Oh, and it's also worth mentioning that this addition gave us the full/extended version of the Fire Temple theme. Last time it was added to the app, the majority of the song was shortened to around 40 seconds long, just like that game's CD album. That was likely due to a section where there's chanting in the background resembling an Islamic prayer that was removed in later patches. You can make corrects if I'm wrong, but I believe the N64 OoT's CD came out after the game's latest patch, so it's strange that they never decided to release the full song with the chanting removed. I guess the CD publishing ran of time for modifying tracks?
4 months ago
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It's a shame as the Japanese N64 soundtrack was crammed onto a single CD resulting in quite a rushed listening experience. The US release opted to 2x loop tracks which is generally nicer to listen to, but again not a 2CD release so it just cut the songs that didn't fit. It is quite frustrating that with Nintendo Music just dumped the CD again so we have to suffer through their decision to cheap out on a 2nd CD all over again in 2025.
4 months ago | 0
Never listened to this version of the soundtrack outside of the game, the aliasing on the bass is indeed crazy
4 months ago | 1
I think another reason why the AST might’ve been dropped in favor of keeping the N64 soundtrack was that it wouldn’t sound very good on the 3DS speakers. Hell, even with headphones, audio sounds kinds tinny with little bass or drums.
4 months ago | 1
nintendo really be doing anything except adding Mario Kart World to the app
4 months ago | 1
Dublincalif
The recent addition of OoT3D to the Nintendo Music app has left some puzzled, and is an interesting case. With Skyward Sword having two entries on release, Wii and Switch HD, the addition of OoT3D seems odd as it both used an update slot, and came 8 months after the original OoT.
The difference here is unlike Skyward Sword’s two entries, the OoT3D soundtrack is actually a little bit different from the original. TLDR: I prefer the N64 OST, as it’s more complete and higher quality where it matters.
The in-game music was rebuilt for the 3DS version using its middleware sound engine, which works very similar to the Wii’s. It’s one of the handful of 3DS game soundtracks to be sequenced. It shares the same instrument sources as the 64 game, but sometimes uses higher quality recordings of them. The 3DS version initially had new arrangements made for it, but while it was around 50% done Koji Kondo had told Mahito Yokota to keep it faithful to the N64 sound.
The 3DS version has a CD release, NTDO-17233. As with many soundtracks in Nintendo Music, this CD version is the one used. It misses out on a fair amount of tracks, containing 51 while the N64’s has 82. As far as I can tell, the important ones are here at least. I noticed hyrule field was shorter and was arranged differently past the intro in 3D. It does however contain a new track, “End Credits 2”. This is the only streamed track in-game, and was performed by a live orchestra. The CD/NM release of this track is higher quality than in-game, though the rest of the sequenced music seems to be something like a recording of the in-game versions, maybe through the SDK’s sound player tools.
The largest immediate difference between the 64 and 3D OSTs is the reverb. The 64 OST was a studio mix, and used an external reverb that was relatively high quality. It’s subtle, sounds good, and sits nicely in the mix. The 3DS OST uses the middleware engine’s reverb, as it does in game, which frankly doesn’t sound very good. It’s also relatively loud in the mix, loud enough to negatively impact it in my opinion.
Another downside in the 3D version is aliasing. The N64 onward actually had good sample interpolation, which means you don’t hear much ringing and artifacts from samples when they’re pitched lower than the system’s sample rate. The 3DS version has moderate ringing in some bass instruments. Since the 3DS uses the same kind of interpolation as the N64, this is likely a difference in the pitch of the sample relative to its own sample rate. Bad cases can have ringing even with good interpolation.
One thing 3D gets right is mixing. Many bass sounds in the N64 were hard panned, while the 3DS version makes them more centered. This goes for many other instruments too, the panning is more sensible overall. There’s an abundance of various mixing and articulation differences between the two versions, similar to things I’ve pointed out in some of my videos. If there’s any major that I haven’t mentioned here, feel free to let me know.
Everything considered, I prefer the N64 version. The mixing improvements are important and appreciated in the 3D version, but don’t outweigh how dark and unfavorable the reverb makes it sound. The instrument articulation in the N64 OST also just sounds nicer, even if it’s not as accurate to the in-game version. I do appreciate this new addition for the sake of completeness, but I probably could’ve thought of 500 other soundtracks I’d rather have seen first.
Thanks for reading. Let me know if you like this style of written content. I first thought to do it to justify having a twitter, but I’ll always post them here too if I do more.
Image from @NintendoAmerica on twitter.
4 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 85