SNES vs Genesis/Megadrive vs TG-16: Sound Wars

[DoctorAllosaurus]

So which one do you think had better Sound/Music and why.

Personally, I liked them all. Each had their strengths and weaknesses. The SNES had great orchestra-like tunes, the music in Demon's Crest quickly comes to mind. The Genesis although weaker in the sound department, had really great electronic music, I mean just listen to any game that Yuzo Koshiro did music for (Streets of Rage, Shinobi, etc.) and I can't forget to give ToeJam & Earl and the Sonic games a shout too. Lastly, theres the terribly underrated TG-16, It was alot weaker than the other two, but damn did those games have great music, specifically the SHMUPs.

[YJH1995]

They all sound the same. it's hard for me to pick one

[ThePointingMan]

Dang, I saw the topic the sound wars part being cut out cause it's to long, and as soon as I saw it I thought, I couldn't decide, but I'll pick sega cause I love the music so much for it's games... and then it turns out that's all the topic IS about, the music. Sega genesis by far, I love the instruments used, I love the style of music, I love everything about it.

[Guest Mr. Mario]

Of course all of you are going to vote for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System just because it had Starfox!! 

Well...to be really honest, I'm not even sure what to say.

I like the SNES for sounds but I like the Genesis for music.

[Beau Skunk]

Personally, I think in terms of sound, and synth quality, the SNES sounded the best to me. Not that a game has to have realistic sound to have good music. (Heck I still like NES 8-bit music. Especially in the Konami games.)

I voted SNES, 'cause personally it has alot of my favorite game soundtracks. A Link to the Past, Yoshi's Island, Super Mario Kart, Mario RPG, EarthBound, Sim City, F-Zero, Ardy Lightfoot, Castlevania 4, Super Metroid, there's many games on it with great soundtracks.

Sega Genesis has some good ones to, especially the Sonic games, and the Streets of Rage ones. I haven't gotten to play/hear many TurboGraphiX games personally, aside from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. (WIch I have on Wii via Virtual Console.) But that was actually a Turbo CD game, so I'm not sure if it counts. (But it's definately one of the best Castlevania soundtracks I've heard.)

[ARWINGCOMMANDER 3987]

Super NES easily. The Sega Genesis ones sounded like more low-res games from the late 80s.

[Robert Monroe]

SNES all the way. Some Sega games had good tunes, but as a whole most Sega game sound quality was pretty terrible :

[Xortberg]

Super Castlevania IV. That is all.

[Beau Skunk]

That is all.

[CrypticQuery]

There is no question in my mind, the SNES definitely was stronger in the sound department.  While the Genesis did have a certain style to its music, and it honestly doesn't sound too bad, the SNES is much more faithful to original creations it replicates in games, and to original scores.  Can't really say for the TG-16 though. 

[Sabre]

Skip to 3.10 if you don't want to sit through the whole thing, but this echos my experence to the point I will put up with the megadrives inferior controls.

[TGearfur]

Definitely SNES, the SNES has a chip made by Sony specifically for sound. Genesis has a z80 CPU re-purposed to be used as a sound processor. (Z80 has be used numerous times in game systems, most notably the Gameboy used one as its main processor.)  Does anyone really care about the TG16?  :P

[CrypticQuery]

Definitely SNES, the SNES has a chip made by Sony specifically for sound. Genesis has a z80 CPU re-purposed to be used as a sound processor. (Z80 has be used numerous times in game systems, most notably the Gameboy used one as its main processor.)  Does anyone really care about the TG16? 

Not only is the SNES better by opinion, IT'S BETTER BY FACT .  And the poor TG-16, I've only seen 1 in person :lol:

[DoctorAllosaurus]

Definitely SNES, the SNES has a chip made by Sony specifically for sound. Genesis has a z80 CPU re-purposed to be used as a sound processor. (Z80 has be used numerous times in game systems, most notably the Gameboy used one as its main processor.)  Does anyone really care about the TG16? 

I care about the TG-16, mostly because it has an excellent library of games.

[Fang O'Donnell]

Genesis/MD just cuz the chiptunes I compose are on a tracker that uses the sega genesis/MD samples

[Patch93]

I'd really hate to dredge a 2 year old topic and be a hypocrite for criticizing SherbetFizz for dredging topics, but I'd just thought it would be nice to point out my opinion in this subject.

Personally, while I do love both the SNES and Genesis, I feel that the Genesis is far superior when it comes to audio output. Most people say the SNES is better when it comes to sound and the Genesis is better when it comes to graphics, but I actually think this is the polar opposite, the YM2612 FM chip gives off a far much more sharper sound than the fuzzy samples used for the SPC7000, and seems to have much more bass as well. This doesn't mean the SNES is bad when it comes to music either, Star Fox, Donkey Kong Country and Uniracers do a pretty good job of showing off the SPC7000's capabilities.

An excellent example of the Genesis' YM2612 FM chip output would have to be Thunder Force 4, (known as Lightening Force in the U.S.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhi_bK1bH4U

And yes Redeemer, you can go ahead and lock this topic if you want.

[psy_commando]

Worth noting that it sounds kinda better that way. :)

[Patch93]

Worth noting that it sounds kinda better that way.

Oh dear god... To be honest, I kinda screwed up with that, the pitch bends were extremely off and I added way too much delay

I could redo it sometime, but I don't feel like it.

["User"]

Having grown up in the late 80's and early 90's and especially during the famous Genesis/SNES wars of the 90's I can say that the only thing the Genesis had on the SNES was it's collection of sports games. Every other comparison category is in the SNES's favour.

[DoctorAllosaurus]

I still can't decide which sound chip I like best, on one hand the SNES does the orchestra sounding stuff like this so well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0pUbjvPRpc

While the Genesis has stuff like what was posted above and this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enHg3XrhsHk

[Patch93]

I hate to say it, but Thunder Force IV has been passed when it comes to most amazing music on the Genesis.

Even though this was never released, it still blows my friggin mind that they actually managed to get this music on a 16-bit console, let alone the Genesis.