I attached the actual NSF file to the first post. The stage select track is incomplete, but everything else is complete. The tracks go in a strange order, but that's just how they're organized. :P
sivak, i'm assuming you're the guy from VGMUSIC.COM who used to do so many MIDI files... i knew the name sounded familiar.
anyway, just a question: why when anything sustains in your NSFs does the volume rapidly alternate between 8 and 6? it just sounds awkward any time a note sustains (kind of jittery).
edit: also other than that, the songs are mostly well reproduced... some issues (you may already know about these) and critiques (i'm a nerd, and will only go over songs i actually like from mm9)
Overall: a lot of the volume envelopes sound like the attack too quickly, but this isn't really a huge issue.
Jewel Man:
:01-:09 - try having the echo (second square) be at a constant volume of like 5, it might sound better (also maybe make the echo delay a little longer, might help, i don't know)
:09 pitchbend goes to far
Plug Man:
:03 - chord held here is wrong, should be a fourth
:39-:45 - echo delay needs to be a lot longer with maybe some vibrato on the first square
Concrete Man:
:35-:43 same issue with echo delay as before
Splash Woman:
--entire background is wrong- they're basically copying how MM2's bubbleman did it if you want a really good reference.
:13-:37 - they're doing the first part + echo by alternating between the two with the second square-- which is probably annoying to recreate.
Galaxy Man:
:46-:47 - this is one area where yours can't ever copy theirs because their song is too "perfect" (doesn't take into account the lack of registers at high frequencies). you didn't do anything wrong here, just noting this. otherwise your copy of this song is really good.
wily stage 2:
:14-:19 - the second part of the background riff is a bit wrong- instead of
C# B A E
it should be
C# C B A
Other than that you're good i think..
Also hooray for my coming across as an elitist asshole for my first Famitracker post! It will be my mission to do things like reiterate how MML is better and such.
I think it's good feedback. For something like this, I'd say it's important to get it right. Lots of people would be interested in an NSF version of Mega Man 9's OST, and the more transparent it is, the better
Ok. Well, I've looked at some things and basically to address some points:
The volume envelope I use for most of the squares is set up to be: 15 14 12 10 | 8 6
In the past I didn't have the 15 there, but that was the envelope I used in my games when I used Famitracker to make music for them.
As far as echo goes, I don't know if I'll be playing too much with it. MM9 uses some funky reverb effects so I just did what I thought was closest.
Regarding songs:
Jewel - I know some of the pitch bends may seem strange. Some people even talked about it on youtube... I tried using various portamentos but they still sounded awkward. Some points are merely a 32nd note grace (e.g. going from a C# to a D in 1 frame) If it was midi, I could probably make the pitch bends better.
Plug - I'll give you that one. Changed to a G-D hold instead of G-E. This particular song was originally made with video footage from E3 and low quality recordings. It had several errors before too.
Splash - The second square was hard to really do since no isolation was possible. Basically, at the loop point, I heard that square pattern come in after the note hold fades and just used that throughout except where it was obvious that the second square is doing something else. Is there something that particularly stands out?
Wily stage 2 - OK, I'll give you that one. Good job. Thanks for not pointing out the triplet oddities as the program can't do triplets.
One thing I've also since fixed that you didn't mention: Some chords in Hornet Man were wrong.
I'll post a more "correct" file when I do another song or two.
edit: for wily stage 2, i wasn't being super nitpicky on timings, but if you want, you can change the speed of the playback using some command (sliver did it in one of his songs a lot). This way you have more control over each frame and could probably do triplets.
Yeah... but Famitracker doesn't support panoration. Hey, that's a request to add to the list...
When adding this, add a mode for Stereo mode (a preset that takes the squarewaves to left and the rest to the right). I think that there is a hardware mod that you can do on a NES that does this. Where you take the audio directly from the processor...
Yep -- I tried it out, though it kinda sucked (for me). I was barely able to hear anything.
This of course was PROBABLY due to the fact that my speakers lacked volume knobs, however. Still, it was pretty neat. :D
Just an update guys: A new NSF is there. It has 2 more songs and an incomplete track 17 (very incomplete)
New songs are the stage select and the boss theme. Tracks 14 and 16 respectively.
Notes:
Tornado Man starts where it should
Plug Man has the note fix
Concrete Man has note fixes
Hornet Man has note fixes
Jewel Man has some altered pitch bends
Wily stage 2 has note fixes
All squares now use an envelope with a constant 8 at the end.
1) The note sustains sound a LOT better now
2) your fixes all seem to be correct
3) your echo stuff still needs work as noted above (see http://4x86.com/electric.nsf for how i'd do it)
4) try adding slight vibrato to some of your sustains (the soundtrack seems to do this a lot). Put some delay before the vibrato and you should be good.
Other than that, it's quite good now and is a lot more accurate.
edit: just noticed.. in your boss cover:
1) the triangle at the beginning is missing two notes (where it doesn't play anything). It should just play B Bb like the first square.
2) the square bass should not hit a volume of zero- instead of having it do that, make it hit 2 or 3. It doesn't actually rest after each note, it just goes to a lower volume (makes it sound like it's echoing a little). the triangle is correct here though.
3) the note sustains aren't right- after awhile, the notes in the boss song drop off to about half volume (except for the pitchbended notes).
sounds a bit better echowise, though i'd still recommend making the echoed note have more delay (wait a couple more frames) and have a slightly lower volume.
this just keeps getting better.. keep up the good work..
oh and my whine about the boss song still stands :P 2 notes!
