VGM

RE: VGM

Video Game Music isn't limited to bleeps and bloops, you know... Only the older systems and the GBA use synthesized sound. All of the next-gen systems use CD-quality audio. And the PSX and N64 can kinda do that with Redbook audio.

I have no idea how you would create music that sounds like it was composed on an NES or Gameboy, nor do I see why you would want to. The oldschool systems have very catchy music, but the hardware used to design them is EXTREMELY limited. Take, for example, the Super Mario Brothers theme, something that roughly 60% of the population of the Earth recognizes. That song has 4 whole tracks. Only through extreme manipulation of the hardware or special soundchips were developers able to get more than 4 tracks per song on the NES. Not to mention that the quality of the sound was extremely limited. The SNES actually has a very, very good soundchip, however, allowing for much higher-quality sounds with many more tracks. The SNES actually has a better soundchip than the PSX; however, the PSX can utilize Redbook audio, enabling it to stream CD quality music at the cost of a chunk of disc space. Well, that was a giant ramble.

In conclusion, there is absolutely no need to compose music in that style... music made in that style is nothing more than fake nostalgia for trendwhores to think is cool. Not to say that the music isn't good, it's just that the format of it is so limited that no one should ever want to compose on it. That's why sites like OC Remix exist.

Why yes, I do know a bit too much about video games, thanks for asking.

RE: VGM

I have to agree. Don't try and emulate that sound quality. Emulating the STYLE seems alot more interesting.

RE: VGM

My friend remixed the Tetris theme song using a gameboy hooked up to a synthesizer. He was actually playing the game during the track. It was mighty rad.

I suggest checking out http://www.8bitpeoples.com/ Free tracks all done with the C64.

also check out:

http://www.8bitpeoples.com/research_....html#software

RE: VGM

There are vsti's around that emulate atari and nintendo sounds. I don't know where or what they are called but i've heard of them.

Moogy, half the stuff you said was incorrect. I dunno about you, but games like FF7, 8, and 9 have much better music sample quality than anything I've heard on the SNES and they are the same sequenced sample 'midi' type soundtracks. And also, a lot of ps2 games still use this method for music (FFX did) rather than redbook audio. You can get plugins for winamp so that you can play 'emulated' music from games that use this method and the song files are very very small even compared to mp3. check out http://www.zophar.net/music.html They've got stuff for nes, snes, genesis, ps1, ps2 and other stuff.

RE: VGM

wow, im glad to get so much feed.

im aware that i could easily reproduce much of the noise of VGM, simply zoink up a few squares and ramps, but i was mainly wondering about the process. it just amazes me that someone could produce fresh arps and such smooth bass and synthlines from a gameboy soundchip. do they plug the chips into midi players?

RE: VGM

theres a program that can rip the original samples off snes roms. after all that was how the snes produced sounds it manipulated the same set of samples to very great lengths to produce a variety of sounds. i dont remember the name of the program but the soundchip is called SHVC, just google and im sure it can be easily found.

RE: VGM

You can do it with SNEStool as well. There are also zounds of soundfonts with full SNES banks on them. You can get either at Zophar.net.