Fan-made bro. But that does bring up something, when is the Official OST coming out? Ashram, can we expect an Itunes rip from ya?
Of course I know they're fanmade, it Says REMIX. (the fact I didn't post his Sylvania Castle is that he used a midi from VGMusic to overlap, and it was all wrong, so it sounded bad!). I was just commenting WHY DID JUN HAD TO GO WITH SYNTHS AGAIN. Compare to any of his Songs on any other Sonic game... And how this remixes sound better, and are LONGER: (ok the original had some more interesting instrumentations but this is longer, so, less boring).
I've said this before, But basically its the limitations put on him + the lack of real experence with the classic games that makes him a bad choice for the music here. Why he repeated the mistake? I guess its SEGA's inputing for consistancy so he couldn't change what he had started. The guy can do better, Hell take the SHZ remix for Mario & Sonic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwDtIW9cugw Sure He was still using the Sonic 4 base, but this sounds a whole lot fucking better then what we got in Sonic 4. Damn SEGA, just let the chains go and let him work with what he wants! we would hear improvments then.
No thank you. His Episode 2 "remixes" aren't even that great to be honest. Seriously, listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjnUfoGME2A eughh
I'mma hitch a ride on Lanzer's wagon. In that Olympic remix, the fact that Senoue ramped up the background with real guitars and bass makes the S4 synths stand out even more jarringly than they do in S4 itself. Had he redone the main melodies with his standard guitar flare ala SA/2/Heroes, that Olympic version wouldn't sound so... half-assed. Really, it's like he took these night and day variants and just mashed them together. Yuck. Also, if he does the volume leveling for his own tracks then he's really bad at it. Maybe he does a first pass then someone else compresses it all over. I noticed the same thing in Generations' Modern GHZ -- the main melodies in both cases just blend in indistinguishably with the background instruments. The only reason they seem to stand out at all is simply because we already know and can recognize the melodies in the first place. I'm not saying they should be compressed to Adventure/2 levels, but there's definitely something lacking. I'm just unsure if this has been occurring since the less/un-compressed state of Sonic music started in SA2 Battle's exclusive tracks or is more recent than that. I'm just a lazy amateur; The fact that I'm picking up on the same things that I do as a lazy amateur in official bits is kind of disheartening. I thought people with real jobs did things professionally! :specialed: Corneliab - Eeuugh. There's messing around and just applying soundfonts for fun, and then there's posting the results for all to hear before applying the proper technical know-how. The sad thing is that I barely know any technical know-how myself. I'm just aware of it. :v:
I don't know... aside from how stupidly loud the bass is, I'm really digging what he did to Oil Desert Act 2. At the very least, how he reorganized the song's progression to make it longer makes it work better, IMO. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuccKWtobmk But once more, I blame that more on Jun Senoue apparently phoning most of the soundtrack in. That abortion of a boss music is more than enough to show that.
There's some stupid after-effect in one of the bass lines. They've likely got two bass sounds, at the same octave, playing the same line. That's why it sounds louder/doubled-up. I could swear I'm hearing a goddamn harp plucking along with what sounds offhandedly like a slap bass (#37) and... either a synth bass (#39/40) or wood/pluck bass (#33/34/35). At least, going from memory of the General MIDI list. The thing is that, especially with programs nowadays, every instrument likely has some kind of preset of reverb/echo/bass/treble effects (assuming that as GM it's not just mono), that should be easily editable, that don't really get noticed until things like the effects of the two basslines occur. Obviously it still wasn't noticed. As a result, it's hard to really hear anything else. It all sounds so soft in comparison. If the bass were fixed I guess it'd be fine. I certainly didn't notice that remix nearly as much as the original, which is a good thing. Although the remixed instruments chosen sound very similar to the original anyway, almost to the point that I wondered if the remix was playing on top of the original. Basically, I approve of the arrangement, at any rate.
The Steam registry entry has been updated, the Beta Version ID was changed from version 12 to version 13:
The remix IS playing on top of the original. That's why the bass seems doubled. Also, ezo! It was updated today!
Wow, I'm the only person who likes the Sonic 4 music as it is now, boss music included. I wouldn't say no to an update, but I don't give a shit that in its current state it's synthy and is sometimes short- it sounds like the classics and it's not something I'd have on my iPod anyway. Jun's obviously told what direction to go in- he makes the music happen. He's done some amazing stuff with past games, so I would imagine limitations are because he's given a standard and asked to do it that way. Not that I'm trying to defend him or anything, I think the Sonic 4 music is decent as a whole- it changed in Episode II and became less predictable, but also got a lot more funkier and used a closer sound font to the originals. Some of the remixes above I'm digging, some.. errr, not so much. I love the Oil Desert remix, but that Sylvania Castle one- definitely not. I'm sure I also posted that Olympics Mix a week or so ago- it's exactly like what we should have had to begin with though I am currently happy as I've said. The problem that people have with Sonic 4 is that it doesn't try to emulate actual music, it's trying to emulate well used MegaDrive sound fonts and sounds stereotypically associated with that system, rather than trying to emulate real music with that same limitation. We had Sonic 3 & Knuckles use awesome drum beats and throw in loads of Michael Jackson style grooves and digitized "OWWW"s and "C'MON!"s, whereas Sonic 4 is trying to sound like a tribute to the soundfont used in Sonic 1 & 2. It just about gets away with it based on what Sonic 4 is trying to achieve, but with universally mixed results. I can see where the disappointment lies, but meh.
Haha, I even prefer Episode 1 "meow" styled music to those "C'MON!"s and such in Sonic 3. The only Sonic 3 music I like that has that style is Ice Cap (but I would like it alot more if it didn't have the digitized voices).
Well, shit. That's... lazy. I'd like to have it on my nonexistent iPod, but being tried-and-true average fare prevents that. Or would. He's composing the same way he always has -- half finished pop songs. I've noticed since Heroes, and later when replaying SA2 that most of his songs have always followed the same formula -- four-beat patterns; sets of four chords, one chord per pattern, going up or down the scale; repeat these chords a few times then whip up a "bridge" for variety and loop the whole thing as needed. Whip up some melody on top that loosely follows the same notes as the chords themselves. The rare times that he tried something different (I'm thinking Metal Harbor and Green Forest-- okay, "different" for the Sonic series) wound up becoming the "awesome sound" that everyone equates with him. Naturally using his tried-and-true formula for what I consider standard fare when he's got song length limitations to consider makes things even more noticeable and flaky than before. Listening to Metal Harbor and Pyramid Cave, there's still a pop-song vibe that's very much there, but christ is there a difference even going from one pattern to the next. Personally I dig Green Harbor because it's an all-out punk performance from pop-happy Jun - even though it still carries the flow of a pop song, and takes obvious influence from the Tony Hawk-enamored times. It's different enough among SA2's tracks to stand out, though obviously good or bad depending on preferences. Hahaha, what'dya know. Skimming through his experimental rock/techno hybrids (Boss themes, Final Rush, Shadow/Eggman/Tails' stages) are where I notice Jun's normal operational procedures. Back in the day I thought they were cool but it's rather apparent they just handed off this stuff to Jun as they didn't have a go-to guy for electronic music like they do now with Lee Brotherton/Cash Cash/etc. ...I know, I know; I just mean that they're clearly in their element as electronic musicians just as Jun Senoue, Kenichi Tokoi, and Fumie Kumatani are clearly at their best when working on rock, jazz, and... whatever Kumatani does as a jack-of-all-trades. Edit: Sorry, I didn't realize how off-topic that was.
Taking midis and assigning instruments is just as stupid as a palette swap. Worse actually, considering many of the midis have hilariously bad mistranscriptions. It takes absolutely no skill. No offense, but some of them are cringeworthy. And if you're going to go to all that trouble, why not just outright compose something that fits better and is less of a compositional travesty in the first place? It's not like S4E2 is going to win any oscars. Oh wait, all some people can do -is- take midis and assign instruments. I forgot. Nevermind, I'll just be a little grinch over there in the corner by myself.
I really think the problem with this damn awful music is that Jun is burnt out of ideas and he could do with working with people for some fresh inspiration. Having a sole composer for all the Sonic games is just not good for the series.
>all the Sonic games >it's just Sonic 4 and its episodes (including Metal here) that only has one composer Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors and Generations had entire sound teams, fyi. In fact afaik the Sonic 4 "saga" is the only series of Sonic games that have ever been composed by a single artist rather than as part of a group effort. But yeah, a team effort almost always produces a better result than a single artist, no matter what series or medium you're dealing with. Some composers are good/versatile enough to do entire game OSTs or work on an entire series of games' music by themselves, but imo Jun is best when working with others.
Hmm, I agree. I am not sure why they leave it to Jun. I do really respect him and his work, and I am a huge fan of the Sonic rock style that he contributed to heavily (which seems to have disappeared largely with the newer games) but he's at his element there. He can do retro sounding music but he's only working from one perspective, and I think he needs to work with other artists to show him how they operate and give him a bit of inspiration. Working with this sound of music seems to be totally new to Jun, and I think he needs a few pointers and someone to keep him on track. In Sonic 4 if he'd have tweaked an instrument or two and lengthened the songs to not loop so quickly he'd have had probably had universally positive results from everyone. Even if you listen to the Olympics Mix, you can see that he likes his guitar and his drums. That's all well and good, but it limits his style. The classic games really changed their style every zone. Even the Advance games did it. Take Music Plant for example, a plethora of different instruments and changes from the norm. It's not synthy, it's not techno, it's not rock, it's different. They could do with getting Wave Master in again. Yeah, Jun is technically a member, but he needs a team of a few people to throw in ideas.
