Huzak - Yet another music driver

[Arkhan]

Im not really a fan of magical chase in general lol.

But, it doesnt do that overblown arp onslaught, and i think thats probably the reason they arent annoying.

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[ccovell]

Different strokes for different folks.  But anyway, I think the PCE is not so well suited for arpeggios as it is detuned pairs of channels.  Games that do that usually sound fantastic.

[Arkhan]

Different strokes for different folks.  But anyway, I think the PCE is not so well suited for arpeggios as it is detuned pairs of channels.  Games that do that usually sound fantastic.

agreed.  I think the C64 really did well with arps because of the filtering.   Other machines that lack that ability never really sound as good.

I can recreate that stuff on my Roland pretty easily since it has a filter built in. 

[Bonknuts]

Phasing + slides(and portamento to note) + sharp waveforms (saw) + vibrato = synthy sounding goodness on PCE. A.K.A. Legend of Xanadu I and Aldynes Stage 4 OST.

 Yeah.. when arps done wrong = shrill.

 elmer: is this what you mean by prog-rock?

[TailChao]

Nice work so far, good to see more sound tools.

Different strokes for different folks.  But anyway, I think the PCE is not so well suited for arpeggios as it is detuned pairs of channels.  Games that do that usually sound fantastic.

Totally, and it has the channel count to pull this off well.

Oh ... and prog-rock and all of those other things that influenced the generation of English computer-game musicians that you have fond memories for.

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends

[DarkKobold]

I had to google arpeggio, and I'm still confused. If its just notes of a chord played in succession, how does that relate to a music driver? Don't you tell the music driver what to play? Couldn't it be any note?

Anyway, is this music driver something that will integrate with HuC, like Squirrel?

[spenoza]

RIP Emerson and Lake. Only Palmer remains.

Also, heresy! Magical Chase is a Sakimoto classic!

[Michirin9801]

RIP Emerson and Lake. Only Palmer remains.

Also, heresy! Magical Chase is a Sakimoto classic!

Agreed! Magical Chase has one of my favourite soundtracks on the system, it literally does magic with the soundchip! (And with the grafx too, Dat Parallax Tho! 3 overlapping layers anyone?)
Although my favourite tracks are the ones without Arpeggios >w>

[elmer]

I hope nobody really uses those kinds of arps, because to me they insult real arpeggiator usage (Baba O'Reilly)

or from more modern times, Hungry like the Wolf.     There, it's not to simulate chords in the presence of 3 channels.   It's there to be like "goddamn that's cool and fits the damn song".   

I could be wrong ... but I thought that their appearance on early monophonic hardware synths was specifically to allow chords to be played on the limited hardware ... pretty much in the same way as early computers with few PSG channels. 

It was then that the musicians found more-interesting uses for them in creating cascading streams of notes faster than a human could hit the keys on a keyboard. 

It's rare to find a track that uses them well, honestly.

This is one of the only ones I can think of that does something good with them.  They used them as upstroke sounding chords, and then a reasonably not-over-powering background noise.

Yep, they're probably better-off when pushed back in the mix like that C64 tune.

I may have brought them too-far-forward with my quick-and-dirty Navy Seals translation, and my crappy gameboy-style envelope emulation doesn't help the sound.

I'm looking forward to implementing much better envelopes when I start importing deflemask data.

Michirin9801's "Misty Blue" cover is the one that I really want to get working in order to read from deflemask files, and to add whatever enhancements are practically-needed to the driver.

Oh gosh, hearing that one in a proper rom would make me so happy!
(even happier if you can emulate this look)
http://orig01.deviantart.net/788d/f/2016/361/a/7/n_88_basic_by_michirin9801-dat4sjs.png

The driver needs to be able to play deflemask tunes in order to be useful for homebrew ... I'm just lucky to have someone like you that is actually creating good music in deflemask that closely-resembles the way that pro-musicians put stuff together back-in-the-day (i.e. careful use of repeating patterns/sequences and no samples).

I don't know if I'll be able to *practically* recreate all of Delek's effect-processing, but I'll sure give it a try. 

Recreating the PC88 screen is easy, and might be fun for a laugh!

I just suspect that nobody would be interested-enough to try. 

Well, I could TRY to do it, but I can't guarantee I'll actually finish it >w>
But hey, there's no harm in trying right?

Your tunes show a love and passion for the originals ... don't feel like you have to play with the Navy Seals tune on my account, only do it if you actually like it.

The Amiga version is a very different take on the same tune, and more to some people's taste. The sampled pan-pipe is much better than the gameboy tone that I'm using on the PCE.

I have to admit that I'm curious if the PCE could make something closer to that sound in the hands of a skilled musician.

Excellent job,and how about the music size ??

Thanks! 

The tune data is a bit less than 3KB.

The Navy Seals soundtrack is also really good; the Amiga title screen song being one of the best.

The sampled pipes sound great ... but I actually find that version a bit "empty" sounding after the GB version.

It doesn't help that some of the notes sound a bit cut-off on the Amiga. I don't remember implementing release stages to the volume envelopes on that driver, because nobody asked for them, or asked for a note-off command to trigger them.

I could be wrong ... I'd have to check the source-code.

elmer: is this what you mean by prog-rock?

Yep, that's a good example. Very ELP. 

Nice work so far, good to see more sound tools.

It's a decent start ... but as you know yourself, it's all really about the tools that surround the driver so that the musician can actually create a good tune and get it in exported in a format that the driver can use.

Oh ... then there's getting the driver's effects-processing to reasonably-match the sound that the musician hears in the package that they use to create the tune.   

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends

Ahhhh ... ELP, good stuff! I'm really more of a Tull fan, though. 

I had to google arpeggio, and I'm still confused. If its just notes of a chord played in succession, how does that relate to a music driver? Don't you tell the music driver what to play? Couldn't it be any note?

Arpeggios in sound-drivers (or synthesizers) aren't produced by the musician pressing a different key for each individual note ... the musician just hits a base note/chord, and the driver/keyboard itself goes wild and starts spewing forth notes in a pattern that the musician defines.

The definition of that pattern, and how fast it plays, are "special effects" in the driver itself, and are not seen in the main song data.

See https://www.attackmagazine.com/technique/tutorials/an-introduction-to-arpeggiators/

Anyway, is this music driver something that will integrate with HuC, like Squirrel?

That's the idea.

It's why the interface between HuC's startup.asm and Squirrel has been abstracted out into a few macro calls in the new HuC, so that *any* different sound driver can just slot-in and be used with HuC, without having to change HuC's internal files.

Although my favourite tracks are the ones without Arpeggios >w>

Sacrilege! 

[Arkhan]

I honestly can't think of any example of an old synth group using a monophonic synth's arpeggiator to produce the typical chiptune arp sound, unless you count Devo doing it to create shrill background noise.   

I'm sure there's probably some song or group who did it that I can't recall, but it definitely did not catch on, and wasn't the common usage of the arpeggiator on a synth. 

By the time good monophonic synths hit the market, there were already solid polyphonic synths if people wanted to play chords.  Shit, the one could be attached to C64s and programmed from there.   That was interesting. 

Now, I can think of countless examples of them using the arpeggiator like normal human beings to create bass riffs, fills, and other musical things, though.

arpeggio is a real musical term of playing the notes of a chord individually.  It's often referred to as raking, or sweeping because of the visual appearance of it while playing (on a stringed instrument).   It's generally used to create a nice, flowing part of a song.   All that fast paced shredding you hear in metal is often just a bunch of sweep arpeggios. 

synth groups like New Order used nicely placed arpeggiation in their songs (Bizzare Love Triangle has some good ones).  Or Kraftwerk, for nice, but weirder stuff.

  those string sounds in the background around 2 minutes in use an arpeggiator on the synth, and they just hold chords down and let it go.

  lol, this song has them in the background during the intro/outro.   Imagine if they sped the rate up.  It wouldn't sound as nice.  The notes wouldn't be audible.   You lose the flowy-ness of it completely.

Here's a good example of synthesized arpeggios that sound good, and definitely aren't taking a backseat:

And here's some guitar ones:

sidenote, too:  People *can* play the piano arpeggios that fast, but it requires concentration and 100% accuracy + timing, which isn't so easy when your other hand is doing something else on another keyboard, lol.   

"arp" or "arps" is a slang term applied to the "arpeggios" you hear in chiptunes.  While technically still "notes of a chord played individually", the rate at which they cycle is so fast it just creates that blurry noise, instead of a nice flowing arpeggio.   they're basically arpeggios by definition, not by execution

When used carefully, it'll be ok.   When used excessively, it just makes songs sound like total horseshit because it just sounds like a bunch of gremlins on motorcycles riding around in circles while jamming forks in blenders.

You never really hear this effect used in the same manner that you'd hear arpeggios in any other situation.   People who want them tend to just punch in arpeggios in a step-sequenced manner.

It's generally the first effect people fudge around with in a tracker, and it sounds reasonably nice, but then everyone gets excited and overdoes it.

That noise has effectively become the "chiptune" sound, now. 

gross.

[spenoza]

Most chiptune arpeggios have more to n common with a trill.

[Arkhan]

Most chiptune arpeggios have more to n common with a trill.

yeah.  pretty much. 

[esteban]

...

I don't know if I'll be able to *practically* recreate all of Dalek's effect-processing, but I'll sure give it a try. 

Recreating the PC88 screen is easy, and might be fun for a laugh!

I *knew* it. It explains everything...

[TailChao]

It's a decent start ... but as you know yourself, it's all really about the tools that surround the driver so that the musician can actually create a good tune and get it in exported in a format that the driver can use.

Oh ... then there's getting the driver's effects-processing to reasonably-match the sound that the musician hears in the package that they use to create the tune.   

Yeah, although I do think you have the right idea by just going straight for Deflemask support. It's a good tool and the time saved from the composer's end will likely justify the investment.

Funny sound languages are outdated and I'm going to eventually have to part with my own (or hide it under several carpets).

Ahhhh ... ELP, good stuff! I'm really more of a Tull fan, though. 

Nothing wrong with that 

[elmer]

Most chiptune arpeggios have more to n common with a trill.

That's actually a really nice way of describing the difference! 

I don't know if I'll be able to *practically* recreate all of Dalek's effect-processing, but I'll sure give it a try. 

I *knew* it. It explains everything...

Yep, deflemask is out to exterminate the competition! 

Yeah, although I do think you have the right idea by just going straight for Deflemask support. It's a good tool and the time saved from the composer's end will likely justify the investment.

Funny sound languages are outdated and I'm going to eventually have to part with my own (or hide it under several carpets).

Those old languages were the best that was practically available BITD, but the world has moved on.

We're just not getting a flood of musicians turning up with a desire to write MML in order to make a PCE chiptune.

As the saying goes ... 'If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain'.