The slap bass craze that enveloped a number of SNES composers may never be fully explained. Elles” and the adventurous peril of “Solitary Island,” it was difficult not to bop your head to these tunes. From the thumping in “The Mine,” to the ballad-laden “Seabed of St. The game’s constant repetition of sealing monster portals by thwacking the same monsters over and over with a sword was made all the more tolerable with some basswork from the game’s numerous dungeon themes. One of the first instances of catchy SNES bass riffs being permanently embedded in my brain can be attributed to Yukihide Takekawa’s Soul Blazer ( Soul Blader in Japan) soundtrack. Paperboy 2 (SNES), composed by Nick Eastridge The music from titles like Chessmaster and Pit Fighter(bleh) may not help my defense of the SNES slap bass, but the next couple of tracks might. And yet, I can’t stop listening to it on repeat. A slap bass riff and horn section that plods along and doesn’t seem to know where it’s going and high-pitched keys that don’t fit in the slightest you have to wonder if it was a bigger struggle for its composer to program the sounds than actually composing the damn thing. To call the tune’s pacing awkward is a vast understatement. Laser Time co-host Chris Antista likened it to the “soundtrack to a vaudevillian retarded character in a cartoon walking slowly down to the bus stop.” Barkley Gaiden creator Eric “CBoyardee” Schumaker sarcastically called it “the song that legitimized chess” in a Youtube comment. The infamous title screen music from SNES game Chessmaster has lived on as a laughing stock for many videogame music aficionados. I’m going to make a case for the SNES bass.įirst thing’s first: let’s get Chessmaster out of the way. Some may dismiss it as laughably cheesy, and it very well may be in some cases, but that’s not to say that the sample can’t be found in some fantastic videogame tunes. Indeed, the bass sample is an acquired taste. The slap bass sample in question is taken from a Korg M1, the same keyboard used for the theme to Seinfeld composed by Jonathan Wolff. Oftentimes, detractors (read: 90s Sega kids) will use these instances of bass guitar as a source of derision for the SNES’ sound chip. Much like how Konami’s sound team had its own signature “orchestral hit” in its early 90s videogame music, several composers utilized a slap bass sound that’s become synonymous with the sounds of early 90s SNES titles. Rather, I’d like to delve into a phenomenon known as the SNES bass.
I haven’t gone off my rocker and decided to dedicate a feature to fishing game soundtracks. Enter Liner Notes: a Pixelitis feature in which our writers discuss their favorite videogame music.)ĭon’t worry. (Editor’s note: From Drakkhen to Paperboy, everyone’s got at least one videogame tune stuck in their heads. Originally published on on February 12, 2013.