Again, THANK YOU to all of you for watching my videos. I still can't even fathom 1 million subscribers. Check out the gold foil merch design and use code GOLDBUTTON to get 15% off!! charlescornell.creator-spring.com/listing/more-keys-gold-edition?product=227
Ngl I got really sick of Hotland's OST really fast. Probably bc I spent a lot of time stuck on some of the puzzles and the music wasn’t much to my personal taste to begin with.
The real secret of the undertale soundtrack is that it's actually just four different songs that have 50 different disguises for every situation possible
It was a nice guess but the track just generally sounds like an investigative segment theme. Not really anything to do with his musical expertise more to do with musical storytelling.
Yes, because music is a language and certain sounds and themes have been used as shorthands through use in musicals, films, tv, etc. It's almost like music is intentional and integral to storytelling or something
All of Undertale's music are iconic. Aside from megalovania being memed on, it's a genuinely well orchestrated soundtrack, along with the rest of the game's soundtracks.
I've said a thousand times and I'll say it once again: Toby Fox is a genius. Also: WE NEED A PART TWO! Bergentrückung+Asgore, Spider Dance, Hopes&Dreams+Save The World, Spear of Justice, Battle Against A True Hero... There is so much goodness in this incredible soundtrack.
I like how he accidentally reverse engineered ‘Alphys theme’ from ‘Here We Are’. Since the latter is based on the same motif as the former, it’s pretty cool.
It’s amazing how “Here we are” and Alphys’ theme basically the same song, but yet no one ever realizes it without it being told about it, or unless they’re listening super hard when revisiting them for the severalth time
The leitmotifs in this soundtrack are weaved throughout the entire soundtrack. Megalovania is actually an outlier. I really would love to see someone tackle the leitmotifs as a whole.
One of the cool parts of playing the songs on piano, it really puts the leitmotifs into perspective. It's it exactly a leitmotif but I have noticed that megalovania follows a very similar note composition and pattern to the "memory" theme, just in a different key. Not sure exactly what you'd call it. I feel like I remember "here we are" and "fallen down" having related note compositions as well
About a year ago, I went and spent an afternoon with a corkboard, some twine, some thumbtacks, and small slits of paper with the names of all the tracks of both games on them and tried to connect all of the pieces by leitmotif in a way that allows you to trace individual melodies, where one thread represents one motif. It still looks like a mess on my wall and I'm dead sure I missed something.
Technically, Megalovania isn't an outlier, as its main motif is very similar to the first motif from Reunited. I dunno if you consider them to be the same, its kinda like what Once Upon a Time is to Bergentrückung.
Technically, Megalovania isn't an outlier, as its main motif is very similar to the first motif from Reunited. I dunno if you consider them to be the same, its kinda like what Once Upon a Time is to Bergentrückung.
@@uncreativename2190 I don’t think he could have predicted making undertale songs with another song that was made years before even thinking about undertale
The coolest fact about the Undertale soundtrack is that all instruments are synthetic, except for *one* The guitar in OST71, giving it more of the special feeling it’s made for
Fun fact! toby actually composed most of the undertale ost using 24-tone instead of 12-tone, which we don't see a lot of in western music. That's why some of the songs can't be played on an average piano
@@brnobr none of the songs in undertale use more than 12 tones he just pitch shifts them. that used to be incredibly common in older recorded music because they would decide to change the pitch AFTER the song was recorded and wouldn't really try to shift it to a specific tone. toby's a great musician, but implying he can write microtonal music in a way that a western audience wouldnt even notice is giving him a bit too much credit.
@@NotActuallyElias theres a guy who made a video with half a million views who listens to it once and then decides its microtonal based solely on the fact that he can't play it on his keyboard (because the song is tuned down) and a commenter told him it was. i feel like most people got it from there
@@YanAde makes sense, but dude if these people heard actual microtonal music they would be flabbergasted cause whether its using standard tuning or not this is still a 12 tone system toby fox uses LMAO
The game's soundtrack is full of leitmotifs, callbacks, references and character themes. The melody in Here We Are references the character Alphys who has a happy quirky theme for her normal laboratory, and a mysterious spooky theme (featuring roughly the same melody) for the hidden underground lab. I really recommend playing or watching a playthrough of this game, it really enhances the soundtrack experience
Absolutely! Loved playing through the whole game with all it’s charm and humour. Would love to see Charles breakdown/study the leitmotifs of the game. So beautiful!!
@@Kuchen-Ralle hello, fellow german. Yup, leitmotif is a valid English word. For some reason it's spelled with an "f" at the end though. No idea why. There's loads of these words: Kindergarten, Glockenspiel, Schadenfreude...
@@BinaryCounter Right. This is commonly known referred to as a "loan word;" a foreign word that becomes widely and sometimes deeply incorporated into another language. It happens across many languages and cultures, back and forth.
“It’s Raining Somewhere Else” is a hugely underrated track from Undertale, I think it often slips under the radar just because there are so many other great tracks like Spider Dance and Spear of Justice that have more of an established narrative link to a specific part of the game. Definitely worth a listen!
Small Spoiler Alert (but seriously go play the game) It's an embellished and slowed version of the Sans theme which fits the mood of the Jazz cafe the character and Sans were in!
@@BestSomebodyNA I’ve played the game several times and yes the two tracks totally embody the tonal makeup of sans’ personality, they play it again in his workshop at 20% the speed. I also think the melodic pattern represents the space made for sans in the fabric of the game and Megalovania is different because it plays when sans deliberately steps outside of that space and confronts the player. Or maybe it’s just because Megalovania was one of the six undertale tracks originally written for a completely different project 🤣
"It's Raining Somewhere Else" is like on my top 3 favorite Undertale songs, along with "Uwa!! So Temperate🎵", and "Home". (I like Home despite how sad it makes me lmao)
It’s such a funny contrast in Charles trying to understand the musical genius behind a guy that just self taught himself musical theory and put together things that sounded cool.
Toby is a music creator first, game designer 2nd. Most of the music in Undertale was created before the story beats were finalised, so the amalgamations were likely something created to fit the music he wanted during that part of the story
@@aggressivelymediocre350 Yeah, I just changed it, it wasn't the best word to enunciate it. The thing I love most about Toby as a game designer is how much detail and attention goes into absolutely everything in his games, so of course it's intentional, actually, that might be the best part about it
I worked with a student who had trouble expressing emotions and we did an activity where we shared songs that communicated different emotions and he shared mostly tracks from Undertale. Music can really speak on levels where words may fail.
Ah that's sweet! And it makes sense too serve Undertale's soundtrack has so many songs that ask can express how you feel at any given moment really well
@@chrispychicken1783 it does feel like something inspired by a detective movie, but "off" and backed by some odd percussion It sounds like a PI in an industrial setting with some hidden horror about to be revealed I mean I played the game but I thought the same thing then too
@@Delita45 Extra extra fun fact: Toby fox took a lot of inspiration from earthbound and before he made Undertale he had made a mod for earthbound which is where megalovania originally was used.
4:12 "The groove is super settled but the harmony's not" This was the entire essence of the amalgamations in the game. The amalgamations were previous monsters we already encountered, except they're abominations due to failed experiments
Also the "inquisitive wandering" comment reminds me of the part where Frisk is walking around the "foggy" room in the true lab, or maybe just Frisk walking around the true lab in particular since I bet from Frisk's perspective storywise it would mostly just be curiosity fueling him to wander around in there uninvited
There is a joke in the UNDERTALE community that states that Toby Fox (the sole programmer, writer, composer, and artist of UNDERTALE (he had help with the art)) made one song, and remixed it for the entire OST. While it is a gross simplification, there is reasoning behind this. Toby tends to use recurring motifs a *lot* inside of UNDERTALE’S OST, and not just because of “haha reference is cool”. Every single reused motif is there for a reason. The first song you reacted to, “Here We Are”, plays inside of the location “True Lab” which is only accessible in Pacifist Route and is underneath the Lab owned by Dr. Alphys, a character you meet in the game. “Here We Are” is actually a variation of the theme that plays when you meet Alphys for the first time (and her theme is sooo fitting to her personality), and “Here We Are” is a much more darker version of that theme, which is fitting because the True Lab is what hides Alphy’s dark past. “Death By Glamour” on the other hand has a combination of various motifs (if I remember correctly). I believe it has the recurring motif that plays as you explore the Hotlands and the CORE. On top of that, it also has the theme that plays whenever anything Mettaton related happens, which makes sense, “Death By Glamour” is Mettaton-EX’s boss theme. The song “Undertale” also does this and in a way where bearing the name of the game itself is completely warranted. It combines two different themes. The theme you hear at the very very beginning of the game, and “His Theme” which you first hear when you give an umbrella to a statue in Waterfall and a music box plays “His Theme”. “Undertale” is a culmination of your journey in the game as of that point as well as musically tells you the story of how it all happened before the events of the game as the person “His Theme” belongs to is very important in the section of the game this song plays in. Another detail about “Undertale”, it’s actually one of the very very few songs in the game that uses a real acoustic guitar. Every other song was composed digitally, “Undertale” uses a live recording. Yes, there is a song that uses an acoustic guitar before “Undertale”, but that song was digitally composed, you cannot hear the strings being plucked nor can you hear the nails being plucked and scratched against those strings. You do in “Undertale”, which is an artistic decision that just makes the moment feel so much more real. Sincerely, a video game and music nerd
Death by Glamour does, indeed, have a bunch of motifs in it. It has motifs from Metal Crusher (the song from when he's still a box boi), CORE, and Another Medium
In they way that "here we are" is written, it also represents the *spoiler* themselfs. How they where and want to be normal and happy but for sure aren't. Oh did you know Alphys theme was originaly different? Just look up Alphys Beta theme *Don't listen to the extended version from Pokémon profile pick, it's a realy bad made loop
@@monky4640 It's Showtime!, Metal Crusher, [that one theme that plays in the jetpack game or something], Live Report, Death Report, Oh! One True Love, Oh! Dungeon, Last Episode, [that pre-battle one], Death by Glamour and For the Fans?
I'm coming to the party late, but after thinking about this I love that it's detuned. It gives a sense of daintiness from being high pitched (which works for when Toriel comes in and is trying to be very gentle and mothering), but it also feels *unstable*. After you meet Toriel and get saved from Flowey, your decisions affect the rest of the story. Your first decision is the Dummy, and if you hit it you're already set to being an asshole Pacifist at minimum because Mad Dummy won't be happy to hear about it in the sewers (I don't believe his name is yellow in the true credits if you do this). You can spare, talk to, or run from the dummy for a neutral or positive run with a chance to make Mad Dummy happy. Toriel doesn't seem affected by this because she doesn't show any awareness there's a real enemy in the dummy for you to "fight". On top of that, it playing while Toriel meets you, in her own mentally distressed state at seeing another human, she's torn on what to do with you (force you to stay or let you go). The instability vibes with both how Toriel reacts to you, and how the game itself reacts to you as it leads you up to your first game-influencing decision
Yess please! There is so much more to the music when it is put in the context of the story, I would love to hear his take on it. Also it's a really good game xD
There's also the Gooseworx cover which uses bits jazz, but mainly orchestra brass. Definitely not jazz improv, but still slaps super fucking hard ruclips.net/video/4uXWRSzKjtg/видео.html
FINALLY someone recognizes how unironically good the Undertale soundtrack is. I remember that the thing that got me into harmonic music (I was already a percussionist) was hearing a friend play Megalovania. The first time you hear it, it SLAPS. It’s just that Megalovania, like Golden Wind was super overused in memes and we’ve all heard it a million times.
Most meme songs are actually really good, I don't think people would enjoy listening to them over and over again if they weren't. For example, I absolutely love Shooting Stars by Bag Raiders (the memes usually end before the second half which is my favorite). And yeah, both Megalovania and Golden Wind are just such absolute bangers that I don't mind at all when they're overplayed.
@@blossom357 When something is so bad or cringeworthy that it becomes entertaining in its own right. It's the difference between laughing at something bad vs enjoying something good
Undertale still remains my favorite game even after all these years. The way a story can be presented in such an impactful way, the endless possibilities and easter eggs, the amazing music, and the room left for theory and imagination conveyed in a much older looking game is really still unmatched to me. The community has always been a little off because any game as popular as undertale was would have something like. Aside from that, when you appreciate the game for what it is and how it performed and stepped outside of normal video game guidelines to create a journey for the player as powerful as the one it created, the game is very underappreciated for what it is. not to mention how toby fox still loved the game and its universe enough even after the pressure and backlash from parts of the community to make a second game similar to undertale that is still being developed. I appreciate toby for creating this game so much. It always holds a special place in my heart.
I remember the first time I completed the pacifist route, I was in actual tears during the fight with Asriel. I know it’s cheesy, but I feel like Undertale significantly changed my outlook on life, especially since I played it during my teen years. (Sidenote: I’ve never done the genocide route, and I don’t think I ever will lmao)
Here We Are is really cool. Just realized it when you were figuring out the harmony, but what the song does is harmonize the melody of another song on the OST called Alphys. If you play the game, you know that these two songs are very much interconnected, and it's just a really cool way to use a leifmotif.
@@Gender_Ascender a channel called "MediaMotifs" has a couple videos on gaster's theme that are pretty solid the examples are somewhat loose, such as the background of the snowdin theme, the foreground of 'another him', and a bunch of other tracks from BOTH undertale and deltarune. theyre not always 100% accurate to the gaster melody but it seems like theyre meant to be close enough to make you think
The sing Undertale was not the first Song written for b this game, "His Theme" was. Undertale was written as a musical tribute to everything that came before it
Fun fact: Toby Fox actually composed the music for undertale in 24 tone scales not the standard 12 tone basically everyone uses, leading to the "detuned" sound you commented on in fallen down.
Nope. They're all 12edo compositions, it's just that the whole thing sometimes gets detuned in post. Having 24edo would be extremely jarring compared to how it is
@@davimariee imagine trying to find keys when you can just hear noise make similar noise hi, i can only read music at about 10 seconds/note (not notes/second) so i just sing or play by ear
Yes, a bit like this band. They do VGM in all jazz styles and introduced me to the Undertale soundtrack which I love: ruclips.net/video/5jUwV8_h7ZY/видео.html
Wait, so you're saying that Toby's music is so tune sensitive and weird that it actually loses some of its sound if played on a piano or other instrument that has more sound limits? That's a mark of genius. EDIT: *me noticing a reply on this comment 2 years later* ...6k LIKES???
That soundtrack is just a masterpiece…let’s also not forget Toby’s great titles like “Can You Really Call This a Hotel, I Didn’t Receive a Mint On My Pillow Or Anything” 😆
This is why it works so well, the leitmotiffs are used for the same kinds of situations So things related to serious lore use a certain leitmotiff which puts you in the mood and then you have more goofy ones that are used for the more comical sections Just like in this video where he knew what the music was used for without even playing the game
Toby Fox is a talented musician, and I'm so glad he's getting some more appreciation. Undertale wouldn't be half of what it was without the soundtrack. He also did some amazing work on the Homestuck OST.
Similar to what Jacksepticeye said, the most impressive feature of Toby Fox is not the fact that he created such an amazing story with amazing characters but the fact that he's so brilliant with music.
What makes Undertale’s music so interesting and different is truly how mysterious and unsettling it sounds. Songs that should seem lively have a slight distortion in them that makes it seem not as bright as it should be. It’s as if there’s always something darker under the surface, which is a perfect combination for the secrets hidden between the lines of the game.
wow. around the 9 min mark, guy instantly picked up on the asriel theme that's in 'undertale.' it's exactly why toby chose it, it's a theme that stays the same no matter how everything around it changes. it's a persevering melody that adapts to the harmony and it feels different but it's still the same
I am crying I’ve got only a few instant feels songs and that’s probably number one, closely next to In Case You Don’t Live Forever.. both are so emotional to me cause of context, not only the sound of them
Hope he gives it a shot one day, while he's mostly untainted by the fandom. It's definitely a game played best on your own, like reading a book your friend recommended to you more than playing a widely-known video game.
I know some basic crap because the game's been so publicized, like Genocide Sans, and stuff, but I don't really know the plot whatsoever. I've completely ignored the game until now. I've just gotten past Undyne, and I think the game is really charming. I hope if he plays it, he likes it too.
@@supremeoverlord0 I had quite a lot of it spoiled for me, but I still really enjoyed it when I played it. Glad to see there's still so many people picking it up for the first time after 6 years.
8:07, i wasnt expecting to hear this out of the blue, we were listening to fun songs before but then this came on, as soon as i heard this song it brought back so many memories of the game instantly and i felt so at peace, i fucking love this song from the soundtrack, i love all of the others as well
I’m sad because first time playing undertale (the game, not the music) nothing was as awesome as it was then. it felt different from other games. and when i played it with my friends, like, i was moving, he was shooting and attackking, it was fun too and i have played undertale over 20 times now and it doesn’t feel the same when i was new to the game and when i knew nothing. It doesn’t feel same as it felt then. And the memories.
@@iphgamer8254 I had a very similar first experience with the game, as a community type thing-- My friend wanted to do a sleepover kind of thing before the league grand final that year (of all things) and people took this as being a party of some variety-- we ended up with 13 people staying the evening, and over that evening the 13 of us played the entirety of a neutral run in Undertale, with none of us having played it before since it had just come out, as our first experience with it. Because we were rotating players on deaths or significant area clears, we had groups of people justifying FIGHTing certain encounters and others advocating to SPARE their favourites, and nobody had enough time with the controls individually to master them, so all the bossfights were rotations of people trying them arcade style until someone managed to win with cheers and applause from the rest of the group lol It was a genuinely wild first way to play the game, the absolute truest neutral run, and one I won't forget for sure
This soundtrack is so incredible. The amount of emotion that Toby Fox was able to convey in the composition of his music with such a limited palette of instruments is unbelievable. Each piece of music is so memorable that hearing them again takes my mind to the part of the game where that song was played, and can even give me chills remembering parts of the story. I could watch your analysis of these tracks all day. (Also, Spider Dance is a jam; love that song)
The idea of writing the music for a level first, and then listening to it while designing that level so that it fits the music, is absolutely genius. Totally want to steal that idea if I ever made a little game experiment or something
THIS!! i also think the soundtracks use of leitmotifs is so creative and incredibly well thought out. nearly every song is connected to another one in some way, and sometimes its hard to notice.
You were pretty much right with the first song "Here We Are", you are wandering around but it's in a very unsettling place that throws everything for a loop story wise. I love how the cords reflect that
My favorite part of this song is what the piano does, meandering around or creeping up and down chromatically near the end of the track. That piano part really adds a ton of unnerving atmosphere.
Charles I beg you cover "it's raining somewhere else" from this soundtrack it is one of my favorite tracks in the whole ost. It has a sort of bat jazz feel with a bittersweet tinge of homesickness and it hits so hard for me for whatever reason. I really do implore you to at least give it a listen because it's just so nice.
I quickly glanced at the piano track for this song and the reason it sound jazzy, or one of the reasons, is that it used modal harmony, kind of like here we are. The starting chords are just minor 7 chords bring moved around.
Toby’s whole career has had stuff like this. Even though he didn’t write a majority of Homestuck music, he wrote many of the themes that stuck with the major characters. He’s especially good at making music for characters like Flowey, or places like the true lab, that have that “creepy in a can’t quite place it” kinda way. One of his Homestuck tunes for one of the major villains, one that has control over time, can be played either forwards or backwards and still be close to the same. Dudes a masterminds in music composition!
6:40 It was at this moment that I realized that this guy is way better than I thought. I mean his improv off the first song was good but hearing this incredible addition to a great song that was just made up on the spot gives me an insane amount of respect for this man. As a casual piano player who could never do something like this, I am really impressed.
I personally think the song, Bergentrūkung (I think that's how it's spelled), Asgore's boss theme, is the best song in the game. It feels so sorrowful yet strikes you with hope and determination with the powerful orchestra feel. It's so good
I'd love to hear your breakdown and analysis of "Your Best Nightmare" "Hopes and Dreams" "SAVE the World" and "His Theme" They're some of my favorite pieces in the game for different reasons, but I haven't really ever seen anyone analyze them before.
True neither have i, but honestly i still want a video that actually deep dives into the themes, and feeling of the tracks, plus a longer discussion about the soundtrack as a whole because it’s either breaking down the track itself, and just giving some slight insight kinda sad this didn’t scratch my itch.
@@hayond656 @Denzell David was it on purpose that toby composed the song with sounds which's frequencies are between the "conventional" D and D flat frequencies while using a synthesising programs to write the music? Yes I would bet he did it on purpose
You can easily understand when somebody competent finds some well-made music by how genuinely he chuckled during his freestyle at 6:35 . It's always nice to see somebody enjoying music as more than something to tap your foot to.
An entire road trip, I heard the whole soundtrack three times. Some tracks made me smile, some tracks made me cry tears of joy, and most tracks created imagery of the game's events. Toby outdid himself.
@@UndertaleFan-cx2mc lol, I saw ur comment a few days ago here and went onto a video from bo3 a few mins ago and remembered u. Cool to know u figured it out.
@@S2nppy Yeah it was hard at first because my aim was terrible, but now I can do it really easily Also the Wolf Bow and Void Bow pretty consistently Only done Fire once, and never doing it again
I just want more of this tbh. Like, hours of it. It's such good fun to just sit here and get goosebumps and share the love for this fuckin' gnarly music with this dude just absolutely jamming out. Thank you.
I really hope there's a high demand for this, but the game "to the moon" has some really good tracks. Anyone who likes piano-y videogame music, vibe to it srsly
"it sounds like stepping around inquizitively" funny charles says that when "Here We Are" plays when you're piecing together & finally find out the truth behind Alphys. just goes to show how much toby know how to make the music in any given place sound exactly how the player is supposed to be feeling.
There are plenty of cool things to dive into with this OST. A lot of the commenters have mentioned Toby's extensive use of leitmotifs, one of my favourite examples is the parallel between Heartache (Toriel's battle theme) and ASGORE (Asgore's battle theme). (SPOILERS for Undertale of course) The two characters are a divorced couple and the repeating groove in both of their tracks is the same pattern, but in two different time signatures. You initially hear it in 3/8 in Heartache, but in ASGORE it's stretched to fill a 4/4 bar. The soundtrack is filled with little connections to notice like that. Often they're hard to notice if you don't pull the music apart because Toby weaves it all together so seamlessly. It especially comes to life if you play the game of course, because it's full of character themes that bring a whole new emotional layer to the music when you know the characters' stories.
Yeahs it really cool. You can also notice the parts of heartache are scattered through asgores theme but none of his theme shown in toriels theme. This shows that toriel moved on from asgore but asgore hasn’t moved on from toriel. It’s some real cool connections in them and Toby did a great job .
This is one example of where a single person can make something that is just flat out greater than the sum of its parts in a way that a team of people can't. The way the characters, musical motifs, and story are weaved together are enhanced by each other. When I played the game, I consciously noticed some of the musical references, but even moreso than that, I felt them.
I stand by the theory that Meme songs persist because they are secretly, publicly, good ass songs. If Never Gonna Give You Up sucked, it would not have endured as long as it has. Is it a "Ha Ha funny meme" song? sure. Does it still SLAPPE? HELL YEAH!
@@alzhanvoid my favourite song in Undertale is Song That May Play When You Fight Sans, but I really like Megolovania bc it fits the whole “sans is fighting to protect the few people that remain alive even though you’re going to kill him”
Well the soundtrack is in a 24 tone scale instead of the usual 12. A lot of the notes are "out of tune" because of that which makes a very big impact on how we hear the song.
@@SioxGreyWolf Yeah, I heard about Toby using 24 tones instead of our usual 12. Still won't stop me from trying to replicate his songs own system by using my own 12 tone piano to attempt to replicate his 24 tones to create my own songs.
Because apparently there's a video with half a million views of a guy who states it's microtonal after he fails to reproduce it on his keyboard, while the truth is that it's detuned
It's absolutely amazing watching someone who's never played Undertale pick up on one of the central and most powerful motifs almost instantly and get it damn near perfectly with one listen
Fun fact: if you REALLY listen all tracks - you can notice how they are connected. Especially final credits songs, which content more than 10 other motifs in it. Toby is a genius
Your explanation of that first song and how it sounds is exactly how it’s used in the game. It’s used in what is probably the creepiest and strangest area in the game, but it comes extremely late in the story so you have some confidence in your abilities despite having a lot of trepidation about where you are and what you may find. It’s very overlooked and quite a masterpiece for what it is.
undertale uses a stupid amount of leitmotifs, the first piece in this video is a remix of the character alphys's theme, the second one uses a much more upbeat version of the song that plays in that area in the game as well as another character's theme, "undertale" is just basically the title theme but with more instruments and the repeated line in the background is _another_ character's theme, etc. ironically, one of the only songs in the game that doesn't include any already established themes whatsoever is megalovania, which is the one that literally everyone knows (because toby fox wrote it when he was like 16) i don't really know that much about chords and keys though, so this is pretty much all i know about the game's music lol
My favorite of these, the one that made me cry the second time I played it and I realized its context, was Asgore's theme. His theme's bridge is just a motif from Toriel's theme. She is still a part of him, and he didn't want what happened to their children, he just made a mistake and lost her too, and she's still in his heart and his theme
the smash rendition of megalovania actually has some leitmotifs fittingly squished in- the goat parents' (asgore/heartache), this one I call "are you even still the one in control" because of some fan lyrics I found (which is the NEO/The Undying motif) and the Nyeh Heh Heh/Bonetrousle motif
Undertale (the song) is just. The best, I think. At that point in the game, no matter how many times you’ve played, hits so hard. It’s a big shift from the upbeat Death by Glamour, and also a shift from more midi-like tracks, to one that is nearly full acoustic. It never fails to make me well up a little.
Me too. But I'm also happy with these guys who introduced me to Undertake music (old video but they have newer stuff): ruclips.net/video/5jUwV8_h7ZY/видео.html
leitmotifs are so cool. They allow thoughts and parts of the game to be compared and contrasted, like how UNDERTALE (the song) is comprised of His Theme and Home
@@HearteartHdragon Yeah! Always wondered why, but the Bird Who Carries You Across the Disproportionately Small Gap or whatever it's called sounds a LOT like Alphys sped up. I've been trying to learn the Undertale OST on the piano and that bothered me a lot when I figured it out because I cannot for the life of me figure out why Toby would connect those two characters' motifs lol
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
Again, THANK YOU to all of you for watching my videos. I still can't even fathom 1 million subscribers. Check out the gold foil merch design and use code GOLDBUTTON to get 15% off!! charlescornell.creator-spring.com/listing/more-keys-gold-edition?product=227
Congrats!
Congratulations!!
I love Undertales soundtrack. THANK YOU
I’m hoping I can order a 1 mil shirt!
Yo you forgot to put the discord link in the description!!!
Everyone that clicked on this video already knew undertale’s soundtrack was a masterpiece and just wanted reassurance
Thats too true
truth
Facts
I didn't...I didn't even play the game
True and I havent even played the game 😂
why does everyone ignore the hotland ost
it's literally fire
i love Onether Medium and waterfall so much
Why people only like boss music?
Core is VERY underrated too
Ngl I got really sick of Hotland's OST really fast. Probably bc I spent a lot of time stuck on some of the puzzles and the music wasn’t much to my personal taste to begin with.
@@deadclawh3851 I absolutely have to Agree
I s e e w h a t y o u d i d t h e r e
*badum tss*
You'll definitely find "It's Raining Somewhere Else" an interesting one as it's all minor chords
Then “sans.”
Because it’s the same thing
And "Battle Against a True Hero"
Even "dogsong" would be cool
I tried it. It sounds nice.
The real secret of the undertale soundtrack is that it's actually just four different songs that have 50 different disguises for every situation possible
Bro got 4 songs and remixed them 50 times and I love it
True -Toby Fox, 5/7/21
@@TuxMan404 that date seams too specific to be made up. So where did you get it from
@@fishHater it was actually made up. I thought of a random, recent date, and that was it.
@@TuxMan404 oh, that’s sad
I like how he hasn't even played undertale but knows exactly what goes on in the true lab section by listening to the music
It was a nice guess but the track just generally sounds like an investigative segment theme. Not really anything to do with his musical expertise more to do with musical storytelling.
@@MidgarMerc now whenever I hear "Here We Are" I'll think about Unsolved Mysteries or Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.
Pretty sure any musician can know what goes on without knowing undertale
The music makes me feel that there's more under the surface than meets the eye.
Yes, because music is a language and certain sounds and themes have been used as shorthands through use in musicals, films, tv, etc. It's almost like music is intentional and integral to storytelling or something
All of Undertale's music are iconic. Aside from megalovania being memed on, it's a genuinely well orchestrated soundtrack, along with the rest of the game's soundtracks.
Detarune had good music too if I remember right
(Read with Linus voice) Do you know what also is iconic ........ A comment from Just Some Guy without a Mustache :D
yep yep yep
Hey! So you're a music guy. Good to know.
@@natep0526 Hell yes! Scarlet Forest? Rude Buster? Chaos King, Vs Suzie... It's all 😙👌
I've said a thousand times and I'll say it once again: Toby Fox is a genius.
Also: WE NEED A PART TWO! Bergentrückung+Asgore, Spider Dance, Hopes&Dreams+Save The World, Spear of Justice, Battle Against A True Hero... There is so much goodness in this incredible soundtrack.
Yess please! The whole soundtrack is a bop!
I still can't believe he made some of the songs first and then made parts of the game around the songs, his creative processing is unreal
And Uwa so temperate
yesss exactly these
don't forget sans. and Bonetrousle!
I like how he accidentally reverse engineered ‘Alphys theme’ from ‘Here We Are’. Since the latter is based on the same motif as the former, it’s pretty cool.
I actually never realized since they sound so unique,
You read this second comment.
@@drrobocar6459 cap
@@drrobocar6459 jokes on you I can’t read
@@thedbdentity2102 well I can’t write.
It’s amazing how “Here we are” and Alphys’ theme basically the same song, but yet no one ever realizes it without it being told about it, or unless they’re listening super hard when revisiting them for the severalth time
I remember my mind being blown the first time I was told that
I literally just noticed that a second ago while listening to it.
most songs from undertale are slightly altered versions of other songs in the game
One sounds silly and happy, and the other is straight out of PT
Holy shiz, it took me a few replays to realize it... QwQ
"Here we are"
Charles: Precisely tries to figure out the Cords to play it.
Toby Fox: "I've just smashed my hands on a piano and it sounded cool..."
People trying to cover this: what is this? WHAT IS THIS!? _WHAT DID YOU DO!?_
Toby: I CUT THE BRAKES, WILD CARD BITCHESSS
@@fedechan6325 and did good dining it
Well, Long Elevator is just Toby Fox's washing machine
I like how he just gets fascinated by "Here We Are" and just gets lost trying to figure out what sorcery he just listened to, too.
Actually it is just Dark version of Alphys theme
The leitmotifs in this soundtrack are weaved throughout the entire soundtrack. Megalovania is actually an outlier.
I really would love to see someone tackle the leitmotifs as a whole.
One of the cool parts of playing the songs on piano, it really puts the leitmotifs into perspective. It's it exactly a leitmotif but I have noticed that megalovania follows a very similar note composition and pattern to the "memory" theme, just in a different key. Not sure exactly what you'd call it. I feel like I remember "here we are" and "fallen down" having related note compositions as well
About a year ago, I went and spent an afternoon with a corkboard, some twine, some thumbtacks, and small slits of paper with the names of all the tracks of both games on them and tried to connect all of the pieces by leitmotif in a way that allows you to trace individual melodies, where one thread represents one motif. It still looks like a mess on my wall and I'm dead sure I missed something.
Technically, Megalovania isn't an outlier, as its main motif is very similar to the first motif from Reunited. I dunno if you consider them to be the same, its kinda like what Once Upon a Time is to Bergentrückung.
Technically, Megalovania isn't an outlier, as its main motif is very similar to the first motif from Reunited. I dunno if you consider them to be the same, its kinda like what Once Upon a Time is to Bergentrückung.
@@uncreativename2190 I don’t think he could have predicted making undertale songs with another song that was made years before even thinking about undertale
Seeing his reaction to “Death by Glamour” genuinely gave me pure joy
true
Now imagine if he had the whole context of the piece (another medium, metal crusher, etc).
Same
@@sadsongs7731 fr
YESESSSESS
The coolest fact about the Undertale soundtrack is that all instruments are synthetic, except for *one*
The guitar in OST71, giving it more of the special feeling it’s made for
As soon it starts in the game, I start to tear up. What a masterpiece ❤️
And in Last Goodbye, Toby recorded the piano himself. Neat
Ain't nothing realer than the Earthbound Overdrive Guitar.
what about washing machine in Long Elevator are you telling me that’s synthetic too
The instrument in thundersnail is technically real since it’s a heavily filtered xylophone
WHY IS NO ONE TALKING BOUT HIS WICKED FREESTYLE AT DEATH BY GLAMOUR??? 6:14
I WAS JUST ABOUT TO SAY WE NEED MORE OF THIS PLEASE
its gorgeous--
He play it so well
I demand a full version
Yo Charles calm down 😰😰😰
If you have the time you should totally play Undertale yourself and decide yourself what tracks you find interesting!!
YESSSSSS this, a million times this. i’m curious to know how knowing the context might shift his perception of the tracks he’s covered here, even
Agree so hard. Every song in this game is a bop and the humor seems right up his alley
Yeah so much of the music hits me in the ways it does because of the context of the game
Yeah…play Undertale.
Completely agreed, the context adds a lot-
Now knowing that Toby purposely detuned certain songs to enhance their contextual vibes makes me appriciate his work even more
Fun fact! toby actually composed most of the undertale ost using 24-tone instead of 12-tone, which we don't see a lot of in western music. That's why some of the songs can't be played on an average piano
@@brnobr none of the songs in undertale use more than 12 tones he just pitch shifts them. that used to be incredibly common in older recorded music because they would decide to change the pitch AFTER the song was recorded and wouldn't really try to shift it to a specific tone.
toby's a great musician, but implying he can write microtonal music in a way that a western audience wouldnt even notice is giving him a bit too much credit.
@brookebrewer737 why are you making stuff up for no reason
@@NotActuallyElias theres a guy who made a video with half a million views who listens to it once and then decides its microtonal based solely on the fact that he can't play it on his keyboard (because the song is tuned down) and a commenter told him it was. i feel like most people got it from there
@@YanAde makes sense, but dude if these people heard actual microtonal music they would be flabbergasted cause whether its using standard tuning or not this is still a 12 tone system toby fox uses LMAO
The game's soundtrack is full of leitmotifs, callbacks, references and character themes. The melody in Here We Are references the character Alphys who has a happy quirky theme for her normal laboratory, and a mysterious spooky theme (featuring roughly the same melody) for the hidden underground lab.
I really recommend playing or watching a playthrough of this game, it really enhances the soundtrack experience
Absolutely! Loved playing through the whole game with all it’s charm and humour. Would love to see Charles breakdown/study the leitmotifs of the game. So beautiful!!
Is "leitmotiv" known in english? 😶 mindblowing (for me a german)
@@Kuchen-Ralle hello, fellow german. Yup, leitmotif is a valid English word. For some reason it's spelled with an "f" at the end though. No idea why.
There's loads of these words: Kindergarten, Glockenspiel, Schadenfreude...
@@BinaryCounter Right. This is commonly known referred to as a "loan word;" a foreign word that becomes widely and sometimes deeply incorporated into another language. It happens across many languages and cultures, back and forth.
This amazing soundtrack was brought to my attention by these boys who have worked their own magic on it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY2cvfd
“It’s Raining Somewhere Else” is a hugely underrated track from Undertale, I think it often slips under the radar just because there are so many other great tracks like Spider Dance and Spear of Justice that have more of an established narrative link to a specific part of the game. Definitely worth a listen!
Small Spoiler Alert (but seriously go play the game)
It's an embellished and slowed version of the Sans theme which fits the mood of the Jazz cafe the character and Sans were in!
@@BestSomebodyNA I’ve played the game several times and yes the two tracks totally embody the tonal makeup of sans’ personality, they play it again in his workshop at 20% the speed. I also think the melodic pattern represents the space made for sans in the fabric of the game and Megalovania is different because it plays when sans deliberately steps outside of that space and confronts the player. Or maybe it’s just because Megalovania was one of the six undertale tracks originally written for a completely different project 🤣
So True!!
I love that song and it's title so much lol
"It's Raining Somewhere Else" is like on my top 3 favorite Undertale songs, along with "Uwa!! So Temperate🎵", and "Home". (I like Home despite how sad it makes me lmao)
didn't toby say he literally just taught himself how to play music and doesn't really follow any music theory?
THE MADMAN
WHAT HOW
Yeah his music is so unpredictable and... Idk... Funky? He just feels music. He's truly a madman
Why do these composers who taught them selves always sound so good lol
@@vyllix8546 they figure it out on their own, no one tries to shove it down their gullet and sap the creativity out of them.
It’s such a funny contrast in Charles trying to understand the musical genius behind a guy that just self taught himself musical theory and put together things that sounded cool.
isn't it just fitting that ''here we are'' is sort of an amalgamation? It lets you know how much Toby thought through the whole soundtrack
I wouldn’t call that ironic so much as pointedly intentional
Toby is a music creator first, game designer 2nd. Most of the music in Undertale was created before the story beats were finalised, so the amalgamations were likely something created to fit the music he wanted during that part of the story
@@aggressivelymediocre350 Yeah, I just changed it, it wasn't the best word to enunciate it. The thing I love most about Toby as a game designer is how much detail and attention goes into absolutely everything in his games, so of course it's intentional, actually, that might be the best part about it
It has Alphys leitmotif almost all along
So does Hopes, and Dreams, which makes sense because Hyperdeath Asriel’s, a mixture.
I could watch you do this with literally every Undertale song.
Long Elevator has entered the chat
@@catrinacoons390 wdym long elevator is amazing. I'm listening to it right now.
same!
I'm 2 mins in and I'm already agreeing, this sounds so nice to listen to, just exploring the Lab...
Exactly.
I worked with a student who had trouble expressing emotions and we did an activity where we shared songs that communicated different emotions and he shared mostly tracks from Undertale. Music can really speak on levels where words may fail.
Thats so sweet :)
Ah that's sweet! And it makes sense too serve Undertale's soundtrack has so many songs that ask can express how you feel at any given moment really well
Awww so cute!!!! :D
That's very heartwarming! 💕
“Wandering around inquisitively” describes the use of that song perfectly.
Yeah, I can’t believe he picked that out without playing the game.
"structured but unstructured" also fits way too well lol
@@chrispychicken1783 it does feel like something inspired by a detective movie, but "off" and backed by some odd percussion
It sounds like a PI in an industrial setting with some hidden horror about to be revealed
I mean I played the game but I thought the same thing then too
Refresh me, when does it play again? I know it's used quite often because it's kinda vivid, but I don't remember when
@@grimsladeleviathan3958 true lab
Fun fact: the first song, “here we are“ uses a sample from Deirdre by the Beach boys. That’s what the ghostly sound is.
Extra fun fact: Earthbound used the same song to sample in the track The Cave of The Past
@@Delita45 Extra extra fun fact: Toby fox took a lot of inspiration from earthbound and before he made Undertale he had made a mod for earthbound which is where megalovania originally was used.
@@jordanburkert6208 ah yes the earthbound halloween rom hack! there’s a handful of easter eggs pertaining to earthbound in undertale, it’s very cool
@@jordanburkert6208 even funner fact: the designs for the amalgamations were first in that rom hack (As well as flowey)
@@Kjf365 Epic
4:12 "The groove is super settled but the harmony's not"
This was the entire essence of the amalgamations in the game. The amalgamations were previous monsters we already encountered, except they're abominations due to failed experiments
Also the "inquisitive wandering" comment reminds me of the part where Frisk is walking around the "foggy" room in the true lab, or maybe just Frisk walking around the true lab in particular since I bet from Frisk's perspective storywise it would mostly just be curiosity fueling him to wander around in there uninvited
"Undertale Soundtrack is WAY more than a meme."
Meanwhile, *the sky is blue.*
water ain't wet tho
ending this joke with "water is wet" is a mistake, should've done "the sky is blue"
@@Melecie Thanks for letting me know.
To be fair, the sky is only sometimes blue. It's a whole range of colours based on times and circumstances.
@@xethified ranges from cyan-blue-white-yellow-orange-dark blue
That improv on death by glamour gave me chills. So good that it deserves its proper cover of you just messing around wit it
There is a joke in the UNDERTALE community that states that Toby Fox (the sole programmer, writer, composer, and artist of UNDERTALE (he had help with the art)) made one song, and remixed it for the entire OST. While it is a gross simplification, there is reasoning behind this. Toby tends to use recurring motifs a *lot* inside of UNDERTALE’S OST, and not just because of “haha reference is cool”. Every single reused motif is there for a reason. The first song you reacted to, “Here We Are”, plays inside of the location “True Lab” which is only accessible in Pacifist Route and is underneath the Lab owned by Dr. Alphys, a character you meet in the game. “Here We Are” is actually a variation of the theme that plays when you meet Alphys for the first time (and her theme is sooo fitting to her personality), and “Here We Are” is a much more darker version of that theme, which is fitting because the True Lab is what hides Alphy’s dark past. “Death By Glamour” on the other hand has a combination of various motifs (if I remember correctly). I believe it has the recurring motif that plays as you explore the Hotlands and the CORE. On top of that, it also has the theme that plays whenever anything Mettaton related happens, which makes sense, “Death By Glamour” is Mettaton-EX’s boss theme. The song “Undertale” also does this and in a way where bearing the name of the game itself is completely warranted. It combines two different themes. The theme you hear at the very very beginning of the game, and “His Theme” which you first hear when you give an umbrella to a statue in Waterfall and a music box plays “His Theme”. “Undertale” is a culmination of your journey in the game as of that point as well as musically tells you the story of how it all happened before the events of the game as the person “His Theme” belongs to is very important in the section of the game this song plays in. Another detail about “Undertale”, it’s actually one of the very very few songs in the game that uses a real acoustic guitar. Every other song was composed digitally, “Undertale” uses a live recording. Yes, there is a song that uses an acoustic guitar before “Undertale”, but that song was digitally composed, you cannot hear the strings being plucked nor can you hear the nails being plucked and scratched against those strings. You do in “Undertale”, which is an artistic decision that just makes the moment feel so much more real.
Sincerely, a video game and music nerd
Death by Glamour does, indeed, have a bunch of motifs in it. It has motifs from Metal Crusher (the song from when he's still a box boi), CORE, and Another Medium
In they way that "here we are" is written, it also represents the *spoiler* themselfs.
How they where and want to be normal and happy but for sure aren't.
Oh did you know Alphys theme was originaly different?
Just look up Alphys Beta theme
*Don't listen to the extended version from Pokémon profile pick, it's a realy bad made loop
i would like to point out how mettaton has more than ten themes
MORE THAN TEN
It's actually Memory that plays in the statue, not His Theme. Those are different themes
@@monky4640 It's Showtime!, Metal Crusher, [that one theme that plays in the jetpack game or something], Live Report, Death Report, Oh! One True Love, Oh! Dungeon, Last Episode, [that pre-battle one], Death by Glamour and For the Fans?
Congrats my dude!
Jesus?!?!
Checkmark moment
Jesus christ! I didn't expect you to be here (:
@@nexaroo major cope!
salvation by the lord!
You can't say "Toby Fox is a genius" when you haven't heard the best masterpeice he ever created "The baby is you"
i got here as soon as i could
Oh no im having flashbacks
Toby is a genius not only for making the baby is you but also for sneaking one of the songs into pokemon
@@CGFillertext he *what*
Or as it's more commonly known: the battle tower theme from pokemon sword and shield
I love that Fallen Down feels like it’s in limbo between the keys, because the whole song just kind of feels line floating in a comfy limbo
this exactly explains it, in the collectors edition soudtrack its annotated in C major but most other annotations i see have it in D major
Actually, fallen down is actually played intentionally detuned
I'm coming to the party late, but after thinking about this I love that it's detuned. It gives a sense of daintiness from being high pitched (which works for when Toriel comes in and is trying to be very gentle and mothering), but it also feels *unstable*. After you meet Toriel and get saved from Flowey, your decisions affect the rest of the story. Your first decision is the Dummy, and if you hit it you're already set to being an asshole Pacifist at minimum because Mad Dummy won't be happy to hear about it in the sewers (I don't believe his name is yellow in the true credits if you do this). You can spare, talk to, or run from the dummy for a neutral or positive run with a chance to make Mad Dummy happy. Toriel doesn't seem affected by this because she doesn't show any awareness there's a real enemy in the dummy for you to "fight".
On top of that, it playing while Toriel meets you, in her own mentally distressed state at seeing another human, she's torn on what to do with you (force you to stay or let you go). The instability vibes with both how Toriel reacts to you, and how the game itself reacts to you as it leads you up to your first game-influencing decision
Petition to get Charles to live stream himself playing undertale
That would be so good. But if he doesn't do it, maybe play these guys on repeat: ruclips.net/video/5jUwV8_h7ZY/видео.html
@@cooldebt nice link bait mate
signed
Yess please! There is so much more to the music when it is put in the context of the story, I would love to hear his take on it. Also it's a really good game xD
Yup id watch that
I am unironically asking for a full jazz improve cover of death by glamor
Not Charles but very good: ruclips.net/video/nw6EkI_AHDA/видео.html
YESYESYES PLKEASE
There's also the Gooseworx cover which uses bits jazz, but mainly orchestra brass. Definitely not jazz improv, but still slaps super fucking hard
ruclips.net/video/4uXWRSzKjtg/видео.html
FORREAL
FINALLY someone recognizes how unironically good the Undertale soundtrack is. I remember that the thing that got me into harmonic music (I was already a percussionist) was hearing a friend play Megalovania. The first time you hear it, it SLAPS. It’s just that Megalovania, like Golden Wind was super overused in memes and we’ve all heard it a million times.
Most meme songs are actually really good, I don't think people would enjoy listening to them over and over again if they weren't. For example, I absolutely love Shooting Stars by Bag Raiders (the memes usually end before the second half which is my favorite). And yeah, both Megalovania and Golden Wind are just such absolute bangers that I don't mind at all when they're overplayed.
""""finally""""""""
@@alolanisaac6514 and what do you think il vento d'oro translates to? Everyone knew what he meant lol
Wtf does it mean to enjoy something ironically? I've never understood this concept.
@@blossom357 When something is so bad or cringeworthy that it becomes entertaining in its own right. It's the difference between laughing at something bad vs enjoying something good
0:44 "Here we are"
6:28 "Death by Glamour"
8:07 "Undertale"
10:23 "Undertale" pt.2
10:58 "Fallen Down"
You're an amazing person thank u
"stepping around inquisitively"
holy shit no way you got that just from the music
That’s just how good Toby’s music is. He was able to encapsulate the experience perfectly in music form.
timestamp?
@@johnsonbaroncaveler6634 4:16 is the timestamp
Musical story telling. It's my most favorite thing in a game or movie
Can someone explain why this is hype?
FINALLY SOMEONE TALKS ABOUT HOW THE OST IS AWESOME AND UNDERTALE ISNT JUST A DEAD MEME POGS.
Well lol megalovania isnt a dead meme yet
Megalovania gets 70k view every day
And thats epic
YESSSSS
:^)
Megalovania is so damn overrated
@@LLouay-dg9mk is good song =^)
Undertale still remains my favorite game even after all these years. The way a story can be presented in such an impactful way, the endless possibilities and easter eggs, the amazing music, and the room left for theory and imagination conveyed in a much older looking game is really still unmatched to me. The community has always been a little off because any game as popular as undertale was would have something like. Aside from that, when you appreciate the game for what it is and how it performed and stepped outside of normal video game guidelines to create a journey for the player as powerful as the one it created, the game is very underappreciated for what it is.
not to mention how toby fox still loved the game and its universe enough even after the pressure and backlash from parts of the community to make a second game similar to undertale that is still being developed.
I appreciate toby for creating this game so much. It always holds a special place in my heart.
This. This comment.
Agree 100% with this notion. Still one of my favorite game experiences ever
You genuinely put my thoughts into words perfectly
I remember the first time I completed the pacifist route, I was in actual tears during the fight with Asriel. I know it’s cheesy, but I feel like Undertale significantly changed my outlook on life, especially since I played it during my teen years.
(Sidenote: I’ve never done the genocide route, and I don’t think I ever will lmao)
undertale is my favorite game of all time and i suspect it always will be.
Here We Are is really cool. Just realized it when you were figuring out the harmony, but what the song does is harmonize the melody of another song on the OST called Alphys. If you play the game, you know that these two songs are very much interconnected, and it's just a really cool way to use a leifmotif.
Isn’t it great how Undertale, uses leitmotifs.
@@joshshrum2764 it doesn't just use leitmotifs, it uses them _perfectly_
The faster theme almost fits into every song because in the lore gaster is everywhere
@@Noncredible Wait, the Gaster theme fits into other songs? Got any vids with examples, since I am bad at hearing when songs "fit" like that?
@@Gender_Ascender a channel called "MediaMotifs" has a couple videos on gaster's theme that are pretty solid
the examples are somewhat loose, such as the background of the snowdin theme, the foreground of 'another him', and a bunch of other tracks from BOTH undertale and deltarune. theyre not always 100% accurate to the gaster melody but it seems like theyre meant to be close enough to make you think
The sing Undertale was not the first Song written for b this game, "His Theme" was. Undertale was written as a musical tribute to everything that came before it
Mostly earthbound.
@@TheEpicWerdo Wdym?
@@littleredruri undertale's music uses some undertale soundfonts and sometimes pieces of its song
@@TheEpicWerdo you said undertale twice, just saying
i'm assuming you meant earthbound the second time which in that case yea that's true!!
Fun fact: Toby Fox actually composed the music for undertale in 24 tone scales not the standard 12 tone basically everyone uses, leading to the "detuned" sound you commented on in fallen down.
That makes so much sense omg
That would explain why I have the same problem playing it
Must do that with deltarune also, one time I tried finding the key of Rude Buster and it was between F and F#
Nope. They're all 12edo compositions, it's just that the whole thing sometimes gets detuned in post. Having 24edo would be extremely jarring compared to how it is
@@davimariee imagine trying to find keys when you can just hear noise make similar noise
hi, i can only read music at about 10 seconds/note (not notes/second) so i just sing or play by ear
Gotta love when a composer has insane range, being able to compose quieter, more introspective pieces as well as stuff like Death by Glamour
Yes, a bit like this band. They do VGM in all jazz styles and introduced me to the Undertale soundtrack which I love: ruclips.net/video/5jUwV8_h7ZY/видео.html
You might like this too: ruclips.net/video/nw6EkI_AHDA/видео.html
In homestuck ,he shows this exact amazing range.
Wait, so you're saying that Toby's music is so tune sensitive and weird that it actually loses some of its sound if played on a piano or other instrument that has more sound limits? That's a mark of genius.
EDIT: *me noticing a reply on this comment 2 years later* ...6k LIKES???
Yeah if you can detune stuff properly you're gonna get music like that
Asgore's theme is also detuned
I can play Fallen Down on piano yet still no matter how much i change the tune and instrument it never sounds right
@@theLunarEcho fallen down was specifically created so that it would never sound right played on a piano
That soundtrack is just a masterpiece…let’s also not forget Toby’s great titles like “Can You Really Call This a Hotel, I Didn’t Receive a Mint On My Pillow Or Anything” 😆
toby loves messing with the pitch knob in fl studio
When I hear “Undertale OST,” I just hear “Leitmotif Simulator”
Lol
When it comes to leitmotifs, no one does it better than Toby LOL
and they *work*
so well
This is why it works so well, the leitmotiffs are used for the same kinds of situations
So things related to serious lore use a certain leitmotiff which puts you in the mood and then you have more goofy ones that are used for the more comical sections
Just like in this video where he knew what the music was used for without even playing the game
Toby Fox is a talented musician, and I'm so glad he's getting some more appreciation. Undertale wouldn't be half of what it was without the soundtrack. He also did some amazing work on the Homestuck OST.
Deltarune aswell
When I get to practice music Toby Fox will be in the list of my inspirations.
All i have to say is two words Umbral Ultimatum, it’s such a fucking good song man.
@@shotakonkin2047 I hope you go on to do amazing things, also i see you like Asriel, very nice *Chefs Kiss* 🤌🏼
Similar to what Jacksepticeye said, the most impressive feature of Toby Fox is not the fact that he created such an amazing story with amazing characters but the fact that he's so brilliant with music.
What makes Undertale’s music so interesting and different is truly how mysterious and unsettling it sounds. Songs that should seem lively have a slight distortion in them that makes it seem not as bright as it should be. It’s as if there’s always something darker under the surface, which is a perfect combination for the secrets hidden between the lines of the game.
Yes am 1st rekt jkjk im just 🧢 no rekt
@@lazydodo7637 ????
wow. around the 9 min mark, guy instantly picked up on the asriel theme that's in 'undertale.' it's exactly why toby chose it, it's a theme that stays the same no matter how everything around it changes. it's a persevering melody that adapts to the harmony and it feels different but it's still the same
The track "Undertale": _plays_
Me: *I'm not crying you're crying*
@Freddy FazBear uhh ya know, just hanging around, doing... stuff. gow about you, Freddy? What are _you_ doing here?
Im not crying. We're crying
I am crying
I’ve got only a few instant feels songs and that’s probably number one, closely next to In Case You Don’t Live Forever.. both are so emotional to me cause of context, not only the sound of them
I am crying
I'm not crying, I just catched something in my eye
t e a r s
Can we just appreciate that no one here has spoiled the game for this guy (im assuming he hasn’t played it yet)
Hope he gives it a shot one day, while he's mostly untainted by the fandom. It's definitely a game played best on your own, like reading a book your friend recommended to you more than playing a widely-known video game.
sans dies
@@monke2229 Sans dies in Infinity War??? Noooooooooo
I know some basic crap because the game's been so publicized, like Genocide Sans, and stuff, but I don't really know the plot whatsoever. I've completely ignored the game until now. I've just gotten past Undyne, and I think the game is really charming. I hope if he plays it, he likes it too.
@@supremeoverlord0 I had quite a lot of it spoiled for me, but I still really enjoyed it when I played it. Glad to see there's still so many people picking it up for the first time after 6 years.
I love that we're going back around to unironically appreciating Undertale again. I also wouldn't mind seeing you cover more of Undertale's tracks
Cute profile pic. I wonder who made it...
8:07, i wasnt expecting to hear this out of the blue, we were listening to fun songs before but then this came on, as soon as i heard this song it brought back so many memories of the game instantly and i felt so at peace, i fucking love this song from the soundtrack, i love all of the others as well
I’m sad because first time playing undertale (the game, not the music) nothing was as awesome as it was then. it felt different from other games. and when i played it with my friends, like, i was moving, he was shooting and attackking, it was fun too and i have played undertale over 20 times now and it doesn’t feel the same when i was new to the game and when i knew nothing. It doesn’t feel same as it felt then. And the memories.
@@iphgamer8254 I had a very similar first experience with the game, as a community type thing-- My friend wanted to do a sleepover kind of thing before the league grand final that year (of all things) and people took this as being a party of some variety-- we ended up with 13 people staying the evening, and over that evening the 13 of us played the entirety of a neutral run in Undertale, with none of us having played it before since it had just come out, as our first experience with it.
Because we were rotating players on deaths or significant area clears, we had groups of people justifying FIGHTing certain encounters and others advocating to SPARE their favourites, and nobody had enough time with the controls individually to master them, so all the bossfights were rotations of people trying them arcade style until someone managed to win with cheers and applause from the rest of the group lol
It was a genuinely wild first way to play the game, the absolute truest neutral run, and one I won't forget for sure
I heard the soundtrack so often, that it was normal for me but every 5 seconds he was like: Woah, what was that?
I was laughing so hard, when he plays the wrong cord his face looks so confusingly frustrated
Its how I imagine what a perfectionist's reaction would be
I know this probably sounds stereotypical, but no offense, pleas spare me 12 year olds :'D
@@missswiss6498 sucks that we live in a world where we feel the need to apologize for what we say we think/imagine in your case
@@missswiss6498 ok Ill spare you
This soundtrack is so incredible. The amount of emotion that Toby Fox was able to convey in the composition of his music with such a limited palette of instruments is unbelievable. Each piece of music is so memorable that hearing them again takes my mind to the part of the game where that song was played, and can even give me chills remembering parts of the story. I could watch your analysis of these tracks all day. (Also, Spider Dance is a jam; love that song)
The idea of writing the music for a level first, and then listening to it while designing that level so that it fits the music, is absolutely genius. Totally want to steal that idea if I ever made a little game experiment or something
THIS!! i also think the soundtracks use of leitmotifs is so creative and incredibly well thought out. nearly every song is connected to another one in some way, and sometimes its hard to notice.
You were pretty much right with the first song "Here We Are", you are wandering around but it's in a very unsettling place that throws everything for a loop story wise. I love how the cords reflect that
My favorite part of this song is what the piano does, meandering around or creeping up and down chromatically near the end of the track. That piano part really adds a ton of unnerving atmosphere.
I have to highly recommend the Track “Dummy!” from Toby Fox Its really swingy and I love it
Ghost fight is better
@@SabirTheHuman Ghost fight is just slower and not as long as dummy, I think both are cool
I love how Toby Fox uses a very similar theme for Ghost Fight to connect the Dummy and Nabstablook together as characters as well.
@@Ravasakii yeah. I like Dummy! too.
@@catrinacoons390 Yeah, It’s just awesome
Charles entering a chill cafe: "Oh damn, the muusic here is WILD! I'm not ready for this."
Lmao
Charles I beg you cover "it's raining somewhere else" from this soundtrack it is one of my favorite tracks in the whole ost. It has a sort of bat jazz feel with a bittersweet tinge of homesickness and it hits so hard for me for whatever reason. I really do implore you to at least give it a listen because it's just so nice.
my third favourite track other than dummy and death by glamour
that and another medium are probably my favorite Undertale songs
I quickly glanced at the piano track for this song and the reason it sound jazzy, or one of the reasons, is that it used modal harmony, kind of like here we are. The starting chords are just minor 7 chords bring moved around.
My favorite song is spider dance
he sould try "Enemy Approaching!" and battle against a true hero
Toby’s whole career has had stuff like this. Even though he didn’t write a majority of Homestuck music, he wrote many of the themes that stuck with the major characters. He’s especially good at making music for characters like Flowey, or places like the true lab, that have that “creepy in a can’t quite place it” kinda way. One of his Homestuck tunes for one of the major villains, one that has control over time, can be played either forwards or backwards and still be close to the same. Dudes a masterminds in music composition!
And now with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, giving that "You Shouldn't Be Here" vibe to Area Zero
Wait till he learns about how everything is connected
Lol
This is why the Fandom is toxic the lore am I right or is it the shipping
@@Lumberjack_king its the songs
@@Gabahoe what how I always thought it was the ships every fandom has songs what’s so toxic about them really I want to know
@@Lumberjack_king nothing is toxic on the songs
Can't help not tearing up a bit when hearing "Undertale", man. Also really cool to hear your remarks on it having no context to the game
Hey you're the dude who defended Aphex twin against that other dude who just reposted the scaruffi review
@@featherycoffee1401 Oh hah, that sounds a bit familiar, remember what vid that was on?
@@sweetwheatsy deep_cuts guide to IDM
@@featherycoffee1401 Hah I found it! Man that's p funny, cheers
He pretty much nailed the guess on what here we are is used for
6:40 It was at this moment that I realized that this guy is way better than I thought. I mean his improv off the first song was good but hearing this incredible addition to a great song that was just made up on the spot gives me an insane amount of respect for this man. As a casual piano player who could never do something like this, I am really impressed.
I personally think the song, Bergentrūkung (I think that's how it's spelled), Asgore's boss theme, is the best song in the game. It feels so sorrowful yet strikes you with hope and determination with the powerful orchestra feel. It's so good
Bergentruckung is the song before his boss fight, which his boss theme is aptly titled "Asgore"
Sorry but hopes and dreams and undertale I think take the crown
Bergentrückung right?
Yeah. Its a remix of toriels theme, which makes berguntruken hit so much harder when you realize that
Bergentrückung is the embodiment of a good person trying to justify a horrible deed
Petition to just have Charles improv over the Undertale soundtrack like he did with Death by Glamour? I sounded so cool
i just realised that “here we are” shares a leitmotif with the lab/alphys theme
which i guess make sense, considering it IS the true lab, but still
I'd love to hear your breakdown and analysis of "Your Best Nightmare" "Hopes and Dreams" "SAVE the World" and "His Theme"
They're some of my favorite pieces in the game for different reasons, but I haven't really ever seen anyone analyze them before.
True neither have i, but honestly i still want a video that actually deep dives into the themes, and feeling of the tracks, plus a longer discussion about the soundtrack as a whole because it’s either breaking down the track itself, and just giving some slight insight kinda sad this didn’t scratch my itch.
So in total mostly flowey/azzy
ASGORE
When I’m getting married, it’s gonna be to the song “Undertale”. When I die, the song at my funeral is going to be “Death by Glamour”.
That's dedication. Or, dare I say, determination?
Maybe put death as "fallen down"
@@user-be1un5tr9t bruh moment
@@user-be1un5tr9t Do not guve up hope! FRISK! Stay determined!
@@daredog509 where frusk
This is really unrelated but “Here We Are” always makes me think of the Goosebumps theme. Which slaps, by the way. Go listen to it.
Viewer Beware, You're In For A Scare!
@@MysteriumArcanum I can hear this comment omg 😭
Whoa. Hard flashbacks my dudes. Very nice lol.
Broo I used to get scared by that when I was younger
The way it's in between D and D-flat really does add an 'unease' to the sound, for back of a letter way to describe it.
Was that on purpose?
@@hayond656 @Denzell David was it on purpose that toby composed the song with sounds which's frequencies are between the "conventional" D and D flat frequencies while using a synthesising programs to write the music? Yes I would bet he did it on purpose
@@Nikzzza i think he was asking if the phrasing of "back of a letter way" was intentionally done
You can easily understand when somebody competent finds some well-made music by how genuinely he chuckled during his freestyle at 6:35 . It's always nice to see somebody enjoying music as more than something to tap your foot to.
An entire road trip, I heard the whole soundtrack three times. Some tracks made me smile, some tracks made me cry tears of joy, and most tracks created imagery of the game's events.
Toby outdid himself.
Can you finally get the lightning bow in Der Eisendrache?
@@S2nppy You probably know me from another comment section
Yes I can, and I’ve done it many times by now
@@UndertaleFan-cx2mc lol, I saw ur comment a few days ago here and went onto a video from bo3 a few mins ago and remembered u. Cool to know u figured it out.
@@S2nppy Yeah it was hard at first because my aim was terrible, but now I can do it really easily
Also the Wolf Bow and Void Bow pretty consistently
Only done Fire once, and never doing it again
I just want more of this tbh. Like, hours of it. It's such good fun to just sit here and get goosebumps and share the love for this fuckin' gnarly music with this dude just absolutely jamming out. Thank you.
For real. I was so sad when I saw I only had 4 mins left in the video, because that meant he wasn't goign to listen to another song :'(
@@Moonmager THERE MAY BE A PART 2
I really hope there's a high demand for this, but the game "to the moon" has some really good tracks. Anyone who likes piano-y videogame music, vibe to it srsly
Oh my god the sadness. T-T
To the moon and finding paradise.
dont make us cry
Yesss!
will check it out
"it sounds like stepping around inquizitively" funny charles says that when "Here We Are" plays when you're piecing together & finally find out the truth behind Alphys. just goes to show how much toby know how to make the music in any given place sound exactly how the player is supposed to be feeling.
undertale's "undertale" is one of the most calming masterpieces in the whole game
6:29 when he starts playing with Death by Glamour, and just starts laughing? Amazing
69, cool
Is anyone gonna talk about how good this sounds just with the added notes? 6:43
There are plenty of cool things to dive into with this OST. A lot of the commenters have mentioned Toby's extensive use of leitmotifs, one of my favourite examples is the parallel between Heartache (Toriel's battle theme) and ASGORE (Asgore's battle theme). (SPOILERS for Undertale of course) The two characters are a divorced couple and the repeating groove in both of their tracks is the same pattern, but in two different time signatures. You initially hear it in 3/8 in Heartache, but in ASGORE it's stretched to fill a 4/4 bar. The soundtrack is filled with little connections to notice like that. Often they're hard to notice if you don't pull the music apart because Toby weaves it all together so seamlessly.
It especially comes to life if you play the game of course, because it's full of character themes that bring a whole new emotional layer to the music when you know the characters' stories.
Yeahs it really cool. You can also notice the parts of heartache are scattered through asgores theme but none of his theme shown in toriels theme. This shows that toriel moved on from asgore but asgore hasn’t moved on from toriel. It’s some real cool connections in them and Toby did a great job .
G Bb A Bb G
G A Bb F D
This is one example of where a single person can make something that is just flat out greater than the sum of its parts in a way that a team of people can't. The way the characters, musical motifs, and story are weaved together are enhanced by each other.
When I played the game, I consciously noticed some of the musical references, but even moreso than that, I felt them.
4:59 Man your "having fun with chords" sounds better than what i will ever compose even if i tried really hard. It's just so nice.
There's a reason why people remixed megalovania and made AU versions of the song long before it became a meme.
I think megalovania is overrated
@@havatalks you can believe it's overrated while still admitting it's a good song
@@havatalks How good? What's your favourite song in UT? Any downsides you see?
I stand by the theory that Meme songs persist because they are secretly, publicly, good ass songs. If Never Gonna Give You Up sucked, it would not have endured as long as it has. Is it a "Ha Ha funny meme" song? sure. Does it still SLAPPE? HELL YEAH!
@@alzhanvoid my favourite song in Undertale is Song That May Play When You Fight Sans, but I really like Megolovania bc it fits the whole “sans is fighting to protect the few people that remain alive even though you’re going to kill him”
Toby Fox: I will write so much simultaneously happy/hopeful and sad/dark music.
I'm joining in on this!
What an insightful observation.
It’s kind of crazy how Toby Fox made almost all of the undertale ost
"making the music yourself can help make you envision the game better."
that was what toby fox thought when creating the ost, probably.
I'm curious, which ones did he not write?
@bulgarian yogurt thanks
@bulgarian yogurt Muffets theme was not written by Toby Fox it was a fan creation
Reminding me from your profile picture he should really do persona 5’s music!!!!!
It seems like nobody can replicate Toby's music perfectly for some reason, it's so interesting.
Well the soundtrack is in a 24 tone scale instead of the usual 12.
A lot of the notes are "out of tune" because of that which makes a very big impact on how we hear the song.
Yeah, he's using notes in-between the in-between of notes, so a normal piano cannot replicate it without some major tuning.
@@SioxGreyWolf Yeah, I heard about Toby using 24 tones instead of our usual 12. Still won't stop me from trying to replicate his songs own system by using my own 12 tone piano to attempt to replicate his 24 tones to create my own songs.
Why are there three separate people absolutely convinced that Toby fox's music is microtonal
Because apparently there's a video with half a million views of a guy who states it's microtonal after he fails to reproduce it on his keyboard, while the truth is that it's detuned
8:47 - Doesn't matter the context, it always makes me tear up. The fact that he singled it out so quickly vindicates the feelings it instilled in me.
It's absolutely amazing watching someone who's never played Undertale pick up on one of the central and most powerful motifs almost instantly and get it damn near perfectly with one listen
Thats a hella lot of earttraining in college
It's amazing that he picked up on asriel's motif in Undertale without having played the game.
Fun fact: if you REALLY listen all tracks - you can notice how they are connected. Especially final credits songs, which content more than 10 other motifs in it.
Toby is a genius
Your explanation of that first song and how it sounds is exactly how it’s used in the game. It’s used in what is probably the creepiest and strangest area in the game, but it comes extremely late in the story so you have some confidence in your abilities despite having a lot of trepidation about where you are and what you may find. It’s very overlooked and quite a masterpiece for what it is.
undertale uses a stupid amount of leitmotifs, the first piece in this video is a remix of the character alphys's theme, the second one uses a much more upbeat version of the song that plays in that area in the game as well as another character's theme, "undertale" is just basically the title theme but with more instruments and the repeated line in the background is _another_ character's theme, etc.
ironically, one of the only songs in the game that doesn't include any already established themes whatsoever is megalovania, which is the one that literally everyone knows (because toby fox wrote it when he was like 16)
i don't really know that much about chords and keys though, so this is pretty much all i know about the game's music lol
I was hoping he'd touch on this, the motifs are some of the most interesting parts of the soundtrack
My favorite of these, the one that made me cry the second time I played it and I realized its context, was Asgore's theme. His theme's bridge is just a motif from Toriel's theme. She is still a part of him, and he didn't want what happened to their children, he just made a mistake and lost her too, and she's still in his heart and his theme
It was kind of impressive that he somehow chose the only songs that didn't have any real connections to each other
the smash rendition of megalovania actually has some leitmotifs fittingly squished in- the goat parents' (asgore/heartache), this one I call "are you even still the one in control" because of some fan lyrics I found (which is the NEO/The Undying motif) and the Nyeh Heh Heh/Bonetrousle motif
11:14 Charles: *Heres Fallen Down”
Also Charles:*Starts playing Jailhouse Rock*
Glad I'm not the only one who heard that
Undertale (the song) is just. The best, I think. At that point in the game, no matter how many times you’ve played, hits so hard. It’s a big shift from the upbeat Death by Glamour, and also a shift from more midi-like tracks, to one that is nearly full acoustic. It never fails to make me well up a little.
i could watch him doodle over the undertale-deltarune soundtracks for hours
Me too. But I'm also happy with these guys who introduced me to Undertake music (old video but they have newer stuff): ruclips.net/video/5jUwV8_h7ZY/видео.html
Just wait until you realize that a lot of the songs are the exact same but just sped up or pitched down/slowed, really cool how Toby fox did that.
It makes the soundtracks theming/pacing feel more like a movie, which I really like
Most people would see that as lazy when it actually gives a cool effect that feels good with the rest of the game.
leitmotifs are so cool. They allow thoughts and parts of the game to be compared and contrasted, like how UNDERTALE (the song) is comprised of His Theme and Home
1:34
Literally just figure out that's Alphys' theme.
Holy crap
Oh my god
Its also pretty similar to the bird song, I cant remember the ridiculously long title
@@HearteartHdragon Yeah! Always wondered why, but the Bird Who Carries You Across the Disproportionately Small Gap or whatever it's called sounds a LOT like Alphys sped up. I've been trying to learn the Undertale OST on the piano and that bothered me a lot when I figured it out because I cannot for the life of me figure out why Toby would connect those two characters' motifs lol
@@drawingdragon i just assumed it was alphys' bird or something lol
@@HearteartHdragon The deep lore we're all ignoring - Alphys and bird. Somebody call Matpat
My favorite song has to be "It's Raining Somewhere Else", just the minor 7th chords at the beginning, so soothing, so pretty. Anyone else?
Can we please have an in depth analysis of the entire ost?
The soundtrack is too good to only do a handful of songs
I definitely want that, but we might have to wait for someone else to do it, but i want it to be like 3 hours, going into every song in depth.
We need 101 hour long videos for each song in the OST
@@baileydwyer453 you can definetly add some of the "secret ones" (megalostrike back, star, etc.)
@@blokos_ Yes true
This the closest we may get Charles to review something related to Touhou.
Yush
Yes ! That would be dope
That'd be dope, that'd be cool
Undertale is inspired by touhou
i really would like to see him analyse touhou music
8:46 Oh you have no idea, just about anything important in the story has that tone. In fact just hearing that made me happy
Yes… just the melody is emotional… for me