Your new music thread **formerly 'Music Production Thread'

[beatsgo]

WIP
...I'm probably going to sample the hell out of my TX81Z as much as possible. There's some lovely sound bits that can't be ignored.

[jasoncslaughter]

A little arrangement/reharmonization I did for one of my beginning piano students. I thought it might sound good with trombone and piano, and I was looking to avoid doing serious work for a few minutes, so I recorded it. My apologies for my sloppy playing and out of tune piano, but I was pretty happy with the arrangement. Happy Holidays!

http://soundcloud.com/jasoncslaughter/s ... rrangement

[LordHypnos]

So... I've got something now!

Don't laugh too hard, this is my first ever attempt at composing with a tracker. I used Deflemask, the sega genesis setting. The instruments are all default ones from the software, but I did some minor edits to the operators on the "brass section" preset, and the "sawtooth lead." I also didn't use very many instruments for this one. Didn't want to bite off more than I could chew, especially considering how long it took me to get just that.

Speaking of which, it looks like there's some others on here who have done FM synth stuff, what's the best way to get a feel for making your own tones? Is it best to take existing presets and tweak them at first, or try to start with something very neutral? Is there a good tutorial for this? Also is there some kind of tutorial for ripping instruments from roms and converting them to dmp format? Perhaps this is not the place to ask...

[lilmanjs]

My ambient track The Warmth Before Us has been released once again. This is only the second time, this being the first time you can grab it in high quality for free. The entire release is great downtempo stuff, some of it being not out of place like SomaFM's Space Station Soma channel.
http://music.tunguskagrooves.com/album/point-elbrus

[LordHypnos]

^Not really my thing, but that seems pretty good. Had it on in the background for a bit yesterday.

I've got another one now. This time went for more of the funk: https://youtu.be/h5-KTkH4iec
I can't seem to get videos to properly upload to youtube, for some reason, but if I can figure it out, I'll try to get a tracker view type thing going like some people do.

EDIT: forgot to mention, I actually made the hihat instrument myself, from a generic noise preset I found (though I was trying to get a snare). Just so happens that if you turn it off immediately you get more of an "open hat" sound and otherwise it's a "closed hat" sound.

[Zombi 6]

Happy New Year all just uploaded some mixed stuff it is all over the place because....well i guess i like lots of genres but any listening is appreciated and im currently a full time bum(no job) so if you like any of my stuff or want to use it or if you want me to make any music for you for any projects ect please ask.Thank you

https://soundcloud.com/cid-noiz

[LordHypnos]

Okay, so I got screen recording working again (apparently YT doesn't support the superior mkv container format and prefers mp4), so here's some tracker videos of the tracks I already posted:
Heavy Boss: https://youtu.be/oVtwHsMirGg
Space Case: https://youtu.be/F7ZAHJykhTs

[lilmanjs]

Brand new release out today on bandcamp and later on the major download stores. Cities Ep is a Dub Techno/Ambient Techno release I made just for the label.
https://iivii.bandcamp.com/album/cities

[LordHypnos]

Here's two more things I did!

The first is using mostly instruments ripped from the Genesis games Red Zone and Thunder Force IV, and I think it's my favorite I've done so far (probably mostly due to using very nice patches)
https://youtu.be/rKX9gxmQsmE

The second is using all original instruments except the drums, and so it's not as good Going for something kinda thrashy
https://youtu.be/_Vmu3QlapSg

[LordHypnos]

MOAR!!!!

Cassiopeia
Basically made this to test out a cello patch and a pipe organ patch that I made for the YM2612

2,151 Pounds
Using the YM2151 and mostly my own patches (Which were mostly made for YM2612, but work fine with the YM2151).
Sounds kinda like it would work as an ending credits theme to me.

[EmperorIng]

MOAR!!!!

Cassiopeia
Basically made this to test out a cello patch and a pipe organ patch that I made for the YM2612

2,151 Pounds
Using the YM2151 and mostly my own patches (Which were mostly made for YM2612, but work fine with the YM2151).
Sounds kinda like it would work as an ending credits theme to me.

I like both of these quite a bit. The little arpeggiated chords in Cassiopeia are particularly pleasant. The lead in 2151 is a nice contrast to the scratchy rhythm guitars.

I am trying to learn DefleMask, but the interface is a little intimidating because it doesn't work how I'm used to trackers working. I use VGM Music Maker aka VGMM, a discontinued freeware YM2612+PSG tracker - obviously a lot of skills carry over, I just need to put more time into it.

You begin to learn neat tricks the more you use trackers. One example: if you double a melody/instrument line, and delay that second line by two or four steps, you can simulate reverb quite nicely, especially when coupled with panning + effects. You can learn a lot by looking through the demo tracks of any tracker.

===

Speaking of VGM, I was inspired for the first time in a long time to make a new YM2612 track, this time inspired by Fire Shark/Same Same Same, Kyuukyoku Tiger, and other Toaplan tracks:


TOA TODAY

[LordHypnos]

I like both of these quite a bit. The little arpeggiated chords in Cassiopeia are particularly pleasant. The lead in 2151 is a nice contrast to the scratchy rhythm guitars.

I am trying to learn DefleMask, but the interface is a little intimidating because it doesn't work how I'm used to trackers working. I use VGM Music Maker aka VGMM, a discontinued freeware YM2612+PSG tracker - obviously a lot of skills carry over, I just need to put more time into it.

You begin to learn neat tricks the more you use trackers. One example: if you double a melody/instrument line, and delay that second line by two or four steps, you can simulate reverb quite nicely, especially when coupled with panning + effects. You can learn a lot by looking through the demo tracks of any tracker.

===

Speaking of VGM, I was inspired for the first time in a long time to make a new YM2612 track, this time inspired by Fire Shark/Same Same Same, Kyuukyoku Tiger, and other Toaplan tracks:


TOA TODAY

Thanks for the feedback!

While I have been playing and to a lesser extent writing music forever, I've actually only just started messing with trackers. As such, Deflemask is no more confusing to me than anything . It has pretty good documentation that comes with it, though. There are some really nice demo tracks that come with it, and I've been trying to use them to figure stuff out. The reverb effect for example, I have used a few times. I think maybe at least in one part of 2151 Lbs. There's a lot of really cool tricks out there, and I'm only just starting to learn them.

As for the song that you posted, I really like it. It's pretty faithful to the Toaplan music style, but also very interesting and original. Did you use VGMM or Deflemask for that? It reminds me a lot of "Give Me Your Heart" from S!3 (one of my favorites), and also some parts remind me a bit of "A National Acrobat" by Black Sabbath for some reason. Also a great song.

[EmperorIng]

If I were better at using trackers I would be a whole lot more comfortable using the range of effects controlling portamento, changes to various MULT values, and actually making my own instruments (though the few times i have tried making FM instruments have been akin to all those scratchy harsh-sounding music tracks you hear on Western-developed Genesis/MD games). Given the wide range of ripped and custom instruments available, I don't know if I should worry too much about making a guitar when at least two dozen already exist.

It took me a long time to learn VGMM, starting with its predecessor, TFMM, which only had 6-channel FM support and was more limited in terms of effects. With every song you make the better you get; though it's hard for me to jump ship and learn a new program when I'm so comfortable with the old one.

Thanks for listening! In answer to your question, I still am using VGMM for FM tracks, but am trying to learn DefleMask, since it really does seem to be on the cusp of the future of tracking, considering its support for YM2151, PC-Engine, Genesis, and SID chip music, to name a few. Same!x3's stage 1 and stage 3 BGMs really inspired the making of the piece, and the next one I am writing right now takes some liberal inspiration from Tatsujin and Hishouzame.

[EmperorIng]

Shameless double-post to showcase aforementioned track; finished it earlier today:

TOA DAWN

It has a hint of Tatsujin in it, towards the middle.

Despite not using PSG waves at all, I think this is a stronger piece than my other attempt above (though I still think I did a good job, har har).

[LordHypnos]

If I were better at using trackers I would be a whole lot more comfortable using the range of effects controlling portamento, changes to various MULT values, and actually making my own instruments (though the few times i have tried making FM instruments have been akin to all those scratchy harsh-sounding music tracks you hear on Western-developed Genesis/MD games). Given the wide range of ripped and custom instruments available, I don't know if I should worry too much about making a guitar when at least two dozen already exist.

It took me a long time to learn VGMM, starting with its predecessor, TFMM, which only had 6-channel FM support and was more limited in terms of effects. With every song you make the better you get; though it's hard for me to jump ship and learn a new program when I'm so comfortable with the old one.

Thanks for listening! In answer to your question, I still am using VGMM for FM tracks, but am trying to learn DefleMask, since it really does seem to be on the cusp of the future of tracking, considering its support for YM2151, PC-Engine, Genesis, and SID chip music, to name a few. Same!x3's stage 1 and stage 3 BGMs really inspired the making of the piece, and the next one I am writing right now takes some liberal inspiration from Tatsujin and Hishouzame.

Yeah, I have been trying to learn how to make my own patches, but I think my one that sounds the best was using patches from Red Zone and Thunder Force IV. Some of those guys were so skilled at programming the FM.

Portamento is an awesome thing! though I pretty much only use porta to note (effect 03 in Deflemask) in my stuff, and haven't gotten around to messing with the other ones so much. You can get some cool stuff. I think the music from Elemental Master stage 3 is using portamento a lot and very well for example (the note bends).

I think that Deflemask is using MAME code for the emulation, btw, and that's why it has such a wide range of support.

[beatsgo]

before dawn

[lilmanjs]

Outward Roots - EP2
My second Ep with Owen Ni under the Outward Roots name came out on Friday. More focused on an ambient sound, but still nice to explore what we can do with our sound.
https://cfmlabel.bandcamp.com/album/ep2

[LordHypnos]

Shameless double-post to showcase aforementioned track; finished it earlier today:

TOA DAWN

It has a hint of Tatsujin in it, towards the middle.

Despite not using PSG waves at all, I think this is a stronger piece than my other attempt above (though I still think I did a good job, har har).

Ooh nice, I like the kinda bridge bit at around 1:00. I've been having a problem with coming up with more than like one or two parts to each of my songs. I feel like I'd get a more interesting and longer loop with more of that.

BTW, if you ever are interested in making your own instruments, I ran into heavy viper over at the Deflemask forums, and he linked me to this useful document That gives some helpful info about what algorithms are often used for certain types of sounds and what different values for the envelopes actually do. The other thing that helped me was realizing that the operators can kind of be mixed together using the TL (total level) value, so if you can kind of mess with the operator TLs to get different types of sounds. Additionally, the final operator(s) in the algorithm (usually operator 4) control the volume of the instrument. It can also help a lot to start with a kind of basic waveform (If you're using deflemask, these are good for that. Or else starting with just the final operator active, or turn off 3 and 4 entirely with algorithm 4 to get a simpler 2 operator patch, and then see if you want the other 2 operators.
Not that you asked, or anything

[beatsgo]

Shameless double-post to showcase aforementioned track; finished it earlier today:

TOA DAWN

It has a hint of Tatsujin in it, towards the middle.

Despite not using PSG waves at all, I think this is a stronger piece than my other attempt above (though I still think I did a good job, har har).

Ooh nice, I like the kinda bridge bit at around 1:00. I've been having a problem with coming up with more than like one or two parts to each of my songs. I feel like I'd get a more interesting and longer loop with more of that.

BTW, if you ever are interested in making your own instruments, I ran into heavy viper over at the Deflemask forums, and he linked me to this useful document That gives some helpful info about what algorithms are often used for certain types of sounds and what different values for the envelopes actually do. The other thing that helped me was realizing that the operators can kind of be mixed together using the TL (total level) value, so if you can kind of mess with the operator TLs to get different types of sounds. Additionally, the final operator(s) in the algorithm (usually operator 4) control the volume of the instrument. It can also help a lot to start with a kind of basic waveform (If you're using deflemask, these are good for that. Or else starting with just the final operator active, or turn off 3 and 4 entirely with algorithm 4 to get a simpler 2 operator patch, and then see if you want the other 2 operators.
Not that you asked, or anything

That's cool man! Definitely useful information for my TX81Z.

[LordHypnos]

Ooh nice, I like the kinda bridge bit at around 1:00. I've been having a problem with coming up with more than like one or two parts to each of my songs. I feel like I'd get a more interesting and longer loop with more of that.

BTW, if you ever are interested in making your own instruments, I ran into heavy viper over at the Deflemask forums, and he linked me to this useful document That gives some helpful info about what algorithms are often used for certain types of sounds and what different values for the envelopes actually do. The other thing that helped me was realizing that the operators can kind of be mixed together using the TL (total level) value, so if you can kind of mess with the operator TLs to get different types of sounds. Additionally, the final operator(s) in the algorithm (usually operator 4) control the volume of the instrument. It can also help a lot to start with a kind of basic waveform (If you're using deflemask, these are good for that. Or else starting with just the final operator active, or turn off 3 and 4 entirely with algorithm 4 to get a simpler 2 operator patch, and then see if you want the other 2 operators.
Not that you asked, or anything

That's cool man! Definitely useful information for my TX81Z.

Hey, I'm glad I could help!

Back to shameless self promotion (well it is a thread about promoting your own music, so not that shameless), I was feeling inspired by listening to all of the awesome music on both of Ubiktune's Soundshock albums and thought to myself that it was cool how they were making fairly complex and interesting FM funk music, and so I decided to try that. I feel like I did okay at it, but it really could have had more dynamics and more development and more parts, probably. I guess I don't have the endurance to write more than 1 min of music, lol.
It's called Diminishing Changes
hopefully someone in this thread will get the title!

[Ji-L87]

Not sure if I ever posted these (if I did it probably was some year back) but I just remembered I had a soundcloud account >_>
Anyway these are just some old tracks but I think they're pretty fun in their simplicity.

https://soundcloud.com/ji-l87/mainframe-access
This is one is a pretty slow burn but I think the middle section got pretty interesting none the less. And I like the rhythm, feels kinda cinematic.

https://soundcloud.com/ji-l87/heavy-holster-buster
Fighting game-ish. Probably stole the "feel" from what little I remember from something like Tekken.
I imagine this being played to an attract demo.

https://soundcloud.com/ji-l87/going-all ... vy-version
The "heavy version" in the name means this one was overly distorted for fun. The original sounded like a midi-file in comparison.
Not even sure what genre this is supposed to be. It's a bet of a mess as I could never get those guitars bundled with reason to sound good, but I do know I had fun making this one.

[LordHypnos]

Everyone wanted to hear a YM2612 arrangement of Dead Feelings, right?

[LordHypnos]

Turns out my bassline was a fifth off of the original (transposition silliness with the sample in the original)
Here is the fixed version: https://youtu.be/FcNPqkhpUYo

[Heavy Viper]

Turns out my bassline was a fifth off of the original (transposition silliness with the sample in the original)
Here is the fixed version: https://youtu.be/FcNPqkhpUYo

This is really nice, makes me think of the Amiga. Killer arps.

This thread got busy the past month or so, I'll have to comb through...

[lilmanjs]

Brand new release I put out today on my own label. Another entry in my ongoing remix collection series. This time featuring a remix for aspect. and a version of an unreleased tune as things first appearing on this release. Downtempo, Deep Techno, and my attempts at making Ambient Techno with what I was given, mostly resulting in Experimental Technoes.
http://cfmlabel.com/releases/cfm075

[beatsgo]

https://soundcloud.com/beatsgo/solar-reflex
New song inspired by video game music. Hard to define what genre this is, somewhere in between breakbeats, drum'n bass, and future bass. Have to say this was a bitch to mix no thanks to the revolving door of snare drum samples. My problem now is figuring out how to make my tracks sound crisp and colorful without drowning it in low freqs.

[Heavy Viper]

https://soundcloud.com/beatsgo/solar-reflex

I really, really like this. I can hear the shmup influences, but I actually would have guessed Ridge Racer! Some of these synth cues make me want to get a monster nitro boost going...

[LordHypnos]

Here's a new one! I think it's my favorite FM thing yet that I've done. Took many hours. It's using the Yamaha YM2151 chip in Deflemask.

"Blue Crow"

EDIT:

https://soundcloud.com/beatsgo/solar-reflex
New song inspired by video game music. Hard to define what genre this is, somewhere in between breakbeats, drum'n bass, and future bass. Have to say this was a bitch to mix no thanks to the revolving door of snare drum samples. My problem now is figuring out how to make my tracks sound crisp and colorful without drowning it in low freqs.

Out of curiosity, Did you use the TX81Z for part of this? I like it btw.

[beatsgo]

Out of curiosity, Did you use the TX81Z for part of this? I like it btw.

I used 2 audio samples from my own patches dubbed TX81Z ELECTROMAGNETIC (horn) and LateHangover (bass, go figure which patch I got this from ;P ). Pretty impressed the versatility of the horn sample. It's very morphable and can be either played staccato or legato without hindering the complexity of the sounds.

New song
Manabu-like song

[LordHypnos]

Pretty impressed the versatility of the horn sample. It's very morphable and can be either played staccato or legato without hindering the complexity of the sounds.

Interesting that you say that, because I have found the same to be the case when making patches in Deflemask. Horns can go from relatively vanilla synth horn sound to really interesting synth sound that sounds unlike anything real but very cool still. There's a synth tone that I'm using in "Blue Crow" that originally started with a horn tone that I made earlier. Also note that I'm changing the multiplier of the first operator frequently (in a range of 4 to 8 ) to get a more kinda synthy and unique sound. Then I changed it again a little bit to get the horn sound in the song. I think the original horn was just a two operator patch (using 1 and 4), but using the YM2612 / YM2151 algorithm 5, then I turns the volume up of operator 2 to get the synth sound.

Not that you asked. Also, I'm guessing you were talking about using it as a sample, but still.