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SNES vs Genesis Sound

U

UncleSporky

Member
Beerman462 said:
Seems like Genesis fans prefer the synth sound of the Genesis and SNES fans prefer the realistic sound of the SNES...
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Put another way, the Genesis has realistic synth sound (because it is actually synth).

SNES is playing MIDI, which is recordings of instruments played at different pitches. It's a pale imitation of real instruments. By contrast, the Genesis is an actual instrument. :p
 
S

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Beerman462 said:
Post your counter argument then?
Click to expand...
Multiplatform games designed for one of two very different pieces of hardware, haphazardly ported to the other one after-the-fact are terrible bases for this argument.

Although, plenty of people with questionable taste still think SNES Earthworm Jim sounds good, so whatever. Even Dave Perry thinks you guys are silly for that, though.
 
W

Why would you do that?

Member
HUELEN10 said:
SNES-wise, I think this is one of the most under-looked, yet best 1st Party example of sound on the system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkYCFBnvPLA

Those first 11 seconds are too awesome. The 2-4 second mark and the 9-10 second mark get me every time.
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How did I forget about Star Fox? And that's my favorite music from the game, too.

Interestingly (well, to me), Star Fox has two sets of music depending on the stage you were on - "Big Band" and "Orchestra". For instance, there are two different musics for when you die. The "orchestra" music sounds higher quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na6ejAgJInQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWlwK3asu48
 
B

Beerman462

Member
alf717 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC0cvwnG0Ik
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OMG I fell for it
Arc Christelle said:
I assume you don't appreciate Electronic/Rave Music.
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I don't have robot ears...

FoP4pkr.jpg
 
Z

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Beerman462 said:
Post your counter argument then?
Click to expand...

I don't approach this as "SNES music as a whole" versus "Genesis music as a whole".

SNES uses samples, and so it inherently sounds better when attempting to match real life instruments. It's going to sound significantly better for tracks that go for an orchestrated field. Music from games like Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger is the epitome of SNES music.

Genesis has a really punchy, hard FM synth. It sounds great when you need something with energy. Kick the door down, high impact music. Its guitar sounds don't sound as realistic as SNES guitars but when you need high-speed type riffs it's going to sound better.

So SNES might sound better with Black Sabbath, but Genesis is going to sound better with Dragonforce.

Ultimately, everything comes down to the talent of the people composing the music and whether or not they play to the strengths of the platform.
 
D

Dicer

Banned
Why would you do that? said:
In short:

The Genesis has a PSG (the thing that makes music like "bleeps" and "bloops" like 8-bit systems) and it also has FM Synthesis (the "twang-y" music). FM Synthesis is very versatile, but hard to get right. Unfortunately, because of its difficulty, it was hard to make good music with it, but if you were good with it, you could make some amazing music with it.

My favorite of the Genesis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ2y-5lGHbQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yezDOb2Q9xE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoH-2prYASM

The Super Nintendo uses normal sound samples to make music, allowing for natural sounding music. However, it had a very heavy low-pass filter, so it wasn't as great for some of the loud, pumpin', super-rockin' soundtracks like on the Genesis and even 8-bit systems. That said, it was great for making more orchestral or ambient music, perfect for RPGs.

My favorite of the SNES:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifvxBt7tmA8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AIsQRWCtHw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1Ose7A8P94

I also sorta like this one (Dancing Mad from Final Fantasy III/VI):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3me9omJZiJM


Bonus: Turbografx
It has a PSG, IMO it has worse music than the NES. But it didn't stop this utter awesomeness from being made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHCCoNyNFtY
I also love this a lot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgC_BUsnX7k
Click to expand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urc9Zif-t4Y

Snes sound all day, always found the genny to sound really tinny....but C=64 sid chip>all
 
K

Kyzon

Member
SNES sounds more natural and "normal" imo. It's a wonderful chip with a ton of versatility.

Genesis on the other hand has personality. It's sounds were unique. When put to propper use it could produce the most funky beats of the era.

I enjoyed Genesis music way more than SNES. I actually play it at parties when I DJ. :p
 
N

nded

Member
I guess it depends on what you're used to. Spent a lot of time with the Genesis and appreciated the razor-sharp electronic sound, even if it was just devs working around the sound chip's obvious limitations. On the other hand I always felt a lot of SNES music tried very hard to sound like real instruments, but sounded far too muffled and artificial to be entirely convincing.
 
IrishNinja

IrishNinja

Member
Sixfortyfive said:
Over/under on # of posts before someone brings up Rock 'n Roll Racing in the only capacity it's ever mentioned on this forum?
Click to expand...

haha i thought it was a legit fun racer though, does it not come up otherwise?

Phire Phox said:
Genesis' sound chip was so shitty. Always had that screechy sound to the music and sound effects. SNES sounded sooo much better.
Click to expand...

nope, you either heard a model 2 or assumed this i'm guessing

baphomet 666 said:
Snes sounds like bad early midi music.

Genesis has a very distinct sound that, when used correctly, puts snes to shame.
Click to expand...

xn0 said:
While the SNES was technically superior in number of sound channels, sample quality, etc. the Genesis sound chip was a synth chip (YM2612) and was better suited to drums and bass. Which is why games that had techno'ish music sometimes sounded better on Genesis where as if the music was orchestral the SNES blew the socks off of the Genesis.
Click to expand...

ghst said:
snes OSTs (with some exceptions) generally just sound like unremarkable early MIDI these days. mega drive OSTs are like an industrial chip tune sub-genre all of their own.
Click to expand...

thee were great posts - it totally depends on the genre. funky stuff like TJ&E, high octane beat-em-ups and SHMUPs put the genesis sound to great use. many of the stellar SNES examples come from sweeping JRPGs (which also fit the processor speed better), first party stuff like platformers (DKC has exceptional sound) and stuff most fitting for the chip. some here assume multi-plats sound better by default on SNES, where examples like EJ point out how it's best to look at a case-by-case basis rather than painting with broad brushes.

Nightstick11 said:
This is like asking who would win in a fight, The Rock or Adam Sandler. Square's output on the SNES blows everything away.
Click to expand...

avatarquote
 
T

Theeze

Neo Member
Genesis had that screech sound. It's used alot in xmen clone wars, eternal champions and Mortal kombat.

It had a rock track it would be used as well. It was so annoying. The sound chip was extremely limited as they used that type of a sound as part of a sound effect,(getting hit)

SNES had that feel to it. It created some memorable tracks, always sounded clean and different. It had the orchestral feel to it which was amazing for it's time.


SNES by a long shot!
 
B

Beerman462

Member
I had hoped to be somewhat enlightened in this thread on Genesis music, but it seems that SNES had a superior sound all around( it rhymes) .
 
T

Tain

Member
To hugely generalize the libraries, Genesis specs let it excel at busier action games with more balls-out music. I prefer these to slow JRPGs with orchestral scores and weak samples.
 
S

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Anyway, I have a Genesis playlist I save for these threads and update every once in a while. Bolded examples are those that I either just like a lot or think are particularly good examples of the hardware.

Adventures of Batman & Robin - Big Boss
Adventures of Batman & Robin - The Lab
Adventures of Batman & Robin - Two-Face's Theme
Adventures of Batman & Robin - Space Boss
Adventures of Batman & Robin - Extreme Boss
Adventures of Batman & Robin - Dark Studio
Alien Soldier - Soldier's Song
Battle Mania / Trouble Shooter - Stage 3
Battle Mania II - Open Mind
Battle Mania II - Twilight Express
Battle Mania II - Hachimaki Please
Bonanza Bros - Stage 1
Dynamite Headdy - You're Izayoi!
Dynamite Headdy - Ballad For You
Earthworm Jim - Down the Tubes
Earthworm Jim - The Descent
Eternal Champions - Main Theme
Gauntlet 4 - Transparent Obstacle (This entire game sounds pretty distinct for Genesis. Worth a listen.)
Gauntlet 4 - Sortie
Gauntlet 4 - Adventures of Iron
Gauntlet 4 - Whisper of Phantom
Gauntlet 4 - CRUX
Gauntlet 4 - ...
Gunstar Heroes - Destroy Them All!
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker - Beat It
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker - Smooth Criminal
Monster World IV - Main Theme
Monster World IV - Heart of Icegrave
Phantasy Star II - Rise or Fall
Phantasy Star IV - PS1 Dungeon Arrange 2
Phantasy Star IV - Laughter
Phantasy Star IV - Ooze (skip to 0:50)
Pulseman - Stereo Protect (I think this track is literally perfect. That is to say that it's designed exactly for the instrument it's played on and fits the theme of the game exactly.)
Puyo Puyo - Memories
Puyo Puyo - Sticker
Puyo Puyo - Brave
Puyo Puyo - Final Stage
Puyo Puyo 2 - Area C
Ranger-X - Stage 1
Ranger-X - Stage 3
Ranger-X - Stage 6
Ristar - Shooting Ristar
Ristar - Beyond Space
Ristar - Crying World
Ristar - Greedy Game
Ristar - Star Humming
Ristar - Next Cruise
Rocket Knight Adventures - Boss Theme
Revenge of Shinobi - Long Distance
Revenge of Shinobi - China Town
Shinobi III - Whirlwind
Shinobi III - Solitary
Sonic 3K - Miniboss 1
Sonic Spinball - Toxic Caves
Sonic Spinball - Lava Powerhouse
Sonic Spinball - Showdown
Sonic Spinball - Boss
Sonic 3D Blast - Rusty Ruin 1
Sonic 3D Blast - Volcano Valley 2
Sonic 3D Blast - Panic Puppet 2
Streets of Rage - The Last Soul
Streets of Rage - Big Boss
Streets of Rage 2 - Go Straight
Streets of Rage 2 - S.O.R. Super Mix
Streets of Rage 3 - Fuze
Streets of Rage 3 - Dub Slash (As harsh as SOR3 may be, the part at 1:24 may be my single favorite piece of 16-bit music. Youtube compression just kills this though.)
Streets of Rage 3 - Boss
Streets of Rage 3 - The Poets
Thunder Force IV - Evil Destroyer
Thunder Force IV - Metal Squad
Toejam & Earl - Toejam Jammin'
Valis III - Final Stage
Vectorman - Options
Vectorman - Ocean
Zero Wing - Natols (lol)

32X, so this might be cheating a little:
Knuckles Chaotix - Door Into Summer
Knuckles Chaotix - Midnight Greenhouse
Virtua Racing Deluxe - Selector
Virtua Racing Deluxe - Replay

Having no nostalgia for SNES games in particular, I generally find it to sound vastly overrated. I definitely agree with the oft-cited claim that it's just trying to sound like real instruments but comes up short, giving the effect of an outdated MIDI synthesizer. That said, Donkey Kong Country and Squaresoft in general totally live up to the hype and show the system's obvious strengths.

I say with no exaggeration that I prefer how the NES sounds over the SNES, on average.
 
G

Gattsu25

Banned
Sixfortyfive, thanks for the list. Is the playlist public?

Also, might I suggest checking out Mega Turrican? That game has a great soundtrack.
 
IrishNinja

IrishNinja

Member
jay said:
Sure, if you call enjoying the bad remakes of the PSI dungeon themes to be knowledge.
Click to expand...

aw, it was a cool nod at the time...ive heard better on sega arrange/etc albums since but i don't think it's the heinous sin you're making it to be!

you gonna make me post some of the "highlights" of Super Hydlide aren't you
 
S

Shadow Hog

Member
Counter to Rock-and-Roll Racing, since it comes up every goddamn time this subject rolls around: RnRR on the SNES had its music handled by Tim and Geoff Follin, widely considered to be masters of getting amazing sounds out of limited hardware. The Genesis conversions, however, were decidedly not, being handed to somebody who clearly wasn't particularly intimate with the sound chip, and/or was limited by the shitty GEMS sound processor that was ubiquitous in the West.

Tim Follin did do work for a Genesis game - one that was never released (although we've got a leaked prototype out there, so there's that). The soundtrack is pure progressive rock goodness.

Also, we had an entire thread dedicated to good Genesis music, in which I made a lengthy post highlighting some of my favorites from the system, both Western and Japanese in origin:

Shadow Hog said:
AWS Pro Moves Soccer Menu: Jesper Kyd's first work on the Genesis (before he did Adventures of Batman and Robin, Red Zone or Sub-Terrania). I dunno how good the game is (sports games aren't my scene), but there's no way it could live up to a menu theme this kickass.

Bubble and Squeak - The Neverglades: Never played this one, but I rather like the atmosphere this track's got, so darned if I don't want to try it.

Captain America and the Avengers - Stage 1. Really the whole soundtrack, but this is as good an example as any. I have no idea how well the game or the conversion holds up, but music-wise, it kicks the ass of the SNES one (which was really pretty awful all things considered).

Comix Zone - Stage 2-1. Really, the whole soundtrack is pretty awesome rock guitar stuff, but I always had a soft spot for this one; captured the feel of a snowy mountain training ground fairly well, I think.

Contra Hard Corps - "Last Springsteen". This game has such an amazing soundtrack, honestly, and this is probably the most visceral of the lot. So good, Konami reused it for Contra Rebirth's final boss, where it's equally pulse-raising.

Devilish - Intro. Mediocre Breakout/Arkanoid game, to my understanding, but Hitoshi Sakimoto composed, which means it has a great soundtrack, so here we are.

Garfield - Caught in the Act - "Season Finale". Not sure why a game featuring a mediocre newspaper comic icon (albeit the old '80s cartoon was legitimately fun) has such a good techno track in it, but I recall being fairly smitten with this one my first run through the game.

Lethal Enforcers 2: Gun Fighters had a pretty kickass soundtrack conversion from the arcade version. Stage 1-1, 1-2, 2/4 and 3-2 are all pretty much standouts in my mind, although there aren't many YouTube videos of either this version or the arcade one's (doesn't help the sound test in the service menu for the arcade version doesn't let you play any of the music from the game :I).

Master of Monsters - "Standing in the White Fortress". More somber FM synth from Hitoshi Sakimoto. He's really good at this, don't you know?

Mega Man - The Wily Wars - Wily Tower Stage 4. While the game's overall kind of a mediocre port of the first three NES titles, it does have an original campaign hidden in it when you finish them all. While the music for the three Robot Masters you fight is kinda eh, the Wily Castle themes are some kickass stuff. Always kinda liked the Western-ish feel this one has.

Mega Turrican - "Bionic Action" (Stage 1-1). Chris Huelsbeck's soundtracks for the Turrican series have always been kickass, and this is the first (and only) entry in the series where he does the Genesis soundtrack himself (the conversions for the first game and Universal Soldier kinda sound like ass, honestly). It's very much kickass as a result; I actually kinda like it more than the Amiga version...

Midnight Resistance - "Flood of Power". More Hitoshi Sakimoto! This guy really knew how to work an FM synth. That intro's incredibly kickass, too. The arcade version sounds impotent in comparison.

Monster World IV - "Try the Trial". Dunno why I like this one so much, beyond the fact it reminds me a lot of OPL synths on old DOS games. I like nostalgic tickles like that, even if I didn't check out this game until around 2011 or so.

Red Zone - "Retirement". "This nuclear war will create a nuclear winter that will kill most life, and radioactivity will render the world uninhabitable for thousands of years to come. DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR!" Basically, the Game Over screen doesn't fool around - and the music really makes it sink in, too.

Toy Story - "Inside the Claw Machine". Another pretty awesome techno(-ish) piece inside a licensed game. I actually like this version better than the SNES one; the square wave lead works better, I think, than a honky-tonk piano trying to do the same thing. "Really Inside the Claw Machine" was another good one, although it's surprisingly lengthy considering it plays during a timed mission.

Vapor Trail - Main Theme. Seriously, listen to that intro. Does it get more '80s sounding than that? Really brings to mind the kind of kitschy action films you'd get from that era.

Yu Yu Hakusho - Makyou Touitsusen - Mountain Peak. Another game I've never played, but I really like way this one goes for some reason. Wouldn't be out of place in a mountain stage in any given action game, really.
Click to expand...
 
W

Why would you do that?

Member
Sixfortyfive said:
I say with no exaggeration that I prefer how the NES sounds over the SNES, on average.
Click to expand...

Despite not agreeing with your Genesis love, I think I can agree with the above statement. For games/music on both NES and SNES, I usually prefer the NES music. The comment jay made about Bloody Tears being better on the NES was spot-on, for instance.

For me, overall, NES > SNES >>> Genesis.

It's too bad I can't get over the Genesis's twang, but there are some Genesis soundtracks I love despite it, namely Sonic 3, Streets of Rage 2, and Snow Bros.
 
H

HaL64

Member
At the time I owned a Genesis, I also owned a shitty Adlib for my PC, and it reminded me too much of it. SNES was closer to General Midi wavetable cards on PCs.
So at the time, that made it better.
However, going back and playing some games now there was some seriously good tracks. Most have already been mentioned, except for this one:

Listen to Entire Playlist. You will not regret.
 
K

kess

Member
The last game that came out for the Mega Drive in Japan had a multiplatform release, and they both had pretty good sounding music.The SNES has nice presence but the Genesis one has more kick.

Madou Monogatari (1996)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt0tG4QQdW0

SNES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2maFhSxzT1g

Falcom also used the Yamaha chip to good effect, especially since the soundtracks for most of their games were designed with the PC-98 in mind.

Dragon Slayer - Pirate Island

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=temoqGLQ9PM

Alisia Dragoon also has amazing music, but something about it doesn't quite work right unless its being played on the original series of the Model 1 hardware.
 
Mr Nash

Mr Nash

square pies = communism
I much prefer the Genesis' sound, especially music. It just sounds so nice. Much more unique sound. I like a lot of the Yamaha chips from that time, really.
 
J

J@hranimo

Banned
SNES > Genesis sound overall

but...

Genesis >>> SNES as far as the bass and funk and synth songs some games had. Shit was amazing.
 
S

Shadow Hog

Member
kess said:
Alisia Dragoon also has amazing music, but something about it doesn't quite work right unless its being played on the original series of the Model 1 hardware.
Click to expand...
I dunno which Model you'd call this, but yes, it does.

Also, just to throw a bone to the SNES, because I do actually like its sound: why has nobody posted Plok! yet? I mean, yeah, it's just Tim Follin being Tim Follin again, but come on. How can't you adore that backing guitar?
 
R

rhizomatic

Member
Beerman462 said:
Seems like Genesis fans prefer the synth sound of the Genesis and SNES fans prefer the realistic sound of the SNES...
Click to expand...

I'm partial to the SNES as a whole, but I also love the sound of FM synthesis, so I like both chips more or less equally.

The Genesis easily had better synth sounds and punchier bass, but obviously the SNES did realistic instruments better, due to being sample-based (it also allowed for things like Earthbound's soundtrack to exist, which relied heavily on samples, especially during its weirder tracks; I don't really know why there weren't more games that actually took advantage of the SNES sound chip's sample playback like that).

And as people have already said, the two chips are really suited to different styles of music.

The fact that all video game music these days is streamed instead of sequenced is kind of sad. On the one hand, there aren't any limitations to video game music anymore, and it can sound like anything at all, but on the other, I really like how older machines had sound hardware with a distinctive character to it.
 
H

Herne

Member
The Mega Drive's sound was too screechy for my ears, especially with the earlier model - I remember all too well the screeching, staticy explosions in Desert Strike. The SNES, by comparison, has a much nicer, softer, warmer sound that you could recognise instantly, much like the SID chip of the C64.

A Link to the Past, Blackhawk, Starfleet Academy, Street Fighter 2, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country (Aquatic Ambience!), Chrono Trigger... oh man, I can hear them all now. Beautiful sound.
 
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