Possibly my first finished track to feature no MIDI at all. All these sounds were pre-recorded in uni, then taken home and chopped up.

I made it for this compilation: https://youtu.be/v4ZJHRFkgmQ

Pattern Projector

This is the first MIDI cover I've made in fucking aaaaaaaages that uses Microsoft's GS Wavetable Synth built into windows. The last time I made a MIDI in this manner was like... 6 years ago?

I wanted to see if I could use it to match certain sounds used in the original song with those from the MSGS synth. Well I say that, but I'm actually not using anything Microsoft-y in this cover, I'm instead using a soundfont based on MSGS run through a MIDI engine, in this case, Qsynth, a Qt frontend for FluidSynth that runs on Linux.

But I've stayed true to the limits of MSGS the whole way through, not using any Chorus or Reverb effects, everything you heard is as accurate to MSGS as can be. If I wanted to do an echo, I had to duplicate a channel, and copy/paste notes around, detune and change the volume of said notes, just as you would with the real thing. It also adds a bit of a chiptune-y charm to the creative process, and the sound itself. It was a bit of a pain trying to get everything where it needed to be, especially cuz I had to do a bunch of channel changes using MIDI CCs to get everything to fit. I very nearly ended up using all 16 channels, and even considered breaking the limit and using 32 instead, but I kept it to 15, and used MIDI CCs where necessary, as I said.

This also means that, considering I wanted to match the ADSR envelope on each of these sounds, and the sounds themselves have their own ADSR that can't be changed with CCs, I had to actually automate the volume knobs on each one myself, semi-manually. FL Studio makes it really really easy to work with MIDI automation events, and copy/pasting stuff is painless, I'll spare you the details right now, but I'll just say there's a good reason I use FL for MIDI stuff, it's got all the joys of an old-school MIDI sequencer with none of the frustration.

But yeah, that's about all I have to say about this one. Hope you enjoy listening as much as I did making it!

[Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth] ~ Hexion: "The Hexagon I've Dreamed Of [Form Select Mode]" MIDI Cover

Whoa Jesus, whoa nelly oh Saint Mary, this cover is givin me a case of the vapours?????????

Despite being a cover I spent only some several hours on, this is probably my favourite cover I've made with the SC-88Pro. I've had this idea sitting in the back of my head for some year or two now, but only carried it out tonight, and I'm so very glad I did now that it's finished. I wanted to give this track a Star Fox 64 3D-style do-over, but reel it in a bit more, instead of going all-out and basically re-instrumenting entire tracks. For this one, I took an approach closer to the one I normally do, enhance the original, and add some flourishes to make it sound a bit more impactful, without going too overboard.

Doing this is a fine balance, but it's one I like more often than not. Like making up your own puzzle, and being satisfied and content with the final result, it's so cool. Working with the SC-88Pro is always so fun too, every time I'm like "Hmmm, I wonder if I can do this with it", I can!!!!! And so I do!!!!!!!! And celebrations and woo'ing ensues thusly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yeah, I don't have much more to write on this one, it's the usual thing, but this time it's the goodest usual thing!!!!!!!!

(REUPLOAD because I did a rendering oopsie)

[SC-88Pro] - Star Fox 2: "Surprise Attack" MIDI Cover

i was diagnosed with liver disease this is how i feel about it

metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease

You lot wanted it, I reluctantly released it 😅

Check out the original here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU0fuxhDwdg

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The Ninky Donk

Free Download

Drinks On Me - The Ninky Donk [FREE DOWNLOAD]

From-scratch redo of this stupid thing from 2018:
https://soundcloud.com/sixtyforce/microsoft-gs-wavetable-synth-batsugun-complimentary-ticket-midi-cover

Here we have another redo????????? "Haha look at this asshole, he's running out of ideas now so he's just doing old stuff now haha lmao idiot lmao touch grass"

But ahhh you see, beyond the lack of inspiration (guilty as charged), there also lays a genuine desire to make better what was originally just meh! Therefore it's actually the bees knees!!!!!!!!111111

Jokes aside, I've been wanting to re-do this one for a while, what with my current knowledge of mixing and experience with making things and stuff and such. I'm actually really happy with the results on this one, I spent a lot of time mixing the right sounds together to make everything sound a little beefier, a little punchier. I also took some time to do same fake chorus, and even repeated the volume envelope automation from the Hexion cover, but this time on steroids lol.

I've never gotten results like this from any of the more advanced MIDI boxes before. Despite MSGS being so basic, and seemingly lacking in sounds and capabilities, it's shockingly versatile and capable of creating some amazing-sounding production with the right techniques and right amount of patience. The fact I was able to get the lead in particular sounding so close to that of the original is surprising even to me, and I'm the one that made it!

So yehs thanks once again for reading if you did (you didn't lol), and hope you enjoye! :3

[Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth] - Batsugun (Arcade): "Stage 4 - Complimentary Ticket" V2 MIDI Cover

Hey ho, here it is! My first foray into the legendary MT-32! More like legend-arily bullshit amirite hehehh. Discovering this part of Roland's History has been pretty cool, seeing its stock sounds, and a light dabbling in patch editing was quite fun, and a pretty interesting break from what I'm used to with the Sound Canvas boxes, particularly the 88Pro.

Its drums are delightfully 80s, and its sounds, while perhaps not as natural as a Sound Canvas, have their own synthetic charm, it's kinda halfway between a ROMpler and a more traditional synth, which makes sense, given the way the MT-32 works. But, as fun as it can be, this cover felt more like a chore than something fun and explorative like the ones I make with the Sound Canvas, or even MSGS. Mainly patch editing, despite being one of its primary features, trying to get the thing to register the SysEx you've sent, at least in my experience, was a nightmare.

Good lord, between having to fuck about with multiple programs to even get FL to talk to MUNT (MT-32 emulator), and then getting the patch editing tools to talk to MUNT, and then getting that to work only to learn that changing parameters doesn't change the sound immediately so you have to go and click a button to send the changes and even then MUNT doesn't register them immediately so you have to pause and play the music again, then there's a chance you'll hear your changes if neither MUNT or your MIDI-routing software crashed aaaaaaAAAAAAAA

Tbh, idk what in the chain is causing this, whether it's FL Studio, MUNT, my MIDI-routing software (Falcosoft MIDI Player 5), or the patch-editing program (MT32Edit), though I suspect it's one of the latter two. MP5 won't let FL talk to MUNT unless I play a MIDI from it first, then MT32Edit introduces stuttering when it's just connected to MUNT, not even sending data to it. So I have pretty little faith in either of them, but perhaps the MT-32 is just like this, idk.

I was looking for another routing solution, but my old standby, loopMIDI, uses a kernel driver that doesn't work in WINE, and any of the other ones either costed money, or couldn't open their config menus. So in terms of alternatives, I'm shit outta luck atm.

So it's for all these reasons that I probably won't make another MT-32 cover any time soon. Its been a fun nut to crack, but when it came to actually sitting down to make the cover, I couldn't just sit down and get lost in the creation of sounds. In fact, once I'd so much as made minor tweaks to the Slap Bass and E. Piano sounds, I couldn't be bothered with patch editing anymore, and just stuck to stock sounds for everything else.

The thing also has some annoying limitations, reverb parameters are quite limited, it only has one drum kit, you only have 32 voices, which sounds good until you consider that just one patch can use up to 4, leaving potentially only 8 notes to play with, it often stretches one low-quality sample beyond its range, it has no easily-accessible cutoff/resonance knob, and did I mention it just ignores SysEx and crashes half the time? I don't think I did!!!! :)))))))) Plus, on a personal note, there's no convincing electric guitars and the acoustic piano sounds are not acoustic in the slightest.

I might return later on, just as a challenge, see how far I can push the thing and make it do a little more. I know I've done that time and time again with Sound Canvas boxes, and now consider them serious pieces of electronic music production kit. Plus, it's the MT-32, for all its faults, its got such a lovely, charming sound, and it brought about a seismic paradigm shift in how people make music on their computers within the walls of their own houses. To have something like this in 1987 would've been nothing short of incredible. It's also kinda funny to think that the games with the highest-production-quality music at the time weren't namco or SEGA scaler games with their fancy PCM chips, but rather Sierra Point-and-Click adventure games lol

[MT-32] - Thunder Blade (Arcade): "Burning Point" MIDI Cover

All samples and effekt - Sam Scurlock

Special thanks to Cardiff Bay Barrage Authority, Ty Pont Haearn and Belle Vue Park, Penarth

Whip Lock Machine Lock

The Common Motif

Myd - Song For You (The Mascot Remix)

Supermodified

Amon Tobin - 4 Ton Mantis (Original HQ)

Experimental electronics

p@rtraq.xyz for stuff

Pattern Projector

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