12/8: laughs in groups of 3

cut time

6/8 *laughs in marching 3/4*

You’ll only ever be half the man your brother 4/4 is

2/2: ...wait a minute

In two three out two in two out two In two three out two in two out two In two three out two in two out two In two three out two in two out two In two three out two in two out two In two three out two in two out two In two three out two in two out two In two three out two in two out two In two three out two in two out two In two three out two in two out two In two three out two in two out two

I breathe in 5/4 and 4/4. We're not so different, you and I.

9/8 is easy if you treat it as three beats of three eighth notes.

@@finalscore2983 *hyperventilates, flops over*

I was hoping this video was about a song in like 47.5/32 or something

That’s because they somehow managed to actually create a catchy melody with a dynamic time signature… it’s kinda fun to compose using weird time signatures, but creating something that’s palatable to general audiences is another story entirely…

@@wolfetteplays8894 Yeah, the melody does really drive this one; it didn't sound confusing to me at all until I watched this and tried to count it

The real miracle is that Strong One somehow doesn't sound like a random hash of notes

3/5 During cats the musical is with broke me: 'MAX YOUR WRONG'

lol 7/8 is easy

@@planktonweed727 really? would you care to demonstrate for the class?

Sam Diamond Or in a solo like Rhythm Song which uses 3 2 2 3 2 2

7/8 is easy though, and marching band makes it so much fun

Alex Stilgoe Now that you've said that, I can't get it out of my head that it sounds wrong. It did sort of in the first place, but it's just... off now. Still a great piece of music and a great soundtrack.

To be frank, I think 27/16 is overcomplicating it. It's basically just alternating time sinatures: 3/16 three times, then 5/16, then 3/16 three times again and 4/16. There's no longer underlying melody or beat, so dividing it like this this is easiest. What a cool tune, tho. So good.

Strong one (masked man) for me, 29/16

Bass Buster X With changing tempo.

Uh 27 is 3^3 and 16 is 2^2^2 uh oh

Good music can be the absolute saving grace for a game because everyone loves music. Even with mediocre games, good music will continue to make the game memorable years and even decades down the line.

Agreed.

That's not entirely true. Set any of these pieces to another game in the list. Put Kirby's music over Fire Emblem. Is it immersive now? The designers, developers, and artists are all working together to make a tone, a mood, a feeling. Hell, even if we take Super Mario Bros 1, same music and same art, it would lose a lot of immersiveness if he was instead running around shooting goombas. The music, the sound effects, the art, and even the mechanics all come together in harmony to make a game feel the way it does.

@@Sakis_Husband sonic 2006 is a good example

Sound design, whether it be the soundtrack and its use, or foley, can make or break ANY experience, whether it be an immersive cinematic story(Cinematic JRPGs, which play out like stage plays, or western RPGs, which play out like films without a coherent 3-act structure), or just a playful action romp. Great games have great soundtracks for what they're pushing, and great sound design in the foley as well(Much of the Final Fantasy series, Katamari Damacy, all of their effects give the feel of the gameplay experience they're pushing), while a game can be completely ruined by bad sound design(Megaman X6 anyone?). It's RARE to see a game with somewhat iffy sound work or background music manage to still be good. Warship Gunner II has great sound effects, but the repetitive vocals and mismatched music makes for a ridiculously painful experience. In the same way, a Void of sound effects can cause plenty of problems too(Which is a big reason Half Life Deathmatch wasn't nearly as fun as Unreal Tournament, which managed to feel genuinely fast-paced whenever you loaded into a patch, in large part due to the music's time constantly stepping you up through the tempo. Usually. In Halflife, on the other hand, there was no music, no real environmental sound, and effects were WAY too punchy and often a pain on the ears.

for simplicity sakes top number is how many beats per measure and bottom number is what fraction of a whole note is the beat so the most common time signature 4/4 literally mean 4 quarter notes per measure there is some more nuance to this like 3/4 and 6/8 despite have the same measure length are read differently but thats the basic understanding

@@gaymerjerry I understood the first sentence then gave up and started blanking out . I just like funny noise in mario.

@@gonkdroidincarnate4237 simply the top number is the number u count to in each measure. in the funny mario song u count to 13 with the bass

​@gonkdroidincarnate4237 In baby terms, the top number is how many, and the bottom number is of what note (quarter, sixth, eith, etc.). The top note dictates how many notes are in a measure, and the bottom note dictates how "fast" the song is, in a way.

@@Tea_Noire never say baby terms again you sound pretentious

Sorry I'm late but yeah, you're absolutely right. The first time I heard it with those marching footsteps under it, I did need some time to get over the fact their march was impossible lol.

I was thinking about this song the entire video

I can’t even imagine trying to learn that on one of my instruments

@@chocolatechip7137 It's actually not that hard.

Gryll The Onion shhhhhh let me wallow in self pity

@@chocolatechip7137 Lol

Like you when you fought Toriel. You monster.

We're used to it.

Hell yeah

I do it out of love!!!!

Absolutely

Progheads unite!

Honestly there's a reason nobody ever chooses to listen to that soundtrack, and it's because that decision made the music sound bad

@@ellie8272 cool

@@ellie8272 L take + drawcia fight/drawcia soul my beloved

Thank you!

account name checks out

Thankyou Mr. KZfaq Sparknotes

Genuinely wish you would do this to all the videos i watch

Why was every third step long? Couldn't you just start on the other foot on the strong beat? So for the first measure you start with the right leg, then next measure with the left leg. (Granted, I don't have a clue about marching bands since they're not a thing here where I live.)

@@pintavodki My marching band did that with 5/4 but I guess this band director had a specific vision in mind

OMG THAT IS AMAZIMG

The Taco Bell trick... Actually works. Wow. Using that next time I run into 7/8!!

Mikhail Kuznetsov The problem with that is that the next measure would start on an upbeat if you marched with equal steps. It is possible, but then you’d have to get the band used to marching while alternating stepping on all downbeats then all upbeats every measure.

++!!

666th like

panic ! why’d you drop it?

That's why I'm so afraid to drop. Shits hard and my hobbies are more in tune with video games rather than music but... God dammit I want to compose music so badly when I'm older.

@@KeWDu get a music teacher and have her/him teach u what she learned at college lol, what a great discount

@@Meurieza That's not really how that works. 😅

Cameron Mack i wasn’t there specifically for comp, but for ed. the personalities and drama at my school in the music building wasn’t something i could personally handle. it’s unfortunate- i love music and i wanted to teach and spread my love, but unfortunately it wasn’t for me at the moment.

and its URSULA, to boot

I think what he meant is that he worked at Rare to make the drum sounds for Diddy Kong, when he was 13 years old. Well, not exactly, but something along these lines.

@@Gustavo6046 I dunno. I think my interpretation in more plausible.

@@Gustavo6046 I didn't think that's what he meant. He really did that or..?

Bongos*

@@ysaelperez8027 bongos are drums :p silly goose.

Check out the livestreams on Adam Neely's channel. You can get a whole load of his face, knowledge and good vibes

I got a closer look at 0:17, and I think he looks an awfully lot like Diddy Kong...

I never expected to see a KZfaqr I recognize commenting on the video of another KZfaqr I watch. I suppose you do make covers of video game music, so it makes sense that you'd watch a channel that discusses music theory in video games.

Jules!

he really resembles a drawing of a keyboard

I think it's better start with the original before touching on the variation.

I'm pretty sure it's just 29/16

29/16 with rubato

@@wilh3lmmusic Machines do not play rubato, they need to be programmed very precisely, thus the absurd, almost-strictly-theoretical-except-in-this-context-it-really-matters time signature written into the thousands. If I was arranging it for a group of humans though I would only use that as a sort of in-joke after explaining that yeah it's "just" a slurry 29.

I believe I was the one that made the comment years ago about the time signature being 71907/40120. And I calculated this, by looking at the _exact_ lengths of each of the notes, and all the different tempo changes they used in the in-game sequence. For example, if there was a bar that consisted of 5 quarter notes at 120 bpm, and then 3 quarter notes that was then played at 180 bpm, I would work it out like this: The 5 quarter notes is just 5 quarter notes. The 3 quarter notes at 180 bpm, would be the equivalent of playing 3 triplet quarter notes at 120 bpm, and therefore, I'd calculate this as being a 7/4 time signature, where the last 2 beats consist of 3 triplet quarter notes.

There's nobody better than Yoko I will fight anybody over this

Of course, she is the goddess Yoko shimomura

Yoko Shimomura and Koji Kondo will have a legendary battle

@@reimisugimoto3617 don't forget Nobuo!

"Roll dice for the time signature." "Excuse me??" "With that attitude, roll a d20."

A D20 for time signature!!!! That explains so much!!😆 These Japanese composers, genius tho they are, are a real headache to me learning these songs by ear.😅

Syd barret was an unappreciated gem haha

I'm gonna say this and it's gonna sound like I'm underplaying this piece but I'm really not. That piece isn't even comparable to a lot wind ensemble or orchestra music. Last year I play David Holsinger's Homage: three tapestries, and the first movement uses a couple different times signatures in seemingly random orders, but it all sounds very good

Ishikawa: Wait, what's that? Guy: That is a d30. It's mostly useles- Ishikawa: YOU GLORIOUS INSANE BITCH!

Yes, indeed.

I know THAT all too well, I finished a play through of Mother 3 on my channel not to long ago.

Uhhh is there a english rom? Probably not anymore.

Trust me, once that rom was sent out on the internet, it can be found.

The pain...

At the very least, he apparently knew how to play some kind of organ. _That's not exactly a musical noob's first instrument._ =^p

ChaosRayZero I always thought that when he touched the triforce of power, he just instantly gained sick pipe organ skills.

Maybe his true wish he wanted from the triforce was musical skills, but link and zelda didn't want ganon to have fun.

@@tjlnintendo explains why he was so upset come wind waker.

djefinitely djent

Mmmm ain't nothing better than a good 29/16 time signature *send help*

Your show more button is broken. ... Was that intented?

@@TurtwigX Isn't it 71907/40120?

@@lukeahandsa Oh, of course

@@lukeahandsa Unfortunately not. It's still 15/6, but with a constantly changing tempo

CC Productions yup

Ahh, that explains why I thought the 5/4 clave sounded so cool. Toby Fox is truly a big jazz boy.

So does the final part of Alphys' theme

I always saw Here We Are as a 10/8 composition (3+3+2+2)

Yuki Nagato could be either way. That piano does play that pattern of 3+3+2+2. It could also have been written in 5/4 with eighth notes. I guess we would never know unless we saw the original sheet music

What?! I always felt something was off but I couldn't quite tell what it was!

Also the song _Halls of Science 4_ has a melody in 7/8 and then the bass in 2/8

@@mysteryfish2043 that one was very obviously weird, but again I couldn't tell how. How many others are there?

@@potatoes131 The song _Reconstructing More Science_ seems to be changing time signatures constantly with no clear spot for every downbeat. All I know is that the soundtrack to this game is *awesome*

@@mysteryfish2043 I agree wholeheartedly!

I had a similar experience with the song "Moon River" which is in 3/4 and the Halloween theme which is in 5/4

same with me and khii's sacred moon

Not really my first experience with them since I knew what they were, b it I was trying so hard to fit the Mission Impossible theme into 4 beats

Depends if they're gamers or not. Normal people aren't as exposed to these types of concepts in music so they often react negatively towards it. If you're into this kind of stuff I highly recommend checking out some of the classic prog rock albums, such as Yes (Fragile, Close to the Edge), Genesis (Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound, Nursery Cryme), Emerson Lake and Palmer (ELP, Tarkus). There's also King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (Flying Microtonal Banana, Polygondwanaland), this is an extremely recent band though (and surprisingly good).

Gamers rise up.

Ikr ikr

​@@nal8503 Hey, don't forget Hemispheres by Rush, or if you're willing to dip into metal, basically anything by Opeth. (or Dream Theater but honestly I hate them)

@@browncoat697 I'd add on to the metal by throwing meshuggah out there. their whole shtick is that they wanted to make every instrument to be focused on rhythm. Every song is filled with weird looping melodies over strange time signatures. Incredible stuff

The Minecraft soundtrack is honestly incredibly underrated. Probably some of the best ambient music ever made

Ya I have a sound for video games class and did a report on successful musicians. Someone took LoZ. So I chose him and I don't even play that game, I was surprised how good it was and just really neat interesting music. His interview was great too

The song Far off of the second Minecraft album is pretty interesting too. It switches every meter from 9/8 to 7/8. Listen to it and count along with it, it's neat. In my interpretation it kind of reflects the distant, spacey feel of the song, not really quite knowing where to place the beat; either just off or just before where it would land in simple 4/4. Once the backing marimba kicks in it does switch to 4/4 though, lame

That used to baffle me when I was younger, I used to think it switched back and forth between 3/4 and 4/4, but it might just be 7/4

*its

*71907/40120. Also, I agree. He should've added it

Technically, it's 28.67676969/16 time. Because of course it is.

Sounds fucking disgusting to play

It is not as bad as it sounds. Just take the tuplets from the middle of strong one and speed them up just a touch and you get the masked man variant

Probably Spoiler reasons

it is actually (28(3394/5015))/16 equals about 28.67676969/16. i can't combo on that.

LOL ................................. 29/16 rythm, that written down theory has so much to do with music like going to the toilet.

Rubato It's 29/16 but slightly speeds up a bit in the middle.

Because that uses irrational time signatures and they’re very hard to explain using the additive time signatures shown here because it requires stuff like LCD

Yeah, the time signature for that fight is *_29/16!_* _These composers are sociopaths._

Longfellow this!!!!

That just brought back great memories. I love that beat

Love the use of a Hammond organ-esque sound in that game too

clicked on this video expecting this!!

DAMNIT THIS WAS MY COMMENT XD

when your inner prog can't resist

13 year old drummer?

Have you seen the video where they play through it during the drummer auditions? It’s fascinating.

FE Gaiden/Echoes uses it, too, in the basic battle theme. Final Fantasy 8, as well, in the same fashion.

Right on. Another perfect example I'm surprised wasn't mentioned in the video was the Ridley battle in Super Metroid. I'd be curious to see what he had to say about the other phrases of that piece other than the main Clave.

Oh, yeah, the Ridley theme is a _classic_ example of that beat.

@@scottgattie2257 Wow, yeah, it's a little odd he didn't mention Vs. Ridley. It's made even more explicit in the way that Vs. Ridley has gradually become a banging metal track over time, transforming it from the original unsettling 16 bit version to the savage prog metal you hear in the Smash Ultimate remix. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gKd1gJSVv7XXdaM.html

A completely opposite example is Undertale's Here We Are, ominous but very upbeat. I was hoping he'd mention it Also holy crap I can't believe I forgot about Ridley

"Odd time signitures" (clicks) (sees Dream Theater footage) All is as it should be.

And give me nightmares still lol.

What about Hartmannerest Youkaierest Girlest

I se I have a fellow of the 64 here

Marx’s theme was the first thing I thought when I saw this video. Of all the song I know how to play that one is the one I’m most proud of because of how much work it is to wrap your head around what the fuck is going on with it

marx’s theme and strong one were the exact same things i thought of?

YES. That, and a few other popular game themes, whenever I hum them I'm technically getting them a bit wrong by squeezing the rhythm out to something more regular.

@@chimericalical Glad to see a bunch of people gravitate immediately to Marx's theme. If you try to physically conduct that song, and the only way it makes sense is if the time signature changes every 2 or 3 bars, so I always suspected that it shifted often.

I know I'm super late to reply this but if you never did pick up Ni No Kuni 2 (The game Leavetaking is from) it's very very much so worth it and a fun game full of beautiful scenes and great music.

@@MajrokiReGilded if you care to know, Ni No Kuni 3 is in developement. can't wait to hear Joe Hisaishi's compositions for it.

My brother who plays bass made a possibly new time signature of 17/12 so that is why bassists should never ever write music

@@tuttiman55 I'm sorry HE WHAT

Is 17/12 an already existing time signature or did my brother make it

@@tuttiman55 Forgive me if I'm wrong but isn't 17/12 just 17 triplets? Like how a measure of 6/20 would be 6 quintuplets?

@@fudgenugget3925 I’m not sure because I’m only in third year of high school and I don’t know that much

@@real_PaulAllen HELL YEAH

DREAM THEATER

Was scrolling down looking for this comment

Imagine not knowing that

It's the official final boss theme for drummers

I don't even think it's that they're geniuses, moreso that often they have no formal musical training, and/or are more willing and even likely to break the traditional rules of musical composition as a result. A lot of the people we consider legends all grew up in the 70s and were heavily influenced by American Jazz/Funk, and British Prog Rock, genres well known for breaking traditional music composition rules.

@@knightshousegames too bad modern mainstream music aren't all like that

Its because they're good at maths xD

Well they're ASIAN lol

Tim Follin and Chris Huelsbeck say hi

WARNING: Long rant incoming (TL;DR at the end) Percussion is actually one of the most difficult "instruments" to play. I put "instruments" in quotes because percussionists often have to play a HUGE variety of different percussive instruments, sometimes having to switch between instruments multiple times in the middle of a piece. Think of the amount of effort and dedication required to master one instrument such as the clarinet or the guitar, and imagine having to do that for multiple instruments. Even something as seemingly "easy" as the tambourine can actually be taken to a whole new level with enough practice, separating great percussionists from mediocre ones. Instruments such as the marimba, vibraphone, and xylophone require an incredible amount of precision and dexterity, and the timpani require a good ear for pitch and a solid understanding of music theory. As a percussionist, I've had times where I had to play a segment on chimes, then walk to the glockenspiel and play a few measures, then move to the gong to finish out a piece, all while keeping track of what measure we were on so as not to get lost. It can be stressful. Granted, I would assume that you are most likely in high school, where band directors often chose pieces that are not exceedingly difficult for percussion, and many percussionists in high school are not experienced or passionate enough to master their craft, so I can understand where you're coming from. TL;DR: Percussion gets a lot of flak for being "simple" or "easy", but it is a surprisingly difficult and nuanced section of the ensemble. Many wind players who may be excellent at their own single instrument would still struggle with percussion if they were to try it.

Lvl62paladin omg thank you finally someone understands

@@Lvl62paladin And the percussion section holds the whole rest of the band/orchestra/group together!

Lvl62paladin I’m a percussionist for my high school and my band director was on the Carolina Crown 2005 snare line, he makes sure we have plenty of parts for our pieces, we even have our own percussion ensemble lol

@@Lvl62paladin You have a point, there is definitely more nuance to percussion than people think. But don't pretend an instrument like the tambourine is NEARLY as difficult to master on its own as say the piano or a full drumset

Love your stuff!

5/4 time FTW

and Here We Are from undertale

Night of Fate from what game?

duddude321 Kingdom Hearts... it’s also in 5, and is also incredible. I prefer it to Hollow Bastion, but to each their own 🤷🏻‍♂️

I've learned how to conduct that exact theme. It's not as hard as one would think. It's just a subdivision of 4/4 and 3/4 patterns alternating at half the speed. So it's not terrible, but seeing it on a piece of paper is definitely terrifying.

Then you'd boutta have a seizure when you find out about 71907/40120

@@starawesom you gotta be yanking my chain. The craziest I’ve ever done 12/4 time (I might be wrong though)

@@honeybee1256 I kid you not So as he said, mother 3's battle system revolves around attacking to the beat of the music, and as the game goes on, so do the "heartbeat" combos, as they're called so in the aforementioned "strong one" in this video, there is a harder version of it for the masked man (one of the main antagonists) that cuts off half a beat at the end of the measure so then you would go to 29/16 time, which is already very crazy, but here's the thing- they don't cut out exactly one-half of a beat, instead cutting little more than a half so then you have to get to a valid time signature which does not occur until 71907/40120

basically the point of it is that the masked man is a cyborg so he does not have a normal heartbeat

Chaotic means complex most of the time.

Reminds me a bit of LttP final boss (probably intentional)

it explains why I would randomly miss batting back the spark, I was trying to keep time! I definitely didn't just screw up >.>'

Odd time signatures can easily create that chaotic feel.

It lead me to think there might be a cultural tendency to it... I mean, Western classical music is generally identified by 4/4 2/4 time signatures for non-western listeners like us. My country's folk music generally has different 9/8, 5/8 time signatures. (I know these signatures are used in Western music too, but not almost all the time) Maybe Asian traditional music has a similar quirk.

It's also everywhere in JRPG battle themes, along with its cousin, 7/8. (5/4 is 3-3-2-2 grouping, while 7/8 is 3-2-2 grouping.)

Well, the boss is just very powerful attack and defense wise as well.

And, indeed

adam or not?

Next thing you know, he might do something similar to either Bowser, the Hive Mind, or Morpho Knight.

Karl Maaaaaarx

Marche 71907/40120. That is all.

You'll forgive your hasty time signature, won't you?

Hyper7 huh, I never realised that. I have a whole new appreciation for ‘Theme of Eastern Story’.

The first think that came to mind for me with the '5/4 clave' rhythm is the staff roll from Hopeless Masquerade.

Yea you can really tell a track's by Zun even if it's using a different instrument set (even without the horns). It's got a very distinct just feeling to it. Something you can't really unhear once you pick up on it.

Yeah! I was surprised not to see Raiko's theme here as I absolutely love how it plays with drums. There are also th12 and 13 stage 6 themes, I would have loved to hear his thoughts about these, maybe in a dedicated video, one day!

As soon as I saw the title I immediately thought of Hartmann’s Youkai Girl. Seriously, what time signature is that?

@@Gamesmarts194 P.sure it starts with 15/16, then goes to 7/8, 4/4, 7/8, 4/4, and then it loops.

Japanese video game composers yes, but it's not all that common in western video games. All 8-bit Music Theory's examples here were from Japanese composers, and most of them from RPGs (old Japanese platform, arcade and shooter games had plenty of odd signatures too, just listen to Bionic Commando, or even level 2 in Super Mario Bros!). Finding them in western video game music from that time is much rarer. Modern western games do have some (for instance Minecraft, as Aiden pointed out).

Idk if rhythm game music counts as game music but ICE's song "Pandora's Box" from Deemo has a lot of parts in 11/8. It's really fun to listen to once you get used to it.

@@Choinkus Wally Breben's music for the Commodore 64 version of Tetris, a 25-minute electronic epic, has a long 5/4 (or 3 3 2 2) section in the middle. I really recommend it if someone wants to hear great music that's not from Japan ;)

@@Mnnvint Minecraft and Undertale come to mind. But yeah, not many examples.

Math rock, prog rock, avant jazz? Unless we ain't counting those lol

???

@@calebrobinson3144 Strong One (Masked Man). Look it up.

@V.T. Proto Yes, it's the *NOPE* Time Signature.

The f*** time signature.

It's still 15/8, they just switch up the tempo every few beats

Hinox theme and part of Vah Rudania theme are 5/4

@@peters9889 i came here only to find anything relating to botw

And it's influenced heavily by gamelan, a music genre predominantly found in Indonesia :)

it is? huh

11/16

Do you know what rom hack this is?

No, I don't, sorry. I've seen footage of it plenty of times before, but I've never known the name for it.

This comment is the best comment.

Sacred stones is arguably the best FE in the gameboy era

That was made just for the KZfaq video, if I remember. It's just what you see in the video (called Jehanna VS Black Fang Fire Emblem). Edit: by the KZfaq channel Marlon&Louis Fire Emblem Hacks

Which song is it?

Dance of eternity by dream theater

Dance of Eternity. The video is here on youtube too where Mike Portnoy goes over the time changes through the song kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fN2blrWFs7PXh6c.html

"Whether it's the trick of adding/removing a beat from a repeated figure or something else, you cant really approach an odd signature the way you approach a standard one." Only if you're trying to be deliberately obtuse. My usual approach is to make those "weird" rhythms feel every bit as normal and intuitive as possible, so that the listener doesn't even realise there's something different going on. Also, Dance of Eternity is the typical case of a song that has "weird" rhythms and *nothing else* going on.

@@FernieCanto I've certainly heard many cases of odd signatures sounding like standard ones, but what I was getting at is that you can't just slap a 4/4 rhythm in an odd signature and expect it to work. You need to find rhythmic structures that work within that signature. Even if they feel natural, they will not generally be the kind of thing you're likely to see in a more standard signature if you examine it closely.

I haven't even played mother 3 (been meaning to) and I know it has some weird tine signatures, like the masked man's theme.

Mother 3 is a great game, if you can play it, I highly suggest you do.

@@cq_the_kid I have an English-patched rom, I've just got to get to it, I've been wanting to!

A few more examples of odd time signatures / mixed meter from Mother 3 can be found here danbruno.net/writing/mother3/

Me with no knowledge of sheet music...

Yeah, Golden Sun probably has the proggiest video game soundtrack in terms of rhythm. In addition to those tracks, there’s also the final boss from the first game, the fusion dragon music, which begins with bars of 4/4, 7/8, then 9/8 before returning to 4/4. Then at 0:31, the drum pattern plays 16th notes in the order of kick, hi-hat, hi-hat, snare. The snare is very disorientating at a fast tempo (coming on the “a” as in 1 e + a), especially considering the kick is barely audible, and the section is preceded with a random 7/8 bar with no crash cymbal to signal the start of the section! Then at 1:08, there’s a section in 6/8 with accents on the 6th beat of the bar, but the bass guitar part that fills in the rest of the bar plays a rhythm that tricks the listener into thinking the accent is on the first beat of the bar. This results in the next section sounding like it comes out of nowhere, or a 1/8 bar into the new section if you will, but really it’s just 6/8. Man I love Golden Sun

Who Am I? from FF7 is in 6/8 but has a 5/8 bar every four bars.

I was hoping someone should mention Golden Sun! Shoutout to the Doom Dragon theme, shifting mainly between 5/8 & 6/8 but generally in an unexpected way. Of course, the richness of that soundtrack stretches well beyond the liberal use of time signature changes..

She’s brilliant. Should have given her a nod and a picture in this video.

Because she's an amazing composer.

Hadn't heard of her before, something to look for (is she a also known outside of game music?). But Joe Hisaishi was also in there.

Yoko Shimomura = Dream Theater of video game music.

Not nearly enough, IMO ;D

One tune i love is "Subterranean Hell" from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. It's 5/8 for the most part with a 7/8 opening and sections in 6/8.

He talked about it some time ago :)

The Hinox battle theme is also 5/4!

How about Lost Woods? Im not sure what the time signature is but I know its probably nuts.

Had me rollin'