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FamiTracker
So this is my first shot at making a song in famitracker, or any tracker for that matter. I've always wanted to get into making chiptune jams but I have never been too keen on learning how to use a tracker program. Not terribly fond of them. That being said I am making progress in learning famitracker.
The reason for the ping pong ending there is because I'm outputting the channels out to an external program for panning.
Any suggestions or constructive criticism for a tracker noob such as myself?
I listened, and I think it's a good start. I think you have potential, so I'll show you a few tricks.
First off, you never want to leave the volume on 15s (you want to be able to clearly hear the triangle, which has no volume setting).
Also, the note cuts on the square channels really have to go! Any time the square channel is doing nothing, you probably could be using it for echo or reverb.
Take a look at the changes I made in frames 22 (or frame 16 in hex). That's echo using 2 channels.
Sounds cool, if you have an extra channel to spare.
In frame 26 (1A in hex), you don't have a channel to spare, so I squeezed in an echo where you had the note cuts. That's called single channel echo or autoecho.
That technique is also demonstrated on the B channel (the lead).
Last thing:
If you use tempo 180, which is 20 frames per quarter note (a frame is 1/60th of a second). You have 8 rows per quarter note. 20/8 = 2.5. So, Famitracker has to decide which rows will last 3 frames and which will last 2.
Since this is annoying, you can the t150 trick.
When tempo is 150, a frame lasts as long as the speed setting. t150 f01 = 1 frame per row.
t150 f02 = 2 frames per row. In the DPCM channel, I put:
F03
F02
F03
F02
It ends up being the same tempo, but now you know exactly how many frames each row will last.
Also the filesize is quite big compared with most other work here. Not that matters.
EDIT: Oh yeah rational tempo
Seeing that there are no 32th notes (i.e. no notes are triggered on odd rows like 01, 03, 05 and so on), the use of rational tempo will not boost much performance here.
This however makes the song sound less 'pausy':
F04
F01
F04
F01
etc.
EDIT2: Now, tadpole, you miss an A00 on SQ1 Pattern 0E Row 00.
Wow I am completely blown away by the difference adding that volume control made. I would of never thought of doing that. O_O
I also would of never known about the timing issue. Can't say I fully understood it all. Thanks a lot for the info though : D
The F04, F01 thing did make it sound less choppy but some of that choppyness is what I was going for so I am going to stick with F03, F02.
I guess my one question would be how the G01 works. Is it delaying the note cut? I was messing with it and did hear a subtle difference. Sounded less choppy.
I must say, the original was very well-done (considering that it was his first song). Very impressive.
And that extra volume/speed/note delay control that tadpole added really made a world of difference. However, I don't know if tadpole purposely decided to not return the volume of square channel 1 back to normal with an A00 on the first row of frame 21.
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Just want to clarify for TechEmporium that this is my first tracker song but not my first song ever. My background is in metal. But thanks for the positive comments, glad you liked it!
I'll try to mess with it more with what tadpole showed me in mind and I'll upload it when done.
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