Duration: 2:03

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CX16 IS Ablaze! Headphones is required, or speakers with subwoofer.
Incompatible with monaural devices, such as phone speaker. You will hear even less kick drums!

You play this game?
Me sure do. Some day was digging around the start menu, then it's there.
Bit donno what's happening or how to play.
For the longest time, I could only get it to TITL!
More days passed, I discovered that "space bar"(pun indented) is a thing, and the game starts. But I still don't know how to operate the flapper, so I did just play the game with the knocking.
Cringe, I know...
In the hopes to lower the difficulties, meandered around the toolbar.
There it is, the BGM playback bottom.
Thanks to AC97 supporting MSGS, I get to hear the cool--er version than many with OPL3.
Gotten amazed! that there's music? and it's soo great!
The music gives me more incentive to ponder around longer, eventually I can play it.
Think I managed something 14M points all-time best. Should play someday to see if I still got it.

On to the music.
Did you know this music is pretty much a textbook of what a game BGM should like?
Suspended at chord one for creating suspense in the intro.
1.5 octave range of the melody is probable on hand, easier for listener to remember. Not to mention how many times it's emphasized/repeated.
Very small amount of polyphony, yet power full, makes it compatible with limited channel devices, say OPL2. Crucial for 1995.
Drums are dynamic. Bassline is clear.

There's still more to find by inspecting the midi file.
How would you like to know the composer uses one hand for the whole arpeggiated sequence?
From the midi velocity record, the notes where you'd play with your righthand Thumb, is considerably louder than notes played with your Pinky, so one hand that is.
There's a vid on YT should someone did this song on piano at the exact speed it's played at with right hand only, proving it's possible.
On the contrary, it's and I quote from the comment of that video, all hell on a guitar, looks easier on keyboard.
I did try to play it, but very slowly... need more practice but it works with one hand.
Of course, now I said it, someone will definitely play this on guitar, possibly split it into two guitars.

Some bassnotes are actually chained to bassdrum, a tried-and-true practice for rock music. But..

There's a very obvious sequence change, the composer uses low volume keys to connect them, as a result, they sound less out of place than played at full.

For the most dynamic part of the song, i.e. chorus, he uses some vibraphone to push the volume even higher.

Now, the porting to CX16...
Although I've done tunes with premixed samples before, it's still rater tedious.
You'll have to rearrange the drums in OpenMPT, sample it in chunks, mix the chunks into one big sample with phases, a soundbank if you like.
Else it will be too big for the RAM.
:10
put the sample KONs in Furnace
compile it to ZSM
Swap the dummy soundbank with the premixed soundbank.
Playback in emu and see
IF sounds good GOTO continue ELSE GOTO 10
Generate WAV files from OMPT and Fur, C-Scoped them, doctor with shotcut.

It's possible to get the drum sample even smaller with each iteration, but the loop is too long to run, so I'm capped with the condition, if it plays, leave it be.

And that's how we ended up with 1.6M ZSM.
I'd take streaming ZSM PCM data any day! (pls add :)

Now, recreation of the instruments on X16.
Thankfully, the mute guitar on MSGS has comparatively lower number of harmonics, so it's easier to recreate.
This version you're listening to is done with 3 VERA PSG channel filling the Tonal, OCT+ and OCT+ Major 3rd harmonic, leaving yet 3 more FM channels to fill the higher index ones and do the stereo delay effect as well.
6 PSG 6 FM total for preserving the release stage of each notes and mimic the velocity in the midi.
That is, one louder note, played by the thumb..., following a quieter one, by pinky and other digits.

I didn't pay much attention to recreate the bass, don't matter so long as it cuts thro the mix.
But I did fine tune the two patches used.

That's 'bout it, enjoy!

The cover is licenced under CC-BY-SA 4.0
Free to use more.

Matt Ridgeway 1995
GTR3QQ 2024

Files: https://cx16forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=32984


#music #chiptune #vgm #gamingmusic #videogamemusic #furnacetracker #commanderx16
Composed in Furnace: https://github.com/tildearrow/furnace
Arranged Drums with OpenMPT : https://github.com/OpenMPT/openmpt
Processed Samples with Audacity : https://github.com/audacity/audacity
Rendered with Corrscope: https://github.com/corrscope/corrscope
Post-synthesized Videos with Shotcut: https://github.com/mltframework/shotcut
Played by Melodius : https://github.com/mooinglemur/melodius
,with CX16EUM R47: https://github.com/X16Community/x16-emulator
Decompiled with ZSMTOOL : https://github.com/mooinglemur/zsmtool