The Samples Used in The Legend of Zelda
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- A video showcase many of the samples used in the Zelda soundtracks, and where they came from.
(Edit: It appears I have made a factual error in relation to the track African 04 104-1. Rather than coming from Zero-G Ethnic Flavors, it comes from a different library from Zero-G simply called Ethnic.)
Sources used:
/ theskullx2
zeldauniverse....
zeldauniverse....
Note: This is by no means all of the samples used in these games. If you have any info on what sounds were used that I didn't mention, be sure to let me know. Samples used in other media would be appreciated as well. It will help me keep this series going.
This is like discovering sacred texts
Seriously!!
Couldnt agree more, its a revelation
Sacred texts behind what made Zelda music legendary...thanks for doing this! I've discovered something similar with Pokemon 3D games too
true
proof that the early rappers and 90s video game composers had more in common than you would think
sampling is not lazy, it is art
nope, its lazy
@@tribemaster101 I guess Koji Kondo was just so much lazier than you are, right?
@@MachinaOwl yes, your musician boyfriend is lazy for using samples.
@@tribemaster101 You go ahead and make your own versions of zelda soundtracks if you are so much cooler. Maybe do Silent Hill while you're at it?
Don't feed the troll
It's fascinating to see how much of the signature sound of 90s gaming involved these sample CDs, a thing I didn't even know existed these videos
Man, they really loved that Distorted Reality album, didn't they?
Look up thomas game docs
He just made an interesting video about that
I suppose they also had to stick to as few sources as possible because of copyrights constraints, the more different sources you use the more royalties you have to pay
@@gao1812 normally yeah, but not with these cd’s.
@@lemonadegaming8165 That's probably what I watched a few days ago... (Is TH-cam recommending people the same videos by any chance?)
@@Tazerboy_10 its probably youtube seeing us watching oot content, and recommending us similar videos
"A poke in the ear with a sharp stick II" is such a banger name
People thought daft punk were king in sample, but I think Koji Kondo is the god
Those chants used for the forest temple were also used for the title card of an episode of Ren and Stimpy called Superstitous Stimpy
Yeah, I recognized it in its normal version.
This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen icl
Right!
why would you lie about it
the reverse question is, why aren't the samplees more famous
It's because the need for samples kind of died with the N64 for the most part. They needed to sample as they relied on midi soundfonts due to cartridge size limitations, whereas everything after this could just use 44.1kHz (CD) audio directly rather than relying on soundfont creation.
You may be wondering why this is relevant especially given their presence in later games: well if you can bake them out to direct audio files, you get far more creative control over what the sample and track as a whole over all the channels sounds like. Basically you're no longer limited to what the hardware itself can manage in terms of transforms, as much as you are limited by your workstation's DAW. Which ends up making it extremely difficult to isolate these sounds compared to before, as they literally blend into the rest of the track versus just being an isolated PCM or part of the soundfont, AND they can become far more unique from the source.
@@TheFriendlyInvader twilight princess was full of samples from the same cd's too
It’s always nice to learn about the creative process behind video games, especially iconic ones.
2:54 God I love this one so much. Has such an ethereal and otherworldly feeling
I was playing through Star Fox Adventures, and I realized that Iceland 1 was probably used in it. Specifically the Krazoa Shrines. Spyro 1 also used it for Stone Hills.
Most likely, that’s a nice catch bro
Really interesting, well done. I always like learning about stuff like this. I wonder if reconstructing these songs with the original samples would be possible, to make them higher quality. Also, wasn't SYN_Fantasia3 -L (at about 1:10) also used in the Astral Observatory theme in Majora's Mask?
100% correct imo. Sounds just like it.
It might've actually been a direct sample from the Roland D-50
which is where the Fantasia sound originates
@@xerxes8014 This. Kondo had one of these during the development period of both games.
Sounds like it
i think it's also used a lot in mario galaxy for menu buttons
These are really cool finds.
Glad my laptop has almost all of its storage space filled with sample packs.
That sounds cool. If you haven't already, so back them up on an external hard drive. I learned the necessity of that the hard way.
@@gilamasan right.
Should probably do that...
Ps.
Found the sample from City in the Sky.
It’s from Ethnic 1, (same CD as the flute from forest temple) and the file path is “Partition C -> AFRICAFEMALE -> UGANDA LOOP”.
Well well look who's here
@@OdinComposer ayy
I always felt these Zelda games sounded eerily like Silent Hill. I've loved discovering these samples!
3:50 Bruh I love that metal bar coming out of nowhere XD
If Guardians made the sound from 5:52, we probably would have had a lot more heart attacks than normal from Breath of the Wild.
That super dissonant piano riff against that abrasive "powering-on" tone would be nightmare-fuel.
1:12 this also is used the astral observatory
This man is like the Daft Punk of video game composing, interesting.
Not quite. This amount of sampling is normal for video game OSTs, and the composters still wrote the melodies themselves.
Great video dude. I didn't expect that they would have use that much honestly
the samples that gave me legit nightmares
Wow! Such a cool video. As both a sampler and Zelda enthusiast, this is quite a treat!
5:13 if I'm not mistaken this is also the sample used in Phantom Hourglass for the ghost ship's theme in the sea
Is that so?
@@CrossiGacha I'm 80% sure th-cam.com/video/g21M5IBvboI/w-d-xo.html , if it's not then it must come from the same source
@@Yanis2 yep! 100%
6:20 I am really sure TP use the "Gamelan" musical instrument from Indonesia. And that is right! Wow I'm amazed!!
This video hits different at 11 PM
The noise used at 2:55 for final hours is also in WW I believe, they use basically just the original sound looped for the portal either to enter/leave hyrule, or to leave a boss dungeon I can’t remember which.
Also I thiiiink the sample at 1:14 used for ice cavern may also be used in the Astral Observatory theme in MM?
Also as a fun side note, the floormasters in WW use the same sfx as when you’re fighting phase 1 majora when it spins at you.
I wonder if someone once played OOT and when they entered Deku Tree for the first went like "heeey... I made this !"
Well, It didn't take me long to find out that the distorted reality 1 was made by one guy, Eric Persing and that this samples CD has been used everywhere for the past 25 years so it's more than probable that it never happened.
It's a shame Koji Kondo is pretty much retired
Original vaporwave
you are actually blowing my mind right now
A fair few of these were used in the Walking With series as well e.g. Walking With Dinosaurs and/or Walking With Beasts for instance. Definitely a lot of samples in that. Walking With Monsters has a lot of Distorted Reality as well. Sadly I don't think there is a definitive list of the samples Benjamin Bartlett used for all of that. I want to see a definitive list but it hasn't ever been put together as far as I can tell.
4:14 SpongeBob's Dream
Abominable Snowman episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog.
1:24 was also used in Sting’s album Brand New Day.
4:52 When I heard this sample I thought of "Eerie" from Terraria
This is so cool!
Why does it have to be Spectrasonic? These dudes made awesome sounds and a lot of games use their stuff, like Pokemon: Go Ichinose and Adachi love to use Stylus RMX and Omnisphere.
i wonder what they used for Odolwa's Chants
Puppet Ganon Second Half seems to just use that one sample outright with zero alteration
Fun fact: the water temples music is actually the forest temple music with a higher pitch! Pretty neat
Wait really?!
Interesting, I never put that together! :D
Sounds completely different 🧐
It isn’t? It sounds similar sometimes but it’s not the same
that is total bullshit.
NO FUCKING WAAAAY. THIS VIDEO GAVE CHILLS TO THE BONE
In ocarina of time the removed version of the fire temple (only found on the 1.0 and 1.1 cartridges) the part with the chanting is from voice spectral track 76
Voice Spectral : th-cam.com/video/VWCEgbkTJTY/w-d-xo.html (46:39)
Removed fire temple theme: th-cam.com/video/QWHdFd_j33E/w-d-xo.html (the track can be heard at 0:40)
יפה חחח
Without these samples OOT would be missing something huge. It wouldn't be the same game, not as fantastic as it is.
not gonna!this makes the game atmosphere feel much more deeper!
Good job
Would love to see one done for metroid/metroid prime!
The bits Koji Kondo got from Deep Purple's "April" could be considered sampling?
This video is awesome.
I managed to find a synth sound used in Twilight Princess. If anyone is interested please let me knwow
pretty sure the sample at 4:52 is also used in terraria's "eerie" at 0:03, kind of interesting
What song did you use for the outro again? I forgot what its called but its beautiful!
Sheik's Theme from Ocarina of Time
06:10 Same notes, not the same sound.
Wow!
I don't think that deku tree one was a sample, if anything it sounds like they were trying to copy it
@Preston Rideoutt I don't remember exactly what I was talking about here, but I don't believe I was implying that Distorted Reality was copying Ocarina of time, I think I meant something else, although I'd have to rewatch the video
@Preston Rideoutt Okay, so I just rewatched it. What I meant was it doesn't sound like a direct sample, it sounds a bit different than the Distorted Reality track, I suppose I could be wrong though considering the pitch change and speed change
Cool
2:54 this.
So did they use sample sound effect CDs for Skyward Sword or BOTW?
Not as frequently. Since Skyward Sword, many tracks from the Zelda games have been performed via orchestra.
NO FIRE TEMPLE. (ノ｀□´)ノ┫
This is great! But u forgot the Islamic chanting in the “original” version of the Fire Temple theme.
koji kondo making the forest temple music: "this needs some ethnic flavor"
when I was younger I thought it was adult links voice like disembodied or something
@@Twitch380 same
@@Twitch380what a nightmare fuel you have in your head 😵💫
So the eerie chord from the final day theme in Majora's Mask comes from a sample CD? I honestly didn't expect that.
Yeah! I heard it's also in the theme for Stone Hill in the original version of Spyro The Dragon, and it's even a sound effect in Wind Waker!
IKR? I was so surprised when I discovered that.
The final result in the “last day” theme became a incredibly deep song, sometimes I just can feel the sensation of despair and ending of world through time
I noticed it's also on the mission start of Devil May Cry 2
@@michaeljfan9720 Yup, finishing the first boss battle on Dragon Roost had me not even wanting to enter the warp to the entrance cause it is that sound. lol
All that nostalgia and the feeling of death conveyed by Majora's Mask had me sitting there feeling some type of way...
I had no idea so much of some of my favorite soundtracks ever used samples like this. All from the same couple of packs too. Really makes me appreciate them more too because a good amount are sampled in such a unique way
Quick correction: The first sample played for the Forest Temple is actually in Zero-G's Ethnic Vol. 1, not Ethnic Flavours. Took me a while to find out why I couldn't find that sample in Ethnic Flavours. The one played for the Shadow Temple is in Ethnic Flavours, but the track label is wrong. Either way, great video. Now I can use some of the samples in my own work without having to pay royalties.
one called african 29-6 in particular
Are these sample cds possible to get anywhere?
@@OdinComposer Ethnic Flavours can be digitally purchased from Zero-G's website, but if you want to find Ethnic Vol. 1 you're going to have to do some digging.
Not sure about the no royalties part
This whole thing is nice af but I can't get over those insane African tribal vocals flipped for Forest Temple. That is godlike to the max. And so was that ethereal flip to make Inside the Deku Tree 👏
Here's another fun fact. The music slowed down in the water temple is actually practically the same as the forest temple
@@LilKiwi2240 It's not. they use the same sample for the main instruments but beyond that they are entirely different compositions and use the sample differently
I can't believe both zelda and silent hill sampled from the same album. My 2 favorite franchise
they both took some inspiration from twin peaks too, particularly majoras mask
I mean, Majora's Mask definitely has a horror flavor to it, so it's not too far-fetched.
These are not albums, they are sample packs (CDs with a lot of different sounds) made for producers and musicians so they use them in their compositions. That's the easiest way to deal woth copyright too.
That's exactly what I thought
Distorted reality is such a creepy sample pack, so freaky. It’s strange to me that they would use it as often as they did, in what is supposed to be a kids game.
i appreciate kids media that isnt afraid to get scary
@@shaobues Right? The scariness kind of humbles you in a way.
No one ever said it was a kids game. The developers just wanted to make an artistic piece of media as requested by the company. For marketability reasons they had to cut a bunch of stuff to make it appropriate for children and the game was marketed as such because that's where the money is. The end.
iirc the Spyro series also sampled from the Distorted Reality pack! Fun for the whole family!
How is Zelda a kids game? Ever seen an actual kids game? Something that's also suitable for kids doesn't make it something only for kids.
You left out the Fire Temple tune from versions prior to *1.2,* the one which used *Best Service Voice Spectral Volume 1, Track 76.*
i feel like a lot of fans dont know about that first one
@@shaobues I disagree, I think that’s actually the best known usage of samples in OoT
We get it, you watched a video one time about the Islamic chants, who cares.
@@goodguyguan3412 For completion's sake. Got a problem with that?
@@goodguyguan3412 I do.
How the heck do the fans even find some of this stuff! I love this community just for their dedication to preserve history (and for being fellow fans of a great game)
Probably people that also work with sound design and checking sample discs found something that "Hey! That played in OoT".
As ghenetto said. Sometimes producers look for older sounds and download 90's samplepacks and eventually find out the game's samples out of pure luck or coincidence.
I've heard the same stock sound effects appear in other media and always found it fascinating, some people take it farther and actually dig through sound libraries to find their origins. Some people who work in audio engineering also grew up playing these games.
The G-Saviour game and soundtrack from 1999 I think used the Iceland 1 sample from the Distorted Reality 1 album.
As someone who operates tangential to the space, once you see/hear a technique or sample, and are actively using it yourself or have tried to demo it you really start seeing it everywhere. Like it becomes blatantly obvious that "oh this came from this sample" or "oh they're using this rendering technique rather than this one"
That ominous synth chord from the End of the World in Majora's Mask has stuck with me ever since I first heard it. Can't really explain why, but hearing it's standalone origin as a mere sample called "ICELAND 1" completely takes it out of context and gives it an odd new feel for me.
don´t worry dude, that Zelda track owes way more to Jean Michel-Jarre and 70's synth music that to the Distorted Reality album.the sample only fills the treble portion of the harmony... it could be anything else. perhaps if other sounds or instruments or samples were used the track wouldn´t have endend that good, but the difference wouldn´t be totally huge.
Man this just reminds me how good twilight princess was. So dark and such a paradigm shift from the preceding games. I wish they should have done more with the dark themes
I can understand why an artist using samples may seem lazy to some--and I tend to agree when beats/rhythms are sampled and the songs sound similar as a result. But hearing these originals after many years of only ever hearing their edited/remixed versions, it adds more intrigue to it all, in a way.
It brings back a feeling you hardly ever experience as an adult--the feeling that your whole world just got a lot bigger.
I've seen this video before, and sure it was cool, but it never quite resonated within me as it did today. I wonder why. Maybe it's just a renewed appreciation after playing TotK.
I know I'm late to the party here, but I'm glad to still have that feeling about things.
This honestly more impressive to me than if these were from scratch. It's so interesting to see the creativity when your limited by hardware and have to rely on samples for a lot of the soundtrack. The ambience all sounds so cohesive in each game. No dungeon music ever feels out of place.
Holy shit. Bro I can watch videos like this non-stop. Keep'em comin'.
Fun fact: the DANGER sample from Distorted Reality is also used for the Grotto ambience, albeit slowed.
4:52 This sample was also used in the soundtrack for the computer animation odyssey, The Gate to the Mind's Eye, by Thomas Dolby.
also used in terraria (the eerie theme specifically)
WE FUCKING LOVE THE MINDS EYE
Nice
so every piece of zelda music is essentially a fever dream?
The series can be a fever dream at times.
How does that make sense?
@@NibirBaishnaboverlapping distorted reality?
10 years later I'm starting to get weird dreams about the music from these games
I hope you find the weird vocal sample used in city in the sky in twilight princess
It's from Zero-G Ethnic, the same library used for the Forest Temple sound
It’s called UGANDAFEMAL3 on the same album as the previous commenter stated. It’s shortly after the Forest Temple sample if you watch the first video that comes up of the album on TH-cam.
it seems everyone in the 90s and early 2000s were using Zero G and Best Service stuff. truly iconic sounds.
Poke in the Ear With a Sharp Stick II… A classic album but nothing can live up to the first.
You're telling me the forest temple isn't link's voice....
ikr :(
I thought it was forever
I TOUGHT IT WAS! Always thought it was like a se sort of reference of how the childhood days were gone
@@dekugh64 i think it sounds enough like it that you can take it like that, there was at least one developer who thought the same thing
It’s interesting to see how the voice that bled into the sample warped people’s perception of the game’s world.
Personally, I thought the voice represented ghosts that were haunting the temple, but I guess the human mind can invent all sorts of different interpretations of what the sound is.
I swear I heard the iceland sample in windwaker with the warp thing at the end of a temple, could also be a wii zelda game but pretty sure it was windwaker
I did too. It was in fact used.
Holy shit this is so COOL! Some of my favorite sounds were pulled from these sample packs! This is AMAZING!
0:28 When you hear enigmatic in his original state, it's distorted, but when you give some touch, it magically becomes a melody! Wow, no wonder why Kondo's work on the Zelda series was genius.
It sounds like that’s because the original track is literally just going up and down the harmonic series (the different pitches created naturally by/in/through a tube based upon its physics) and the finished product is in equal temperament.
There's nothing distorted about the original state of the song and it's still a melody.
Idk how to explain it but this is one of my favorite videos on TH-cam
man watching this in 2024 makes miss my childhood and blessed to know where these samples came from.
Merci pour l'archive c'est toujours intéressant de comprendre la construction d’œuvres aussi marquantes que celles-ci.
0:28 If you are intelligent, you can clearly hear that this sound is not used in Ocarina of Time. The grotto theme is a synth flute instrument and is performed with its own original notes.
6:35 No wonder this track always reminded me of Silent Hill 2!
Sounds amazing! Koji kondo did an amazing job
i was looking for the sample used in inverted stone towers theme for awhile. going thru distorted reality 1 is insane bc so much is recognizable
A little bit of reverb can take you a long way.
2:55 Holy crap. Russia’s main TV channel ORT (Now Channel One) used this in their announcement ident in 2001-2002 if I recall it correctly.
I had no idea Zero G was so popular. Even an obscure game like Klonoa used it at one point.
Same.
Also
Wahoo
This is incredibly cool, I hope there's enough info out there for you to keep making these. I'll be sure to pass on any info I find
Never imagined zelda games used samples for their songs... now I love it even more as a huge fan of Silent Hill soundtrack
That Spectrasonics CD must have been the most valuable item in Nintendo music department fro late 90s to early 2000s
This is why I loved the Ocarina of Time/Majoras Mask/Windwaker OSTs because they used Samples to produce the sounds and yes it was simple for today standards but those sounds are what made the soundtracks so iconic and catchy. I honestly wish they used these sample packs for the new ones compared to the modern orchestral sounds you hear in the modern Zelda games. Not to mention the dungeon musics in the original 3D games sounded scary asf for a kids game lol I mean even the graphics looked creepy
Twilight's second sample sounds like another ambient sample called iirc "daybreak" which is used in silent hill 2 ost
I had spent quite a lot of time looking through 90's sample CDs when I was making my recent album (90's styled DnB made in a tracker) and I have started recognizing some samples in video game sountracks from the PlayStation and N64.
I think most people don't realize just how important those sample packs are to some of their favorite soundtracks. Just look at silent hill for example. It's loaded with stuff from sample packs and it's a masterpiece of VGM.
That last sound is used in the goron mines, too, in Twilight Princess.
This is a fucking amazing job! Have you ever considered doing an analysis on Castlevania Symphony of the Night Samples?
Possibly, though I haven't played the game myself. Are any samples known that have been used in SotN?
gilamasan I’m pretty convinced that is based on JV-1080 engine plus some Spectrasonics stuff (e.g. Symphony of Voices)
@@canatorodolfo Actually the vocals (except for Nocturne) come from Michiru Yamane's sister Kahori, sometimes processed with the 'chorus' to give the appeareance of more players.
And since we're discussing about her and samples, she would later make a lot of use from Spectrasonics Metamorphosis, specially the "Alloy B" program from Disc 3.
@ Thanks for sharing this info... I recall the sound "creepy" from Dream Theater's Disappear... I'll need to reinstall Omnisphere to check this sounds... and what you saind makes perfect sense, because I've got a Roland XV with Voices and SFX cards, both with samples from Spectrasonics and some sounds does sound like SOTN...