Music Monday: Chipping away at the Past

January 5th, 2009

When looking back at the history of how video game soundtracks have evolved, there exists a certain uniqueness that differentiates them from almost every other visual or audio medium. The works are both represented as a product of a certain period of time, and a dependence on an ever evolving set of tools used in the creation of the music. Limited by a minimal number of audio channels made the development of coherent and refined soundtracks all that more difficult for early composers and sound designers. The creativity that was often used to work around hardware specifications helped these early soundtracks have an identity. Although some of the more ambitious soundtracks suffered because of this, an endearing quality has often become associated with the music that was created with particular soundchips in older consoles.

This effect can be seen across almost every genre of game, however I will be using RPG soundtracks as a basis for comparison. Certainly platformers have also gone through changes with the subsequent passing of time, yet due to their innate nature of similar design conventions, RPG’s lend themselves much better to a comparison of how audio technology has changed with console iterations. Starting with simple overworld and battle melodies, the addition of an increasing number of sound channels lead to the creation of more complex music through layering and experimenting with a more diverse selection of available sounds. Best illustrated with the main theme from the Final Fantasy series, this generational leap becomes immediately apparent upon listening to successive iterations on the theme.

Final Fantasy Theme from FFI (NES):

Main title themes, which have always been a marquee standard of both the quality of a composition as well as the strength of a sound chips power in its respective console, show how changing sound hardware can affect a games soundtrack. A giant leap was taken from the 8 bit to 16 bit era in both graphics and sound; Everything from the ability to better emulate the sound of certain real life instruments to creating deeper and richer tones made the transition all that more amazing.

Final Fantasy Theme from FFV (SNES):

The introduction of optical media allowed another way of storing music in games. Games on the PC Engine, and later the Sony Playstation relied on outstanding redbook audio that truly felt leaps and bounds better in both the fidelity of the sound, as well as the overall quality that composers were able to adhere to. Nintendo, who had previously had such a fantastic sound chip in the SNES, took a significant step back with the sound processing on the N64. The music on the N64 simply lacked the polish of the crisp sounding CD-ROM media due to both the internal components and the choice to remain a cartridge based system.

Final Fantasy Theme from FFVII (Playstation):

With storage space not being the premium it once was, a majority of soundtracks in this generation are fully orchestrated tracks that rival some of Hollywood’s best compositions, or even take a fully licensed approach with CD quality versions of other artists’ songs. While the evolution for video game soundtracks may appear to have reached it’s climax, new technologies (specifically the use of surround sound) continue to show that games will always remain at the forefront of audio technology, striving to create a more immersing experience for gamers.

Final Fantasy Theme from FFXII (Playstation 2):

-Eric Wall