games

It's just another symptom of the games industry continuing to seek prestige and mainstream approval by aping existing artforms like film. It's disappointing, but I guess it's working out pretty well for them (apparently there's no greater sign that you've "made it" as a work of art than getting a TV show adaption )

Synth music feels "video game-y" to me in a good way. Something about it just feels fitting as music in games

I'm genuinely surprised anytime I hear jazz, funk, and/or hip-hop influences in an OST. I love a good Orchestral music, but I think we all dig it because it's our default understanding of "cinematic" (which isn't a bad thing of course).

Also shoutout to the Blasphemous games for showing that Spanish Guitar fuckin' kicks ass.

My problem with orchestral osts is they all kind of sound samey I have the same problem with listening to baroque music, Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, all the same to my virgin ears. On the other hand I can easily spot Nobuo Uematsu's signature sounds since he plays on a yamaha keyboard.

A game isnt truly modern unless the soundtrack is provided by a live troubador who sings tales of your prowess in realtime

Soundtracls that stand out were fallout, Halo and Diablo 1+2 each fairly unique sounding for their time

Problem with Orchestral is that there are a lot of mid compositions and a lot of the music can be forgetable. Doom 2016s soundtrack was a breath of fresh air at the time along with Warhammer 40k Mechanicus' being a more recent standout

Not that you can't have good Orchestral music, I miss when you would have a little more variety in what you hear and sometimes the soundtrack can be fairly unique because it does something different.

The most powerful type of viddygaem soundtrack emerged in the 1990s. Back when dev studios were first moving to fully digital CD quality audio, frequently it would end up that their One Guy was both a composer and like, a goofy guitar player. Frequently this Guy would just get a Yamaha keyboard or DAW thrown at him, and the end result was the composer absolutely shredding on guitar while a bunch of synth instrument tones played support.

Examples would be parts of Sonic Adventure's music as well as the entire Castlevania Rondo of Blood soundtrack. Banger.

I just got a free Yamaha PSR-36 for helping my friend's grandma with her garage sale. I'm like 90% sure I'm gonna make some sick dungeoncore soundtrack with it.

If I can actually motivate myself to record between work I'll share it with yall, because holy shit it sounds sick.

I'm just tired of how bland and forgettable the compositions tend to be in big budget modern games. I've been thinking about the RE2 remake recently and how bland its new score is. It's not as much of a question of orchestrated vs synths as while the scores old RE games did use synthesised intruments, they were still going for a semi-orchestrated action movie score feel, with RE2 having some downright operatic flourishes with the Birkin boss themes.

The remakes forgo the originals' use of everpresent background music to focus more on dynamic background audio, which is fine, but even when the music's supposed to be kicking off, it just... isn't

Compare this boss theme from Resident Evil 2 (2019) to it's 1998 equivalent and tell me which is going to stick in your mind for 25 years

classical/orchestral has a prestige that codes as timeless. if you've ever played an orchestral version (like professionally arranged, played) of something like pop music, metal or video game music for someone who is unfamiliar with it, they have a hard time describing it. even if they have been exposed to the themes and find it familiar, they have a hard time placing it.

but yeah, synth has only been around for about 40 years, so people place it as being something newly arrived at a specific moment in time, while orchestra goes back before any of my known ancestors. before anything anyone alive's great grandparents exoerienced., making it seem culturally eternal.

Dirt_Owl discovering trends

The same recording fidelity could be used to hire a rock band to do your soundtrack, but very few games do this, except maybe for an ending or a handful of cutscenes.

Meanwhile games that use synths usually emulate older video game hardware with a sharply limited number of tracks. Very rarely do you see someone (Disasterpeace) throw a dozen synths at a time at something.

Banjo Kazooie already reached peak video game music, everyone else has to use gimmicks like "orchestral soundtracks" just to be relevant

in between the release of Red Alert 1 and Tiberian Sun, frank klepacki took video games music to its height and it has been downhill since.

Hellmarch and Pharaotek are basically the high water mark, and they are turning 30 soon. Sad.

Is it though? Is it really?

yeah, I think the orchestral symphony with faux-latin vocals is played out by this point.

People just need to realize that Yuzo Koshiro is the GOAT.

game ~~music~~ audio was how it was because of storage costs, compression limitations, and other hardware limitations. those limitations date the sound the same way changes in recording technology date (western) recorded music more generally.

"modern" in your example might be about the shift from chiptune to "cd quality" audio and the proliferation of licensed contemporary music.