Fan Works, Music

Sonic 3 & Knuckles Soundtrack Remade in Famitracker

Have you ever wondered what Sonic 3 & Knuckles might sound like if it were using the NES sound hardware and its expansion chips to produce the music? YouTube user 8BitDanooct1 did; so much so, in fact, that he spent over 200 working hours–that’s about a month and a half–tirelessly making it a reality. The results are a real treat:

Pretty cool, right? Get the full soundtrack in both NSF and MP3 format here.

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24 Comments

  • Reply

    This sounds familiar like mario in a sonic gam- OH NO SOMARIO 3& TOAD!? *shivers in a dark corner* In any case music’s pretty boss.

  • Reply

    This makes me want to recreate Sonic 3 & Knuckles for the NES.

    • Reply

      Exactly my thoughts when I listened to that

      Too bad we won’t have any left-moving :c (or am I wrong?)

  • Reply

    Wow, this is great! Sounds far better than I imagined. Quality stuff!

  • Reply

    Alot of the music sounds comparable to the the Genesis version.

  • Reply

    It does sound 8bit yeah but doesn’t the real NES audio hardware alow less channels than what i’m hearing in the video? Because it sounds a bit better than what I remember most nes games sounding like.

    • Reply

      Thanks for listening, and yeah, the music is slightly different than what an American NES can officially allow. All American consoles used only the base 2a03 soundchip, but a few select Famicom games used expansion chips to produce better sound. A great example of this is the Japanese version of Castlevania 3, Akumajou Densetsu, which used the Konami VRC6 expansion chip, which is the same I used for this remake soundtrack. Look up the music for Akumajou Densetsu if you get the chance, it’s pretty awesome.

      If you want to play this NSF on an American NES, it is possible, as I’ve done it on mine. All it requires is a slight mod to the expansion port on the NES circuit board, and a cartridge capable of playing the NSF, such as a Powerpak. Sorry for the lengthy post! Just wanted to clear some things up.

      • Reply

        Don’t worry about it man, I apreciate it. Really nice piece of work there.

  • Reply

    WAI! WAI? NO WAI!
    And now I have the urge to play s3&k :3
    That’s some awesome stuff man

  • Reply

    Full of win. That is all.

  • Reply

    So by all means, by using the NSF files wouldn’t it be possible to actually put these NESified tunes in an actual NES rom?

    My word, that could lead to some glorious rom hacking right there.

  • Reply

    Am I hearing Sonic 3 & Knuckles LD in the making? This would be one of the defining moments in retro-Sonic history if Sonic Pocket Adventure hadn’t remake about 1/4 of the songs on the video.

  • Reply

    i like the whole track, but i personally think flying battery came out best. 

  • Reply

    This has potential for epic win I swear

  • Reply

    What impresses me most, is how close some of the instrumentation sounds to the original tracks, good job with this soundtrack, I knew the Famicom had some amazing sound capabilities through expansions, when compared to the stock 2A03, but I had no idea that it could pull of anything like this.
    I actually own a Famicom too, just lack the means to use it, I guess it’s time to finally AV mod it and put it to use, an NSF-Playing VCR6 cart shouldn’t be too difficult to build with a suitable donor?

  • Reply

    My mind has been blown. This is amazing. *downloads*

  • Reply

    It’s kind of surprising how similar this all sounds. I was expecting a much more drastic difference.

  • Reply

    I’m surprised this guy hasn’t been mentioned once on here, i’ve been subscribed to him for a few months now. But this stuff is awesome. :3

  • Reply

    Just goes to show that regardless of the instruments, the songs still kick ass.

    Nice job man.

  • Reply

    Wow… It’s remarkable how similar the soundtrack sounds in 8-Bit!

    NES games could have had soundtracks like this; imagine it!

    …And so that’s what 8-BIT is, eh? 8 channels to assign addresses to…. How tedious a medium it must be, to program music in.

    The artist has done an absolutely terrific job. What attention to detail…!

  • Reply

    “AND EVEN THOUGH I’M A NES
    I STILL WISH YOU THE BEST…”

    Fuck yeah.

  • Reply

    Did you take any cues from the s3kpc midis? The s&k miniboss theme sounds very much like the pc version.

  • Reply

    Matrix!

  • Reply

    This is surprisingly accurate [excluding a few minor tracks], and completely awesome. Absolutely top-notch.

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