music composer seeks... (demo inside)

[Future777]

Hi there!

Anyone out there who wants to set up a team for some kind of a fan-project ys game?
I would love to do the soundtrack for it.

To motivate anybody out there, please check this music demo

fdgsoft.de/download/future_synth_demo.mp3

I think i can go even more into the direction of ys style soundtracks.


all the best
Future777

[nat]

Cool track.

Some of the "instruments" sound like they were lifted straight from the Genesis sound chip.

Not that that's a good or bad thing, just an observation.

[Future777]

That´s right, nat. Actually the track is done with synthesizer sounds, partially with FM synthesis. I´m using Native Instruments Absynth and FM8 - covering a huge "instrument" (presets) library. But this makes it also hard to choose an instrument, if you have a library of more than a thousand + modifiying wheels   

Falcom Sound Team used the Yamaha FX7, Prophet 5 and a few more synths to do the original Ys PC-Engine CD-ROM Soundtrack. You can come close to the quality with this hardware or software synthesizers. I´m still missing the prophet 5, but the YamahaDX7 is perfectly emulated in the FM8 from Native Instruments.

best
Future

[Keranu]

Sweet song you made, I love it!

[Future777]

Thanks, Keranu. Glad you like it.

cheers
Future

[esteban]

Sweet song you made, I love it!

Ditto! I loved it!   Please share all the stuff you do (full version of the song you posted, please ).

Contact Paranoia_Dragon (here at these forums). He's busy as hell, but I'm sure he'd love to do an Ys track... eventually. Don't hold your breath, though...

[Future777]

Hi Esteban,

thanks for sharing your positive thoughts. The demo was my first "free-2-public" synthesizer music piece and it´s not finished. It should just show the capabilities and i would love to jump in as a composer for an ys fan-game project. It´s not that i´m looking to do the music without a "higher target" to motivate me 

However i still may do some more pieces and share them here on the board   


all the best
Future

[ParanoiaDragon]

That's a really great song, well composed!  I'm not sure if composition wise, I can compare, I guess I'll find out, as I continue to work on Neutopia 3's soundtrack, since, there's deffinitly some Ys influence I putting into the music, but, I've never had any formal training, I just kind of come up with songs in my head, & then have to recreate them by gradually finding the right notes for what I composed in my head.  One thing I know I need to work on, is changing up the drums in songs, instead of having a straight flat beat across the entire song, but, none of that stuff is finished yet, so, I have time to learn.

Are you sure that Ryo Yonemitsu used a Yamaha for Ys 1 & 2 for Turbo??  I thougth for sure he always used Roland, which is what I have.  I know that on Ys 4, it says Roland Sound Space.  And I can tell, he used alot of the same sounds that he used in Ys 1 & 2.

Oh, & I tried to get a fan Ys game in production with a fella over at the Ancient Land of Ys boards, & my own Frozen Utopia, but, there just wasn't time for us to work on it IIRC.  I can't think of anyone else personally, that would be looking to do any full fledged games......atleast, not for Turbo.  But I could be wrong.

[Future777]

Hi ParanoiaDragon,

nice to meet another musician here at the board. Glad you like my track. It´s a good thing to learn gradually to make music, as it´s always better to learn the practical way, than in theory. I´m sure you´ll be a master in no time. The more projects you do, the better you´ll get.

Ryo Yonemitsu used alot of Roland Effects (Soundspace), but he also used lots of synthesizers:

YAMAHA DX7,TX802・PROPHET 5・OBERHEIM 088,EXPANDER
PPG WAVE2.3・ROLAND D50,MKS20・AKAI S900

RHYTHM BOXES:ROLAND TR707・OBERHEIM DMX

EFFECTS:
ROLAND SRV2000,SDE3000,SDE2500,SDD320・YAMAHA SPX90,REV7,GQ1031
ROCKTRON HUSH 2C・MXR PITCH-SHIFT DOUBLER・TEAC DL20・TC 1140

You need all of them if you want to "copy" the Ys music quality ;). But you can come close with Yamaha and Prophet 5 aswell as some Roland Sounds.

I think Neutopia 3 is also an interesting project, i loved the game series, too. The music was fantastic.
Maybe i can contribute one or another track to this, additionally to your tracks?

all the best
Future

[ParanoiaDragon]

Hmm, interesting.  I wish I had all of those LOL!  All I have in my Roland Juno D, SC-55, Jv-880, & a Peavey SP.  Though, I've only been able to record sounds from my Juno, to my MMT8.  I can get sounds out of my other modules, but, the notes never record.  Maybe I have the cables in the wrong order is my only guess.  I haven't even bothered to figure it out in the last year or so.  But, so far, it all sounds pretty nice, not the exact sounds that were used for the Ys games though.  I figured that Ryo would just find a sound he likes, then mess with it it, to make it sound as some of the instruments do in those songs.  Actually, is there anyway you could help figure out my setup?  I used to use my friends studio yeaaaars ago, but when he moved, my knowledge pretty much disapeared.  Not that I actually set his studio up, but, I did gradually learn various things from working with him.

As for doing some songs for Neutopia 3, probably not.  I'm afraid of having inconsistencies between various artists.  I am working with both Jevax & my wife on various songs, but, they are able to work with me to have a consistent sound since, my wife lives with me, & Jevax lives nearby.  But, Oddonadon(another Frozen Utopia member) probably won't have any work to do for the game, since I'm just afraid, not only will our modules sound different, but our styles as well.  Maybe I'm paranoid     Plus, I already have the sountrack planned out.  Not that I have every note, but, I know exactly where to go musically with each country & dungeon in the game.  Also, I'm also tinkering at cutting some songs out, & maybe combining them with some others in the game, as space is an issue.  I have currently around 35 songs planned for the game including about 10 I've already worked on.......&, that's really going to cut it close on one disc.  And I kind of doubt, atleast for this game, that Nod will want to make this game a double disc.  But, maybe down the road, there will be a game we do, where we would employ you to make the entire soundtrack.  So I'll deffinitly keep you in mind for that, no doubt!  As I'm not only the main composer for Frozen Utopia, but, I pretty much a music director of sorts.  Basically, anything with sound in our games, I have some kind of authority.......with the exception of our first game, Mysterious Song.

My first bunch of songs will be heard in our upcoming secret game, which, musically won't sound anything like Ys, but, it's my first attempt at doing totally original music for an entire game, as Neutopia will deffinitly have some remakes.  Though, the main boss, & main dungeon themes in Neutopia 3 are totally original, but the soundtrack itself, will be somewhere around 50/50 on old songs to new ones.

[Future777]

Yeah...i´d love to have all those devices, too  . Anyway - it´s still the man behind it who lets the music live. Ryo is one of those artists i´d really want to meet someday and thank for the great work he did. His music arrangements are more than inspiring, and Yuzo Koshiro must´ve felt like in heaven when he listened to chip-sound remakes. I´ve met Yuzo already, and he´s a great composer. Still - it´s Ryo who made the music famous.

Regarding your devices i´m wondering if you just use Midi-Recorders and not a Computer Sequencer + proper Soundcard? It will be no problem to mix all your stuff together. BTW: My Roland SC8820 + a simple keyboard is the only musical hardware i own. The rest is done on my computer with Cakewalk Sonar (great great great software) & Native Instruments FM8, Absynth, Massive (Software Synthesizers that melt together with Sonar). Alltogether i can produce more than 2500 preset sounds and even change the modulations and stuff in the synthesizer panels. And if you want to have the Prophet 5 as myself, it´s also available as software synthesizer with perfect emulation!

Check this Page for Prophet5 Infos: http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/prophetv/intro.html
There are audio demos available, too. When you listen to the demo tracks you´ll hear out some "Ys" Instruments. I don´t believe that Ryo changed the preset instruments too much..For example the short guitar sequenze in the PV-Trance Demotrack is 100% Ys. 

Regarding the Music for the Neutopia 3 project, i think you may be right. You´re paranoid 
Just joking  . It´s no hassle. I understand you don´t want to be confronted with different soundstyles.
But you should think about the number of tracks once again..35 songs? That´s a lot! I would also propose not to remake 50% of the older music, as the upbeat PC-Engine tracks are hard to reproduce in a way that fans will prefer the new tracks to the old ones...i mean, don´t put yourself under the pressure to make old tracks sound better (they´re composed on a chip and for a chip). Try to create more of your own compositions - i´m sure they´ll be great. Do you have some demos to listen to already? Maybe i can give you some contructive feedback.

all the best
Future

[ParanoiaDragon]

A part of me would like to just have nothing but software, though, I've never really been able to figure out my midi ports on my pc.  I have Virtual Sound Canvas, & the notes always have a delay when I press the keys on my keyboard.  And those sequencing & sound programs always seem to be really expensive.  Plus, the euipment I have I'm semi familiar with, as opposed to learning something new.  However, I may look around at some of those programs you mentioned.

As for Neutopia 3, the only song that was allowed to be made public, was the title screen.  Nod posted a link for it somewhere around on these forums.  If you search around, the link should be in a Neutopia 3 thread.  The game itself is still probably a few years away.  It's a big game, & we'll probably end up finishing, not only our secret project(which might be ready for beta testing early next year), but also our brawler game.  N3 is going to take awhile to make sure it's perfect.  As for the number of songs, yeah, I've deffinitly been rethinking the soundtrack, as that's alot of songs, but especially for being a single disc.  I suppose 50/50 isn't an exact figure.  But, I'm pretty much looking at Dungeon Explorer 2 as inspiration for what Hudson would've done, if they ever did Neutopia 3 for CD.  Dungeon Explorer 2 has alot of remake tracks, but also, alot of new ones.  We're going to have some real guitar's & a flute in some songs, courtesy of my wife, & Jevax.  There are alot of songs I want to remake for the game, but, I'm not doing all of them, I'm just figuring, what would be appropriate for each area in the game.  Like, say, an ice area, might have a remake of the ice music from Neutopia 2, or, it might have an original song I've been working on(or possibly a mix, depending on how many songs I cut the soundtrack down to).  But, with the remakes I'm doing, I can hear what kind of instrument, each chip sound, I think was meant to be......or atleast, should be   But I don't want to overdo the guitars in my songs either.  No offense to Jevax, I just don't think anyone can handle a game, that's all wailing guitars, not to mention, there's quite a few areas, where, guitar's wouldn't fit at all with the surroundings.

[nat]

No offense to Jevax, I just don't think anyone can handle a game, that's all wailing guitars, not to mention, there's quite a few areas, where, guitar's wouldn't fit at all with the surroundings.

I could definitely handle a soundtrack that is all wailing guitars. ;)

But probably not in Neutopia 3. Maybe a manic shooter.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Yeah, a shooter is different, Lords comes to mind.

[Future777]

Well, i think i´ll maybe just set up a group myself to create a professional looking PC-Engine game with an original title (Action RPG). I own a games company for mobile games, and that´s probably a good ressource for graphics and artworks in low-res mode. This could be a commercial production - i think there are still alot of PC-Engine Fans around who´d love to play something new&cool again ;). Just need to find a programmer who can do PC-Engine Software, and i need some more time to do it - maybe later this year. If there´s someone who likes to join with a revenue share...just drop me an email. And eventually i´ll get back to you.

@ParanoiaDragon: Regarding your issue with tone-delays: Get a better Soundcard! How about M-Audio Soundcards (cheap and professional). The trick is to have a GSIF/ASIO driver with the soundcard. This will reduce the delay to less than 10ms.

all the best
Future

[OldRover]

That would be completely awesome if there was another PCE dev group. Good luck finding a programmer though...PCE coders are as rare as Roc's teeth, especially ones with enough time to spend on a major production.

[Future777]

No pressure on this. I´ll see how things will develop... Glad that one coder already contacted me with a PM for potential assistance.  For now i don´t even know into which detailed direction the game should go 


regards
Future

[Keranu]

I would definitely love to see more PCE development teams selling commercial software . If you're interested in talking to PCE coders about that, join #utopiasoft on EFnet if you ever use IRC. The more PCE devs, the better ;) .

[ParanoiaDragon]

Yeah, that'd be great if you can get another team working on some games, frankly, the more the merrier!  Let's ressurect the Turbo!

[Ceti Alpha]

While I was searching on wiki for the game "Crystal Castles" I came across a band by the same name. Which makes sense since they have a customized synth with an Atari 5200 sound chip inside. Too bad they don't use a PC Engine sound chip. 

[Sarumaru]

Aww.. dead thread. 

An original Ys game would be cool, an original RPG for the PCE made commercial would be even better. I've always wanted to have some involvement in making a homebrew PCE game.



An Adol sprite I did.. he's all emo. 

[Kitsunexus]

This is going to be my dream studio, the one I start composing video game music with.

-hardware-
Yamaha MO 6
Roland V-Synth XT
Yamaha PSR-290 - I have this.
Yamaha PSR-3000
Roland Fantom XR
E-MU Xtreme Lead 1
E-MU Vintage Pro
Yamaha TG500
KORG X5DR
Alesis QSR
Akai MPC500
Mackie Onyx 32
TC Electronic FireworX
Eventide Eclipse
KRK RP6 Rokit Powered 2-Way Active Monitors

-software-
ACID Studio 6.0 - I have this.
SONAR 7 Producer Edition
Sonic Reality Sonik Synth 2
Leslie Sanford Cobalt - I have this.
LUXONIX Purity
AudioRealism BassLine2
Native Instruments FM7 - I have this.
Disco DSP Highlife - I have this.
Native Instruments Battery 3

[Rainbow_Bright]

Thats a lot of equipment I make music too, experimental electronic music. My equipment is very minimal,although I would love an old modular synth !
Do you only make videogame music ?

[esteban]

Aww.. dead thread. 

An original Ys game would be cool, an original RPG for the PCE made commercial would be even better. I've always wanted to have some involvement in making a homebrew PCE game.


An Adol sprite I did.. he's all emo. 

I dig it. Adol has always = 100% unadulterated emo. Especially when he's hanging out by the Roda Tree.

[TurboXray]

If anyone is interested, you could do some PCE chiptunes with an XM tracker. I'm writing a MOD player for the PCE, but there are some other branch off formats that I'm doing as well.

 If anyone wants to start doing some tracks, here's the info you need to know:

 2 channels are resevred for 8bit sample playback - so two MOD style sample tracks. The output frequnecy is 7kz. This is not related to *notes* as they can be up to 32khz, just that all output from those channels will be downsampled and mixed to 7khz 10bit output. They're fixed to channels 2 and 3. It's best to keep the samples at a lower sample rate since they will be downsampled - something like 8khz for C-3.

 4 channels for 32sample pattern tones. There's only support for forward looping and the looping envelopes must be at the start and end of a sample/pattern. ADSR envelope postions are fine/unrestricted though. Frequency sweeps/slides, panning and panning envelope, etc are doable as well.

 If your tracker supports it, one channel can LFO another channel. Assign channel 0 as the LFO and channel 1 as the channel to be modified. The data in channel 0 will oscillate the output frequency on top of channel 0. You can sweep/slide the frequency of channel 0 in addition. Also in addition the LFO of channel 0 can be set to different multipliers (I can explain more on this later).

 Channels 4 and 5 individually can be set to noise generation and with ADSR as well. Otherwise in normal modes channels 0,1,4,5 are 32byte sample mode.

 So there you go, a six channel setup. Note: The wav sample channels could be extended to 3, but it adds processing overheard and not recommended since I want to keep the format simple.

[MurderDate]

hey Future,  I am enjoying this track a lot.   It almost has a traditional Irish folk music intro  but then when the lead synth starts in it gets really good I think.  I listen to tons of stuff like this.  You've got the knack,  stick with it.

[Ceti Alpha]

Hey, I'm up for any kind of music project, video game influenced or not. Lets get this show on teh road.

Right now my arsenal includes a Juno G, Alesis Micron, Hammond M2, and a Farfisa VIP 500 (I also have a VIP 322). I also have virtual software stuff.

[Sarumaru]

Aww.. dead thread. 

An original Ys game would be cool, an original RPG for the PCE made commercial would be even better. I've always wanted to have some involvement in making a homebrew PCE game.


An Adol sprite I did.. he's all emo. 

Looking at this image years later, it looks so gross to me now. I know this thread is old, but it makes me wonder if this fellow ever did start on an Ys fan project of some sort. By the looks of it, he went on to make some mobile games as this mp3 seems to be hosted on the site with those mobile games. Seems like he had some good musical talents as well. I wonder where he went?

[xcrement5x]

Yeah that is a nice track.  If anything I wish we could get someone to finish level music for Space Fantasy Zone!

[Sarumaru]

Yeah that is a nice track.  If anything I wish we could get someone to finish level music for Space Fantasy Zone!

I have this boot. Where does it cut out?

[esteban]

Yeah that is a nice track.  If anything I wish we could get someone to finish level music for Space Fantasy Zone!

Paranoia_Dragon has dreamt of doing this, I believe, but he is stretched too thin (PCE Mega Man Red Book + _______)...

[Sarumaru]

What do you know Estebans???

Come to think of it, rather than an Ys fan project, I think a neutopia fan project might be something rather interesting. Ys gets alot of love and its my favorite RPG and I am not familiar with neitopia. I do know many wished it had a sequel though.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Esty is correct, with what little time I have, I'm working on Mega Man redbook tunes for Bonknuts Turbob Mega Man.  I'm currently working on a "new" tune for it(making it so there is a unique song for each of the 4 Wily levels).  By the looks of it, once I'm done with Mega Man(sometime this year I hope, but, depends on my time & energy), I'll be moving back to Jungle Bros., as Bonknuts has been working on getting that game running. 

When I'll I make an attempt on SFZ?  I'm not sure.  While I would like to finish the tunes, I fear I'll have to remake a few from scratch, & I'd want all the songs to have the same general sound(as in, the sounds of my synth/keyboard) so that there's not a bunch of songs that sound like they don't fit.  I may have to just do what I can though with SFZ, regardless if the sounds sound right.