I got to say I love records, I have quite the collection and I’m so excited that SEGA has teamed up with a new record label called ‘Data Discs’ to release both the Streets of Rage and Shenmue soundtracks.
Data Discs is calling itself the first record label dedicated to releasing video game soundtracks and its fitting that its first two releases would be two of the most iconic soundtracks of their time. The Streets of Rage soundtrack will be fully remastered with the help of Yuzo Koshiro . Both releases will be pressed on 180 gram vinyl and include a lithographic print with each title.
If you want to pre-order yourself a copy (like I do), you’ll have to wait until May 30th when Data Discs opens its website. The records won’t ship until September and there will be extras for early pre-orders.
[update]
Found out that each release will come in three different colored vinyls, one of the colors will be exclusive to Data Disc website!
Streets of Rage:
- 180g translucent red vinyl with black splatter (exclusive to the Data Discs website)
- 180g translucent red vinyl
- 180g black virgin vinyl
The Streets of Rage soundtrack will come with traditional OBI strip and 2x lithographs featuring artwork from both the western and Japanese release. Early bird orders will come with five playing cards featuring original character art, and packed with hand-stamped envelope.
Shenmue:
- 180g translucent blue vinyl with ‘colour in colour’ effect (exclusive to the Data Discs website)
- 180g translucent blue vinyl
- 180g black virgin vinyl
The Shenmue soundtrack will feature one lithograph, spot varnished cover and a OBI strip. You can hear samples of the Shenmue remaster on Data Disc’s soundcloud. I’ve been told they will be priced at £20 (roughly $30 USD), but can’t 100% confirm that.
[Via: Polygon]
Ad:
These are gonna be great! But they won’t be cheap.
YES! Awesome.
Why you want these on vinyl. This music was always heard digitally in game, no? It was made and recorded digitally. Gane music sounds wrong on analogue and I don’t think this music would be worth the money. Just download previous versions for free. Shenmue is a long game. They can’t have all the music on this vinyl. Sega don’t make new games and happy to live in the past with constant re-release of Streets of Rage on every console. People are sick of hearing about the old times. What about tthe new times Sega? Make some decent games.
It may be natively recorded in digital format, but vinyl has a richer sound as the flow chart has wider coverage and does not compress it, so they may increase the coverage quality with the extra space vinyl offers, the CD format was created only for the portability aspect but it came at the cost of soundscan with compression being necessary to fit the audio content onto the disk. If it doesn’t increase the sound it’ll be pretty pointless right enough, other than for the collectability appeal and investment prospects of course.
The vinyl vs digital debate is not an easy one. Many have convincingly argued that CD is superior and technically that should be true. I don’t buy what you said. Vinyl doesn’t sound better. It sounds different and if a CD is engineered well, it can soind as great. The noise floor on vinyl is not great and neither is the dynamic range. Vinyl collectors originally eschewed CD because CD reissues of oegacy recordings did not sound the way they remembered the vinyls. Also vinyl came down in price on the used market and collectors got great music at bargain prices. This music was originally heard digitally, and no one has any real memories of playing this music on an analogue format. The primary reason for people collecting vinyl was that the music sounded different on CD. Funnily enough, this changes the sound of this music as it was originally heard. Also there was a lot of music on Shenmue. They must have shortened this considerably. It is likely they are using the Koshiro music. He did Streets of Rage and the label probably is just focussing on his work for now. I think they should have reissued the whole score on CD instead since the out of print one is becoming rare and has all the music from the game. I would have preferred that rather than thjs half-assed version for the nostalgia and novelty markets. They should have offered a free digital download too, which a lot of companies do nowadays. I would also be interested in knowing how they remastered this set. Did they get the original recordings? Were the recordings digital? Was this remastered in Japan or somewhere else?
What are the chances of a sonic 3 vinyl..? Pretty low I guess, what with all the rights issues… :/
Chip, Sonic 3 soindtrack has been released on CD before so it might happen again. The reason it is not usually high on the list of reissues is because the first two Genesis Sonic games had more popular music and part 3 often gets forgotten. I don’t think they will have as many problems with the music rights because Sonic 3 did not use any of the famous Sonic themes from earlier games. The band that made music for the Sonic 1 and 2 music wanted to much money for their muaic to be reused in future games so Sega actually commissioned the Sonic 3 soundtrack to avoid paying the fees for the original music. I am one of the few people who think Sonic 3 and Knuckles featured better music than the earlier Genesis games. Nintendofan, Shenmue CDs have been oop for a long time and this version has been remastered. It may be less music but what there is going to sound great. The inflated prices of the originals means many fans cannot enjoy this music, and I for one am really looking forward to this release. If there is interest it may remind Sega that the games still have life and that fans are hungry for more. Wince Xbox Shenmue 2 hary any Shenmue products have come out so this will be a way for fans to show their enthusiasm. I just hope they bring it out here in the US. Sega didn’t release DC Shenmue II here and I have always resented that.
The Sreets of Rage music is a real treat too, so I think people shouldn’t think too negatively about this. The guys who are doing this have chosen to put out these quality editions, and if they sound as good as they look, then I hope to see more from Data Discs.
I don’t speak english very well but can someone help me please?
I’m interesting in buy them but i don’t sure if it is made like a CD or something more old. I don’t understand “vynil”. Could you help me show me a photo?
Thank you.
Hey Alex, vinyl is a record. One of these things:
http://soulsearchrecords.com/images/record.gif
http://blogs.suntimes.com/music/Vinyl%20Revival.jpg
The old wax disc. Not CD
Thank you very much 😉
No need to be rude Shenhuasdad. I know that a lot of people don’t own the original CDs but lets be honest here. How many gamers have LP players? How many people will actually listen to these LP’s? They will be limited editions, and after Data Discs run out of stock, these records will be destined to sell for inflated prices on eBay. The type of people who will buy these LP’s are the ones who later make a huge peofit on them and exploit fans. No one will play these, not even the people who buy these at inflated eBay prices because this is entirely a novelty. This sort of practice will devalue the market for music fans. Silly reissues like this can easily become the norm. Most games these days are very long and have massive scores. On CD you usually get the whole score, and in Japan you have ‘perfect’ albums which often have all the music. Many game fans like to have the whole score and in this regard game fans have been well treated. Many games see soundtrack releases with the whole score on multiple CDs. For fans of the music that is a great way to enjoy the whole score. Compared to movies, gamers get a better deal a lot of the time because movie soundtracks are rarely presented in complete form and many see retrospective releases with the whole score. Shenmue was a long game and it did feature a lot of music cues. I seriously doubt this vinyl has even half the music, so labelling it as the soundtrack is misleading because it is probably only a selection of the music. The label releasing this is working with Koshiro (SoR was Koshiro), and they may only be including his material from the Shenmue soundtrack. His contributions for Shenmue were quite lame.
I also cannot see why game fans would by vinul records. I heard this music digitally when I played the game and I don’t know why data discs think game soundtracks will sound cool on vinyl. When you think of games you rarely think of vinyl. It is not a music form that is associated with vinyl. There was no time when people commonly spun game tunes on a turntable, so I find it hard to unsderstand why some people are expressing enthusiasm. With movies at least there was a tkme when people normally bought soundtracks on vinyl and continued their experience of enjoying the part of the movie on their record players.
Again, Sega get it wrong. The Shenmue game is several years old, a game hardly anyone bought and now Sega are releasing a soundtrack on a format that is more or less commercially dead (except for the loony collectors market who buy and trade). If Sega want to reignite and revive Shenmue they should start uskng their noggins and make Shenmue more accessible, more mainstream. The ten Sega fans who will buy this will not restore their fortunes no matter how much “better” vinyl is as a music format. The only people who will make any real money off these are the people who will resell them on the collector market. Re-releasing the CD would have been a better idea as it woild have had the complete score for real fans rather than this novelty item that is only catering to people whoe buy anything and put their wares on the mantle until they get bored and sell them off. Well done Sega, keep going until that bottomless pit of mediocrity seals shut. Atari is already there. Maybe Sega and Atari should make record players and out out all their old game music again. I am sure Data Discs will be waiting to remaster everything.
Thanks for taking the time to explain at tremendous length how much of a hard time you’re understanding all of this, Nintendofan. Here are some points to consider – in the great big world, there are actually some people with multiple interests. Some of those people are DJs who have used vinyl records for years, decades even. Some of those DJs are also game fans who might be interested in mixing some of this music into their sets. Consider also that digital source material can be remastered using analog equipment, therefore an analog playback format can be warranted. Reflect upon the fact that this is not a Sega-initiated promotional project, but a project that was pitched to Sega by a licensee. Lastly, I can understand how frustrated you are since the big N has only managed to create one new IP in the last 14 years, but you can expect to get as good as you give here.
Sticks and stones brother. Nintendo created Splatoon and unlike Sega, their IP’s don’t suck. Neither are the great Nintendo fans so insecure to resort to celebrating rubbish novelty products like this to keep the company alive. Next year, Nintendo launch a brand new console called NX while Sega fans sit on silly websites like this endlessly saying the same thing – Dreamcast was underated and had the best games and was the last great console. Move on people. When the NX comes out, Sega fans will be attending a memorial to Sega. Perhaps they can play some of these records from Delta Discs at Sonic’s funeral. What’s Sonic going to die of? Mediocrity and shame. Nintendo games have remained respectable and innovative. When Sega aren’t making one lamentable Sonic game after the next, they give out their licence to dubious companies that constantly re-release the same old Mega Drive games – pathetic tv plug-in games with the Mega Drive branding anyone? Yes that is a billion dollar project that would take Sega out of that giant hole it dug for itself. Selling a handful of crappy records may even help them pay part of their corporate telephone bill. A company that relies on things like this shows its desperation which will only hasten its demise, which is long overdue. How can people here respect Sega with the kind of games they make now? I mean are its fans as stupid as the company they love. Sega gans keep talking about Panzer Dragoon or some crap like Last Bronx as if they still look as good as when they were released. Shenmue is so dated ko one wants to touch it. Nintendo respect their fans. They take time and use their talent to create well thought out games. Mario games of toflday are familiar yet new. They are fun and they always try to get the character to transcend his limits. Sega make Sonic games fast and then require people to slow down with poor level design.
Perhaps Nintendo have not come up with new IP’s, but Sega hasn’t used any of its IPs very well either. Nintendo would never stoop to this level. Sega give their licence to anyone so they can whore out their famous products further devaluing them. How many people will buy these records? Sega won’t make much money out of these and neither will these London hipsters because after they sell these the buyer’s will turn these into eBay fodder, where unplayed mint copies will endlessly trade.
Yes I understand people have interests, but it is rather sad that DJ’s feel the need to rip off twenty year old bleeps and blops of Streets of Rage. Chiptune raves? Really? Perhaps some of these people can learn to play an actual instrument to make some original music? Now there’s a thought. You don’t need a vinyl record to sample music or use extracts. There are things called computers that could do the job convincingly. Certainly the results will be good enough to create unoriginal music with bits stolen from other musicians. Yeah wouldn’t it be great to bop along to a mix of Lady Gaga and a bit of Shenmue? Fantastic. All the clueless and hoplessly uncool Sega fans are welcome to the mediocrity of the postmodern world. Also how many times do Sega have to reissue Streets of Rage and Sonic, and why is Streets of Rage the obvious game that people mention when they talk of game music? It is getting so boring. Sonic was successful but great fun it was . All you did was run from A to B. What a yawn fest. At least Mario games require some brains. Most of Sega’s Dreemcast games have dated really badly. They may have been cool in 2000 but playing them today makes one only too aware of their limitations. Giving opportunistic hipsters a licence to further cement the company as a nostalgia brand is a great way forward.
You are a character aren’t you? You have a broken mentality of brand loylism that is quite pathetic. I’m an adult, if I want Splatoon, I will buy it. If I want Streets of Rage on vinyl, I will buy it. You obviously don’t want them, yet you type essays about nonsense no one cares about. If you like Nintendo and Nintendo is so great, why are you here typing 7,000 word essays about how great Nintendo is? Why aren’t you enjoying those great games instead of wasting our time with your gibberish?
Sorry I hurt your feelings, bro. I didn’t read all that but I can tell I really got to you.
SO I just want you to meet me, Adam Montasser. I am what is called an Audiophile, which in my case means I strive to find the best quality of music through vinyl. I have a setup with a Philips 212 fully restored turntable and a Sansui QRX 3500. And guess what? I’m also A RETRO gamer with a love for the games that Sega produced for the Sega Master System through the Sega Dreamcast. For me these Vinyl releases are a godsend because I can enjoy the absolutely beautiful music produced for Shenmue on a format that I beleive is superior. Also, the music was not digital first. It was recorded just as any other pieces of composed orchestral music is. It is recorded onto what are called the master tapes. From these master tapes, the music is then transfered onto a digital format and is then integrated into a game. A company can than easily take these master tapes or any other reproductions of the music from these tapes and press it onto vinyl. While I will agree that this can be seen as a novelty, that does not mean it is to every person. Take into account that there are many more people today who appreciate and listen to music on vinyl and who played on consoles such as the Sega Dreamcast and loved the music that accompanied them throughout their adventure. I don’t think this music will sound “cool” because that’s not the point of vinyl. A vinyl production, and these in particular, were pressed on 180 gram vinyl, which is high quality. and the black Virgin Vinyl releases are some of the highest quality pressings that can be made. How do I know that? Mobile Fidelity of Japan favored virgin vinyl because the vinyl was pure (you could hold it up to a light and see straight through it), so the sound pressed onto it was clear as day and showed off the full potential of frequencies vinyl had to offer. But all of that aside, I want to educate you on vinyl. The only time records died was from 1991, when vinyl was only pressed in parts of Europe in limited supplies, through around 2001-2002 when the emergence of vinyl stepped back into the scene with the Gorillaz Debut album and others. From that point forward, the sales of vinyl have exploded. Many stores, such as Barnes&Noble, have completely discarded selling CD’s in their stores to make room for loads of vinyl, which sells out fairly quickly. Also, for it being ” a format that is more or less commercially dead (except for the loony collectors market who buy and trade)…”, how would you than explain the mass amounts of people under the age of 25 who buy new and old records alike to take them home, open them, and play the records because they love the music. And to touch on a point made earlier, CD’s are not superior to vinyl. CD’s were created for the sole intention of recording frequencies common in an orchestral setting, thus making their range limited. Is the sound sometimes clearer, yes. Is the sound quality better, absolutely not.
Lastly, Nintendo has been on a downward spiral for some time. Sega’s hardware ended on a high note and the game library that accompanied it is full of some of the most fun and well made games of all time, in my opinion. Also, to take this on another level, Nintendo has not always been that great of a company either. They held a near complete monopoly over the game industry, holding back a wealth 3rd part developers for themselves. They also made it more inconvenient and difficult to disassemble their consoles, starting with their heavy use of game bit screws on every console after the NES. Have you ever seen the inside of a WII? For how much they packed into that tiny space, I would have thought that it could at least generate more than 480i. I get that from my dreamcast and it was made nearly 8 years prior. And lets not even gets started on the Super Nintendo CD debacle between Sony, Nintendo, and Panasonic.
You are entitled to your opinion and i respect them, but that in no way means that they are the truth. I am just trying to state facts, with my own biases. You can play and love Nintendo, but i’m going to stick with Sega and its fan base. Their games won me over in ways that Mario never will.
PS. I bought this vinyl for the sole intent of playing it, not
to rip off the fans of shenmue.
Easy responses, but you seem to have accepted my criticisms since your responses have nothing to do with any of the points I raised. Anyway, I am going to play Splatoon while you guys polish your vinyl and play dated Dreamcast titles (it is possible to do both simultaneously since Sega games usually require you to hold down the right side of the d-Pad and see a blue hedgehog go from one side of the screen to yher. That was innovation in 1991 so I should shut up). You can continue to pretend those titles are still groundbreaking and worth playing. While Nintendo fans move foward with playing new games and new consoles Sega can go backwards with vinyl and paying exorbitant prices for ancient games (no one had heard of when they came out) on dead systems which can only seal your reputation as sad pathetic losers. I saw a guy play Fighters Megamix yesterday – what an ugly mess with stages disappearing everywhere, but clearly Sega thought such unfinished and ugly looking games are all their fans deserve, and since Sega fans say they look great, the company and its fans deserve each other. Everyone laughed when Wiì didn’t do hd, but Nintendo did it when it felt right. Nintendo don’t follow trends – their games and systems are truly futuristic. Looks like Sega fans want to live in the past so get your Shenmue OST’s and party like its 1999.
I hope you’re able to get some help and experience happiness again, brother.
George, you say I have a broken mentality of brand loyalty yet you are also here on a Sega forum as a Sega fan. It is better to jump on board to the future and enjoy news games and music. All that old crap is spent, consumed and completely done. Move forward not backwards. You enjoyed the games in the past but good stuff is still made (the new Zelda is going to be awesome), so play now, and let Sega stay in the past until it decides to move into the present with some new games.
The Wavemaster CD version from 2012, which is still available, was quite definitive and had many extras like a live Yuzo Koshiro performance and the Game Gear games music.
I read Nintendofans posts, and feel they should be deleted since he has clearly bordered on being offensive.
For my order in for Shenmue. Can’t wait!!
My order just came in, and I found the LP to sound very similar to the CD soundtrack that was released years ago. Although Data Discs claim to have had this mastered again, the sound quality is not any better and on some tracks, t is actually quite muffled, unlike the original CD (track B1 is especially distorted). My friend also got the LP and the problems are there as well.
Also, the actual selection of music is rather poor. Most of the pics sound very similar to each other, and the record makes for a very boring listen. When one thinks of Shenmue these are not the pieces to come to mind. The music that is repeated through the game and gets etched into the mind is nowhere to be heard. Overall, instead of wasting money on the lp release, it would be better to track down an original 2 CD compilation that had more music. It is true that most of those cd’s are much rarer, but even a bootleg of that edition would be better than this. It plays like a sampler and hardly has any memorable music from the game. I also got the SoR, and it is hardly an improvement on the complete SoR CD soundtrack release that contained music from all three games. Data Discs, as suspected, have turned out to be just a ‘cash-in’ company and the Shenmue soundtrack is a very dissatisfying listening experience.
My order for both LPs just came in, and I found the Shenmue LP to sound very similar to the CD soundtrack that was released years ago. Although Data Discs claim to have had this mastered again, the sound quality is not any better and on some tracks, and is very muffled, unlike the original CD (track B1 is especially distorted). They have tried to artificially boost the bass in several places, and it leads to distortion, a typical problem with poor mastering of digital sources. My friend also got the LP and the problems are there as well, and with rushing these products through the door, Data Discs have failed to focus on sound. That is hardly surprising with their emphasis being on coloured vinyl and collector cards, the sort of gimmicks that impress the fickle collector crowd.
Also, the actual selection of music is rather poor. Most of the pieces sound very similar to each other, and the record makes for a very boring listen. When one thinks of Shenmue these are not the pieces to come to mind. The music that is repeated through the game and gets etched into the mind is nowhere to be heard. Overall, instead of wasting money on the lp release, it would be better to track down an original 2 CD compilation that had more music. It is true that most of those cd’s are much rarer, but even a bootleg of that edition would be better than this. It plays like a sampler and hardly has any memorable music from the game. I also got the SoR, and it is hardly an improvement on the complete SoR CD soundtrack release that contained music from all three games. Data Discs, as suspected, have turned out to be just a ‘cash-in’ company and the Shenmue soundtrack is a very dissatisfying listening experience.
Yeah, the SoR mastering seems a bit off. It sounds lifeless and dull. I wonder what they did do it. The MD game sounds more detailed. I have not heard Shenmue but a friend of mine got that after the Shemue III announcement and just received his copy. He also said it felt like an odd selection with practically all of the memorable pieces missing. He also said it doesn’t sound that good, with CD rips of the original score having a better overall sound balance. These are made for boutique sellers and people who are already convinced even poor vinyl is better than a good digital/CD source. They will probably never be played anyway. I might get some of the future ones, as I like buying records and have a good set up, but I hope things get better with this label.
I have not heard the Wavemaster CD edition of SoR but I would track it down as it has all three games plus music from the Game Gear. That looks like a more definitive release and it is surprising how much less publicity that set got over this.