FA+
Shop
911
Views
Views
8
Favorites
Favorites
Category
Music / Rock
Species Dragon (Other)
Size 120 x 111
File Size 2.67 MB
Report this content
More from pcred566
TWO DAYS. Yes, I also made the pixelated logo thing ;p; (why doesn't this thing register 'pixelated' as a word? wut)
(this is what the original sounds like if you haven't heard it)
(this is what the original sounds like if you haven't heard it)
Category Music / Rock
Species Dragon (Other)
Size 120 x 111px
File Size 2.67 MB
well, yeah, I suppose that the sounds it uses are technically designed to be playable by an 8-bit management controller, but this particular song has 3 sound channels that couldn't be read by any traditional 8-bit gaming system (at least not without the microprocessor exploding into a million tiny pieces :P oops, breaking limitations). didn't know you knew anything about music to begin with so this is a surprise .-.
in the start of the song it sounds like a triangle channel, a square channel and a pulsesomething, but it doesn't solidly fit within the typical NES Pulse12.5 or Pulse25.
The NES, by itself, had 5 channels.
Two identical pulse channels, that could switch between three different voices (pulse 12.5, 25 and 50(square)), and had 16 levels of volume. 0 through F.
There was a triangle channel that you could not (generally) change the volume on. it tried to play at 100% all the time.
Past that it had the noise channel, which had two 'voices'. I think it's 'short' and 'long', short being uh...crunchier? More mechanical and weird. The long is what most games used for simple snare hits and a ton of sfx.
Lastly there's the DPCM channel, which is a crude and sort of unwieldy, but is used for playing really low bitrate samples. This was most often used for like, kick drums and such, but some companies did totally rad things (like sunsoft) and carefully made a bass guitar out of it, giving them another voice for their tracks. This is used in fester's quest and journey to silius, and sounds pretty cool.
I don't know a ton about music theory, unfortunately. But i do know a bit about nes music! I'm the composer (and all over asset guy) for a game project right now.
let me link you some of my garbage i guess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WgyeQKlnUc&index=2&list=UU1FH7Cg8rzWA9NWqBytUqBg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC5N-RgL_0w&list=UU1FH7Cg8rzWA9NWqBytUqBg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MGMkYi_AVA&index=17&list=UU1FH7Cg8rzWA9NWqBytUqBg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHFW9ZaPhr4&index=18&list=UU1FH7Cg8rzWA9NWqBytUqBg&noredirect=1
The NES, by itself, had 5 channels.
Two identical pulse channels, that could switch between three different voices (pulse 12.5, 25 and 50(square)), and had 16 levels of volume. 0 through F.
There was a triangle channel that you could not (generally) change the volume on. it tried to play at 100% all the time.
Past that it had the noise channel, which had two 'voices'. I think it's 'short' and 'long', short being uh...crunchier? More mechanical and weird. The long is what most games used for simple snare hits and a ton of sfx.
Lastly there's the DPCM channel, which is a crude and sort of unwieldy, but is used for playing really low bitrate samples. This was most often used for like, kick drums and such, but some companies did totally rad things (like sunsoft) and carefully made a bass guitar out of it, giving them another voice for their tracks. This is used in fester's quest and journey to silius, and sounds pretty cool.
I don't know a ton about music theory, unfortunately. But i do know a bit about nes music! I'm the composer (and all over asset guy) for a game project right now.
let me link you some of my garbage i guess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WgyeQKlnUc&index=2&list=UU1FH7Cg8rzWA9NWqBytUqBg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC5N-RgL_0w&list=UU1FH7Cg8rzWA9NWqBytUqBg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MGMkYi_AVA&index=17&list=UU1FH7Cg8rzWA9NWqBytUqBg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHFW9ZaPhr4&index=18&list=UU1FH7Cg8rzWA9NWqBytUqBg&noredirect=1
All the drumbeats in this song use the noise channel, which was a pain in the ass because a lot of them used different instruments to create different sounds.
The other pulse channel you hear that doesn't have any of the four regular duty settings you are used to are from the VRC6 engine, which is where the extra channels also go (they have 8 "pulse widths" by the way and I believe the main chord instrument is set to the fourth pulse width setting, which is I believe 50%? yeah, sounds right :P). The VRC6 engine also has a sound channel used for generating sawtooth waves (like the triangle channel its volume can't be lowered, it's hi or off). You're right about all the other channels playing at the beginning.
This particular song also makes use of the triangle channel as a bass like a lot of traditional NES music did. Also in this particular arrangement, at some point in the song there's this really fast "tch tch" sound going on on every semi-beat, which I used the DPCM channel for (the tone used for it was generated in Audacity in case you're wondering).
In high school I took AP Music Theory, and also I'm minoring in musical composition, so I guess that's a thing.
and wow, that's some cool 8-bit things you have there :O
The other pulse channel you hear that doesn't have any of the four regular duty settings you are used to are from the VRC6 engine, which is where the extra channels also go (they have 8 "pulse widths" by the way and I believe the main chord instrument is set to the fourth pulse width setting, which is I believe 50%? yeah, sounds right :P). The VRC6 engine also has a sound channel used for generating sawtooth waves (like the triangle channel its volume can't be lowered, it's hi or off). You're right about all the other channels playing at the beginning.
This particular song also makes use of the triangle channel as a bass like a lot of traditional NES music did. Also in this particular arrangement, at some point in the song there's this really fast "tch tch" sound going on on every semi-beat, which I used the DPCM channel for (the tone used for it was generated in Audacity in case you're wondering).
In high school I took AP Music Theory, and also I'm minoring in musical composition, so I guess that's a thing.
and wow, that's some cool 8-bit things you have there :O
Thanks man :3
Honestly all the things you described just now can be done in famitracker natively. In the module settings window, you can select from any of the nes's expansion chips. Konami's vrc6, the MMC5, namco's weirdo ...n163? i never use it. And the FDS expansions as well. They just add new channels to yoru project and adhere to the chip limitations.
Honestly you know your stuff enough, i'm not sure why you wouldn't use something like famitracker for it.
What'd you use then?
Honestly all the things you described just now can be done in famitracker natively. In the module settings window, you can select from any of the nes's expansion chips. Konami's vrc6, the MMC5, namco's weirdo ...n163? i never use it. And the FDS expansions as well. They just add new channels to yoru project and adhere to the chip limitations.
Honestly you know your stuff enough, i'm not sure why you wouldn't use something like famitracker for it.
What'd you use then?
Oh, well, I did use Famitracker, but I was under the impression that typically one of the extra channels on actual games was left blank for SFX and such. I guess I was wrong, but I don't know what type of NES games actually utilized the VRC6 chip to begin with. I don't actually know much about electronic music in general, even, and everything I do know about NES-based music was learned in 15 minutes from reading the Wikipedia article about NES management controllers. :P This is the first time I've used the software.
pretty much only famicom games. Konami made the chip, and they put it in some of their games. probably the most notable is the japanese version of castlevania 3.
Oh and how it worked was that whenever sounds had to happen, that channel (or channels) of music would be turned off while the sound played, and then would resume as soon as the next note was triggered in that channel.
Its why the music in megaman 4 forward feels different from 1 2 and 3. They had to write around the player holding the charge shot in all the time, and thus removing one of the pulse channels. The music had to sound good with or without that extra channel, so there's less involved chord work in those tracks.
I duno i think it's pretty cool
Oh and how it worked was that whenever sounds had to happen, that channel (or channels) of music would be turned off while the sound played, and then would resume as soon as the next note was triggered in that channel.
Its why the music in megaman 4 forward feels different from 1 2 and 3. They had to write around the player holding the charge shot in all the time, and thus removing one of the pulse channels. The music had to sound good with or without that extra channel, so there's less involved chord work in those tracks.
I duno i think it's pretty cool
Comments