Better when faster?

Have you ever listened to a VGM track you think sounds better when played faster? Two such examples come to mind for me. The first for me would be the stage 5 music from the SNES port of Knights of the Round. When I actually first heard it was on my friend's emulator, and for some reason it played about twice as fast on there. When I actually got the track, I kind of wished it was as fast as when I first heard it.

The other would have be Launch Base Act 1 from Sonic the Hedgehog 3. I always thought the music just rocked at a certain spot where you picked up red shoes.


Have any of you ever felt this way about certain VGM tracks?

I've been doing a rip of the Warioland series and I have to say that the sped up tunes are just flat out FUN. The tone of the music changes and it just becomes this fast paced rush

The ending theme from Super Mario World is rather amusing sped up; thank YTMND for that one.

I can also think of a track I like better slowed down: Holy Orders (Be Just or Be Dead) from the Guilty Gear series. I've never been overly fond of the original version, but the arranged version from GGXX Sound Alive =

A lot of the battle themes in Final Fantasies and similar games would be better sped up. Chrono cross had so much intresting music, yet things like The Trial and the Overground themes dragged.

It depends entirely on the mood you want to set. Sad or dramatic music will be made more so by a slower pace. Fast happy music will become plain off the wall when it's even faster. Some of the Kriby 64 tracks would be incomprehensible to make any faster. Of course some songs are just too damn slow and need to be sped up (such as the prelude from the Japanese Final Fantasy III).

The song that plays when you are in your house in Onnet in Mother 2 seems way to slow and lame after hearing the way-better-arranged version on the Super Smash Bros. OST. That album kicked ass.

Remember though that when you do speed up a track, only doing so by 10%-25% will make it sound better. Any faster and it's like seeking on a CD player (except for the damn slow songs).
Generally any soung sounds better faster if you make it techo, the only genre where every song must be pounding so quick you don't know what the hell you're hearing.

Well yeah, that's what I do. Red shoes in the original Sonic games increase the music speed by about 25% I think, and my MP3 player has a feature that lets me do that.

Some of the songs on the horribly-boring FFXI OST sound a good deal better when sped up; I've edited a few of them for this purpose. "Final Confrontation" is like a sominex at its current speed, but 10% faster gives it a lot more flair and tension. "Sarutabaruta" is also a lot more lively with some sugar in its coffee.

A song that comes to mind is the Mythril Mines theme in Chocobo Racing, which seems to be a remix of the original Gulug Volcano, + more energy.
The higher speed Cid's Race Track version of the standard Chocobo theme also sounds good.
As well, the FF VIII racetrack version of the FF VIII battle theme (I don't know if it's actually faster due to the added instrumentation) sounds much better too.

Originally Posted by Dubble

I've been doing a rip of the Warioland series and I have to say that the sped up tunes are just flat out FUN. The tone of the music changes and it just becomes this fast paced rush

I believe these are already done minus Warioland 4, I mean I have rips for the first 3.


Anyway, I first discovered that some VGM sounds better sped up when I was back using tape dubbing to make backup copies of my elaborate VGM tapes.
Oh, back in the day!
Most factory themes are pretty nice sped up, like Lost Viking's factory, EWJ Level 5, DKC Fear Factory (and subsequent DKC sequel factory tracks).
Most Boss battles, IMO, are fast paced enough for a sense of urgency.
word to the wary though: Kirby themes can be frightfully obnoxious when sped up!