Sega Sound Team

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Sega Sound Team is a name often given to generally refer to the many sound designers employed at Sega, but is sometimes used to mask the identity of a music composer outside the company. The term dates back to the late 80's, being associated with the S.S.T.Band or Sega Sound Team Band.

Usually the producer at Sega chooses from the pool of composers to sound direct a specific title.

History

1980's-1990

During the early 80's, there was what programmer Yu Suzuki called a "stagnation" in Sega's sound team^[1], containing people who, like Suzuki himself, couldn't pursue their high school dreams of becoming musicians and were living a pale imitation of that ambition. The earliest generation of musicians and composers at Sega were usually programmers and worked in tandem with the rest of the development team. Some of the first composers to join Sega who would become recognised soon after include Tohru Nakabayashi (who initially joined as an engineer^[2]) and Katsuhiro Hayashi (who initially joined as a programmer^[3]), both of whom started out on the Sega SG-1000 console. The process towards a more well-established sound team began with Hang-On, where Yu Suzuki wanted to have music that would feel more advanced and realistic than anything heard before, so turned to another programmer with band experience, Hiroshi Kawaguchi^[1].

Gradually, more sound staff began to join as a result of the new direction, like Tokuhiko Uwabo, Yasuhiro Kawakami and Chikako Kamatani, and at some point in the latter half of the 80's an official "sound team" or "sound section" was created, complete with a sound studio for its members to perform in^[1]. While there was no official distinction yet, many sound designers primarily either worked on arcade games or console games, but many would dabble in the other field occasionally. Sega R&D 8 seems to have had its own separate sound team consisting of 2, later 3 people.^[4]

1991-1999

In 1991, Sega Sound Team was split into 2 teams. The AM2 Sound Team handled arcade games,^[5] including video games, medal games, prize games and amusement parks. This department was headed by Tohru Nakabayashi.^[6] Despite the name, the team did not exclusively work on games for Sega AM2, instead with every AM division, such as Sega AM3 on Sega Rally Championship^[7] and Cyber Troopers Virtual-On,^[8] to AM1 on The House of the Dead ^[9] and Harley-Davidson & L.A. Riders.^[10] It is mentioned by name in the production credits for The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

The CS Sound Team meanwhile handled console games,^[5] including home consoles, handheld consoles and the Sega Pico kids console. This department was initially headed by Tokuhiko Uwabo, who was involved as a producer of games and soundtrack/remix albums, but in 1994/1995 this job was transferred to Yukifumi Makino. It may have been known as CS3 Sound, at least in 1993.^[11] Jun Senoue is also known to have been part of Sega Software Technology R&D at the same time,^[12] so some of the CS sound team may have been housed there.

Both the AM2 and CS sound teams were listed in 1996 as consisting of 1 woman for every 4 men in the department.^[5]

This 2 department system was mostly unchanged throughout the 90's. However, a third party initially supported both: Sega Digital Studio, where many CD digital audio soundtracks and recordings of arcade music were developed, and can be seen credited in various console games such as Clockwork Knight and Hanagumi Taisen Columns, but also the arcade game Scud Race. Later on, this department was merged with the CS sound team, adopting Sega Digital Media as its name.^[13] Seemingly in 1998, the AM2 sound team had become so big that it was split apart, with its members being assigned to different already existing development departments, usually those that the individual musicians had most often worked with (sound teams are currently known to have existed for AM1^[14], AM2^[14], AM3^[14], AM5^[14] and AM6^[15]), This split carried on as many of these were rebranded as Sega Software R&D departments in 1999 and then as subsidiary companies in 2000 (with Sega Digital Media becoming Wave Master).

Sega Sound Team

From Sega Retro

Contents

History

1980's-1990

1991-1999

2000-2004

2005-2011

2012-2020

2021-present

Members

Former Members

References