Kick drum on triangle wave (2A03)

[meegosh]

I realized a new technique (for me at least) for a good kick drum sound. If it's anything else like my other "realizations" it's probably something everyone else already knows.

I've been taking a break from the DPCM track for a little bit and using the triangle wave for my Kick drum by (1) putting "| 126 " in the Pitch setting, playing a high note (usually C5), and (3) having it cut out after a few miliseconds. Long story short, I could never find a way to successfully combine the kick with my triangle instrument (e.g., bass, etc.) in order to get a simultaneous instrument and kick. Now I've got it - there's a sample file attached with a basic bass line and drum beat.

Frame 1 has no kick. Frame 2 has the simlutaneous-kick-and-bass instrument. Frame 3 is a crappy drum fill with no bass.

"Kick" and "Kick_Bass" are the instruments in question if you wanna check out their settings. (I was writing an explanation but it was getting too stupid so it's probably easier to just take a look.)

Hope this is useful.

[HertzDevil]

Instrument 01 on E-2 is equivalent to:

Code: Select all

     # : Triangle     fx2
ROW 00 : E-4 00 . P02 F01
ROW 01 : G#3 00 . P02 ...
ROW 02 : C-3 00 . P02 ...
ROW 03 : E-2 00 . P80 ...


Which is not the same as instrument 00 (on either E-4 or C-5):

Code: Select all

     # : Triangle     fx2
ROW 00 : E-4 00 . 27E F01
ROW 01 : ... .. . ... ...
ROW 02 : ... .. . ... ...
ROW 03 : --- .. . ... ...


The difference between the two kicks becomes more apparent as successive notes become shorter. At such a high BPM the simplest solution is directly using the kick instrument a row above the bass:

Code: Select all

     # : Triangle
ROW 00 : E-4 00 . ...
ROW 01 : E-2 02 . ...
ROW 02 : ... .. . ...
ROW 03 : ... .. . ...
ROW 04 : ... .. . ...
ROW 05 : ... .. . ...
ROW 06 : --- .. . ...


If this is not desired, instruments 00 and 01 could use fixed arpeggio sequences that start with the same values, e.g. { 42 37 32 }, without using pitch sequences; instrument 00 can then be prolonged as necessary by appending new values to the sequence. The kick-bass instrument is the main reason fixed arpeggio sequences were added to FamiTracker.

[meegosh]

Thanks for the info HertzDevil. I'm still picking it apart a little to make sure I fully understand but I think it should all click soon. Very useful.

Yeah, I find myself using a mix of the two kicks (i.e., sometimes using the Kick_Bass instrument and other times just putting the Kick instrument a line before my bass instrument). They're not identical but they both generally achieve a passable low punch for the kick. And I adjust the arpeggio for the Kick_Bass instrument for whatever octave I'm playing in in order to keep the kick sound on or around C-5 (e.g., if I'm playing C-2 I'd have a Pitch effect of "126 126 126 0" and Arpeggio of "36 24 12 0", if I'm playing C-3 I'd have a Pitch effect of "126 126 126 0" and Arpeggio of "24 16 8 0", etc.).

[Drillimation]

It appears to be the notes you mentioned are the same ones used for the bass drum and some snare instruments used in the PC-98 Touhou games.