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Post by Ex on Jan 18, 2018 14:05:46 GMT -5
now I can hear how it literally allows types of instrumentation and songs that just were beyond the NES's wildest dreams A simple way to explain this; the SNES' audio hardware allows sequenced sample playback. Meaning a composer could load an audio sample of a piano note into the SNES audio memory, then sequence that note to play back at different pitches and intervals. By using multiple audio samples, talented composers could generate an artificial orchestra, thus we have symphonic OSTs in many SNES JRPGs. This meant every OST could have unique instrumentation, making every game's soundtrack capable of being exclusive. The SNES also had a really nice hardware reverb built in, allowing instrumentation to sound richer and wider. Also its playback is at 32 kHz, nearly CD quality compared to predecessors. The S-SMP really was (still is) a thing of audible beauty: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_S-SMP
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Post by anayo on Jan 18, 2018 14:18:00 GMT -5
I haven't done any research into it, but my ears tell me the Nintendo 64 uses a more sophisticated version of that sample-based technology. That was my only game console from 1998 to 2003, so when I got a Dreamcast and played the Tony Hawk Pro Skater demo, hearing a full rock band with real vocals, drums, and guitars astounded me. I wasn't used to video game music sounding like real music, lol. You know anything about how the Sega Saturn's sound chip works? I know it can do redbook audio, like in Panzer Dragoon, but I can sorta tell Shining Force III has procedurally generated sounds cause I've had the instruments go out of whack in emulation and a few times on real hardware. It's as if there's a Roland synthesizer or something and knob accidentally gets turned the wrong way. When the musician/hacker Professor Abrasive posted a video about the inner workings of the Saturn he showed a preview of some software he had written to create instruments on it. It looked like some form of FM synth, just with a crapton of channels and operators.
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Post by Ex on Jan 18, 2018 15:29:11 GMT -5
I've had the instruments go out of whack in emulation and a few times on real hardware The Saturn uses a Yamaha YMF292 audio processor. In turn it is controlled by a Motorola 68EC000. The 68EC000 has no floating-point capability, which makes me think when developers wrote interface logic to address its bus, any progressive slop could cause more obvious tuning abnormalities, versus a unit which had floating point capability. I say that because tonal mismatch gradients would sound more abrasive, versus a chip with more dynamic mathematical ability. That's just a theory mind, I haven't researched the issue personally.
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Post by Ex on Jan 23, 2018 14:20:47 GMT -5
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Post by Xeogred on Jan 25, 2018 19:28:41 GMT -5
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Post by Sarge on Jan 25, 2018 22:29:49 GMT -5
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Post by anayo on Jan 27, 2018 9:40:16 GMT -5
That's sick! I don't really play sports games, so I'd have probably never heard that tune unless you posted it.
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Post by Sarge on Jan 27, 2018 19:38:04 GMT -5
Yeah, I used to throw the sound test on in TSB and just listen to the tunes. Some of the playoff games almost sounded like boss tunes, they're so rad. Another game that has a splendid soundtrack is Tecmo World Wrestling. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4UWv7zgTEU&list=PL2A714B1561215874&index=1Of course, it's Keiji Yamagishi, so a lot of these tracks end up sounding like secret Ninja Gaiden tunes.
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Post by Sarge on Jan 29, 2018 14:18:58 GMT -5
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Post by Xeogred on Jan 29, 2018 16:45:30 GMT -5
That's my favorite from DKC3 right there. I loved the subtle callback to Phendrana Drifts with this one in Metroid Prime 3: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Gq0pwyjIAIt's weird how downgraded the OST's were for Prime 2-3 all around though, nowhere near as melodic and awesome as the first game.
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