Hi all,
Over the past few months I have been trying to decide what my first music port should be. Because I've worked with MML before, I wanted to give myself a challenge in AddmusicK, and pick something that not many people have focused on too much for the SPC700. I ultimately decided on a Shovel Knight track, since I love that game's music, and I bet someone could find a use for it in SMW. I'm not basing my port on the original Famitracker version. Instead I'm basing it off a remix which has grown on me and which I think will suit the SPC700 better. i've started the port though it's nowhere near complete yet, so I'm not ready to show it off. Before I get too far into it, I have a decision to make, and I could use some advice.
I once ran out of ram because I got carried away with custom samples. After some pondering I decided the high hat sample I was using could be simulated with noise. So I made that change and after some tuning, it sounds pretty good in the mix. I then thought about messing with my bass and snare drums, which right now take up about 6 K of space. They have a very electronic feel so I want to keep them crisp. If I compress them more it would degrade them too much imho. I know that 6 K isn't that huge, but indulge me for a sec.
I've seen a few Snes tracks, such as gambit's stage in Spiderman and X Men, using noise and a sine wave to simulate a bass drum. If you slow the SPC down you can hear what is going on. This was of course common in prev gen consoles which couldn't do samples well, but I was wondering if this would even be worth considering in AddmusicK as a madman's space-saving technique. Hypothetically it could work. I could make mml strings to play a bass drum or a snare, and then recall them to make actual patterns. Whether it would save space or not is something I don't yet know since it would take a lot more commands to make passable sounds.
Doing that kind of trick seems like it would have a lot of implications though. It's kinda hackery and I wouldn't doubt the dangers of slowdown. Due to my visual impairment I am not really able to play video games, so I haven't messed with roms and emulation at all. If I'm going to try something like that and it ends up working musically, I'd like to at least make sure I know what I'm doing in a practical sense, and find a way to test the sound in-game. I don't really know how to do that yet. As you can probably tell, I get a little carried away with cool toys.
I know there are far simpler ways to save space, but I still have to ask! What are your thoughts?
Make more of less, that way you won't make less of more!
Over the past few months I have been trying to decide what my first music port should be. Because I've worked with MML before, I wanted to give myself a challenge in AddmusicK, and pick something that not many people have focused on too much for the SPC700. I ultimately decided on a Shovel Knight track, since I love that game's music, and I bet someone could find a use for it in SMW. I'm not basing my port on the original Famitracker version. Instead I'm basing it off a remix which has grown on me and which I think will suit the SPC700 better. i've started the port though it's nowhere near complete yet, so I'm not ready to show it off. Before I get too far into it, I have a decision to make, and I could use some advice.
I once ran out of ram because I got carried away with custom samples. After some pondering I decided the high hat sample I was using could be simulated with noise. So I made that change and after some tuning, it sounds pretty good in the mix. I then thought about messing with my bass and snare drums, which right now take up about 6 K of space. They have a very electronic feel so I want to keep them crisp. If I compress them more it would degrade them too much imho. I know that 6 K isn't that huge, but indulge me for a sec.
I've seen a few Snes tracks, such as gambit's stage in Spiderman and X Men, using noise and a sine wave to simulate a bass drum. If you slow the SPC down you can hear what is going on. This was of course common in prev gen consoles which couldn't do samples well, but I was wondering if this would even be worth considering in AddmusicK as a madman's space-saving technique. Hypothetically it could work. I could make mml strings to play a bass drum or a snare, and then recall them to make actual patterns. Whether it would save space or not is something I don't yet know since it would take a lot more commands to make passable sounds.
Doing that kind of trick seems like it would have a lot of implications though. It's kinda hackery and I wouldn't doubt the dangers of slowdown. Due to my visual impairment I am not really able to play video games, so I haven't messed with roms and emulation at all. If I'm going to try something like that and it ends up working musically, I'd like to at least make sure I know what I'm doing in a practical sense, and find a way to test the sound in-game. I don't really know how to do that yet. As you can probably tell, I get a little carried away with cool toys.
I know there are far simpler ways to save space, but I still have to ask! What are your thoughts?
Make more of less, that way you won't make less of more!