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SNES vs Genesis Sound

D

dogen

Member
T.Slothrop said:
Tim Follin's Time Trax is about the only Genesis soundtrack that gives the SNES a run for it's money. The Genesis does generally have a "cleaner" sound than the SNES, but in most people's hands it didn't sound that much better than the NES imo.
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Time Trax is the only good music on the system? ok...

DonMigs85 said:
Wut. The Genesis had the scratchy low-KHz sounding music. The SNES samples were rich and smooth (Mario World and Pilotwings for early examples)
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At least the genesis could do harsh or scratchy sounds when you wanted it to.
 
D

dogen

Member
Nanashrew said:
Personally it depends, I can go SNES or Genesis it depends on the music. It's why I often like to go out of my way to hear covers of Nintendo tunes with the Genesis and vice versa.

I actually quite like this Genesis cover of National Park from Pokemon G/S/C for example [/QUOTE] Here's rocket hideout [URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6LxIGJMaI4

And some chrono trigger on genesis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFapH8wqwYY
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0

00ich

Member
H

Herne

Member
inner-G said:
SNES is the pinnacle of old school game music.
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FreedomFighter said:
That would actually be the NES, brah.
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Ahem!

6581.jpg
 
J

jett

D-Member
T

T.Slothrop

Member
dogen said:
Time Trax is the only good music on the system? ok...
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That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it's one of the few examples of Genesis music that feels as layered as a lot of SNES music. You can argue all day that the Genesis has an awesome retro lo fi synth thing going on, but it all has a chip tunes quality to it that just has a simpler sound to it. In some ways it holds up better on its own. But against certain kinds of games it just doesn't do what the snes could.
 
D

dogen

Member
T.Slothrop said:
That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it's one of the few examples of Genesis music that feels as layered as a lot of SNES music. You can argue all day that the Genesis has an awesome retro lo fi synth thing going on, but it all has a chip tunes quality to it that just has a simpler sound to it. In some ways it holds up better on its own. But against certain kinds of games it just doesn't do what the snes could.
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Well, that's a compositional choice I think. The genesis was capable of equal or greater polyphony as the SNES. With software mixing 12 channels is possible.
 
L

lazygecko

Member
T.Slothrop said:
That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it's one of the few examples of Genesis music that feels as layered as a lot of SNES music. You can argue all day that the Genesis has an awesome retro lo fi synth thing going on, but it all has a chip tunes quality to it that just has a simpler sound to it. In some ways it holds up better on its own. But against certain kinds of games it just doesn't do what the snes could.
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I'm sorry, but you're just presenting your own nebulous feelings and impressions as fact here. I could just as easily argue the exact same arguments in the opposite direction, but back them up with something more tangible. The vast majority of SNES music sounds equally "simple" and "chiptune" in their own way, since for most instruments they can't fit any complexity or natural movement in timbre in the sustained tones after the attack. 90% of what makes up their sound becomes essentially just a simple, static waveform.
 
0

00ich

Member
dogen said:
Well, that's a compositional choice I think. The genesis was capable of equal or greater polyphony as the SNES. With software mixing 12 channels is possible.
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It's ten, isn't it? Six first class FM-channels (or five and a digital one) from the Yamaha YM2612 and 4 from the basic SMS or Game Gear sound chip.
 
L

lazygecko

Member
00ich said:
It's ten, isn't it? Six first class FM-channels (or five and a digital one) from the Yamaha YM2612 and 4 from the basic SMS or Game Gear sound chip.
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PSG channels are either 3 or 4 depending on if you want extra control of the noise channel. The PCM output can be software mixed with several virtual channels (usually it's 2, but it can be more). The third FM channel also allows complete separate control of the operators, so that means you can essentially treat it like 2 2op channels (which you can arguably do on any other FM channel, just without controling the 2 tones independantly from eachother), or even 4 sine waves. All in all, the polyphony is pretty flexible and variable.
 
H

Hylian7

Member
I absolutely hate Genesis sounds. It sounds like nails on a chalkboard and is just grating on the ears. SNES is far and away better.
 
D

dogen

Member
lazygecko said:
PSG channels are either 3 or 4 depending on if you want extra control of the noise channel. The PCM output can be software mixed with several virtual channels (usually it's 2, but it can be more). The third FM channel also allows complete separate control of the operators, so that means you can essentially treat it like 2 2op channels (which you can arguably do on any other FM channel, just without controling the 2 tones independantly from eachother), or even 4 sine waves. All in all, the polyphony is pretty flexible and variable.
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Ah yeah, forgot about channel 3 there.

00ich said:
It's ten, isn't it? Six first class FM-channels (or five and a digital one) from the Yamaha YM2612 and 4 from the basic SMS or Game Gear sound chip.
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Well, there's a homebrew developed genesis engine that does 5 FM, 4 software mixed sample channels, and 4 PSG channels(I count it as 3). So, 13-15 channels is feasible, if they're fine with 2op instruments or even plain sine waves.
 
M

Mupod

Member
Opa-Pa said:
The main reason you see mostly examples of Genesis goodness is that saying the SNES had great music isn't a unpopular opinion at all, while claiming that the Genesis was a capable of good music (an understatement) is often seen as weird.

The concensus is that the SNES is "literally better" even though the debate is far more complicated and you end up having to throw tons of good Genesis soundtracks at people to even listen to you.

And for the record, the SNES has probably the most soundtracks I love from any system out there, and I still think the Genesis' capabilities are more impressive. I love to learn about its music so this thread is always a delight to me.
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yeah there is a bit of inferiority complex-ish stuff going on, like when you want to refer a lesser known game to someone you have to be a bit more pushy to even get acknowledgement.

There are many classic SNES soundtracks that I absolutely love, but I don't need to post in a thread saying how good Chrono Trigger's soundtrack is. Everyone already knows (nevermind how strong the nintendo/square RPG fanbase is here). Maybe a tiny percentage of those people have heard something from Thunder Force 4. Even the most famous soundtracks like Streets of Rage 2 are obscure compared to, say FF6.

If I had to list my favorite game soundtracks of all time you'd see both Genesis and SNES stuff on there. You'd probably even see SNES games above. But overall in recent years I've started to appreciate Genesis soundtracks (and synth stuff in general) much more. It also helps that I finally got to experience putting a good set of headphones into a model 1 in which I'd replaced the resistors in the preamp. It's a loud as hell bass monster and it's glorious.
 
Leatherface

Leatherface

Member
Genesis had a few stand out soundtracks in it's catalog but in general absolutely pales in comparison to the SNES in the sound department. Half the games you guys are throwing out there as examples of awesome Genesis music might as well be cats in heat as far as my ears are concerned. The best way I can describe the sound and what it feels like in my brain, is sharp...nails on the chalkboard sharp.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
Mupod said:
If I had to list my favorite game soundtracks of all time you'd see both Genesis and SNES stuff on there. You'd probably even see SNES games above. But overall in recent years I've started to appreciate Genesis soundtracks (and synth stuff in general) much more. It also helps that I finally got to experience putting a good set of headphones into a model 1 in which I'd replaced the resistors in the preamp. It's a loud as hell bass monster and it's glorious.
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Do you have any links/info on replacing those resistors?

Opa-Pa said:
We could save so much precious time if more posters were this honest lmao.
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That's really, basically it, isn't it? Except you don't really see people who love the Genesis saying how shit the SNES sounds. But it's frequently vice-versa.
 
Cute Dragon Here

Cute Dragon Here

Member
I'm beginning to think that it's probably an acquired taste of sorts... For some folks it'll never sound right.

I do love a good kick out of that Mega Drive sound from time to time, including music that tries to emulate that style, but for longer term listening, hats off to the "bad" Super Nintendo.
 
Sapiens

Sapiens

Member
Opa-Pa said:
We could save so much precious time if more posters were this honest lmao.
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Yabut, when I was a kid, the summer seemed like it laster forever. Is time so precious, tho?

Shaneus said:
That's really, basically it, isn't it? Except you don't really see people who love the Genesis saying how shit the SNES sounds. But it's frequently vice-versa.
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This. I love the SNES and MD equally in every way, warts, limitations, differences and all. It is so odd to me people choose to still console warrior over this stuff. War's over, dudes.
 
tkscz

tkscz

Member
Shaneus said:
That's really, basically it, isn't it? Except you don't really see people who love the Genesis saying how shit the SNES sounds. But it's frequently vice-versa.
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Have you not been reading this thread from the start? It's been nothing but war. I mean, it's ok to say you like one more than the other but people here have been hating the other. Like I said before, both are capable of great music, it just depends on who is making that music.
 
P

PdotMichael

Banned
Sapiens is fighting the war for years now.

Was looking for some information about the SNES soundchip (refreshing the soundram in real time)
And found a thread from 2009 who already did his people who don't prefer the Genesis sound are haters and deaf stick.

It's kind of sad
 
Z

zmet

Member
Just wanted to ask a question to those who are knowledgeable about the Genesis sound hardware. Can the PSG channels do stereo panning? Of all the tracks I've listen to that use the PSG channels, none have ever done any sort of panning.
 
M

Mental Atrophy

Banned
zmet said:
Just wanted to ask a question to those who are knowledgeable about the Genesis sound hardware. Can the PSG channels do stereo panning? Of all the tracks I've listen to that use the PSG channels, none have ever done any sort of panning.
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It's mono only, though the Game Gear version of the chip was extended to add stereo output.
 
U

User123456

Member
Opa-Pa said:
We could save so much precious time if more posters were this honest lmao.
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Thing is, I grew up with the SNES and now, so many years later, the MegaDrive is my absolute favorite hands down. The raw purity of the MegaDrive's sound quality far outweighs the versatility of the SNES chip because of how compressed/muffled everything sounds.
 
Journey

Journey

Banned
Timu said:
This thread proves how amazing Genesis music really is!!!
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It proves 2 things actually, how great the system was at making interesting mixes when programmers used it like an instrument, and at the same time, how bad it could be at replicating music which was SNES' strength, but with the drawback of needing higher compression.
 
cireza

cireza

Member
tkscz

tkscz

Member
Rukumouru said:
Thing is, I grew up with the SNES and now, so many years later, the MegaDrive is my absolute favorite hands down. The raw purity of the MegaDrive's sound quality far outweighs the versatility of the SNES chip because of how compressed/muffled everything sounds.
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This is what I don't understand here. I've been listening to a lot of SNES and Genesis music because of this thread and not heard any compression or muffled sound. Maybe it's because of my sound system, maybe it's because people were able to decompress the sound. But as far as I can hear, it's not compressed.
 
Journey

Journey

Banned
tkscz said:
This is what I don't understand here. I've been listening to a lot of SNES and Genesis music because of this thread and not heard any compression or muffled sound. Maybe it's because of my sound system, maybe it's because people were able to decompress the sound. But as far as I can hear, it's not compressed.
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You can tell when the same soundtrack is compared to the SNES version, the Genesis version usually sounds crisper, if that makes sense.

Genesis was a cool musical instrument, but the SNES wasn't trying to be one, it used a modern approach like what is used today. If Halo or God of War soundtrack was attempted on the Genesis vs Snes, the Snes would pile drive the Genesis on a bed of spikes, sure the Snes version would have muffled chanting monks, but the Genesis monks would sound like an experiment from a digital renaissance fair.
 
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