Streets of Rage - Intro Title Theme (Live)

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Yankee Greg

21 Jul 2019

This is our live synth performance of the iconic intro songs from Sega Genesis games Streets of Rage 1 and 2, originally composed by Yuzo Koshiro.

As you might have noticed, our arrangement combines both intros for Streets of Rage 1 and 2. The Streets of Rage 1 part goes up to 1:45 min, and then blends into Streets of Rage 2. In 4:19, just after SoR2 climax, we go back from SoR2 to SoR1 and finish as SoR1.

Every melodic line has been transcribed note-by-note from the original arrangements and played live using hardware synthesizers, along with a sampler for drums. No computers were used, no MIDI, no sync.

From left to right, gear list and synth players were:

Korg M1 - França Guimaraes - M1 piano
Sequential Sixtrak - George Frederick - Synth solos #1
Korg Microkorg, Roland Sp404 - Guillermo Caceres - Bass, drum triggering
Yamaha An1x - João Marcos - Synth solos #2
Roland Jx-10 Super Jx - Raul Guimaraes - Pads

For the drums, we used the classic sample from Soul II Soul's Keep on Movin' , originally released in 1989. Recorded with a Tr-909, this drumloop would later become a staple for many electronic productions in the 90's, of which Enigma's Sadeness (1990) is usually the most remembered. It is extremely likely that Koshiro had this exact drum sample in mind when setting the mood for the SoR intro, so it made sense to use it in our version.

The piano sound in the Korg M1 is another interesting case. The M1 had already been available for 3 years in 1991, and was still extremely popular at the time. Its piano sounds found their way into all sorts of arrangements, especially in dance/house music trends, and became one of the most recurrent sounds throughout the 90s. If Koshiro had to choose a preset piano sound to record SoR, this would have to be the one.

The Sequential Sixtrak that plays the solo is quite convincing. The only problem is that it does not offer an option to quickly turn the portamento on/off. So, for some passages, you can see it being edited live.

Our barely functional 30 year old Roland Jx-10 provided us with some of the nicest pads available in the 80's. The sound is a custom layered patch edited from a classic "Soundtrack" preset (think of Alphaville's Forever Young), and makes extensive use of its 12 voices and built-in Roland chorus unit. This would be our personal choice in a SoR recreation anyway, and the Jx was very happy to see some action again.

As usual, please forgive the grainy quality, the shaky cameras and the few misplaced notes, we were just having fun.