Dermot's chiptune covers - Page 2 - FamiTracker

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## Dermot's chiptune covers

Post your cover music here and receive feedback.
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This area is dedicated to covers of existing songs. When posting a song, please include information about the original song.
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Dermot
  Posts: 70
  Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:47 am
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### Mega Man & Bass (SNES) - Ground Man (VRC6)

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Post by Dermot » Sat Jan 30, 2016 9:46 am

Back when I made this cover, this time, I opted not to use the DPCM at all (which I'd begun to notice has a muffling effect on the triangle and percussion), and the bass drum is assigned to pulse or sawtooth, whichever is available at a given moment.
Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109 ... %20NSF.zip
(EDIT: Updated to reduce the echo problem.)
Last edited by Dermot on Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Dermot
  Posts: 70
  Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:47 am
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### Final Fantasy VI - Searching for Friends (VRC6)

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Post by Dermot » Sat Jan 30, 2016 9:54 am

I have a funny story about this cover. I'd actually created lots of DPCM samples for the propeller noise part of the song. But when I put them in, the rest of the instruments completely drowned them out even when I boosted the decibels, so I decided to leave them out. But the part I'm proudest of is the tuning fork instrument, where I realized the VRC6 pulse channels were perfectly suited for producing the different sharpnesses of tuning fork sound. The little things can matter. :)
Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109 ... %20NSF.zip
(EDIT: Made many tweaks. Modified some vibrato, streamlined instrument fades, and made instruments quieter in general so as not to drown out the triangle wave bass.)
Last edited by Dermot on Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Dermot
  Posts: 70
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### Star Fox (SNES) - Corneria (VRC6)

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Post by Dermot » Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:09 am

This cover felt like another milestone for me, because I initially wasn't confident I could pull it off.
I designed an orchestra hit instrument using VRC6 pulse, which is actually elegantly simple:
Volume: 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 0
Arpeggio: 24 24 12 0 0 -12 -24 -24
Pulse Width: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
It works on the theory that higher pitches have shorter wavelengths than lower pitches, and fade sooner. So the highest pitches are heard first, and it arpeggiates down to the lowest pitches. The pulse width also sharpens from beginning to end, giving it more oomph.
Then there's the overdriven guitar. I didn't use the same power chord arpeggios I'd used before in my Khaos Mountains 2A03 cover, which just didn't sound appropriate for SNES-style Star Fox music. But I still wanted a "dirty"-sounding guitar, so I had to improvise. I ended up using two separate channels playing the sound note an octave apart. The lower note plays at 2/16 pulse width, and the higher note plays at 6/16 pulse width. This required the higher note to be a VRC6 pulse (width 5), but the lower note could easily use a 2A03 pulse (width 0). The result isn't exactly as dirty-sounding as the real thing, but it's not exactly "clean"-sounding either, more like it's covered with a fine layer of dust (to extend the metaphor).
Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109 ... %20NSF.zip
Last edited by Dermot on Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Dermot
  Posts: 70
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### Star Fox (SNES) - Training Mission (VRC6)

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Post by Dermot » Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:21 am

I originally did this cover soon after my Corneria cover, and it reused many of the same instruments, so it was fairly easy to make.
Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109 ... %20NSF.zip
Last edited by Dermot on Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Dermot
  Posts: 70
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### Metroid Fusion - Nightmare (VRC6)

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Post by Dermot » Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:24 am

This cover was fairly easy to make, but was also very fun to make because of the loud roar effect created by rotating the VRC6 pulse width.
Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109 ... %20NSF.zip
Last edited by Dermot on Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Dermot
  Posts: 70
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### Secret of Mana - Into the Thick of It (VRC6)

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Post by Dermot » Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:31 am

This cover was challenging for me because Hiroki Kikuta always liked to cram as much detail into his SNES music as he could get away with (which also caused the gameplay problem of sound effects constantly interrupting music notes). Inevitably, I had to sacrifice some detail to make this cover work, but I carefully sifted through the notes to find the least critical details to exclude.
And yes, I had seriously considered doing this in Namco 163 instead. But I didn't like the way the instruments sounded, so I tried again using VRC6. I'm still not sure I can say I'm completely satisfied with the sound of this chiptune.
Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109 ... %20NSF.zip
Last edited by Dermot on Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Dermot
  Posts: 70
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### Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (MD/Gen) - April O'Neil (VRC6)

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Post by Dermot » Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:37 am

This was the first of an unusually productive flurry of covers I did starting in December. This cover I originally started in April of last year, because I wanted to publish it in April, but I could never quite get my act together. Then I tried again in December, and found I had far more focus to work on this. When I successfully got it done, it felt like another milestone for me.
Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109 ... %20NSF.zip
(EDIT: Updated to reduce the echo problem.)
Last edited by Dermot on Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Dermot
  Posts: 70
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### Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (MD/Gen) - Ray Fillet (VRC6)

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Post by Dermot » Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:43 am

I did this cover in December immediately after my April O'Neil cover, and I felt like I was on a roll. I also had what was probably the most fun I've ever had with vibrato (in frames 0x35 and 0x36). My friend Pongball thought it exotic that one of the pulse channels has four effect columns, but there is a brief moment in frame 0x06 when all four columns are being used at the same time, so I really did need them.
Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109 ... %20NSF.zip
(EDIT: Updated to reduce the echo problem.)
Last edited by Dermot on Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Dermot
  Posts: 70
  Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:47 am
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### Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (MD/Gen) - Continue (2A03)

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Post by Dermot » Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:48 am

I was rather surprised (though in retrospect I shouldn't have been) when I realized I could cram this entire song into 2A03 without expansion chips, and especially when I realized that the triangle wave channel as-is was a natural fit for the beeping sound effect. This is also my only TMNTTF MD/Gen cover where I didn't use DPCM for any of the percussion (which would have had a muffling effect on the triangle wave anyway).
Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109 ... %20NSF.zip
Last edited by Dermot on Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Dermot
  Posts: 70
  Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2016 7:47 am
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### Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (MD/Gen) - Sisyphus (VRC6)

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Post by Dermot » Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:55 am

The original version of this song was a drum loop lover's dream, and I didn't want to disappoint. During the percussion solo section of the song, I ended up using four simultaneous channels for the percussion (noise, DPCM, triangle and a pulse). It mostly sounds good to me, though the pulse percussion always sounded a little too "rubbery," as square wave percussion often does. This cover was also frustrating to volume balance, as it always seemed to have a different balance switching between FamiTracker, NotSo Fatso and nsfplay. And yes, I'm well aware of a clipping effect in some of the notes' vibratos, but with so much detail going on at the same time, I decided I could live with it.
Download: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109 ... %20NSF.zip
Last edited by Dermot on Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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