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FamiTracker
Anyways, this song took me like forever to make. I tried to make it a fitting island theme music, but the longer I kept making the music, the father away it got from that. I had to end it sometime, and as result, you'll get something that's somewhat... I can't say.
The song is pretty short through. I would like to get some tips on how to stretch it a bit like those C64 games.
I think this is a real improvement over my pervious works. I never throught I'll be any good at this.
Oh, and please critizizim and find any flaws I may have in the songs. Improvement is needed
*Edit*
Crap. There's still some things to fix. Wait a second.
I think this wouldn't fit as an island theme but some crazy type of stage in a game, at some parts of the song.
It's too repetitive, which itself is not a bad thing, but you must be careful not to make the listener get bored when hearing your tune, so this is when you have to vary some things a little, like the notes or chord progressions.
I hear a lot of discord in the song overall and it lacks better volume balance between the VRC7 channels. In some places you were playing the channels at volume 0x9 and when you advanced to the next frame, you boosted the volume of some channels all the way up to volume 0xF. This makes those channels sound unpleasant, not to mention that they drown all the other channels. At least you kept a good balance between the DPCM channel and the VRC7 ones, keep it that way so your percussions stand out in your future works.
A big mistake you made is that one of the channels had a Pxx effect applied at the last frames, but you didn't revert it to P80 when the song looped back to the beginning, which causes it to sound detuned.
[quote=Thom]Improvement is needed[/quote]
Nice to see you recognize this yourself, because you need to improve a lot. As other people said, go and learn about the basic chords, like major, minor and maybe practice some sequences using them. Doing this a lot will make you improve your skills with any music making tool you are using, whether it's computer software, or a real musical instrument.
Thanks. Yeah, I still have problems with voulme imbalance and dischords. The problem I have is one of the instruments(the lead) is very soft when played at the same volume as everything else. It makes it diffuclt to balance the vol without killing everything else. I think I had a bit of trouble with the chords in 19. They sounded a bit off, probably cause I didn't know how to work the arp thing, but I need to study more chords and practice with them so I can actually tell how to make them better.
Yeah, that's the spirit, keep it on! Look, when a custom patch you have or any other patch sounds too quiet, you can raise the volume a bit, like 0xC if it's really quiet, but the final balance it has will be determined by how quiet or loud your patch is. Don't change all the other volume values to match your quiet patch, just change your patch's volume to fit the rest of the channels. This way you will save yourself a lot of work and maybe a big headache.
I don't know if the VRC7 is suitable for making arps but you may experiment with it and see what comes out of it. About chords, again, go and learn them and then practice using them. Also, you could listen to some other music here on the forums or somewhere else, anything you like, and this way you will have a basic idea of how chords determine the mood a song has.
You seem to be getting there Thom! However, like your other song, this does have a couple of problems....
1) You made one part of the song too repetitive (From frame 0F, until the part before the ending of the song)
2) I could say that this song has more like an A minor key signature...... However, the end of the song does not fit with the rest of it.
3) This doesn't sound island-like, more like space themed. VRC7 is not really meant to make tropical songs if the instruments aren't created properly.
I hope you don't mind, I edited a few parts of the song. (Also, I put a little twist at the ending...)
But don't get me wrong Thom. The song is still nice. I was just thinking more about what I edited in the song so you can get the idea of it. That's all. It's still nice.
EDIT
[quote=]Thanks.
By chance can you show me the edited song of mines?[/quote]
Oh jeez. I'm so stupid. ._. Right, here it is.
_______________________
Music is the cause of amazing inspiration.
[quote=MegaManBoss]You seem to be getting there Thom! However, like your other song, this does have a couple of problems....
1) You made one part of the song too repetitive (From frame 0F, until the part before the ending of the song)
2) I could say that this song has more like an A minor key signature...... However, the end of the song does not fit with the rest of it.
3) This doesn't sound island-like, more like space themed. VRC7 is not really meant to make tropical songs if the instruments aren't created properly.
I hope you don't mind, I edited a few parts of the song. (Also, I put a little twist at the ending...)
But don't get me wrong Thom. The song is still nice. I was just thinking more about what I edited in the song so you can get the idea of it. That's all. It's still nice. [/quote]
Thanks.
By chance can you show me the edited song of mines?
*Edit*
Holy ****. The last part sounds better with the trumpet! I see you also shorten the part with the gutair.
[quote=Thom][quote=MegaManBoss]You seem to be getting there Thom! However, like your other song, this does have a couple of problems....
1) You made one part of the song too repetitive (From frame 0F, until the part before the ending of the song)
2) I could say that this song has more like an A minor key signature...... However, the end of the song does not fit with the rest of it.
3) This doesn't sound island-like, more like space themed. VRC7 is not really meant to make tropical songs if the instruments aren't created properly.
I hope you don't mind, I edited a few parts of the song. (Also, I put a little twist at the ending...)
But don't get me wrong Thom. The song is still nice. I was just thinking more about what I edited in the song so you can get the idea of it. That's all. It's still nice. [/quote]
Thanks.
By chance can you show me the edited song of mines?
*Edit*
Holy ****. The last part sounds better with the trumpet! I see you also shorten the part with the gutair.[/quote]
Thanks! Even though your unedited version is nice and catchy, I just wanted to show what you could have done if you know some rules of good music. But yeah! Keep it up Thom. You [i]are[/i] getting better indeed.
_______________________
Music is the cause of amazing inspiration.
You still have problems. I would deactivate all the 2A03 channels and then go to FM channel 2 and lower the A-3 notes to G#3 because if you leave it like that it sounds dissonant.
Just a suggestion, before using the expansion chips make sure you have practiced with the 2A03 or at least know how the program or music making works. If you are having trouble using all 11 channels you have enabled, better use a little less channels so you don't feel you have to fill them all with something. If you don't know what you are doing, you should try to make some simpler stuff since I see you might be pretty overwhelmed by all those channels you are using without placing notes efficiently, which turns into a problem if you want to make some music.
Use less channels, then if you know what to fill them with, place some notes that are inside the scale you are using and check if it sounds good. If it doesn't, keep trying until you get something a little more pleasant or just go and throw that idea away and try something that's not too complicated. You can't fill all channels with all the notes in a scale, you must choose them wisely so it sounds the way you intend it to be, like, for instance, C-3, E-3, G-3 and C-4 from the C major scale. Try to place those notes in four VRC7 channels and see how it sounds. Then change the E-3 note by a D#3 note and you'll get a C minor scale. You must experiment with these scales first, you can transpose them and therefore transform them in new scales, like A major or D minor. You will then understand how these scales work and you will be able to place some notes and chord progressions in your module, maybe some bass and a great lead, once you get the hang of it.
Hey, as a tip, maybe you already know the VRC7 chip is a hard one to start with. If you feel in trouble, switch to 2A03 only or maybe the MMC5 or VRC6 expansion. This way you won't feel you have to put something in all those 11 channels.
[Finally, good music isn't always the one that uses the most instruments/channels. You will often find many pieces of music that consist of just one or two instruments and are great on their own]
It's getting closer. The vibrato thing is a little strange but the chords seem to be alright. Just practice and learn how to use them, then you will have better skills to write music.
Well, I'm the kind of person that just listens and knows what generally has a more natural, pleasing sound to it, and what has the exact opposite of that. Though sometimes there are gray areas there. With that being said, it seemed fine, dissonance-wise.
This song actually makes me think of a clumsy, silly, yet ultimately big-hearted and beautiful human or humanoid. It's interesting. Honestly, if I hadn't known any better, I'd have thought this were a genuine NES/etc track for a legit, popular game. :)
Judging by that last song you posted, you seem to be making very good progress. The song does have a couple of flaws, but it's very good. You seem to be improving your music skills! Don't give up Thom! Stay musical!
_______________________
Music is the cause of amazing inspiration.
Only frame 1 and 7 sound off to me. The rest of the song sounds better than my compositions, anyhow. (My originality is close to zero.)
Anyways, you won't be hearing from me for a while (taking a few weeks' break time), but keep on persisting, and put what you learn to practice. You're doing much better than just a few months ago.
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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
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