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Hello everyone! I have no clue how many of you analyze music (for fun, to learn something, for anything really - to be honest, I've analyzed music longer than I've written it ), but I'm gonna throw this up and see where it goes. For the sake of this thread, it's probably wise to only bring up VG music (it's OCR, after all), but if you want to bring up anything outside that genre, be my guest - I'd be more than happy to discuss it (and I'm sure others would, too)! Now, if your not a music theorist or anything, that's fine - if you listen to music I'm sure you've heard interesting things in a song and it's caught your interest, yet you also noticed no one else heard the same thing. The point of this thread is to show other people some very interesting musical tricks and the like that you've heard in a song but others may not have. Don't worry about any technical language - just try to get the point across as best as you can. Perhaps there will be other people here that can clarify the technical tricks that occur and help you learn how to use the techniques better. If you want to just comment on another person's analysis, please feel free - I encourage discussion on the discoveries of others. Please keep the flames down, however - really, I don't know what anyone could flame about here, but you never know. I'll start the discussion by talking about my favorite VG music... well, basically of all time. That's right, Silver Surfer, baby! In particular, I'm looking at the Title theme. Every track on this game kicks ass, but this one has a pretty exceptional level of ass-kickage. It is one of the most advanced piece of chiptunage out there, and I'm here to show you all why. The degree of single-channel polyphonic lines is absolutely incredible. Basically, a single channel may only play a single note at a time, but the way the notes are played imply more than one line (or instrument) at a time. Using the power of Emulation (I own the game, don't worry), I'll separate the channels so the effects I'm talking about are easier to hear... A single rectangle wave... An example of that 'polyphonic line' occurs well at 0:09 - 0:23 (and again at 1:12 - 1:32). There is a note that is quickly played an octave above is an example of a polyphonic line in action. Remember, a single channel may never play more than one sound at a time, so in fact the sound cuts out when the higher note is being played. Now, this isn't the only VG soundtrack that does this, but the way the Follin brothers do it, however, is so seemless it deserves some special attention. Listening to it closely, it sounds like they took the waveform and had it play the low sound first, filling the ear with the low sound before introducing the upper 'blip' then immediately returning to the lower sound. The effect that comes from that particular placement is that the ear retains the sound of the lower note while the higher note plays, thus giving the illusion that two sounds are playing (when that is physically impossible, given the hardware). Even more interesting is that the higher note is implied in your brain, so you fill out the octave throughout the span of the note in your mind. Now throughout this song these polyphonic lines occur all the time. Take a look at the other rectangle wave playing in this song (there are two given at any time in a NES game). 0:16 - 0:53 sounds like a series of chords (that's right, chords) playing through when it is only physically possible for a single note to be playing at any given time. It's easier to hear what they do, and the trick is pretty common in NES & C64 games, in general - arpeggiate chords as fast as the system can play the notes in order to make a single line play complex chord structures. However, the Follin brothers use this in conjunction with other not-so-easy-to-hear polyphonic tricks to create a rich, complex environment unmatched by any other game on the NES system (it even challenges most 16-bit systems soundscape, as well, IMHO). The best is still to come, however... the Triangle wave. Seriously, what the hell?! 0:09 - 1:16 may repeat the same thing over and over again, but damn, is it a hell of a line to repeat! There's not one, not two but three (possibly even four) instruments being implied there. The pulsing bass, a strong, diving bass drum, and the weaker toms and snare... all on the channel that cannot even fluctuate the volume (let alone play more than one sound at a time). Simply amazing (especially when you add the noise channel [which cover the hats and the 'snare' of the drums] to the triangle to create a full array of drums with the bass - without ever using the PCM!). Now, this isn't unique (Megaman 3's intro triangle does the exact same thing), but I've never heard a game that does nearly as seemlessly. How did they do it? The toms and the snare are designed similarly to the rectangle wave I discussed above - the sound cuts out for such a short time that the ear still percieves the bass sound as something that is playing when it is not. The diving bass drum, though, lasts longer than those short sounds - basically past the threshold of when we imply and connect the sounds mentally. I believe that they first hit the bass note sound, followed it by a sudden change to the bass drum sound which dives back into the bass sound again(cutting out for the snare and toms whenever they needed to). Because the sound dives into the original bass it ends up sounding like a part of the bass. However, because of the music before (0:00 - 0:09), the bass drum sound also sounds like a bass drum. Using the power of context and cutting sound out, they created three or four different sounds using a single sound at a time. Put all of these channels together and you get an amazingly complex soundscape using only four channels (and one of them can only make different samples of white noise). The parts were certainly great, but the sum of the parts compliment each other so well that they really amount to more as a whole. Basically, I've always been amazed by their complete mastery over the hardware that the Follin brothers had. I could go on for pages about other little tricks and doodads that they used in this song alone (that's besides the other eight great songs written for this game), but I want to leave room for others to bring something else up (and possibly bring up those doodads at another time). Don't worry about the size of my post - I don't expect anyone to spend over an hour writing an analysis of anything on here (although it certainly would be welcome!). In fact, any other analysis I make will more than likely be shorter than this, but I just love that soundtrack so damn much. If you notice something interesting that you don't believe anyone else has heard in a song, post it here!

Just a simple track that I wanted to sound gamey, not sure if I succeeded but I'd like feedback! https://m.soundcloud.com/user-166733596/against-the-odds

This is my first post on here! Been experimenting making funk jams with a quirky video game feel. What do you guys think? How the funk can I obtain the funk?

Late night (for me) Update: Just got the word through, this project's been approved by the big guyz. PLT is now official status! Thank you very much to DJ Pretzel & all you peeps for working so hard. Let's be awesome. Furthermore: Woop!

I made this track 3 years ago and want to know what you all think about it. I am open to any and all criticism.

Hey, YoungProdigy here. Just finished the "The Heroic Journey". You can listen to it here: As always feedback is welcome.

TBH I wasn't that interested when this first dropped. But now that I've watched the trailer and read up on the features, this looks pretty good. @zircon thanks a lot for the affordable-ish price tag and Player Compatibility. I am seriously considering buying this if my creativity ever gets out of the desert,

Someone make it happen, those games had some of the best soundtracks on the NES, bar none.

I'm logging in to express interest in this!

hey i'd be interested.. maybe a collab with someone. is there a deadline for claiming tracks?

*lurks*

I'll do Funny Love -- it's one of my favorite songs in the universe.

this remix, is soothing, relaxing, enjoyable, I felt it was calming, really well done, Kudos to the remixers, job well done!

Nope, not buying it at that price. But that's just me, I'm really not willing to pay anything like a reasonable price for music stuff, since for me it's just an occasional hobby that I'm not very good at anyway. But I'm looking forward to seeing what others come up with using it! I think the association makes sense. This is a product centered directly around OCR's core focus, competency, and mission. I wouldn't be thrilled about OCR endorsing a general purpose tool like a microphone, a multipurpose synth, or a DAW, but, like OverClocked Records, this is right in the zone IMO.

First thing that popped to mind was - excuse the comparison - something very Beatles-ish. A Magical Mystery Tour or Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band era piece, if you will. Comparisons aside, I'll simply say that I love the song.