Preferred software to get music ideas and sounds.

EyE6SoLoMoN

New member
While not compatible with the NES, I like to dabble in https://www.beepbox.co/. It gives me an idea of what I'd like to hear. I see it as a way of "sketching out an idea". You can also export as a .midi file, as well as .json, and .wav.

Here's a sample of something I've been tinkering around with:
[https://www.beepbox.co/#5n31sbkbl00e0bt7m0a7g0fj7i0r1w2111f4000d3111c0000h6000v0000o3210b4h8OcAl64h4h4h4h4h4h4g4hcPcPcN4h014h4h014h4p22Txj71A84c7r8k1EEF3hj74oo6Cg3j8i8q80dmwdBBJdgqb90cx8Mc1jfyW-0FGHIOcxvjjjjnHA5sucd17aKKwF4FzA8p6hsNMwgo000tKXrKzJTrtQo25ctcbct0G3BkVhnxnCpBVC1IPcPcsa0Sg5tdgq96g38idY02C9R5BJl5lll5lll5lg0]
 

FrankenGraphics

New member
basically my process:
1) use a dictaphone app on my phone (voice memos), hum or whistle into it when ideas come to me.
2) use guitar or a synthesizer or just famitracker directly to help develop a solid line.
3) compose and mix a the more or less final sound using famitracker
4) convert it to the target engine (usually famitone or ggsound, has been pubby's engine once. famitrackers' own engine may be good for some projects too if the rest isn't too demanding).
5) if something sounds off compared to the project file, return to 3 and repeat until satisfactory.
 

DChilders84

New member
I've written a few songs using FamiTracker. I'm really hoping that the sound engine overhaul for NES Maker allows for the full functionality of FamiTracker, as my songs make use of effects.
If anyone cares to have a listen, here's one I'm somewhat proud of: https://soundcloud.com/dc_jams/nes-maker-track-002
 

digit2600

Member
I usually compose using a combination of flstudio, guitars, bass and synths, but for nesmaker, I'm just composing straight into famitracker. It's not as scary as it looks at first, and after a while it becomes as natural as anything.

As for ideas.. listen to everything, and rip off the greats (just do it in a way nobody knows you're ripping anyone off)
 
That is a great piece of music DChilders84, very re-playable.

Good advice digit2600, its almost impossible to come up with anything original these days, and by sort of copying something you usually end up with a fairly unique work in the end, if you do it right. I've been playing every NES game and listening to music and just seeing what I like and don't like.

I am going to compose most of my music, but am also going to use some public domain classical works for certain games, my one game is based off a Public Domain film so some public domain classical music should work well for it. Might be time to download this famitracker and get familiar with it. Been knee deep in pixels and sprites and game ideas so much music has fallen to the back of my mind.

Some old saying, Taoist I think maybe - By doing nothing, everything gets done. :D
 

SeaFoodAndButter

New member
So, I've been using Famitracker for my tunes. here's 1 track I have. It takes place after you encounter invincible soldiers and must drop down into a hole. You make your way through a tunnel (towards boss 3) and this is the tunnel/cave/underground music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsNnGkm9ltI&feature=youtu.be

And here is another Famicom chip tune that takes place end game, as Pharmakos makes his way to the end battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHm9UmCvlsE&feature=youtu.be
 

CutterCross

Active member
SeaFoodAndButter said:
So, I've been using Famitracker for my tunes. here's 1 track I have. It takes place after you encounter invincible soldiers and must drop down into a hole. You make your way through a tunnel (towards boss 3) and this is the tunnel/cave/underground music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsNnGkm9ltI&feature=youtu.be

And here is another Famicom chip tune that takes place end game, as Pharmakos makes his way to the end battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHm9UmCvlsE&feature=youtu.be
Hey SeaFoodAndButter, if you want to use these songs in your game, keep in mind that NESmaker won't support songs using VRC6 or any other expansion chips (not natively anyway). It will only work with standard 2A03 NES channels.
 

SeaFoodAndButter

New member
CutterCross said:
SeaFoodAndButter said:
So, I've been using Famitracker for my tunes. here's 1 track I have. It takes place after you encounter invincible soldiers and must drop down into a hole. You make your way through a tunnel (towards boss 3) and this is the tunnel/cave/underground music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsNnGkm9ltI&feature=youtu.be

And here is another Famicom chip tune that takes place end game, as Pharmakos makes his way to the end battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHm9UmCvlsE&feature=youtu.be
Hey SeaFoodAndButter, if you want to use these songs in your game, keep in mind that NESmaker won't support songs using VRC6 or any other expansion chips (not natively anyway). It will only work with standard 2A03 NES

Yeah, I learned that the hard way.
 

CutterCross

Active member
SeaFoodAndButter said:
Damn, are you serious? That means I'm going to have to remove the Konami 6 chip lines and remix it? Damn, thanks for telling ,me. I could work through it, but I was hoping the Konomi 6 would work in NESMaker!
Yeah, but also remember that the VRC6 was only ever used in a few games, all Japan-only. Same goes for all the other sound expansion chips. The American NES (as well as PAL regions) don't have the circuitry to support enhanced sound from expansion chips (at least not without modding the console), so it's not really fair to expect NESmaker to support them. That's also the reason why we never got NES games with enhanced sound in America and Europe.

Also, NESmaker uses Mapper#30 cartriges from InfiniteNESLives, which isn't the same mapper as the Konomi VRC6.
 
considering the tech used to make those boards, i would imagine manufacturing the boards would be very costly.
also programming music for those chips were tricky as the registers to use it were different for the few games released.
so even if you wrote a famitracker file to use, it might not even work.
 

tornotlukin

Member
I see that there is knowledgeable people here in terms of game music. Can anyone suggest a basic and compatible (to NESMaker) program to use? Also, if there is a work environment you think can serve noobs that would be appreciated as well!
 

CutterCross

Active member
tornotlukin said:
I see that there is knowledgeable people here in terms of game music. Can anyone suggest a basic and compatible (to NESMaker) program to use? Also, if there is a work environment you think can serve noobs that would be appreciated as well!
Right now, Famitracker is the ONLY way to get music into NESmaker, and I wouldn't exactly call it "basic" for first-timers. It took me about a year to fully understand it.
 

tornotlukin

Member
Additional nooblery, is it in itself a music maker or a converter? (both?)

CutterCross said:
Right now, Famitracker is the ONLY way to get music into NESmaker, and I wouldn't exactly call it "basic" for first-timers. It took me about a year to fully understand it.
 

CutterCross

Active member
tornotlukin said:
Additional nooblery, is it in itself a music maker or a converter? (both?)
Famitracker is a music maker. NESmaker itself has a converter to convert famitracker .txt files into a format the GGsound engine can read (which is NESmaker's default sound engine).
GGsound has it's own limitations to write for, and there's even more limitations NESmaker throws into the mix when composing music. I reccommend looking at this forum post I made about all the extra sound limitations NESmaker has.

http://www.nesmakers.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=219
 

iridium_ionizer

New member
I am pretty good at singing (terrible at piano and guitar), but I can kind of read sheet music. So I have been studying up on music theory on Wikipedia (chords, arpeggios, chord progressions, scales, etc.). It kind of makes my compositions a little simple right now in some ways, but they do sound different.

Also I have been using MuseScore (https://musescore.org/), which is a free music composition software to where you place notes on standard staffs. It has a steep learning curve on some parts, but it is very visual, easy to move groups of notes around (both with Copy+Paste and raising/lowering the pitch). Its easy to tweak a measure and play it and tweak it again.

Still at the end I have to hand transcribe it into Famitracker. I don't see how to import a midi file into Famitracker even though I see it mention in the Famitracker forums. Also in Famitracker entering the music for more than a few notes is incredibly awkward. To speed up the process I start a composition, export to a text file, create a new text file for the arpeggios that I am using, Copy+Paste into the exported text file, and then import the changed file back into Famitracker. I made a few instruments in Famitracker, but I just saved and imported a bunch of other 2A03 instruments from the demo music files.

EyE6SoLoMoN said:
While not compatible with the NES, I like to dabble in https://www.beepbox.co/. It gives me an idea of what I'd like to hear. I see it as a way of "sketching out an idea". You can also export as a .midi file, as well as .json, and .wav.
Thanks EyE6SoLoMoN, this is great. Here's my quick composition. It certainly makes composing just using a scale easier. Too bad I haven't figured out how to import the midis into Famitracker, so it would just have to hand code this in also.
 

CutterCross

Active member
iridium_ionizer said:
I am pretty good at singing (terrible at piano and guitar), but I can kind of read sheet music. So I have been studying up on music theory on Wikipedia (chords, arpeggios, chord progressions, scales, etc.). It kind of makes my compositions a little simple right now in some ways, but they do sound different.

Also I have been using MuseScore (https://musescore.org/), which is a free music composition software to where you place notes on standard staffs. It has a steep learning curve on some parts, but it is very visual, easy to move groups of notes around (both with Copy+Paste and raising/lowering the pitch). Its easy to tweak a measure and play it and tweak it again.

Still at the end I have to hand transcribe it into Famitracker. I don't see how to import a midi file into Famitracker even though I see it mention in the Famitracker forums. Also in Famitracker entering the music for more than a few notes is incredibly awkward. To speed up the process I start a composition, export to a text file, create a new text file for the arpeggios that I am using, Copy+Paste into the exported text file, and then import the changed file back into Famitracker. I made a few instruments in Famitracker, but I just saved and imported a bunch of other 2A03 instruments from the demo music files.

EyE6SoLoMoN said:
While not compatible with the NES, I like to dabble in https://www.beepbox.co/. It gives me an idea of what I'd like to hear. I see it as a way of "sketching out an idea". You can also export as a .midi file, as well as .json, and .wav.
Thanks EyE6SoLoMoN, this is great. Here's my quick composition. It certainly makes composing just using a scale easier. Too bad I haven't figured out how to import the midis into Famitracker, so it would just have to hand code this in also.

Honestly I've been so used to Famitracker that it's far easier for me to hand-code EVERYTHING in Famitracker from the ground-up. It's certainly the best way to optimize your music for the NES. I don't even use any other supplementary music programs, MIDI, or even real instruments. It's certainly something you'd need to practice, but you get used to it over time.
 
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