*NO* Super Robot Wars Alpha, OG1 & OGs "Timbre and Its Changes"

[Liontamer]

 

Sean Tartaglia

 

SRW Alpha/OG1/OGs

Timbre and Its Changes

Time Diver

Takuya Hanaoka (as a member of Salamander Factory)

(He wrote the original Alpha version, which was arranged a few times after that, so to cover my bases I'm providing all three available versions)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7eWeCaKQ-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUcPcSpTBFA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXrJgMGMOIo

(The version that led me to write this arrangement was the GBA OG1 version, but I think they're all close enough to each other they might as well all be credited, since I tend to think of them all as the same track in the end.)

________

 

This one was a spur of the moment decision that I needed to just put out quick (I started on the 14th and finalized everything by the 19th, spending the rest of the time double checking the mix :p).

 

I was dumping MIDI sequences from the GBA games and I was taken with a certain quality of the opening of the track that came off differently compared to the OGs and Alpha versions I'm more used to. Years ago I played the dreamcast version of Alpha (with the godforsaken loadtimes on EVERY SINGLE BATTLE ANIMATION) on original hardware, and I played OGs the moment I could emulate PS2 games (I wasn't modding a ps2 back then), so when I thought about all of the versions, I realized that I hadn't bothered playing the original GBA games for more than 15 years at this point. Not that they're bad, but the older handhelds are harder to sit through these days, especially so for OG1/2 after we recently just got the PS2 OGs ENG fan translation (which I'm replaying alongside the great translation we finally got for W).

Because of this, I wanted to go back and see how they sequenced a lot of these tracks in the GBA comparison to the original versions of these tracks I knew well from the original versions, and I honestly really liked how this track was sequenced in the game. It was between this and Fallen White Angel, Excellen's theme, since both have earworm openings, but I had a very strong idea of what I wanted to do with Time Diver, whereas my initial thoughts with the other were a bit too close to the OGs arrangement. Basically, once something enters my head, it sticks with me until I exorcise it by making it happen. If that was too much already, when it comes to talking about what I write, I'm long winded, bear with me here.

 

Part of this track's reason for existing is just conceit. I really wanted to start cutting my teeth with FM and FM adjacent synth, and this allowed for me a place to work with it; after all, why wouldn't a time dive sound like FM? Around the last few months I was listening to a lot of the FM VERTEX compilations, because one of my favorite vgm composers, Toshiya Yamanaka, contributed tracks (among others... Yack. is on there, of course, but Masahiro Kajihara's track, "Pathos," is incredibly good, as is Saori Kobayashi's "Golden Blvd. 1992" on vol. II), and it brought me back to that sound I always wanted to work with, but never had the synth knowledge to really do, especially since FM is a notoriously finicky method, with the standout music being associated with "specialist" composer-programmers (Ryu Umemoto, Tim Follin, etc.)

 

It's not full FM, there's certain sounds I want that I can't quite get with either FM or subtractive synthesis alone—at least with my current skillset—which is where I use Xenfont's subtractive synthesis to combine some soundfonts made from FM synthesis and shape the sound to a certain thing I want, then layer it with FM patches for a final effect. Maybe it's more like an arcade game where I can make use of FM and PCM than something like the Genesis where I'm limited by memory. I used Xen-FMTS 2 and Xenfont for everything. Owing to their intended use for experimental and microtonal music, I get more complex and interesting timbres from these in comparison to other FM synthesizers through being able to alter tunings and having the option to emphasize certain partials over others.

 

All the leads and chorus guitar are built from samples mixed via xenfont, which I treat like a poor man's D-50. For the leads I chose this method over FM because twisting soundfonts into new sounds via ring modulation deteriorates the signal quality, creating very interesting sounds comprised of wild transients and disintegrating waveforms. Layering two different types of sounds like this also leads to different registers having completely different timbral and tonal qualities; for example, a lead might have a thin, nasaly wasp tone around C5, but above C6 it might start to break up and produce unstable bell tones that have no sustain. When you layer two leads and the upper one has these properties, then all of these qualities cause it to weave in and out of the harmonic texture in what I think is an interesting way.

 

Pads are purely FM, and bass is a mix of both methods, but the the drums are the most complex, layering both types, as well as raw samples, in six parts. Two general midi drum kits (power and dance) were combined together, run through ring modulation, and filtered to get that ping-pongy sound. These form the upper layer, sitting above Alesis HR-16 samples, which I mostly use for the kicks, closed hats, and sidestick. The fourth, fifth and sixth are metallic tones that replicate cymbals, which, due to the complex operator algorithms and tonal modulation of tunings in Xen-FMTS 2, allows for a variety of ride, bell, and splash tones by mixing various timbres found via various pitch parameters, and they can even be used as inharmonic pads. All of these are separated prior to being sent to their FX channel, where I crush the signal to get a sound akin to sampling drums on a yamaha chip, though with a bit more memory space.

 

Aside from some slight reverb and delay, I wanted to do all on board FX for these, since the Xen synths have robust chorus and flanging options that work better with the final sounds than exterior FX plugins, which seem to muddy the mix more... though that's most likely more due to my limited mixing prowess.

 

I've written computer/MIDI music before, but I consider that much different, since we tend to work with samples and sounds that, to some degree, attempt to replicate instruments or voices; however, this sort of music where we work with new, synthesized sounds, and all of the ways you can manipulate them throughout the process of composition, arrangement and mixing, is new for me. I've been working on these patches for a few months, using MIDI tracks as testbeds, basically treating it like running them through a rompler up until now, and while I'll probably keep tweaking them, I think they're doing the job here. Perhaps I got a bit too carried away with the portamento, but I wanted to try to recreate certain qualities I liked about Watanabe's leads in Border Down and Senko no Ronde, while focusing on the qualities I like in a tone, namely accentuating of the airiness of the higher harmonic partials, as well as dense, complex harmonic textures. Hopefully those qualities are apparent in the leads, and I was successful there, at the very least.

 

Anyway, some comments on the work itself:

 

The melodic line is pretty much all that I kept from the original track. The harmonic content is similar, but most of what accompanies the line is new. Sometimes if I'm working with something, I like to get the score itself and work with the material as is, like you would when arranging a piece of music for a different instrumentation, but here, because the entirety of the track was already in my head after years of listening to it, I sang it and transcribed that. That keeps the core material the same, but alters the interpretation of it, like in the study, practice, and performance of any piece of music. Michael Finnissy likes to talk about that distinction between arrangement and transcription, where the assumption of the musical material into one's head and then putting it back out creates something new, distinct from what it was... in essence, the same material, but in a new form, like in the opera transcriptions of Liszt or Chopin, where they write in response to the listening to, and their memory of, the music in performance.

 

It makes all the difference in the end. The original is pretty brisk—the MIDI sequence I dumped from the GBA version clocks in at around 140bpm—but when I reinterpreted it, the melody felt a bit more languid... a bit more forlorn (if I were to imply something about Ingram as a character). The result sits at around 127-128bpm, but features sections where the time lowers to around 119. It's a bit more bittersweet than the aggression found in the original.

 

Perhaps because of this, for some reason, in the reinterpretation it felt like going straight to that chorus section was too soon, so I ended up altering the form from the

 

opening riff-verse-prechorus-chorus-opening riff-verse-prechorus-chorus...

 

of the original track with a

 

opening-verse-break-verse-prechorus-chorus-outro

 

The longer opening and break add what I think is more tension to the track, and fits well with the slower, moodier quality of the melody. The opening itself has different notes, but retains the same F#-E-F# motif, so despite being different, you should be able to identify it. Again, the melody is the same, with certain rhythmic alterations and some extra ornamentation added. Overall, when I really look back at it, it just feels like it should work this way, with the chorus being used as the climax of the track itself, especially since the track isn't looping (though you can loop the outro back into the verse sections very easily). I actually was a bit concerned about this initially, because I felt like not repeating after the chorus, yet repeating the verses twice, was only really working with half of the composition; however, the verse is my favorite part of the original track—I love how the profile of that line flows—and the chorus is more like a resolution of it to me, so I decided this structure was best for my own personal interpretation; though, it's not really up for me to say if it worked in the end. Often you're too emotionally or philosophically or mechanically invested in something to the point that you tend to not see if it was actually a success or not, and that's when it comes down to someone one else to determine it. As always, we'll see later... I'm happy to have done my part.

 

As for the name, I'm not good with track names, so there's an Exivious reference there I guess.

 

Edited October 30, 2023 by prophetik music

[prophetik music]

fm influence is immediately audible. there's a ton of attention going into each individual instrument, which is obvious with the heavy lfo action on each element. melodic elements enter at 0:26, but the main body of it comes in at 0:41. there's an active bass doing interesting things, and a variety of pad work to provide chordal elements. we get a break at 1:11 that's more exploratory, with a big build into 1:38's content. this tones down quickly and noodles through some transformations until we get melodic material again at 2:39 through 3:10. 3:10 switches gears significantly to be more pad work for over a minute, and then we're done.

so, from an arrangement side, there's lots of interesting things here. from a synthesis side, i can respect what you're trying for throughout, with all the heavily customized original hardware tones, but it just doesn't sound good to me at all. part of it is the heavy detuning, which i don't care for at all and immediately draws me out of the work several times (like 1:56, it just sounds like an accordion). part is the lack of any real drums, relying heavily on too-small static hits throughout to drive rhythm. part of it is the dullness of the mastering - there simply isn't much over 1khz in any of the synths until we get to the pads at the end, and so it sounds flat and muted for much of the track. and part of it is just that i don't care for the synth sounds you settled on. the bass tones throughout are interesting and enjoyable, and the glittery pad that you use occasionally is nice, but the organ tone that's used around, say, 0:35 is uninspired, the countermelodic lead used a lot around 2:08 is grating, and the lead used for most of the melodic elements i already called out as being street-accordion-like, not a positive correlation.

i love the attention to detail and the method by which you approached this arrangement. i just don't care at all for how you realized it. i'm not sure how to tell you to change it, as your methodology was intrinsic to the creation of this track. however, as it is now, it's not passable by me.

 

 

NO

[MindWanderer]

I'm in instant agreement with proph. The synths and production are downright difficult to listen to. It's muddy and overly simplistic at the same time, with the lack of percussion being a big part of that. It's also pretty loud. I almost didn't listen all the way to the end even once, and I would have missed how the last 25% of the arrangement is outtro.

There are a lot of good arrangement ideas. Other than the lack of percussion, there's some intriguing complexity going on here, and you took the source in some exciting directions. But the execution needs some more work.

NO

[Chimpazilla]

The arrangement works, and I appreciate the dedication to the FM concept in the soundscape, but I'm afraid I agree with my peers.  The problem for me is that EVERY element is getting the same kind of distortion, pitch bending, LFO action, so it sounds like a wall of these effects rather than something cool, as it would sound if only strategic elements got these effects, and not every element.  There can be no contrast in a soundscape where everything sounds so similar, and it is fatiguing to listen to. 

It is very difficult to mix something like this in a way that each element is audible.  It is all mushing together into a wall of unpleasant sound as they compete to be heard in the same frequency ranges.  The mastering is also odd, it is super loud while having a fairly low peak ceiling of -1.5

Props for the ideas here!  I recommend scaling back on the effects, and let a few non-effected things come through, for sonic contrast.

NO