LogFAQs > #962224267

91th
Game: Gradius (Arcade)
Title: Stage 3
Composer: Miki Higashino
Nominator: @rwlh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZuh9KQiviE

i was going to make a visualizer for this one like i have many of the other chiptune entries where something like that was possible. but i've just realized I can't figure out what version of the song actually sounds like this? going through every version I can, the "arcade" versions i can find sound totally different from this recording, still FM, but very different, less strange/harsh timbres. So it feels like it'd defeat the purpose to make something like that, even if it'd be easy and quick for this one since it is so short. (*edit: I've just realized that the version rwlh nommed is actually probably more likely not even fm, and some weird wavetable or psg thing similar to msx/tg16's stuff. almost just said fm habitually to mean "sounds a bit more full than plain beeps")

instead i am going to go thru a personal ranking of all the versions of this i can quickly find!!!!

1) this one that you nominated for me
2) this one: https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/nemesis-msx-scc
3) this one: https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/gradius-tg-16
4) this one: https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/gradius-nec-pc-8801
5) this one: https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/gradius-sharp-x68000
6) this one: https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/garudius-95-nec-pc-9801
7) this one: https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/nemesis-msx-psg
8) this one: https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/gradius-sharp-x1
9) this one: https://vgmrips.net/packs/pack/gradius-nes

i'd expect to rate the x68000 one higher because of being fm but the fm sounds it uses are a lot more clunky and flat to me, not nearly as cool as the gritty one you nominated that feels like i have burnt my food and now parts of the edges are serrated black singed edges that could be used as a grunge album cover if you squint your eyes

basicallyou picked the right version GOOD JOB. my order of the lower ones could change with mood, but the one you nominated for me would always be my favorite version,so you nailed it here

anyway the composition is maybe the more obvious reason i'd like this rather than the sounds so lets get to that.

Miki Higashino has a funny bit in an interview where they questioned why she went for the style she went for in shmup music (that later became influential on the sound of shmups as a whole). her work often sounds not at all like what a normal person would think "spaceship in space blowing things up" would sound like, why is this how it turned out to be? Her reasoning was apparently something along the lines of "when I think of space, I think of computers, and when I think of computers, I think of odd time signatures, and angular atonal elements like quartals and stuff" or something like that. So basically what she's saying is that she thinks of the 1982 version of the Tron OST by Wendy Carlos when she thinks "space" beccause computers take you to space and computers would be most associated with making weird sounds like crazy bus and stuff like that because it's the 80s when you make this song still....although it's a connection multiple chains of iterations away from the source idea, i do think it works. You know that high-technology is what got you to where you are, so to represent that, your sonic world becomes machines, circuit board music. when you approach this track from that angle it exemplifies it WELL. If i didn't know the context of this song, i'd probably say "inside a computer", and at some level, i wouldn't be wrong...

when i was doing the ranking of versions above, the thing that'd make me rank a version way lower was if the sound at the beginning was just one note, rather than these layered parallel chords. what i mean when i say that: evenly stacked layers of notes on top of each other---THAT is "inside a computer" music imo, they're not just chords, they're computery chords! without those chords,. i mean i just hear those sounds and i see a wireframe grid in my head, and wireframe grids can be on futuristic computer screen in fancy spaceship, and you see where this is going. this type of music is actually perfect for the scenario! it might not be the first thought many people have when they think of space, but it actually nails imagery compatible with the concept perfectly to me

oh yeah and it's odd time of course. it starts as weird 4/4 that rhythmically almost feels randomly generated by a computer (this is probably on purpose what it's supposed to feel like), then oddly when it goes into odd time, it's a lot more followable imo. The pattern gives itself a clear start and end for like "this is a 7/8 bar, it starts here and ends here", which is a welcome contrast for variety in the tune. I think it's because once those sections show up, rather than being like a looping pattern where you're not sure where the start or end is, instead you know /exactly/ where the start and end are. They're not initially predictable, but you're hearing chunks of the song repeated, but not always repeated at the same length. It's like a computer is DEFRAGMENTING and reorganizing those cubes (full transcription:
(0:00 - 0:08) 4 bars of 4/4
(0:08 - 0:14) 7/8, 6/8, 7/8, 6/8
(0:14 - 0:22) 3 bars of 4/4, 1 bar of 3/4 (but the last bar of 3/4 is weird and all in triplets, 9 evenly spaced apart notes in the space of that 3/4 bar)
[loop]
)

i think most people probably wouldn't care about this song that much, it's short, "weird", "dated", empty, doesn't have much in it, but probably not to your surprise at all, i love it quite a bit! I'm glad you shared it with me. It's technically not new to me i think, but it might as well have been because i didn't remember it prior to your nom for this topic, so great job in this choice! it is a very COMPUTER song and that works pretty well with what you were going for with the pick i think

I'm very thankful for this music, if it weren't for it, shmup music may not have had the same influence origins as it wound up having, and would've been way less angular and strange in the later iterations probably without this as an early foundation. thank you miki higashino for your profound influence on the sound of this genre of video game