Moar Orchestra score plz

[DrFurball]

Whatever happened to the 80s synth-esque music of the first two games? That was good, right?

[Legendary Emerald]

90's was known for cheap synth music, not the 80's. Eighties was all hair metal and teenage pop.

[Spector]

I personally have been waiting severely for them to remix all of the old music into orchestra, and I don't like that they haven't done it yet.

Most of the problems I think people have accepting orchestra are based around a 'boring' stigma, which is completely unfounded. I think that orchestra can be just as thrilling as rock at times, and can encompass more emotions than most genres because of it's wide array of instruments and the fact that they can be played in many many different ways. Sure, if you say Twilight Princess wasn't orchestra; but it wasn't very far from it, with extremely good MIDIs that when converted to orchestral didn't need too much change, if none at all.

I think that Sonic could pull off a whole game in orchestra if the composure was good enough, and I would love to see old themes remixed to orchestra.

I agree with some of the other people in the thread when I say that even though I like orchestral themes, I still believe Sonic Adventure 1+2 is the way to go when doing music, because it was so mixed with genre, and that made it more interesting to me, when Shadow's theme didn't sound exactly like Rouge's or Tails'.

[azoo]

You kids are wrong. The 80s was rock, heavy metal, hair metal, bubblegum pop, hip-hop, New Jack Swing, dance and "cheap" synths. The 90s was psuedo-punk-for-teens, gangsta rap, boy/girl bands, acoustic R&B and techno. The 2000s contained crappy rap, teenage pop, death metal and terrible talentless music that they like to call "modern rock". But that's another story.. I'm getting off-topic.

And agreed with Spector about the orchestra. Orchestra can be amazing and extremely thrilling; it just has to be done right. However, that's not saying I wish every track in the series was that way. Go back to my "SA1-styled music" post.

Edited October 15, 2009 by Azukara Hayashi

[Ebby]

You kids are wrong. The 80s was rock, heavy metal, hair metal, bubblegum pop, hip-hop, New Jack Swing, dance and "cheap" synths. The 90s was psuedo-punk-for-teens, gangsta rap, boy/girl bands, acoustic R&B and techno. The 2000s contained crappy rap, teenage pop, death metal and terrible talentless music that they like to call "modern rock". But that's another story.. I'm getting off-topic.

I concur. But that is pretty off topic. XD

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I'm actually more comfortable with Orchestra being more dominant than Rock. Don't get me wrong, Rock can be used in a number of places, but I feel that it's use can even be overused to where it fits into places where it could be better off with a different genre of music.

Plus it can be too energetic for certain scenes, depending on its style. For example, if you had a sullen somber scene that had an emotional impact for the character, which would you choose? Rock or Orchestra? I feel Orchestra does leagues better in that aspect.

On the flipside, if there was a massive attack in the city you were in, and you're playing as a character whos abilities make a war-torn city the equivilant of a playground, which would you choose? Rock or Orchestra? Rock does so much better at conveying that energetic feel for that scene.

But the energy is never constant, all of the characters (yes, even Shadow) have a wide array of emotions for their personality. Sonic is the energetic partyboy who sees anything dangerous as a thrill just as fun as Six Flags, but he can feel things such as sorrow, guilt, anger, rage, etc. To have rock convey all of those emotions makes things incredibly static and unflowing.

...man I feel as if I could write a multi-page essay over music in the Sonic series and all the genres that work for it.

[Phos]

Orchestral works best for somber tones? Better tell Bob Dylan andLed Zepelin.

On the flip side, Rock works best for massive attacks? Better hurry up and tell Chris Taylor and Jeremy Soule. And while you're at it,

And I just realized that last one has a bit copied from the intro to Batman: The Animated Series.

Edited October 16, 2009 by Phos

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Wow, something big must've crawled up someones ass to be acting like this...

Orchestral works best for somber tones? Better tell Bob Dylan andLed Zepelin.

On the flip side, Rock works best for massive attacks? Better hurry up and tell Chris Taylor and Jeremy Soule. And while you're at it,

Yep. That's what I just said. Give me all of those folks numbers and I'll tell them just that...if I meant it as a fact that is.

But enough of that nonsense, son. I know you love to argue over everything with me, but none of that was even necessary.

Edited October 16, 2009 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Phos]

Wow, something big must've crawled up someones ass to be acting like this...

Cool story bro.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Cool story bro.

Thanks...it's not my best one, tho.

EDIT: Srsly tho, what's with the sarcasm in that last post?

Edited October 17, 2009 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Meow]

Oh and I forgot to add to my earlier post too...I would absolutely love it if for the next game they kept any sort of vocal theme out of it. Now, granted I've liked a couple (Julien K, Powerman 5k, and Zebrahead for example), but I just don't feel they -fit-. To further compliment my idea earlier of having no restriction on what genre of music is in the game, provided it fits the level, I think music that sounds distinctly like it belongs in a video game has been less of an occurance lately imo. Everything is leading towards sounding like it belongs in a movie - and/or trying to fit onto the radio stations. By not adding vocals into it, I think it would force the music composer to create music that is composed in a way that doesn't need vocals in order for people to remember it/enjoy it. It would also make things more videogamey as well, unless it was orchestrated in which case most movies have instrumental orchestrated music and kind of defeats my point I guess.

Its hard to explain what point I'm trying to make since I'm super tired right now, but I just want memorable tunes that don't rely on vocals or genre restrictions for the next game. Just make music that fits the level's atmosphere and I'll be a happy camper. Lets just forget about the Crush 40 theme "songs" (no offense to fans of it of course, I just absolutely hate their music), and bring in some good old tunes that actually fit 100% of the way through the game.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

If there were to be vocals, I wouldn't mind a bit of Omnious Chanting for some of the levels to symbolize an apocalyptic threat from one of Eggman's deadly superweapons. But other than that, while I wouldn't mind vocals, I would favor that they be left out of in-game music.

Although it would be cool if they had vocals for tunes like Green Hill Zone, Chemical Plant, Aquatic Ruins, Endless Mines...I'm going off on a tangent here, am I?

[AdventChild]

I wouldn't mind having an all-instrumental/orchestra soundtrack for a Sonic game, just hopefully it is diverse (different genres of music used like SA1) and most importantly that it sounds good. Though I think it'll be interesting if they use some Oriental tunes.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I'm not sure how they can fit that kind of fusion of hip-hop and oriental into a stage. Usually the music is a little more in sync with the settings of the game than that, but I could be surprised.

Tho I do love that tune.

[JezMM]

You know what an orchestra is, right?

LOL, apparently he doesn't.

Now now, no need to be smarmy, while it may not be a full orchestra, there are quite clearly classical strings in that song, and frankly, I think it's a perfect example of how I think orchestra should be handled in Sonic. Have the main melody be done using classical instruments, but have some backing instruments, and the percussion, be handled with more pop-style instruments (be it rock, techno, hip-hop or whatever pace the level needs). Or even simply a more modern sounding structure for the song.

Edited October 18, 2009 by JezMM

[Scarlet2106]

I want rocktechnohiphopdanceorchestralhardcorehardcoredeathmetalnewwavedarkwaveambientoperajungleraplatintranceindustrial.

No, really.

Seriously, though. I've said it before, I'll say it again. You can mix any number of genres, you can use any genre, just make it good.

...I would be interested in what they did with the above 'megagenre', though. The composers need to work together more often rather than doing their own thing.

[JezMM]

...I would be interested in what they did with the above 'megagenre', though. The composers need to work together more often rather than doing their own thing.

Would they? Sonic Unleashed, Secret Rings, Sonic Advance 3, Sonic Riders and Sonic Riders ZG were all handled by the same musicians more or less. They're pretty damn competant with handling different genres if I do say so myself.

[Scarlet2106]

I... didn't say they weren't.

I meant I want to hear them working together in the same pieces of music more often. Usually it's just Fumie Kumatani or Hideaki Kobayashi or Kenichi Tokoi or Jun Senoue or Tomoya Otani or Tomonari Sawada or Naofumi Hataya or etc etc working on their own for a specific piece of music.

I'd like more collaborations.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I meant I want to hear them working together in the same pieces of music more often. Usually it's just Fumie Kumatani or Hideaki Kobayashi or Kenichi Tokoi or Jun Senoue or Tomoya Otani or Tomonari Sawada or Naofumi Hataya or etc etc working on their own for a specific piece of music.

I'd like more collaborations.

I think they do it separately so as to speed things up and not give too much work for them. Although I'm not entirely sure on how they work on it, so that's really just a guess from me, but seeing as how there are lots of different tunes for a single Sonic game, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case.

Although if we're going to talk about artists behind the music, then I add that if there's one thing I want to hear, it's Jesper Kyd's take on a Sonic the Hedgehog tune. I love how he does his choral tunes in games like Assassin's Creed and Hitman, and since he can do a good take on cultural themes or themes for an environment, hearing a Green Hill orchestra piece would likely be soothing...or maybe a Doomsday Zone choral piece that's apocalyptic in tone.

Edited October 19, 2009 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[JezMM]

I... didn't say they weren't.

I meant I want to hear them working together in the same pieces of music more often. Usually it's just Fumie Kumatani or Hideaki Kobayashi or Kenichi Tokoi or Jun Senoue or Tomoya Otani or Tomonari Sawada or Naofumi Hataya or etc etc working on their own for a specific piece of music.

I'd like more collaborations.

Ah, I see, sorry for the confusion. I think they did collaborate a fair bit in SA2, as well as Black Knight... but dunno about any other games.

I too would love some collaborations. I gotta hand it to these guys though, they do a pretty good job of making the soundtrack sound seemless. When I see which people did what on the soundtrack I think "Oh, yeah that's totally <name>'s style" but when I first play it, I'm always guessing.

[MrPoT4tO]

This is a controvertial subject for me, since I love this type of music in games (specially in epic battles), but what I do like the most is a nice mix in the soundstracks. Have all sorts of styles like in the adventure series, 06 and Unleashed. (I was going to say Black Knight too, but I was listening to it again and only the cutscenes have orchestral music)

[jutgf]

I'm pretty sure this was played by the guys who did Sonic Unleashed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk_M1uTXCqw&feature=player_profilepage