Howard Drossin (#1384)

[kyubihanyou]

Sometimes you gotta dig just a bit deeper...

The Aftermath of that Howard Drossin interview from Sonic Retro (http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.p...pic=11788&st=0)

Drossin's remarks:

"Obviously there is a lot of confusion surrounding the Sonic 3 music.
Frankly, I didn't realize how interested people were in the details of the music. I wish I could remember more, but it was a very long time ago and I do not remember all of the details.

My involvement was nothing more than writing a bunch of tracks for Sonic 3 that I presented to Naka and the Sonic Team. I don't know if some (or any) made it into the game. I've listened to some tracks on YouTube today and do not recognize ANY of them as mine. I've never played the game. In those days, I was working around the clock and didn't have time. When I began working for Sega, the game was already well underway and other composers had been working on it. On the game itself (Sonic 3) my credit is "Special Thanks" (I think). I do not claim to know where the other music (including any potential MJ stuff) came from. I just know that when I was there, MJ was not involved. Lava Reef came up as well last night. I listened to some tracks labeled "Lava Reef" on YouTube and I did not write it.

Regarding Sonic & Knuckles there are 2 things I recall specifically doing for the game. I wrote a new Sonic theme and a theme for Knuckles.
I gave these to Setsu who then implemented them into the game. That's all I remember regarding S&K. I had to go through a lot of iterations of themes."

What Tweaker found:
- Drossin composed one tune per zone (i.e. he only composed "single versions") [I don't think he did any of the zones, personally (see 2nd to last point)]
- Drossin did no sound programming
- Act 2 remixes, as well as all sound programming were done by Masaru Setsumaru (Setsu did the remixes (aka arrangements) of the single versions)
- There is unused music that never made the cut, which Drossin has MIDIs of and is providing to Chris Senn for later distribution

So what does this mean?
-Drossin only did compositions for the five S&K themes (four stemming from the "new Sonic theme," one for Knuckles); Setsumaru appears to have arranged them in all five cases, even though the Title (S&K) and Knuckles' Theme (S&K) (i.e. the original versions) should, in theory, have been left alone and therefore were actually arranged by Drossin.
-He did not do Lava Reef, apparently (bummer)
-Most (if not all) Act 2s (except the ones associated with MJ) were arranged by Setsumaru

[Secret Squirrel]

A new edit added the birthdate. Where does that come from? I don't see it on any public sites.

[dissident93]

His Facebook has the info.

[Liontamer]

Can someone copy the JP name from booklet pg. 9-10 of http://vgmdb.net/album/22134 and add it to his profile? I'd do it, but I won't pretend to know Japanese or how to find the correct characters.

[Xenofan 29A]

It just says "Howard". ハワード