FamiTracker songs that sound like the C64

[MiniMacro]

irrelevant fact: Ei-How Yang (a bootleg FC developer) had a system in his cartridges which detected if it was a PAL system and speed up the engine and music accordingly.

[DRW]

That's not really anything special and can be done quite easily even with a normal standard cartridge. "Zooming Secretary", a homebrew game, does the same.

What I'd be more interested in: What method did he use to change the speed of the game itself?
Music is easy: There are some definite APU values for each note in NTSC and PAL.
But changing the speed of the game, so that a game plays the same in NTSC and PAL, that's not a mundane task. Any information on how he did this?

[ImATrackMan]

All Tim Follin did for his music was add an extra 6th frame every 5 for his music timing.

[DRW]

Another question about this topic: Is it possible to do this metallic/electric sound on the NES?

Examples:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeCA0Fvrg4s&t=12m53s
12:53-13:06

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeCA0Fvrg4s&t=16m48s
16:48-17:02

I've seen some good arpeggios on the NES to know that a C64-like arpeggio is possible. But I'm still looking for an NES/FamiTracker rendition that sounds as close as possible to that above sound effect.

Do you have any examples or can tell me actual games that used it?

By the way, it needs to be done with the standard channels: Pulse 1, pulse 2, triangle, noise.
Any creation that uses the Namco sound channel or any other addition would be of no use for me since my goal is to let my composer do such a music for an actual NES game that runs on a standard cartridge.

[Threxx]

That metallic sound is an example of the C64's built in pulse wave modulation. The NES cannot remotely achieve anything close to this with only internal channels due to only having 4 possible pulse widths. A duty envelope of {| 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 2 2 1 1} can act as a crude emulation of this effect, but not anything quite of the original timbre would be produced.

[DRW]

Thanks for the information.

Since I don't know much about FamiTracker, could you please show me an example of what this would sound like?

[za909]

Here you go. Now your NES is a C64:

[DRW]

The "Drunk or Sober" soundtrack is exactly what I'm looking for. But unfortunately, this soundtrack doesn't really help me.

As I said before: I need a composition that uses the standard channels only: Pulse 1, pulse 2, triangle, noise and nothing else.

The "Drunk and Sober" song uses the Namco channels, as I can see here: http://famitracker.com/forum/posts.php?id=5167

The Namco channels might be able to create a more faithful C64 sound. But my intention is not to have this music as a standalone composition.
I want my composer to create a C64-like soundtrack for an actual NES game that I'm working on which is supposed to run on a standard cartridge without any mappers and without special hardware.

I already have good examples for arpeggio effects (the one in "Darkman" is the best) and other stuff.
But that one metallic sound, I still haven't found an example of an NES game that uses it.

So, I need that metallic sound effect from "Drunk or Sober" and from the above "Batman" soundtrack, but created with the regular NES channels.

I know, this will sound less authentic. But that's a problem I cannot circumvent since my music is for an actual game.

That's why I was asking if somebody can create a little sample music using that metallic sound effect with the standard channels. So that I can see what exactly this would sound like on the NES in a standard game. How close the standard sound channels can replicate it.

I see now that the Namco channel can replicate it very well. But for my specific problem, I need to hear this sound created with the four default channels.

[ollaxe]

Samples maybe? It would sound like shit and eat processor power and memory, but it would at least be more faithful than anything else. If you only want it on the normal squarewaves, then za909's first example is as close as you'll get.

[DRW]

Samples maybe? It would sound like shit and eat processor power and memory, but it would at least be more faithful than anything else.

Nah. They occupy too much space. I have only 32 KB for the whole game.

If you only want it on the normal squarewaves, then za909's first example is as close as you'll get.

O.k.

I've got one more question, though:

Threxx said:

That metallic sound is an example of the C64's built in pulse wave modulation. The NES cannot remotely achieve anything close to this with only internal channels due to only having 4 possible pulse widths. A duty envelope of {| 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 2 2 1 1} can act as a crude emulation of this effect, but not anything quite of the original timbre would be produced.

Does this first "Sphere Brain" file use the duty envelope of {| 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 2 2 1 1}?
Because if it doesn't, I'd still like to hear a short example of this specific thing that Threxx was talking about to hear exactly what it sounds like.