NRS, the reason it's out of place in here, and more so Gettin' Some Air, is because Gettin' Some Air (to use it as an example) is a serious song about, well, sex. It has all the appropriae MT-32 FX- InHale, Lone Wolf, etc. A silly baby laugh just doesn't make musical sense!
That's not a baby laugh, it's a woman's laugh. You might as well ask why use a Wolf sound in a piece about two humans having sex.
Again, why would Safan/Braymen use windchimes in a song like Gettin' Some Air?
I'm not interested in philosophy here. I'm just telling you that those sound effects are there, and that there is no reason to believe why they should be considered unintentional, other than because you don't like them. As for "why", why is the banana bent?
I also question why Sierra would compose a soundtrack for the CM32L, when they supported the MT-32..
The install program says "Roland MT-32, MT-100, LAPC-I, CM-32L or CM-64", thereby signifying that they supported all these devices, not just the MT-32.
I have Safan's original Voyetra SNG file, and although it does contain the A#4 note, it signals the MT-32 (you know, NRS, the little 'm' in the channel).
And that's supposed to prove what?
Remember that most
gamers who wanted Roland sound just bought a LAPC-I (because of the convenience of having just to install a card) --- which has those sound effects as well ---, and
not an MT-32.
If this confuses you, just replace every mentioning of "CM-32L" with "LAPC-I". Sierra by the way did sell the LAPC-I as well, if you take a closer look at their later catalogues.
Just all seems very unlikely and irrational to me.
It's irrational to dismiss the use of an instrument as unintentional just because you don't like it how it sounds. Otherwise, the Scottish bagpipe in and of itself would be just an unfortunate accident.
I mean, Sierra composers n General MIDI days were forbidden to use GS! Various composers played with GS, it's true, but it didn't go into the game.
I don't know about there being an explicit prohibition or anything, it's just that Sierra's GENMIDI.DRV doesn't relay controllers it doesn't know --- that includes reverb and chorus. You can put them into the sound resource files, but they won't be sent. For example, SQ5 explicitly uses both the "Standard" and "Orchestral" drum sets; however, you won't know that by listening to the music while playing the game, only when you listen to the ripped files. But I guess you won't believe that either, because you "know" for a fact that Sierra prohibited using GS drummaps, therefore, any use of them
must be unintentional, according to your reasoning.
And remember that Craig Safan was not a Sierra employee, so he might not care about their petty restrictions.
Because it's not a new percussion sound.
When was it ever used before in a Sierra title?
No, but why does that matter? The sound is
by default on the drum map, so why bother putting it on the melodic bank?
Yes. Even RAP typically makes musical sense, to some degree. I agree with Great Hierophant in that it doesn't fit in K-RAP. It doesn't work.
First, just because you don't like it is no proof that the use is unintentional.
Second, as for "making musical sense" in "K-RAP rap" --- the laughing sound plays at the exact moment that the rest of the song pauses, thus filling the acoustic void, and the car stop sound effect plays whenever the hats/tambourines don't play, picking up the rhythmic drive --- so, at least from a formalistic point of view, it makes perfect sense.
I'm with Tom on this one, one more strike against the CM-32L's perfect MT-32 compatibility.
What would be the other strikes?
