Yeah, that's a good point. While I still feel like the average DCS sound package was way better than the average today, the System 11 and WPC 98 soundtracks are the only pinball soundtracks I like enough to have in my music library (Also X-Files). I can appreciate all types of music, but FM Synth is a sound that I really like, and feels right at home in pinball.

Wow, I've never seen a good video of this game before, but that is pretty awesome sounding! I love the jackpot sequence. I remember getting to play this a little bit at Pinfest a few years ago, but the volume was so low I couldn't hear anything.

The other day I took the glass off of my Mousin' Around and started hitting switches to see if anything changed with the music. Sure enough, the MOUSE TRAP target sounds, the multiplier rollover sounds, and the outlane rollover sounds all change in pitch to properly harmonize with the music. I'll bet you pretty much any system 11 will have at least a few cool details in the sound like that. One of those things that most players will probably never notice, but still makes the experience that much more cohesive.

See, those tracks are well made for sure, but I still have some of the same issues with them that I have with a lot of other modern stuff. Mainly, there's really no melody in either of them (At least the ones he has on his Soundcloud). They don't really have much personality, and they lack any sort of driving force. Within minutes I'll have forgotten what they sounded like.

Also, to be clear, I don't necessarily dislike any of the games I've complained about. Once I take the time to learn the rules of one of those games and am able to start strategizing and playing well, I can *really* enjoy playing. Good music and sound just makes that process more enjoyable and interesting. If I'm somewhere like Flippers though, I tend to go back to the games with better sound the most. Last time I was there, after putting a few games on the newest stuff I ended up putting most of my time on Tales of the Arabian Nights. Great music, great sound design, and even some nice music integration (The end of ball bonus sequence on TotAN is fantastic with how the lights sync and move around with the sound!).

This is actually a perfect example of how great audio *quality* doesn't necessarily make for a great *sound package*.

If you enjoy playing the game with that, then that's totally fine, but that sounded *horrible* to me, haha. Way too much noise at once with audio clips playing for way too long, music that doesn't fit the gameplay, poor music transitions, and you lose certain effects you get with the normal soundtrack. See the GI blinking? A lot of that is timed to the rhythm of the music, but when you replace the soundtrack, you completely lose the effect and it just becomes random blinking. At 1:07 your multiball restart started, but instead of some intense music playing, letting you know you need to hurry up, it started playing slow, orchestral music from the film. Compare this to the track that's supposed to play: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ajq7oQLp1JsOlLJsWr7lZ_HDwmNSpQ?e=pD15HT Is it better than the Jurassic Park film soundtrack? Heck no! But at least it gets the player in the proper mood for the mode, and in any sort of game, that's generally more important. It starts ominous, and as your timer approaches 0, more instruments come in to increase the intensity (To be fair though, I do feel like Jurassic Park is one of Brian Schmidts weaker Data East soundtracks. This isn't the best example of a hurry-up tune.). If PinSound has saved the game for you, and you find the Data East sounds to be more annoying than your current setup, that's awesome!.. I just don't see how it's possible anyone could find that PinSound setup *less* annoying than the original sounds.

That's definitely a good point, but at the same time I can point out way more games from the 90s with great sound packages than I can from the 2010s, even accounting for the fact that there were more games made in the 90s. Similarly, I can point out more games from the 2010s with sound packages I don't care for than I can from the 90s. In the 90s, bad sound packages tended to be annoying more than anything, but I'll take slightly annoying over boring any day.

Actually, Ghostbusters' sound package is one I really like overall. One of the few new games in recent years that I've walked up to and instantly started enjoying, and I have no familiarity with Ghostbusters whatsoever. Haven't played Alien, but there's no way I won't try it if I ever see one!

I definitely agree on the voice acting too. Why does it seem like the people doing pinball callouts barely get excited anymore?