BlueMue wrote: Pretty much any music track that is in the Shenmue games exists in some form of prerecorded demo.
They did this to easily establish how the music sounds and then converted it over to the Dreamcast's sound system. And by the way I doubt it would ever get close to run out of space for instruments, it has 64 channels.
A lot of these demos have been found on the Shenmue Online website, many give a good idea what to expect.
Personally I don't like the idea of replacing the orignals that much. They just sound too different at times, even if they are superior from a technical standpoint. The piano parts would be worthwhile to replace as the samples used in some of them sound a bit weak and I absolutely love how rich "Departure for hope" sound on the OST. You know, the one that plays when you show around the Phoenix Mirror. But it is, like pretty much all the others, in a lower key and that just ruins it for me deep inside.
Listening to the music in the trailer above I noticed something very interesting. The music that plays when it switches to Barry playing darts is the one used in Beverly Hills Wharf. The one on the DC has two alternating string notes while this one has only one repeating. And guess what... that's how it sounds on the Xbox.
I always thought this was a porting mistake but apparently the original was always meant to sound like that!
Still prefer the one of the DC, sound a lot less annoying the way it is. That means some improvements have been made when the demos have been converted but then the Xbox version...
Yet again a sign that points to the possibility of the Xbox version being built on an older versions of assets than the ones ultimately used for the DC...?
Ah, interesting find! I only played the xbox version once and I don't own an xbox anymore.
About the soundboard, I know it has 64 channels and I don't claim to know how all this works technically. But I do know for a fact the in-game dreamcast versions are basically simplified versions of the originals with fewer notes in them. As a trained musician that's something I can determine by listening to them. Often the chords will contain fewer notes, certain background harmonies and counter-melodies will be stripped, and often the melody will be played by only one instrument when in the original it will be overlayed with several different instruments.
Edit: By the way, I just checked, and the OST version of "Departure for hope" is in the same key as the game version. The piano melody is dropped an octave down though, if that is what you mean. I'm actually pretty sure all these synthesizer-versions are in the same key as the game versions. The one major difference I can think of is "Separated from Yokosuka" which is in the same key but faster in the game.