My advice would be to lower the volume of all the channels in the VRC7 just enough so the 2A03 can be heard (try something close to 0xA at first and see how it works). If you create a custom patch, balance its settings so it sounds as clean as possible (not sure how to describe this). If there's no way for an instrument to sound similar to the Sega Genesis ones, then try replacing it with another one that does a better job in delivering a clean sound. I (ab)used patch #12 in my cover, for example, because there weren't any other patches that could create a similar sound to the lead of the original track and I was already using a custom patch for the bass.
The trumpet patch (#7) might be useful only for quiet songs, but not for stuff like what we are doing now because it sounds too quiet and its sound is far from being decent in terms of sound quality. [Maybe it's too polyphonic but I don't know exactly what that means]
Patches #14 and #15 are almost the same and their use is very limited in my opinion, since they usually give an undesirable sound which makes the whole song sound bad, specially when used as bass. Try them and you will know what I mean.
Patch #10 is very clean and sounds very nice compared to others and I would suggest using it for a lead, if it fits properly. Gives something like a xylophone sound.
Don't really know what advice I could give, but the rest is mostly done by balancing everything at a right level to be equally listenable. As a tip, if you use 3FF in VRC7 channels, you will avoid the ADSR envelopes to be retriggered when inserting new notes, but the portamento effect can still be noticed.
If you need a bass patch, try using the custom ones if you don't want to use the predefined ones or if you are having trouble creating a custom patch yourself. Just ask if you need something and we might be able to help you.
EDIT: Sometimes, the release envelopes of a VRC7 instrument will not be very friendly when trying to immediately halt a note. In this case, you should try changing its volume directly in the volume column to a low value (like 0x0 to completely silence it).
Ok well I'll just post it so you can probably help me out, What I need is a sound that sounds like/or close to the bass sound in Marble Garden Zone 1. That sound is nowhere to be found in the patches.
Also you'll notice every 2 frames the bass riff stops because if I let it continue, the Twang Instrument Cancels and sounds wrong. So yeah those are my major issues. Also I didn't use 2a03 at all because I didn't need much for this cover.
All in all I'm almost satisfied with the notes, But i'm really not pleased with the Sound design of it.
Oh BTW, sorry I started this cover before you posted yours, so your newly added track isn't in this lol.
The Twang instrument (inst 22) and the Icecap bass (inst 08) cancel each other because they are both custom patches. You can't use two custom patches at the same time because the VRC7 is capable to load only one at a time to its memory.
I added a new custom patch which should replace the bass instrument. It is instrument 27 inside the module and I replaced it in the first two frames. What I did was increasing the feedback and modulator level of the Icecap bass and modifying decay and sustain levels of the modulator unit. Maybe it resembles the Marble Garden bass a bit more now.
Try lowering the volume of the VRC7 channels so the percussions can be heard. Maybe you could also boost them using the noise channel.
I didn't fix the problem of those two custom patches because I can't think of what to put in there now, but hopefully you will be able to find a workaround for the moment.
The thing is I REALLY need the twang to be there as it's part of the song, So the only Option I thought of is Somehow making a Bass with the 2a03 so I don't have the cancelling problem, but I really can't get a decent sounding bass out of it. So i'm stumped.....Perhaps Poodlecock or others may have some ideas.
The thing I've been noticing with a lot of Expansion chips songs is that most people fill the triangle channel with the same bass lines used in the expansion chip. I wonder why.
-better samples
-arranged songs in a more logical order, with the playable songs in the beginning in level order, followed by the bonus track and WIPs. Added tracks:
-Marble Garden 1 (Fezuke) we're skipping suggestions for your health, ok fezuke?
Loved the double echo in this one. Watch the duplicate instruments, other than that I enjoyed it.
-Marble Garden 2 (Black_Moon)
Fixed timings in the xylophone thing. Another great approach to a great song. Please use the current compilation as a base, as this helps get rid of duplicates.
-Doomsday (Mr_Master)
One small volume fix and effect change. Nothing big, quite good. Thanks for starting off of my FTM (helps get rid of duplicates...)
-Lava Reef 2 (Raijin)
... I'm beyond words... (but still, read my comments on Black_Moon)
Anyways, download for enjoyment. More contributions welcome.
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"im going to continue making this crazy stuff then after a while my style will be so sick that you will be like damn suuun that shit is so sick i dont even get it. i will be like bro its ok.. you dont have to." -omgdonut
Hm, just noticed Fezuke didn't use any custom patches in his song. As it is, the song's great, I would only change the bass patch to make it sound a bit louder, but the song's very nice overall, as all of the other songs you guys have posted. This is going very well and I might contribute again in a few days.
EDIT: Patch #3 is duplicated, it takes both instruments 04 and 2C. Patch #7 is also duplicated and it takes instruments 05 and 2F. The other ones are Patch #2 (instruments 1D and 2B) and Patch #13 (instruments 18 and 30).
Yeah, I forgot to remove those instruments. They are from Raijin's LRZ2 cover, I believe, and can be removed safely. So, if you could remove those for me (too busy at the moment...) then that would be much appreciated.
_______________________
"im going to continue making this crazy stuff then after a while my style will be so sick that you will be like damn suuun that shit is so sick i dont even get it. i will be like bro its ok.. you dont have to." -omgdonut
Yeah, I'll see if removing them causes too much trouble since you have to replace the instruments if you remove the duplicates, but I don't think it could be too much of a trouble. I'll do that then.
EDIT: Done, simpler than I thought! Now I'll go back to work on my cover.
EDIT2: Don't want to repost, so I'll reply here. Good luck poodlecock, see you in a few weeks too! Eh, I'll try to work on this for a while so expect new tracks from me.
[Uh, before you leave, is it okay if I edit other tracks or even try to complete the WIP songs? I would like to help on AIZ2]
Yeah, thanks, Mr_Master! Well, I'd already removed all instances of the duplicates, so there should be no problems...
...but just for reference (newer covers), here is the version with the duplicates removed.
Other changes:
-Worked on AIZ2 a slight bit more.
-Fixed MGZ2 xylophone and echo a bit.
EDIT: This will be my last post for a while so anyways, see you guys in a few weeks. I will be back.
_______________________
"im going to continue making this crazy stuff then after a while my style will be so sick that you will be like damn suuun that shit is so sick i dont even get it. i will be like bro its ok.. you dont have to." -omgdonut
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