On one hand I get it, on the other... huh lol? Different strokes for different folks I guess. Just remembered about this though: Btw, if you like Sonic music, go sub to this guy. He's done videos on almost every genesis sonic song under the sun, as well as other great games from the era. Especially fond of his Ristar deconstructions.
The music from Crackers/Chaotix is really good IMO. In fact, the fact that near-final music was in Crackers makes me suspicious that either they had it left over from another project and figured it was too good to be wasted, or they really put emphasis on the music part of the project.
I have merged the multi-posts together. I'd suggest maybe waiting for month or two before starting another thread, please, to try and actually getting a feel for the board. You're beginning to stick out, and not in a good way.
Swiftbix, I think You should really make a blog or even an YouTube channel. Things you are writing are really interesting to read I don't know much about composers or the process of creating music itself, but I feel like the music from Sonic is gradually losing something that made it amazing. When I listen to Sonic Adventure, Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Forces - the latter seems to be rather poor compared to its predecessors. For me, Sonic will always be associated with Rock, electric guitars and stuff - not techno or whatever the Soundtrack in Forces is. Even so, I still enjoyed Unleashed - not only because orchestral music is great, but also because in its own way, it had this "Sonic feeling". Even Colours, while not as good as the others, had some amazing tracks. I can listen to Tropical Resort, Aqua Road or Final Boss theme all day. I guess what speaks through me is that I'm an old fart who grew up on muh Dreamcast in early 2000 and kids today prefer something else. Edit: forgot about Gens and Mania, but I see Gens more like a nostalgia trip, recreating what we heard before, and Mania - while having an amazing soundtrack is made by the fans, who I believe - are trying to recapture Mega Drive/MegaCD feels.
For me, the soundtrack can be whatever it wants to be, as long it's good. I've always loved the Rocky songs since Sonic Adventure, but I think what makes Sonic OST so special is that has so many different style and still manages to be amazing, like since Sonic CD to this day. However, I can see why some people don't like Forces OST that much for example, even though I think it's a fine sountrack, just not good as Sonic Unleashed or Sonic Lost World. Also, I really wish people would appreciate more the work of Kenichi Tokoi and Fumie Kumatani; they did a lot of amazing songs in Sonic Adventure, Secret Rings, Unleashed and Colors for example, but it is always Jun Senoue and Tomoya Ohtani who take the credits. Of course Jun Senoue and Ohtani are amazing composers, but I think the other people from the soundtrack deserve some love as well. It makes me wonder as well why Kumatani and Kenichi are not credited in the Sonic Adventure OST on Spotify. Mostly of the songs are as "SEGA SOUND TEAM, Jun Senoue" or "CRUSH 40" only.
Agreed! To my recollection there was a time when Jun Senoue was basically the only known Sonic composer, but in recent years Mr. Ohtani been getting the traction he deserves to be fair. I wish Fumie Kumatani got more recognition while she was at Sega. Kenichi Tokoi still has a chance though, and I hope his popularity gets to the level of Mr. Senoue and Mr. Ohtani; it should have years ago.
Don't quote me but I think it's just how Sega structures their sound team. Kumatani and co are employed as part of that team, they're not contractors. Thus they get credited...as part of that team. Jun Senoue being the producer means he gets a separate credit. Maybe?
This sounds about right, though I can't speak on how Sega does things either (so please, nobody quote me). But knowing (somewhat) how things tend to work in the music business in general, that wouldn't surprise me. For instance, if I recall correctly, Devante Swing (of Jodeci) got credits for certain tracks in the 90's that turned out to actually have been crafted by Timbaland. Now being that Tim was pretty much a Devonte Swing protégé working at Swing's production company at the time, that's just the way it went ( heck, Timbaland himself would go on to do a similar thing with a producer who came up under him years later). Coming back to Sega, that's not to necessarily say that Kumatani and co. were protégés of Jun Senoue, but if he was the 'big cheese' (producer) of the entire soundtrack, then I imagine that that would indeed explain why either Sega or simply his name gets credited the most; it was basically his project. It's not exactly fair but y'know....business and all that *shrug*.
