Any love for N64 sound?

[cityside75]

I know at the time it was viewed as a detriment vs the Playstation and its cd audio, but us classic gamers should be able to appreciate the N64's synthesized sound.

I just got Rogue Squadron tonight and am very impressed with the quality of the music. I believe it's all MIDI, but it sounds almost cd quality.

What other good examples are out there?

[bangtango]

I know at the time it was viewed as a detriment vs the Playstation and its cd audio, but us classic gamers should be able to appreciate the N64's synthesized sound.

I just got Rogue Squadron tonight and am very impressed with the quality of the music. I believe it's all MIDI, but it sounds almost cd quality.

What other good examples are out there?

I thought Resident Evil 2 fared pretty well. The game had a lot of speech, music and sound effects, all of which were delivered in a single cartridge. I never spent much time with the PS1 or Dreamcast versions to compare it to those two. Maybe those ones beat the pants off of the N64 port, in the area of sound, but it is easily my preferred version of the game.

[cityside75]

I thought Resident Evil 2 fared pretty well. The game had a lot of speech, music and sound effects, all of which were delivered in a single cartridge. I never spent much time with the PS1 or Dreamcast versions to compare it to those two. Maybe those ones beat the pants off of the N64 port, in the area of sound, but it is easily my preferred version of the game.

Yes it was incredible what they achieved. I believe most of the music was some kind of mp3-type compressed digital audio. Was there any synthesized music in that game?

[bangtango]

Yes it was incredible what they achieved. I believe most of the music was some kind of mp3-type compressed digital audio. Was there any synthesized music in that game?

I'm not sure myself but that game was a masterpiece for a cartridge. I went against the advice of a bunch of friends who had Playstation and paid full price for Resident Evil II when it first came out on N64. It was worth every penny. After playing it on N64, I can hardly stomach it on PS1. To me, it just doesn't compare favorably. That's only my opinion, though.

Honestly, I can't say I know the answer to your question either. I haven't the slightest idea what they did to/with the music.

[cyberfluxor]

In the 90's most games that were using MP3 compression where PC. A lot of RPGs like Final Fantasy were using huge MIDI libraries, which to me sounds good but of course if redone fully orchestrated my god would it sound great.

Oh, and yes the N64 did have some great sound. I still believe cartridges are better than discs simply due to access times being far greater and technology keeps shooting density up and hope to eventually see flash drives holding games (in the form of ROM instruction sets) for various systems.

[Three-P]

Some of my favorite game musics for the N64 were....

-Turok 2.
-Perfect Dark.
-Ogre Battle.
-Both Zeldas.
-Super Smash Bros.
-Mystical Ninja.
-Conker's Bad Fur Day. (Good for a laugh.)
-The Shadowman main theme. (Call me sentimental.)

[retroman]

I thought the N64 had good sound, and i had and still do have all of the systems from that era. It sounded almost just as good.

[swlovinist]

I agree that it had good sound, my vote for my favorite is for perfect dark. Awsome intro(music that is)

[Nesmaster]

Goldeneye has some of my favorite music in any game ever...

[Nebagram]

The N64's sound was incredible for a non-disc based system- Conker's Bad Fur Day in particular (especially the Great Mighty Poo song :)).

[Frica89]

All of Rare's games had excellent soundtracks, especially Jet Force Gemini.

[Kevincal]

Hmm, from personal experience, I'd say:

Super Mario 64
Pilot Wings 64
Wave Race 64
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Tetrisphere
Star Fox 64
Mario Kart 64
Goldeneye 007
Doom 64
Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Wipeout 64

I've only owned about 30-40 N64 games though...

[Aussie2B]

A large majority of the PlayStation library uses synth music anyway, so the point is kind of moot. Not all of them used the greatest quality synth either.

In general, the N64 had good sound, but of course it all comes down to the compositions in the end. I own a few official Japanese soundtracks for N64 games myself (F-Zero X, Super Mario 64, and Ocarina of Time), and there are a few more I wish I had if they weren't so damn expensive. The F-Zero X soundtrack is especially nice because they were only able to include mono sound in the game, but the original music, and thus the soundtrack, is in stereo.

[PentiumMMX]

N64 had some of the best sondtracks ever. DKR sounds freaking amazing (Why did they ruin it in the DS remake!).

SM64's soundtrack was amazing (Bowser in the Sky is still badass).

[Trebuken]

I think you can make any system sound good with a good setup (receiver). Yet I's agree that the N64 is probably the best sounding Cart system with the possible exception of the Neo Geo, though I have little experience with that other than in an arcade. There is just something simple, yet effective about the sound from an arcade machine.

[djsquarewave]

Tetrisphere and The New Tetris (both composed by Neil Voss) had amazing demoscene-style music. For whatever reason, I also like the music in Top Gear Rally, and some of the tunes from Mystical Ninja are ridiculously catchy (main overworld theme I'm looking at you).

[CreamSoda]

I agree with the statement that the N64 had some of the best sounding music, from a cart based system. Maybe even the best, games like Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie/Tooie, Tetrisphere, Zelda, ect. Have amazing sound effects and music. But you also had the laughably bad(maybe it was just that hard to compress the music for the carts?) soundtracks. Like THPS/2/3, Road Rash 64, ect. Maybe 5 or 6 tracks of badly edited, poor quality tracks that somewhat resemble the songs you know and love.

I guess it was just a mixed bag(like alot of things with the N64).

[cityside75]

A large majority of the PlayStation library uses synth music anyway, so the point is kind of moot. Not all of them used the greatest quality synth either.

I'm surprised by that, it seems like most of my playstation games have cd-based music.

How did the playstation synth chip stack up to the N64. Sony made the synth chip for the SNES didn't they?

[Frica89]

and some of the tunes from Mystical Ninja are ridiculously catchy (main overworld theme I'm looking at you).

Ahhh, Mystical Ninja. That song that plays when you turn into the giant robot is possibly the catchiest song I've ever heard. After I hear it, it stays stuck in my head for months at a time.