Since 2006, Tomoya Ohtani has been the sound director for nearly every Sonic game with his most recent work being on Sonic Forces in 2017 and the upcoming Team Sonic Racing in 2019!

In an interview with site SonicRetro, Tomoya Ohtani discussed the many Sonic game soundtracks he worked on in the past!

Check it out below:

A large part of the reason that the songs feature a lot of synthesizers is from the story where the plot revolves around the power of the Phantom Ruby. Another reason would be the characteristics of the Avatar character. His / Her customizable feature in the game led me to an image of “Composed with various parts = Not sounds performed by instruments, but more dance music like approach” Further, there was the appearance of Classic Sonic in game.

As the recent Classic Sonic appearance in Sonic Mania was accompanied by a refined synth sound, I limited the music in Forces to use only FM used in the Genesis (Mega Drive), and teamed up with a composer well versed in this area, Hataya Naofumi, whom knows very well about the past.

The (Modern) Sonic stages are recorded with a live band, but partially integrate synth melodies and sequences. I felt this sound fit the story more, with a sense of urgency in the trance type synth sound, rather than with a guitar playing the melody. I composed “Sunset Heights” first as a template of sorts.

The main theme “Fist Bump” and Infinite’s theme “Infinite” are played by a live band, but have synth sounds integrated as accents. I felt that this would present more of a modern rock sound.

You can check out the whole interview from SonicRetro here!

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