[Shadow Hog]

Sonic 3D Blast on the Saturn ran the gamut as far as genres go. Jazz, Orchestral, Techno, Christmassy, New Age... and all of it just kinda worked. Later games like the Adventure games or Unleashed similarly had varied genres, and their soundtracks are better off for it. Proves that the series could work with almost anything. So, I'll probably be okay with whatever the series goes with for Lost World, really.

[Machenstein]

Music in Sonic games should always vary depending on the level themes. Ice levels should have Christmas-y music, desert levels should have either Egyptian or wild west music, ruins should have tribal music, and so on. The Genesis Sonic games did what they could to make the music accommodate each zone theme despite working with such a limited sound chip. It's kinda strange Sonic CD didn't so that for either region, except for Tidal Tempest JP if you prefer ambient music for water ruins.

This post has been edited by Machenstein: 31 May 2013 - 04:57 PM

[Samurai Echidna]

Should Crush 40 make any vocal tracks for Lost World? ... Maybe. Depends on how serious the game wants to take itself.

Don't get me wrong, I love Crush 40. From Adventure to Sonic Heroes, especially with the Sonic Heroes theme song, they knew how Sonic vocal music should sound. They were the definition of it! However, it's one thing to make SONIC music, and another thing to make your OWN music.
After the Shadow game, I believe Crush 40 said they wanted to take their music in more of a serious direction. A direction so serious, it just wouldn't fit right for Sonic anymore. Thankfully, that's not the case, but Crush 40 clearly wasn't making the same kind of music we might remember them for.
Their version of His World was just too dark and heavy even for that game. Might be why they were more fitting making a cover of "All Hail Shadow" instead.
Their music fit the atmosphere of Black Knight, but it was kind of a one-off title anyways, so it was practically like giving them a throw-away roll anyways (if that makes sense).
I liked their cover of Un-gravitify, but it really didn't get me in the energetic mood that Sonic Riders is suppose to put me in.
Other than being a little better organizing in song progression, their cover of Free was almost the same as the original. You'd have to be paying attention to notice their changes.
Reach for the Stars, with its autotune and everything, fit the atmosphere of Colors perfectly. I honestly could never see Crush 40 making anything similar to music like that on their own at this point. I welcome a cover of it, but I know it just won't have the same feel to it.

There are other examples of Crush 40's covers, but I think I made my point. Please don't think I'm some guy who hates covers of songs. I'm almost 30 and I've been listening to covers and song sampling for decades now. At this point, you can call it picky, but I prefer when covers/samples really go out of their way to outdo themselves.

Overall, I think Crush 40 is losing their identity. They haven't gone full dark and heavy with their music, like the pieces they made for the Shadow game, but it's hard to tell what they want to do. Do they want to break away and stand on their own as a legitimate rock band? Do they want to just be tied to Sonic forever? With all due respect, if Crush 40 were to make an original track for this game, they'd have to step things up and remember that they are trying to make a song that matches the game, not make a song that matches their style.

[JaredAFX]

Y'all need to respect them classical musics.

As a musician, it's hard not to appreciate orchestration in any video game, and it's much harder to see people dis it. Composing this stuff isn't easy. I think Gusty Garden Galaxy is THE orchestral video game song. Don't get the idea that I think this works for everything, though. Obviously, it doesn't. I think the Genesis games (and the Advance games) and Colors are the defining examples of music in a Sonic game. If an area has rolling green hills (no pun intended) with water and trees, the music's happy and tropical-sounding. A volcano is ablaze with deep, low tones, exciting "set pieces" in the music and agressive instruments. A winter wonderland stays true to its name with Christmas-like music, complete with a (presumably celebrating) city in the background. Meanwhile, over in 3D space, the carnival is alive with funky guitars. The water world has psychedelic synthesis that really shines underwater. The lush world home to nonviolent aliens being turned into an amusement park features nice, joyful strings accompanied with a kick-ass bass line.

I could go on, but I think you get the gist. Sonic's music should be varied. Too much rock or too many Celtic tunes is never the best option, but please, don't take them for granted.

[Shadow Hog]

Speaking of genres the series hasn't tapped a whole lot into: Country music. Closest I can think of is Hill Top Zone, with its harmonica.

It'd need a sufficiently "Dust Hill"-esque stage, however.

[muteKi]

Shakidna, on 31 May 2013 - 01:18 PM, said:

The music should all sound like this:

YES. YES.

This is about as close to how I envision Sonic -- not really punk so much as a sort of alternative street-inspired funk, which I'd say is much more consistent with the music of the series as a whole, not just the modern games (dunno if I've ever mentioned this but there is some real Herbie Hancock shit going on in Sonic 3, especially in Marble Garden).

[Tanks]

I am going to be frank. It is hard for SEGA to fuck up music. I would say yes, if they feel Jun knows what's best, then sure. Heck, Sonic 4 had genuinely well composed music, it was the samples that dragged it down. It really doesn't matter who does it, SEGA has a great track record for great music, especially with sonic and I'd be willing to be on those odds that whatever they go with for Lost World will be great.

[crystallize]

I'd like to hear Crush 40 again, but isn't their music too brutal for Lost World setting? Their tracks for Sonic Heroes were a little too sugarsweet already.

[P3DR0]

I'm probably the only person in the Sonic community who doesn't like Crush 40. I mean, Jun is a ok musician. Not great nor terrible, but my real issue is with that Johnny guy who sings like he is taking a giantic dump while he does it. Cash Cash isn't great either, but it is way less "MOM, I WANNA BE HARDCORE" so it doesn't make it as terrible as Crush 40.




Oh yeah, almost forgot... Orchestral stuff are awesome. I love rock music, really do, but I love orchestras even more. It makes everything sound epic and set the tone so you can feel however you're suposed to feel, I mean just take a look at Assassin's Creed Revelations ending, if they had replaced the orchestral song that were playing in the back for some girl singing some light sad-rock, I'd probably wouldn't have shed a tear in that scene.

I know that Sonic games aren't supose to make you feel anything major, it's a light adventure with cool music, graphics, attitude and whatever and it's nice feeling like a badass in the final boss battle and shit. But the only thing that I really feel when I have Crush 40 in the back is turning the volume down.

This post has been edited by P3DR0: 01 June 2013 - 07:48 AM

[upg]

I want the genre-meshing music of the old days, when they mixed everything together (hip hop, rock, electronic, etc.)

Just some, good music.

[Thousand Pancake]

P3DR0, on 01 June 2013 - 07:35 AM, said:

I'm probably the only person in the Sonic community who doesn't like Crush 40. I mean, Jun is a ok musician. Not great nor terrible, but my real issue is with that Johnny guy who sings like he is taking a giantic dump while he does it. Cash Cash isn't great either, but it is way less "MOM, I WANNA BE HARDCORE" so it doesn't make it as terrible as Crush 40.




Oh yeah, almost forgot... Orchestral stuff are awesome. I love rock music, really do, but I love orchestras even more. It makes everything sound epic and set the tone so you can feel however you're suposed to feel, I mean just take a look at Assassin's Creed Revelations ending, if they had replaced the orchestral song that were playing in the back for some girl singing some light sad-rock, I'd probably wouldn't have shed a tear in that scene.

I know that Sonic games aren't supose to make you feel anything major, it's a light adventure with cool music, graphics, attitude and whatever and it's nice feeling like a badass in the final boss battle and shit. But the only thing that I really feel when I have Crush 40 in the back is turning the volume down.

My beef with a lot of orchestral music in video games is that I feel like it's just accompanying the action and environment rather than complementing it. It's a very lazy, "safe" practice that seems to be used far too often in the industry these days, at least for AAA games. Even if the orchestral music was good, I personally still wouldn't like it in a lot of games. I want to have a relaxing, fun time with most of my video games, not be told to feel like I'm on an epic adventure. It's why I hated the final boss music in Unleashed and Colors. The mood it created was so serious and detached from the rest of the game that I felt more annoyed than pumped.

[TheInvisibleSun]

Machenstein, on 31 May 2013 - 04:57 PM, said:

Music in Sonic games should always vary depending on the level themes. Ice levels should have Christmas-y music, desert levels should have either Egyptian or wild west music, ruins should have tribal music, and so on. The Genesis Sonic games did what they could to make the music accommodate each zone theme despite working with such a limited sound chip. It's kinda strange Sonic CD didn't so that for either region, except for Tidal Tempest JP if you prefer ambient music for water ruins.

Levels in Sonic can't be generalized into genres like that though; it's all context sensitive. I probably would have been rather disappointed if Ice Cap (MD/GEN) had Christmas-y music. The music in Ice Cap made me further understand that I was in a cold, dangerous, icy cave/mountain. Alternatively, the music of Ice Mountain and Ice Paradise (Advance and Advance 2), fit their respective environments, and really wouldn't have fit well if it had the same type of track that Ice Cap had (though they are both 'Ice' stages). Twinkle Snow (Adv3), Diamond Dust (3D Blast) and the outdoor areas of the SA Ice Cap all appropriately evoked some sort of winter/snowy adventure.

Sonic music should always serve to either describe whats currently going on, or the kind of specific environment around the player. That being said, there were times where Crush 40 songs 'fit' as main game themes, but I still maintain that any Sonic music with a lead singing doesn't really belong (the ones that did sort of 'fit', are the exceptions not the rule). This certainly spoiled some of the songs in Secret Rings for me. The Palace That was Found (Evil Foundry) would have been excellent without the narmful "WHO'S GONNA ROCK THE PLACE?!?!" littered throughout.

[Chimera]

Thousand Pancake, on 01 June 2013 - 09:39 AM, said:

My beef with a lot of orchestral music in video games is that I feel like it's just accompanying the action and environment rather than complementing it. It's a very lazy, "safe" practice that seems to be used far too often in the industry these days, at least for AAA games. Even if the orchestral music was good, I personally still wouldn't like it in a lot of games. I want to have a relaxing, fun time with most of my video games, not be told to feel like I'm on an epic adventure. It's why I hated the final boss music in Unleashed and Colors. The mood it created was so serious and detached from the rest of the game that I felt more annoyed than pumped.

What I'm taking away from this is that you don't like to get immersed in games.

[Master Emerald]

The problem I have with Cash Cash is the damn autotune. It just ruins the voices of the singers...

Of course it CAN fit in some specific contexts but they use it like if it was some requirement to make the lyrics sound more interesting or something.

[Wolf Rogers]

As long as they keep it up Generations style, Jun has shown he can handle pretty much all of the styles well if given enough backing, Sky Sanctuary Zone is a perfect blend of Orchestral and Rock elements, I even liked the Ska sound adapted to many of the older tracks, it felt fitting and yet modern at the time. Did Jun also do the Drum & Bass stuff for Stardust Speedway or was that Cash Cash?