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This is a sub-page of Proto:Sonic the Hedgehog 3/Sound Differences.

To do: Re-record all of the final songs (and some of the proto songs) with either real hardware, or at least a better emulator like BlastEm. The current rips were recorded with Fusion, which is rubbish for audio (and for emulation in general). All of the tracks have differences (albeit some are very subtle, like slight volume changes). They need to be documented. Re-document the music ala Sonic 2's Simon Wai prototype.

Between Sonic 2 and Sonic 3, the sound driver was completely replaced. In this prototype, the replacement driver is in an early state where it hasn't had features from the previous driver re-implemented yet, and it seems to suffer from some glaring bugs. There are also some other general differences:

• Sounds often bug out and sustain until either the game is paused or something else plays on that sound channel.
• Various objects don't play the correct sound effect:
  • The underwater "alarm" sound uses a completely different sound; likely just an incorrect ID assignment.
  • Many bosses don't play sounds. This includes explosions, zooming, etc. They play one sound when being defeated.
  • Oddly the correct sound effects are present in the sound test, but most instances have their assigned sound effects based on Sonic 2.
• Collecting a ring only plays the sound for the right speaker, and doesn't alternate between the ones for the right and left (despite both sounds being present).
• The Spin Dash plays the rolling sound, much like Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis as well as some of the Sonic 2 prototypes.
• Playing a theme that would interrupt the stage theme prevents it from reloading.
• Beating an Act doesn't play the Act-clear jingle, instead continuing to play the stage theme.
• The Speed Shoes play the invincibility theme rather than speeding up the music, and does not cut back to the level music when the effect ends.
• The Sonic 3 miniboss theme doesn't exist (read below), which means all minibosses play the Sonic & Knuckles variation. A remnant of this exists in the final where jumping before drowning during the Hydrocity bosses causes the game to play the Sonic & Knuckles theme.
• If you leave the water before you drown in Hydrocity as Super Sonic, the game will play an early version of Mushroom Hill Act 2, the song that's in slot $10.
• The song used for the Level Select ($2F) does not glitch after listening to it for an extended amount of time, unlike in the final version of Sonic 3.
• The themes for Carnival Night, Ice Cap, Launch Base, Knuckles, and the Competition menu are completely different. Interestingly, MIDI versions of these were later used in Sonic & Knuckles Collection. In fact, all of the music in this build matches up better with their MIDI counterparts, suggesting that all of the music was taken from a later build.

• The unused theme from the PC game is also present as slot $2E, which is where the Sonic 3 miniboss theme is in the final release. In Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, this slot contains a duplicate of the Sonic & Knuckles miniboss theme, which is used instead of slot $18 to play music for the minibosses. This renders slot $18 unused in all final retail releases of Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles except for Sonic & Knuckles Collection.