The MBoard

Called a music.

When I'm not at school or playing video games or writing, this is what I'm up to. I dabble in video game music reproduction via MSGS and my trusty Anvil Studio.

None of these are particularly awesome at the moment, and in fact all four of them are in progress, but what the hell, I need something to show.

Mega Man X2 - Crystal Snail (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/crystalsnail.mid)
Mega Man X - Launch Octopus (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/launchoctopus.mid)
Mega Man X - Fortress Stage 1 (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/sigma1x1.mid)
Mega Man 7 - Fortress Stage 1 (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/mm7wily1.mid) - my personal favourite of the bunch, and probably the most faithful recreation of them. Also the only one not totally butchered by iTunes/QuickTime.

I'm still going to recommend programs that use GS for all of them (in fact iTunes and QuickTime will totally ruin the top three ones).



APPARENTLY I WASN'T BEING CLEAR ENOUGH, SO HERE'S MY WARNING:

DON'T BLOODY WELL USE ITUNES OR QUICKTIME

Cdex and Nero Wav editor are your friends for audio...  ##### itunes and quicktime.

Thanks, that's why I said don't use them.

Technically no, you said they'd ruin them.

They're pretty good. I'll give them a listen again later.

Thanks, that's why I said don't use them.

Obviously you weren't clear enough.

Fine then. *edit*

Launch Octopus is pretty good.
Sigma 1 is also pretty good. Very close.

Quite close to the original sounds.

APPARENTLY I WASN'T BEING CLEAR ENOUGH, SO HERE'S MY WARNING:

DON'T BLOODY WELL USE ITUNES OR QUICKTIME

That's good advice for anything.

true

^Dizzi's ONE post

Am I supposed to marvel at it and take pictures?

One more for your perusal, not from an MM game this time.

Gundam Wing: Endless Duel - Epyon (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/epyon.mid)

This is a redo of a sequence I did of the same piece almost a year ago, which sucked hard.

The fewer questions asked of how I obtained the source material the better :S

---

LAPTOP SETUP ANNOYANCES MAN DEFEATED!

YOU GET FL STUDIO 8.

First upgrade: Launch Octopus (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/X1_LaunchOctopus.mid) touched up with modulation, pitch-bend and volume control effects I couldn't use in Anvil Studio.

EDIT: Now seriously, this one will be 100% butchered by any Apple ##### you try to run it on.

I enjoy listening to this.

Nice MIDIs. I'm not sure if I'm getting the right effect, though, since I'm using the standard Microsoft MIDI device in Winamp.
Any suggestions for an output device to listen to them?

Regardless, it all sounds good. Never heard the Epyon theme before, but it sounds great to me.

I sequence in GS (Microsoft midi format) so anything that uses that can work (WMP, Winamp etc) Apple software has its own synth that doesn't go well with my files.

Well, it doesn't do bad in SB X-Fi Audio, either.
I only wish I could find some more synthesizers...

Well, it doesn't do bad in SB X-Fi Audio, either.
I only wish I could find some more synthesizers...

The sound card doesn`t matter, an SB X-Fi sound card without a special fancy synth installed will still play it in MSGS etc.

I mean the SB X-Fi synth.
But right.

Just finished a brutishly-hard sequence. The tune is basically impossible to reproduce in its original form via any program I can get my hands on, so I settled for the next-best thing: a little something I like to call 'ridiculously absurd time signatures'.

This is a 4/4 song sequenced in 21/16.

This is X2 - Sigma 2 (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/X2_Sigma2.mid)

It's not perfect, but it's the best I could do.

Ignore the little sound artifact at the end, please, I haven't been able to figure that out.

I hope that the original isn't very good.....

Notation-wise it's as close to identical as could be accomplished by the programs I use. Sound-wise it's limited by the GS synth's voices, which can't approach the soundfont-driven SPC format. Music-wise... eh, definitely not my favourite from the game. Doing this sequence was more about the accomplishment than the tune itself.

And I may have to kill you if you listened to it in quicktime.

...
I read the warning earlier.
I did not.

Actually, this is a pretty good try. I'm not sure how different it is from the actual, but the guitar is almost spot-on.
At least with my MIDI devices.

Found a YouTube of the tune for you to scrutinize.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMCYU5FiDZ0&feature=related

Also have another tune, somewhat more recognizable:

X3 - Gravity Beetle (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/gravitybeetle.mid)

May or may not be balance issues with this, but the notation is 100% perfect.

!!!!!!!!
In that video, the MMX2 Box Art, HE IS FIRING HIS BUSTER WHILE HIS HAND IS HOLDING THE HANDLEBARS!

And you did you a damn good replication. On both.

He's firing the left buster while the right hand is on the handlebar, that's nothing special. It's stranger that he's not using the Ride Chaser's main gun itself.

BUT HIS HAND PULLS IN TO MAKE THE BUSTER!
This changes X completely.

... what changes it?
What ARE you talking about?

He's only holding the handlebar with one hand...

John, stop your babbling.

He's only holding the handlebar with one hand...

He's a super fightan android man.
One handed steering is well within reasonable limits.

No #####. I was telling that to John, who seems to think X is holding on the handlebars with both hands while still firing.

Sorry, had a memory lapse.
ASR's post made me think you were John for some reason.

In John's wet dreams maybe!

Why is the bottom of his Buster not round?

That's a perception issue on your part. Not only IS it round, but look here (http://www.sprites-inc.co.uk/files/X/X2/X/) and you'll see that the bottom of the buster is red.

Apologies for the size of the sprites, but the bigger weapon-GET sprites don't show the bottom of the buster.

EDIT: Not only that, but look at this higher-resolution picture.

Face it, John- you were simply born to fail.

I am incorrect.
High res wins.

MegaMan is LEFT handed!?

ONLY WHEN HE'S DRIVING!

It's also possible that he had JUST fired with his right buster for a charge shot and switched hands to follow it up with that combo shot.

MegaMan is LEFT handed!?

Durr, he's facing right can't you see? If he's facing left he's right handed.

MegaMan is LEFT handed!?

He's ambidextrous, as he's used both arms as busters since they just flip the sprites. But he is dominantly south paw, since that's the arm you use when moving forward (AKA most often).

Same thing for X.

Two more done.

Spark Mandrill (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/X1_SparkMandrill.mid) - took about an hour and a half to do the bends on that one, and it still doesn't sound quite right. But going back and fixing it would take another hour and a half so I'll hold off on it for now.

X1 Final Battle (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/X1_Sigma2.mid) - probably some balance issues here which will vary by soundcard.

The Spark Mandrill MIDI is awesome.
Only complaint is that one instrument seems to lose an echo effect at some point, but it still sounds great (I realize this is because the channel that was used for the echo was then used for another instrument).

Since this isn't actually a remix, every deviation from total replication feels wrong to me. If I were remixing (and for a tune like that I wouldn't have a clue where to even start) I might keep the echo even when that channel goes to synth.

Well, you've done an excellent job reproducing this with MIDI in that case.
It's spot-on.

Spark Mandrill.

Good times. Good times. For a MIDI, it's pretty good.

Out of sheer whimsy.

Captain America & the Avengers - Scene Four: The Giant Laser Cannon (http://http:/www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/capt_4.mid)

The game suffers from serious play control issues, but the music is adequate.

At this point, however, I'd like to talk for a few minutes about 'dynamic voice allocation,' and how it made this an absolute nightmare.

Basically, the sound programmer, through laziness, ineptitude, or pure evil, decided not to give each line in the song its own channel. Instead, in his infinite wisdom, he concluded that it would be a great idea to have each note come in on a seemingly-random channel. Since channel-muting is one of my biggest tools in terms of making this easier, it screws me over.

Fortunately it was a very simple tune anyway.

---

Recently I found a very cool application called GXSCC that lets me run any of my MIDIs through an NES synthesizer (without any regard for channel restrictions either) and author a WAV from it. I've encoded MP3s of a few of them for your listening pleasure.

Mega Man X - Spark Mandrill (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/X1_SparkMandrill.mp3) (middle of the range in terms of size)
Gundam Wing: Endless Duel - Epyon (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/GWED_Epyon.mp3) (HUUUUUUUUGE file, upwards of nine megs)
Mega Man 3 - Wily Stage 2 (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/MM3_Fortress2.mp3) (this is basically a demo of how awesomely close to an actual NSF the program can get, small file too)

EDIT: Crap, it seems not to have uploaded them correctly. I'll try again tomorrow.

EDIT2: Actually, it did. Copy these into your address bar instead of clicking the links:

http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/X1_SparkMandrill.mp3
http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/GWED_Epyon.mp3
http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/MM3_Fortress2.mp3

---

MOAR!

Things have been slow, partly due to lack of interest and partly due to the sheer difficulty of one of these two sequences.

Front Mission: Gun Hazard - Map Screen - "Tension" (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/FMGH-Tension.mid)

This wasn't the difficult one. In fact, this one was dead easy. The notation took me less than a half-hour.

Donkey Kong Country 2 - Castle - "Krook's March" (http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/DKC2-Krook.mid) (the second-best song in that entire game)

Nightmare. Absolute nightmare. I regret trying to do it channel-by-channel like I did; rest assured I won't be trying that for overly-complicated tunes anymore.



I'm working on the best song from that game right now, as well as a Splash Blue arrangement.

The game suffers from serious play control issues, but the music is adequate.

DEFINITELY CORRECT THERE, SIR.

Oh, have you also been a party to the near-travesty that was that game?

Many times. I've tried very hard to get anywhere in that game.

<-----Beaten it on easy mode, unwilling to play medium.

---

I don't know if I should feel sad or honoured.

I've been plagiarized.

This video (http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=njamG4g2XQg) contains this crappy translation of Crystal Snail into Mario Paint Composer (http://unfungames.com/support/index.php?topic=3029.0).

I'm not even particularly proud of that effort, and someone still came along and snagged it.

Great, now I have to play X2 again.
Thanks, Fatso.

You're welcome.

Ah, so that guy opened up your song in some Midi reading program and copied the notes exactly how you had it in Mario Paint?

Well, that's what most Mario Paint Musicians do... and like they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Also, whats with the loooooooooooooooong string of random characters in your first post on that thread?

No, here's how it works.

The long string of random characters is the song itself, you save it by creating a text file in your Prefs folder (iirc) and copying-pasting the text in.

What he did was save the song, record it and upload it to YouTube, which is nothing by itself. However, he claims it for his own creation, which is NOT true.

That is, I created the MPC file, he saved it and uploaded it, and he claims he was the creator. I left a message in his channel about it because for some reason I'm incapable of commenting on the video proper.

---

There, got the comment to work.

Oh, so that isn't imitation. That's just flat out stealing.

Well, you may have a problem getting him to do anything... his last sign in was a month ago.

Also reported it for copyright infringement (which it is, on two counts - technically an infringement of the original composer's work as she was not cited, also a DIRECT infringement of my implicit copyright on the derivative work itself.)

Let's not forget the licensed Mario characters and such.

That too, but Nintendo is probably not terribly interested in suing every single person who's ever used the program.

Actually, they probably look at it as free advertising.
I know I would.

I felt like commenting "LOL plagiarism" but I'm too lazy to sign in and I felt it would've been better if you made the move.

Kill it with fire.

I'll help out with sometimes like ChaosVortex said, if need be. Not that that means anything.

I have enough documentation to substantiate my claim by myself, though I appreciate the offer.

---

Yesterday I decided that it was time to stop just oohing and aahing at all the wonderful soundfonts and VSTs that came with FL Studio and actually use a few of them a little. Had to go online to obtain a trumpet soundfont for this because the program didn't happen to include one and I lack the equipment to get quality recordings of my own just-better-than-meagre playing.

It's bland, repetitive and pretty derivative, but it IS a start to what I hope will become a substantial, successful composition hobby.



Gonna have to copy the URL on this, because freewebs are assholes



http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/blaaahahav2.mp3

EDIT: Hmm, they stream the mp3s now, didn't know about that

EDIT2: Just to make sure noone misses the warning this time

The link redirects back to this page for some reason.

Yeah, I'll go back and make that warning bigger, it's hotlinking protection on freewebs' part, you have to copy-paste the url



EDIT: But really the solution to the problem is for me to get off my lazy ass and actually make a home page instead of just dumping all my files there.

I never did understand the whole forbidden hotlinking thing.
... it generates even less site traffic than visiting the place it's stored. Then again, these are capitalist pig dogs we're talking about.

---- As for the composition... ----

Wow, not bad. It started off kind of mellow, but that trumpet works quite well to set the true mood of the piece. As small as it is, it's pretty satisfying.

Sounds like a nice start for a theme.

Makes me think of Duo.

The initial thought I had for it was 'title screen', but it could probably also be expanded into a character theme.

I encourage you to continue making music.

I used "Save Target As" anyway.

You should do a mix of Storm Eagle next.

omg i luv storm egales song

You should do a mix of Storm Eagle next.

You only said that because of Majikn's Sig, right?

omg i luv storm egales song

STORM EAGLE STORM EAGLE STORM EAGLE DUUUH DUT DUT DUT DUH-DUH-DUH DAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

lolworthy.

In all seriousness, though, I have a Mega Man X soundfont and might use a couple of the instruments (particularly the synth brass and the two brands of bass guitar) in future works.

: ChaosVortex  11 March 2009, 02:05:46

You should do a mix of Storm Eagle next.

You only said that because of Majikn's Sig, right?

Blarg. No. Totally not. No way.

Synth-brass will be a no-go, it detunes too easily and I don't want to have to play with it constantly. Still pinching the basses and I think I'll find some use for the overdriven guitar.

---

Wasn't in the composition mood, but WAS in the music-making mood, so I decided to continue discovering new features of the program while punching out a rendition of Mega Man 7's first fortress tune with no regard for polyphony limits.

Did you know that the synthesizer doing those damned bells takes over 40% of my CPU time when rendering in real time? I had to turn them off when not actually rendering the final project.

Same drill as before.

http://www.freewebs.com/colonelfatso/mm7-fortress1.mp3

: NovaMan XP  11 March 2009, 02:13:07

: ChaosVortex  11 March 2009, 02:05:46

You should do a mix of Storm Eagle next.

You only said that because of Majikn's Sig, right?

Blarg. No. Totally not. No way.

Just making sure.

Sounds quite close to the original, Fatso.
Good job.

Holy #####. That was great. I want you to make MORE. These are great.
Seriously, Nice job.

SEVEN MONTHS LATER...

I haven't been updating this thread, but I have been semi-demi-active musically. Most of what I've been doing has been pretty much just dicking around though and really not worthy of publishing.

But a few days ago I gave the full version of the Chip-Tuned Rockman album a spin, and decided I could probably do a more appealing Ground Man cover than the mixer did. So for the first time ever I've finished something I started in FamiTracker (also the first time using a lot of the functionality of FT so it might not sound as good as it could but I'm still reasonably proud of it) and can present to you:

Rockman & Forte - Ground Man Stage (NES-ized)

http://colonelfatso.webs.com/groundman.mp3

http://colonelfatso.webs.com/groundman.nsf

MP3 rendering and NSF raw synth data are both available. I noticed a couple of sound artifacts in the MP3 rip so Winamp/Chipamp users should pick up the NSF for best results, but ultimately it doesn't really matter.



Important to note is the fact that I used the Konami VRC6 expansion chip in the module so this is technically not an authentic American NES sound (American NES cannot use music expansion chips)



ALSO:

I've done some midi-stuffs for various sequencing/composition projects. These aren't nearly as cool so they won't get the kind of spiel I gave up there.

Download these and play them in MSGS (default windows midi synth) if you can, although quicktime should be not-so-horrible with most of them as well.

Front Mission: Gun Hazard - "Blue Sky ~ Blue Sky" (http://colonelfatso.webs.com/fmgh-blue.mid) - sequenced when I was bored one day

Following three were sequenced for a great big project to fill up FMGH's index entry on VGMusic:

Front Mission: Gun Hazard - "Violent Chase" (http://colonelfatso.webs.com/fmgh-violent.mid)

Front Mission: Gun Hazard - "Sentinel" (http://colonelfatso.webs.com/fmgh-sentinel.mid)

Front Mission: Gun Hazard - "Silencer" (http://colonelfatso.webs.com/fmgh-silencer-b.mid)

And the last is an original I composed for a contest (while it didn't score last place, it was fairly low in the ranks, so listener beware):

The Ocean Depths (generic name for theme of the week in question) (http://colonelfatso.webs.com/OceanDepths.mid)

So yeah.

---

A NEW CONTENT APPROACHES!

I'm in love with FamiTracker and especially that Konami VRC6 expansion chip right now, so I pounded out another cover today. It turned out fairly well, although there are some nagging balance issues.

Mega Man X, Fortress Stage 1:

NSF (http://colonelfatso.webs.com/x1fortress1.nsf)
MP3 (http://colonelfatso.webs.com/x1fortress1.mp3)

Again would prefer downloading the NSF to save my bandwidth and because of recording artifacts (I've come to the conclusion that my laptop's sound card simply sucks and this is the best I'll be getting from it).

I personally like the Chiptunes Ground Man theme just a little bit more, but this does have consistency and lacks that one annoying part.

---

After listening to both actually, I'm unsure which one I like better now.

I didn't do much music making in the month of November, due to nanowrimo again, though I did decide to start work on a mock game soundtrack in Famitracker and have two tracks done (they're nothing like final, though, so I won't bother encoding MP3s or uploading the NSF yet) with god knows how many to go.

But tonight I was struck by inspiration and decided to pay my respects to the soundtrack of a little vertical scrolling shooter called Battle Garegga.

Battle Garegga - Title Screen (http://colonelfatso.webs.com/bgaregga_title.mid)

It's short, but it was freaking hard to do, because there is no way to isolate any one output of the YM2151 sound chip through any means I know.

---

'FOR GREAT JUSTICE' FOR GREAT JUSTICE.

Zero Wing isn't anything like the best shooter ever, but it's fine, and so is the soundtrack. A sample, recently sequenced to NSF format:

Stage 5 - Submarine Tunnel

MP3 (180 BPM) (http://colonelfatso.webs.com/subtunnel.mp3) | NSF (180 BPM) (http://colonelfatso.webs.com/subtunnel.nsf) | NSF (150 BPM) (http://colonelfatso.freewebs.com/subtunnel150.nsf)

I rendered it in both 150 and 180 BPM because neither of them is correct (the actual tempo is closer to 165 BPM). Unfortunately, that's the closest I could get while retaining the integrity of the sixteenths (because practically every 16th would come between frames and thus have to be displaced). The MP3 is recorded from the 180BPM version because that was my preference and I wasn't about to record both versions.



Progress on the mock soundtrack isn't anything like spectacular. I only wrote one more piece so far, a generic-sounding fanfare for STAGE COMPLETE.

---

New file host and two more game music covers.

Raiden II Stage 1: MP3 (http://www.box.net/shared/oqjh6nvz9g)

Yoshi's Island Final Boss: MP3 (http://www.box.net/shared/7pjhtzikfr)

I'm not quite satisfied with the Yoshi's Island one (mostly disappointed in the guitar, but I haven't been able to find any better guitar soundfonts for the job), but it's acceptable, I suppose.

I love Yoshi's Island, and I can agree that this doesn't match up to the original. This one seems a bit lacking, and the original is just... so intense. I LOVE the final boss battle in that game.

Regardless, I DO adore the fact that you decided to do that track. I love it.

Did some touch-up work on the Ocean Depths MIDI and gave it new life in the form of SoundFonts and a "proper" title.

Submerged City with a Side of Fries (http://www.box.net/shared/yyuxe37hi3)

---

Herp derp de derp updates.

A goal of mine over the summer is to learn how to take full advantage of the Yamaha XG MIDI softsynth I have on my computer. Here's the first fruit of that labour:

Mega Man X - Fortress Stage 1: MP3 (http://www.box.net/shared/kfobdr5cx4) | MIDI (http://www.box.net/shared/e6h30un9tc) (balanced for S-YXG50, will sound okay but not great on MSGS)

Also, nintendo file:

Zero Wing - Stage 2: MP3 (http://www.box.net/shared/z4a4fpycy9) | NSF (http://www.box.net/shared/1gvuzj50q9)

And an original I composed for a sample-pack contest (you're given sounds and told to make music with them):

HIS POWER IS MAXIMUM (http://www.box.net/shared/nljm622sdj)

Placed 27th out of 40, certainly higher than I expected (although of course not BROLY TIER).

I love the rendition of the X1 Sigma 1.

Hmm it's been forever, I guess I should fix that



Entered a composition contest for the month of August, the stipulation of which was that entries must be in 7 time of some kind, so I did a thing.

Didn't work on it as much as I would have liked to, and the first 45 seconds or so are far from inspiring, but it picks up as it goes so bear with me

HIGH-TECH EXPERIMENTAL FIGHTER: MIDI (http://www.box.net/shared/49kp03v785) | MP3 (http://www.box.net/shared/bj7ayje5p3) (MSGS optimized, so probably grab the MIDI and you should be good)



AND SOMETHING ELSE:

I really enjoy the soundtrack to Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt so I sequenced one of the more awesome and recognizable stage themes

Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt: Attic/Science Lab/Icebox: MIDI (http://www.box.net/shared/ri21kmqua2) (again MSGS so most people will be good with this)

High-Tech Experimental Fighter was pretty good.

Oh god, default Microsoft MIDI instruments.
My ears.

I know, I know

MSGS is trash but it's universal so I tend to use it for contests (which usually stipulate GM1 only anyway because lots of people don't have an xg or other GM2-type synth hanging around), not to mention I get to spend all the time I'd normally use fiddling around with brightness/chorus/reverb settings on the actual composition.

The other sequence was started like a year and a half ago before I even installed xg so I finished it in gs. No real excuses there, just too lazy to rebalance/select new patches.

Ah, I forgot to comment on the tune, as I listen to this, I can't help but think it would make a really nice tune for a waterway type of level.  Like sluice caverns or something.

The composition is actually pretty nice, Fatso.

SEMESTER UPDATE

I haven't been doing much composition (pfft when have I ever done much composition) but last semester I joined a jazz band and a choir at my university (at least giving me a musical excuse). Choir performance video is still in the works, but once it's finished I'll probably share it.

ANYWAY:

Another Sample Pack Contest, another entry. A much better one (by my estimation) but it placed worse (35th of 51). Meh. The entries were pretty damned good, by and large, so I'm not totally disappointed.

Seven Proxies: MP3 (http://www.box.net/shared/c9r8m5lt8r)

Considering you're up against a group with coda in it...
...35/51 isn't too bad.

Some odd samples in this pack, but you have a frantic beat going with some sort of difficult to identify genre being tapped into.  Seems to be the strings that make it, but they get sporadic at points, and maybe a little lost.

The end of this is really good, it's the middle that confuses me a bit.

WISE FWOM YO GWAVE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOQcnliEjXM)

So in the last couple years, I haven't done much digitally at all, but in an exciting turn of events, I was recently (summer) hired on to do a couple of soundtracks for my friend who designs video games. We're fast approaching delivery for the first game and I was having massive musical writer's block trying to figure out the last track, so I did this instead (with a combination of the sound sets I've developed for the two games):

Plok!

Akrillic: OGG (https://www.box.com/s/idjfwva80sxtubid2yf5)


Tim Follin is as much the man as any 'the man' can be.

Is that a Castlevania sprite in your avatar?

Yes, Death circa CV4.

But not FROM Castlevania 4?

I think it is, but the avatar is so old that I couldn't tell you for sure.

 I haven't got that far in CV4 for so long I don't remember either.  I guess I should go check.