How do you look back at the N64/PS1 sound?

P

Prez

Member
Sound quality more specifically. Most music back then was midi quality made with sample based synthesizers (should be careful with the word midi since that's not a sound format). The N64 suffered a quality loss because it had to use very short compressed samples to fit in the limited cartridge memory. But when you look at most PS1 soundtracks, although much better quality, it was still that typical 90s midi sound.

How do you look back? Are you nostalgic for that sound or do you think it sounds terrible now?
 
Best generation.

EDIT: Somehow missed sound. But a lot of my favorite soundtracks come from that era. MGS, Spyro, Tomb Raider, and of course SOTN. On N64, definitely Majora's Mask.
 
It has its own type of charm to it, like the MGS1 noises and just the somewhat scratchiness to it.
Or the lower quality voices in N64 games such as RE2 and Mega Man 64, it just has a charm to it that dates it, not necessarily in a bad way.
 
Depends on the developer, really.

Square pulled some really great stuff with just midis with Final Fantasy Tactics for PS1, offhand.

The N64's sound was pretty garbage, generally speaking. That was not a system meant to handle voice clips, but god bless 'em, they tried.
 
Prez said:
Sound quality more specifically. Most music back then was midi quality made with sample based synthesizers. The N64 suffered a quality loss because it had to use very short compressed samples to fit in the limited cartridge memory. But when you look at most PS1 soundtracks, although much better quality, it was still that typical 90s midi sound.

How do you look back? Are you nostalgic for that sound or do you think it sounds terrible now?
Click to expand...

IIRC, N64 sound suffered partly because it didn't have a dedicated sound chip, while the PS1 had what was the successor to the SNES sound chip. PS1 MIDI quality is leaps and bounds better than N64 MIDI, just listen to stuff like Chrono Cross.
 
I fucking love it. SM64 File Select? Amazing.

I can find a lot to love about every pre-streaming "sound" save DS, which is pretty awful despite what clever devs like Intelligent Systems managed on it.
 
Music was often great, I guess nostalgia is a factor, but I still think the PSX FF games and SOTN and such sound great. Sound effects sounded fine. Certainly nothing so annoying as limited sound channels on NES/Gameboy
 
The generation had some of the best music in gaming history, because it was the last, most advanced generation that employed mostly synthesized audio.

So, the tunes in so many titles were laden with catchy hooks and memorable themes, rendered with high quality hardware. Think about S-E's Final Fantasy trilogy on PSX, or Neil D. Voss' incredible techno tracks in Tetrisphere and The New Tetris on N64, or the two Zelda scores, or stuff like Wipeout and F-Zero X. Absolutely phenomenal.

Today's orchestrated music is nice, but the added complexity rarely lends itself as well to catchy tunes you hum to yourself later.
 
It's the uncanny valley of sound quality. A wailing guitar on a NES soundtrack sounds so little like the instrument it's trying to replicate that it becomes it's own thing. Synthesised instruments of the N64/PSX era sound close enough to the real instrument to make it obvious that it's just a dodgy-sounding clone.
 
Bony Manifesto said:
It's the uncanny valley of sound quality. A wailing guitar on a NES soundtrack sounds so little like the instrument it's trying to replicate that it becomes it's own thing. Synthesised instruments of the N64/PSX era sound close enough to the real instrument to make it obvious that it's just a dodgy-sounding clone.
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That's what I'm talking about. Do people like that kind of sound?
 
As far as music and sound goes, I distinctively remember it as the generation where music started to include real instruments and voice acting started to become common. And then you had games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and it's fully licensed soundtrack....
 
N64 sound was godawful, but PS1 has a lot of great soundtracks, both from its internal sound chip and streamed from the disc.
 
N64 had no dedicated sound chip but instead needed to draw CPU resources for audio. No surprise then that every Nintendo console since has included dedicated sound hardware.
 
Limitation breeds artistic creativity.

Modern day game sound is basically at movie and such levels, so there's nothing quite as distinctive about it anymore. But in those days the video game music and effects had distinctive sounds about them. There was something unique about it, something special.

Prez said:
That's what I'm talking about. Do people like that kind of sound?
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The GameBoy Pokemon music sounds way better to me than the modern day renditions.
 
When the PS1 was operating at its full potential sound wise, it was divine (Symphony of the Night, Chrono Cross, Intelligent Cube)! The N64 had much more obvious limitations in that regard, but had some really quality OSTs in spite of them (Both Zeldas, Both Goemons, pretty much anything from Rare). Looking back though, I'm glad the ceiling has pretty much been removed in terms of sound, but at the same time, orchestral soundtracks have become kind of the norm, whereas they used to be something really special.
 
Prez said:
Sound quality more specifically. Most music back then was midi quality made with sample based synthesizers (should be careful with the word midi since that's not a sound format). The N64 suffered a quality loss because it had to use very short compressed samples to fit in the limited cartridge memory. But when you look at most PS1 soundtracks, although much better quality, it was still that typical 90s midi sound.

How do you look back? Are you nostalgic for that sound or do you think it sounds terrible now?
Click to expand...

Honestly, I get goosebumps every time I hear PS1 or N64 soundtracks.
That nostalgic feeling keeps getting me.
 
I have maaaaajor nostalgia for that era, probably most so for Super Mario 64, Diddy Kong Racing (as absurd as it's SFX were sometimes), and the PS1 Final Fantasy games.

Dimmle said:
I fucking love it. SM64 File Select? Amazing.
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YES. Instant nostalgia. So cheery and happy. Here we go!
 
I think of FF7 and the Resident Evil save room music. Honestly the music in those older games stand out much more than current generations to me.
 
I don't remember N64 sound *quality* all that fondly (I wasn't a fan even back then), but the compositions were incredibly catchy and memorable.
 
sörine;141133360 said:
N64 had no dedicated sound chip but instead needed to draw CPU resources for audio. No surprise then that every Nintendo console since has included dedicated sound hardware.
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Nope, remember the GBA. Oh, what it could have been :(
 
MrCunningham said:
No love for the Sega Saturn custom Yamaha sound processor? It was probably one of the best features of that console.
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It's just sample playback like the PS1 and N64. It's not much different from any basic 90s rompler like this except that composers could pick their own samples (most of which came from 90s Yamaha, Korg, Roland and Emu romplers).

edit: I'm just reading that the sound chip in the Saturn could also function in FM synthesis mode (like the Megadrive). That's awesome!
 
Stereogatari said:
Limitation breeds artistic creativity.

Modern day game sound is basically at movie and such levels, so there's nothing quite as distinctive about it anymore. But in those days the video game music and effects had distinctive sounds about them. There was something unique about it, something special.



The GameBoy Pokemon music sounds way better to me than the modern day renditions.
Click to expand...

I agree, FFVII's music is a great example of this given it's chip tune and not red book
 
The PS1 could produce incredible audio for its day. It was very capable.

The N64 was a complete failure in that regard. The lack of dedicated sound hardware put a strain on its already limited resources and most games ultimately sounded pretty bad.

I agree, FFVII's music is a great example of this given it's chip tune and not red book
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It's not really chiptunes - it's all sample based (like the SNES). It was a very flexible solution that could produce amazing sounds without requiring huge amounts of disc space. Chrono Cross used the same technique as FFVII, for instance, but with higher quality samples. It's a solution that should have been used on N64 where space was a premium.

edit: I'm just reading that the sound chip in the Saturn could also function in FM synthesis mode (like the Megadrive). That's awesome!
Click to expand...
I'd love to know which (if any) games actually used this.
 
N64 was very tough to get good sound from, since the lack of dedicated sound hardware meant that sound had to fight for resources along with everything else that used memory. Chris Hülsbeck developed compression and streaming tech used by Factor 5 to significantly improve the sound for their games.

Early PS1 games (as with early CD-ROM gaming in general) would often use redbook CD audio, and that's as good as you're gonna get. As the games gradually started requiring more disc space though, this method was too costly so most switched over to either sequenced music or recorded audio in a compressed format. The latter was often in a lower sample format though and tended to have this annoying layer of aliasing on top of it which bothered me.

I think the real winner here is module-based music on PC games during the same time period; 1994 all the way up to 2000 with Deus Ex being one of the very last to rely on this method. The format was in the same principle as the sequenced music on PS1 and N64 but with way more memory for samples and amount of sound channels.
 
Done to death and predictable, but Super Mario 64's credit roll gets me every time. The memories. Being twelve and finally beating Bowser, just nothing quite like it.

Super Mario 64 - Credit Roll

Koji Kondo at the top of his game. Truly.

I look back at it fondly, while I can't speak for the PS1 (since I never owned one as a kid), the N64 holds many nostalgic feelings for me. Especially sound-wise. Was a huge step up from the SNES/NES era quiality wise.
 
N64 sound really varies for me, a lot of the soundtracks I liked a lot back in the day leave something to be desired now, there are some exceptions notably Banjo Kazooie which still sounds stellar.
Rare in general were top of the game on the N64, the music always tended to sound among the system's best, even in the earliset days with Blast Corps

PS1 I'm not quite as well versed in but Symphony of the Night is a top 3 soundtrack for me, there's definitely something of a PS1 unique vibe to the sound quality but you could say it almost adds to the charm (so an odd echo effect in this games case, especially the voice acting).
To go a bit further with PS1 I am reminded when playing Final Fantasy Theatrhythm that the sample quality jumped quite massively going from 7 to 8, I find that somewhat tinny vibe of FF7's music to fall into that same issue I have with some N64 soundtracks where it's just likes something is a bit amiss and the feeling that it could've sounded better even if the actual compositions are still good.
 
MrCunningham said:
No love for the Sega Saturn custom Yamaha sound processor? It was probably one of the best features of that console.
Click to expand...
It always disappoints me how often the Saturn get ignored in the OP of threads about that generation.

On topic I have a lot of love for PS1 and Saturn soundtracks from that generation. It might be my fave era of game music.
 
Prez said:
Sound quality more specifically. Most music back then was midi quality made with sample based synthesizers (should be careful with the word midi since that's not a sound format). The N64 suffered a quality loss because it had to use very short compressed samples to fit in the limited cartridge memory. But when you look at most PS1 soundtracks, although much better quality, it was still that typical 90s midi sound.

How do you look back? Are you nostalgic for that sound or do you think it sounds terrible now?
Click to expand...

Chrono Cross uses "midi" music and it sounds fucking amazing.

Many PS1 games used sample based music because streaming-based music would require the disc to keep spinning all the time, making data streaming impossible. Just compare the early games, many which used CDDA, and stupidly long loading times was pretty common among them.

gelf said:
It always disappoints me how often the Saturn get ignored in the OP of threads about that generation.

On topic I have a lot of love for PS1 and Saturn soundtracks from that generation. It might be my fave era of game music.
Click to expand...

Yup, there's some great synthesized music on the Saturn. I believe the sound hardware had hardware-accelerated reverb filters which were used to great effect in games like Panzer Dragoon Zwei and Nights Into Dreams (you could actually catch the reverb effects fading away by pausing the game).
 
Prez said:
The N64 suffered a quality loss because it had to use very short compressed samples to fit in the limited cartridge memory.
Click to expand...

Dunno. I guess I'll look around for n64 music, since I have never been into n64 that much back then. But even with limited space you can have some pretty neat results, as seen in some of the demoscene music. For example, this song has 64KB and that's not your typical electronic music.
 
Loved it, not even in the rosy tinted glasses way. I can still listen to just about anything from the N64/PS1 era.

Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross, David Wise, so much amazing stuff came out of that era.
 
That era of sound sits well with me still.
Nothing there that puts is away or inferior in any way if you ask me.
Even applies to the voice acting. Everything just works even when going from 5.1 surround enabled to that.
 
Lots of OSTs I love from that era. The Zeldas, FF8, Chrono Cross off the top of my head. N64 doesn't really sound dated to me either.
 
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