How did Japanese music composers write music for consoles?

[hudson]

I'm really interested to know how Japanese game musicians produced music for old consoles such as Megadrive and Snes (or any sound chipped consoles).

My interest has sprouted from still being in awe of music produced on Megadrive in the late 80's early 90's. But what was the process? These days it is so much more accessible. However, back then you are at the mercy of the tech on board the console. Limitations and possibly an inconceivable process to musicians in interfacing with the console to get it to make tunes.

I looked it up on YouTube and found a video of a program (GEMS) built for Megadrive music making in 1994 (iirc). It was built by westerners I think and came with a lot of present sounds that ended up getting reused by those who utilised the tool. Maybe this is why there was a lot of dodgy western MD music produced.

So, how did the Japanese composer go about it? Anybody know?

[Team Andromeda]

I don't there were any tools back in the day and I would think the reason most music sound pretty rough was because so little time and space was given to the sound team for their music .

Also I think its some sort of myth that the Japanese did wonderful music and the West did hardly any, more so on the MD;There were plenty of Japanese MD games that didn't sound great and plenty western games that sounded great , For me some of the Western music produced on the Amiga, Snes and C64 was every bit as good as what the Japanese did.

Most MD music didn't sound great because it wasn't a very good sound chip and was limited to one channel for sampled sound. Like the MD colour palllet it was very lacking.

[hudson]

Yeah, I agree about it being a bit mythical. There were a lot of amazing composers from the west. The wizards of the SID chip for one.

There's a lot to be said about working with limited tools that can sometimes bring out awesome work though. I think this was the case back then. But provided those composers could utilise and get their ideas across to a degree. This is what I'm interested in. How was it sequenced and composed for a console such as the MD.

For sure, the sound of these ye old chips is subjective and if you're trying to reproduce real sounds on these chips, you're gonna mostly not get there. However, if you worked with what you had and just went for it, whilst being musical, a lot of the time the limitations can be ignored by the listener and all that's left is awesome music.

The chip inside the MD shouldn't be sniffed at though. It was basically the same tech (FM synthesis) found in Yamaha's most successful syntheiszer, the DX7. A synth that can be heard on a ton load of 80's pop tracks. The problem was, that you needed to be a scientist of sound to be able to program the synth and I imagine this was also the problem for the MD chip. Even today, people regard FM synthesis as a dark art and it's made a bit of a resurgence with the likes of Yamaha and Korg remaking synthesizers from back then in more modern looking chassis.

[Zaki]

Quite an achievement by Tim Follin below

Also, all the David Wise stuff, (but everyone knows that already).

[hudson]

Tim Follin is a legend. I think that SNES allowed for more sample payback. So instruments heard above, like the harmonica and guitar, where sampled. Still amazing. It was a more advanced chip and a good indication of where video game music was trying to head.

[Team Andromeda]

Yeah, I agree about it being a bit mythical. There were a lot of amazing composers from the west. The wizards of the SID chip for one..

Yeah, well said and count me as someone who Tim Follin was like a GOD when it came to music, His work on the SNES put almost all to shame

Anway I don't think there was any sort of tools or libraries for sound development back in the day. I seem to remember an interview with CORE and how they laughed when developers moaned about Saturn tools, given in the 8 and 16 bit days all they got off the likes of SEGA was a development kit and a badly translated manual giving the full specs on the system and that was it.

I think the Japanese looked on games development as far more of a profession and games development was taken more seriously, that may have also played its part. I'm not the biggest fan of the MD soundchip sorry, to limit it to one sound channel for playback of digital/samples was a huge step back from the Amiga sounchip imo

How many great tunes came off the Amiga, bloody loads and all from the West.

[hudson]

I remember when I was a teenager having an Amiga. The music was great due to a **** ton of sampling. The tracks that came out of the Bitmap Brothers camp especially. Betty Boo and Bomb the Bass etc. It was awesome.

Then I discovered music tracker software from a friend who even had a piece of hardware which enabled us to sample stuff into the Amiga! From there on I spent most of my time trying to make music. Amazing times.

that Lotus track! The bass!

[Solar]

Then I discovered music tracker software from a friend who even had a piece of hardware which enabled us to sample stuff into the Amiga! From there on I spent most of my time trying to make music. Amazing times.

You're not the only one, I spent most of my teenage years composing music with SoundFX, Octamed and Audiomaster. I have even crossdos'd my huge collection of discs full of songs and samples to Windows so I will never lose them.

I heard that a lot of western developers use the Amiga to compose for the SNES, but the Japanese sampled a lot from MIDI.

[Mayhem]

Thing is, I think most of the best Western based Amiga/MD/SNES music came from composers who had cut their teeth on the C64, and knew how to put together a melody, instead of stuffing a track full of samples and hoping it sounded good. Like Mr Follin for example. And the three Amiga tracks that TA linked to iirc.

[replicashooter]

The Amiga demo scene truly was something to witness, the creativity of those chaps in so many respects - all on an 880k floppy. So many uber catchy melodies.

[Team Andromeda]

Thing is, I think most of the best Western based Amiga/MD/SNES music came from composers who had cut their teeth on the C64, and knew how to put together a melody, instead of stuffing a track full of samples and hoping it sounded good.

Yeah, but it also showed that western musicians for games were just as good as the Japanese given some decent Hardware to work on. Still amazes me how good Turrican sounded on the Amiga, this track alone was simply incredible back in the day (and still is now)

Give Core or SEGA America a CD unit and then you had music like this too Spencer Nielsen Ecco music score was up there with Vangelis score for Bladerunner and sounds a lot like it too

[Zaki]

That Ecco track is amazing TA!

[replicashooter]

There was so much blatant copying going on back in the 8/16 but days. From jacking characters, imagery, pilots upto pretty much wholesale stealing songs and replaying them with a slight twist.

Grest fun as it added in a bonus game called Spot The Influence.

[Anpanman]

Thing is, I think most of the best Western based Amiga/MD/SNES music came from composers who had cut their teeth on the C64, and knew how to put together a melody, instead of stuffing a track full of samples and hoping it sounded good. Like Mr Follin for example. And the three Amiga tracks that TA linked to iirc.

Rob Hubbard who did Sanxion and Delta was almost at deity level.

The Amiga demo scene truly was something to witness, the creativity of those chaps in so many respects - all on an 880k floppy. So many uber catchy melodies.

Yes it was, also what they managed to do with cracking games was incredible talent-wise.

[replicashooter]

No doubt. Back when piracy was piracy and hackers weren't script kids.

It was so wonderful to be able to see the rise of computing from bedroom to billions as they say. These days I just like things to work with no faff or tinkering necessary unlike the past when modding was everything.