EPSYLON EAGLE
Member
That Ghostbusters track isn't what I would highlight as a great genesis music..doesn't even compare to Vapor Trail!
This thread is not only about technical pinnacles.
Yes its simple, but nice
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That Ghostbusters track isn't what I would highlight as a great genesis music..doesn't even compare to Vapor Trail!
Of course a great artist can overcome limitations but in terms of pure sound processing its not even a fair fight.People say SNES everywhere but I don't think that matters. It's all about what games had good music.
Of course a great artist can overcome limitations
SNES had better orchestral type songs, while Genesis had better upbeat, pulse pounding type of tracks. SNES obviously had better vocals. Games that required emulating real instruments like rpg soundtracks were better on snes. Electronic type songs, like techno were better on Genesis. Why that is exactly, I have no idea.
SNES can play samples of instruments that the genesis might have more trouble reproducing, and a single sample can have multiple instruments or chords baked into it. This makes it easier to get a fatter, orchestra type sound out of it. The reason it's not as good at electronic styles is because the samples are heavily filtered and often low quality due to the small audio ram. Generally the audio coming out of a SNES doesn't quite have the punch of a Mega Drive.
for example
This is a pretty bad example for the snes I gotta admit, but I picked it because there's a big difference between the two in terms of clarity. Something like sunset riders is much better.
Ironically this is one of the cases where I felt Konami did an excellent job with porting the arcade music to the SNES. In fact, in this case, it's like the SNES version is slightly soft but the Genesis version sounds, I dunno, compressed a bit, it's way too tinny.
I mean, compare the arcade version:
It honestly sounds like each is missing something the other lacks. This speaks well to them playing to their strengths.
I made a quick and dirty mashup of both with Audacity and here's the result:
There's an awesome genesis cover of neon night riders that incorporates some elements of the arcade soundtrack.
This actually sounds really awesome!
This actually doesn't sound too bad, but it's also missing so much oomph from the arcade and SNES versions. Arcade version is clearly the best, but the SNES did a ton of work with it. I'm wondering if maybe it being so complicated with the samples is why it didn't show up in Hyperstone Heist.
Demolition Man has a great soundtrack on both consoles, i could not choose which is the better, the Genesis version retains some surprisingly good reverb effects, the Super Nes track sounds a bit more atmospherichal.
Genesis the 1:30 guitar sound is really great
Snes
last to this post but those tracks and especially that sound effect you pointed out reminded me soooo much of Shadowrun that I just had to say something. the effect at 2:10 or so too, could have mistaken it for Shadowrun.
Genesis did a few things better
Sound wasn't one of them.
Design de som incrível !!!
I'd like to hear the snes pump out some guitar like this
Overall SNES is better. Ya, you can get some good tunes like the Streets of Rage composer, Midnight Resistance and some throat scratchy sports talk sports, but SNES' sound chip was way better. Street Fighter and Konami games were especially good.
In SNES games, you could actually get clear brass instrument music, while Genesis was tons of muddy techno stuff.
Even a a game like Actraiser had this cool intro. And that game was a launch title, or pretty close to one.
When there were apples to apples comparisons, pretty sure SNES had better sound most of the time. Of course sound is subjective on personal tastes. Some people like grunge. Some people like country twanging. But the sound chip in SNES was much better hands down.SNES didn't have clear instruments.The genesis most definitely had better brass because it handled instrument timbre better.Snes' strong suit was pads, strings and instruments where 8kb was enough to capture the instruments whole range of sound.
When there were apples to apples comparisons, pretty sure SNES had better sound most of the time. Of course sound is subjective on personal tastes. Some people like grunge. Some people like country twanging. But the sound chip in SNES was much better hands down.
Unless you had the SNES and Genesis connected to a sound system, the muffled samples were not too much of an issue, same for the often lacking sound separation the SNES had (maybe because it had less channels).This is just a bad example using todays HD tech. Considering we were all playing on 480i CRT TV's back then, you couldn't tell the resolution difference back in 94', all you could tell was the SNES version had better frame rate, better sound, better color, and in some cases more objects in the background (floating munks, ect).
Best way to describe the Genesis sound was it had no base and less instrumentals (if you wanna call em that) in the background. The sound effects were brutal aswel.
The only thing that Genesis did better then SNES was it's Mhz, it was double the speed of the SNES, this made sports games so much better/playable on Genesis. Play NHL 94 on SNES (or even Madden) and your gonna run into massive slowdown at times, Genesis was SMOOTH and fast, didn't skip a beat.
7 minutes masterpiece :
I remember playing both Super Castlevania IV (SNES) and Sunsoft's Batman (GENESIS) for the 1st time, on the same day over a friend's house! Both soundtracks dropped my jaw and blew me away! Man, what a time that was...Still one of the best soundtracks ever is Castlvania 4, that puts SNES over the top
Yes Actraiser had a great soundtrack, and it showcase a type of music the Genesis wasn't well suited for... What I find the most annoying with the Genesis is that it doesn't handle sound sample very well, for sound effects in games it would be great to have at least a better quality, the typical genesis "fart" noise sound effect wasn't great.Overall SNES is better. Ya, you can get some good tunes like the Streets of Rage composer, Midnight Resistance and some throat scratchy sports talk sports, but SNES' sound chip was way better. Street Fighter and Konami games were especially good.
In SNES games, you could actually get clear brass instrument music, while Genesis was tons of muddy techno stuff.
Even a a game like Actraiser had this cool intro. And that game was a launch title, or pretty close to one.
yepSeems like Genesis fans prefer the synth sound of the Genesis and SNES fans prefer the realistic sound of the SNES...
Well that's not the case for all electronic sounds as the MegaDrive uses a FM synth which is going to blow away the SNES. Also the MegaDrive is much better at bass and drums as the console has clearer sound and less compression in that regard.When there were apples to apples comparisons, pretty sure SNES had better sound most of the time.