Is the bass in this track played by a synth?

[Gopherbassist]

The track is question:



Some background:

I had this game as a kid, and one day discovered you could put it into a CD player and play the music. I always liked the music so would pop it in and listen from time to time.

I always liked this track in particular, and when I was learning to play bass would try to play along. But the short, cut off notes were always quicker and cleaner than anything I could pull off. Palm muting gives a different sound that doesn't match it. In reading about the production of the game, I came across a few write ups that said the music was performed live by musicians in studio. The bass in particular is really lively on some tracks, like this one:



The bass tones always sounded really rich and natural to my ear. But I was watching YouTube on my TV and pulled up the former track, and it had this weird, flat sound that felt synthy and kinda dead. It had never occurred to me that that first track might have had the bass performed on a synth until that moment.

The synth they were using must have had good samples, and the mixing must have been great for me to have listened to that track on many different systems over the years without carching that it's a synth. Or, it's a real bass, and all these years of playing haven't gotten me to a point that I don't suck too much to play it well.

 

[JimmyM]

The second one has bass articulations that weren't easy to do with programming back then, and the first also sounds like real bass , though it's difficult to tell.

Put it this way, if it was programmed and not just played very tightly to a click, I would be surprised because I don't hear any obvious giveaways like I do with most of the programmed music I heard from the late 80s.

 

[jdjk7]

The track is question:



Some background:

I had this game as a kid, and one day discovered you could put it into a CD player and play the music. I always liked the music so would pop it in and listen from time to time.

I always liked this track in particular, and when I was learning to play bass would try to play along. But the short, cut off notes were always quicker and cleaner than anything I could pull off. Palm muting gives a different sound that doesn't match it. In reading about the production of the game, I came across a few write ups that said the music was performed live by musicians in studio. The bass in particular is really lively on some tracks, like this one:



The bass tones always sounded really rich and natural to my ear. But I was watching YouTube on my TV and pulled up the former track, and it had this weird, flat sound that felt synthy and kinda dead. It had never occurred to me that that first track might have had the bass performed on a synth until that moment.

The synth they were using must have had good samples, and the mixing must have been great for me to have listened to that track on many different systems over the years without carching that it's a synth. Or, it's a real bass, and all these years of playing haven't gotten me to a point that I don't suck too much to play it well.

First one sounds like a synth in its dynamics. You could play it on bass guitar, but you'd really have to listen if you wanted to nail the pattern.

Second one sounds like a real bass guitar, but there's two different tracks going at the same time, one with the high plucky stuff and the other with the low slap bass. Actually, it quite sounds like Tetsuo Sakurai of Casiopea playing, and if it was, it wouldn't have been the only fighting game that he lent his bass to. I'm not sure though, because it seems like he would have had some kind of credit to be Googled.

 

[Gopherbassist]

I'm not sure though, because it seems like he would have had some kind of credit to be Googled.

I've looked for the credits, the only credit I could find was for the production company its self, not any individual players.

The second one has bass articulations that weren't easy to do with programming back then, and the first also sounds like real bass , though it's difficult to tell.

Put it this way, if it was programmed and not just played very tightly to a click, I would be surprised because I don't hear any obvious giveaways like I do with most of the programmed music I heard from the late 80s.

The second one sounds like a bass to me, it's only the first one I'm wondering about. I appreciate the insight.

 

[John Sparkman]

I did a deep dive into the interwebs, and came up with this much:

The original 1989 Final Fight arcade soundtrack was composed by a team of seven Capcom sound composers: Manami Matsumae, Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, Harumi Fujita, Junko Tamiya, Yasuaki Fujita, Hiromitsu Takaoka, and Yoko Shimomura.

While Sakaguchi was the only one officially credited in the game, the others were confirmed later.

Manami Matsumae: Known for Mega Man.
Yoshihiro Sakaguchi: Credited as "Youkichan's Papa".
Harumi Fujita: Worked on many Capcom titles in that era.
Junko Tamiya: Composed for Strider and Bionic Commando.
Yasuaki Fujita: Also known as "Bun Bun".
Hiromitsu Takaoka: Contributed to the sound design.
Yoko Shimomura: Famous for later work on Street Fighter II and Kingdom Hearts.

"These composers created the iconic, gritty soundtrack for the 1989 arcade classic, which was later ported to various consoles.
Note: For the 2006 game Final Fight: Streetwise, the soundtrack included artists like 334 Mobb and Astrix."

Japan has some talented musicians.

 

[el murdoque]

I did a deep dive into the interwebs, and came up with this much:

The original 1989 Final Fight arcade soundtrack was composed by a team of seven Capcom sound composers: Manami Matsumae, Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, Harumi Fujita, Junko Tamiya, Yasuaki Fujita, Hiromitsu Takaoka, and Yoko Shimomura.

While Sakaguchi was the only one officially credited in the game, the others were confirmed later.

Manami Matsumae: Known for Mega Man.
Yoshihiro Sakaguchi: Credited as "Youkichan's Papa".
Harumi Fujita: Worked on many Capcom titles in that era.
Junko Tamiya: Composed for Strider and Bionic Commando.
Yasuaki Fujita: Also known as "Bun Bun".
Hiromitsu Takaoka: Contributed to the sound design.
Yoko Shimomura: Famous for later work on Street Fighter II and Kingdom Hearts.

"These composers created the iconic, gritty soundtrack for the 1989 arcade classic, which was later ported to various consoles.
Note: For the 2006 game Final Fight: Streetwise, the soundtrack included artists like 334 Mobb and Astrix."

Japan has some talented musicians.

The pieces in question are not from the soundtrack of the original arcade game, but for the Sega CD port that happened in 1993.
While the game had to sacrifice some of the CPU hungry features (Less characters on screen at the same time, not the full graphics) to run on the Sega console, there was a ton of memory available since it came on a CD, so voice overs were added as long as a new soundtrack.

However, I would assume that this was played on a top of the line keyboard. The drums certainly sound and feel like nothing hand made, and the bass also feels a bit weird - probably the same machine that did the Seinfeld music.

 

[Gopherbassist]

I did a deep dive into the interwebs, and came up with this much:

The original 1989 Final Fight arcade soundtrack was composed by a team of seven Capcom sound composers: Manami Matsumae, Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, Harumi Fujita, Junko Tamiya, Yasuaki Fujita, Hiromitsu Takaoka, and Yoko Shimomura.

While Sakaguchi was the only one officially credited in the game, the others were confirmed later.

Manami Matsumae: Known for Mega Man.
Yoshihiro Sakaguchi: Credited as "Youkichan's Papa".
Harumi Fujita: Worked on many Capcom titles in that era.
Junko Tamiya: Composed for Strider and Bionic Commando.
Yasuaki Fujita: Also known as "Bun Bun".
Hiromitsu Takaoka: Contributed to the sound design.
Yoko Shimomura: Famous for later work on Street Fighter II and Kingdom Hearts.

"These composers created the iconic, gritty soundtrack for the 1989 arcade classic, which was later ported to various consoles.
Note: For the 2006 game Final Fight: Streetwise, the soundtrack included artists like 334 Mobb and Astrix."

Japan has some talented musicians.

These tracks aren't from the original Final Fight, they are from Final Fight CD which was released several years later for the SEGA CD and had new arrangements and compositions that were performed by musicians.

The original sounded like this:



Final Fight CD sounded like this:

 

[Bassdirty]

Wow. Slightly OT (regarding OP song).

Mentioning "SEGA CD", I do not recall which CD, but around early 90's, My brother had a "Sega CD" with some.. "Hot Jams" on it.
THAT is where I first heard of "HOSTILE YOUTH" from SAIGON KICK , became hooked Bought 'The Lizard' album shortly thereafter (they're best album). ALSO HIGHLY recommended is "Moments from the Fringe", compilation of Old demos, some unreleased, some VERY raw, Old raw demo "love is on the Way".

Dig that Band, well with THAT singer.



Also, I think (don't quote me), but for some reason I think that CD also had 'Mammal" from They might Be Giants. I remember the beginning... "Glass of Milk..."



Ok, sorry for the Side Quest, carry on.

On topic: Yes indeed, some AWESOME musicians in Japan.