The death of "synthetic/artifical" sounding video game music

I mean, yeah it's nice that we get fully orchestrated soundtracks that win BAFTA awards and crap, but I miss that synthetic unreal sound games used to have, where you'd almost have to fill in the gaps in the music with your mind. Any kind of tracker music, like those from Deus Ex or Unreal, they work BECAUSE they sound "fake", not in spite of it.

Here's some examples of what I mean:

EDIT: Screw it, I'll just direct link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX0hU7jQ5O4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBPK_oXeJgA

edited 14th Oct '10 4:51:04 PM by TravisBickle

Je Suis "Aware"

I'm confused. Is this about chiptunes?

You might want to check out the Bit Trip Series. Actually, I believe a lot of Retraux games have synthetic music as well.

edited 14th Oct '10 4:54:38 PM by Cliche

Chiptunes and synthesized music still have a huge niche, particularly in Retraux and indie games. For one thing, they're a hell of a lot cheaper than hiring an orchestra.

Well, the thing is chiptunes music has made a comeback in different forms, but tracker and mod music is pretty much dead, apart from some keygens and demoscene programs.

Je Suis "Aware"

And indie games.

Drakengard is this-ish, I think. Penguin called it "Stravinsky in a blender".

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For the most part video game music is essentially dead. It's just been replaced with normal music. Meanwhile, video game music turned into a genre within record music which is a little weird.

"normal music"?

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

Music that's just music. It's not attached to or written for any other type of medium.

I don't really see your point... a lot of classical music was originally written as soundtracks too.

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Yes, but that's still music written with the intention of assisting something in another medium. I'm not saying that makes it worse or not music, it just exists for different reasons.

Alright, maybe I am missing something here, because music is written to be in video games still. It's not as if they grab things off the radio to put in.

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

Eventually we're going to come full circle and video games are going to start having real music influenced by and sounding a bit like chiptunes.

This will all culminate with a Megaman game with a soundtrack by The Protomen. After which there won't be any more video game music because everyone will have exploded from being over-awesomed.

Jack Wall, the composer for both the Mass Effect games, used a full orchestra but tried to make it sound pretty retro, especially for the first game. It's really good stuff...check it out.

Eh, I'm not very big on VGM cover bands. Or chiptunes, for that matter. I prefer my orchestras. :3

Orchestration can sound good, when used properly. But a lot of composers think that epicing up their tracks automatically makes them worth listening to. I'm kind of epiced out, at this point.

All I have to say is:

Michael Giacchino. Northwest Sinfonia. Medal Of Honor: Frontline. Mercenaries: Playground Of Destruction. That is all.

edited 14th Oct '10 5:29:28 PM by rallyfan9000

I am a proud member of the Western Federation's Anti-Japan Media Task Force. My work is very important.

Okay, wait, ignore my other posts. I got a little switched around and I explained my idea terribly.
Video game music started so there could be nice music that could add something to the game. However, technology back then sucked hard. The composers for these games were terribly limited by their mediums. However his allowed them to really experiment and see what they could do with this stuff and they pumped out a lot of really interesting music. Eventually though around the PS 2 era the technological restrictions had really just disappeared. You could just record some guys in a studio and toss it on the disk. Video game music was about the hardware of the platform and trying to create a recognizable tune out of the bleeps and bloops provided. However, the hardware restrictions are gone so now you can just have music of any genre be it Classical, Rock, or Electronic. If it's written specifically for a game it's not really video game music, it's just music written for a video game.

Ohhhhh. That makes much more sense! Yeah, having constraints can be a catalyst for interesting stuff... but on the other hand I wouldn't give up the new stuff, so eh.

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This phenomenon is why I like Touhou music. I need some real "video game music" to satisfy my cravings.

If not an orchestra, I usually prefer my VGM to have some kind of live performance in them.

Final Fantasy XIII did extremely well in this regard; blending live performances and very natural-sounding synth together beautifully. I've yet to hear a soundtrack do that as well as this one. And that is why I have a total hardon for Masashi Hamauzu.

The fact that the soundtrack itself had absolutely fucking MASSIVE production values is probably part of the reason.

edited 14th Oct '10 6:01:41 PM by Electivirus

I want to hear more games with music like The Dig. Since the game came out when there wasn't really room to fit fully orchestrated pieces of music in games yet, Micheal Land was kinda forced to use synthetic music. But even if the game could come out today, I'd still prefer the synthetic music: It sounds like a sweeping orchestral score, but you can still hear that there are no instruments being played, only representations of them that fall within the Uncanny Valley. It feels familiar, yet strange and alien—which is exactly what the rest of the game feels like.

Or, we can just demand that the next Halo game uses chiptunes or something.

I think the best part of the chiptune era was that since the sound quality was relatively low they had to focus on an actual tune. When Sega CD/Saturn/PS1 came out there was a lot of "hey, we have high sound quality now!" and they just had generic grooves (amazing exceptions aside) — all shine, no soul.

Case in point: Sonic 3D Blast. Amazing music on Genesis, totally forgettable on Saturn.

edited 14th Oct '10 7:08:53 PM by Pykrete

I like both orchestrated and synthetic video game music. As long as it's in a video game I like, I'll probably like it.

Revenge of Meta Knight, Kirby Super Star version.

Revenge of Meta Knight, Kirby's Epic Yarn version.

Both are great, I think.

Two of my favorite soundtracks of all time are Donkey Kong Country 2, Sonic Spinball, and DOOM I & II. Do these fit what you mean by synthetic?

Donkey Kong Country 2 - Web Woods

DOOM II map 07

Sonic Spinball boss music