Isn't the PSG made by a different chip on the Genesis?

i don't think the popularization of the term soundfont for any instrument set can be chalked down purely to their use in undertale; that term was widely used for everything like that way before undertale was even conceived. i'd say the more important event is the rise of people making soundfonts based on instruments ripped/recorded from video games (particularly the ultimate megadrive soundfont / genesisf) leading people to believe that those soundfonts were what the games used directly. i'm sure undertale played a part but i remember being upset at people commenting "soundfont" incorrectly since way before 2015.

"Disliking something, and that something being bad, are not synonyms" are words that I practically live by. I'm especially glad that you went over the transitions from the Demo Tapes of 2, because I wasn't sure what to believe as to why the demo versions were slower. I feel quite enlightened by the information in this video, as I can now confidently say that Faded Hills just sucks cause it sucks and not cause "Tomoya Ohtani used a Genesis Soundfont"🙂

yk i think i needed this video because i personally have made misjudgements specifically for the misconceptions regarding jun senoue and 3d blast, so i feel really stupid yet humbled by that fact. i mean, i was told a few days ago that whatever i said was wrong, but it really makes me feel really dumb for making assumptions based off the research i did on only for sonic 3 and not even thinking about 3d blast lol

I think another common misconception is the vgm deconstruction theme. Some people still have to learn that it's only possible to separate audio channels from music tracks using its "project file" or the archive where the music's note, effect and instrument data is stored. In the case of the Sega Genesis for an example, it's the .vgm files. The problem here is: you can't deconstruct or isolate channels in high quality music (.mp3, .wav and CD Audio in general, for example). High quality audio files only posess the waveform of the music track/song, meaning you don't have direct access to the instruments and notes in a separated form (because everything gets mixed as one). It's like cake. You can't take the eggs outta the baked cake. You'll have to try and buy the ingredients to have access to the separated things which make the cake. Basically, you can only deconstruct waveform type music if you recreate It from scratch. That's why not all of Sonic CD's songs were deconstructed yet.

i hope more people see this entirely due to the soundfont stuff. i get unreasonably ticked every time i see someone mention the genesis soundfont lmao

I would like to add further proof that Jun Senoue did program music: In an interview conducted by Style Factory, they ask Jun this: “What was your songwriting process for creating music on the Sega Genesis? The system worked entirely on FM and PSG synthesis with DAC samples, so were you initially working with guitars and keyboards and then translating it over, or working entirely from scratch on their development kit?” Jun says this: “I used MIDI keyboards and sequencers for composing then programmed it directly into the game.” This should help put to rest the misconception that he never programmed music on the Genesis. That was my original thought, as you know NUKELEDGE since the comment you cited in your video was a reply to my original comment about your Special Stage demo tape cover. However, so many knowledgeable people were saying otherwise that I started believing them instead. I’m glad that this subject has concrete answers. Also, THANK YOU for helping people understand the SoundFont format, and how it’s not even close to being the proper term. The gross misuse and calling everything a SoundFont gets on my last nerve, lol. Lastly, it’s great to know that my theory on Sonic Origins’ music was correct! That was a great read.

As a semi-metalhead it pisses me off whenever someone calls the Super Sonic boss themes from Frontiers "screamo" Even though its an actual genre of metal/heavy rock, people now just use it as a term for songs with harsh vocals and sometimes heavier than normal guitar.

Im pretty ashamed to say that i did not know that Jun Senoue programmed his own music

That whole thing with people talking about Soundfonts are the exact type of people who'd trash MIDI because "it sounds bad". Like, have they even played it back on anything other than Windows Media Player?

The Sonic Origins thing was an eye opener. I recently told one of my friends Senoue remade the music, after watching this I had to go correct myself. Good stuff.

I remember when you launched the remix of "Ghost Town" from Sonic Forces in CD Style and I asked "Have Sonic CD a soundfont?", and a lot of people explain me why the concept of "soundfont" is wrong. I don't think that concept is Sonic Fan base exclusive, is a general misconception in Video Game music community (amounts of video remixes in internet have "soundfont" in his titles, that induces more and more people to reproduce the concept)

Absolutely great video. Glad to see we have some of the same gripes about the discussion around videogame music. Especially that last point. It's always weird when Sonic fans hate on Frontiers and Forces for having modern, more current music when Sonic music has always done that. Sonic CD was a product of its time with the 90's dance and techno sound, and Sonic Adventure and Heroes were doing the late-90's/Early 2000's Pop/J-Rock. All this to say, Sonic music has always been a product of its time (which is meant to mirror the fact that Sonic is cool and coolness is constantly being updated, making it inherently modern etc, etc) so a lot of people's disdain for modern Sonic music just comes off as conflating opinion with objective quality.

I'll admit it, I have myself been guilty of misgenre-ing Sonic songs before, and songs in general. I remember when I first heard Vandalize I called it pop, when obviously it isn't, listening to it now. I have also in the past tended to call every electronic song "EDM" as a blanket term without thinking more intricately about it. There was a lot of stuff I learned from this video that I didn't know previously, and I hope it reaches more people so we can have more educated discussions about these sorts of things, I think it's really helpful.

As a fellow synth enthusiast, I thank you so much for this

That last bit was fun. A lot of Sonic fans are the same way about game design; they can't comprehend ideas that aren't from Sonic games, nor the idea that "good game design" sometimes means not doing things that they think of as their platonic ideal of "Sonic". If I ever get into making video essays I've always wanted to do one about that, because it drives me a little nuts. As for the factual misconceptions, one I see from time-to-time is that composers (Hideki Naganuma most commonly) "sampled" this or that random old source themselves, when in actuality they got sample packs/CDs from the companies they worked for, such as the Zero-G Datafile you mention. Sample packs are incredibly common, and while it's fun to find the original source of samples used in games, professional composers for games aren't necessarily seeking out old episodes of Batman just to grab a clip of Adam West saying "Let's go!". (Also I know I've gotten the one about Jun Senoue not doing sound programming wrong before, since I checked the Sonic 3 credits and there were separate credits for sound programmers and arrangers that didn't include him, so I assumed the setup was the same for the other Genesis games he worked on. I'm certain that one's relatively common, sadly. On that note, I didn't realize there were individual track credits for games that old, that's really cool to find out!)

2:54 Seems like my SEGAudio soundfont made a cameo in this video (yes i'm the one who made that, hello youtube). That aside, THANK YOU for being another voice that clarifies how video game sound chips work and putting it quite succinctly and plainly, even I'm sick of people not even bothering to look up what a soundfont is and what its origins are. If MIDIs really were used in literally the exact same way, then platforms like the Nintendo DS would lock the drums to the 10th channel by default and allow more than one note's worth of polyphony much like how MIDIs on PCs do, yet you can see with various deconstructions of a number of DS games from searching "nintendo ds oscilloscope" (namely with Sonic Colors) that you can actually just use whatever sample you want on ANY of the channels so long as you know how to trick your way into attaining that fullness regardless of polyphony limits. Also, I had no idea Forces actually used a real Sega Genesis for its Classic stages. That said, they've still got a lot of improvement to make with that music if they're going to keep using it for any future projects (though I'd imagine they can't reuse instrument patches that other Genesis composers outside of Sega worked with and just shortcut it for legal reasons). Although, I can't say much about Sonic music as of late since it's not my specialty, so it's nice to have the insight. Finally, just to verify, soundfonts come from early-90s, so neither Nintendo, Sega, NEC, Atari, etc. had any involvement with it because their consoles released before even the Sound Blaster sound cards made their debut. tldr; This is a REALLY well-researched and well-sourced video you've got here, Nuclear. You've earned a sub! (Also if anyone's wondering, the point of my soundfont was not to purposefully evoke nostalgia or familiarity, but to simply explore what other sounds the Sega Genesis could make outside of either the common perception of the console's sound and/or even outside of what was already tried in the console's library.)

The ignorance that gets on my nerves the most is people thinking that the one cutscene song was meant to be Hidden Palace's music when the Demo Tape clearly proves it was supposed to be some sort of cutscene song. People are stuck to that simply because that music plays when loading the broken Hidden Palace stage in Sonic 2. It also annoys me when people ignore how Casino Night 2-Player was used for Oil Ocean and intended for that zone for most of development yet people say it was meant for Genocide/Cyber City. Also, I love how savage you are in this video. You are saying what I've been feeling for a while.

I don't think people will stop calling the general sound set of a game the sound font. Everyone gets what is meant when it's used, only the experts get annoyed

I don't think ignorance about music genres has anything to do with media literacy. I'll never not be annoying hearing all dance music being described as dubstep and techno. Video game fans are video game fans and so often don't know about music. Think about the millions of people that played games in the 90s and 2000s who, through playing them, heard a ton of dance music and just have no clue and think it's 'video game style music.' A lot of Americans probably would have derided it all as 'gay music' and then gone home to play Ridge Racer 4 or something.

my thoughts on the forces supersaw debacle is this: while the repetition of the lead isn't inherently bad, combined with the formulaic compositions you can basically swap any of the songs out with each other and nothing would change. what makes arsenal pyramid's outside track any different from luminous forest? how are they catered to fit the level? the lack of variety just makes this issue much worse. this applies 10x to the frontiers cyberspace tracks, although that's more of an issue with the game and sadly something the composers had to inherit. (i like both soundtracks btw)

"Sonic fans absolutely suck at identifying music genres." Guilty as charged lol I'm very impressed with this video! I learned a hell of a lot. Hopefully, things work out as you hope they will having released this, though IMO I doubt it lol

Thank you for debunking these Sonic music misconceptions for us! I've been waiting for something like this for a long time! Hopefully, this finally makes the fanbase realize that Sonic music isn't always black and white. I put timestamps of each misconception in case anyone wants to come back to any of these one day. *Timestamps:* Fact-Based Misconceptions 0:53 Sonic 1 & 2 Demo Tape Translation to the Genesis Hardware 1:45 Did Jun Senoue Program His Own Music for Sonic 3D Blast? 2:42 Does Sonic Music Use Soundfonts? 5:00 Does Sonic Forces/4 Use a Genesis Soundfont? 7:13 Did Jun Senoue Create the Sonic Origins Replacement Songs? 7:52 Does Sonic Music Use Michael Jackson Vocal Samples? 8:17 Why Does Sonic CD Use "Past" Music? 8:38 What is "Sonic Adventure Music Experience" as a Band and as a Music Set? Opinion-Based Misconceptions 13:12 Are Sonic Forces/Frontiers' EDM Tracks Bad? 14:38 Are Repetitive Sounds Bad? 15:30 Fan Opinions of Sonic Music Genres

I have a few issues with the last few minutes of the vid, not because I don't agree with the overall points you make, but rather because of the arguments that were used. I'd rather not get into it tho lol it's not worth anyone's time, especially considering that it's just a small portion in an amazing video. This HAD to be done eventually with all the misconceptions in the Sonic fandom, so thank you. Hopefully this gains traction in the algorithm so it makes an impact!

I like this, legitimately had no idea about a lot of this and i'm glad you put it out there. I feel like since you brought up Forces I might as well get something off my chest that i've never gotten the people who say the fan remixes of the modern and avatar stage themes are better than the original just because they get rid of the synth cause more often than not I think they just sound worse. There's this one in particular of Sunset Heights that replaces it with a Violin and while I usually love violins, it just sounds really "slurry" if that makes any sense, not sure what the technical term for it is, but the song loses a lot of its punch.

The fans opinions on sonic music and "why it's bad now" always seems to sound so fucking dumb. Glad someone has made a video to point that out lol.

I think it's worth accepting that "soundfont" and "MIDI" have become genericized terms for "sample set" and "tracker" (and, I'd argue it happened with "soundfont" way before Undertale came out). They're being used as convenient terms in general discussion to mean a certain thing that everybody partaking already understands, so they there really isn't any misleading technical misinformation being spread (The people with no knowledge as to what soundfonts and MIDI actually are already think it means one thing, and that's the thing it's being used to mean, so they aren't being made to believe something technically wrong. The people who DO know what said terms mean will most likely also know that the terms being used aren't being used *technically* correctly, so they aren't being mislead either) It's important to acknowledge that, with every technical field, its technical terms will have their meanings dumbed down for outsiders, and that's okay. In an ideal world, we'd be more on the same page, but even as it stands it's not really hurting anything. The people who haven't bothered to research the correct terms aren't the ones who actually need to know them.

Fantastically edited and voiced video with lots of good information, learnt some new stuff from this video. Hope more people see it!

Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for making this video. You definitely clarified some things for me, in particular Jun Senoue's involvement in arranging classic tracks from the 90's and the nature of Sonic Forces' Classic tracks. I'm not a music guy, so I really appreciate having a better grasp of these topics. I hope more people see this video. Also, speaking generally about the Sonic fandom, I wish people would voice their criticisms of Jun and Ohtani more respectfully. I don't think they deserve even a tiny fraction of some of the rude things I've seen people say about them.

You killed it! I really hope more people see this video it's really well informed.

"Sonic Frontiers music is bad because modern music is bad" ...EDM isn't new. Sure, Frontiers leans into the genre a lot more than older games, but it's nothing more than a change. EDM has existed since the 2000s and the 2010s, and in both cases, some would pledge that Sonic music was better then. In fact, if you count IDM as part of the same genre, EDM goes back as far as Sonic's own roots. Maybe I'm just a little biased considering I like all kinds of EDM, (IDM, House, Indie, Drum & Bass, you name it.) but I feel as if this is a bad point. (Not to say that older Sonic music wasn't bad, not at all.) Look up Sonic Before & After The Sequel's OST. (Or the Spark The Electric Jester games) They've got a good mix of electronic and rock music.

senoue only making the origins super sonic theme makes a lot more sense now, cause why else would he just use a _different drum sample_ from every other track

To be fair a lot of the common chip sounds used in games have been turned into SF2 (Sound Font v2) files to be used in a DAW to recreate that retro sound. Yes the chip doesn't use sound fonts, but the chip's sound is reproduced in sound fonts that exist.

Very well done, i'd be interested to hear you do a deep dive into one of the soundtracks and discuss how they work on a technical and musical level. also if it gives you an excuse to demonstrate all that tech i am ALL in.

"Soundfont" was popularized as a term due to literal downloadable sample sets of various retrogames. It has literally nothing to do with Undertale, and was being used long before then. People only call it that becuase there is an NES soundfont for download, a Genesis soundfont for download and many specialized SNES game soundfonts that contain the same samples used in games such as Earthbound, Super Mario Kart and Final Fantasy 6. "Soundfont" is just a generalized term that has come to mean the identifable fingerprint of how a game instrument samples generally sounds. Maybe it wasn't a real actual musical term to begin with, but the internet MADE it a term because there was no other widely known term to easily call it for convenience before then.

As a composer this is one of the best videos I've seen on Sonic music. I usually stay in the classical world but even then I notice way too many people say dumb stuff about Sonic music (especially regarding Sonic's musical identity).

This is very cool and well made video. If a part two ever gets made, you should talk about how Sonic fans don’t know what New Jack Swing is and why that isn’t the only genre that’s in the Sonic CD and Sonic Mania OSTs.

I feel like this is a video I needed to see. But man, I know he never will. But I do wish Ohtani would put more UK garage / 2-step in Sonic games. He did one track, in one game and that was "Space Trips Steps" and ticked all the 2-step boxes.

Very informative, even if I might not be informed enough about music in general to fully follow. One thing that's always bugged me is the myriad of terms people use to refer to the Crush 40 vocal "grand finale" songs, like calling it buttrock, glamrock, glam metal, so I gotta ask, what genre is it that they make?

There's many more fan misconceptions out there that were not covered in this video and they all seem to centre around Michael Jackson. 1. Everybody thinks the Bridge theme in Sonic 1 8-bit is the Janet Jackson song ''Together Again'' when in reality it merely shares a few chords and is completely different. 2. When Michael Jackson died in 2009 there was a wave of Sonic fans flooding the community spreading the lie that MJ secretly composed the entire soundtrack to Sonic 2 and didn't want to be credited. 3. Michael Jackson composed all of Sonic 3's soundtrack on his own. 4. This one was actually made by a fellow composer on Sonic 3 who is now trying to sue Sega for royalties. He said that MJ didn't want to be credited in Sonic 3 because he wasn't happy with the sound chip and felt it devalued his music. This statement made in 2009 totally disregards the fact that Michael Jackson was fine with how Moonwalker sounded three years earlier in 1990 as he was the final person who approved that game's soundtrack. So the FM-YM2612 is fine in 1990 doing Jackson's music but somehow in 1993 it devalued his music to the point where he didn't want to be associated with it? Mind you this was the year that the first child molestation case came out.

I've watched this video from time to time, and for the most part I do like it. With that being said, there is one part that I feel misses the mark hard. Like, "can't see the forest for the trees" hard. 2:42 3:24 Unlike the other points you make here (which I agree with, don't get me wrong), this just seems pedantic in a way that I can only describe as alienating. I've seen other people spell it out in the comments, but when people casually use "soundfont" when talking about video game music, _obviously_ they're not actually talking about the namesake (a format designed to keyboards and DAWs, and a prepackaged file that contains WAVs to use for music). What they're referring to is the *soundscape* of a console's sound chip, like Nintendo's beep-oriented music or Sega's FM sound. Since other people have reproduced the soundscapes of these consoles using the _soundfont format,_ they infer that the way these different consoles' sound are called _soundfonts_ because it is a _font_ for _sound._ Anyone who has used a computer in the last 25 years knows that you can change fonts, which makes it easier to connect the dots. Music from old video games sounds different: If a Nintendo sounds different from a Sega, that means the soundscape of the music is inherently different. Mortal Kombat sounds different from console to console, so it obviously depends on the platform's "soundfont", or soundscape of a console. YM3438s and S-SMPs and what have you. That's what they mean by the Sonic sound font. It's not about the format (which obviously no one will read on Wikipedia), but simply the soundscape of a video game console's sound chip. You can obviously infer this from casual conversation! This is why some people call any drink Coke! That's why I called the consoles by their nicknames, you can _obviously_ tell what I'm talking about from the context. My father (a Gen Xer who loved music) often called any DAW or tracker a “MIDI setup.” I used to correct the s@$# out of him for years, but I eventually realized that it just made him not want to talk about music with me because I was becoming so pedantic about the terms that I missed the conversation. I let us talk using all kinds of terms with context and we managed to talk about all kinds of topics. By focusing too much on the definition of soundfont, either good or bad, you kind of miss what the person is talking about.

The "soundfont" thing seems like basically the same situation as jet skis. Did you know that "Jet Ski" was coined by Kawasaki as a brand name for their own line of personal watercraft, specifically?

I mean, if you want my opinion, at the end of the day, it’s just music. There’s no reason to go too serious into music. Honestly, I can say that I myself have no knowledge on music, but will that stop me from enjoying music? Absolutely not. Even if I don’t know genres, (because for me, as long as a song sounds good to me, it sounds good, nothing more than that. If a particular song sounds bad, it sounds bad, to a personal opinion, because I can’t speak for anyone that also dislikes that specific song that ends up grouping it up to the whole genre), Im not gonna fuss over it. Also the point around the “ Adventure prototype music “ talk, at least to a personal level, I assumed there was gonna be the Adventure Remakes because of the fact that I was not aware that there was a charity going on before those releases. I should have checked everywhere before assuming that they were Adventure remakes, and honestly, thats my fault. All in all, this was a great episode on music, even if I have short term memory and will probably forget lmao (because lets be honest, if you’re not too focused on a subject, you’ll most likely forget everything about it)

Wow I love this video, and I didn't even know this was even an issue haha! I am so shocked that the Sonic 3 samples didn't come from Michael Jackson, and it's kind of comforting knowing the Sonic 4 ep 2 OST was made with ProTools defaults. I also got to say though that I originally didn't like the Sonic Forces soundtrack when it came out but it grew on me overtime, especially Fighting Onward. Definite Sub!

THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO. Not only did I learn stuff, but I also agree discussions surrounding Sonic music online are generally awful.

very well made video. as an FM synth musician myself it really does get me irrationally frustrated when people talk about the "genesis soundfont" or whatever when referring to the console, glad that you threw that in.

You know I think you should make a video explaining why making music for the Yamaha is very difficult as a lot of Mega Drive games as well as arcade Sega System 16 games had a very "hard, loud and sometimes screechy" sound (see for example Altered Beast or Phantasy Zone 1).

Would've been worth mentioning that there is a sample from MJ's Jam in Carnival Night Zone even though the sample doesn't actually feature his voice.

Very good info, but I feel the video's tone was a tad condescending. Then again, Sonic fans get off on humilation and being berated, so it's all good.

Ooooh, yeah, as a video game music guy I hate the whole "calling everything a soundfont" thing. You know what was really fucked though? Someone called my SNES music "ad-lib midi" music in a critique once in a review, it just irked me so badly at how off he was from what it really was lmao.

Media literacy in general is something that Sonic fans seem to be completely incapable of. I swear to god some people just get things wrong about this series on purpose just to be upset over something.

you can definably tell someone has severe music illiteracy when they refer to any rock song with an heavy electric guitar as "butt rock" (which isn't even a real god dam genre), or any more electronic music as "dubstep". Especially mimetic Sonic fans....

Good video! When I first heard the super sonic music in Origins and didn't like it that much, I was under the impression that Jun Senoue only composed the music for 3d Blast, and had someone else arrange it, to which I assumed he had no experience with actual genesis hardware, which is why Sonic 4 sounds the way it does. Turns out he just had different hardware. I'll make sure to have a more open mind before I start forming opinions on an industry I have no experience in.

thanks for correcting an assertion I had about Senoue, I assumed the Sonic 4/Origins/(superstars bosses?) all sounded that way because Senoue never programmed for genesis, turns out he did but the hardware was unavailable for him to use...?

Awesome video, really dig the background aesthetic as well! I hope more people watch this, a lot more people should fact check before they form an opinion.

the section talking about soundfonts is something i genuiely get annoyed about, cuz, there have been many times I've seen a hardware-acurate chiptune and one of the comments says something along the lines of "I reALy lIKe tHis SoUNdFoNT" Ik people dont understanding trackers and all, but why do you call it a soundfont?! Most, if not all the time, the music in question has a certain _style_ Eg. The Sonic Advance trilogy's music are all similar, but im pretty sure they _don't_ use a soundfont, rather, they have a style that the composers stick to.

As a sonic fan, my mentality is "Unga Bunga music good, monke liek"

I disagree that making the past themes sound “prehistoric” in a way using the sampled instrumentation was the *main* reason they weren’t CD audio. The sampled audio was practically necessary to make the game fit on a CD, and as the Cutting Room Floor puts it “When accounting for four CD audio variations instead of three (for reference, an average Sonic CD track is 1-2 minutes, or 10-20 megabytes), the data and music stored on the Sonic CD disc amounts to 600 - 700 megabytes which is dangerously close to an audio CD's storage capacity limit (around 650 - 700MB).” I do think the overall sound/atmosphere the sampled audio gave was at least a little bit of a bonus to the composers though, with Mazin himself tweeting “I feel like the past side of Sonic CD was playing PCM the best. At the time, it turned out that the capacity of the DA was not enough, so only the past was built in, but I wanted to listen to the "sound" of the built-in sound source of the mega CD, so I decided to do so at the time, and I was grinning inside. I was doing double.” Other than that though, there’s some great info in the video that I didn’t know before! It’s certainly a great testament to the power of doing your own research instead of immediately adopting the first opinion you see on a subject, something many people could benefit from.

Fantastic video! It's cool to see a genuinely informative Sonic video these days 😅

It is at least a little sad to me that Sonic fans, for a franchise with such a rich musical legacy and with such an amazing art and fangame community, seem to have so little musical imagination. I have a series of playlists where I construct and extrapolate new types of music that would fit for the series or particular entries: kzfaq.info/sun/PLRbkF_JK5i8EtfJGkIt6e97bXD6VyB50G (Forces, one track per stage except where explicitly mentioned otherwise) kzfaq.info/sun/PLRbkF_JK5i8FC7UV24hh8lWk73YxOKV1L (Frontiers) kzfaq.info/sun/PLRbkF_JK5i8FN5sUEaRxHE6tcebyTYlv3 (Classic Sonic, general) Compare this to my contemporaries who seem to have the same goal: kzfaq.info/sun/PLr8ZkNBOPi-Qwii4Jid3OoJFXxRZYGoml (Forces) kzfaq.info/sun/PLXSKsIBHDH4iSXbgWxMmthlt5lFY49GcZ (Forces) kzfaq.info/sun/PL-grwrKG-djNg8Aq1LyOpgY557V1gFWGO (Classic Sonic, general) kzfaq.info/sun/PLgcoT7-W0fP1lMUh9m3k5--rA0reCCMyV (Modern Sonic, general) The gap in inspiration, I feel, is tragic. They are cannibalistic, often featuring music already in the series, and almost universally within the bubble of video game original soundtracks and occasionally anime (which is a step in the right direction). If not, then it is music popular from flash-in-the-pan memes or comedy music. Even notable examples, such as Triple-Q's Modern Sonic playlist are subject to these problems. I imagine that my choices are strange to just about anyone, but at least I extend even slightly outside the box.

THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS VIDEO

Yo, do you have a list what senoue equipment was for SA 2 This is an excellent video.

Coming back to video after superstars release. it's been so helpful so far!

Me being a producer and my special interest being Sonic 👁️👄👁️

love your content 🔥

I need help searching for a 'lost' sonic unleashed cover. It's a song that might be made in FL studio, and sound similar to what kind of instruments that Pizza Tower use, that same from FL studio. I'm not sure where most of the modern day Sonic or Mario fan are nowadays, (Sega/Nintendo).

People talk shit about music all the time without knowing half of what they're talking about, unfortunately that's common even outside of the Sonic fanbase. I don't even know that much about music but I'm still constantly reminded that people like to pretend they know what they're talking, just by having basic knowledge.

So glad to see this video, I wish Sonic fans knew how to separate their opinions from whether music is good or not. Hoping people will pick up on this video and stop assuming the wrong things. Also, two thing, disregarding the extended opening, the S.A.M.E. version of That's The Way I Like It is actually shorter than the original track. While the song on multi-dimensional does have the second chorus as twice the length of the first, other releases (such as the SA2 digital OST and the 25th anniversary selection) have the last chorus go on for 4 times as much as the first, which beats the S.A.M.E.'s 3 times longer chorus. Not having access to the original hardware used for songs (like in SA1 and 2) wouldn't stop them from making remixes. It's very clear that, at least from SA1 onwards (if not earlier, like Sonic R), SEGA has been archiving stems for almost all Sonic music. This can mostly be seen in Sonic Generations and Sonic Forces where, not just Jun Senoue tracks are remixed with use of the original stems, but also tracks by Hideaki Kobayashi, Kenichi Tokoi, Fumie Kumatani, Heigo Tani, and more.

can't wait until the sonic frontiers soundfont drops

16:04 "End of The World" from Sonic '06 is the most common example. "The Doom" from Shadow the Hedgehog. Much of Riders as well.

May I ask what sound chips Yousuke Yasui used to make eschatos music?

Nuclear my goat, another banger 🔥🔥🔥

I'm going to have to disagree with you on the point of "No game console uses soundfonts" - while it's not technically down to the console's abilities, I'd argue any music that uses data samples (Sonic Advance series on the Game Boy Advance, Sonic Rush series on DS, Sonic 4 on Wii) could be called a "soundfont", even if the technical term is something different. (Some DS games even have banks that are incredibly close to being 1:1 with a standard soundfont when converted over to SF2, often missing drum sound effects or putting them on the last patch.) So while yes, it's wrong to say "The Sonic 1 Soundfont" in reference to just the sounds the original game makes, it's not entirely wrong to say "The Sonic Colors DS Soundfont" in reference to the sounds it makes, give or take some songs that just use the hardware to synthesize a sound, even if it's not the "official" definition of a soundfont (2), it's pretty close, and the words used are an apt description of what someone might mean when referring to the sound. I don't think it's as useful to be so strict in this terminology about anything past hardware synth consoles.

Thank you! It's really annoying how people constantly spout nonsense on topics they have no idea about. If only they did some research on a given topic before talking talking about it, internet would've been auch better place. Sidenote: how do people STILL believe Zippo? Wasn't he proven wrong, like, ages ago?

fighting the good fight, awesome video

My brain seeing that video title: 🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫 Me starting to watch the video: *hold your fire*

4:08 wasnt it used that way before undertale existed too? I remember seeing and watching "soundfont" covers of pokemon and sonic songs many years ago

Never imagined I'd hear your voice, such an entertaining video! ❤

Tbf I've seen Crush 40 performances that don't even have Jun and they're still considered Crush 40 concerts. I guess Johnny is just the core part of Crush 40 lol.

This is why I just say that I don't like specific songs, because I have no idea what makes good or bad music. Like, to me. Faded Hills from Forces is a bad song to me, it just sounds ear-grating; but someone could come up to me and say that it's actually a good song due to the malform wave compression through a digital Yamaha synthesizer and it uses a Alphonian Key note sequence used in many other songs and I'd just nod along. Because I literally have no experience with music.

These are all things that I feel like needed to be said, and I learned many new things as well. However, I do not take as well to the tone of the video. We need to be patient with people who simply do not know any better. It is not the fault of the fans that society in general is not very musically literate. Most people never have a "call to action" that makes them truly care about music besides for the emotions it makes them feel or the people it causes them to meet. In fact, I argue that we must be extra patient with Sonic fans because of just how young they usually are. I recall a conversation with my mother who frequently went clubbing in the 90s about electronic music from that period.¹ She never considered that there could be different subgenres and called any danceable electronic music "techno." If many adults cannot distinguish between the various different genres they like or reason about music, it seems unreasonable in my mind to expect children with a much less sophisticated worldview to be capable of it. Because the Sonic fandom is so heterogeneous, I think it is quite wise to treat it as a subset of the general population, with their average in no dimension being deviant from the norm in any meaningful capacity besides factors correlated with young age. This fracturing is caused by the exhausting amount of experimentation and reinvention the series does. With the number of different aesthetics and moods born from the many different eras and subseries, the Sonic fandom is basically a group of smaller fandoms under the impression that it is one large fandom because of them all nominally sharing the same basic characters. If we can accept this notion, then it seems perfectly reasonable that Crush 40 fans would not appreciate drum 'n' bass or that fans of the house-style Japanese CD soundtrack would not understand the ambient-style American soundtrack. Sonic fans are people after all, and people tend to not like change or things they do not understand. -------- ¹ After listening to "Qmart" by 808 State featuring Björk: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jculqq55zK7Lk30.html (Edits: syntax, wording, excessive comma splicing.)

4:26 synths would be a good one for synthesised sound (like the Yamaha chip)

I knew Nuclear BEFORE he was cool KZfaq video guy. Don't frick with me. Yeah the Sonic fanbase is Dunning-Kruger personified. I get this burning urge to jump off a bridge whenever I see their takes regarding music, not sure what's up with that. Currently standing on the edge of one right now

So I'll ask something: The fact that past music for the US version of Sonic CD were unchanged because it was too difficult to change them/where directly in the soudchip or something like that is also a myth?

1:56 Look, Gary! There I am!

I want some of the older hardware to be used for songs nowadays and remake things

Many of these issues extend beyond the "sonic fanbase". It's common for the average person to oversimplify topics they aren't deeply interested in, resorting to popular terminology being used to get their points across. While it's great that as an enthusiast you're educating others, it's unrealistic to expect everyone with a casual interest in music to possess the same level of knowledge as you do.

great video! I learned something new :)

15:33 Why are you using Discord screenshots as examples? I can see using Discord screenshots if the dialog in the screenshots add additional commentary, but all the screenshots say is that the person in question doesn't understand genres (something you're already talking about while showing the image).

You have a super interesting perspective on sonic fandom music takes. Would love to hear you talk about the differences between classic sonic music, and jun senoues take on it for Sonic 4/Superstars, if thats something youre interested about.

3:52 Hypothetically speaking, I think the Wii may have had the capability to run a sound font if you made your own soundfont playing software for it... though it might sound a bit off depending on certain things I'm far from qualified to explain.

Correction. The term soundfonts wasn't popularised with Undertale, it existed with the definition of 'instrument samples pertaining to a game/hardware' even before that, I remember back in around 2011 that people were using the word 'soundfont' in regards to Pokémon music (And being technical, the soundfonts for Pokémon are all from various VSTs, but altered to work on GBA/DS hardware), so it's definitely been a thing for years before Undertale was released

I feel so validated knowing that I was completely on the ball with Sonic CD past music using the genesis soundchip because Sonic was traveling back in time. that was always a headcannon of mine so it's cool to know that was 100% correct

i always liked the classic songs in Forces, but i did not know they were made with real genesis hardware. and im also unfortunately one of those people who kept saying jun didn't program any of his own tracks in 3d blast... this is a really good video.

Earned a sub; takes balls to point out people's ingorance, *especially* in the Sonic community.

Let’s see a Sonic fan point out a New Jack Swing track.

Hold on, you’re telling me Masato had a hand in the Beta Casino Night Zone track?! I always liked that version

BRO DID A VOICE REVEAL!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!!!

Sonic fans having another hobby rather than just playing Sonic games challenge (impossible)

… I had a comment here, a pretty big comment too, and I just posted it. Do you have any idea where it went? It’s not here at all now!