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[DiipuSurotu]

A very rare kind of video game music is original compositions that are made using the instruments (or "soundfonts") of old, existing games. My favorite are those that use SNES soundfonts. Here are a few examples:


Final Fantasy VI instruments:

Keep On Fighting by Jackdaw

Nothing Can Stop the Empire by Jackdaw

The Falcon ~Daryl's Theme~ by William Kage​

Secret of Mana instruments:

Eternity by William Kage

Son of Erebos by William Kage​

Chrono Trigger instruments:

Leene's Pier by William Kage

Alfador by William Kage

Wildflowers by Paul Emil Levasseur

Dream Devourer by FwugRadiation​

As you may notice William Kage is particularly prolific. There is also a website called SNESology that tries to gather tracks of this type, but the site is by no means comprehensive.

GAF, were you aware of this type of video game music? Do you like it?

 

[Slamtastic]

I LOVE IT!

I would listen to a ton of these, if more existed.

Super Marcato Bros have some good ones

On a related note, not original compositions, but I also love soundfont "demake" remixes.

There's things like SNES Generations and the 12GB of Christmas series.

 

[ErasureAcer]

Daryl's Theme is the only one I find somewhat listenable. Love the sound palettes to all the games. Not impressed by these songs however.

 

[Shredderi]

One of the best I've heard is actually for this Megaman X fangame called 'Megaman X: Corrupted'.

 

[jman2050]

FwugRadiation is the Undertale guy btw, not that it isn't immediately obvious when you listen to that Dream Devourer track.

 

[snow in jamaica]

Kendall McIntosh - Lonely Little Mountain Village
Joshua Morse - Turtle Dance 3 (This one uses some FM synths as well.)
Joshua Morse - Summers Plaza (Fallen Down originated in this album! It's pretty alright.)
Shnabubula - Grape Kid
Blitz Lunar - Ulterior Boss Battle

 

[RetroGameAudio]

I haven't had a chance to listen to your tracks yet since I'm mobile, but are you familiar with or have used SNESverb at all? It's a plugin that allows you to imitate the echo and reverb effects of the SNES. Very handy and cool bit of software.

 

[caffeware]

love Eternity by Kage

 

[Flying Toaster]

This is awesome. There was an entire music sub genre that was dedicated to this in my home town back in 2000 it also expanded into the sub genre of "noise". Very cool topic.

 

[Opa-Pa]

Toby's have been my favorites for years and I was ecstatic when I learned he was making a game. To think I assumed all I'd get from it was a good soundtrack... Hahaha.

 

[chronic_archaic]

I plan on doing something like this eventually using Commodore 64 and Sega Genesis sound hardware - not using game specific soundfonts mind you.

I like the hardware in the SNES, but I feel like it's orchestral sounding effects can be reproduced much better with a Mellotron or something similar. One thing I want to do is cover Cele's Theme but with Mellotron strings. In my mind in just seems like it would sound gorgeous. The SNES strings/violins are very reminiscent of the Mellotron to me.

 

[RetroGameAudio]

The SNES strings/violins are very reminiscent of the Mellotron to me.

Because of the looped sample aspect, perhaps?

Most SNES samples are well under a second in length, so in most sustaining sounds you can usually spot a sort of pulsing sound as it loops.

 

[chronic_archaic]

Because of the looped sample aspect, perhaps?

Most SNES samples are well under a second in length, so in most sustaining sounds you can usually spot a sort of pulsing sound as it loops.

It's certainly the reverb/echo effect going on there. You described it very well - I had no idea that SNES samples were so short, but it does make sense now if I think about how a lot songs were composed on it. But, in my example - Cele's Theme, those really big string chords kinda rise in volume like a Mellotron too. I don't know, it always struck me as being a perfect fit for the instrument.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

I haven't had a chance to listen to your tracks yet since I'm mobile, but are you familiar with or have used SNESverb at all? It's a plugin that allows you to imitate the echo and reverb effects of the SNES. Very handy and cool bit of software.

If you're talking to me, just for clarification none of the tracks I posted are by me! I wish I could write music, haha. Just a huge fan of retro video game sounds.

 

[lazygecko]

Onslaught by Joshua Morse is made exclusively out of SNES samples (mostly Capcom games it sounds like).

Anyway, if you want to make your own SNES style music I would probably suggest either learning to design your own samples or get Super Audio Cart which has a large pool of authentic SNES style instruments. Because I'm pretty sure selling music made using samples ripped from commercial games isn't technically legal.

Because of the looped sample aspect, perhaps?

Most SNES samples are well under a second in length, so in most sustaining sounds you can usually spot a sort of pulsing sound as it loops.

It becomes more noticeable as you venture further up in pitch with the instrument, making it loop faster. In some cases this can even start to yield amplitude modulation artifacts from very fast loops, resulting in added inharmonic content, so you gotta be real careful.

In most soundtracks regarded as technically accomplished, they prioritized the sample budgt in a way so that lead instruments were usually very short, not amounting to much more than a simple waveform after the attack, so that way they can allocate more space to rhythm section instruments to make them sound more natural. For very percussive type sounds like pianos, mallets etc they would also often cover up the fact that they don't have realistic decays by adding repeated echo notes. It's all the little things such as these that make up the trademark "SNES feel".