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FamiTracker
My name is Rob, and I scored a soundtrack for an iOS game called the Last Defense of Our Time, inspired by Missile Command. I used FamiTracker all the way through and turned it into stereo with a little help from Audacity. Then I had it mastered. I think it sounds awesome. I am including a link to my ReverbNation/Facebook page with streaming versions for you to enjoy!
Here is where you can listen to a couple of my favorites:
[ul]
[url=http://www.alamodest.com/hosted/perspection][b][color=red]Perspection official page[/b]
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Please let me know what you think, and download the game for your iPhone here:
[ul][url=http://beautyofthefall.com/LDooT.htm][b][color=blue]Last Defense of Our Time official app Web site[/b][/ul]
You can also buy the soundtrack on iTunes here if you're interested:
Thank you... I think. You said it was cool, but then you said I needed to improve my technique. Also, what about it doesn't compliment the visuals? The designer of the game loved it and was beside me the whole time I composed it, approving each track for each specific visual. He said, "This music inspired me to make the game even better." So yeah, you kinda gave me a mixed message there. I'd be happy to hear your explanation.
He probably just means that the graphics look too sophisticated for 8-bit music, which, from what I can tell, might not be that much of a problem. I could definitely imagine 8-bit tracks to those graphics. Of course, I'll never get the game because I don't have an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad.
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On the topic of VRC7, I definitely thought about using it, but I wanted to have less tracks to work with this time so that I could focus and limit myself. This also helped the project not take too long. The next game we do, I might give it a try.
gyms,
If you saw the .ftm, you would see that there is a ton of volume control used throughout each track. Also, there was plenty of portamento. I'm not sure what else I could do there. What specifically was wrong with those things? Sorry for being defensive, but this took a lot of thought and time. What about my execution of duty cycles was not intelligent?
I'm a little reluctant to post the file, only because the songs are on sale on iTunes. I'm a little bit afraid of copyright infringement. Perhaps this fear is somewhat unfounded. I might take my chances and post something up here in a day or two.
Oh, by the way, did you get a chance to try the game?
Thanks for saying that you thought it was a quality product. I do appreciate it.
[quote=gyms]To me, 32-bit visuals and smooth animation paired with 8-bit style music produce a confused atmosphere.[/quote]
I totally disagree. Look at Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, the PS3 DLC game. Very smooth...granted, designed to represent 8-bit aesthetics, but still, very smooth and perfectly complimented by Anamanaguchi's soundtrack.
Truth be told, I like 8-bit sound at just about any time for just about anything. It is an immediate attention grabber, and it has dynamics built into it that can even surpass most compressed rock production, which can get really flat. However, chiptunes tend to have an instant levelness, even with minimal tweaking, that almost automatically make the songs sound professionally recorded. I didn't even really have to master this, because the unmastered files sounded pretty darn good (and the sound files used in the game are the unmastered versions), but I had them mastered to bring out the bass in them and make them louder on iTunes and on stereos (if they ever make it that far). Maybe that is throwing you off, but a lot of thought and work went into volume levels. I'm not sure why you criticized them. There is nothing more I would change or possibly could change about it. Almost every single note in the square and noise channels (hi-hat) has been leveled according to MY preference. Unless you went into the file and fixed every single note according to your preference---each change of which I would probably disagree with---then you couldn't really just give me flat advice about the levels of my tracks. An artist has intricate processes. The same goes for my "unintelligent" choices of duty cycling. I experimented and chose values accordingly. You can't just flatly accuse someone of not being thoughtful enough about those things. And once again, that goes for portamento. I picked the portamento that sounded right. Maybe you should listen more closely. I'm not sure if you even heard my employment of these things. Perhaps you just listened for a second and assumed there was no volume control or portamento. It takes a trained ear to hear these subtleties correctly.
Sorry for the bad vibes. I just feel that you spoke somewhat carelessly.
There [i]is not[/i] a complete lack of delay/echo. Listen to track 23; it has echo right from the beginning. Also, see track 29, though the echo on that was created by doubling a track in audacity. A lot of times on these tracks, I didn't use echo because I didn't have room to do so. I will admit that I haven't opened the potential of the hardware to apply a delay effect, instead setting up a manual one by using both square tracks (one slightly later than the other, as I did in track 23, as I mentioned). Also, this music is meant to have a spacey theme kind of, but it takes place on earth, so a complete deep space sound is not necessary.
Anamanaguchi put their first record out on 8bit peoples. I am pretty sure they would consider themselves an 8-bit band. Also, it is very clear by the composition of their songs that they track their 8-bit stuff first and then play along with it. As I've had experience using the 2A03 sound, I've definitely been able to pinpoint a lot of the sounds they've used. They might port that over to synthesizers somehow for live performance, but I know that their compositions are almost all based on a 5-track FamiTracker kind of setup. I'd be really surprised if it were the other way around. The real drums and guitar added to their sound do not change the distant and disconnected, but also rocking and old-school) feeling of the sound. While they definitely add to it, I don't think that taking them away would not fit for Scott Pilgrim. That's just silliness. If they took out samples altogether (the DPCM channel) and it just sounded like Gyromite or BurgerTime music, then it might be a little too dry for the graphics of Scott Pilgrim, but I personally (and this is an opinion, not an absolute---as you seem to believe all of your opinions are...thus is the attitude of the forum dweller I guess) believe that the 2A03 sound has all of the fluidity and dynamics needed to score even a motion picture. I'm not sure why that hasn't been done yet, actually.
Speaking of 2A03, I know how all of the duties sound, and I chose each according to octave and volume to sound exactly how I wanted it to. You can't tell me I chose the wrong one. I am aware of all of the different possibilities, and I experimented constantly to get the sound I wanted. You have to just sit back and try to understand what I was doing to appreciate that. You can have a different way of doing things, but don't assume that I'm just naive and don't understand how to use the software.
As far as your description of me as a teenager with a guitar, 3 chords, and the truth, I am resentful. I logged my time figuring out the program before I started making the soundtrack...not to mention the 100+ hours I spent actually making it. I hope you can understand that your insinuation can be and IS quite derisive.
In any case, do you even like punk rock? Because if you did, you would understand that some people just have the raw talent and the ganas to crank good noise out of anything because they just HAVE to. That's how I feel when I'm making music. I got tired of practicing my piano, and I wanted to make good rock/pop/electronic music RIGHT AWAY. I'll log the time it takes to make what [b][i]I[/i][/b] want out of an instrument or program, but I'm not going to break my back to please conossieurs who want to hear perfection in their famitracker-derived pieces. I'm not freaking Miles Davis. I mean, even [i]he [/i] probably appreciated amateurs with a flare for good sound when he heard it. Now, whether you actually believe that what I made out of this piece of software sounded good is up to you, but when you make a blanket statement that I could use some work or improvement, that's like going to Joey Ramone or the Beatles (who weren't excellent musicians at first by any stretch) and saying, "you could use some work." I'm sure this happened, but it was the wrong people telling them that. It's just a joke. Obviously I'm on the right track (though I never quite caught why you assumed I was a noob...I guess it was that noticeable in my sound or because you never saw me on the forums), so some encouragement would be more helpful than blanket "needs improvement" statements.
Anyway, I am somewhat intrigued by what you could possibly have to offer me in my music. I noticed that you didn't even comment on the arrangement, rhythm, melody, and musicality of it. That's the most important part anyway. You haven't said anything positive about it, but obviously you kind of liked it, because you even bothered sending me a message at all about it. I guess I'd be more willing to hear what you had to offer as far as advice if you had something specifically good to say about it. If not, I'm just naturally turned off by your comments. You seem overcritical, snobby, and nitpicky about this stuff. I'd also be interested in hearing the music you've composed. If I were to let you go through one of my famitracker files, I can't imagine that you would be able to make it sound any better. I would be truly amazed if you could add anything to the hours and hours I spent on each one of these songs. Perhaps I'll let you try it by sending you a file someday.
Or, if you aren't a crazy person, and since you live in Baltimore, we could meet up and you could show me what you know. This is, of course, provided that you admit that there is something you like about it and stop being so critical about it. As it goes, though, your words have been discouraging and annoying. Maybe we can turn this around, since you seem so concerned about my lack of knowledge and want to help me. Wouldn't you at least recommend this soundtrack to a friend?
Actually, it makes a bit of sense to sell the soundtrack to any game program, considering that Apple's a bunch of highway robbers when it comes to software development.
If a company like Apple forces individual developers & hobbyists to pay $99 a year to have their programs available as freeware only, then Apple is hindering developers' freedoms. You're forced to pay $99 to have an account with Apple's App Store, only to be forced into making freeware applications; that's a load of crap. You might as well get an account with SourceGraveyar- I mean, SourceForge & not pay a penny.
This said, the game itself isn't free (it costs $1.99,) but it's an otherwise necessary cost to support its presence on the App Store (as much as people would otherwise disagree with this entire approach, including me).
As for the music itself, here's what I have to say; the rhythm, melody & notation of the songs are pretty good. Use of effects (such as tremolos, arpeggios, pitch-bending effects, etc.) can be increased in small amounts to enhance the music, but my main problem is that I don't quite find the music as suitable for a Missile Command clone as it would be for some other game genre (i.e.: I'd expect a track that doesn't sound like an amateur software cracker's keygen intro, but a song that's more complex & can incur a feeling of urgency during game play).
The final boss music sounds a bit too repetitive & the percussion is a bit overpowering when played with the rest of the song (hence the need for better volume control; less volume for percussion). The tertiary defense music has a good melody, but it's something I'd expect in a Parodius-like game (i.e.: this is more of a side-scrolling shoot-'em-up game's theme than that of a stationary shoot-'em-up game).
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I didn't read Perspection's latest wall of text, but ... dude ... Perspection, maybe you should chill a little bit. The music is alright. A little criticism doesn't mean you have to write an essay in defense.
Also, I think people here are used to seeing the .ftm's for the songs most of the time. That's maybe why there aren't a lot of comments. Plus, they're probably a little burned out from all the poor quality posts around here lately.
Anyway, please stick around and teach/learn with the community.
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