The first time I turned on Mario Kart 8 and the music started, I didn't push a single button until the song had finished its loop. I was absolutely blown away.
That is my first thing to do whenever I play a game. I'm a trumpet player game nerd who now is a physician. Mario Kart was the first SNES game I played -- it's such a vivid Christmas memory -- and when I heard that part of the MK8 theme come out, listening to it after a long call night when I was in residency, in a full jazz band arrangement, I CHEERED out loud in my living room.
The ENDING THEME from Mario Kart 8 is grossly overlooked, it is a masterpiece of compiled themes and quotes from the various tracks with one of the hypest ending I've ever heard in *any* song.
@@DaNintendude Oh, by the way, I think you have it backward. In the credits, the Mount Wario theme leads into a brief quote from Thwomp Ruins (five notes), before going into the next, possibly final, section.
@@bb010g nope Morton is definitely voiced by Lani Minella. Other sites have credited her, and you can just tell it’s her when you compare her Morton voice to the other Koopalings that she voiced, and other characters in general that she voices.
@@mboss2272 Actually, I learned this recently: They do! They released CDs of some of their soundtracks in Europe and Japan. Breath of the Wild, Link's Awakening, New Horizons, even the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack. All released on CDs and boxsets. You can get them imported or find rips of the CDs online. They just dont do it in America, sadly.
One of the reasons I love live recorded music is that it leaves room for tiny imperfections. When you leave it up to a machine, you'll never hear a faint breath between notes on a woodwind, or a slight echo from some particularly intense drums.
actually, there is a form of this depending on your skill level in programmed music. there have been times when, while composing a melody or drum beat/fill in midi i've accidentally placed a midi note somewhere and discovered something i was not trying to do, and would never have thought of, but sounds brilliant, and i keep it, and sometimes it's even inferred future melodies or piece of that melody. that is, for all intents and purposes, a mistake, an accident, serendipity, and yet it was better than what i was trying to do. somebody who makes electronic music for a living likely does not have this happen as often, but i am sure things like this still happen all the time in electronic music through messing around with effects and settings and pushing things more just to see what happens, and sometimes what happens is accidentally brilliant. and i'd even go so far as to argue that it partially holds up to the idea that live music's interesting mistakes happen in one moment and are never the same again. listening to a live recording and identifying an interesting mistake is similar to one of these compositional accidents that happen in the moment, and may not have happened the same had it been composed several seconds later, but still get "recorded" just as a live recording may have. music is truly extraordinary.
a skilled artist can work such imperfections deliberately into synthesized music. patchwork staccato is a song with synthesized vocals from the hatsune miku voice bank of a program called vocaloid, but the artist who made it somehow managed to put some human imperfections into the vocals making the vocals sound a lot more natural.
KNOWER! It’s a project with Louis Cole and Genevieve Artardi. It might be some of the best electronic/jazz/funk/pop music I’ve ever heard. Truly defining an era.
You brought up how the music changes when you go underwater, and I wanted to point out that this kind of blink-and-you'll-miss-it diagetic mix change to the non-diagetic soundtrack is absolutely one of Nintendo's favorite mood tricks. My favorite example is the interior and exterior of Hyrule Castle from Breath of the Wild, but they've been pulling it as early as the first Luigi's Mansion.
BOTW Hyrule Castle has another even more subtle diagetic change! When you're near enemies, snare drums will fade in, like a drummer on a battlefield, and they'll fade out again when you're away from enemies.
I truly wish, that sometime in the far future, when I am old and grey, humankind will have come up with the technology to inspect the human mind on a mind-blowingly small scale, just so they can surgically remove the memory of this comment from my brain
Between Casiopea and T-Square, there is some really phenomenal music going on there. Dream Hill and Circuit Wanderer are probably my two favorite tracks from each group respectively
The Booster Course Pass takes it to a whole new level. Their revamp of the Maple Treeway soundtrack somehow mixes a cajón, a flute, and a string ensemble with duelling melodies between a harmonica and a saxophone. Speaking of sax, the solos in Sydney Sprint are incredible.
An interesting thing on synth vs live band music in videogames is how synth tends to be much more melodic. NES and SNES era games as well as retro-inspired indie games show this very well. Those melodic synth tunes are VERY memorable, to the point where almost anyone can recognize and maybe even sing the tune to Mario Bros, and although soundtracks from recent games are much grander in scope and general music quality, they lack that simple, memorable melodic line that gets instantly recognized.
Haywyre is a REALLY cool jazz pianist that produces jazz EDM hybrid music. He really pushes that envelope and I'd recommend checking out some of his work.
@@hopelesslydull7588 I played the C-B-C line with with my left hand because it was too hard to do with my right, but everything else was the exact same
I totally DIG live instruments. I recently rediscovered the musical era between 1920 and 1950 and OH BOI what great Big Band pieces/masters are there!! I can not stop listening to jazz Big Band
The original transport tycoon soundtrack was composed entirely using midi sounds and it's so good. They remade it in 2014 with entirely real instruments and it sounds amazing too. Definitely worth checking out as an example of both extremes being used with the same goal
The progression of game sound tracks through the years from "2 square waves and a dream" to big band & symphony orchestra really is amazing to look at.
Until you develop an RSI from the weird fingering lol. (I'm joking but only partially, I'm self taught on piano and have pretty bad wrist issues now, I suspect that my weird fingering probably didn't help with that)
My favorite artist that uses mostly computerized sounds is Porter Robinson. He creates amazing songs using his keyboard and/or a laptop. A lot of the vocals are also modified by software on the computer, and some of it sounds just like a real singer, whereas other vocals are meant to sound like a robot. He’s really talented imo
live vs. synethesised music is like painting vs. photo. You can make art with both, but it's different. This doesn't mean it can't be combined (KG & Morricone, Sungazer, ...)
Something I find particularly interesting in synthesised music is the craft of sound design. Rather than just the pool of timbres a live band can physically make there is the possibility to synthesize literally any timbre you can imagine. Benn Jordan has a fantastic video describing how additive synthesis works and shows off an example from one of his songs called Starlight where he has additively synthesised strings that shift between sounding like a real cello and synthy/broken noises as he randomises the harmonics in the additive synthesis. That aspect of electronic music and instrumentation fascinates me. In some ways it's intimidating to have so much choice but for those with the creativity to use it the possibilities are amazing.
I love when RUclipsrs actually invite viewers to think and answer pretty good questions, like when you asked if "live music is always better than synthesized music" or not? That opens the debate, and in that way you have more contact with your viewers than when you just show off how good you are and how much knowledge you have about a subject. Good job!
I bring another question, have you thought how difficult or more exhausting must be to mix or create music for for games? I mean, think about how many outcomes may be in a single moment in the game. If the player in Mario Kart stays still or goes very slow, then the orchestra will play a theme and the mix perhaps includes a big brass section. But what about when the player goes super fast or falls under water or in a pond or the mud, then the track perhaps no longer would have the brass section there, but instead a flute playing as protagonist bc Mario is now running under water! So the outcomes are infinite, so can be the mixing.
The note you had on how 8's main theme calls back to the original reminded me of 7's main theme, which I absolutely love. It also has a similar musical callback to the original, which I didn't realize til you pointed out 8's
I am a massive fan of both electronic and live music. And I love both. They have so much to offer in their own right. Most specifically, Madeon's album "Good Faith". It mixes the practical and electronic aspects so we'll, you almost miss there is a blend, and forget that a computer is vital to the sound.
In my opinion, I love combining electronic music with live instruments. I love synths and drum tracks and 808s but I also love Fender Rhodes, Hammond Organ, or even an upright bass. Combining Live and Electronic music is the way.
I think to answer the question of "is live music always better music?" we really have to be critical of what we mean by "better music". Like against whose criteria are we judging this. Because if a purpose of music as an art form is to make people feel an emotion, to tell a story, you can't tell me that a computer-generated (but human created) track that references 1990s MarioKart doesn't make people feel something when they hear it. I think part of the magic of both computer-generated and live-performed music is the human behind the audio. That there are decisions being made with the goal of making us feel an emotion. I feel like traditionally people have defined what "good music" is in the language of what live performance is capable of, so when digital music can't meet those standards because it doesn't speak the same language, people call it bad. But I would argue that it's not inherently bad or worse, in the same way that live performance is not inherently good or better. It's just a matter of what language you're using to communicate :)
Agree. The first time I noticed the genius of games music was Club Penguin - the few looped bars was so pleasant you never got sick of it and I thought that was amazing. Then these guys really opened my ears to how much clever VGM there is out there: ruclips.net/user/TheConsoulsBandvideos
I just love all Nintendo music from every era. They do such a good job making timeless music that is as enjoyable the first hour you play as it is the thousandth hour you play. I also enjoy synthesized music as much as real instruments so I guess I don't really put them in different categories in my brain. It's all just good music. People like Mezerg go in their own epic catagory though!
I literally was talking to my dad about this yesterday and I used the example of the snow theme from Mario 3D Land/World. The first game used synths while the second one used a full orchestra, which just adds so much to the piece. This is why I don't think computers will be replacing live instruments anytime soon. Here's the song: 3D Land (synth): ruclips.net/video/NYoP3_p2-N8/видео.html 3D World (orchestra): ruclips.net/video/8wR6cHwoZtM/видео.html
I mean there's many comparisons you can make back and forth but it all depends on how the music is constructed and how or if it benefits from live orchestration or not and who's doing the rearrangements since in the end it's subjective tastes anyways. In the comparison you made I feel both pieces serve a different function in mood anyways as the 3d land synth piece is constructed to be more like a lullaby and the 3d world fits the more grandiose nature of the game as it's a bigger more fuller version of it's handheld counterpart. Personally I wouldn't really swap the music from their respective platform as I feel they were intentionally made for the game they were made for and honestly I find the live instruments replacement ideology ridiculous. Any instrument serves it's purpose in how it's constructed for the piece they were made for and there's many digital and synth music that would lose it's purpose if replaced entirely with live instruments and vice versa. The example you chose just so happens to benefit greatly from both but I can think many examples that the opposite is true as well. Usually pieces that are ethereal for example but not in the typical way of trying to sound heavenly but more a different idea of perfection or something that is beyond normal human comprehension. Because digital music can sound "perfect" it tends to really enhance this effect especially for segments and atmosphere that tend to want to replicate this feeling. An example like this is perfect from demon souls ruclips.net/video/C7Xv0mJkHpw/видео.html&ab_channel=XularusXIII compared to the remake's own interpretation with a bit more added strings and embellishments from people's voices here ruclips.net/video/65aMPPW2XA4/видео.html&ab_channel=VideoGame%26CinematicSoundtrackArchive In your mind, if you are used to listening to "real" music I can see people tending to prefer the actual remade ost but as a person who personally believes the game's atmosphere mood is dependent in what I find more appropriate, the original track evokes the game's feelings closer to how I interpret it Without the voice embelleshments and the added strings to evoke obvious dissonance, the track tends to sound more sad and lonely in a world of uncertainty because it sounds unnatural but also calm and serene because of it's sense of "perfection" which creates this perfect feeling of the unknown. Other tracks that do this in their own specific way as well is this track ruclips.net/video/Vu3RGFkfVgI/видео.html&ab_channel=OshiDood A similar idea is replicated here but in a genius way. The entire game is full of scares and horror yet in this waiting room where you are safe from all of that, music like this plays. Again the eeriness of perfection creeps in here too, it sounds ethereal but not in the sense that it's heavenly but that the inevitable is to come but for now you are safe. The perfect atmosphere of what you are facing isn't completely human and this choice of music enhances it perfectly. The one game that really changed the way of how I view music in this was this tune made by the japanese female composer saori kobayashi: ruclips.net/video/XM8MEFLi3Gw/видео.html&ab_channel=videogamesoundtrack0 I'm really glad I experienced it at such a young age because it opened my eyes/ears to the ideas of complex harmony/form/rhythm yet it sounded so cohesive and perfect for the situation and not a string of just random notes and ideas even as they all play off and weave in and out of each other while being mostly digitally made and the unreal sounds it provided. And it all starts with the choice of sounds and chords in the beginning of the song that even as a kid caught my attention because I've never heard anything made quite like it and I remember at a young age it made me tear up even if it was just "synth/digital" music "mostly". Her sense of evoking japanese and middle eastern musical knowledge into digital music but making it sound alive with complex harmonies and rhythms blew me away. And again it reflects the theme of the game where the world of panzer dragoon is inhabited by these "god" like figures called ancients and their designs are both robotic like and organic. So it felt it like it fit this world and this place while also being both harmonically and rhythmically rich. I know charles likes to promote jazz musicians and the fact that they are making some kind of breakthrough with these ideas but honestly Japanese composers have been way ahead of the curve in this practice for a while. Many video games/movies/anime have experimented with this stuff since these composers tend to be real jazz/classical musicians that either came from a Japanese music school or those that paved their own creative path like nobuo uematsu. With old video game tech they were limited but because of those limitations they learned a craft on how to make these unnatural sounds sound natural to them and made music others would orchestrate later because these bleeps and bloops got through to people. In the end anything is made from the choice of the human and their input and touch. Watch andrew Huang for example and he explains the beauty and explorative nature that comes with digital music as you can even find a way to find your own voice as there's many ways to customize and create it or maybe you want to borrow or try something that someone else has created just like a real instrument someone has crafted. My ear finds both real and digital music beautiful.
On the topic of synthesized music vs live, I remember Robin Beanland saying that the music in the remake of "Conker's Bad Fur Day" is mostly unchanged from the original, aside from using all live instruments instead of synthesized obviously. That is, aside from the pitchfork boss battle music, it's at a slower tempo since they couldn't find a banjo player who could play that fast!
I think much like something like CGI, the best use of mediums in music harnesses a combination of synthesized and live music, you use the benefits of synths to make up for what live music can't do, and the live music adds a human, lively imperfect element to the synthetic instruments
9:56 “Is it still true that live music is always better than synthesized?… Lemme hear your comments about it” One thing I will say is that a year ago I would agree that live is always better than synth- until I came across Charlie Puth’s breakdown video of creating the song “Attention.” I am not a huge Charlie Puth fan, but when I learned that the bass line was synthesized by a patch called Trillion, I was immediately hooked and bought the pack to use. All in all I’m not so sure anymore since synth technology has been advancing so far as to not only mimic, but compete against the real deal.
I think there's advantages and disadvantages in both sides. Live performance with traditional instruments feel different, but is usually limited to the mechanical hability of the musician and the domain of sounds that the instrument can emit. None of these happens on electronic music. The only limit there is creativity (and knowledge about the production software). I'd put as a good example the whole Celeste OST, since it has a truly beautiful combination of both worlds in some pieces (like Joy of Remembrance), and others are purely electronic (like all the B-Sides).
I think there is a certain type of mental connection we have when we know something is played by real people. Case in point, we assume that they are fundamentally different despite being saved in the same format and played to the listener in the same way. Knowing that someone played it creates a human connection that isn't shared with machines
Great video, really good food for thought too! Love you bringing up a discussion about the difference between digital and "real" physically played music disappearing
A worthwhile conversation, tho I was hoping to witness you actually reacting to excerpts of the soundtrack to get your specific thoughts on passages, instrumentation, etc
I have heard some fully computer made jazz fusion albums that I couldn't believe were computer made until I was told so. Enough passion and thought behind the music will totally blur any difference between live and computer made music.
Everytime that I see a conversation about technical limitations for old videogame music I can't help to think about the Champion Blue's theme from Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow. That piece was definitely composed to be played by a full orchestra one day, and the fact that they still managed to get that majestic, intense feel just by using maybe 4 channels of 8-bit chip sounds still blows my mind.
You touched on it here, but one of the great video game specific things is context sensitive music, like the underwater / overwater bit mentioned, or adding layers to music based on lessons in the level (Super Mario 64) or addition of Yoshi. Or even just remixing the music based on life lost (Street Fighter II).
This is why I come back to your videos, because it's not just you sitting in front of the video, making the occasional comment; you actually analyzed the soundtrack and gave information on the history of Mario Kart.
Looking at the merits of "live" vs "synthesized" music is the audio version of "photo-realism" vs "art direction." In a sense, live vs synthetic music may make more sense if the choice supports aesthetic goal. But neither answer is better or worse. The Tron Legacy soundtrack leaned very heavily on elements of electronic music and artificial sounds, which helped to shape the futuristic and digital aesthetic of the movie. If John Williams had scored it, it may have been beautiful, but in order to enhance the futuristic vision, you would have had to compensate compositionally by using futuristic sounding chord progressions or rythms. Neither is wrong, neither is right, each affords its own creative strengths and limitations and choosing to work around these is more specifically what may contribute to their merit.
To add to your point about videogame music evolving with technology, I think one of the key beauties of videogame music is creating a foundation for reinvention. Early game consoles couldn't handle more than a few simultaneous tracks and effects, so they had to get you attention with melody -- and it needed to be good enough that you could hear it over and over again. Modern games don't have these limitations, but I feel they build on this foundation -- especially for the franchises that have been running for decades.
It would be awesome if you did a breakdown of the music of Casiopea, a very prolific 80s jazz fusion band from Japan. I just recently discovered them. They were very famous back then in Japan. They have recorded 40 albums or so. Their music is something else, incredible musicianship! Minoru Mukaiya is an amazing keyboardist and wrote some tasty solos with unreal chord progressions. They've influenced various videogame musicians also. Check out tracks like Galactic Funk, Looking up/Dr. Solo/Bass, Swear, Take me, Dazzling, Eyes of the Mind, Ardent, Right on the Orbit, etc. Theyre all so good. I'm only scratching at the surface I think, they have so much good music.
It seems the Japanese are way ahead of music evolution then we are. Soken Ishida is the composer for all of the ffxiv and most of the music in that game I would listen to outside of the game. Much respect to the Japanese for these masterpieces
SO GLAD you went into this soundtrack because it is the BEST!!! As a huge lover of live music, this soundtrack is so easily repeatable for me. The main intro theme is just EPIC... The saxophone is just.... 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤 HOW you did that lick I'll never know hahaha!
Somebody once played these metal Drums. The Samples are recorded from a real drumset. probably even 127 articulations for every midi note. Sooo... its not entirely artificially created. Makes a huge difference. this way you can combine the realness of the sound with the ability to program the midi however you want. There are also Virtual Drums that can even include the snare buzz when kicking the bassdrum. Truly amazing
Figure out a better fingering I dare you....this is actually probably very easy pls help
PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!! ANALYZE CUPHEAD!!!!
Could you review the Plants Vs Zombies soundtrack?
minds already blown 😂😂
me w my girlfriend
@Erin Tanli that’s what I’m saying
Mario Kart Lives On
( ͡o ͜ʖ ͡o)
Best crossover of the year so far.
I've been looking for this comment for like the last 5 minutes...
Nice
The main man himself
Collab
Man, thanks for the shoutout! Loving all of the game music videos you've been putting out lately!
My favorite Music creators all in one area!
8-BMT pogchamp pogchamp pogchamp favourite music theory channel
I love the Jotoro hat! I believe That was a Jojo reference. Well done!
Love both of these channels. Always great to see RUclipsrs shooting out other great channels.
@@sheperdofidiots also had a partial Za Warudo sound effect
The first time I turned on Mario Kart 8 and the music started, I didn't push a single button until the song had finished its loop. I was absolutely blown away.
Same, that main theme is an incredible opening to the game
I sometimes don't even want to play the game and just listen to every song
Try these guys for some really good VGM including Mario - you can loop the music on Spotify too: ruclips.net/user/TheConsoulsBandvideos
That is my first thing to do whenever I play a game. I'm a trumpet player game nerd who now is a physician. Mario Kart was the first SNES game I played -- it's such a vivid Christmas memory -- and when I heard that part of the MK8 theme come out, listening to it after a long call night when I was in residency, in a full jazz band arrangement, I CHEERED out loud in my living room.
Lmao same here 😂
The ENDING THEME from Mario Kart 8 is grossly overlooked, it is a masterpiece of compiled themes and quotes from the various tracks with one of the hypest ending I've ever heard in *any* song.
The transition from Thwomp Ruins into Mount Wario is absolutely fantastic. Definitely one of my favorite songs in the game.
Is it just the credits theme you're talking about or is there a specific ending theme?
@@rexvermis The credits theme.
@@DaNintendude Oh, by the way, I think you have it backward. In the credits, the Mount Wario theme leads into a brief quote from Thwomp Ruins (five notes), before going into the next, possibly final, section.
I prefer the one from Mario Kart 7.
I'm the voice of Morton Koopa Jr in Mario Kart 8, and the soundtrack is helped immensely by the smooth and dulcet sounds of my blaaargh!
Isn't his voice from a woman?
@@geschnitztekiste4111 IMDb lists David Cooke.
@@bb010g nope Morton is definitely voiced by Lani Minella. Other sites have credited her, and you can just tell it’s her when you compare her Morton voice to the other Koopalings that she voiced, and other characters in general that she voices.
@@reinersfattits Lani does the voice in Super Mario Bros, but David does the voice in Mario Kart
@@Urugosh yup they don’t tend to reuse most voices
Soundtrack has always been such a massive selling point in Nintendo games
+
And in classic Nintendo-fashion, they chose NOT to capitalize on that.
@@mboss2272 Actually, I learned this recently: They do! They released CDs of some of their soundtracks in Europe and Japan. Breath of the Wild, Link's Awakening, New Horizons, even the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack. All released on CDs and boxsets. You can get them imported or find rips of the CDs online. They just dont do it in America, sadly.
One of the reasons I love live recorded music is that it leaves room for tiny imperfections. When you leave it up to a machine, you'll never hear a faint breath between notes on a woodwind, or a slight echo from some particularly intense drums.
actually, there is a form of this depending on your skill level in programmed music. there have been times when, while composing a melody or drum beat/fill in midi i've accidentally placed a midi note somewhere and discovered something i was not trying to do, and would never have thought of, but sounds brilliant, and i keep it, and sometimes it's even inferred future melodies or piece of that melody. that is, for all intents and purposes, a mistake, an accident, serendipity, and yet it was better than what i was trying to do.
somebody who makes electronic music for a living likely does not have this happen as often, but i am sure things like this still happen all the time in electronic music through messing around with effects and settings and pushing things more just to see what happens, and sometimes what happens is accidentally brilliant. and i'd even go so far as to argue that it partially holds up to the idea that live music's interesting mistakes happen in one moment and are never the same again. listening to a live recording and identifying an interesting mistake is similar to one of these compositional accidents that happen in the moment, and may not have happened the same had it been composed several seconds later, but still get "recorded" just as a live recording may have.
music is truly extraordinary.
Both of those examples you gave are very much possible. Just depends on how complex the workstation is and how proficient the musician is with it.
a skilled artist can work such imperfections deliberately into synthesized music.
patchwork staccato is a song with synthesized vocals from the hatsune miku voice bank of a program called vocaloid, but the artist who made it somehow managed to put some human imperfections into the vocals making the vocals sound a lot more natural.
With Midi controllers you can capture a lot of the human imperfections found in a performance, since it literally is one.
Thanks so much for the shoutout! You're the best!
Hi!
KNOWER! It’s a project with Louis Cole and Genevieve Artardi. It might be some of the best electronic/jazz/funk/pop music I’ve ever heard. Truly defining an era.
Yo I fucking love Knower
@@CharlesCornellStudios please do a video 🥺 I would be so happy lol
Knower is da fuckon BOMB
@@CharlesCornellStudios +1 for wanting some analysis of the cool crazy sh-- Louis Cole and the gang do!!
@@CharlesCornellStudios We want a knower video!
At the end of the day, live or synthesized it's all still music. It all still takes creativity to do well, and it's all still impressive as hell.
Agree. An you can even turn the tunes into jazz standards: ruclips.net/user/TheConsoulsBandvideos
You can play synths live, live doesn't imply not synth
Yeah, and I still can remember Super Mario Bros soundtrack from 1-1 until the water level.
on top of that, instruments do get sampled and some of the plug-ins nowadays are getting better and better
@@mezmerism107 that’s basically the entire soundtrack lmao. there’s only like 4 level songs.
You brought up how the music changes when you go underwater, and I wanted to point out that this kind of blink-and-you'll-miss-it diagetic mix change to the non-diagetic soundtrack is absolutely one of Nintendo's favorite mood tricks. My favorite example is the interior and exterior of Hyrule Castle from Breath of the Wild, but they've been pulling it as early as the first Luigi's Mansion.
BOTW Hyrule Castle has another even more subtle diagetic change! When you're near enemies, snare drums will fade in, like a drummer on a battlefield, and they'll fade out again when you're away from enemies.
Diegetic*
0:50 me to my ex boyfriend in high school
1:13 him to me
Bruh
I truly wish, that sometime in the far future, when I am old and grey, humankind will have come up with the technology to inspect the human mind on a mind-blowingly small scale, just so they can surgically remove the memory of this comment from my brain
Wow, this comment
I hate and love this comment so much
Fantastic....just brilliant
Figured I would say something before Saxologic gets here.
So say something 😒
@@tysonsutherland3501 Uhhhh, I love you : )
u were there for Charles but not for Uncle Ben
@@ryenboi6119 oof
Hi
Charles' passion and enthusiasm for music in its many variants puts a huge smile on my face every time
This track is so hot. Nintendo has always tipped its hat to jazz music in a lot of its titles. Pretty amazing.
If you haven't checked out the Japanese Funk-Jazz scene, go do it! CASIOPEIA is one of my favourites :)
Damn, thank you. This is right up my alley!
T-Square vs Casiopeia Live is the best concert I’ve never been to
Between Casiopea and T-Square, there is some really phenomenal music going on there. Dream Hill and Circuit Wanderer are probably my two favorite tracks from each group respectively
@@karltorento3358 yes, same
CASIOPEIAAAAAA
I love how every single jazz musician reacts to a bari line like Charles at 2:40 I made an identical face and noise
Did you guys hear that bari line? 🌟YIIIIiiiikes🌟
The Booster Course Pass takes it to a whole new level. Their revamp of the Maple Treeway soundtrack somehow mixes a cajón, a flute, and a string ensemble with duelling melodies between a harmonica and a saxophone. Speaking of sax, the solos in Sydney Sprint are incredible.
Another game with an incredible soundtrack is Super Mario Galaxy!
There is a track in Mario Kart 8 that references Gusty Garden Galaxy.
@@TierRune Cloudtop Cruise is the one that is
It's my favourite games
Could you do the Cuphead soundtrack? On second thought, maybe people will get some PTSD from it... But the music is great!
Ooh yess cuphead soundtrack would be a no brainer for charles channel
PLEASE
holy shit yes
I heard this and wanted to play cuphead: ruclips.net/video/slmJX4OEcCc/видео.html
That whole soundtrack had me making the stank face, that one face where it’s so good that it just forces that face from you
Coconut Mall is the best piece of Mario Kart music
You can’t change my mind
Ay another Cuban
This is the truth
Mount wario is so much better lol
@@maxpieters7934 you are also correct
i agree, but i do think that coconut mall and specifically the mario kart lick are on par with eachother
An interesting thing on synth vs live band music in videogames is how synth tends to be much more melodic. NES and SNES era games as well as retro-inspired indie games show this very well. Those melodic synth tunes are VERY memorable, to the point where almost anyone can recognize and maybe even sing the tune to Mario Bros, and although soundtracks from recent games are much grander in scope and general music quality, they lack that simple, memorable melodic line that gets instantly recognized.
Haywyre is a REALLY cool jazz pianist that produces jazz EDM hybrid music. He really pushes that envelope and I'd recommend checking out some of his work.
you decide to post this. ONE. DAY. after i taught it to myself. when i could have just watched you. I LITERALLY DID THIS YESTERDAY WH-
F
Same fingering?
@@hopelesslydull7588 I played the C-B-C line with with my left hand because it was too hard to do with my right, but everything else was the exact same
this is the way
Commisioned by google to jinx you
I totally DIG live instruments. I recently rediscovered the musical era between 1920 and 1950 and OH BOI what great Big Band pieces/masters are there!! I can not stop listening to jazz Big Band
Check out the jazz genre bebop. It's Chaotic bliss imo 😆✊
The original transport tycoon soundtrack was composed entirely using midi sounds and it's so good. They remade it in 2014 with entirely real instruments and it sounds amazing too. Definitely worth checking out as an example of both extremes being used with the same goal
The progression of game sound tracks through the years from "2 square waves and a dream" to big band & symphony orchestra really is amazing to look at.
Charles on the fingering intro: dumbest thing ever.
Me an intellectual: If it's dumb and it works, It's not dumb.
Until you develop an RSI from the weird fingering lol.
(I'm joking but only partially, I'm self taught on piano and have pretty bad wrist issues now, I suspect that my weird fingering probably didn't help with that)
Well it can hurt you in the long run which would be pretty bad, so use good fingering, and it’s not so horrible to figure out or look up to correct
Could you pleeeeease analyze “The Incredibles” by Michael Giacchino??!!
Or just pieces from everything he's done. I love all his stuff!
that would be baller
YES
Yes, just Michael Giacchino in general!!
@@jonathanwatson268 love him too
Alex Moukala is a great example of what 1 person with a computer is capable of doing. Great orchestral/cinematic pieces.
My favorite artist that uses mostly computerized sounds is Porter Robinson. He creates amazing songs using his keyboard and/or a laptop. A lot of the vocals are also modified by software on the computer, and some of it sounds just like a real singer, whereas other vocals are meant to sound like a robot. He’s really talented imo
I’m gonna build a Mario Kart course at my palace
Perhaps if I did that they’ll feature me in the game
kmmy why u watch Charles
Hey dude, why can't a dictator be interested in music, dude? You hatin on dictators now?
@@theoriginalcows1357 because his videos are that good
Oh hi Bowser
You're probably going to get a copyright claim for infringement on Nintendo's property.
You laugh at crossing your 4th over your 3rd finger, but that's exactly what my piano tutor is telling me to do when playing Bach...
Organist here. 3rd finger goes over 4th. Longer fingers go over shorter fingers.
@@AlessandroSistiMusic Actually come to think of it, that's what I'm doing. No wonder I can barely play the piece...
0:17 That fingering makes so much sense I won't lie - since its 50% of the population's steering skills.
You've gotten so nuanced and well spoken and I'm just really proud of you.
live vs. synethesised music is like painting vs. photo. You can make art with both, but it's different.
This doesn't mean it can't be combined (KG & Morricone, Sungazer, ...)
Something I find particularly interesting in synthesised music is the craft of sound design. Rather than just the pool of timbres a live band can physically make there is the possibility to synthesize literally any timbre you can imagine. Benn Jordan has a fantastic video describing how additive synthesis works and shows off an example from one of his songs called Starlight where he has additively synthesised strings that shift between sounding like a real cello and synthy/broken noises as he randomises the harmonics in the additive synthesis. That aspect of electronic music and instrumentation fascinates me. In some ways it's intimidating to have so much choice but for those with the creativity to use it the possibilities are amazing.
Limitation breeds creativity. The only reason we still make cool stuff is cause we *don’t* know how to make everything
Mario Kart 8 music has a lot of similarities to the Japanese jazz/fusion genre of "Casiopea" ☺️
was looking for this comment
There are things you can do with synthesizers that you can't with live instruments, and vice versa, they both have their unique situations
Mario soundtracks are such masterpieces
Hey Charles, have you ever considered exploring the persona series music? It’s great!
Oh my God yes!! All of Shoji Meguro's music is so incredible, all the Persona games have amazing soundtracks!
Yes yes yes, please yes
Yes
Yes please!
Ah yes persona vibes
I've been saying this forever. I hope he does
I love the Vsauce formula, ask one question, answer some other deeper question!
Not even ironic, this is the good stuff!
Great video!
I love when RUclipsrs actually invite viewers to think and answer pretty good questions, like when you asked if "live music is always better than synthesized music" or not? That opens the debate, and in that way you have more contact with your viewers than when you just show off how good you are and how much knowledge you have about a subject. Good job!
I bring another question, have you thought how difficult or more exhausting must be to mix or create music for for games? I mean, think about how many outcomes may be in a single moment in the game. If the player in Mario Kart stays still or goes very slow, then the orchestra will play a theme and the mix perhaps includes a big brass section. But what about when the player goes super fast or falls under water or in a pond or the mud, then the track perhaps no longer would have the brass section there, but instead a flute playing as protagonist bc Mario is now running under water! So the outcomes are infinite, so can be the mixing.
4:40 "I'm going to put a link in the description to a really great article"...but no link was there :(
It is there!! Sorry ik this is late
3:12 *D I N S T R U M E N T S*
I come here for the piano and I stay for Charles’ personality :)
The note you had on how 8's main theme calls back to the original reminded me of 7's main theme, which I absolutely love. It also has a similar musical callback to the original, which I didn't realize til you pointed out 8's
I am a massive fan of both electronic and live music. And I love both. They have so much to offer in their own right. Most specifically, Madeon's album "Good Faith". It mixes the practical and electronic aspects so we'll, you almost miss there is a blend, and forget that a computer is vital to the sound.
Charles at 3:11
Musicians:
JoJo fans: Allow us to introduce ourselves.
Is that a mother ffffng JoJo reference??!?!!
I didn't even understand what this edit had to do with JoJo, why'd he have the Jotaro hat there?
@@geschnitztekiste4111 it's like he's using a stand ability
In my opinion, I love combining electronic music with live instruments. I love synths and drum tracks and 808s but I also love Fender Rhodes, Hammond Organ, or even an upright bass. Combining Live and Electronic music is the way.
"It Can be hard to tell the difference between a real drumset and software"
*zooms on Misha*
Who or what is that?
you've heard of the licc, now get ready for the cartt
And then the bikk (bike)
I saw Anomalie live and he's absolutely phenomenal as you watch his passion for his music
The shadow creature that walks past the top of your stairs at 2:20 freaks me out every time it happens in your videos..
1:38 various “tracks” from Mario Kart HA
I think to answer the question of "is live music always better music?" we really have to be critical of what we mean by "better music". Like against whose criteria are we judging this. Because if a purpose of music as an art form is to make people feel an emotion, to tell a story, you can't tell me that a computer-generated (but human created) track that references 1990s MarioKart doesn't make people feel something when they hear it. I think part of the magic of both computer-generated and live-performed music is the human behind the audio. That there are decisions being made with the goal of making us feel an emotion. I feel like traditionally people have defined what "good music" is in the language of what live performance is capable of, so when digital music can't meet those standards because it doesn't speak the same language, people call it bad. But I would argue that it's not inherently bad or worse, in the same way that live performance is not inherently good or better. It's just a matter of what language you're using to communicate :)
Agree. The first time I noticed the genius of games music was Club Penguin - the few looped bars was so pleasant you never got sick of it and I thought that was amazing. Then these guys really opened my ears to how much clever VGM there is out there: ruclips.net/user/TheConsoulsBandvideos
Could you explore the SIMS building soundtrack. It's great.
2:45 you made me laugh while eating jello and I almost died 😂😂
That zoom in on misha literally sent me straight to the lord haha
I hate that "synthesize the 🅱️instruments" killed me. I guess I'm a zoomer.
🅱️I 🅱️oo am 🅱️ig 🅱️oomer 🅱️oo
3:04
@@iseegreen5297 🅱️a🅱️a🅱️ooey
Music is music. Doesn't matter where it is generated. Only takes one composer and an optional interpreter.
Agreed
Exactly. Limitations aren't needed. Preferences are another thing though. But the common implication that synthesizer is worse is unnecessary.
0:56 When there's a recommended fingering on your sheet but it sucks
😂 lmao
I just love all Nintendo music from every era. They do such a good job making timeless music that is as enjoyable the first hour you play as it is the thousandth hour you play. I also enjoy synthesized music as much as real instruments so I guess I don't really put them in different categories in my brain. It's all just good music.
People like Mezerg go in their own epic catagory though!
I literally was talking to my dad about this yesterday and I used the example of the snow theme from Mario 3D Land/World. The first game used synths while the second one used a full orchestra, which just adds so much to the piece. This is why I don't think computers will be replacing live instruments anytime soon.
Here's the song:
3D Land (synth): ruclips.net/video/NYoP3_p2-N8/видео.html
3D World (orchestra): ruclips.net/video/8wR6cHwoZtM/видео.html
I mean there's many comparisons you can make back and forth but it all depends on how the music is constructed and how or if it benefits from live orchestration or not and who's doing the rearrangements since in the end it's subjective tastes anyways.
In the comparison you made I feel both pieces serve a different function in mood anyways as the 3d land synth piece is constructed to be more like a lullaby and the 3d world fits the more grandiose nature of the game as it's a bigger more fuller version of it's handheld counterpart. Personally I wouldn't really swap the music from their respective platform as I feel they were intentionally made for the game they were made for and honestly I find the live instruments replacement ideology ridiculous.
Any instrument serves it's purpose in how it's constructed for the piece they were made for and there's many digital and synth music that would lose it's purpose if replaced entirely with live instruments and vice versa. The example you chose just so happens to benefit greatly from both but I can think many examples that the opposite is true as well.
Usually pieces that are ethereal for example but not in the typical way of trying to sound heavenly but more a different idea of perfection or something that is beyond normal human comprehension. Because digital music can sound "perfect" it tends to really enhance this effect especially for segments and atmosphere that tend to want to replicate this feeling.
An example like this is perfect from demon souls
ruclips.net/video/C7Xv0mJkHpw/видео.html&ab_channel=XularusXIII
compared to the remake's own interpretation with a bit more added strings and embellishments from people's voices here
ruclips.net/video/65aMPPW2XA4/видео.html&ab_channel=VideoGame%26CinematicSoundtrackArchive
In your mind, if you are used to listening to "real" music I can see people tending to prefer the actual remade ost but as a person who personally believes the game's atmosphere mood is dependent in what I find more appropriate, the original track evokes the game's feelings closer to how I interpret it
Without the voice embelleshments and the added strings to evoke obvious dissonance, the track tends to sound more sad and lonely in a world of uncertainty because it sounds unnatural but also calm and serene because of it's sense of "perfection" which creates this perfect feeling of the unknown.
Other tracks that do this in their own specific way as well is this track
ruclips.net/video/Vu3RGFkfVgI/видео.html&ab_channel=OshiDood
A similar idea is replicated here but in a genius way. The entire game is full of scares and horror yet in this waiting room where you are safe from all of that, music like this plays. Again the eeriness of perfection creeps in here too, it sounds ethereal but not in the sense that it's heavenly but that the inevitable is to come but for now you are safe. The perfect atmosphere of what you are facing isn't completely human and this choice of music enhances it perfectly.
The one game that really changed the way of how I view music in this was this tune made by the japanese female composer saori kobayashi:
ruclips.net/video/XM8MEFLi3Gw/видео.html&ab_channel=videogamesoundtrack0
I'm really glad I experienced it at such a young age because it opened my eyes/ears to the ideas of complex harmony/form/rhythm yet it sounded so cohesive and perfect for the situation and not a string of just random notes and ideas even as they all play off and weave in and out of each other while being mostly digitally made and the unreal sounds it provided.
And it all starts with the choice of sounds and chords in the beginning of the song that even as a kid caught my attention because I've never heard anything made quite like it and I remember at a young age it made me tear up even if it was just "synth/digital" music "mostly". Her sense of evoking japanese and middle eastern musical knowledge into digital music but making it sound alive with complex harmonies and rhythms blew me away. And again it reflects the theme of the game where the world of panzer dragoon is inhabited by these "god" like figures called ancients and their designs are both robotic like and organic. So it felt it like it fit this world and this place while also being both harmonically and rhythmically rich.
I know charles likes to promote jazz musicians and the fact that they are making some kind of breakthrough with these ideas but honestly Japanese composers have been way ahead of the curve in this practice for a while. Many video games/movies/anime have experimented with this stuff since these composers tend to be real jazz/classical musicians that either came from a Japanese music school or those that paved their own creative path like nobuo uematsu. With old video game tech they were limited but because of those limitations they learned a craft on how to make these unnatural sounds sound natural to them and made music others would orchestrate later because these bleeps and bloops got through to people.
In the end anything is made from the choice of the human and their input and touch. Watch andrew Huang for example and he explains the beauty and explorative nature that comes with digital music as you can even find a way to find your own voice as there's many ways to customize and create it or maybe you want to borrow or try something that someone else has created just like a real instrument someone has crafted. My ear finds both real and digital music beautiful.
3:35 It has appeared in every single Mario Kart title theme as far as I know.
On the topic of synthesized music vs live, I remember Robin Beanland saying that the music in the remake of "Conker's Bad Fur Day" is mostly unchanged from the original, aside from using all live instruments instead of synthesized obviously. That is, aside from the pitchfork boss battle music, it's at a slower tempo since they couldn't find a banjo player who could play that fast!
I think much like something like CGI, the best use of mediums in music harnesses a combination of synthesized and live music, you use the benefits of synths to make up for what live music can't do, and the live music adds a human, lively imperfect element to the synthetic instruments
This is truly how you celebrate St Patrick’s Day, by analysing Japanese Video game music.
Well a wise man once said, "Well... If it works it ain't stupid", that being said that is a messed up fingering lol
I think you nailed the efficiency of movement of that one. Hence, the speed of your execution of the line. props.
9:56 “Is it still true that live music is always better than synthesized?… Lemme hear your comments about it” One thing I will say is that a year ago I would agree that live is always better than synth- until I came across Charlie Puth’s breakdown video of creating the song “Attention.” I am not a huge Charlie Puth fan, but when I learned that the bass line was synthesized by a patch called Trillion, I was immediately hooked and bought the pack to use. All in all I’m not so sure anymore since synth technology has been advancing so far as to not only mimic, but compete against the real deal.
I think there's advantages and disadvantages in both sides.
Live performance with traditional instruments feel different, but is usually limited to the mechanical hability of the musician and the domain of sounds that the instrument can emit. None of these happens on electronic music. The only limit there is creativity (and knowledge about the production software).
I'd put as a good example the whole Celeste OST, since it has a truly beautiful combination of both worlds in some pieces (like Joy of Remembrance), and others are purely electronic (like all the B-Sides).
I think there is a certain type of mental connection we have when we know something is played by real people. Case in point, we assume that they are fundamentally different despite being saved in the same format and played to the listener in the same way. Knowing that someone played it creates a human connection that isn't shared with machines
ok noob
Great video, really good food for thought too! Love you bringing up a discussion about the difference between digital and "real" physically played music disappearing
The way I just cussed you out for no reason for pulling off that lick like it's nothing while I struggle for weeks with it LMAO
“You can see a very solid argument for that.” Charles is seeing music
A worthwhile conversation, tho I was hoping to witness you actually reacting to excerpts of the soundtrack to get your specific thoughts on passages, instrumentation, etc
Your excitement in infectious. Not sure how you landed on my feed, but thank you for the excellent video :)
Charles : "Seriously ? One person with a laptop ?"
Hollow knight : yup
If you want to up your dating game, that first 90 seconds has a lot of gold!
This reminds me of a meme
No one:
"Nice fingering technique"
Musicians: 😀
Non-Musicians: 😐🤨🤢
I have heard some fully computer made jazz fusion albums that I couldn't believe were computer made until I was told so. Enough passion and thought behind the music will totally blur any difference between live and computer made music.
Everytime that I see a conversation about technical limitations for old videogame music I can't help to think about the Champion Blue's theme from Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow. That piece was definitely composed to be played by a full orchestra one day, and the fact that they still managed to get that majestic, intense feel just by using maybe 4 channels of 8-bit chip sounds still blows my mind.
Shadows moving in the background, Charles is kill.
no.
0:00 - 1:14 charles laughing at his piano
You touched on it here, but one of the great video game specific things is context sensitive music, like the underwater / overwater bit mentioned, or adding layers to music based on lessons in the level (Super Mario 64) or addition of Yoshi. Or even just remixing the music based on life lost (Street Fighter II).
This is why I come back to your videos, because it's not just you sitting in front of the video, making the occasional comment; you actually analyzed the soundtrack and gave information on the history of Mario Kart.
Looking at the merits of "live" vs "synthesized" music is the audio version of "photo-realism" vs "art direction." In a sense, live vs synthetic music may make more sense if the choice supports aesthetic goal. But neither answer is better or worse. The Tron Legacy soundtrack leaned very heavily on elements of electronic music and artificial sounds, which helped to shape the futuristic and digital aesthetic of the movie. If John Williams had scored it, it may have been beautiful, but in order to enhance the futuristic vision, you would have had to compensate compositionally by using futuristic sounding chord progressions or rythms. Neither is wrong, neither is right, each affords its own creative strengths and limitations and choosing to work around these is more specifically what may contribute to their merit.
Charles do you edit your own videos? If so YOU NEED TO GIVE YOURSELF A RAISE. I was ✨wheezing✨
To add to your point about videogame music evolving with technology, I think one of the key beauties of videogame music is creating a foundation for reinvention. Early game consoles couldn't handle more than a few simultaneous tracks and effects, so they had to get you attention with melody -- and it needed to be good enough that you could hear it over and over again. Modern games don't have these limitations, but I feel they build on this foundation -- especially for the franchises that have been running for decades.
TOP TIER ENERGY. You're super great on camera man. Great content.
I am so down for you becoming an anime and video game music analysis channel, lol.
The first time you played it full speed made me laugh in French.
3:20 pretty sure they do this in every mario kart game since the first
It would be awesome if you did a breakdown of the music of Casiopea, a very prolific 80s jazz fusion band from Japan. I just recently discovered them. They were very famous back then in Japan. They have recorded 40 albums or so. Their music is something else, incredible musicianship! Minoru Mukaiya is an amazing keyboardist and wrote some tasty solos with unreal chord progressions. They've influenced various videogame musicians also. Check out tracks like Galactic Funk, Looking up/Dr. Solo/Bass, Swear, Take me, Dazzling, Eyes of the Mind, Ardent, Right on the Orbit, etc. Theyre all so good. I'm only scratching at the surface I think, they have so much good music.
And watching their live concerts is so fun, theyre such goofs 😄
Get this lad to a million subscribers.
It seems the Japanese are way ahead of music evolution then we are. Soken Ishida is the composer for all of the ffxiv and most of the music in that game I would listen to outside of the game. Much respect to the Japanese for these masterpieces
SO GLAD you went into this soundtrack because it is the BEST!!! As a huge lover of live music, this soundtrack is so easily repeatable for me. The main intro theme is just EPIC... The saxophone is just.... 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤 HOW you did that lick I'll never know hahaha!
Somebody once played these metal Drums. The Samples are recorded from a real drumset. probably even 127 articulations for every midi note. Sooo... its not entirely artificially created. Makes a huge difference. this way you can combine the realness of the sound with the ability to program the midi however you want. There are also Virtual Drums that can even include the snare buzz when kicking the bassdrum. Truly amazing