Shorts: Phantasy Star PSP • Sonic Vocal Collection

[Esrever]

You can hear the remastered tracks over here, now:

http://www.soahcity.com/music/2008_true_blue/index.php

Not having the actual CD yet, I can't say if all the songs that are newly mixed are here, but they seem to think they have them all.

[DackAttac]

I'd wager that the only remastered tracks are L&L and What I'm Made Of, as that seems to be the consistent marking on these web sites.

OYH remix is horrible. It seems hypocritical since I always love how much Johnny processed his voice, but vocoder just isn't one that works with it.

C40's cover of Seven Rings is a mild improvement on everything but the verses, which they muck up with too much stop time and too much ♭5 dissonance where it didn't belong. Half the time it just feels like Jun's doing acrobats to distract from how dull the tune is at its core, which makes it all the more bewildering that Kenichi Tokoi penned this one. Not only are all the other tracks he usually writes better than this mediocre sleepwalk, but I could usually count on him not to get sucked into the hard rock black hole Jun's built a vacation house in.

[Arcade]

Well, I cant wait for the Phantasy Star PSP, everything else can eat my shorts...

[Isuka]

From what I can tell, I mostly agree with Dack.
The remastering is pretty subtle, I find them a bit clearer but otherwise the same. Maybe my audition is getting poor.
Open Your Heart's remix is quite bad, it may somewhat work as a menu or Adventure Field/ Town Stage BGM. My favourite remix of the song remains being the Chris Vrenna & Mark Blasques one.
I'm already writing my death threat to Senoue to remix Hydrocity OR ELSE!
Rush Adventure's tracks sound a bit like... Giant Egg, maybe?
4Kids' abomination is ear rape in its purest form, prolonged exposition would be a practical means of torture.

[Wooduck51]

Listening to the cleaned up Live and Learn makes my day; Lord, I wish that I could get SEGA to denounce all the games released after SA2.

[P.P.A.]

That remastered Live & Learn is pretty awesome. And they made the totally horrible Sonic X theme sound at least a bit decent, that's an accomplishment! The Right There, Right On song however is just awful. Though I haven't played Rush yet and don't know how the original sounds, so I can't really comment on that.
The CD cover looks like the result of an uninspired 5 minute photoshop session, lol. :(

[DackAttac]

Here's what puzzles me—why remaster two songs? I mean, it's not like they were recorded in the 50's or something; they really are pretty subtle tweaks. So I'm wondering if the reason only two songs got the polish-off is because they're the two that were going someplace loftier than a best of. Maybe What I'm Made Of is gonna be in Brawl somewhere?

[Yami CJMErl]

Well, if I recall the My Music screens from the dojo, it looks like each stage has the option for about 4-5 songs to play on it--and we've only had confirmation for two of them--Live & Learn and the Angel Island remix.

It could be possible.

[James McGeachie]

The Right There, Right On song however is just awful. Though I haven't played Rush yet and don't know how the original sounds, so I can't really comment on that.

It sounds extremely similar to that and you just can't comprehend Naganuma's genius you heathen!

[Esrever]

Here's what puzzles me—why remaster two songs? I mean, it's not like they were recorded in the 50's or something; they really are pretty subtle tweaks. So I'm wondering if the reason only two songs got the polish-off is because they're the two that were going someplace loftier than a best of. Maybe What I'm Made Of is gonna be in Brawl somewhere?

I don't know why, but the full version of Live and Learn has always suffered from a kind of murky, tinny, lo-fi sound. It's noticeable not just when you compare it to this new remastered version, but also when you compare it to the other versions of Live and Learn that were on the SA2 soundtrack, the short instrumental version that plays on the title screen of the game. What I'm Made Of also had a similarly rough sound, although not quite as bad.

Certainly neither song sounded horrible, but they were both noticeably worse sounding than the other Crush 40 songs. I assume that's why they're the only two to get polished up, although I don't know why they decided to do it now in particular.

[Arcade]

Love and learn didn’t have polished or re-mastered versions before? That means all those versions I have are a "fan-did it" Thing? Awesome...

[Isuka]

Love and learn

You're wrong, it's called Live & Peace.

[Dasher]

SONIC X THEME (4Kids)

Oh... hell... no!

Where's SONIC DRIVE?

Thats just great, SonicTeam had sex with 4kids.

[Ngangbius]

Maybe they lost the rights to Sonic Drive? *shrugs*

[Isuka]

You know Sonic Drive is crap, don't you? The one big absentee here is Cosmic Eternity, as SH pointed.

[DackAttac]

Thats just great, SonicTeam had sex with 4 kids.

One space can make all the difference.