How NES Music Was REALLY Composed

AlbertoG · Post by **AlbertoG** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:07 am

The technique for programming drums using the triangle channel is very simple.

You use the triangle channel for very few frames (1 to 4, depending on the sound) with carefully chosen frequencies for each frame, along with the noise channel using also carefully chosen frequencies and volumes from a table.

The drum sounds take over the triangle channel temporally, cutting the sound of other parts (the bass line for example). That's why they use the channel only for very few frames. Also, if the drums sound loud enough the take over is a bit less noticeable.

I remember to have spent a lot, and I really mean A LOT of time tuning the tables of the drums until they sounded good enough (for my taste).

Doommaster1994 · Post by **Doommaster1994** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:13 am

Ah. I ask because I've been recently listening to Fumito Tamayama's work on NES (and David Whittaker) and Fumito uses triangle drums. I can do covers of his work on Famitracker but I have to write at a really fast tempo (300, 256, 225, etc.)

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:19 am

Why would you want this, especially with these weird tempos? It is very easy to make triangle drums in Famitracker with the arpeggio sequence, the only problem is that you either have to make a drum instrument for every bass note, or just accept that drum pitch is changes along with notes.

jsr was asked long ago for a 'fixed note' feature in the arpeggio sequences, this would make things like these much easier to handle, and he even implemented it in a WIP back then, but it was never included into any release. What a pity.

Bregalad · Post by **Bregalad** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:36 am

Yeah I always throught it would be complicated to do this.
The way Alberto did it is probably fine but it's a problem the triangle drum(s) is/are "hard-wired" in the sound engine and can't be changed as the user wishes.

Arpegio would be fine, but it becomes a major problem if you need one arpeggio setting for every different note you use.

So yeah I think the "fixed note" in arpeggio mode is probably the best - but what about if you want a pitch that doesn't fall in a note but in between (to avoid the listener thinking the drums are actually melodic) ?

Shiru · Post by **Shiru** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:05 pm

It is not that noticeable or bad if pitch of the drum vary a bit.

I don't think that fast pitch drop that is required for a drum could sound too melodic to create any problem for listener. Any real drums (rock drumkit, for example) has own tuning and need to be tuned just like any other musical instrument, but it does not create any problem, you'll never say that kick or snare (they are tuned as well) are 'melodic'.

thefox · Post by **thefox** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:18 pm

AlbertoG wrote:I remember to have spent a lot, and I really mean A LOT of time tuning the tables of the drums until they sounded good enough (for my taste).

And it shows.

When I heard the songs from Asterix for the first time, I couldn't believe how good the drums sounded. I even reverse engineered the game to find out what envelope values you were using.

jsr was asked long ago for a 'fixed note' feature in the arpeggio sequences, this would make things like these much easier to handle, and he even implemented it in a WIP back then, but it was never included into any release. What a pity.

This is why I added (what I call) absolute note option to Pornotracker envelopes. The option can be set for each envelope value individually, so it's possible to make a sound which has the bass drum in the beginning using absolute notes, and then plays bass using whatever note the user entered.

Bregalad · Post by **Bregalad** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:37 pm

This is why I added (what I call) absolute note option to Pornotracker envelopes. The option can be set for each envelope value individually, so it's possible to make a sound which has the bass drum in the beginning using absolute notes, and then plays bass using whatever note the user entered.

That, along with the fact that you support true vibrato depts (that doesn't changes relatively to the note pitch) make your engine sounds way better than FamiTracker's !

Post by **tepples** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:10 pm

In my music engine, all drums go through the sound effects engine. The kick drum in the opening to Zap Ruder, for example, is one sound effect played on the triangle channel and another sound effect on the noise channel. This way the drum sound naturally interrupts whatever's behind it.

KGN-004 · Post by **KGN-004** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:09 pm

Oh wow, Alberto Gonzalez posts here too!? Don't know how I missed this when I joined the forums. I just got finished listening to your SNES Asterix & Obelix Palace theme for a couple hours straight!

This is my favorite thread. It's nice to have a glimpse of what goes into programming chiptune sound drivers from my favorite artists on one of my favorite consoles.

Just wanted to tip my hat to Alberto.

AlbertoG · Post by **AlbertoG** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:45 pm

Thank you very much KGN-004, I'm glad you liked the sountrack :O)

[off topic mode on]

Now that I've reached this thread again, please allow me to share some very old songs with you. Recently I have been uploading most of my ancient non commercial 8 bit tunes to a soundcloud page. There are tunes from ZX Spectrum, Game Boy, Amiga 500, and others, and they were composed as personal experiments or for unreleased games. Don't expect much quality, though!

If you like any of them, you can leave a comment on it and I'll be happy. Thanks!

http://soundcloud.com/joemcalby/tracks

[off topic mode off]

Doommaster1994 · Post by **Doommaster1994** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 9:28 am

Thank you, Alberto, I'll be sure to check it out soon.
I can't access the internet at home (I recently moved into a new house, the cable guy's supposed to fix it today. If you're wondering how I can type this message without internet, well...I'm at school.

)
Unfortunately, our school blocked SoundCloud. >:(