Some new PC-Engine chiptunes

[Bonknuts]

Was there already a thread for this kind of thing?
Anyway...

Check out the person's channel for more vids. They use Deflemask which is a tracker with PCE sound emulation. You can export the files for the real system, but if I recall they're VGM style format.

[MrBroadway]

I downloaded this a couple days ago, actually. I tried fiddling with it, but after today, I just find it so convoluted. I'm used to writing music, but this is a whole different level, and of course the "guides" on the guy's website presume a high level of working knowledge of trackers already.

Edit: Meant to imply, but really didn't: do you know of any good resources for getting started, or is this just something I'm going to have to wade through to do anything with at all?

[elmer]

Was there already a thread for this kind of thing?
Anyway...

Excellent, thanks, I love good chiptunes! 

Speaking of which, it's not PC Engine, but I'm curious as to what people think of this ...

The game itself was a mediocre "Rolling Thunder" ripoff (haha Arkhan .... not a Japanese game ripoff!  ).

But I thought that Matthew Cannon did a great job on the soundtrack.

Only 4 channels ... so he could have done a lot more with the PCE's sound chip ... but what do people think?

[lukester]

My brother has experimented some pce chip tunes. I'll ask him if he has anything really good.

[Bonknuts]

I downloaded this a couple days ago, actually. I tried fiddling with it, but after today, I just find it so convoluted. I'm used to writing music, but this is a whole different level, and of course the "guides" on the guy's website presume a high level of working knowledge of trackers already.

Yeah, deflemask isn't quite user friendly to people unfamiliar with trackers (IMO). Something like milkytracker is more suitable. But yeah, trackers are a bit weird if you're not familiar with them. Have you tried out Famitracker? You can choose a sound chip that similar to the PCE and get tracker experience that way (more resource and community support for famitrack, iirc). I'm very comfortable with trackers and I felt a little uncomfortable with deflemask at first. The best way to go about it, is to pick apart someone else's songs to see how it's done.

[MrBroadway]

I think part of it is the mechanics of the program, too. I'll try tinkering with Famitracker first, thanks for the tip.

[Bonknuts]

Was there already a thread for this kind of thing?
Anyway...

Excellent, thanks, I love good chiptunes! 

Speaking of which, it's not PC Engine, but I'm curious as to what people think of this ...

The game itself was a mediocre "Rolling Thunder" ripoff (haha Arkhan .... not a Japanese game ripoff!  ).

But I thought that Matthew Cannon did a great job on the soundtrack.

That's pretty decent. Though the arpeggio's are a little too pronounced for my tastes Don't get me wrong, I like 'em, just usually not as strong as early euro stuffs. Well, actually depends on the song/track. Some arpeggio usage can be ear splitting ;>_>

thefox did these two covers with the tracker he made for the nes (soft arpeggios):

(It's a stock nes sound chip, but uses an interrupt on-cart to drive the PCM channel for an 8khz 7bit pcm channel instead of DMC).

Only 4 channels ... so he could have done a lot more with the PCE's sound chip ... but what do people think?

4 channels, yeah, but man that last waveform channel can really be exploited.

But yeah, definitely. PCE sound chip really hasn't been exploited IMO. Quite a bit of stuff you can do with it that no tracker or mml program yet supports. Some of it is so crazy, that you need translation tables to assist in doing the effects. I can only imagine what the euro scene could have done with the PCE sound chip.

 Edit: Tim Follin gets touted way too much, but his nes stuff ~is~ impressive:

. Wonder what he could have done with the PCE chip..

[elmer]

That's pretty decent. Though the arpeggio's are a little too pronounced for my tastes Don't get me wrong, I like 'em, just usually not as strong as early euro stuffs. Well, actually depends on the song/track. Some arpeggio usage can be ear splitting ;>_>

Yep, I guess that the mix does sound a little "off" in that recording ... and maybe on the original GameBoy for all that I remember. ... but I think not, I seem to remember that it was tweaked for the GameBoy's speaker, and not for recording out of the earphone jack.

The "pan-pipes" could definitely have been a bit further forward ... and it was written, of course, just after the Korg M1 came out (and Peter Gabriel did Sledgehammer), so every tune had to have pan-pipes. 

thefox did these two covers with the tracker he made for the nes (soft arpeggios):

(It's a stock nes sound chip, but uses an interrupt on-cart to drive the PCM channel for an 8khz 7bit pcm channel instead of DMC).

They're very well done ... but they really sound like exactly what they are ... backing tunes in need of a vocal.

But you're right ... at least the arpeggios sit back in the mix and don't lunge out at you! 

But yeah, definitely. PCE sound chip really hasn't been exploited IMO. Quite a bit of stuff you can do with it that no tracker or mml program yet supports. Some of it is so crazy, that you need translation tables to assist in doing the effects. I can only imagine what the euro scene could have done with the PCE sound chip.

And we've got little chance of finding a musician these days that would push those capabilities.

I've written custom synths before, and would happily do so again for someone with the talent and  desire ... but I'm not holding my breath.

Tim Follin gets touted way too much, but his nes stuff ~is~ impressive. Wonder what he could have done with the PCE chip..

Haha ... I know of at least one "famous" game musician at the time that seemed to be constantly pissed at how much attention Tim Follin and Rob Hubbard seemed to always get! 

That's not Matthew Cannon BTW, he was a really good guy to work with.

[Bonknuts]

I think part of it is the mechanics of the program, too. I'll try tinkering with Famitracker first, thanks for the tip.

You know, you could try Milky Tracker instead. I have about 5 or so PC-Engine tunes in XM format you can look at and pick them apart. I mean, it's much closer than Famitracker for PCE stuffs.
Here some stuff I converted:

 Let me know and I'll PM you the XM files.

 It's funny, because you can setup Milky Tracker to be near 100% PCE sound output. Only the volume is linear instead of non-linear, but that's a tiny difference. You have to keep to some guides lines and set the filtering output to Amiga1200 mode, set to period frequency, but rest aligns perfectly.

 Deflemask is more powerful than Milky Tracker though and gives you more control over PCE specific audio stuffs (waveform morphing IIRC). Milky Tracker is open source and at one point I started messing around with it. I abandon the idea when I realized you could do more with a proper PCE tracker/engine. I started making a native tracker for the console, but without a keyboard (mouse is good though) and no easy way to save your songs... it doesn't work out too well either - lol. You can send data over the PCE audio lines and capture them via your PC, but no one wants to do that. If mega and mooz can finish the SD card read/write library for the Everdrive, that would be one step closer. Just need a keyboard interface from there and we would have a native tracker running on the system.

The "pan-pipes" could definitely have been a bit further forward ... and it was written, of course, just after the Korg M1 came out (and Peter Gabriel did Sledgehammer), so every tune had to have pan-pipes. 

Haha. Needs more pan-pipes!

I've written custom synths before, and would happily do so again for someone with the talent and  desire ... but I'm not holding my breath.

And old school tracker stuffs?

[Dicer]

Neat stuff, keep it up...

[elmer]

And old school tracker stuffs?

I'm afraid not. Just music-in-code, which was how a lot of stuff was done back-in-the-day.

Here's an example (

) ...

!!!WARNING!!! ... yet more of those pan-pipes! 

Code: [Select]

; ************************************************************************
;
; Music commands.
;
; *  END End tune/fx/sequence or goto LOOP point if set.
; *  LOOP Set tune/fx/sequence loop point.
; *+ TRANSPOSE ,t Transpose next sequence by 't' notes.
; *+ REPEAT ,n Repeat next sequence 'n' times.
;    LENGTH ,l Assume all notes have length 'l' until MANUAL.
;    MANUAL Assume each notes is followed by a length.
;    TIE Increase length of next note by 256.
;    REST Play an empty note.
;    GLIDE ,t,l Glide to note from transpose 't' over 'l' frames.
;    EFFON ,t,l Transpose notes by 't' for their 1st 'l' frames.
;    EFFOFF Cancel EFFON.
;    ARPON ,n Arpeggio, using arpeggio table number 'n'.
;    ARPOFF Cancel ARPON.
;    VIBON d,t,l Vibrato, delay 'd', amplitude 't'/2, over 4'l' frames.
;    VIBOFF Cancel VIBON.
;    ENV ,n Use volume envelope 'n'.
;    INSTR ,n Use sampled instrument 'n'.
;
; * Only these commands can be used in a sequence list.
; + These commands cannot be used in a sequence.
;
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------
; 4 channels
TITLE1 DC.B LOOP
DC.B 19
DC.B END

TITLE2 DC.B LOOP
DC.B 21
DC.B END

TITLE3 DC.B LOOP
DC.B REPEAT,8,20,23,23
DC.B 24,24,25,25,27,27
DC.B END

TITLE4 DC.B LOOP
DC.B REPEAT,5,22
DC.B REPEAT,4,26
DC.B END
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------
SEQ19 ; BACKING
DC.B INSTR,15,ENV,6
DC.B LENGTH,TRPL
DC.B C5,G5,C5,GS5,C5,AS5
DC.B C5,G5,C5,GS5,C5,AS5
DC.B END
SEQ20
DC.B MANUAL,REST,SB2,END
SEQ21 ; DRUMS
DC.B MANUAL
DC.B ENV,4,INSTR,21,C1,QV2,ENV,10
DC.B INSTR,17,F2,SQ2,F2,SQ2
DC.B INSTR,16,A2,QV2,INSTR,17,F2,SQ2,F2,SQ2
DC.B INSTR,16,A2,QV2,INSTR,17,F2,SQ2,F2,SQ2
DC.B INSTR,16,A2,QV2,ENV,4,INSTR,21,C1,QV2

DC.B ENV,4,INSTR,21,C1,QV2,ENV,10
DC.B INSTR,17,F2,SQ2,F2,SQ2
DC.B INSTR,16,A2,QV2,INSTR,17,F2,SQ2,F2,SQ2
DC.B INSTR,16,A2,QV2,INSTR,17,F2,SQ2,F2,SQ2
DC.B INSTR,16,A2,QV2,INSTR,17,F2,SQ2,F2,SQ2

DC.B ENV,4,INSTR,21,C1,QV2,ENV,10
DC.B INSTR,17,F2,SQ2,F2,SQ2
DC.B INSTR,16,A2,QV2,INSTR,17,F2,SQ2,F2,SQ2
DC.B INSTR,16,A2,QV2,INSTR,17,F2,SQ2,F2,SQ2
DC.B INSTR,16,A2,QV2,ENV,4,INSTR,21,C1,QV2

DC.B ENV,4,INSTR,21,C1,QV2,ENV,10
DC.B INSTR,17,F2,SQ2,F2,SQ2
DC.B INSTR,16,A2,QV2,INSTR,17,F2,SQ2,F2,SQ2
DC.B ENV,12,INSTR,18,LENGTH,TRPL
DC.B C2,ENV,13,C2,ENV,14,C2,ENV,15,C2,ENV,16,C2,ENV,17,C2,MANUAL
DC.B END
SEQ22 ; BASS
DC.B INSTR,19,ENV,4
DC.B C2,CR2,C2,TRPL,C2,TRPL,C2,TRPL
DC.B C2,CR2,C2,TRPL,C2,TRPL,C2,TRPL
DC.B C2,CR2,C2,TRPL,C2,TRPL,C2,TRPL
DC.B C2,DQV2,C2,DQV2,C2,QV2
DC.B DS2,CR2,DS2,TRPL,DS2,TRPL,DS2,TRPL
DC.B DS2,CR2,DS2,TRPL,DS2,TRPL,DS2,TRPL
DC.B DS2,CR2,DS2,TRPL,DS2,TRPL,DS2,TRPL
DC.B DS2,DQV2,DS2,DQV2,F2,QV2

DC.B C2,CR2,C2,TRPL,C2,TRPL,C2,TRPL
DC.B C2,CR2,C2,TRPL,C2,TRPL,C2,TRPL
DC.B C2,CR2,C2,TRPL,C2,TRPL,C2,TRPL
DC.B C2,DQV2,C2,DQV2,C2,QV2
DC.B DS2,CR2,DS2,TRPL,DS2,TRPL,DS2,TRPL
DC.B DS2,CR2,DS2,TRPL,DS2,TRPL,DS2,TRPL
DC.B DS2,CR2,DS2,TRPL,DS2,TRPL,DS2,TRPL
DC.B DS2,DQV2,DS2,DQV2,F2,QV2
DC.B END
SEQ23 ; LEAD1
DC.B INSTR,20,ENV,18,VIBON,80,1,3
DC.B C4,SB2,DS4,SB2,GLIDE,-3,5,AS4,SB2,GS4,MN2,F4,MN2
DC.B VIBON,200,1,3,ENV,7,TIE,G4,128
DC.B END
SEQ24 ; LEAD2
DC.B INSTR,20,ENV,18,VIBON,80,1,3
DC.B C4,SB2+MN2+QV2,F4,QV2,G4,QV2,G4,QV2
DC.B G4,SB2+MN2+QV2,F4,QV2,G4,QV2,C5,QV2
DC.B C5,CR2,AS4,CR2,GS4,CR2
DC.B G4,QV2,GS4,QV2+QV2,G4,CR2
DC.B F4,MN2,G4,QV2
DC.B G4,SB2*2
DC.B END
SEQ25 ; LEAD3
DC.B INSTR,22,ENV,8,VIBON,48,1,3
DC.B C4,SB2+DCR2,C4,QV2,C4,QV4,G3,QV2,G3,QV2,G3,QV2
DC.B F3,SB2+MN2+QV2,F3,QV2,G3,QV2,AS3,QV2
DC.B AS3,DMN2,GS3,QV2,GS3,QV2+CR2
DC.B G3,QV2,G3,DCR2,DS3,QV2,D3,QV2+MN2+CR2
DC.B LENGTH,QV2,G2,GS2,AS2,C3,D3,DS3,F3,G3,GS3,AS3,MANUAL
DC.B END
SEQ26 ; BASS2
DC.B INSTR,23,ENV,18
DC.B C2,CR2,F2,QV2,G2,QV2,GLIDE,-2,3,AS2,QV2
DC.B C3,QV2,AS2,CR2
DC.B G2,SB2
DC.B C2,CR2,F2,QV2,G2,QV2,GLIDE,-2,3,AS2,QV2
DC.B GS2,QV2,G2,QV2,F2,QV2
DC.B G2,CR2,GS2,CR2,VIBON,18,1,2,G2,MN2,VIBOFF
DC.B C2,CR2,F2,QV2,G2,QV2,GLIDE,-2,3,AS2,QV2
DC.B C3,QV2,DS3,CR2
DC.B C3,SB2
DC.B C2,CR2,F2,QV2,G2,QV2,GS2,QV2
DC.B AS2,QV2,GLIDE,-2,6,C3,CR2
DC.B DS3,CR2,D3,CR2,AS2,CR2,G2,CR2
DC.B END
SEQ27 ; PERCUSION
DC.B INSTR,24,ENV,2
DC.B C2,SQ2,C2,SQ2,C2,DMN2,C2,QV2
DC.B C2,QV2,C2,DQV2,C2,QV2,C2,DQV2,C2,QV2
DC.B INSTR,25,C2,CR2+SQ2
DC.B C2,CR2+SQ2,INSTR,24,C2,SB2-DCR2
DC.B REST,DCR2,C2,SQ2,C2,SQ2,C2,QV2,C2,QV2
DC.B INSTR,25,C2,QV2,C2,QV2
DC.B INSTR,24,C2,DCR2,C2,SQ2,C2,SQ2,C2,DQV2+SQ2+CR2
DC.B REST,DQV2,C2,SQ2,C2,SQ2,C2,QV2,C2,QV2,C2,CR2+QV2+SQ2
DC.B REST,SQ2,C2,CR2+SQ2,C2,SQ2,C2,SQ2,C2,CR2,REST,QV2,C2,SQ2,C2,SQ2
DC.B C2,DCR2,C2,SQ2,C2,SQ2,C2,QV2,C2,QV2
DC.B INSTR,25,C2,QV2,C2,QV2
DC.B END

I started making a native tracker for the console, but without a keyboard (mouse is good though) and no easy way to save your songs... it doesn't work out too well either - lol. You can send data over the PCE audio lines and capture them via your PC, but no one wants to do that. If mega and mooz can finish the SD card read/write library for the Everdrive, that would be one step closer. Just need a keyboard interface from there and we would have a native tracker running on the system.

Those tunes are beautiful! 

I'd really love to see your tracker get released!   

I think that you could avoid the SD card issue, and get yourself keyboard input at the same time, just by using the TED2's USB connection ... that would give you a nice and simple 2-way connection with a host PC/laptop.

[ultrageranium]

If people do not mind me asking in this thread. Could someone clarify for me the term "sound driver" or "audio driver" that I've seen in some old game dev interviews or credits. Sometimes it seemed the same person was behind both such driver and the music made, sometimes it was different persons.

What does that mean in the context of the PCE or the Famicom (and possibly some other 8/16 bit consoles with dedicated soundchip)? Is it the sound engine written on top of the soundchip registers to offer to the composer an easier way to make music (ie. ready made instruments, envelopes, effects)?

Thanks!

[ccovell]

Not enough pan pipes here.  You need the Amiga version of Navy Seals:

A sound driver is a piece of software on the target game system that reads notes (stored in some format) and plays them as music or sound effects, usually as part of a video game.  Usually the music notes were converted from a tracker / editor / MIDI sequencer on a PC because raw hex (which the sound driver reads) is not very "musician-readable".   

A lot of early game / home computer musicians were also programmers, so they wrote their own tracker/editor software and their own sound drivers too.  A lot of games also had NO music editor... just hex manually punched in on a keyboard (imagine MML but with even less visual structure.)  Hex entering music... that's hardcore, but oh so stupid.

[NightWolve]

I like that one best, but there are some nice chiptunes in this thread overall.

Thank you for providing new/different content to the forum, there was too much "Look, GreatBlueSwirlof99, a troll!" for my taste lately around here... :/

[elmer]

Not enough pan pipes here.  You need the Amiga version of Navy Seals:

Hahaha ... thanks for the link! 

Even after all theses years, I've still never even thought to look for other versions of the game! 

The music guys really did love those pan pipes! 

It's definitely still Matthew Cannon's music, and I had a damned good idea who the artists were even before I looked up the credits on MobyGames!

A lot of games also had NO music editor... just hex manually punched in on a keyboard (imagine MML but with even less visual structure.)  Hex entering music... that's hardcore, but oh so stupid.

I definitely don't remember much in the way of on-hardware music editors before people started to use trackers.

I don't remember musicians having to enter hex, either, but I may have just missed that.

From what I remember, even back then, the musician usually got equates for note numbers and durations ... like in the example that I posted above; which is not really all that different, in concept, to MML.

I like that one best, but there are some nice chiptunes in this thread overall.

Me, too. A good classic tracker tune, nicely converted for the PCE.