Pulstar audio comparison. OST vs. NGCD vs. AES/MVS

Praise the Lard

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Woo Pulstar. Who doesn't love them some Pulstar? I sure love me some Pulstar. Somewhat recently I was even able to purchase the Pulstar OST. I'm not real big on buying game OSTs, but in the case of Pulstar, between it having an excellent soundtrack and being one of my favorite shooters ever, it was a no brainer.

Previous to having the OST I'd only heard the tracks from the Neo Geo CD audio and the AES/MVS version, but never bothered to compare. I expected the Pulstar OST to be the same but with different mastering. While that is largely true there are a few interesting differences, most notably in the tracks 'Mission' and 'Planet of Forest'.

The song 'Mission' (aka the music from the attract sequence) seems to be a different arrangement. The original builds slower, and seems to have a different rhythm section in the beginning among other things. Different than what is found with the actual Neo Geo CD audio.
'Mission' (Pulstar OST 'Neo Geo CD' version)
'Mission' (Actual Neo Geo CD audio)
'Mission' (Pulstar OST AES/MVS version)

'Planet of Forest' (aka stage 5's music) is among favorite songs in the game and is the track that immediately clued me into the fact that the OST's so-called "Neo Geo CD version' tracks are not the same as what is actually on the Neo Geo CD game disc. I'm not sure what to make of this track. There are many games on the Neo Geo CD that have somewhat sloppy audio, and at first I thought this may be the case here. A synth patch gets switched.. No one notices.. Disc gets pressed any ways.. It happens. This may actually be intentional though. Who knows?
'Planet of Forest' (Pulstar OST 'Neo Geo CD' version)
'Planet of Forest' (Actual Neo Geo CD audio)
'Planet of Forest' (Pulstar OST AES/MVS version)

AES/MVS versions of those 2 tracks are included as well, direct from the OST. They match the OST's 'Neo Geo CD' versions, just not with all that fancy CD audio quality..

Any ways, just sharing this small find. I found it interesting, maybe some of you will as well. Hopefully the links stay alive.
 
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NeoDragoN

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A synth patch gets switched.. No one notices.. Disc gets pressed any ways.. It happens. This may actually be intentional though. Who knows?

OOOHHHHH Since i 1st played Pulstar way back when i always wondered about this, thanks for clearing this up!

I give this thread ***** and my approval.
 

Ukyo

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how about the track for the opening attract screen? thats my favorite tune in the game, any big differences there?

EDIT: shit i see, thats what you posted. didn't know it was called MISSION. i'll have a listen
 
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Ukyo

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hard to decide a favorite version of MISSION. maybe the "actual" neo cd version?

the cd versions for last resort bgm is also fantastic, but you cant hold that music to the same level as pulstar.
 

Praise the Lard

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I guess I should have mentioned which songs they were. Fixed now!

I like both versions of Mission as well.. Probably the actual NGCD a bit more.
 

Metal-Willis

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That is pretty interesting. I do like how well the MVS/AES holds up to the CD version, it shows how well Neo Geo could do music.

What about the other games that were released both on MVS/AES and CD.... are there any real differences in them?


Don't know if this has been started before, but what about all the different ports of Samurai Showdown? I'm sure they all have varying degrees of quality and differences.
 

Praise the Lard

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That is pretty interesting. I do like how well the MVS/AES holds up to the CD version, it shows how well Neo Geo could do music.

What about the other games that were released both on MVS/AES and CD.... are there any real differences in them?


Don't know if this has been started before, but what about all the different ports of Samurai Showdown? I'm sure they all have varying degrees of quality and differences.

I'm sure if you really wanted to sit down and look for differences in audio between the games released on both platforms you'd find a plenty of them. ;) This one was just an easy comparison between the OST and the NGCD audio. I'm hardly about to start throwing money at OSTs, but I wonder how many OSTs are as different as this from the NGCD audio.

A Shodown audio comparison seems like a pretty big undertaking.. Maybe just compare the CD ports. If I recall the NGCD and Sega CD audio are different, not sure about the 3DO port.
 

Metal-Willis

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Yeah, it would be quite a task. Not a big deal though and definitely not worth putting time into :lolz:

Cool find on the Pulstar though!
 

Neo Alec

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There are subtle differences throughout the soundtrack.
 
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