PC Engine/TG-16 Music (MIDI to MML to SQUIRREL)

[Ninja Spirit]

All these years I still want the PCE Salamander sound engine! Still unsuccessful at finding it.

[Windcharger]

Wow, that version of An Empty Tome is pretty awesome!  Definitely has the Salamander sampled drums going on.  The rest of the channels shouldn't be terribly difficult to mimic by sounding them out though.  Now if only I could figure out samples in Squirrel...   

My next project is actually game related, and is well underway!   

[Pcenginefx]

Presenting the .pce of Windcharger's Lorde "Team" MML composition.  Enjoy.

[Pcenginefx]

Presenting the 2nd TG-16/PCE Arrangement from Windcharger!

"Cyclical Rampage" (Yo-yo Man level music) from Mega Man Unlimited
MML composition by Jeremiah Kenworthy
Converted to the PC Engine via Squirrel 3.0 (www.aetherbyte.com)

Music Video:

[esteban]

Presenting the 2nd TG-16/PCE Arrangement from Windcharger!

"Cyclical Rampage" (Yo-yo Man level music) from Mega Man Unlimited
MML composition by Jeremiah Kenworthy
Converted to the PC Engine via Squirrel 3.0 (www.aetherbyte.com)

Music Video:

Das Gud.

[Windcharger]

Das Gud.

Thank you kindly!   

I'm actually already at work on the next one...  Also a game cover...  Perhaps something very familiar...?   :-"

[esteban]

Thank you kindly!   

I'm actually already at work on the next one...  Also a game cover...  Perhaps something very familiar...?

I know you are creating a Congo Bongo remix, and I love you for it:

 http://junk.tg-16.com/audio/miscellaneous/Congo_Bongo_(Twin_bong_mix).mp3

[Gredler]

Image fixed!

I still don't see an image it works at home, must be a work comp block

I'm also working on a PC app (seen below) where you will be able to preview dozens (if not hundreds) of combinations of waveforms & envelopes.  Screenshot of WIP app below:



Our goal is to help spread the word about Squirrel, at the same time make it even easier for people to get into making MML music - more to come!

The guy who I am trying to help me make some music keeps complaining that he has a hard time knowing what instruments will sound like, and I told him I'd look for something exactly like this and if I can't find it I'll look into making one. I invisioned a ROM that controlled in a way that allowed you to change sound properties and then press a button to play them.

Maybe up/down changed octave, left right changed note, and then select cycles through the envelopes, and start cycles through the pitches, then II plays the sound, and I plays it on loop or for a set(able) duration. The currently selected sound will be displayed so the user knows what mml code sounds like what.

[elmer]

Have you seen this ...

http://www.delek.com.ar/forum/deflemask/pc-engine-instruments-and-wavetables-pack!!/

[Gredler]

Have you seen this ...
http://www.delek.com.ar/forum/deflemask/pc-engine-instruments-and-wavetables-pack!!/

I have not, thank you so much!! I have terrible Google-fu apparently, but thank you for providing something new to investigate! As always elmer, you are the man!

I signed up for the forums and jumped in the chat, thanks elmer!

They are super cool over there, and I was able to get an answer to our question on the chat there,

gredler [28|Jan 09:44 PM]:   I actually signed up because I had some questions about using this tool to generate music for a PCE homebrew we are working on
gredler [29|Jan 12:00 AM]:   I am wondering if DefleMask can export to MML - or if there's a way to use the music in the HuC development environment
Delek [29|Jan 12:01 AM]:   No, you could process the .vgm file (register writes dump)
gredler [29|Jan 12:03 AM]:   "process the .vgm" - I am the pixel artist trying to help the muscician, so that is greek to me
Delek [29|Jan 12:05 AM]:   The musician wouldn't understand neither , tell what I said to the programmer.
gredler [29|Jan 12:05 AM]:   Alright, will do ahahah
gredler [29|Jan 12:06 AM]:   Basically my friend uses renoise to make tunes, and someone on the pcefx forum pointed me here when I posted that we were having issues using renoise
gredler [29|Jan 12:06 AM]:   because whatever we make in renoise is very difficult to get into huc
Delek [29|Jan 12:09 AM]:   The thing is that I don't know what HuC development environment is, but you should be fine by writing a simple routine to playback the .vgm files that the tracker could export.
gredler [29|Jan 12:11 AM]:   is that what the "rom builder" does?
gredler [29|Jan 12:11 AM]:   so we would just add similar code to our game that the rom builder is using
Delek [29|Jan 12:11 AM]:   That's exactly what the rom builder is doing.
gredler [29|Jan 12:12 AM]:   makes sense
gredler [29|Jan 12:13 AM]:   well this has been bad ass educational, and I will download this when I get home and see if I can make rhyme and reason out of it
gredler [29|Jan 12:13 AM]:   and encourage my musician friend to do the same
gredler [29|Jan 12:13 AM]:   thanks again for the rad site, and tools!
Delek [29|Jan 12:13 AM]:   You're welcome, please remember to get the v11.1 pre-release, it is way better than v11.0
gredler [29|Jan 12:15 AM]:   bad ass, will do

I will poke around in deflemask, and ask DK, but this might not work for us :/ Squirrel and HuC seem to be inseparable hahah

I need to figure out a way for my friend to get a proper midi out of renoise so he can process it into mml to pair with squirrel.

Cabbage had a good idea in the DoxPhile chat today, which I am going to suggest to my friend:
(18:14:57) gredler: cabbage - is there a easy way to know what each note and variant of that (octave, pitch, envelope) sound like?
(18:14:59) cabbage: gredler having trouble with squirrel?
(18:15:02) gredler: yeah
(18:16:59) cabbage: the way i do it is convert each channel one at a time, mute all the other existing channels, and tweak the instrument/envelope until that channel sounds good (enough)

[elmer]

Nice work on the investigation! 

Delek [29|Jan 12:01 AM]:   No, you could process the .vgm file (register writes dump)
Delek [29|Jan 12:09 AM]:   The thing is that I don't know what HuC development environment is, but you should be fine by writing a simple routine to playback the .vgm files that the tracker could export.
gredler [29|Jan 12:11 AM]:   is that what the "rom builder" does?
Delek [29|Jan 12:11 AM]:   That's exactly what the rom builder is doing.

I wondered how Delek was doing deflemask's the "ROM Builder" function for the PCE.

That approach makes a lot of sense for quickly providing "ROM Builder" capability for all the platforms that deflemask supports, but it is horribly wasteful of memory in terms of actually using deflemask for a real game.

Mooz's work on a playback library for deflemask is the best approach ... but I don't know how long that's going to take.

IMHO ... you're going to end up using Squirrel.

I was only pointing out the instruments as a source, and as a way to actual preview them.

[Gredler]

That approach makes a lot of sense for quickly providing "ROM Builder" capability for all the platforms that deflemask supports, but it is horribly wasteful of memory in terms of actually using deflemask for a real game.

Mooz's work on a playback library for deflemask is the best approach ... but I don't know how long that's going to take.

That's not surprising to hear, but I really appreciate the feedback as I was considering asking my friend to learn deflemask and then we just use the output for that to make the music and sfx.

IMHO ... you're going to end up using Squirrel.

I agree and think squirrel unavoidable if my friend does the music as he only really knows renoise, and needs to use something with midi input to make the music with his keyboard. He really wants to write the song using keyboard, then convert the midi he exports to mml, and then use squirrel - I don't think he wants to try to learn deflemask.

I was only pointing out the instruments as a source, and as a way to actual preview them.

That completely flew over my head, and I think that makes sense; use the chip 32 VST to create an instrument while using deflemask as a point of reference for what the sound will be like in squirrel. I also referred him to this video, as the instruments here match the documentation's descriptions. He should be able to listen to this video, pick the instrument # and define that in the  channel definition while assymbling the mml - and while defining his chip 32 instrument.


Thanks for all of the help, this educates me enough to where I can make some tests and then train my friend on them

The current hurdle for the musician right now is getting the drum sounds to work correctly.

I started poking around and found a few good resources, and I wonder if these are viable?

HuSIC - a mml music compiler for PCE? I haven not looked into this at all yet, but sounds promissing and the people over at MML share suggest it.
http://battleofthebits.org/lyceum/View/HuSIC/

This link also popped up in my searches for help: http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/790/pc-engineturbografx16-music-for-beginners/

from the thread about HuSIC and that tutorial: "ignore this tutorial, more easy ways to write pc engine music have arrived since i wrote this. use deflemask"


LOL


Squirrel it is, can't be helped


But right now I am just trying to figure out how to get percussion sounds in squerrel. Researching what "proper enveloping" means for the channel 5 and 6 @m1 instruments

[spenoza]

Wait, didn't Chris Covell or Arhkan or someone write a utility to create waveforms and envelopes and then play them to see how they sound? I can't remember where around here it is, but I know it existed. Could help figure out just what you want each instrument to be.

Yeah, here it is:

http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=11401.msg220803#msg220803

[Gredler]

Wait, didn't Chris Covell or Arhkan or someone write a utility to create waveforms and envelopes and then play them to see how they sound? I can't remember where around here it is, but I know it existed. Could help figure out just what you want each instrument to be.

Yeah, here it is:

http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=11401.msg220803#msg220803

Thank you SO much, and thanks to the illustrious Chris for hooking us up once again!

[Arkhan]

Also

I made these goony videos to explain stuff.