This was a random and interesting find. You may have heard rumours that some of the music for Sonic 3 was written by Michael Jackson and his collaborators, with MJ himself being uncredited in the...
This was a random and interesting find.
You may have heard rumours that some of the music for Sonic 3 was written by Michael Jackson and his collaborators, with MJ himself being uncredited in the final release. This was actually confirmed a few years ago by people involved in the project.
This is the soundtrack ripped straight from the only prototype of Sonic 3 to be uncovered, which just happens to have been made right before MJ was brought on and when they were still in the process of splitting the second half of the game into Sonic and Knuckles. This prototype still uses the Sonic 2 sound driver - the final release has a completely new sound driver instead.
A surprising amount of music is basically the same as the final version. Most tracks have a few tweaks in instrumentation and mixing; a few are slightly rearranged. But there are a few tracks that are completely different - presumably replaced by material that MJ's team was working on. If you're not that familliar with the soundtrack you can also listen to the final version here. IMHO the ones that MJ's team replaced are vastly better than what they were working on before.
I kind of love this; one of my favorite parts is just listening to the tracks that were rearranged. In particular, I really enjoyed the slower Angel Island Act 2 track. I had originally thought that the Hydrocity Zone tracks were way more funky in the prototype, but it turns out it's actually mostly unchanged in the final version; it just slaps.
This was a random and interesting find.
You may have heard rumours that some of the music for Sonic 3 was written by Michael Jackson and his collaborators, with MJ himself being uncredited in the final release. This was actually confirmed a few years ago by people involved in the project.
This is the soundtrack ripped straight from the only prototype of Sonic 3 to be uncovered, which just happens to have been made right before MJ was brought on and when they were still in the process of splitting the second half of the game into Sonic and Knuckles. This prototype still uses the Sonic 2 sound driver - the final release has a completely new sound driver instead.
A surprising amount of music is basically the same as the final version. Most tracks have a few tweaks in instrumentation and mixing; a few are slightly rearranged. But there are a few tracks that are completely different - presumably replaced by material that MJ's team was working on. If you're not that familliar with the soundtrack you can also listen to the final version here. IMHO the ones that MJ's team replaced are vastly better than what they were working on before.
I kind of love this; one of my favorite parts is just listening to the tracks that were rearranged. In particular, I really enjoyed the slower Angel Island Act 2 track. I had originally thought that the Hydrocity Zone tracks were way more funky in the prototype, but it turns out it's actually mostly unchanged in the final version; it just slaps.
For more info on the prototype, check out the page on TCRF