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FamiTracker
Whenever I hear chiptune music, I always hear the main instrument switching duties. This creates a really cool effect, thought I can't really say what.
Whenever I compose songs, I usually stay with the same duty until I change parts in the song. I have no idea how they make this cool effect with the instruments or what pattern they use when they're choosing what duty to use at what point...
Sorry, I can't really describe what I'm talking about, but I'll include a failed example from myself:
I think I understand what you're talking about; besides the duty changes, there are also a few portamentos that accompany them. I see you're trying this with a Qxx effect; you may also need to use the Qxx effect with an Rxx effect, or forget them both & use a 3xx effect along with the duty change.
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On a serious note, see this thread: http://famitracker.shoodot.net/forum/posts.php?id=1425, which contains Crystal Flash. This may also help you out, and you get to hear a pretty good cover.
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KuroBit, I don't see duty_test.ftm as a failed example. You know what you're doing, and you seem to have the hang of it (although I think the effect sounds much better when you take out the octaved 2nd channel).
Virt is the master of this kind of duty changes, so I understand that Tech mentioned Crystal Flash as an example.
However, if you can find his other works, including that V-OPTION covered by vgthing, the duty changing techniques are then found everywhere. Mex is also attempting to mimick Virt's style, as seen in his recent work.
What's else is duty abuse and that's something completely different.
I'm not sure what you where talking about in crystal flash, but I did notice a bit of the effect in Rooftops. Also noticed it right at 1:08 in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCiiso-9Oac
I guess it's sort of that sound that sounds a bit like an overdrive electric guitar solo or something >_>. It almost sounds like it's making a feedback sound.
Also a slightly different effect is used in old chiptune music where the duty constantly sweeps back and fourth. (But that wasn't the one I was looking for)
So anyway, how do I do it? XD Should I be doing higher notes as 50% duty, or only notes that are held for a while, or do I need to be listening to an actual guitar for it to work?... I have no clue :P.
You know what; in the case of an actual guitar, it's not exactly a duty cycle change as it is a vibrato effect combined with over-amplification.
A guitar normally outputs a sine wave. When you hit a fret on the string & then slide it left & right, you create a vibrato effect that varies the note's pitch/frequency. When you over-amplify the note in an old amplifier or an electronic effects peddle, you clip the peaks of the wave (making it sound more like a square wave than a sine wave).
As you can see, this is manipulating an analog wave & is, therefore, impractical; for the effect that you're most likely looking for, you might want to take a look at a song from nicetas_c, called Crucifix Held Close.
He uses 900 BPM & plays each note with both a volume fade & a duty change in each of his 2A03 square channels (he also uses a pulse-width change in the VRC6 squares). Pitch bends near the end of sustained notes also help a lot, as you'll see in the attachment.
Props to nicetas_c.
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Well, on that fill in Airbrush it seemed like most of the notes were being hit by something like 1 0 in the duty with a 50% on the high, longer notes with vibrato.
[url=http://2a03.free.fr/dl.php?file=2783]These [url=http://2a03.free.fr/dl.php?file=2932]two covers of mine (2nd one also available in [url=http://2a03.free.fr/dl.php?file=2934]VRC6 flavour) are excellent examples of duty cycle shifting within a melody (aka Vxx abuse).
This technique isn't one I normally use when I write my own music though.
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