LogFAQs > #952667848

a fun fact about the SNES version of MM&B that a friend found and confirmed with me:

apparently it actually has programmed in randomness in the engine, in the drums specifically. so there are /slight/ differences every time certain songs or parts of songs are played back in the drum parts; intentionally 'off' timings, presumably to get it to sound more akin to being liveplayed. It's definitely intentional and not just a faulty quirk, since everything is precise except for layers or sections that make sense to sound imprecise and humanized.

the differences between any two times the tracks get played are barely noticeable (and it doesn't apply to every track in the game, and a lot of yt uploads probably come from the same sources so it wouldn't be noticeable there either) but it's a thing that's fascinating to know was chosen to be done. it does make sense with the jazzy influences anyways

maybe at some point during the topic i'll upload a comparison that points out the tiny differences in the hits on the drums in the waveforms between playthroughs of tunes in the game

(all this said i'm also probably in the minority that prefers the gba versions, but i don't have a strong preference---I'm just a weirdo and really love GBA as a sound format in general. I think PSG beeps layered on top of super crunchy gritty samples just happens to be a really cool sound~!

I also have interest in how the GBA also doesn't actually have hard limits in the way other chip/sequence formats do. It's all software-mixed ["whatever the engine/memory/etc can handle" number of samples able to be played at once] (which is different between games, or even different between situations within the same game, not a specific number like the nes or snes) layered on top of the entire gameboy color soundchip.

and all sorts of custom programming was done to make weird functions that could be done to samples (in some games things like filter sweeps as actual functions, not just baked into samples). This results in some pretty unique stuff. Engines tailored to specific games that all have vastly differing limitations from each other, or work around memory limitations in really creative ways, all things that i'm pretty fascinated by

I never figured out the exact limits mm&b holds itself to are, but it feels pretty standard, only a small number of channels for samples and just heavily focusing on the gameboy psg layers. It works to its advantage though! for that really crisp bass you mentioned particularly. whole gba mm&b ost just has a fun punchy crisp sound)
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