POCS-21032~4: Sonic The Hedgehog 1&2 Soundtrack

[_if]

Wow, a game music album mastered by Vlado Meller. He's the guy who's been screwing up the sound of Red Hot Chili Peppers albums, amongst others, for more than a decade, making Californication so loud and distorted that some people returned the CD, thinking it was defective. At least he was conservative (by his standards) with this album and didn't repeat that mistake. Just surprised to find his name here.

I don't have any other Sonic albums to compare the sound with, but I can say this sounds better than it did on real hardware. I wonder how it was recorded. Most likely not emulation, but it's not a stock Mega Drive either. I wonder if they modded one or have some other means of getting sound out of a YM2612 and SN76489.

[dissident93]

I'd like to know as well. Perhaps they are sourced from the PC-98 versions that Hiroshi Kubota/Yukifumi Makino had made? Wave Master (who keeps a lot of the source material of SEGA soundtracks in their archive) is given special thanks in the liner notes, so it's possible.

[LuxKiller65]

What are the "demo version" tracks?

[drdevilfx]

The demo tracks are the original tracks Masato Nakamura made before Hiroshi Kubota converted them to play on the Mega Drive hardware.

[Enja Hamman]

The couple tracks that DON'T have Masa demo versions are interesting to me. It seems pretty comprehensive, with stuff like 1up, All Clear and Super Sonic, but they're missing

STH1 Power Up
STH1 Staff Roll
STH2 Power Up
STH2 Staff Roll

Makes me wonder if these weren't worked on by Nakamura. Staff Roll makes a lot of sense, but Power Up is super weird to not show up. Seeing as they use the game's main theme. could be that Hiroshi Kubota or Yukifumi Makino created the arrangement.

Both Staff Roll themes also have their own original piece of music at the start of the medley. the STH1 version does seem to be Nakamura's composition, based on the credits from Sonic Generations, but all we have to go on for STH2 is that there's no credit to anyone else on this album. But maybe one of the 7 people credited as Sound Assistants in the game might have composed it (or at least arranged the medley).

[Brad Evans II]

Originally Posted by drdevilfx

The demo tracks are the original tracks Masato Nakamura made before Hiroshi Kubota converted them to play on the Mega Drive hardware.

About this. So I take it I should thank Kubota for "fixing" Chemical Plant Zone? Isn't the original demo like 1/2 the speed of the in-game version? I can't image that track jelling with the action if it was converted as intended.

[Aifread]

I think it's safe to assume most "outsider" composers like Nakamura weren't doing much in the vein of sound programming or arrangement after handing off their studio demos. I can't imagine Sugiyama or Suzuki toiling over NES sound data for Dragon Quest III or Mother.

[Enja Hamman]

Originally Posted by Brad Evans II

About this. So I take it I should thank Kubota for "fixing" Chemical Plant Zone? Isn't the original demo like 1/2 the speed of the in-game version? I can't image that track jelling with the action if it was converted as intended.

Pretty much all the Sonic 2 tracks are the wrong speed on the demos. Only Casino Night Zone, Mystic Cave Zone (2P), Death Egg Zone (Part 2), Boss, Option and Game Results are about the same speed as the final versions.

From the few other Mega Drive demo tapes I've heard (mostly the stuff Kazuhiko Nagai has on his YouTube channel), a lot of them have also been slower than the Final games. I don't know the step-by-step process for programming to Mega Drive, but I'd assume there's something that makes it easier to replicate music at the intended speed if the original is slower. If that's right, then Sonic 1 is actually the one that needed fixing. You'd think Nakamura would compose better his second time around, right?

And yeah Aifread's right, I can't speak concretely on his other examples, but Nakamura didn't program either Sonic game. Kubota talks on his blog about programming them. Although they shouldn't take away from the fact the Nakamura has to compose for something in a very difficult situation, having to imagine more what his music will sound like than I assume he was used to, but I know Yukifumi Makino did his best to explain it to him. I guess it's a bit like how written-down music for orchestras used to work before digital could give you a good idea of what you were gonna get.