First post, by Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman
- Rank
- l33t
Well, what would you expect from modern music anyway, let alone game music? As my friend obobskivich has put, most modern music are mono anyway, with nothing but occasional panning here and there. However, sometimes you find an unexpectedly good song. And in my case, it is Just Do It Up from Command & Conquer by Frank Klepacki.
I listened to the song using my garage system --a pair of JBL L20T's driven by Sansui A40. Of course it's not Conrad-Johnson, but it's a pretty decent setup, and I listened nearfield, so I get a pretty accurate picture of the sound.
The setup.
Yes, just like most modern music, it is mostly mono, but when you hear it with good pair of speakers, you could hear the correct stereo imaging --that your hear the sound from the empty space between the speakers, instead of the speakers themselves. But what surprises me is when the phrase "just do it up" comes to play. The words "just do" comes from the right, while the remaining "it up" comes from the left, with pretty good panning effect. Of course, the panning is not in the same league with Singing Birds, Crying Beasts from Santana, where the guitar riff between the minute 0:42 to 0:50 pans significantly smoother from right to left. In Singing Birds, Crying Beasts, you could hear a moment when the guitar sound coming from the empty space between left and right speakers at it pans from right to left, while in Just Do It Up, the panning goes swiftly from extreme to extreme without "in-between" moment. However, for a game soundtrack, Just Do It Up is pretty impressive. I say Frank Klepacki did his homework pretty well.
Also, starting from the minute 1:20 of the song Just Do It Up, you could hear various phrases; two of them are "must get back to equal justice" (female vocal) and "repeat" (male vocal). Here Frank Klepacki obviously played with stereo imaging when composing the song, as the first phrase ("must get back to equal justice") comes far from the left and slightly below, while the second phrase ("repeat") comes slightly from the left and above. Well my JBL L20T's are not exactly Wilson Alexandria, but the L20T's are basically the same speakers as JBL 4406 nearfield monitors, and I listened from nearfield position as intended, so I could recognize the small nuances, and what I heard impresses me. I mean, it's just game soundtrack, but Klepacki took time and effort to master his songs more than adequately.
Another song which also impresses me is Blow It Up from Red Alert 2, composed by the same Frank Klepacki. Starting from the minute 2:00 you could hear some serious deep bass instead of exaggerated mid-bass typical of game soundtracks. I first recognized it when listening the song using my primary system --a pair of JBL 120Ti's driven by Sansui AU-7900. The JBL 120Ti's have 12 inch woofers, so it was pretty much different experience than, say, listening with Logitech Z-5500 gaming speakers.
But while I admire the composer's effort, I couldn't help but having this lingering question: why bother? Many gamers use typical gaming speakers anyway, with small sats and small "sub" that exaggerates midbass to cover up its lack of depth. And with such overemphasis on midbass, most gaming speakers sacrifices much details in other frequency spectrum (probably like the Logitech Z-5500 in my review). So why bother making stereo imaging tricks and other nice things when most listeners would fail to discern anyway?
Anyway, have you ever stumbled upon similar songs? Please share your experience.
Never thought this thread would be that long, but now, for something different.....
Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman.
