LogFAQs > #963260721

54nd
Game: Front Mission 3
Title: Attack
Composer: Hayato Matsuo
Nominator: @Haunter12O
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWOYPClbRgg

i've already spoiled that Hayato Matsuo is one of my favorite composers, and i especially like his sound during the 90s, which this technically is! (just barely). so maybe it's unsurprising this one performs well, but yeah OH MY GOD I LOVE HAYATO MATSUO and it represents him quite well!

the thing i like most about matsuo is his tonal (atonal) sense, he's openly said a lot of his biggest influences are some of the things i like most (the specific song "Tarkus" by Emerson Lake and Palmer, especially). but i think what i like about matsuo that other composers with similar influences don't quite attain, he knows how to approach that sorta atonal and crunchy style in a way that is FUN And VERY FUNKY. there's lots of stuff in his work that if given a more serious and grand aesthetic to it, would wind up coming across more like "boring tension song in an AAA film score-esque ost that no one likes except for me", but Matsuo will take that same category of composition and find ways to make it feel like you are at a disco party---without even upsetting the mood that those dark traits are designed to convey.

It's just this really precise balance that very few others i know of have ever been able to convey. "post-tonal" music traits are often dismissed as "too academic" or "pretentious". as if their form of avant-garde weirdness has no practical purpose; but to those people...well, i think the people who deride that type of composition just have not heard examples like this. There's no reason that type of music has to only be allowed to exist in a void of serious and cold academia or even with an asserted dark atmosphere (even if i still like it when it is those things. This punches the "atonal music can never be conventionally palatalbe arnold is so full of nonsense" nay-sayers in the balls)

oh my god the SOUND CHOICES in this song; i love breakbeats and rubbery synths typically, but i mean. this is breakbeats and rubbery synths WITH "hitoshi sakimoto strings and choir on top". and the pan flute out of nowhere? this is trying it's hardest to be exactly the timbres i'm most excited about haha.

this song has a whopping 27 channels, even though the ps1's limitations only have a limit of 24 notes playing at once. i'm not an expert on ps1 sequenced music, but I guess what you get when extracting the music is a bit different than "1 track in the midi" = "1 of the 24 channels". anyways, much like the breath of fire 4 tune, i almost totally forgot this was a "sample-based chiptune", it sounds so full and nice and CD audio quality! they really did a great job making it feel like it isn't totally tethered to this system's limitations (which, granted, are relatively free. but it's still a surprise!). honestly they didn't do much other than pick really nice sounding samples and apply the built-in reverb, but the end result just sounds so nice!!

I did a bunch of research recently actually about which synths Hayato Matsuo uses; and found out that his primary thing in this period (earlier on, the sole thing he used) was a synth called the Ensoniq SD-1. I then looked at some of its on-board demos and...well, the track at :59 here--this is just fucking Matsuo!!! WAT. I definitely suspect his sound design and composition sense both stemmed from imitating this demo, there's no way he didn't hear it (and it makes sense that when you get a synth, you'd learn how to use the synth by imitating what it has built in)
https://youtu.be/RHWUN0gp7wA?t=59

i actually haven't confirmed that any of the sounds in front mission 3 are from the ensoniq sd-1, but it would not surprise me!

i'm using Auido Overload to mute individual channels in the PSF file, and it's kinda hilarious: with only one channel selected, and you'll hear basically random elements of the song flicker in and out. It's because whatever engine they're using, dynamically allocates the 27 "channels in the midi file" across the 24 channels the playstation format actually has as an upper limit. prioritizing whatever empty space is availible. This isn't that uncommon, but it can be funny to listen to!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIsbV4eOEec

24 things like THAT all on top of each other, layered, make the full song you hear in the end. but...in reality, the files in the system are actually quite normal. just basically a midi file with 27 tracks, but they're being dynamically allocated to the playstation's 24 channels the best whatever tools they used can i guess. and that's why soloing any one of them gives ridiculous results like the video i posted above.

for an indiv channel visualizer, there were two main ways to look at it: [a] what the playstation is actually playing back (waveforms jumbled across 24 channels), or [b] what the sequence file the playstation is reading from looks like (essentially a midi file with 27 tracks). since 27 is a lot (and if going the straight ps1 audio: the methods for 17+ channel songs i've used before wouldn't really look interesting here since the audio is so dynamically allocated (it would also take hours upon hours to actually make through any methods i know)) so i'm just opting for a fun piano roll this time. this also helps you see the types of chords being used better, makes the tight crunchy harmonies (or even the very open chromatically-even-spaced harmonies) ((things i love about matsuo's harmonic style so much . . )) very apparent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKlMtkrwuFE

oh, one other thing this illustrates is that the drums are actually sequenced individually, note by note. until i checked the sequence file i interpreted it as pre-defined loops because it sounds like examples of those that i know, but i guess it's just, i mean, well, sequenced electronic music! Cool!

sorry this w riteup is all over the place. i REALLY LIKE hayato matsuo and this song I LOVE THIS SONG but i'm well aware this is just a mess even more than usual for my thoughts haha. i have a lot to say about any given song of his in general, but this instance of typing turned out to be a lot of words with little substance so i apologize....next time i talk about hayato matsuo i promise i will make very elaborate incomprehensible power point flow charts about quartals