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FamiTracker
[b]This thread will be used to exhibit my various FamiTracker covers, original and other misc. works![/b]
So I've been using FamiTracker for about a year now, and even so I'm not terribly good ahaha.
Recently, I've been playing around with the VRC7 chip, and being that I'm a real big fan of the MegaDrive soundchips and the classic Sonic soundtracks, I attempted to cover Emerald Hill using the VRC7 module. The original plan was to use my super dee duper OCD powers to replicate the exact synths for each instrument. But since the VRC7 only lets one custom patch play at a time for the most part, I had to make do with the 15 other preset patches.
The cover is completely finished, however, it sounds to me like there is a whole bundle of errors both with volumes and overall composition and instrument choice. I was wondering if someone could help me rectify the issues?
<Oh and by the way Dan, I hope you don't mind me using a few of your fantastic DPCM samples.>
*EDIT#1*
Bare with me for a second, appears I messed around with the file settings and forgot to change them back...
*EDIT#2*
FTM has been updated with new settings and whatnot
You're gonna need some louder DPCM samples and some quieter VRC7 channels. Otherwise this is pretty good.
Ideally I try to keep VRC7 volume below 0xC for most instruments, and 0xE for really quiet ones. That's because 1) the VRC7 is mixed significantly louder than the 2A03, and 2) the VRC7 clips and distorts madly when it's too loud (something Famitracker doesn't emulate, but is definitely present on the real cartridge).
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I've reduced the volume on both the Square Waves and the FM VRC7 channels. The DPCM samples have also been altered, though the Sonic the Hedgehog snare sample still needs a bit of work, no matter what I do with it it always sounds muffled or too percussive, in the sense that it starts out read loud and the cuts itself suddenly.
It's good indeed, but it has some pitch problems with the FM channels 2 and 3. At first, it was too loud, but now is too quiet. However, i understand that using all those channels and mixing their volume values properly is very difficult, and might become a challenge. The VRC7 is hard to master, and I've had problems with it, like when using note cuts, but you could try lowering the volume to a minimal value when you want to cut a note, which is needed in some places, specially frames 01 and 02.
You have made a good cover of that song. In fact, when I hear it, it really resembles Sonic 2. If you put a little more work to this, it might even sound almost the same. You should try [url=http://famitracker.com/forum/posts.php?id=1282&highlight=RJDMC]this to work with DPCM samples. Keep up the good work!(Where did i see that phrase?)
Thanks for the kind words. I've tried to properly balance the channels out so the FM channels, square waves and DPCM channels can all be heard equally. The DPCM is as good as I can make it with my limited technical knowledge of both DPCM samples alone and how they work in FamiTracker, the FM and square waves still need a little work in my opinion. As for the accuracy of the cover, I can pretentiously state that I think in terms of accuracy, this is as far as it goes, if I were allowed to utilize more than one custom FM patch, I could have made each FM synth as accurate as I could to the original YM2612 synth.
The updated .FTM file is attached below.
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Time for something a little bit different.
I was planning to go through the stages chronologically and do Chemical Plant next, however due to synth and such other limitations I was unable to do so, maybe some other time I guess, I decided to break from the line and do another song. Casino Night Zone 2-Player was pretty simple, though I had to upgrade to a VRC7+MMC5 due to the advent of a third PSG channel being used in the original 16-Bit track.
Similar to the Emerald Hill cover, this .FTM still needs work such as channel balancing, sampling issues and DPCM boosting. But right now I feel it's at a stable state to go under for criticism and examination.
The .FTM file is attached below the updated Emerald Hill .FTM.
This is great! I think the Casino Night is really good, though it could be improved, but the Emerald Hill still has some volume balance problems, however, the pitch is better. I can at least hear the 2A03 squares and DPCM a lot better compared to the first release. Maybe you should just build it again, or try to fix it if you can. You still did a great work with it.
And... ummmmmm... Did you use RJDMC to modify the DPCM samples?
Haven't touched both the thread and the two .FTM's in a while.
The most recent edits to the .FTM's are that I've done a little more volume balancing for the Emerald Hill Zone cover, the same goes for the Casino Night 2-Player Zone cover, in addition, I have also added [i]Zxx[/i] commands to the two songs, and Noise back-up to the Casino Night 2-Player cover.
I'm also wondering if there is a way to cancel out the effects of a [i]Pxx[/i] command on a second playthrough of a song?
As for using RJDMC to modify the initial DPCM samples, it worked slightly for the Kick sample, not so much for the Snare...
The updated .FTM files are attached below.
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In other, more recent news.
I've been working on a Chemical Plant Zone cover, I was surprised at how basic the original Chemical Plant song it, it only uses 6 FM channels and one PSG channel for the hi-hats.
I'm prepared to post an initial WIP .FTM file, but it's incredibly basic in terms of work that needs to be done before the final release. (Such as patch sampling, DPCM boosting, volume balancing etc)
I'm not too happy with the custom 'Electric Twanga' Bass sample that I've managed to create, it sounds way too robotic and hardly Bass-y at all, any suggestions to make it sounds more Bass-like?
The initial WIP .FTM file is attached below the updated Emerald Hill and Casino Night 2-Player .FTM's.
The Chemical Plant song is pretty good, though it needs some changes in the bass line. I think it is one octave lower in the original song, and you should also try to change the patch(the Mult. factor, I think) to make it sound a little better.
And Emerald Hill is better than before, but you just have to change the volume values on the lead channels(2 and 3?), cause they are too low. Otherwise, they are good.
So I haven't posted here in a long time. Other things clouded my mind and my forum thread and FamiTracker in general just kind of dissipated from my conscience for a while.
In regards to the Chemical Plant Zone cover, I tried to fix the 'Electric Twanga' Bass patch in the .FTM but couldn't make it sound any good, so the current patch is here to stay. I did however, in accordance and correspondence to what Mr_Master had said, lowered the octave of the bass notes in FM Channel 1.
With that out of the way, issues with notation, vibratos, echos, note length and just channel volumes are still present, and will most likely if not definitely rectified at some point in the future.
I finalized both the Emerald Hill Zone and Casino Night Zone 2-Player .FTM's a long time ago before publishing them to YouTube, I fixed and balanced any volume issues both covers had and fixed some pitching issues during playback on the Casino Night 2-Player cover.
All the current .FTM's are attached below.
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And now for some new, more recent content;
This new 'update' is very Mega Man themed. Featuring 4 WIP covers of 3 songs, Quick Man, Plant Man, Wave Man and a VRC7 Cover/Potential remix of Plant Man.
With Quick Man, the biggest issue that I'm having so far is working out the volumes and instrument editor inputs of each of the instruments, so of them are really really odd.
Plant Man was a little tricky too, it's kind of fast paced so working out which instruments play when and for how long. I only have the first frame of Triangle Bass and Noise Percussion done so far but I'll probably get some more done soon.
Wave Man is pretty much the same deal and package as Plant Man, though I need to do the Square leads of the first frame.
The VRC7 Plant Man Cover/Potential Remix is a little different, I've already got the first frame of Bass and Percussion done, and the subsequent frame of leads, though it still needs a lot of work.
I'm not quite sure where I want to go with the remixing side of the VRC7 cover, but I'll get to that when I finish the initial work.
All the current .FTM's are attached below.
--
That should be it for now, I'll update the thread again when I have some more substantial work to exhibit.
Long time no see! Well, I'll point out some things.
In Casino Night 2-Players I didn't notice much difference between the old and new FTM. I would like you to tell me which was the change, since it left me wondering.
Chemical Plant is great, but still needs some work in what is done. Also, it doesn't loop correctly, because it loops to frame 01 instead of frame 02, which is the correct one.
Emerald Hill "needs more twanga", but I don't really think that's necessary. However I still played around with its settings, and if you really think it needs more twanga, try increasing the modulator level or changing wave rectification for the carrier.
To say what I really think of the module, it is much better than before, you managed to fix the note "cuts", increased some octaves that were not correct, and in general worked out most major things. It still needs another octave increase in the last two frames, but at the moment I cannot tell which one it is, since I don't have the module at hand.
Second, the new modules are... well... not enough to say something of them, except for Quickman, which has gone pretty good. But well, if you are not a cheater, just go on if you have problems, and if you are a cheater, use the NSF import tool to work the instruments. These NES games really had weird instrument settings. I took Gimmick! to cover one song, but I finally surrendered due to the weird speed measure and the instruments it had. But I think it was a little hard for my skills, so you should just go on with your covers, since they might not be that hard. Good luck with them.
Third, I have seen so far that you like VRC7 a lot, but that made me wonder something: Have you ever thought of using another tracker with better capabilities, like DefleMask or VGM Music Maker? They have support for Sega Genesis music which uses FM instruments(I guess you already knew that!). Or are you happy with FamiTracker?
Well, I hope my post helps you in some way, and I hope you have more time to work on these FTMs, because they are really good!
With the Casino Night Zone 2-Player Cover, the only thing I changed to the extent of my memory is the Pxx commands in FM Channels 4 and 5. When FamiTracker would play the song on loop, due to the already present Pxx command, the notes in FM Channels 4 and 5 would sound off tune and depitched. I simply added another set of Pxx commands to return the notes to the original pitch. If I recall I think I also fixed some of the volumes in the channels to balance it out and boost the DPCM.
The Chemical Plant Zone cover isn't finished as of yet, so while your points and criticisms are all correct, they aren't entirely relevant just yet. I still have to finish it, possibly fix the patches used, namely the bass, balance the audio, adjust the effects, and boost the DPCM. Still a long way away from a possible and official finalization.
My Emerald Hill Zone cover is finalized. From what I can both see and do the Twanga bass sample is pretty much as good as it could be, I don't see any way of making it sound more like the bass sample used in the actual game and the song itself, and considering it's taken so long for the matter to arise I doubt it's entirely necessary. As for the possible octave changes, whilst covering the song I rendered each channel of both the .FTM cover and the .GYM file ripped from the original ROM data of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and compared them in Audacity. The only section of the song that sounds remotely different from the actual song is FM Channels 02 and 03 in Frames 03 and 04, purely because I couldn't get a direct match to the sample used in the actual song, so I used the closest alternative, of which means that I had to raise the octave to make it sound correct.
For the Quick Man cover, I played the song on the Mega Man 2 NSF file on an NES emulator at half speed whilst recording each channel separately. Using Audacity and some high amount of patience I attempted to recreate the instruments as accurately I could. It was really easy to do the leads and especially easy to do the bass, but the instruments in the Noise channel were a real pain to put together, the song really had a thing for using weird arpeggios for noise instruments. I got it finished eventually without much hassle though some areas of the song really did give me some trouble.
The finished .FTM file is attached below.
The other covers such as Wave Man and Plant Man need some heavy work done to them. To say the very least.
As for the VRC7, you would be correct, growing up with Sonic the Hedgehog and it's respective sequel on the MegaDrive I have a real thing for 16-Bit MegaDrive styled music, and so, being that the VRC7 expansion chip can produce sounds and samples that sound close to what the SEGA MegaDrive soundchip could produce, I really like using it, though working around only being able to use 1 custom patch at a time and using the other 15 present patches is a bit tricky sometimes.
I have toyed with and considered the thought of using software like VGM Music Maker, VOPM and Deflemask for a while, being that they can produce a sound that directly sounds like music that the MegaDrive could produce, however lack of visual and technical experience with the software I am slight put off at how the software will both operate and how easy or hard they will be to use efficiently and effectively.
I'll continue to work on the current .FTM's I have, trying to get them finished and whatnot. I'll try and keep this thread posted on any progress on current projects and the arrival of new projects!
