Liner Notes VIII: Konami’s infamous orchestral hit

(Editor’s note: From Castlevania to Turtles in Time, everyone’s got at least one videogame tune stuck in their heads. Enter Liner Notes: a Pixelitis feature in which our writers discuss their favorite videogame music.)

"If you were a kid of the 80s and early 90s, then you were no doubt exposed to the musical phenomenon known as the “orchestral hit.”

For the uninitiated, the orchestral hit (or stab depending on your lingo) is a sound created by layering several orchestral instruments that play a sole staccato note or chord. In other words, it’s a quick note followed by a quick rest or pause. Its use by hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa in 1982 set off a whirlwind in the music business where every pop album had to use it.

And so did Konami.

The orchestral hit (particularly the “Fairlight Orch5” sample of it), to quote Joshua Kopstein, is “the musical equivalent of the Wilhelm Scream,” and boy did Konami have quite the field day with it."

– Patrick Kulikowski