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It's worth pointing out that those Japanese examples are of arpeggios in a more "classical" sense, where a chord is broken up into several deliberate notes as a part of the composition itself, which is different from "demoscene" (or "european"?) arpeggios, where the music engine can automatically toggle between 3 or more pitches rapidly in an attempt to literally simulate the chord.

They're similar, but they're still two different techniques.

ccovel's first and third examples there are not a different technique at all, very standard arps. TMNT's are not, though, that is true.

You're right, the first and third songs have demoscene arpeggios. Somehow, I managed to skip over those two links. I guess the promise of tinkling sounds caught my attention or something.

Not quite NES but Hitoshi Sakimoto's early work on the Genesis had a bit of it mainly in the pulse channels. Thinking Devlish. Also, the gamegear port of that and Gunstar Heroes were loaded with arps.

Castlevania 3 has an arpeggio effect, not sure if it's the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luxL5ufVTZM at 28 seconds.

I believe Captain America and the Avengers NES does this also, although only twice (to my knowledge).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6sLcGi1OTY at 0:01 and 0:16.

That Castlevania III example is a really interesting one, especially since the corresponding VRC6 Akumajou Densetsu track has the extra channels to play a full chord there and doesn't need the arpeggios. It makes the arps seem like a last resort when trying to port the sound to the unexpanded NES audio.

I always thought the stock NES, aside from the Triangle Wave's lack of volume, was well suited for whatever you needed. I never really liked the concept of sound expansion unless it was to add a new sound type, or to prevent sound effects from cutting the audio. Most efforts I've seen with expanded audio are Famitracker songs that seem to use VRC6 just because. Plus all of the best/memorable songs were conveniently written for the 2A03; Solstice theme (and any Follin soundtrack), Moon theme, Mario above ground theme, Sunsoft's music, Contra's music...

rainwarrior wrote:That Castlevania III example is a really interesting one, especially since the corresponding VRC6 Akumajou Densetsu track has the extra channels to play a full chord there and doesn't need the arpeggios. It makes the arps seem like a last resort when trying to port the sound to the unexpanded NES audio.

Yeah. And it's funny to read the YouTube comments on the linked video, and the corresponding video of the VRC6 version of the song: a lot of people seem to prefer the non-expanded version of the song. I wonder how much of that is only because the arpeggio is there.