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Let's get OCR to do Sonic 4's music!

DarkeSword

By DarkeSword,
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lazygecko Newbie

lazygecko

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This track was not too impressive to me. The writing isn't bad, but the production is confusing. It's too lo-fi to sound modern (very plain synths + sounds) but not lo-fi enough to really be Genesis or SNES-style. So to me, it's in a sort of valley usually inhabited by rejected OCR subs.

The only "lo-fi" parts are the drums sampled directly from the original games. It's dull as hell because seemingly the same patch sound is used for every instrument. The old games had a richer sonic (no pun intended) palette than that to work with. I don't like the arrangement of it either. There is not much at all that really feels "Sonic" in it to me. If it wasn't labeled as Sonic 4 music I would probably have guessed some random wannabe-chiptune hipster on 8bitcollective made it.

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zircon Newbie

zircon

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I get a Sega CD vibe from it. I like it.

Also it seems to me that no matter what Sega does, the denizens of OCR will just criticize Sonic 4 for any reason possible because SONIC IS DOOMED OH NOES D: D: D:

I haven't been criticizing Sega here at all, or Sonic for that matter. I'm just critical of the music which IMO is not good. Where's the groove, funk and swing of the original Sonic games? Why does it sound crappy, but not crappy enough to be Genesis?

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lazygecko Newbie

lazygecko

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Yeah, same problems there. The same synth brass patch on everything, bar the bass. And the PSG squares are just tasked with playing chords over and over. The arrangement is the same.

I made this Genesis-style remix of Sonic Advance 2 a year ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-pRIxhXm-4

PSG channels are constantly switching between being used for chord progressions (I looked at Green Grove from Sonic 3D for some ideas there), backing the lead melody or playing arpeggios. By having the channels switch tasks every once in a while you make sure things are kept interesting and varied, which is a common trick for chiptune arrangements in general. Synth brass plays the normal full note chords, a glockenspiel-like sound for lead melody which is filled out by the PSG, etc etc.

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The Coop Enthusiast

The Coop

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Let's be honest guys, not every song from the each Sonic game on the Genesis was a gem. Some were far better and memorable than others, so I don't think we can start bashing the music of the game just yet. There are still three slots to be filled on that music download page, so we'll have to wait and see how those pan out before we can justifiably criticize the game itself as having poor music beyond this one track.

As for me, I didn't mind the song too much. It didn't grab me, but it didn't offend either. I like the retro drums and the familiarity of the synths used, but something tells me if the song had its tempo upped a little, it might help give it a bit more pep (like if it's 100BPM right now, maybe shift it to 95BPM or a touch lower).

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Meteo Xavier Contributor

Meteo Xavier

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Yeah, same problems there. The same synth brass patch on everything, bar the bass. And the PSG squares are just tasked with playing chords over and over. The arrangement is the same.

I know, I just didn't want to sound rude by saying "Well, as you can see, a 16bit arrangement isn't any better so your point it kinda moot."

I really don't see why the number of synths being small in that particular track is such a weird thing for everyone.

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The Author Rookie

The Author

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As for me, I didn't mind the song too much. It didn't grab me, but it didn't offend either. I like the retro drums and the familiarity of the synths used, but something tells me if the song had its tempo upped a little, it might help give it a bit more pep (like if it's 100BPM right now, maybe shift it to 95BPM or a touch lower).

Did a little experiment, but if you play it faster (Windows Media player can do that) it does sound a lot better.

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Gollgagh Newbie

Gollgagh

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I made this Genesis-style remix of Sonic Advance 2 a year ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-pRIxhXm-4

PSG channels are constantly switching between being used for chord progressions (I looked at Green Grove from Sonic 3D for some ideas there), backing the lead melody or playing arpeggios. By having the channels switch tasks every once in a while you make sure things are kept interesting and varied, which is a common trick for chiptune arrangements in general. Synth brass plays the normal full note chords, a glockenspiel-like sound for lead melody which is filled out by the PSG, etc etc.

this is amazing <3

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The Coop Enthusiast

The Coop

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Did a little experiment, but if you play it faster (Windows Media player can do that) it does sound a lot better.

I dropped it into Cakewalk and tinkered with the BPM myself as well before I posted. Below 90BPM felt a touch too fast. I liked it around 90-92BPM myself.

I'm assuming Cakewalk works the same as other programs, where going from 100BPM to 91BPM speeds up the song... right? Seems kind of backward in a way, but that's how it works in Cakewalk.

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