What are your thoughts on the GEMS Sound Driver?

[Yoni Arousement]

GEMS (Genesis Editor for Music and Sound Effects) is a Sound Driver used in a lot of Western-developed Sega Genesis games.

Some games make good use of it, like the Jungle Book, while others like Sonic Spinball gave us the worst things to come out of it like the Options Menu Music.

 

[RageBurner]

GEMS should not be used for GAMES.
Jokes aside, I have a fairly bad impression of the driver and it is, in part, responsible for perpetuating the myth that the Mega Drive/Genesis has "bad sound".

 

[Pinballbuzzbro]

I personally feel people give it a bad rap and that it's capable of making some of the best osts on the system when in the right hands. Unfortunately, just like it's color channels, it more often than not was placed in the hands of inexperienced creators who didn't know how to utilize it

Here are some examples of the driver when it's full potential is tapped into! I'd link more but I don't want my post to turn into a skyscraper lmao

 

[TsookBoyAdvance]

Despite its crappy reputation, I personally find it a little charming.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

I've not played a lot of those games, but I thought the music in Shadowrun was fitting, the distorted bitcrushed aesthetic of the sounds fit fine with a cyberpunk setting.

 

[secreto7]

I don't know much about GEMS but what matters usually are the skills of the composers or one's own music taste.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

The biggest mistake is that many western composers ignored that there are other ones so the Genesis got a bad reputation.

GEMS should not be used for GAMES.
Jokes aside, I have a fairly bad impression of the driver and it is, in part, responsible for perpetuating the myth that the Mega Drive/Genesis has "bad sound".

I'm still impressed that in the 2020's there are still people believing it...


Also despite all there are also mediocre/bad SNES soundtracks (well, it's harder to mess up) and since it's sample-based you don't have "raw" MIDIs.

 

[TruxtonTatsujin]

overall it's not a great driver. The Genesis/Mega Drive can do SO much better. Though that don't mean some great composers didn't do some talented things with it.

 

[RageBurner]

The biggest mistake is that many western composers ignored that there are other ones so the Genesis got a bad reputation.


I'm still impressed that in the 2020's there are still people believing it...


Also despite all there are also mediocre/bad SNES soundtracks (well, it's harder to mess up) and since it's sample-based you don't have "raw" MIDIs.

It's still a not wholly false assertion, though. GEMS is more milquetoast, it won't sound as good as a custom driver most of the time.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Typically awful, but the issue is more on the composer. There exist examples of it being amazingly used, but the Genesis really showed who was a VIDEO GAME COMPOSER and who was not. Who was a VIDEO GAME SOUND DESIGNER and who was not. On SNES, you could get away to some degree with being a normal composer for other mediums and fake it until you made it. Not on Genesis. And that’s why GEMS is so loathed.

 

[JPchicre]

It seemed less versatile than the snes, but some people could do really cool music with it. Its limitations also gave it a unique identity which is kinda cool. I also kinda liked the farts/spring sfx that some games had.

 

[RageBurner]

Typically awful, but the issue is more on the composer. There exist examples of it being amazingly used, but the Genesis really showed who was a VIDEO GAME COMPOSER and who was not. Who was a VIDEO GAME SOUND DESIGNER and who was not. On SNES, you could get away to some degree with being a normal composer for other mediums and fake it until you made it. Not on Genesis. And that’s why GEMS is so loathed.

Well said, you nailed it.

 

[Nelson2001]

Because GEMS Had a Different Sound Structure Regarding the SMPS what is the Default Sound Driver of Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. However, there were also several sound drivers that were created by the same companies such as: Data East Sound Driver (Music Hacking/Music Pointers), Lisa's Sound Driver a.k.a. Tengen's Sound Driver, Namco Sound Driver, Wolf Team Sound Driver, etc. which also tends to have a very different compositional sound structure system compared to the SMPS but, well.

 

[Segadude113]

I love that Genesis "twang". But it works if the composer knows what they're doing.

 

[Leon]

GEMS if done right can make some great sound, the problem is that most devs either didn't know how or didn't care to learn how to make good sound with it, thus it resulted in what we now call the "genesis twang".

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I like Ecco and Comix Zone's ost but objectively these would be better if they were using the console's full soundchip power I think.

I don't dislike the first two areas in Sonic Spinball but it's obvious that these aren't on the same level as the mainline series.