EPSYLON EAGLE
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SNES vs Genesis Sound
- Thread starter Beerman462
- Start date
EPSYLON EAGLE
Member
Cool Genesis underrated OST
Of course a great artist can overcome limitations but in terms of pure sound processing its not even a fair fight.
Snes just flat out had better sound. No debate. Individual games is something different and would come down to individual artists.
No you can't lol.
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.
EPSYLON EAGLE
Member
Can Can Lemmings
Super Nes
Genesis
Genesis version destroy the boring Super Nes ost.
Super Nes
Genesis
Genesis version destroy the boring Super Nes ost.
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GreatnessRD
Member
Genesis! SNES was for Mickey Mouse and his friends, lol
hikarutilmitt
Member
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.
cireza
Member
Wonko_C
Member
hikarutilmitt
Member
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.
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>SNES version
>oomph
whatever lol
and the arcade version is simply too busy
about the samples, maybe. depends on how much space was left in the cart i guess
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KyanMehwulfe
Member
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.
EPSYLON EAGLE
Member
error
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EPSYLON EAGLE
Member
Western Genesis ost's tend to sound very similar, but the Akklaim sound driver does a good job.
Genesis
Snes
For my taste this round goes to Genesis.
EPSYLON EAGLE
Member
EPSYLON EAGLE
Member
hikarutilmitt
Member
EtherMagic
Member
Genesis did a few things better
Sound wasn't one of them.
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.
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DynamiteCop!
Banned
I'd challenge the SNES to have anything that sounds as remotely cool as this...
Let them build, such memorable tunes.
Also honorable mentions.
Let them build, such memorable tunes.
Also honorable mentions.
EPSYLON EAGLE
Member
Guys Surging Aura only Japan release RPG have some incredible BGM's
mild sriracha
Member
Some SNES games sound fuller/more epic than 90% of MD games.
Some MD games sound catchier than 90% of SNES games.
Some of the music re-arranged by fans for MD are absolutely fantastic.
Konami
Capcom
Some MD games sound catchier than 90% of SNES games.
Some of the music re-arranged by fans for MD are absolutely fantastic.
Konami
Capcom
mild sriracha
Member
more
mild sriracha
Member
Personally I think this demonstrates how to get the most mileage out of "electric guitar" in FM sound.
EPSYLON EAGLE
Member
Design de som incrível !!!
DunDunDunpachi
Patient MembeR
This tune is sweet.
EPSYLON EAGLE
Member
Long time has passed, the thread not moved so much, a have a question, The Genesis outputs the sound at 52khz surpassing the SNES's 32khz standard?
This is really true???
This is really true???
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Genesis had the better sound overall. All the games, Sega games in particular, had something about them that made them unique and different. Sure snes had a superior chip and capable of doing more but something about the genesis made it unique and special to me.
I can hear alot of genesis sound effects and music in my head even today.
I can hear alot of genesis sound effects and music in my head even today.
I'd like to hear the snes pump out some guitar like this
EDIT:
lol I forgot I posted the exact same song 3 years ago in this thread.
Let's remedy with some nice obscure song for SNES:
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
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.
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.
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Soltype
Member
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.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
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.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Doom: 32x vs. SNES. Pretty sure the SNES audio was even better than when I was playing the PC version.
RetroAV
Member
The Sparkster comparison is one of the fairest I've ever heard. Neither sounds "bad" per se and I think it does a good job playing to both platforms' strengths. The other 2 comparisons though...I know for a fact could have been represented better on the Genesis/Mega Drive. Just listen to Savaged Regime's stuff on youtube:
and even more of his stuff here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbQQcXMh_ELHjiXY4dbRD6A/videos
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DouglasQuade
Member
Genesis will always have this over SNES:
alabtrosMyster
Banned
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).
However, the graphical differences in MK2 and 3 were much less of an issue, MK 1 has its issues on both systems (the SNES version has horrible input lag, this is really what killed that version, everybody could see it looked better, people would have played it together even without the blood).
I would add this, just amazing piece of work:
RetroAV
Member
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...
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alabtrosMyster
Banned
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.
That being said, the muffled sound of the samples is a real problem, most SNES don't deal with it very well, my only problem with the Genesis is that at some point occidental devs started to release game using some sound driver made by Sega that had a nice gui--but it came with some seriously bad instruments, which many used... So we have that bad sound problem.
So back then I really liked the Genesis in the games it had great music made for it, but after the SNES came out I saw few Genesis games that sounded great--even as I went back to early titles (Phantasy Star II, Revenge of Shinobi, Thunder Force III, After Burner, etc.) and saw it could do better.
So now, I go back to what's posted here with my headphones on and I can see how the best of the Genesis sound has more definition, more channel separation, and is clearer, while the SNES's low sample sounds often kills it for me, the music lose all its edge and definition... However the average SNES game sounded much better than the average Genesis game.
Take a listen to the 7th level music of Thunder Force IV
or After Burner's name input screen music, it feels so "arcade"
Kazekage1981
Member
streets of rage 2. Best music ever.
Come On Tars
Member
cireza
Member
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.
MegaDrive has much clearer sound overall.
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