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News Clark Wen, Audio Director on Metroid Prime 1 and 2, initially had a "knee-jerk" reaction to Dread's sound design

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Via an interview with KIWI TALKZ on YouTube:
Clark Wen said:
The first time I played that game, I'll be honest I had a knee-jerk reaction. I was sort of critiquing all the things in the game and what I'd do differently and was like, these guys don't know what they're doing, but then after spending a couple of hours with it and finally understanding what they're going for, I think they did a really nice job with that soundtrack in that game and sound design. It holds up well to the rest of the series. I think the gameplay in Metroid Dread is pretty fantastic. They did a great job overall.
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Full interview here:




Although he states he eventually came around, I think his initial reaction was a reasonable one. Dread might have the worst OST in the series, next to Metroid 2. It's easily one of the things players have expressed the most disappointment about. Thoughts?
 
Aurc said:
How do you figure? What facets did you admire most?
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Every surface had its own sound, whether you walked or ran on it. I found that very impressive. The game doesn't have much background music but it has many atmospheric sounds that help set the tone of the specific region you're in.
 
From what I've heard literally, it is very impressive as a soundscape and one of the best in that category I've heard. On the other hand, it's less of a soundtrack and more of that soundscape. This is certainly detrimental to enough people that it's understandable to be disappointed. I agree though, for what they wanted they really did a phenomenal job.
 
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Dread's sound design is fine, but the music is some of the most bland in the series. Which unfortunately, for me the music is such an important aspect of Metroid.

This video sums up how I feel about that pretty well.

 
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I actually think Dread has an incredible OST. It’s very different from the rest of the series, but it’s still top tier. I don’t judge soundtracks by whether or not I want to listen to them outside of the game. I judge them by their impact within the game itself and Dread’s is near perfect in that regard.
 
Kano said:
Every surface had its own sound, whether you walked or ran on it. I found that very impressive. The game doesn't have much background music but it has many atmospheric sounds that help set the tone of the specific region you're in.
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This is indeed very cool, and it actually reminds me of Chibi-Robo! Photo Finder of all things. Have a listen (timestamped):




There are a lot of material sounds in that game, and like Dread it makes a huge impression
 
The sound design in Dread was great. I thought the OST was pretty subpar though outside of a few tracks. I really do enjoy more atmospheric soundtracks, but I thought a lot of the music in Dread had a kind of "cheap" sound for lack of a better word.
 
Pascal said:
The sound design in Dread was great. I thought the OST was pretty subpar though outside of a few tracks. I really do enjoy more atmospheric soundtracks, but I thought a lot of the music in Dread had a kind of "cheap" sound for lack of a better word.
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Royalty-free. You're thinking of "royalty-free". Generic works too.
 
Dread's sound design is great. The music is just... there. It was likely intentional to make the music ambient and moody, but you can do that and still make it memorable. It just wasn't. I hoped Other M would be an aberration for middling music in this franchise, but it seems this is the trend for new sequels in the series. Plus, the composers they got to work on it don't have many credits under their belts and I feel they could've gone with more experienced people to work on such an important game.
 
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The music was weak in general. I think I really only paid attention and dug the boss fight music in the lava area that played over the second(?) trailer. The sound design didn’t really stand out, but it wasn’t bad either. I’m hardly an audiophile though, so the music being weak is more important to me.

I feel like the music should be distinct enough where I know what area of the game I’m in because of the song playing.
 
Sound design (environmental sounds) was fine, but I wish the Charge Beam and Missile sound effects were as crunchy as Fusion/ZM. Those sound effects really contributed to the actiony gameplay in those games a surprising amount.

Dread's OST is weak. The area themes decent, but everything else is very unmemorable.
 
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Aurc said:
Royalty-free. You're thinking of "royalty-free". Generic works too.
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Maybe? Like here's the credits theme.



I like the composition itself well enough, but I think the quality of the instruments used is pretty bad.

Same deal with Cataris.



I don't have much knowledge when it comes to discussing music, I just enjoy listening to it. But there is just something off to me about Dread's soundtrack, and I think it boils down to the actual instruments themselves sounding low quality. It's obviously MIDI, but I have heard much better quality MIDI music in other games.
 
I think its a mistake to think that the sound design is the same thing as the soundtrack. The soundtrack is just okay, the sound design on the other hand, is indeed top notch and works very well with the atmosphere they’re going for. I think there’s quite a few Nintendo games on the switch that have absolutely nailed the sound design between this, Animal Crossing, BotW, and Odyssey.
 
Pascal said:
Maybe? Like here's the credits theme.



I like the composition itself well enough, but I think the quality of the instruments used is pretty bad.

Same deal with Cataris.



I don't have much knowledge when it comes to discussing music, I just enjoy listening to it. But there is just something off to me about Dread's soundtrack, and I think it boils down to the actual instruments themselves sounding low quality. It's obviously MIDI, but I have heard much better quality MIDI music in other games.
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Having only played a tiny bit of it (I'll get to it eventually!), I didn't realize that the music wasn't live. Some of these VSTs sound actually kinda bad. The end credits theme sounds like Star Fox 64 lmao

why try to do sampled orchestra instruments when you could do synths and make it sound awesome

 
I liked the sound design and the music both fine. No complaints and I thought the tension created with the EMMI music was effective.
 
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One of my favorite things about Super and Primes 1 & 2 is the sound of them and how it contributes to the atmosphere.

To start I think all of them have amazing soundtracks. But going beyond, it’s the instrumentation of the music itself as well as the sound effects that come together so so beautifully. I can’t really explain it buts it’s so cohesive. All three of those games truly capture exploring an isolated planet in a space suit, they pull you in so well.

Dread has pretty great sound effects, but the music (both composition wise and the choice of instrumentation) didn’t pull its weight.
 
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I'm on the side that thinks Dread has some of the best sound design in the series. The music is generally pretty middling (with some standouts) but everything comes together really well.
 
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Kano said:
Every surface had its own sound, whether you walked or ran on it. I found that very impressive. The game doesn't have much background music but it has many atmospheric sounds that help set the tone of the specific region you're in.
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I totally agree
 
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I think Dread's soundtrack went for a functional-over-form approach with BGM and sound effect design like BotW. Based on how the latter was initially received in terms of soundtrack, I think it is natural that it will take us a while to warm up to the former's music.
Raccoon said:
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Ah the bliss, I swear Luminist nailed the bass synthesized instruments so hard. I was exposed to his composition via YouTube recommendation for this track:



Needless to say I immediately bookmarked his Super Metroid and NES Metroid OST remake playlists shortly after lol.
 
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Game follows Metroid Fusion's style imo. I think the Prime series have a different style than the 2d games. Been like that since the start. The soundtrack in Prime is just so much more sophisticated throughout every installement. Can't wait for Prime 4 basically.
 
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The sound design/effects are great…but somehow a little to much. There is always a lot of noisy stuff going on… which makes the decision for more atmospheric music in a lot of cases bacfling, since there is not enough room for it.
its as if the sounds are always trying to burry the music, and the music is to insecure to break out.

there are some good tracks, and especially in quieter areas and big boss battles the sound effects sam show their muscles, but in the minit to minit gameplay its kind of a mess. (also need to mention links awakening once again, that game soundend PUNCHY in regards to soundeffects and sounddesign on my monitors, loved it)

and yeah, it followed fusions style to a degree, but fusion did it better in my opinion.

the aproach worked for BotW, but that game had enough space and quiet for the sparse music to shine.

and i really found the emmi sound rather boring and to be generic 90ties scifi robot chirps.
 
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I liked the sound effects a lot. The music and various jingles were forgettable, though.
 
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Raccoon said:
why try to do sampled orchestra instruments when you could do synths and make it sound awesome

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YES. God, Luminist's work is the sort of direction I was hoping Dread would go in. Glad I'm not the only one keeping my eye on that channel.

And yeah, sound design was awesome clanky squishy boomy stuff, but the music was underwhelming. I was hoping for a title sequence that punches you in the soul like Super Metroid had (with what I call the greatest bass drop in gaming history), and battle music on par with Ridley's theme or Mother Brain's theme. I understand and respect that Dread is its own thing (and it's great) but Super Metroid has one of my favorite OSTs of all time and I was really looking forward to Metroid music hooking me again. Dread's didn't. But hey, now I have a reason to desperately hope for Metroid 6. 😅
 
Sound design includes so much more than the soundtrack, much like a script includes so much more than dialogue.

The sound design in Metroid Dread was fantastic. The soundtrack was pretty serviceable, and I have no complaints other than it wasn't amazing.
 
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Never played any other game in the series but the sound design in Dread is fantastic, after I put it down I keep hearing all the small sounds Samus and ZDR in my head.
 
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Dread's music is funny because if I listen to them separately, I really like most of them, but when playing the game, they sorta get lost in everything. I think they fit well with the action focus the game took, but at the same time is detracts from them because they aren't striking enough to stand out in the fast pace. I think that's why a lot of people liked Burenia, since it's the one zone whete the pacing is a bit slower because of the water.
 
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I think fusion and Dread both go for a sense of dread and that's why they got less of that good feel in their melody.
 
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Beard said:
I actually think Dread has an incredible OST. It’s very different from the rest of the series, but it’s still top tier. I don’t judge soundtracks by whether or not I want to listen to them outside of the game. I judge them by their impact within the game itself and Dread’s is near perfect in that regard.
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I wouldn't personally call it incredible, or top tier, since that would put it on-par with Metroid 1, Super, and the Prime games. I just can't put it on the level of those.

I generally also judge game OSTs in much the same way you do (how they fit within the context of the game, not whether I'd listen to the tracks outside of it), but if you want a highly evocative ambient, or atmospheric soundtrack, Fusion does the job much better, imo.

One of my biggest disappointments with Dread is that, despite literally being called Dread, it's less effective at creating that feeling than Fusion was. The SA-X, although obviously very primitive with its GBA AI, was creepier than the E.M.M.I. units. Serris, Yakuza, Nightmare, etc. were more panic-inducing (with better buildup) than Dread's bosses. You see the skeleton of what was the real Serris, before encountering its X version. Yakuza is stumbled upon after a tense power outage where Samus has to go off the beaten path. Nightmare is seen flying around in the background, quite awhile before its actually fought.

There's just nothing in Dread's soundtrack that is evocative as these, to me. These are just a few random examples from many.










Fusion has a lot of good ambient tracks that really aid in establishing its themes of disempowerment, loneliness, and hostility. Dread could've used some of those vibes. Instead, its OST is just kind of "there". Yeah, the bleep bloops of the E.M.M.I. zones are neat, but maybe get a little old after the fifth or sixth time.
 
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I wish he went into what he criticized and why and how he came around. Other than that this interview isn't really giving us much about Dread and his opinion on it.
 
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I just watched the whole thing. Amazing to hear the process. Metroid Prime is master class of sound design and thankfully Prime 3 proved that they continued to do well without him because I would have been worried for Prime 4 otherwise.
 
Dread's scores and sound design are way underrated.

People want crowd pleaser songs they can hum to but they don't realize how much more atmospheric and next level this is.
 
Twinsen said:
I just watched the whole thing. Amazing to hear the process. Metroid Prime is master class of sound design and thankfully Prime 3 proved that they continued to do well without him because I would have been worried for Prime 4 otherwise.
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The guy in charge of prime 4 was the audio director of Prime 2 together with clark
 
Kreese said:
Dread's scores and sound design are way underrated.

People want crowd pleaser songs they can hum to but they don't realize how much more atmospheric and next level this is.
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I don't think it's fair to say people just want crowd-pleasing melodic tunes. Super and Prime were able to make them melodic and atmospheric. Dread's atmosphere is pretty weak, compared to those.
 
Aurc said:
I don't think it's fair to say people just want crowd-pleasing melodic tunes. Super and Prime were able to make them melodic and atmospheric. Dread's atmosphere is pretty weak, compared to those.
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Music is fairly taste related. I disagree with your taste but to each their own.
 
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