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SNES vs Genesis Sound

The thing with the Genesis sound synth is that it was only good at very specific types of sounds and music, mostly techno-ish or guitars, as evidenced by Streets of Rage and co., whereas the SNES sound chip excelled at everything else. The SNES sound chip was definitely the best all-around and offered greater flexibility.

Trying to reproduce the Streets of Rage OST on a SNES would result in a very flat/washed out, but still enjoyably close soundtrack. Trying to reproduce the Donkey Kong Country OST on a Genesis would result in a nightmare of suck.
 

Ifrit

Member
There are people who think Genesis had an overall better sound and music than the SNES? Wow, I mean some genesis games indeed had awesome music like the sonic, shinobi and streets of rage games, but SNES had way more games with comparable and even superior music to those few genesis titles that made good use of the soundchip
 

dcx4610

Member
The Genesis had a sound style all to its own. It felt very PC'ish. It gave certain games a real synthy feel which just worked. Good examples are Shinobi and Streets of Rage.

SNES had the benefit of sampling so every game could have their own unique instruments rather than relying on the built-in instrument set of the Genesis.

SNES was definitely superior but the Genesis had its own unique sound.
 

LeleSocho

Banned
Technically SNES have a better sound chip no matter how you put it and you can see it on the games 90% of the times but that doesn't mean that the Mega Drive didn't have good music on it too.

Also the SPC700 has the Crazy Ken Pedigree.
 

Myriadis

Member
And of course most don't read the OP.
But even then it doesn't really matter, as both pretty much sound fairly shitty - which is a shame, as there are some excellent tracks made on both.
 

Baleoce

Member
SNES is more known for the orchestral stuff but the Genesis could do pretty damn well with the right composers:

Gauntlet 4
Shining Force 2
Shining in the Darkness
Landstalker

Ok it was mostly Climax.

Motoaki Takenouchi was a magician and a scholar. How he did the things he did with the YM2612 is anyones guess. But you are definitely right. It depends on the composer. Some Mega Drive games have shocking sound design, (the same is true of the SNES). But others make it sound like a completely different machine.

It's true that the SNES version sounds a lot meatier

Yuzo Koshiro, Motoaki Takenouchi, or practically anything by Konami in that era. Was all gold.

There is one comparison (from Konami, who by any standards at the time is a good and consistent source to judge by), and that is The Turtles in Time soundtrack vs the Hyperstone Heist Soundtrack.

Sewer Surfin (Mega Drive): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugE5l01KG5s
Sewer Surfin (SNES): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH-lLbHbG-A

Now compare both of those to the original source: Sewer Surfin (Arcade): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkWpqi0cVec

It's actually really interesting to see how this soundtrack was ported to each console.

It's true that the SNES version sounds a lot meatier and has more punch to it and audibly just sounds a lot fuller in general. But some could argue that the Mega Drive version is way more accurate in comparison to the arcade original.
 
I wish I could speak more intelligently on this but as everything, each has its highs and lows.

Someone mentioned that the SNES' synth guitar sounds are really weak; the worst is when they try to use a sampled saxaphone sound as a guitar. There's always exceptions: Capcom games like the Megaman X series and X-Men Mutant Apocalypse have some pretty cool guitar sounds. Licensed games and/or Western-produced games often have a really weak, muddled quality to them that just sound hollow.

Meanwhile most Genesis games just sound like trash. The developers really had to try to get good sounding music out of it, but when they were successful, nothing sounded quite so distinctly cool. Many Genesis games just sounded like synth noise and fart sounds, but stuff like Earthworm Jim and Rocket Knight sounded fantastic.

Genny composers had to WORK to tame that beast, the SNES was more plug-and-play. That's why great composers with a very strong programming/software design background or support flourished on the Sega system instead of floundering; your Koshiros, your Hulsbecks, your Sakimotos. Comparitively, the SNES/SFC had far fewer that bothered to really crack open the SNES chip and make it do crazy shit as there was far less of a "need" with how easy it was to get sweeping strings and chimes. Kikuta's famed "3D sound" comes to mind.
 

Synth

Member
Strictly as tech the SNES sound chip is more advance (of course it came out 2 years later).
But as far as music goes it all depend on the musician skill in writing the driver and composing.

The SNES sound chip was definitely capable of more overall. But it's one of those situations where other bottlenecks hamper it. You couldn't feed it samples like in that demo, or there would be no game to play. As a result you got approximations that were similar to if someone took a CD and coverted it to a 128kbs mp3, then converted that mp3 to another 128kbs mp3. You could still hear what it used to be, but it was now a lot more flat sounding.

On the other hand you had the Genesis that simply couldn't do adequate representations of certain sounds (strings and vocals being the most immediately obvious), but as the sound was being produced by the sound chip directly, the sounds it did put out didn't suffer any further degradation.

I'd agree with people who say that the majority of the time the SNES sounded better, as put simply, it was a lot harder to screw things up in that case. The best sounds the Genesis put out though are in my opinion more impressive than anything produced (in an actual game) on the SNES. I can put them through an amp and a good set of headphones, and not feel like the equipment is simply wasted on them.
 
SNES sounded better and more varied but the Genesis had great character. When you hear a Genesis game blindfolded you know it's a Genesis game. It worked well with the grittier Genesis graphics too (I can't imagine a pristine sound coming from a Genesis). It can be harsh and overly synthetic though-- as other have said it depends on the composer and the listeners ears/preference. Trapped on a desert island I probably wouldn't pick a Genesis sound chip over an SNES, but I would always remember what the Genesis sounded like!

In short I think both consoles had the right sound chips for their tech.
 

akira28

Member
Geneses was batter.

But seriously, I think they both had their strengths and weaknesses.
Although Genesis was better.
 

Damaniel

Banned
Motoaki Takenouchi was a magician and a scholar. How he did the things he did with the YM2612 is anyones guess. But you are definitely right. It depends on the composer. Some Mega Drive games have shocking sound design, (the same is true of the SNES). But others make it sound like a completely different machine.

It's true that the SNES version sounds a lot meatier

Yuzo Koshiro, Motoaki Takenouchi, or practically anything by Konami in that era. Was all gold.

There is one comparison (from Konami, who by any standards at the time is a good and consistent source to judge by), and that is The Turtles in Time soundtrack vs the Hyperstone Heist Soundtrack.

Sewer Surfin (Mega Drive): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugE5l01KG5s
Sewer Surfin (SNES): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH-lLbHbG-A

Now compare both of those to the original source: Sewer Surfin (Arcade): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkWpqi0cVec

It's actually really interesting to see how this soundtrack was ported to each console.

It's true that the SNES version sounds a lot meatier and has more punch to it and audibly just sounds a lot fuller in general. But some could argue that the Mega Drive version is way more accurate in comparison to the arcade original.

I'd expect the Genesis version to be more faithful to the arcade version - many arcade games of the time used FM synthesizer chips for sound and music, and Turtles in Time did too. That's probably part of the reason that Sega went with the YM2612 in the Genesis (aside from cost) - to more accurately recreate the sound and music from arcade games of the era.

Of course, the approach that Nintendo took with their chip was much more flexible (and much closer to how successor systems handled sound), but both systems were more than capable of producing high quality sound and music in the right hands.
 

Baleoce

Member
I'd expect the Genesis version to be more faithful to the arcade version - many arcade games of the time used FM synthesizer chips for sound and music, and Turtles in Time did too. That's probably part of the reason that Sega went with the YM2612 in the Genesis (aside from cost) - to more accurately recreate the sound and music from arcade games of the era.

Of course, the approach that Nintendo took with their chip was much more flexible (and much closer to how successor systems handled sound), but both systems were more than capable of producing high quality sound and music in the right hands.

That's very true. During that era SEGA basically prided itself on being the "home arcade" console experience, so that makes a lot of sense in that respect.
 
Snes obviously had the better sound chip. However games like SOR2 does show what someone who is creative can do with it's sound chip. I do prefer the wolfteam bgms of the older games the clap sounds.
 
you can do better

I apologize. I think comparisons between essentially hacked roms is only ever going to demonstrate that one chip has the higher specs, something that's apparent just by a google search. I'm more impressed when exceptional sound programming and composition come together while a game program is also running on the console, which is probably why Yuzo Koshiro gets so much love on both platforms.

It also puzzles me whenever the synthesized bass and percussion on Genesis hardware are put above that of the SNES. Both systems were capable of thunderous bass and percussion.

but Genesis had Yuzo Koshiro

Koshiro was a slut, he slept with all the consoles.
 
Something about that Mega Drive bass (screw the Genesis name, as well, as a Brit) just makes synapses fire in my brain that associate that sound with awesome. I always think of Streets of Rage, or Marble Garden Zone in Sonic 3. SNES could never do those sounds.

That said, y'know, the Mega Drive could've never done anything like Final Fantasy VI, so swings & roundabouts.
 
the Snes had 32000khz digital sound with a sound chip designed for sampling, but not enough memory for accurate samples.The genesis has an analog synth, capable of producing great sound with the right drivers....

Take a game like super and mega turrican, both had the same rock soundtrack that labeled that classic, but the genesis version was far superior....

here is the snes version of the first level, you here the clean sound but the percussion is flat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6gW975XDwA

Now here is the gene version it really speaks for itself
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdY4EKAcW4Q
 

Klocker

Member
Soundtrack preference is subjective...what's not subjective is SNES had a better chip that could produce more samples and better quality sound hands down
 
Soundtrack preference is subjective...what's not subjective is SNES had a better chip that could produce more samples and better quality sound hands down

Its not that simple, and if you take the same games from both collections the gene comes out on top some of the time.
 

Klocker

Member
Its not that simple, and if you take the same games from both collections the gene comes out on top some of the time.
perhaps but I owned both systems and played them through a stereo with A/B switch and remember distinctly knowing that the SNES sounded better in every multiplat game I owned on both.

so using my own ears in real time that.s ny conclusion.

that's before I even was aware of the sound chip in the snes
 

Synth

Member
It also puzzles me whenever the synthesized bass and percussion on Genesis hardware are put above that of the SNES. Both systems were capable of thunderous bass and percussion.

That's because when you compare to something like Never Return Alive from Streets of Rage 2, it really doesn't compare at all. You'd need significantly higher quality samples to capture what a synth can output, and that's simply not happening in a SNES game.

The SNES has plenty going for it sound wise, but it doesn't benefit from comparisons with the Genesis when it comes to bass lines, kick drums and the like.
 

kess

Member
The achilles heel of the SNES was that canned mariachi band trumpet and the floppy tin can echo, and the Genesis's was that blorpy, screechy, scratchy sampling. That said games like Brain Lord and Final Fantasy sound great on SNES but I sure wouldn't want to hear Spring Yard Zone on the thing.
 
People always sleep on Jewel Master and Motoaki Takenouchi.
I sure don't, he's one of my very favorite game musicians. The man's done the best Shining soundtracks and great stuff like Gungriffon.

Oh, surprised no one's dropped Bio-Hazard Battle or King Colossus yet.
I reviewed the arranged soundtrack to King Colossus over at SEMO some time back. Great work! I did the same for Thunder Force IV, too.

The original version of Venus Fire sounds like ass, real tinny—this is the best arrangement I've yet heard.

Was just listening to this based Iwadare track. Amazing what committed artists could pump out of the 2612...

Good man. Tawada's great on just about anything, provided he gets to make new music at all.

Nothing much to add here: the SNES chip is definitely superior—the Mega Drive just had more standout soundtracks (a system of extremes, as it were). FM synth in general kicks so much butt regardless of what console it's attached to.
 

hutna

Member
This is like comparing a yamaha dx7 to a korg wavestation, or to use fruit, apples to oranges.

The sega console with the FM chip was harder to get "good" sounds out of (as anyone who has programed FM synths can attest to), but it has a more "unique" sound with more "character."

The SNES console uses something similar to wave table synthesis iirc, which allows for quicker (and as a result sometimes more generic) sound programming. It also has some very powerful and eas(ier) to use features such as panning, delay, noise etc which in the right hands can produce some great sounding music indeed.

Both are perfectly capable of creating great sounding scores for video games, so you can't really say one is "better" than the other. In the end it comes down to personal preference regarding timbre and texture, and the relative programming and composing ability of the sound staff on any given game.

At the time if I was a programmer I would certainly prefer to work with the SNES. As a composer it really doesn't/shouldn't matter. If I were using one of the chips today the sega chip would be more desirable just because of it's unique sound characteristics. Similar to how modern composers still use the C64 because of the unique aspects of it's analog SID chip.
 
SNES could produce better sound, obviously, but it's all about what you did with the tech. Earthworm Jim is a great example of the same game on both systems, yet the Genesis version is superior in terms of sound.

I always thought Jims gun sounded weak in the Genesis version
 

Rich!

Member
I always thought Jims gun sounded weak in the Genesis version

On the topic of Earthworm Jim, EWJ2's soundtrack on the SNES is much, much better than the Mega Drive version. They're incomparable.

The Mega Drive does have a great sound when it's used effectively though.
 
I wish SNES had Koshiro...
*psst* I think he knows that :)
I figured but it gave me an excuse to post my favorite SNES OST.
Not even my favorite track, too.

Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like if you had a console that could simultaneously use the SNES APU and the Genesis's YM2612 and SN76496. You'd have sampled audio for strings, harps and such, but FM synth for guitars, bass and square waves. Best of both worlds.
 

gryz

Banned
the genesis sound chip is a real synthesizer, the snes sound chip is sample based synthesis.

basically the snes chip sounds better out of the box with no effort but the genesis chip has a higher "skill ceiling".

you are pretty much limited to the sounds that are programmed onto the snes chip without being able to change much, while the genesis sound chip requires you to generate your own custom tones (or use Hitoshi Sakimoto's drivers). this is why many different snes games feature the same sound effects

(note this is re: genesis model 1, mod 2 sounds like crap)
 

Nikodemos

Member
At the time if I was a programmer I would certainly prefer to work with the SNES. As a composer it really doesn't/shouldn't matter. If I were using one of the chips today the sega chip would be more desirable just because of it's unique sound characteristics. Similar to how modern composers still use the C64 because of the unique aspects of it's analog SID chip.
That's pretty much it. The Mega Drive's synth aged better because, well, synth is synth. A bleep today is the same as a bleep 20 years ago. Whereas the SNES's chip is nowadays just a low-end sampler, with flat, washed out reproductions.
 
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