Real good SNES soundtracks?? (for the c700 vst)

[Brisbot]

Recently found out about the c700 vst(https://woolyss.com/chipmusic-plugins.php?s=C700) which basically allows you to import the individual instruments ripped from SNES games (you can get most games here: http://snesmusic.org/v2/)

After a while I realized I now have access to this treasure trove of 16 bit sampled sounds, and have been making use of them the past few weeks, especially as layers as many of the sounds are simple, but I've found some very good sounds I've made the lead of tracks and such.

I have been abusing found sounds from this OST:

(which features samples from an 808, and sounds very lo-fi doing it, love it)

Just adding some FX on top, like chorus, compression, etc can suddenly update the sound to fit in any track. Great stuff.


Anyway, anyone have favorite soundtracks from SNES? So far I've only looked through the Donkey Kong Country 1/2, Shadowrun, Jurassic Park, Super R-Type) Lots of great sounds in these, btw. NEED MORE.

[Goiter Sanchez]

Adore this soundtrack in every regard:

 

[modey]

I've always loved the sounds used in Yoshi's Island, they're a bit dinky but when used in the right way they sound really cool.

[MisterE]

well it is a matter of fact that the absolute objectively best snes soundtrack is the one for Super Castlevania IV, but Super Metroid, Zelda III, Chrono Trigger, and prob dozens of others also had great soundtracks (including the donkey kong country games which you mentioned).

[Ivan Ooze]

Best soundtrack i ever heard on SNES mario's picross

 

^ 52:52

[sweepstakes]

Super Metroid
Starfox
Super Mario World

Earthbound
I think F-Zero was breedy good too

[Ragnar]

earthbound soundtrack is kind of lazy at times in retrospect but the samples they used are golden

[Ivan Ooze]

^ fuck yeah f-zero

[Ivan Ooze]

sound of doom on snes was superb

 

i remember this one, lol

[sweepstakes]

Oh yes, Earthworm Jim, absolutely.

 

B.O.B.

Blackthorne

Battletoads

Final Fight

earthbound soundtrack is kind of lazy at times in retrospect but the samples they used are golden

Earthbound's whole aesthetic was around kind of amateurish sloppiness that came together in a beautiful way. The "Coffee Break" tune was gorgeous. I liked the zombie music a lot too, and that weirdly anxious tuba music that played in certain houses.

[Brisbot]

Thanks for all the suggestions, it's gonna take time to go through them

Oh wow, that Super Picross Mario Soundtrack sounds like it could have some awesome percussion, especially that last track.

Yoshi's Island sounds real good too, makes sense since it came later.

Castlevania 4 is a given. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Earthbound also has potential. I'm hearing lots of interesting sounds in it, also no wonder you like this soundtrack, Ragnar :P

[markedone]

classique

[modey]

yeah the aquatic ambience track played a big part in my electronic music inspiration. The entire soundtrack was brilliant.

[Brisbot]

^^ Ha, Aquatic Ambiance is one of my favorite SNES tracks, also

I really love the pads on these tracks. I like that super lo-fi mono pad sound, you know, which was real popular in the snes- ps1 eras. It's strangely powerful for being so basic, and is somewhat of a lost sound since everyone wants everything HI-FI.

I kind of consider many of the sounds of old games and such 'lost sounds' since it's real easy to get quote unquote 'better' sounds with any modern synths, unfortunately there's a whole slew of simpler sounds that have been lost.

[Brisbot]

I looked it up, and the only statistic I can find (quickly) is that it had audio ram at 64 kb. soooo...no clue.

But I do know with the sampler you could easily upload 8 bit sounds in order to conserve space ( lots of people just put straightforward saw/square/sine waves, looking thru osts. SNES OSTs have a large range of quality. Listen to earlier SNES osts and a later one, say yoshi's island. Yoshi's Island sounds notably better.


Alright found an interesting post off gamedev.net by a person who seems to have actually worked on SNES stuff before, it seems more complex than just labelling something as 8-16 bit:

 

 

if you're looking for SNES (and not NES), the SNES 'sound' was that of very short loops for the samples. Since the SNES had only 64kbytes of RAM, all the game's instrument and sound effects had to fit in it. the data was compressed about 3.5:1, so that was the equivalent of about 224k. Figure half for sound effects and it means all your instruments had to fit into about 100k samples. So try making some short looping sounds. Most of my SNES instrument were only 5-10k samples long. If you make your music with instruments that fit into that small a space (your "instrument palette"), you'll get more of that "SNES" sound.
Also because of memory, sounds were sampled at low sampling rates, often as low as 8-10kHz (maybe for a trombone or kick drum), with maybe 22kHz being the high end.
Another aspect of SNES music was that notes didn't tend to overlap. What I mean by that is that normally if you limit yourself to 8-voice polyphony, you're not REALLY limiting it to 8 because when a "note-off' occurs, the sound still plays out it's decay, so some if the note is still playing into the next beat. So when doing SNES music, we'd very often shorten notes, which would ensure we didn't have unwanted overlap. So a full "quarter note" might be only 400 ticks (instead of a full 480).

Keep to those rules, and your music will probably be SNES-like in no time

[Tatdylf]

Contra 3

Pilotwings

Sim City

Final Fantasy 2-3

Treasure Hunter G

Street Fighter 2

[modey]

is somewhat of a lost sound since everyone wants everything HI-FI.

 

I kind of consider many of the sounds of old games and such 'lost sounds' since it's real easy to get quote unquote 'better' sounds with any modern synths, unfortunately there's a whole slew of simpler sounds that have been lost.

that's why I like the chip scene, especially those people making music with amigas and/or other sample trackers—really, that's essentially what snes music is anyway; there's even a program that can convert snes music files into impulse tracker files :D

[modey]

 

I looked it up, and the only statistic I can find (quickly) is that it had audio ram at 64 kb. soooo...no clue.

 

But I do know with the sampler you could easily upload 8 bit sounds in order to conserve space ( lots of people just put straightforward saw/square/sine waves, looking thru osts. SNES OSTs have a large range of quality. Listen to earlier SNES osts and a later one, say yoshi's island. Yoshi's Island sounds notably better.

 

 

Alright found an interesting post off gamedev.net by a person who seems to have actually worked on SNES stuff before, it seems more complex than just labelling something as 8-16 bit:

 

 

 

 

if you're looking for SNES (and not NES), the SNES 'sound' was that of very short loops for the samples. Since the SNES had only 64kbytes of RAM, all the game's instrument and sound effects had to fit in it. the data was compressed about 3.5:1, so that was the equivalent of about 224k. Figure half for sound effects and it means all your instruments had to fit into about 100k samples. So try making some short looping sounds. Most of my SNES instrument were only 5-10k samples long. If you make your music with instruments that fit into that small a space (your "instrument palette"), you'll get more of that "SNES" sound.

Also because of memory, sounds were sampled at low sampling rates, often as low as 8-10kHz (maybe for a trombone or kick drum), with maybe 22kHz being the high end.

Another aspect of SNES music was that notes didn't tend to overlap. What I mean by that is that normally if you limit yourself to 8-voice polyphony, you're not REALLY limiting it to 8 because when a "note-off' occurs, the sound still plays out it's decay, so some if the note is still playing into the next beat. So when doing SNES music, we'd very often shorten notes, which would ensure we didn't have unwanted overlap. So a full "quarter note" might be only 400 ticks (instead of a full 480).

 

Keep to those rules, and your music will probably be SNES-like in no time

 

a friend of mine has actually developed a music player for SNES, this video may be an interesting insight:

[BaggerMcGuirk]

That VST is pretty fun. I'm messing around with the Super Metroid SMCs, and still sorting out how each of the files are loaded. At least once I have a template going, I can save it on the instrument rack in Ableton.

[Brisbot]

Modey, that's pretty damn cool. I wish I had the patience/knowledge/interest to do something like that. And a good insight into the SNES. It's doing the same thing as analog, 'corrupting' the waveform', making a slightly more interesting sound out of it.

I enjoy chip music too, but for some reason I kinda suck at making chip music. I kinda wish there was a SNES music scene, where people mostly use the lo-fi SNES sounds (vs fairly basic waveforms)

I have been working on 2 snes tracks for fun. Just finding good samples, and seeing if I can make something I enjoy out of it. It's a bit of a challenge as I'm used to being pampered by more hi-fi stuff.

 

 

That VST is pretty fun. I'm messing around with the Super Metroid SMCs, and still sorting out how each of the files are loaded. At least once I have a template going, I can save it on the instrument rack in Ableton.

yeah I checked out Super Metroid the other day. Some very cool sounds in there, lots of potential for layered pads. The simplicity of the snes sounds makes for some great pads. I've been incorporating random patches into my main music and I've got to say I'm happy with the results. The sound feels a little unique because of the nature of the sounds. All I do is add some verb, some compression usually. And depending on the sound I'll do a number of things to it. Because the sounds are so simple, it opens up a ton of room in terms of customization with FX

[BaggerMcGuirk]

Yeah it's pretty fun for me to realize that the SNES was pretty much a ROMpler. Super Metroid was pretty formative for me 20 odd years ago, and I still get the warm fuzzies in hearing those old sound effects. I'm gonna dig a bit further this weekend and probably get some other SMC files as well.

[Brisbot]

oh wow, Rompler is actually a word. Googled it. Very cool, are there any other romplers similar to the SNES? I've googled things, and the only other thing I have found, is that you can rip the FM patches from the sega genesis. Haven't really gotten around to checking it out though, lots of interesting OSTs on that system too.

Anyway, if you find any cool osts, please post them here. I have found so many good sounds, don't wanna stop.

[BaggerMcGuirk]

I don't know much about specific romplers that sound like the SNES, but I'll for sure post any cool OSTs I remember from back in the day. This one is a bit lesser known and pretty cool:

 

 

 

[modey]

cTrix also makes music on Megadrive/Genesis (as well as game boy, atari 2600, vectrex, etc etc):

 

 

 

I enjoy chip music too, but for some reason I kinda suck at making chip music. I kinda wish there was a SNES music scene, where people mostly use the lo-fi SNES sounds (vs fairly basic waveforms)

I have been working on 2 snes tracks for fun. Just finding good samples, and seeing if I can make something I enjoy out of it. It's a bit of a challenge as I'm used to being pampered by more hi-fi stuff.

The chip scene is pretty much gagging for SNES stuff. As far as I know, cTrix was the first to make anything meaningful with it, but hopefully something user-friendly comes out of the project so we can all start making SNES tracks that are playable on the original hardware.

 

The GBA might be a good one to check out as well—nanoloop 2 is synthesis-based (somewhat), but can sound pretty similar to SNES tunes if you know what you're doing. Also, it's still in early stages, but Furious Advance Tracker is worth a look for sample-based music on GBA.

 

It's good to know that there are some things happening in the chip scene which may lead to chiptunes being less associated with happy arpy LSDJ stuff..

[Brisbot]

It would be amazing if indie devs and composers got back into making SNES/retro games and consoles. That would be amazing. This actually kinda inspired me, to just combine all these retro console sounds.

What do you mean by happy arpy LSDJ stuff? Oh and thanks for the info, will be checking it out soon