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## First FT song, and first post (2A03)

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WheelInventor
  Posts: 13
  Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 9:52 pm

### First FT song, and first post (2A03)

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Post by WheelInventor » Wed Dec 14, 2016 10:10 pm

====================
Update: newer version. 2016-12-17 00:25 local time.

encounter_intro_or_story4c.ftm
  (14.75 KiB) Downloaded 149 times

====================
(original post)
Hi!
I posted this over at NesDev forums the other day, where i got some really useful technical and artistic suggestions.. I thought i should create an account here aswell and share it for thoughts, comments and advice.
No support chip, no dpcm. Meant as bgm for a non-action-y state in a game, ie. intro/story/encounter or what have you, hence the imaginative filename. It is stable version-compatible.
What do you think?

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  encounter_intro_or_story3.ftm
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Last edited by WheelInventor on Sat Dec 17, 2016 12:14 am, edited 5 times in total.
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FloppyDisk
  Posts: 140
  Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2016 12:12 am

### Re: First FT song, and first post (2A03)

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Post by FloppyDisk » Thu Dec 15, 2016 5:08 pm

This song is very impressive for a first song, you've got some talent! The melody and atmosphere are suitably eerie, nice work!
I noticed that you used 1XX and 2XX for note slides. I think it's a bit easier to use QXX and RXX for portmanteau instead.
In frame 08, the two pulse channels clash a lot, and that frame overall just sounds really messy. I'm not sure what you were going for, so I'm not sure how to fix it.
I found it interesting that you used an instrument for that arpeggio at the beginning, but didn't make another instrument for the other arps. That's not much of a criticism as much as an observation though. Besides those nitpicks, this song is quite well done.
Welcome to the forums!
Don't copy that floppy!
I have a Youtube channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbvooz ... NbuSAKbn5w
There's pretty much nothing there, but y'know, just in case.
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WheelInventor
  Posts: 13
  Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 9:52 pm

### Re: First FT song, and first post (2A03)

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Post by WheelInventor » Thu Dec 15, 2016 7:16 pm

Thank you! It's especially very helpful for me to have it pointed out: Frame 08 is probably the one worst off. I wanted it to break off distinctively from the 4-frame part it belongs to. I shot too far, and then struggled to bring it back home. Even the drum track got a little messy. It's not quite there and i'm on the fence whether to have another go at it or just scrap that frame altogether and rewrite it from scratch.
As for the arpeggios:
I was experimenting with what provided the least bytesize for a song. I prefer when the arpeggios are written out and aren't obscured by a sequence/song macro, but an arpeggio that is used plenty of times may save a few bytes if made as an instrument/sequence, which could possibly matter if ever put along game data on a physical cartridge, so i wanted to practice on that.
The story with 1xx/2xx is a little funny. I started out with 1xx/2xx, then switched to Qxx/Rxx because it was more convenient, less prone to mistakes, not as fragile to temporal changes, use up half the amount of bytes. Only good thing with 1xx/2xx in this scenario i found is that it doesn't need to be repeated for every new note you want to bend within its range, in, say, an arpeggio...
Then, i switched back to 1xx/2xx to get closer to the possibility of converting the data to one of the more lightweight drivers, which force further restrictions in order to be more light on byte size, cpu usage and/or RAM usage.
Along those lines, i came up with this table for producing combined bass and kick/tom sounds with 1xx/2xx even though it is much more convenient to do so with Qxx/Rxx. It's only tested in NTSC. I ended up not using it for this song so far, though.

Code: Select all

`Assuming conditions: Speed 7, tempo 150, 2xx directly followed by 200
tested on NTSC tri wave. 2xx works as coarse tuning, starting note as fine tuning. It is consistent for a while on this speed, then up the scale, it gets a little cryptic to achieve the right pitch. Done by ear.
Note* | 2xx | Starting note:
F-1 2AC F-5
F#1 2A2 F#5
G-1 299 G-5
G#1 290 A#5
A-1 288 A-5
A#1 280 A#5
B-1 279 B-5
C-2 272 C-6
C#2 26C C#6
D-2 266 D-6
D#2 260 D#6
E-2 25B E-6
F-2 256 F#6
F#2 251 F-6
G-2 24C F#6
G#2 247 E-6
A-2 243 F-6
A#2 23F F#6
B-2 23B F-6
C-3 238 G-6
C#3 235 G#6
D-3 231 F#6
D#3 22E G-6
E-3 22B G-6
F-3 219 G#6
F#3 226 G-6
G-3 224 A-6
G#3 222 A-6
A-3 220 A#6
A#3 21E A#6
B-3 21C A#6
*the desired landing note for the bass line`
Thanks for the welcoming!
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FloppyDisk
  Posts: 140
  Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2016 12:12 am

### Re: First FT song, and first post (2A03)

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Post by FloppyDisk » Fri Dec 16, 2016 12:49 am

Wow, it sounds like you're either doing this for technical reasons, or this is actually going into an nes game. Either explanation would explain why you did those optimization tricks. Also, that table is remarkably thorough.
I came up with a possible way to do frame 08 as well:

Attachments
  encounter_intro_or_story3-FD_Edit.ftm
    (14.43 KiB) Downloaded 119 times

Don't copy that floppy!
I have a Youtube channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbvooz ... NbuSAKbn5w
There's pretty much nothing there, but y'know, just in case.
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WheelInventor
  Posts: 13
  Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 9:52 pm

### Re: First FT song, and first post (2A03)

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Post by WheelInventor » Fri Dec 16, 2016 9:50 pm

Won't make promises yet, but it or other songs i do *might* end up in a game eventually. I got graphics (a few samples: 1, 2, 3) and assembling functioning binaries for the nes figured out, but writing orientable and structured code for the nes is a big chapter to chew through for me, let alone making something that is entertaining to play in the same process.
Thanks for your edit. It can be relieving to see that there's other options, and it encouraged me to rewrite that frame. Placed a new version inline in the original post! Maybe not final, but better to my ears. It follows the same suspended progression as before but with ome well needed alterations, + various tweaks. All in all, it's a little closer to what i was hoping to convey with a little less hullabaloo.
I especially liked the upwards motion in the end of your version of the frame, very fluid!
Though, be wary of unisons between the two square waves. I just learned that the phase between the two can be variably asynchronous, so when they play the same note in the same octave, any of the listed can semi-randomly happen from one occation to the next:
-180 degrees apart: they cancel out each other completely, no tone is heard from either.
-0 degrees apart: perfect unison; heard as just one tone amped x2
-anything in-between: uncontrolled phasing; resulting in a different timbre than was meant.
On a synthesizer it may be easier to control this behaviour, but on the 2a03, not so much.
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FloppyDisk
  Posts: 140
  Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2016 12:12 am

### Re: First FT song, and first post (2A03)

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Post by FloppyDisk » Sat Dec 17, 2016 12:46 am

Wow, those graphics are amazing! I feel like this song could easily fit any or those 3 images, but the first one fits the most imo. Frame 08 sounds a whole lot better now, it sounds more cohesive and less distracting. You could probably break off into a different melody at that point, as you said.
I wish I could pixel art that good...
Don't copy that floppy!
I have a Youtube channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbvooz ... NbuSAKbn5w
There's pretty much nothing there, but y'know, just in case.
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