music ventures

Enjoy some chiptune I've messed with. You'll need FamiTracker to play them.

covers (click title to expand):

Pokemon Trading Card Game (GBC)

• Normal Duel (last edited on Oct 10, 2010) (YouTube video) - After the first one, I still wanted to do a cover, so I chose something a bit more difficult. This was a lot of fun, and I'll definitely try more covers from this game soon.
• Imakuni?'s Theme (last edited on Oct 27, 2010) (YouTube video) - Another cover from this game. Imakuni? wrote some music for the Pokemon series (or is a pop star; I don't remember the full story) and has some gimmick cards in the actual TCG. He has a cameo appearance in the GBC game where he plays a bit less than optimally and has this creepy/dissonant theme. Short, but still fun to do.
• Fire Club/Fighting Club/Psychic Club (last edited on Dec 20, 2010) (YouTube video) - I knew I would enjoy coming back to Pokemon TCG. This theme has a "Kill Bill"-esque style to it. I think it's really cool-sounding.
• Ronald's Theme (last edited on Dec 20, 2010) (YouTube video) - To be honest, I only did this song because it sounded hard, and because one of my fellow cover-artists shuddered at the thought. It was hard, but it repeated itself enough that the hiccups were few. This theme is really awesome sounding, so it all balances out.
• Club Master Duel (last edited on Jan 3, 2011) - A suitably epic theme for a boss battle, and really what got me interested in this covering business. I'm not making a video of this, since you can watch danooct1's cover of it instead.
• (from the sequel) Fire Fort/Fighting Fort (last edited on Apr 28, 2012) - The music to the sequel is at least as awesome as the music in the original. Shame it never made it outside of Japan.

Magi Nation (GBC)

• Shop (last edited on Nov 8, 2010) - This theme sounds like the proprietor's swindling you. Also, it's rather short.
• Parathin (last edited on Dec 19, 2010) (YouTube video) - The only vehicle theme in the game, for the only "vehicle" the main character rides. The quotes are there because it's actually a giant turtle. I took this on expecting it to take forever because of the speedy arpeggios in the background; I finished it in an hour.
• Boss (last edited on Dec 20, 2010) (YouTube video) - I recently uncovered a music rip from this game (my favorite, by the way), but it wouldn't play in the program I prefer, even though I found another one to play it. After fiddling, I still managed to isolate the tracks, and covered this epic-sounding boss theme. It has a march style, but a dark tone. Something I noticed after taking this apart was that every melody in this game has vibrato, which is odd, but provides a different style not usually seen in chiptune.
• Shadowhold (last edited on Jan 9, 2011) (YouTube video) - This theme is used only during the player's lengthy stay in a mid-game dungeon. A long loop for how often the random encounters were. It's repetetive, but the fun part is a few patterns (about 30 seconds) in. A slow dirge, to match the depressing theme of the dungeon.
• Gia (last edited on Feb 7, 2011) (YouTube video) - Fun Fact: The manual that comes with this game has four pages dedicated to a piano version of this song, composed 12 years before the game's release. It's also really hard for someone who's never played the piano before. There's a scan of the music here.
• Rescue (last edited on Feb 7, 2011) (YouTube video) - A late-game theme. Sounds like it could work in an Indiana Jones-style adventure movie.
• Final Battle (last edited on Feb 7, 2011) (YouTube video) - A rather short loop for the length of time you wind up hearing it. Very fast-paced and climactic-sounding, though.

Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal (GBC)

• Violet City/Olivine City (last edited on Jan 19, 2011) (YouTube video) - A nice, short theme that still keeps a sense of adventure. Pokemon music always keeps a soft spot in the hearts of fans.
• Azalea Town/Blackthorn City (last edited on Jan 20, 2011) (YouTube video) - Another happy theme from Pokemon.
• Rocket Hideout (last edited on Feb 2, 2011) (YouTube video) - A decidedly unhappy theme, but at least it describes the enemies. A bit difficult because of the melody line's dissonance. It's hard to pick out a melody when it's that gross-sounding.

Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow (GBC)

• Pokemon Tower (last edited on Feb 10, 2011) (YouTube video) - A decidedly somber theme that reminds me of what a temple ceremony would feel like. (Though I don't have any experience of one, so I could be working off stereotypes.)
• Sylph Co. Building (last edited on Feb 10, 2011) (YouTube video) - Something interesting I noticed about music from video games on these consoles is that often enough, the noise channel (percussion) is ignored or left simplistic. It took me a while to realize that it might be so that sound effects don't destroy the music track that's playing. Anyway, Pokemon R/B/Y music mostly doesn't have percussion on it, while G/S/C, oddly enough, does.
• Lavender Town (last edited on Feb 22, 2011) (YouTube video) - Another somber theme that describes the town around the Pokemon Tower.

Miscellaneous Covers

• Final Fantasy 8 (PSX) - The Extreme (last edited on Feb 18, 2011) (NSF) (YouTube video) - Also known as the final boss theme. Usually, when listening to transcriptions of this theme, I balk at errors in transcription. This is a wonderfully complicated piece of music, and it's easy to get something wrong. It's also one of my favorite pieces of music written for a game.
• Final Fantasy 2 (NES) - Town (last edited on Mar 1, 2011) - Getting my feet wet with FamiTracker, I covered a pretty easy song to learn how to write notes in, use the patterns, etc.
• Streets of Rage 2 (GEN) - Expander (last edited on Mar 7, 2011) (YouTube video) - The OST says this is the theme for the final stage (though not the final boss). You could have a rave with this very fun song.
• Streets of Rage 2 (GEN) - Go Straight (last edited on Mar 12, 2011) (YouTube video) - Did I mention this music is addictive? I'm tempted to convert the whole soundtrack to VRC6.
• Chrono Trigger (SNES) - Underground Sewer (last edited on Mar 24, 2011) (YouTube video) - Oddly enough, I get this theme in my head occasionally, even though I haven't played the game in several years. I like its simplicity and atmosphere.
• echochrome (PS3/PSP) - Prime #7 (last edited on Apr 18, 2011) (YouTube video) - A soundtrack as awesome as the game it comes from.
• Mighty Switch Force! - Yummy (last edited on Jan 21, 2012) (YouTube video) - My entry to famicompo mini vol 8. Got 13th place out of 72.
• Final Fantasy 8 - Premonition (last edited June 27, 2012) - I'll probably get all the boss themes from this game eventually.
• Mayhem - How I Love (last edited July 21, 2012) - A cover of a non-video-game song. My entry to Famitracker Demo Compo 5, where I scored 10th place out of 24.
• Hey Ocean! - Terribly Stable (boss rush mix) (last edited Oct 30, 2012) (YouTube video) - Another cover of a non-video-game song. My entry to famicompo mini vol 9, where I scored 39th place out of 90.
• Mighty Switch Force! - Jive Bot (last edited Feb 19, 2017) (YouTube video - The Cover That Killed Icesoldier. I'd started this shortly after finishing Yummy, mainly because I wanted to make the wubby bass of the intro. Over time, though, I burned out and this lay unfinished for 4-5 years. I came back to it eventually and finished it, though.

Collections

• Streets of Rage 2 With Half the Bits (NSF) (MP3 Collection) (last edited on Jun 20, 2012) A project I've worked on for the past few months. I've already uploaded a few of these songs to YouTube, but I've held off uploading the FTM here until I finished. Well here you go.

originals:

Break and Enter (last updated Apr 18, 2011) (YouTube video) - A little dark and creepy sounding. Possibly a bit repetitive ambient.

Strut (last updated May 22, 2011) - At some point I tried a passage with lots of waves slightly detuned from each other, and what I got was the intro to this. Then I transitioned into some kind of "on the town" style theme, I guess.

Recovery (last updated Apr 8, 2012) - Started with the arp/single channel echo, and held on to the song for a while before entering it into Famitracker Demo Compo 2, where it scored 19th out of 23 (I don't wanna talk about it, there was much better competition).

Armored Return (last updated Nov 30, 2012) (don't trust the change date, I just added the artist/copy info) - An OHC (One Hour Compo) for Battle of the Bits. There's an incomplete segment there that I couldn't finish in time.

Evening in the Field (last updated Nov 30, 2012) (don't trust the change date, I just added the artist/copy info) - Another OHC for BotB. I was apparently in a medieval mood that night.

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