Marin's Audio Arrangements

[Charon]

Yeah... no need to bump threads here.  We're not Gaia.  If it's been over a week and you have stuff to add, go ahead and add it.

My qualm being that editing posts doesn't do, like, anything in terms of letting people know I've put something new up.  

Am I just supposed to not?

It's okay to post a reminder saying you updated things, just don't say "BUMP" just for the sake of bumping it. In the art and creative thread's its A-okay to post an update, because of the very nature of these threads. Just double posting though isn't any good at all.



Something felt really non-8 bit with the Cynthia remix (namely the bass line). Are you using an 8-Bit remixer or just a general mixing program, because it really sounds like you're using the latter. Also, the part from about 1:00 to 1:12 is off tune.

[Marin (She/Her)]

Something felt really non-8 bit with the Cynthia remix (namely the bass line). Are you using an 8-Bit remixer or just a general mixing program, because it really sounds like you're using the latter. Also, the part from about 1:00 to 1:12 is off tune.

General arrangement program. There aren't really 8-bit specific programs out there that I know of. The bass in that song is also DPCM based. That being said, it's "higher quality" than any regular 8 bit instruments but is certainly well within the limitations...

[Charon]

Ah, okay, I get ya. You gotta be careful about that because die-hard 8-bit purists will go after you for calling it 8-bit.

But more importantly you seriously need to be careful about staying in tune. Personally it helps me if I either use my guitar to figure out the sounds or hum it, but you can figure out your own way. It sounds awful when you have two tracks not in the same key, so I highly recommend you tackle this issue.

Also, another note on making it sound more "8-bit", do not allow for any reverb or echoes. I noticed this on Final Battle with N's music. You also need to restrict the music to 4 tracks - 3 instrument and 1 percussion.

Beast Makers is overtaken by the pitch bends, the main melody should ALWAYS be the most audible, even though in the original the howling is louder, because it doesn't translate well to 8-Bit. Spyro's ending theme sounds good but I still am not keep on those bass notes, but there's not much you can do about that.

If you want to see an example of something I made that is 100% 8-bit (I actually inserted it into a game using an 8-bit music system), then you might want to see this. It's pretty tricky as you can probably see...

[Marin (She/Her)]

Yeah, I know what you mean about "purists", but they're kind of dead wrong about what makes a song 8-bit, so I'm not concerned about them. D;

I tend to prefer to push the limits of an 8-bit song rather than try to make them NES-like. Though, I could see what you're getting at with reverb and chorus. Also, on an off note, the NES actually has channels dedicated to specific instruments. I can't seem to remember which ones off the top of my head, but I know they do. What I do know is that it has one Triangle Channel, one Noise Channel, and one DPCM channel. I just can't remember where the squares and pulses fit into that.

Yeah. Bass was always a problem with Spyro songs for me. For a while I couldn't even do those songs because they sounded so god awful with my limited tools. (And I refused to release them in that state) I don't think the bass in that song is actually DPCM based, but it's so heavy that it probably has it's on share of issues. |D (Yeah, I went back and checked their project files. I didn't even have the ability to use DPCM bass back then)

Hmm... I guess I did deliberately screw with the howling to make it louder and more authentic. |D Did I put that on a sweep switch? Oh my, yes I did. So it's just how loud it is that's the problem? Not the pitch bending in and of itself? That's good, I always got nervous when using sweeps. Namely because they're a rather obsolete pitch bending technology that doesn't easily fit in newer songs.

The computer I did a lot of my arrangements on has an issue where the volume on it isn't quite as loud as most computers, so a lot of my arrangements are a bit too loud in general. D;

Also, on another note, I finally put up an arrangement of a Golden Sun tune. It's Sol Sanctum arranged using Pokemon R/S/E instruments! http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/431333

[Charon]

Wow, good song, but I only recognize about 3 of those instruments in RSE. DX But it's a good cover, really!

[Marin (She/Her)]

I released a new arrangement. It's an 8 bit one and I deliberately tried to restrict myself to some of my older more NES orientated tools. It's the HG/SS version of Lance's battle theme, by the way. I'm interested what you might think of it, Charon. There isn't any DPCM, and instrument variety was reduced to nearly the bare minimum. (Square, Square Wave 12%-50%, Triangle, Triangle Wave, Sine Wave, Saw Wave, Noise, Gameboy Drums), though I didn't use Sine or Saw wave at any point or time during this particular mix.No reverb or chorus were used either. I also did quite a bit of surgical alterations to the song itself to get it to work more cleanly.

Here's the Newgrounds link, though the Youtube and direct download are on the main list.
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/431838

[Marin (She/Her)]

...Geez. I'm like, breathing life into this entire section of the forum. Whoo xD

Anyway. I released a new arrangement. This time it's not 8bit. Yeah! >=o

This time around I arranged the Rival Battle music from Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald with Tohou instruments.
I wasn't a huge fan of the original, but I really like what I came up with, somehow. Others seem to like it as well. That being said, I hope you guys like it. c:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MymmkmFChLA (Youtube)
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/434144 (Newgrounds)
http://www.mediafire.com/?dma24ge6fkmw2fw (MP3 Download)