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Custom Instrument Thread (2023/10/11)

Originally posted by Samuel
Code
instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Church Organ @13 $F9 $E0 $00 $03 $00 Best used with high echo. Something like $EF $FF $D0 $30 $F1 $0A $60 $00

Nice. Added.
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Added Electric Marimba to the list.

Also, if anyone has any ideas for instruments that aren't on the list, feel free to name them. It might inspire someone who wants to do some trickery with the ADSR and such to figure it out.
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I'd like to see someone find a way to recreate Toms and Tubular Bells somehow.
Originally posted by Samuel
I'd like to see someone find a way to recreate Toms and Tubular Bells somehow.

I've been messing around with the original samples for the past few days for my own purposes, and I got something that kind of resembles a Tom, but it's not very practical because you need two channels:

Code
@10 $FF $F7 $80 $05 $00
@0 $FF $F5 $80 $03 $00	;Use with $EB $00 $10 $E7 and mantain the octave and notes


SPC

I don't think I've nailed it down yet though... I think the key is to have the @0 play at ~6 semitones lower than the @10, and to use the latter with relatively high notes, but I haven't found the sweet spot yet.

Maybe you can experiment a bit on your own. You can change/lower the release of the @0 if you want it to have a deeper sound.

As for the bell... yeah, that one is difficult to do. You would need to use some weird pitch modulation tricks, but that also affects its practicality because it eats two whole channels.
I'd like to see someone find a way to recreate Charang.



List Soundtrack - List Hacks

Mega Man X3 OSTs
Originally posted by Tamaki

I've been messing around with the original samples for the past few days for my own purposes, and I got something that kind of resembles a Tom, but it's not very practical because you need two channels:

Code
@10 $FF $F7 $80 $05 $00
@0 $FF $F5 $80 $03 $00	;Use with $EB $00 $10 $E7 and mantain the octave and notes


SPC

This sounds fine to me. Sounds a lot better than the toms I remember seeing in the old thread too. I'm also not against two channels being mixed together to replicate the sound either. I'll add it to the table.

Now, I've been trying to find something that sounds close to tubular bells and got this:

Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Tubular Bells @2 $FE $EE $00 $03 $00 Use with: $E5 $0C $10 $13 and $DE $00 $02 $14

Couldn't find much out of SMW's samples on this one, but the @2 seems to be the best fit here. It sounds the most like tubular bells at low octaves.
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This one pre-dates back to November 2017. The weird phasing issue has yet to be figured out.

Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Brass Trumpet @6 $FA $E0 $00 $03 $00
@4 $FA $E0 $00 $03 $00
Recommended to use it on a solo channel.


If you want to use it for chords, the BRR version is preferred which you can find on my files saying "Marky Pitch Modulation Instruments List.zip"
100% Orange Juice Playthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf1kPWkjcurtA3xPP3TybfqSiEn1AcX2A

VLDC9 Playthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf1kPWkjcurtiP5de_-e6q0hSVrY37RB-.


Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Electric Guitar (Muted) @6 $FE $FB $B8 $03 $00 You might want to use with $EC $01 $01 $01
Originally posted by MarkVD100
This one pre-dates back to November 2017. The weird phasing issue has yet to be figured out.

Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Brass Trumpet @6 $FA $E0 $00 $03 $00
@4 $FA $E0 $00 $03 $00
Recommended to use it on a solo channel.


If you want to use it for chords, the BRR version is preferred which you can find on my files saying "Marky Pitch Modulation Instruments List.zip"


Added this one to the table.

Originally posted by tcdw
Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Electric Guitar (Muted) @6 $FE $FB $B8 $03 $00 You might want to use with $EC $01 $01 $01


I like this one. The instrument sounds much like a Muted Guitar so I named it that way in the table.

I arranged the tables a bit more and decided to color code the available commands that are mentioned in the notes. I might make a key for this as I could see it being useful to list some of AMK's commands right here.
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Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Piano @9 $00 $00 $DF $02 $AE

It's pretty much @9, but just with a strong GAIN rather than the default ADSR.
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Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Poly Pops @0 $FF $E0 $B8 $06 $00 Needs very intense vibrato, with the rate (first argument) being around half of the note duration (e.g. p32,100 for l16). Also works better with higher echo delay, though it's flexible in that regard.


Named after the Poly Pops from the Retrologue VST. Also good for emulating an FM-synthy sound.

The melody in the SPC is the intro of the Stage 2 theme from Touhou 16, if you're curious.

Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Bassoon @6 $8C $E1 $7F $03 $00 All octaves


bebn edit: fixed .spc link at request
Originally posted by bebn legg
Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Poly Pops @0 $FF $E0 $B8 $06 $00 Needs very intense vibrato, with the rate (first argument) being around half of the note duration (e.g. p32,100 for l16). Also works better with higher echo delay, though it's flexible in that regard.


Named after the Poly Pops from the Retrologue VST. Also good for emulating an FM-synthy sound.

The melody in the SPC is the intro of the Stage 2 theme from Touhou 16, if you're curious.

This one sounds cooler than the Square Wave. Added.

Originally posted by Marcozzo Daro
Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Bassoon @6 $8C $E1 $7F $03 $00 All octaves

Yup! This is good too. Added.
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Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
High Violin @4 $F7 $E1 $7F $03 $00 Soft Violin
@4 $F4 $ED $7F $03 $00 Trill Violin
@4 $F9 $E1 $7F $03 $00 Attack Violin
@4 $F6 $ED $7F $03 $00 Fast Trill
As it is supposed to be high,so o4 to o6 ia the best range,the SPC also uses from o4 to o6.The vibrato parameters I've used for the p command were p10,40 and p10,48.The fast trill ADSR is for shorter trills.I also used $F4$10.


This is a actually a "pack" of various ADSR parameters to use for High notes on @4.
The Trill Violin is just a variation to make the volume increase
smoothly as if increasing the strength of the bow.I also recommend using $F4$01 for the trills,cause even with high attack,it doesn't sound natural,the trill may sound weird with $F4$01 in 4th octave,so using the Attack Violin is better.
In the lowest notes of 4th octave,I would recommend using the Attack Violin instead of Soft Violin.
Originally posted by Marcozzo Daro
Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
High Violin @4 $F7 $E1 $7F $03 $00 Soft Violin
@4 $F4 $ED $7F $03 $00 Trill Violin
@4 $F9 $E1 $7F $03 $00 Attack Violin
o4 to o7e (7th octave is possible using tuning).The SPC uses from o4 to o6.Vibrato is also welcome in long notes.


This is a actually a "pack" of various ADSR parameters to use for High notes on @4.

The Trill Violin is just a variation to make the volume increase more smoothly as if increasing the strength.

In the lowest notes of 4th octave,I would recommend using the Attack Violin instead of Soft Violin.

I'm holding off on adding this one for a few reasons:

That Trill Violin sounds a little iffy. I'd say it would sound better without what seems to be a $F4 $01 command on that trill.

You're forgetting some details in your notes. There's vibrato commands, echo, and possibly more other commands that you left out that have to be mentioned.

Also, anything after o6a is invalid. If you're trying to mention that it goes up to "o7e", you might as well have the tuning values set to $06 $00. The idea behind it is that it's meant to use the highest notes, so eliminating the initial o1 octave shouldn't be any harm either.
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Originally posted by Marcozzo Daro
Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
High Violin @4 $F7 $E1 $7F $03 $00 Soft Violin
@4 $F4 $ED $7F $03 $00 Trill Violin
@4 $F9 $E1 $7F $03 $00 Attack Violin
@4 $F6 $ED $7F $03 $00 Fast Trill
As it is supposed to be high,so o4 to o6 ia the best range,the SPC also uses from o4 to o6.The vibrato parameters I've used for the p command were p10,40 and p10,48.The fast trill ADSR is for shorter trills.I also used $F4$10.


This is a actually a "pack" of various ADSR parameters to use for High notes on @4.
The Trill Violin is just a variation to make the volume increase
smoothly as if increasing the strength of the bow.I also recommend using $F4$01 for the trills,cause even with high attack,it doesn't sound natural,the trill may sound weird with $F4$01 in 4th octave,so using the Attack Violin is better.
In the lowest notes of 4th octave,I would recommend using the Attack Violin instead of Soft Violin.

Now added to the table.
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Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Guiro @23 $8D $E0 $00 $07 $00 Use with: volume command + volume fadeout + fast vibrato + repeating pattern of single tick notes.
Example used for the SPC:
$DE $00 $2A $2A @30 v255 $E8 $18 $32 [[o3 b=1>c+=1<b=1>c+=1d=1e=1d=1e=1<]]3 ; 8th note
[@30 v255 $E8 $0C $32 o3 b=1>c+=1<b=1>c+=1d=1e=1d=1e=1< o3 b=1>c+=1<b=1>c+=1]2 ; 16th note

I took this from this port by Izuna, so give credit to them.
Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Record Scratch @15 (default is fine)
@1 $CF $A0 $00 $08 $A0

First channel: o4c
Second channel: o4e $DD $00 $02 $AA
Changing the pitch bend can make it go higher ($BF is the highest without overflow), or lower.
it sucks for longer notes, though, keep it around 16 or shorter.


used in my metropolis port, inspired by the old record scratch instrument. it's pitchmod, though, soooooooo
Originally posted by KevinM
Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Guiro @23 $8D $E0 $00 $07 $00 Use with: volume command + volume fadeout + fast vibrato + repeating pattern of single tick notes.
Example used for the SPC:
$DE $00 $2A $2A @30 v255 $E8 $18 $32 [[o3 b=1>c+=1<b=1>c+=1d=1e=1d=1e=1<]]3 ; 8th note
[@30 v255 $E8 $0C $32 o3 b=1>c+=1<b=1>c+=1d=1e=1d=1e=1< o3 b=1>c+=1<b=1>c+=1]2 ; 16th note

I took this from this port by Izuna, so give credit to them.

Added, also sorry for the delay!

Originally posted by Nameless
Instrument #instrument Data Values Notes
Record Scratch @15 (default is fine)
@1 $CF $A0 $00 $08 $A0

First channel: o4c
Second channel: o4e $DD $00 $02 $AA
Changing the pitch bend can make it go higher ($BF is the highest without overflow), or lower.
it sucks for longer notes, though, keep it around 16 or shorter.


used in my metropolis port, inspired by the old record scratch instrument. it's pitchmod, though, soooooooo

This is a great record scratch sound! Added this too.

Keep em' coming. Don't forget that there's the old thread if you wanna pull anything from there to add to here with a SPC file (we don't have a single nXX on this table I notice). Also feel free to @ me on Discord if I seem to be falling behind on updating the table, or if there's any errors on it.
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May I have some clarification on how to use the pitch-modulated instruments? It seems two instrument values are given for each instrument, and I assume you're supposed to use each of them in two channels. However, the SPC only shows it in one channel. Thanks in advance.

Also, what's the intended way to remove the beginning of the sample in the case of the @7 organ?
My Mode 0 guide.

My Discord server. It has a lot of archived ASM stuff, so check that out!