"Chaingun In My Hands" VS "B7"

[Rudolph]

So I was listening to the track "B7" from Sonic Mayhem's "Methods of Destruction":

 

 

I was immediately reminded of Mark Knight's "Chaingun In My Hands":

 

 

Why do they sound so much alike? Is that one big coincidence or did one of the composers plagiarize the other?

 

Surely, I cannot be the first one to notice this, yet so far, I cannot find anyone discussing the similarities between the two tracks.

[Dark Pulse]

Pretty sure that guitar riff is from some sort of sound library, that is why.

 

That's literally "You pay a price and you can use this piece of audio in your own work."

[Rudolph]

Come to think of it, Methods of Destruction was never commercially released, so maybe that is also why nobody made a fuss about it.

 

Still, at the time, I got so confused I had to pause it and check if I was still listening to the right soundtrack.

[Murdoch]

I concur with Dark Pulse. It sounds essentially identical, which lends credence to the idea it's a sample.

[nolongeramnion]

[blanked]

Edited November 29, 2023 by amnion

[Murdoch]

20 minutes ago, anon said:

doubt it's a sample because duke is midi.

 

Duke Nukem 3D does. Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown is the PS1 port and it most definitely doesn't use Midi. Watch this gameplay footage on YouTube. An entirely different soundtrack though it does use a lot of the original for inspiration.

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Murdoch

[Biodegradable]

I'm no musician, but the guitar riff sounds exactly the same in both track to my ears. I think Dark Pulse's theory of it being a sample that both Sonic Mayhem and Mark Knight happened to use is a strong possibility.

[TheUltimateDoomer666]

It's just a stock loop that both composers happened to use. Composers using stock presets or loops is actually very common. As another example, listen to the credits music from PS1 DOOM:

 

 

Now compare that to this Hexen II track:

 

 

That sample originates from an Ensoniq synth:
 

Spoiler

 

 

Also compare the following tracks from Total Meltdown and Nebula Fighter:
 

 

 

I'm not sure exactly where the Total Meltdown guitar riffs originate from, but they're likely from a hardware workstation or sample CD as those were commonly used for game soundtracks that used digitized music.

Edited August 16, 2022 by TheUltimateDoomer666

[Rudolph]

Huh. That is good to know. Thank you! I have witnessed so many plagiarism cases over seemingly benign things and shared assets over the last decades that I did not know what to make of this.

[Dark Pulse]

14 hours ago, anon said:

doubt it's a sample because duke is midi.

Duke3D on PC was MIDI, yeah. Total Meltdown is XA Audio, which is streamed, so the production probably resembled modern DAW production as seen today.

 

I will say I don't know for sure where the sample came from, but it is 100% identical in both tracks, and I'd think that if either of them created it and the other used it, there would've been a lawsuit that flew. So I'm pretty sure it's from _some_ sample library.

 

We'd have to ask Sascha or Mark to know for sure though - and they'd have to remember themselves, nearly 30 years later.

[Rudolph]

Damn, 30 years already? Time sure does fly... -_-