Daniel K Nov 9, 2009
So, we all know that VGM composers often employ sound libraries when they need ideas and sounds, sometimes making the same sounds appear in widely different games. Nothing new, but I recently found another example while listening to the Myst III OST (which by the way is a real snooze-fest, and not recommended by yours truly).
Check out Yasunori Mitsuda's "Chronopolis" (track 2, disc 3 on the Chrono Cross OST), then Jack Wall's "The Airship Chasm" (track 17 on the Myst III - Exile OST). Its the exact same "electronic undercurrent" sound (although more pushed into the background on the Myst track). I'm kinda disappointed by this, as it seems to suggest that its taken from a sound library, I love that sound, and I thought that Mitsuda came up with it himself. And if he after all did, then Wall must've stolen it, as Myst III was released two years after Chrono Cross (although I don't think that's very likely).
While we're on the subject, what other such uses of the same sounds are there in the VGM world? I'm not talking about outright plagiarism or copying, but the same sampled sounds used by different composers in different songs (most probably without any connection to each other).
The first one that comes to my mind is what I call the "ominous rumbling ambient sound" that's appeared in some dark/atmospheric soundtracks during the 2000s. The first usage I know of was in Akira Yamaoka's Silent Hill 3 OST (track 9, "A Stray Child", just a few seconds in), but it also makes an appearance on the Shadow Hearts 2 OST (Yoshitaka Hirota's track "In Darkness of a Labyrinth", track 10 on disc 1, at 0:55 and 1:58). I know I've heard it in at least one more soundtrack, but I can't for the life of me remember which one right now (grrr!). Another example is the infamous rap on track 22 of Kenichiro Fukui's Einhänder OST, "Shudder", which also appeared in it's original, non-sped-up version on some obscure Japanese soundtrack that I also cannot remember at the moment (yeah, I'm slipping badly). I think it was Side Pocket or some other pool game? We had a thread about it many years ago, IIRC.
Anyone know any other examples?