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FamiTracker
To honor the legacy of the newly departed jazz pianist Horace Silver, and also to learn the ropes of FamiTracker, I made a cover of his composition Nica's Dream. Please have a listen!
Original can be heard here: [url=]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqfB_736Ypo
I welcome critique and advice, especially on how to emulate the drums and piano better. Right now the drums work alright, but I would like to now better ways to emulate the ride cymbal and snare. Piano is also difficult because of the limits to simultaneous notes.
I've made a few edits to your FTM. A couple of things:
-With 8-bit sounds, some extra variation is best to keep things from getting annoying. This wasn't part of your request, but I've modified your Trumpet and Sax volume envelopes and strengthened the vibrato on the Trumpet to make them a little less less taxing on the ears to listen to.
-I've loaded DPCM drum samples, which replace your pulse drums entirely. I'm sure you'll agree that they sound better (albeit quieter).
-Now that there's a free MMC5 pulse channel, I see two options:
i. You could echo your Trumpet track on the empty channel. Make sure to reduce the volume of the echoed notes and add a P7F at the start (fine pitch adjustment that keeps the echoed notes from clashing with the normal notes; P80 is normal pitch).
ii. You could boost your ride cymbal by adding a 50% pulse at C-7 and volume 2 or so with each "tap". This should aid in making them sound more metallic.
-Anyway, you could always try an expansion with more channels, such as N163 or VRC7, to insert the piano chord notes individually.
I agree that the DPCM samples sound better, but they seem to be a little bit late on the beat. They might be better suited for a slower tempo, where the slow attack is less noticeable. Or maybe it's possible to do something to make them a bit earlier?
This is my first time using this program (and first chiptune-anything) so I haven't quite wrapped my head around everything yet. I guess I should read up on the DPCM channel!
What do you mean by "a 50% pulse" in the context of the cymbal? 50% of what?
[quote=astonostosson]I agree that the DPCM samples sound better, but they seem to be a little bit late on the beat. They might be better suited for a slower tempo, where the slow attack is less noticeable. Or maybe it's possible to do something to make them a bit earlier?[/quote]
The bass drum and tom samples each had a tiny bit of blank space at their beginnings, so I deleted it. See if that works better. Alternatively you can source your own .wav files of drum samples, e.g. from FindSounds.com, or [url=http://famitracker.com/forum/posts.php?id=294&highlight=sample+pack]DMC samples ripped from actual NES games, and experiment. Both the Famitracker help file and [url=http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=Instruments#DPCM_samples]the Wiki are good sources of info on DPCM.
[quote=astonostosson]What do you mean by "a 50% pulse" in the context of the cymbal? 50% of what?[/quote]
Sorry, I meant the duty cycle of the pulse. In the instrument sequence editor and the Vxx effect, 0 = 12.5%, 1 = 25%, 2 = 50%, and 3 = 75% (same as 25% basically). This changes the timbre of the sound, which you probably already know.
[quote=]The bass drum and tom samples each had a tiny bit of blank space at their beginnings, so I deleted it. See if that works better. Alternatively you can source your own .wav files of drum samples, e.g. from FindSounds.com, or DMC samples ripped from actual NES games, and experiment. Both the Famitracker help file and the Wiki are good sources of info on DPCM.[/quote]
That's what I thought, and it does seem to be a bit better now. That DMC rip library seems like an excellent resource!
[quote=]Sorry, I meant the duty cycle of the pulse. In the instrument sequence editor and the Vxx effect, 0 = 12.5%, 1 = 25%, 2 = 50%, and 3 = 75% (same as 25% basically). This changes the timbre of the sound, which you probably already know.[/quote]
Oh, ok. Yeah I know how it works, I just didn't know it was what you were referring to. I'm going to try that with the cymbals and see how it works out.
