pouët.net

8k Reality - The Music

category: music [glöplog]
I did a write up on the process of reorchestrating the Second Reality soundtrack for Fulcrum's 8k entry at Revision.

http://elblancosdigitaldreams.blogspot.com/2015/04/getting-real-pt-1-are-we-crazy.html
added on the 2015-04-16 20:05:35 by elblanco elblanco
The link had a extra space in the middle: better one
added on the 2015-04-16 20:40:10 by Trilkk Trilkk
Trikk: huh...weird....copy-paste has failed me
added on the 2015-04-16 21:33:32 by elblanco elblanco
elblanco: an excellent article (to say nothing of the production itself) - I've read it with a real pleasure. Big thumb up and thank you!
added on the 2015-04-16 22:44:11 by argasek argasek
Nah, Pouet does that sometimes. I don't know why. I've seen it posting oneline code snippets and such if they're long enough.
argasek: thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
added on the 2015-04-17 01:57:45 by elblanco elblanco
i can tell you why pouet does it, it's legacy code to prevent neverending lines b0rking up the sites' layout.

Multi-post writeup! Cool! :)
added on the 2015-04-17 02:25:20 by psenough psenough
Thanks!
added on the 2015-04-17 07:04:01 by numtek numtek
Thumb for ossom article. And "The demoscene is an amazing, vibrant, highly technical art movement with a surprisingly long history." must mean the scene is not dead!
added on the 2015-04-17 13:09:28 by Emod Emod
Very interesting read!
added on the 2015-04-17 13:18:16 by Blueberry Blueberry
yep, interesting read. thanks for writing it and sharing.
added on the 2015-04-17 15:09:12 by bonefish bonefish
All thumbs up for the effort and a good laugh. But the C64 version is better music, and I occasionally request it on Nectarine, because I want to hear it. But this 8k version... not as music, but as a demo it's a funny elaborate joke. I'd like to hear a version you think is musically good, nevermind the size limitations. Put back the essential musical elements like the portamento effect in the glenz vector part, and use the right melody line in the blue sine landscape part. It's an iconic scene classic, beautiful song, I can't understand how anyone can possibly think THAT is the melody line.
The Atari ST version was even worse. If you cover the most well known scene song, make absolutely sure the melody is right and it feels good and juicy, not just in a "hey can you recognize what tune this is trying to mimic" sort of way.
Then again I do realize that the whole thing is just a concept thing, trying to do an impossible thing, and impressing people by almost getting it done.
The SID version manages to work as good music in its own right, but they didn't have to include a soft synth in there, and had more bytes to spend. (I think)
added on the 2015-04-17 17:09:24 by yzi yzi
yzi: thanks for the comments, a couple things you should be aware of

- portamento doesn't work with clinkster (give it a try yourself)

- the melody in the blue landscape is actually a note-for-note transcription of the original

Purple Motion used portamento *really* heavily in that section, and the final notes to lots of phrases are at the end of a portamento, so I just tuned to the closest note and used that if it sounded wrong. So for all purposes, it *is* the same notes. The only difference being I couldn't portamento. So it's like comparing a melody played on a violin, where you can change the pitch arbitrarily, to it being played on a piano, where you can't. Same notes, same tune, same song.
added on the 2015-04-17 18:16:46 by elblanco elblanco
Yes, making tiny intros is full of compromises - try to do The Canonical Tracker Portamento Effect Showcase Song, but without having portamento... :) Ok.

But then the sine landscape. Note for note? Well OK, when the original has a note, you also have a note, so in that sense it's note for note. But the PITCHES are wrong.
I assume this final tube version is like it would sound like when actually run

Future Crew version: https://youtu.be/rFv7mHTf0nA?t=7m24s
Fulcrum version: https://youtu.be/lI-yGc6Ixr0?t=7m25s

If you still cannot hear it, which I'd think since you've been happy with it, I'll write it down. To me they sound like this:
BB Image

Ok, transcribing is hard, and not everybody can hear pitches. I'd say, most commercially published "transcribed" note books of pop songs are very badly done, and they get away with almost anything, because most people can only hear the subject of the lyrics or something. ;)
added on the 2015-04-17 19:54:05 by yzi yzi
yzi: thanks for taking the effort to write it down, you'll probably notice *all* of the notes in the entire production aren't at the same pitch as the original. That's because both Skaven and Purple Motion tuned their samples to different base-pitches (and Purple Motion tuned some of his samples to one base-pitch, and others to another, so I had to accommodate that and transpose where needed).

The important part is, with respect to the rest of the track, the notes are in tune. If I transcribed the melody to exactly match the pitch of Purple Motion's melody, then it wouldn't fit the rest of the backing track.

I do however agree that the instrument probably wasn't the best lead, I had a version with it paired with another instrument and it sounded better since it played at a higher octave and maybe sounds more like what you think you are hearing in the original.

I had a feeling somebody would ask questions about this, maybe I should do an addendum part on the overall series?
added on the 2015-04-17 20:23:09 by elblanco elblanco
BTW, I did put all of the song files I wrote about in the post so you can download them and tinker with them yourself!

If you come up with a better version of that portion, I'd love to hear it!
added on the 2015-04-17 20:26:42 by elblanco elblanco
Come on, it's not a matter of transposition. Both are in G# minor key in that part.
But whatever key they are in, your version starts from the 1st note of the key, the original starts from the 5th. If the key was A minor, i.e. only white keys, then your version would start from A, and the original from E. Several people spotted this in the compo. Simple thing, no need to write pages of explanation. Luckily you had used an unclear instrument drowned in the accompaniment.

Did it come as a surprise that some people might have an affectionate relationship to pop megahits they used to listen to when they were young? :)
added on the 2015-04-17 21:32:25 by yzi yzi
elblanco, with all due respect, because it was definitely a lot of work, it's painfully mistransposed in at least three places. Middle part intros (logo + glenz in the beginning and another-way-to-scroll in the middle) are obviously transposed compared to the original and then suddenly (dot tunnel and devil's head) switch back to sync when they get to their techno parts. Sync it up with the original and see for yourself. And then there's the blue waves melody part, but yzi has already explained that.

Sorry, but growing up with this tune we kinda care about it :)
added on the 2015-04-17 22:00:15 by reptile reptile
speaking of "with all due respect": yzi, that first D# actually starts at C#, quickly glides to D# and isn't a full quarter but a dotted 8th with a muted high F# as final 16th :P
added on the 2015-04-17 22:07:55 by kb_ kb_
You know, musical notation is a means for humans to communicate music-related ideas to other humans, and this particular piece of notation was intended to make a certain point.
added on the 2015-04-17 22:11:23 by yzi yzi
And thanks for making that point because yeah, I also realized it and it dampened my enjoyment of an otherwise quite awesome effort. Just wanted to nitpick :)
added on the 2015-04-17 22:16:35 by kb_ kb_
Yeah, the transposed leads kinda destroyed it for me as well. The effort is great, but it's just so obvious that the chords are playing in the same key as in the original, but the lead isn't.
What about a final final ? ;)
added on the 2015-04-17 22:21:55 by Virgill Virgill
It's an awesome effort, and I had a great time watching it - every time.

I just want to use this opportunity to talk about my feelings, because I know many other sceners feel the same way too. Don't mess with the melody! :) Many people love that tune.
To me, complaining about mixing is more like nitpicking, but playing the wrong melody in place of an oldschool classic!? AAAARGH. BLASPHEMY!!!!

Btw, your SID version is FABULOUS, thanks for that. I like it all, but particularly the ending song is actually better and more juicy than Skaven's original which tries to do a tiny little bit too much with the very limited amount of samples. In my opinion, in its heart its more like a Jarre style electronic song, it's just played with orchestral samples for some weird reason. Great, great melodies. Without the melodies, the whole Second Reality demo wouldn't be that memorable at all, even though the code and the architecture, and how the production was organized is just excellent.
added on the 2015-04-17 22:30:33 by yzi yzi
Saga Musix: to me it doesn't feel like a chromatic +- transposition thing, it's started diatonically from a different location, as if it was a backing vocal stem, or something.
added on the 2015-04-17 22:33:44 by yzi yzi

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