Lemmings - Pachelbels Canon

[arpz]

This is a pretty small topic so apologies if it belongs somewhere else, I'll not be offended if it ends up merged elsewhere.

[ Show youtube player ]

This is the Amiga version of the tune, when the main melody starts it lacks a note that most other ports contain. It seems like it's a different rhythm slightly but I don't really know how to report it. I think the Amiga version is far superior and am wondering if there's any reason for it being different. I get that all of the soundchips were different between systems but I'm talking about the actual music itself here.

Here's the mega drive version for comparison - [ Show youtube player ]

Again, I know this is a pretty minor point but I just wanted to write it down

I dont catch the missing note, but the percussion is abit off yeah

[Matt_H]

My understanding is that Tim Wright wrote the Amiga versions of the tunes first, and then other musicians were responsible for the ports to other platforms. Somewhere in that process another musician probably arranged the tune slightly differently and then other musicians derived their arrangements from that version, hence why the variation ended up in so many ports.

As far as I'm concerned, the Amiga tunes are the definitive versions. All the others are "wrong" . There's no way for us to even know what the PC versions are supposed to sound like since playback would vary depending on what kind of soundcard you had. So unless we know the exact hardware config of the PC musician from way back then...

[arpz]

Thanks for at least acknowledging it.. the extra note seems to put all the wrong versions off all the way through, sounds so wrong despite being quite a minor difference in theory

[Matt_H]

It doesn't sound wrong to me from a raw musical standpoint, only in comparison to the definitive Amiga version. In other words, if I'd never heard the Amiga version I wouldn't think there was anything off about the other version.

[TuRRIcaNEd]

If you want to get a little music-nerd about it, Tim Wright's (or possibly Brian Johnston's) original Amiga version has the percussion emphasis on the first beat of the bar, using a electronic tom drum sample only. He's emphasising that first beat with a double hit i.e. :

One-And-Two-and-Three-and-Four

The MD version is using a more "conventional"l kick-hat-snare pattern, and unlike the original it also has a slight shuffle, i.e. :

One...-and-Two...-and-Three...-and-Four...

The difference is quite subtle in terms of how the music is displayed, but when you hear it, the difference is really noticeable.