Marian Schedenig 8,173 Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 1 hour ago, Disco Stu said: This seems like a weird distinction to make. The way I feel is that he wrote the music for the SNES soundchip so of course if there is a such a thing as an "intended score" for a 16-bit videogame like there might be for a film, it would be the music as he realized it for the game. What makes the original samples interesting isn't that it's how the music is "supposed" to sound, but that we get a glimpse under the hood into Kondo's work process. That depends, I suppose. The transition to samples (roughly "from 8 bit to 16 bit sound chips") was a big one and totally changed the way game music was created. It might even be comparable to the switch from analogue to digital recordings of "real" sounds. Anything before samples is basically defined by an algorithm and can be "remastered" by running the same algorithm on modern hardware, possibly with better quality or better options (e.g. stereo panning). (Although, as I mentioned before, especially on the SID, many techniques were based on leveraging hardware flaws, which aren't easy to replicate in emulators, so the original may still sound better, or some effects may be lost in translation). (One trick on the SID consisted of quickly flipping the master channel volume, which on the original chip produced an unintended clicking noise. When done well this could be used to play low quality samples on a channel that didn't even "exist" in the hardware - it basically extended the native 3 synth channels with an additional 4th sampling channel) Once the switch to samples was made, many of the original sound wizards embraced them. After all, they offered entirely new possibilities - new sounds, and also a way to put multiple sounds (e.g. chords) into a single sample. Nevertheless, the early chips (and the available memory at the time) often only allowed for rather low quality samples. So the switch to 16 bit also often meant trading crystal clear synth music for low bitrate/low frequency samples. And often these samples sound worse than I believe they would have if higher frequencies and larger sample values had been available. In these cases, the released music may well have been a compromise between the "original" composition and the available hardware. How much of that applies always depends on the specific project, of course. Cerebral Cortex 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,340 Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 46 minutes ago, Jay said: Lol, Google just recommended this article to me and it perfectly explains the project, none of us would have been confused if it was posted at the start of all this! https://www.polygon.com/2021/2/5/22268601/super-mario-world-soundtrack-restored-remaster-gigaleak Yeah, I saw it in a NintendoLife article, which I considered posting, but I wanted cut out the middleman and use the direct source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 The bit in the article about seeing "fantasy" in a sample name in the source code and them realizing it must be the "fantasia" sample from the Roland system kind of clicked everything into place for me about how this all works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Parker 3,040 Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 As others have said, it's a really cool project, and also shows how sneaky these composers had to be sometimes (re-sampling propietary instrument sounds in some cases), but overall I prefer the original more often than not. The SNES was notorios difficult to write music for, using a pain-in-the-ass programming language that required lots of trial and error...I believe Kondo was still the main programmer of his music until the N64 days, where he strictly focused on the composition and let someone else handle the technical nitty gritty of compiling and implementing the music in the hardware, so it's all but guaranteed he knew the compression of the samples and adjusted accordingly. This probably played a huge part in making all these disparate sound sources sound simpático with each other, and married them using the obscene DSP (reverb/echo) that was baked into the SPC700 soundchip. Interestingly, while Nintendo massively bungled the GBA sound, it actually allowed for better, cleaning sounding samples than that of the SNES'. 6 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said: After all, they offered entirely new possibilities - new sounds, and also a way to put multiple sounds (e.g. chords) into a single sample. Tim Follins was a master of this, using these techniques to really push past boundaries and create music for the systems he worked on that you just don't hear anywhere else. Cerebral Cortex 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oomoog the Ecstatic 314 Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 1:00 - 1:50 Typical Uematsu Beautiful melodies Mmm I really like what they did here with one of my favorite tunes. Although the original is better, they brought the choir from the original track (the beginning) and dropped the melody over it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverTrumpet 638 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Anyone catch that FF VII orchestral concert they streamed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Didn't know about it! Why didn't you mention it beforehand!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverTrumpet 638 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 I forgot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15,495 Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 The Bowser's Fury soundtrack is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 What's the difference between a score and a score? What does the winking face imply? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15,495 Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 Nothing and nothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 Oh. I thought you chose the winking face version for a reason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15,495 Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 I clicked the emoji icon and typed 'thumb' because I didn't feel like visually scanning through them and the winking one is what came up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted February 19, 2021 Share Posted February 19, 2021 huh, interesting. If you type "up" instead of "thumb" they both come up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oomoog the Ecstatic 314 Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oomoog the Ecstatic 314 Posted February 22, 2021 Share Posted February 22, 2021 Getting too obsessed with Uematsu nowadays. Deleted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 On 2/16/2021 at 7:58 PM, SilverTrumpet said: Anyone catch that FF VII orchestral concert they streamed? I checked it out! It was pretty good, but not great. It partly suffered from the same problem the official FF VII Remake Orchestral Arrangement album has, which is taking pieces that were already purely orchestral on the FF VII Remake OST and basically playing them straight-forward with little adaptation - and them all being pieces done in a similar orchestral setting before the Remake existed anyway. But this is so much longer they also do a ton of other selections, some of which are notably different from the OST versions. The funniest one was Stand Up, which has a female vocal on the Remake OST and is sun by a hilarious deep male choir here. That same choir did a good job on One Winged Angel though, and the vocalist for Hollow really put his heart and soul into that! A lot of the arrangements and performance are pretty great, with a notable exception: The brass section frequently struggles and has these awful, shrill sounding renditions throughout the whole set. Big bummer! Everyone else is pretty great thought. Thanks for posting about this, or I might have never known about it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 If anybody here is curious about the music in Fire Emblem Heroes but doesn't want to actually play it, Nintendo made an official video with 100 minutes of score The description has a clickable link to jump to each track Oomoog the Ecstatic 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15,495 Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 One of the catchiest melodies ever written IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellosh 3,387 Posted April 22, 2021 Share Posted April 22, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holko 9,499 Posted April 25, 2021 Share Posted April 25, 2021 Oh man, when out of nowhere you suddenly recall long forgotten pieces from your childhood... and they're just as good or even better than you remember! Kasey Kockroach 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted April 25, 2021 Share Posted April 25, 2021 That reminds me I bought Rayman Legends but haven't played it yet. The demo was great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oomoog the Ecstatic 314 Posted April 27, 2021 Share Posted April 27, 2021 I love the transition Mitsuda. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koray Savas 2,251 Posted April 27, 2021 Share Posted April 27, 2021 I’ve been playing through The Outer Worlds, and the restrained score is absolutely sublime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverTrumpet 638 Posted April 27, 2021 Share Posted April 27, 2021 On 2/26/2021 at 10:07 AM, Jay said: If anybody here is curious about the music in Fire Emblem Heroes but doesn't want to actually play it, Nintendo made an official video with 100 minutes of score The description has a clickable link to jump to each track Playing that game made me feel like I'd end up on a list, so I'm glad for this. On 4/21/2021 at 8:03 AM, Disco Stu said: One of the catchiest melodies ever written IMO This has been stuck in my head for 20 years soooooo Jay and Faleel 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted April 27, 2021 Share Posted April 27, 2021 32 minutes ago, SilverTrumpet said: Playing that game made me feel like I'd end up on a list, so I'm glad for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oomoog the Ecstatic 314 Posted April 29, 2021 Share Posted April 29, 2021 On 4/27/2021 at 6:19 AM, SilverTrumpet said: Playing that game made me feel like I'd end up on a list, so I'm glad for this. This has been stuck in my head for 20 years soooooo I've written themes similar (and much better than this) where both melody and harmony follow a perfectly flowing trajectory but don't themselves match up every instance. It ends up working like a great puzzle, as though there exists a resolving counterpoint, however I'm not sure how to react to the above sample. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,340 Posted April 29, 2021 Share Posted April 29, 2021 On 4/21/2021 at 8:03 AM, Disco Stu said: One of the catchiest melodies ever written IMO Reminds me of this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15,495 Posted April 29, 2021 Share Posted April 29, 2021 2 minutes ago, Falco said: Reminds me of this: Oof, Minish Cap should get a remake just to rescue the soundtrack from the horrid GBA sound hardware. Nice tune though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,340 Posted April 29, 2021 Share Posted April 29, 2021 11 minutes ago, Disco Stu said: Oof, Minish Cap should get a remake just to rescue the soundtrack from the horrid GBA sound hardware. Nice tune though. Can't find it now, but someone did put out a version that was rendered outside of the GBA hardware, using the original samples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted April 29, 2021 Share Posted April 29, 2021 I wish the GBA and DS had better sound chips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu 15,495 Posted June 19, 2021 Share Posted June 19, 2021 A pretty fun (and faithful) arrangement by Yoko Shimomura of one of the best Banjo Kazooie tunes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAvengerButton 175 Posted June 21, 2021 Share Posted June 21, 2021 Re: SNES score remasters. I first learned people were doing this when my boy Sam Miller started his DKC restoration project. Since then I've learned that people are doing it to N64 games as well. This Youtuber is doing an excellent job of restoring the scores in higher quality sound, but he's emulating how they are heard in game as best as he can as opposed to following official CD release mixes. He answers questions about his process in this thread on ResetEra: N64 Music Remastered in High Quality (Video-Game OST HQ) | ResetEra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Marc 758 Posted July 20, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted July 20, 2021 Yesterday marked the 30th anniversary of Final Fantasy IV, a fantastic game with such a memorable soundtrack ! And so I thought it was the perfect moment to release this new little project of mine A 17-min progressive rock piece based on the FF4 OST, featuring 25 musicians and singers from all over the world Jay, SilverTrumpet and ChrisAfonso 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 WOOOOOOOOOOOW I can't wait to listen to this! FFIV is easily my favorite video game score of all time, based purely on nostalgia reasons (like, I know it's not the best score ever written, but I love it more than any other score because of the impact it had on me at the time) Marc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverTrumpet 638 Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 It's arguably one of the best scores ever written. The quality of the melodies alone is easily up there with anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 I agree 100% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc 758 Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 It is a Masterpiece. And I had a real hard time selecting the songs to create that medley, there is just so much goodness in that OST ! I just knew I had to cover all 4 battle themes ( which all sound FANTASTIC ) plus that majestic Ending Theme Jay 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 Can't wait to listen. Work is crazy today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverTrumpet 638 Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 #tbt to the three great FF4 arrangements from Game Music Concert: Marc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 Finally checked it out Marc. Amazing medley! Fantastically performed! I loved the instrument choices. Great stuff Marc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post karelm 2,903 Posted July 21, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted July 21, 2021 The video game I was part of is getting released next month. I was the orchestrator and there is quite a nice cross section of what the music is like in this trailer. It's a Lucasarts team and the sequel to award winning writer/producer Tim Schafer's (Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, The Curse of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2, Grim Fandango, Broken Age) Pyschonauts from 2005! The music is fantastic and composed by Peter McConnell (Star Wars Rogue Squadron, Sam & Max Hit the road, Star Wars X-Wing, Grim Fandango, and so many other LucasArts classics). I thought the music of this game was so wonderful and exciting, it was a pleasure and true honor to be part of this project! It was over three hours of original music ranging in style from jazz, big band, retro, huge symphonic scoring with large orchestra and chorus and we spent a few years on it with several scoring sessions! In addition, like all of Tim Schafer's game's, it's a deep and rich game universe well worth exploring. Lots of examples of the music are in this latest trailer. Prepurchase link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/607080/Psychonauts_2/ Edmilson, Holko, ChrisAfonso and 4 others 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc 758 Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 12 hours ago, Jay said: Finally checked it out Marc. Amazing medley! Fantastically performed! I loved the instrument choices. Great stuff Thank you ! Always a fantastic experience for me to put these all together. From arranging the whole thing to receiving all of the tracks from the musicians (and often being blown away by what they've just sent me ^^), mixing it and coming up with fun visuals for the video... I just love doing these ! 17 hours ago, SilverTrumpet said: #tbt to the three great FF4 arrangements from Game Music Concert: Yeah those are beautiful ! I can only imagine Uematsu's reaction when hearing them back in 1991, must have been quite an overwhelming experience for him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 Nice! I wish I had time to watch the visuals, but I could only listen. I want to re-watch later Hopefully you earn some kind of living off of all these great performances and accompanying videos? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc 758 Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 24 minutes ago, Jay said: Hopefully you earn some kind of living off of all these great performances and accompanying videos? Well, not that much to be honest ! I do receive Youtube earnings for them and a few donations now and then but not enough to make a living. That said my Youtube channel is something I have on the side, my main job being session musician ! 24 minutes ago, Jay said: Nice! I wish I had time to watch the visuals, but I could only listen. I want to re-watch later Here's a few screenshots from it Jay 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,287 Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 6 minutes ago, Marc said: my main job being session musician ! Have you played on anything I might have heard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,173 Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 19 hours ago, karelm said: Nice. We should have guessed you were involved. So in the end, my backer contribution on Fig paid part of your commission. Looking forward to playing (and hearing) this, although I still haven't played the first one… (Also, a whale appearing out of nowhere AND "don't panic"?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karelm 2,903 Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 3 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said: Nice. We should have guessed you were involved. So in the end, my backer contribution on Fig paid part of your commission. Looking forward to playing (and hearing) this, although I still haven't played the first one… (Also, a whale appearing out of nowhere AND "don't panic"?) Not sure how you could have guessed that but I will say, I'm a huge fan of the score. It's FANTASTIC!! There were moments when I had to take a step back and thought "holy shit this is good". Thank you for supporting the project and I very much believe you'll love it! Tim, Peter, and all put everything in to their projects. We are all VERY passionate about what we do and push each other. I think this will stand the test of time and I'm so proud to have been a part of it. I don't know if I'll be able to play it because I get killed too easily but I'll happily own it. If it's not obvious, Peter is also a very, very big JW fan and you'll clearly hear that in his score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,173 Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 4 minutes ago, karelm said: Not sure how you could have guessed that Didn't you say you were involved with the Grim Fandango remaster, and/or with Broken Age? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc 758 Posted July 22, 2021 Share Posted July 22, 2021 On 7/21/2021 at 3:42 PM, Jay said: Have you played on anything I might have heard? Maybe ! Here's my (partial) discography : https://www.marcpapeghin.com/about/ I've also played on a lot of stuff which wasn't officially released (like tv ads or musical/movie mockups !) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now