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FamiTracker
My criticisms:
I'm not entirely familiar with the original song, so I'll leave note accuracy out of this. The 'tick' sample is really unnecessary because it can't be heard. Also, the snare (both noise and DPCM) seems underpowered to me. I suggest shifting the noise tone from 3-# to 6-# and creating an instrument with a bigger volume envelope.
What I liked:
Frames 0F-10. It sounds nice and clean, and the instrumentation used here works well.
Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEDJopSlcL0 though now that I listen to it I'm not entirely sure why I transposed it a half step up. I think the recording I have on my computer was.
Thanks for the feedback!
I have a lot of difficulty getting DPCM samples to be audible. I'm sure there's a lot of art/experience that goes into it. I have some vague idea that I should make the pulse/VRC6 channels quieter to make the tri/noise/DPCM channels louder, but even then the DPCM seems to get totally overpowered by the noise.
It's good overall, but the second half sounds off because you're using Triangle wrong -- any time you put Triangle in a lead role you should make it play melody, not harmony. Swap that part with Pulse 2 and it'll sound better (attached).
(Personally I'd probably also use a note slide or portamento instead of a pitch bend around the end of frame 0E, but that's aesthetic.)
I also agree that your DPCM note C#-3 (tick) seems a little redundant; it's only ever played in sync with the hats on Noise and I can't really tell what it adds. Higher notes on the Noise channel always sound quieter by default, so sometimes you can make it feel louder by giving it an arpeggio kick (also attached).
[PS: Apologies for removing the 'tick' DPCM sample outright on the attached, I wanted to just disable it, not delete.)
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Yeah, without volume control the triangle tends to dominate the other channels, so it does sound better as the melody. I like your version better, though using the triangle as the lead loses some of the brassiness in that section.
I tried making the triangle the bass in that section and used the sawtooth as another brass lead. The brass sounds nice but the triangle doesn't have quite the resonance as the sawtooth and gets lost at the lower notes.
Keeping the sawtooth as the bass and dropping one of the five brass parts is another option, but then it doesn't sound as big!
I tried changing up the instrumentation in the latter section entirely. I put the lead brass on the nice-sounding VRC6 channels, and two of the three backup brass on the 2a03 channels, which sounds full enough even without the fifth part. Actually, there is a bit of the fifth part left in on the triangle an octave lower than usual on frames 0D and 0E but the rest of the frames I used it for what it's best for - doubling up the saw to give the loud brass a meatier bass (though I notice a bit of an odd phasing effect between the two basses, not sure what's up with that).
Something around ~146.35 BPM matches the original tempo better, Speed 5, Tempo 244 is close to that, but then you get rounding error delays that sound bad.
Edit: Here's my altered version of the song, I transposed the song back to what it's supposed to be, and re-did the plings, but they could still use some work.
Aaaaa those plinks sound so much better, thank you!
I've been working on this the past few days with some crap borrowed headphones and now that I finally have my regular headphones back, WOAH it does not need that much bass lol. So I dropped the entire triangle bass bit and also added some more dynamic range on the brass leads in frames 0D-10 to give it more of a buildup before the loop.
I think your brass instrument needs a longer volume release envelope. The original had a lot of echo, so the quick release makes it sound sort of dry. [url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34026765/rainbow_road_new_longrelease.ftm]Here's my attempt to fix this.
Other than that, excellent job on this. I look forward to hearing more stuff from you; you seem like a promising chiptune artist.
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Good point! I added some volume changes to make the staccato notes a bit clearer. Also added a bit of echo on the volume envelopes of the square plink and hat.
[quote=jrlepage]Other than that, excellent job on this. I look forward to hearing more stuff from you; you seem like a promising chiptune artist.[/quote]
Aw geeezz.. it wouldn't sound half as good as it does now if it weren't for everyone's help!
If you redownload the FTM I linked to, you'll see I improved one of the chords in frames 0A and 0C. I also added a couple note releases here and there in the first half of the track to exploit the new release envelope. Your changes are a nice touch, too.
EDIT: Actually I incorporated your changes into [url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34026765/rainbow_road_new_longrelease.ftm]my FTM.
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Follow me on [url=https://twitter.com/jrlepage2a03]Twitter.
I record (some) NSFs on hardware. Feel free to [url=http://www.famitracker.com/forum/posts.php?id=3633]request a hardware render.
_______________________
Follow me on [url=https://twitter.com/jrlepage2a03]Twitter.
I record (some) NSFs on hardware. Feel free to [url=http://www.famitracker.com/forum/posts.php?id=3633]request a hardware render.
Keep up the good work and there'll be more of those coming your way. :p
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Follow me on [url=https://twitter.com/jrlepage2a03]Twitter.
I record (some) NSFs on hardware. Feel free to [url=http://www.famitracker.com/forum/posts.php?id=3633]request a hardware render.
