16-bit chiptune demake of “Clockwork Pyramid” from Team Sonic Racing, compatible with the Sega Genesis / Sega Mega Drive console.
DOWNLOAD (MP3, VGZ & DMF):
Feel free to use it for your videos or fangames.
NOTE: You need a VGM player to open the VGZ file, and the DMF is only for DefleMask.
MORE TEAM SONIC RACING:
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Technical info
·System: Sega Genesis / Sega Mega Drive
·Soundchips: YM2612 (FM), SN76496 (PSG), Sega DAC (PCM)
·Max. FM channels active: 5
·Max. PSG channels active: 3
·FM channel 6: Set to PCM only
·PSG channel 4: Free range white noise
·FM instruments loaded: 6
·PSG volume macros loaded: 5
·PCM samples loaded: 5
·Tempo: 180 & 225 BPM (NTSC, speed 02/03 & 02/02)
·Program: DefleMask Tracker v0.12.0
·Time in development: 2 days
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About the song:
I actually started working on the song because of the Toejam & Earl pads, as I was going through that folder and when I selected that instrument I thought they would go well with some of the TSR songs. It didn’t fit as perfectly as I thought it would, but it didn’t need that much editing either, it was already pretty close to what I wanted, so it worked just as intended. The other instruments were really easy to choose.
I used the Dis. Guitar ’94 yet again, but this time I tried it with the lowest MULT on one of the operators, so it’s one octave higher than normal. It’s a really good change that I’m glad I tried out randomly, it works well with the other instruments.
I also used the guitar from Metropolis Zone by recommendation of someone in the comments on my Egg Fleet video. It needed quite a lot of editing, but it worked really well from the get go, I was honestly surprised. I might try using it again in the future, since I don’t have many clean electric guitars to choose from outside of Thunder Force IV.
The last 3 instruments are from Thunder Force IV, they are instruments I found while looking through the folder that I thought I could use somehow and loaded just in case. I really like the guitars I used for the intro, I wasn’t sure of what clean guitars like that would sound like in the context of the cover, but I liked how different it was and how it felt more like a normal Genesis tune, so it stayed for good.
Something interesting about this is the unusual absence of a bass, there’s one for like the last half of the song, but none for the first half. What I think made it work here is the combined sound of the kick, electric guitars and pads. I pitched down the kick because of how well it sounded like that in other remixes I’ve made, it’s easier to hear in that low register and it’s low enough to reach the bass’ tone, but it doesn’t stay long enough to completely replace it. The electric guitars also have a very low tone, you can actually see that they’re kinda like static-y basses when you mess around with the operators. So, both together fill in the bass’ role, the kick puts the low tone in the first half, and the guitars on the second half when they release, I edited their release to be longer precisely for that. And then, when most of the instruments go away, the pads help fill in that new gap thanks to their wide range of low and high tones. They’re basically 4 sine waves put together, and I edited them so that some of them would be far apart to fill that void. Then the actual bass comes in, and I worried it would be too strong on the low tones, so I edited it to lose volume somewhat quickly so that it wouldn’t feel too much like a pedal tone.
I think stuff like this is helping me learn how to manage low sounds in a cover. That’s something I haven’t had much practice with, since for the longest time my headphones couldn’t even hear those sounds, and then when I got some new headphones I would have trouble noticing them. I used to think of it as the soundscape stretching down, rather than the low tones being independent and intentional, so even though I could hear it now, most of the time I didn’t notice I was hearing it. I think I’m getting the hang of it now.
Link do Vídeo
