Absolutely agree with this, BUT I will always prefer this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tPoBo9vgrg
, over this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tPoBo9vgrg
And I think this is a good example because the Golvellius soundtrack is one of the best on the system. Yes: there are certain songs that sounds better in FM, but, as a whole, I'd always choose the PSG version. Why? Because the difference is EXACTLY what's shown in the example: I feel there is something dull and lifeless in the FM version, I miss some PSG punch.
Something similar happens with ALL the comparissons I've made between PSG and FM Master System soundtracks: R-Type, WonderBoy III... I just prefer the PSG soundtrack.
Your links are the same thing, but I found the real one from the same uploader
That example is a good one of a relatively limp use of FM. But in that uploader's FM version, the FM is recorded at a lower volume and is emulated, which makes it sound weaker than it does in reality. Interestingly I just compared it to the real thing and while it otherwise sounds better in real life, that track actually clips on my actual Mark III (or maybe it's my setup somehow actually hmm...)
Have you ever listened on a real system plugged into a good sound system? Just like with a Mega Drive, you
need to listen to FM on a good sound system. The actual notes are much richer, and bass punches through. I never played MS R-Type back in the day, and now listening to both, the PSG sounds like an early Famicom game, but the FM version punches like a Mega Drive. Most of the Golvellius soundtrack hits much harder in FM, it looks and sounds like a late 80s arcade game, instead of looking the part but sounding like a Colecovision.
I think it's also likely we have nostalgia for particular sound chip sounds too. When I hear a new Famciom style tune that's well done I love it (eg the Famicom/NES mini menu music), I love it, despite it being kind of silly today. People who grew up with the Commodore 64 love the 'warble' sound common in its game library (because it only had three channels so they used it as a way to create a new sound), and make retro music in its style, but I loathe it.
For me the FM sound chip sounds like the arcade, which is probably what I have nostalgia for, because so many arcade games used FM by Capcom, Taito, Sega etc. Many Master System games were ports of arcade games that used FM audio originally, and so unless I played a game as a kid on Master System, when I hear both these days, FM sounds better. I mean, R-Type FM sounds much more like the arcade than the tinny PSG version. I actually did play WB3 as a kid on MS, and always thought it sounded pretty crappy, so when I got FM a few years ago it made me like the game a lot more
So I guess that's my bias, to arcade sounding games. Ironically enough I think a lot of Mega Drive games do not sound like my 'arcade sound' nostalgia, especially western developed MD games which I almost universally loathe the soundtracks of (generally the second half of the MD's life as outside of Sega, Japanese devs gave up on it). Amiga style robot farts etc. Japanese/Early Mega Drive arcade games are often killer though, I could listen to Zero Wing all day long.
It's such a weird design choice to first have FM sound as an add-on on Mark III, then build it into the Master System, but only in Japan. Like what were they thinking?!
Just Sega being Sega. They released a new console or add-on almost every year for most of the 80s.
1983 SG1000
1984 SC3000, SG1000 II (while both were SG1000 compatible, they had significant hardware changes)
1985 Mark III
1986 Mark III FM
1987 Master System
1988 Mega Drive