"The Genesis sound is bad"

[Ikagura]

Remember when this preconception was fairly popular around gaming circles?

Like yeah, when a composer used GEMS most of the time it had that twangy sound that could get ear gratting (I kinda blame emulators since you're supposed to hear it through an old CRT but whatever).

Whereas Japanese composer managed to make the console scream from the depth of its lungs

Some still managed to make good sounding GEMS soundtracks

It all depended on the composer's willingness on making something good.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I always rather preferred the Genesis' sound... it honestly gave me the impression of being some heavy metal band's debut album, before they mastered (or even figured out) audio engineering. It's gritty, a little fuzzy, and damn good.

 

[Clippy]

I remember this being a sticking point for people who talked about games made for both Genesis and SNES, especially when SNES was the target platform and the Genesis port was an afterthought. Blaming the Genesis sound chip for not reproducing sounds made for a different console is kinda lame. If anything's to blame here it's the lazy devs at the time. Those who vibed with it knew how to make it sing.

 

[Ikagura]

I always rather preferred the Genesis' sound... it honestly gave me the impression of being some heavy metal band's debut album, before they mastered (or even figured out) audio engineering. It's gritty, a little fuzzy, and damn good.

The SNES had a great soundchip but the downside of sample based means that even if orchestra is better and that there are less chances to make it sound awful on the console than a mediocre ost on the Genesis it will also sound muffled because of that.

Genesis has indeed a "crispier" sound compared to it.

Techno and Metal work wonder on the console too so it's not too bad if orchestra is worse.

I love the SoR Trilogy ost (yes, even 3 despite it's "avant-garde" sound direction) but I feel that it's used too often as a "joker" counterargument to disprove naysayers (with Sonic even if I think that aside from Green Hills and Starlight the OST isn't that great).

I remember this being a sticking point for people who talked about games made for both Genesis and SNES, especially when SNES was the target platform and the Genesis port was an afterthought. Blaming the Genesis sound chip for not reproducing sounds made for a different console is kinda lame. If anything's to blame here it's the lazy devs at the time. Those who vibed with it knew how to make it sing.

I dislike when people blame the console for something that is more about the devs (or publisher rushing it).

Also making a game for both platforms was basically asking to make the same game twice back then.

 

[DunkeyKong]

It is when they're trying to figure out how it works works so it might've sound to some people, but the worst? But the worst? Far from it

Still have one of the best OSTs for the 16 bit era of gaming though

 

[Ikagura]

It is when they're trying to figure out how it works works so it might've sound to some people, but the worst? But the worst? Far from it

Still have one of the best OSTs for the 16 bit era of gaming

I love Sonic 3&K even over Sonic 2. I'd even be fine with Sonic 3 alone as well.

But I'll keep both Sonic and SoR aside as these have been a bit overused as examples to disprove that claim.

This one is probably one of my top 5 themes on the hardware

 

[DunkeyKong]

I love Sonic 3&K even over Sonic 2. I'd even be fine with Sonic 3 alone as well.

But I'll keep both Sonic and SoR aside as these have been a bit overused as examples to disprove that claim.

This one is probably one of my top 5 themes on the hardware

That's reasonable, I'll also give a shout to classics like Castlevania: Bloodlines

Michiru Yamanese's magic

 

[GundamJehutyKai]

For the longest time I agreed with this sentiment when compared to the SNES, which was the main competitor. But over the years I've grown to appreciate the MD/Genesis sound more, especially as I got to play more games via emulation.

Some games do truly sound awful and even those tracks I want to like, I sometimes can't due to them sounding just too harsh and scratchy (sonic spinball, I'm looking at you!) but there are some wonderful soundtracks in the library for sure. And when the games are multiplatform, more often than not, I side with the SNES sound over the MD but overall, I'd say now that the MD has some of the best game soundtracks of that console gen, but also a number of the absolute worst!

 

[Xdqwerty]

Blame both western developers and mediocre soundchip emulation

 

[Ikagura]

That's reasonable, I'll also give a shout to classics like Castlevania: Bloodlines

Michiru Yamanese's magic

As much as I love Rondo and Super IV's OST this one still stays as my favourite. Okay, Rondo's cheating by using a CD.

Super has a more experimental ost imo so it actually sounds less "Castlevania-ish" than Castlevania I-III + RoB.

For the longest time I agreed with this sentiment when compared to the SNES, which was the main competitor. But over the years I've grown to appreciate the MD/Genesis sound more, especially as I got to play more games via emulation.

Some games do truly sound awful and even those tracks I want to like, I sometimes can't due to them sounding just too harsh and scratchy (sonic spinball, I'm looking at you!) but there are some wonderful soundtracks in the library for sure. And when the games are multiplatform, more often than not, I side with the SNES sound over the MD but overall, I'd say now that the MD has some of the best game soundtracks of that console gen, but also a number of the absolute worst!

Sonic Spinball has some genuinely interesting themes that are just not arranged the best.

I love when people made actual "Yamaha remixes" that could fit the actual hardware like this one

I also think that emulators aren't fully accurate to the hardware sound so this is why some may think harshly of the games.

Blame both western developers and mediocre soundchip emulation

Sega should've been stricter on the rules about game developing. They even had their own twist on the Seal of Quality.

 

[Xdqwerty]

They even had their own twist on the Seal of Quality.

It only worked for people to verify if it was a bootleg or not

 

[cjl8336]

Anything that is from Yuzo Koshiro will sound good

 

[Ikagura]

It only worked for people to verify if it was a bootleg or not

Nintendo knew that if a dev could provide enough funds to them they'd be able to make bigger games.

It was still stupid of them to limit to a certain amount of games per year.

Anything that is from Yuzo Koshiro will sound good

*Cue SoR 3ost*

Just joking, I love his Ys and Etrian Odyssey soundtracks.

 

[Stingy Perry]

My only gripe with SEGA’s GEMS is the fart like sound fix on some games like El Viento and X-Men.

 

[RanmyakuIchi]

Genesis sounded great when in the right hands, a lot of devs back then just got lazy or prioritized the SNES version. How can anyone hear Streets of Rage 2 or Shinobi 3 and think the Genesis had bad sound?

 

[What's His Face]

Gems sound driver. Made composing easy, but it also made the composition into

 

[SNEESON]

Some game composers reached exceptional heights with the Genesis/Mega Drive soundchip.
Unfortunately, there are many games with one soundtrack for both systems and the Snes kicked Sega's ass (virtually) every time.
There's also the fact that many Sega composers had their own Sega style, for example, Adventures of Batman & Robin replicated Shirley Walker's beautiful orchestral score on Snes but got Sega sound on Genesis.
Batman Returns same deal.
If you're into the "grunge" sound I could understand why you'd prefer Sega and some tracks are awesome here and there, but for me Snes always had the clear advantage in this fight with frequent orchestral beauty (comparable to CD) that Genesis couldn't achieve.

 

[bjork]

I love early Genesis music, a lot of the launch period stuff is what I think of when I think of Genesis music. The weird grindy metal sound that came later, I like far less.

I'm not super knowledgeable, but there's some hardware difference between genesis models as far as soundchips, right? I remember people talking years and years ago about how the model 1 was what you wanted for the best sound, and then within the model 1 variations, you wanted one that didn't display the sega enterprises screen when you power it on. I don't know if that was legit or not, though.

 

[Xdqwerty]

I love early Genesis music, a lot of the launch period stuff is what I think of when I think of Genesis music. The weird grindy metal sound that came later, I like far less.

I'm not super knowledgeable, but there's some hardware difference between genesis models as far as soundchips, right? I remember people talking years and years ago about how the model 1 was what you wanted for the best sound, and then within the model 1 variations, you wanted one that didn't display the sega enterprises screen when you power it on. I don't know if that was legit or not, though.

 

[bjork]

Heh, I must have that thing old guys have where you just don't hear certain frequencies, because it all sounds really close to me. I found a discussion similar to what I had encountered years ago, and I don't know if there's any science to it, or it's just people keeping themselves busy: https://www.reddit.com/r/SEGAGENESI...this_the_good_audio_genesis_1_ive_heard_that/

 

[prnzo x BOOZE-o ka-BEER-o]

The SNES had a great soundchip but the downside of sample based means that even if orchestra is better and that there are less chances to make it sound awful on the console than a mediocre ost on the Genesis it will also sound muffled because of that.

Genesis has indeed a "crispier" sound compared to it.

Techno and Metal work wonder on the console too so it's not too bad if orchestra is worse.

I love the SoR Trilogy ost (yes, even 3 despite it's "avant-garde" sound direction) but I feel that it's used too often as a "joker" counterargument to disprove naysayers (with Sonic even if I think that aside from Green Hills and Starlight the OST isn't that great).


I dislike when people blame the console for something that is more about the devs (or publisher rushing it).

Also making a game for both platforms was basically asking to make the same game twice back then.

I hated on some games Capcom's overly-brass-sectionized SNES sdtrk renditions (Final Fight, SFII World Warrior) though Ken's pseudo-metulz song I loved, ngL

the music of SoR trilogy, Shinobi series, n Phantasy Star sdtrks are a huge influence on my music - I've even done tributes n my 90's band covered the SoR1 theme (horrible-sounding from bein a file encoded in 1998 xD). did a tribute to Super Adventure Island's sdtrk too - why other SNES dev soundteams couldn't bump some mean olskool hiphop like SAI did, we'll never know. unless they 'fess up. half of them probably dead anyway !!O_O!!

...and SoR3's sdtrk I loved at 1st listen. bizarre, J-elektro genius, one time I e-mailed Ancient n said hi ti Ayano n asked if Yuzo wanted to do a project with my band (bold, but why not?) - he emailed back I don't honestly remember if it was weeks or months - but I do remember he said in intarrwebz-translated nihongo to eigo - "ah my dream to be in a band". I would've wanted to keep pursuing a feasible way to collab but I was partying too damn much n my band dissolved n got caught up with a zillion other imsane things... r e g r e t s ughh.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

You can't be serious

 

[goregoregoregoregoregore]

Everything once considered bad and outdated in art turns into novelty over time lol.
But yeah, genesis fucking rules and it's surprisingly compatible with old club/rave tracker music stuff and even modern non-chiptune produced music nowadays. Those stabs that are in the Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack are sought out till this day by some people and it's fucking tasty

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Everything once considered bad and outdated in art turns into novelty over time lol.
But yeah, genesis fucking rules and it's surprisingly compatible with old club/rave tracker music stuff and even modern non-chiptune produced music nowadays. Those stabs that are in the Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack are sought out till this day by some people and it's fucking tasty

 

[Laura Zonih]

Genesis has a sound that I love.
When you hear a couple of notes you know it's Genesis,you can identify it immediately,all that personality of its own on a musical level is a very noticeable feature.
When it comes to action games,which was what shone the brightest on this console,the punchy and powerful melodies of heavy metal and techno come through masterfully.