Language…
9 users online:  AmperSam, Cristian Cardoso, CroNo, Dan2point5, Hayashi Neru, JeepySol, JPhanto, Maw, random_box - Guests: 255 - Bots: 358
Users: 64,795 (2,377 active)
Latest user: mathew

What got you into doing SMW Custom Music?

Another music thread post, but what got you into doing SMW Custom Music? Was it inspiration from other porters / artists on this site? Listening to songs in hacks? What was it?


LINKS -> YouTube - Discord - Twitter

Back in the older days (when I was almost 14 years old), I wanted to try out every area of SMW hacking, occasionally because we didn't (and still don't) host some songs I'd like to have. This turned out to be more difficult than I thought because I need a rather accurate MIDI which I either had to download from somewhere (e.g. VGMusic) or make them my own (hint: I couldn't and still can't really transcribe songs) and even on accurate MIDIs, I still had to fix them which 14 years old me couldn't do it.
I did learn how to use NintSPC, though it has got the ability to the accurate note data of an SPC if the engine allows it (particularly Nintendo's games as implied by the name) but it nonetheless still caused me to learn a bit about music.

I did try to port occasionally for some years and sometimes quite successfully, in fact. For example, I managed to learn how to edit a MIDI to fit the SNES limitation at some point and even had submitted Fire Emblem 7 - A Knight's Oath (I did remove them before moderation, though, because I didn't think it would fit moderation). Other songs which went quite well IMO but haven't finished them are Sonic Adventure 2 - Trespassing and Grunty Industries - Inside.
I also tried some other songs including The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - Palace of Winds and Donkey Kong Country 2 - Krook's March. I even tried to transcribe some songs such as Metroid Fusion - Environmental Mystery, though without luck.
Nonetheless, I did have experimented with MIDI optimisation, volumes, panning, fades, GAIN etc. so I had at least theoretical knowledge, very useful for helping out others.

Some months ago, I have decided to enrichen the music section with some Metroid Fusion songs. More specifically, Tension Before Confrontation, a song I really have desired, which incidentally is also my first successful transcription (it helps that is it is a very simple song). This finally gave me courage to try out music once again. My WIP project is Sonic Adventure - Mt. Red: A Symbol of Thrill (not the current version, btw) which needs some refinings (particularly the pitch bends at the end which have yet to be implemented) but overall, is a somewhat complex song, as evident with the GAINs and it does get full at the end.

I still want to learn how to compose a song, though. I do have the necessary software (LMMS, primarily use it to read MIDIs), just not the necessary knowledge. This also extends to transcribing songs as well as create remixes.

Edit: Reworked some sentences, added SPC playback for the songs except Mt. Red.
I made my first music port in early 2014, I believe. Nothing specific "got me into" it, but instead I wanted to see if I could make "good-sounding" SMW versions of songs from other games that I enjoyed. I'm pretty sure my very first serious porting attempt was the Cog HQ theme from Toontown Online. I didn't really know what I was doing at all, though. There were some guides I attempted to follow, but in the end I mostly learned my personal methods through trial by fire, really.

I never really have a pattern for the songs I port, either. Sometimes I look over at VGMusic and see if there's any songs that interest me, and sometimes I think of some random retro game song I could probably do. In the end, I have fun with it, and if a port ever gets too difficult for me, I stop. No point continuing if I'm not having fun creating it anymore, after all!
i sincerely don't remember. i think i just liked music and thought porting seemed cool
VLDC's music, and custom compositions from people like RednGreen, Moose, and Lui are what inspired me to port music for SMW Central. Ports also being really accurate to their original song is another reason.
I came back to the romhacking scene in 2019. I had nothing to show for my user profile's age, so I wanted to learn to do something and earn a bit of recognition. Asm is still out of question, gfx making and level design are so-so. In 2018, I had had the chance to learn some basics in coding, a bit of C+, a bit of Java, a bit of python... And to be honest what I was enjoying more was html and css.

I also had had music composition projects since year 2016... Although it's nothing that I can show here either. But I was familiar with reading a piano roll.

AddMusicK's tutorial made by Wakana proved to not be too hard to begin. Plus, a lot of songs from games I love were missing, Pokemon Gold, Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana, Illusion of Gaia, Bahamut Lagoon, Soul Blazer.. And so I just got myself started. I also wanted to port my favourite songs from the song book called Sacred Harp: just a few of them are on the site, Due to simplicity, only 4 channels, one channel for one polyphony voice.

I got help for the more complex things like creating samples, made myself some friends and even got a little rivalry with users that are equally skilled as me. The most exciting was to discover I can de-tune notes to make them fit microtonal scales. I'm thankful to my pals Exodust0 and Darkbloom for that.

About plans for the future I don't know. My port accuracy sure has raised ever since I was introduced to software such as NintSpc, SpcToMidi or vgmtrans, but that doesn't mean I got better for when I'm on my own. Fixing inaccurate midi or re-creating a song by ear only is a huge block and source of distress and envy, although at times I take the extra effort, like in my port from Nausicaa of the valley of the wind.

For the time being I have had to stop porting music, temporarily, due to priorities in my life.

I'll just add that I came to admire my more skilled friends and you are one of those inspirations, Hooded Edge. Your remixes always sound so clean.

Thanks fellow musicmakers.
Scooter102089 taught me the basics of porting, then immediately after I wrote a midi thing from FL Studio and decided to try porting that just to see if it worked. When it did, that's where everything sort of sparked when I decided to try composing and remixing rather than make 1:1 ports.

Don't get me wrong, composing stuff was a reeeal struggle back in like 2014-2016, especially when one doesn't have much experience with music theory. Honestly I'm still not the best at chords, but I like to say I can write a decent melody and excellent percussion. Sample work especially was a struggle, I had absolutely no skill at recognizing a "tuned note", so when I entered in Idol 6 (or was it Idol 5?) I basically got mocked for having detuned samples. In hind sight, that composition sucks and I'm glad I salvaged that port and turned it into this. Really I think what helped was the fact I knew the d+ note by heart, so I can immediately recognize it for tuning stuff.

One of the first projects I tackled was writing about 99% of the soundtrack for The Mario Game (my entry for the first HLDC). Honestly was fun, so afterwards I did the soundtrack for the (now cancelled) Mighty Luigi Force II. Not all the songs were done, but I had a few good ones.

More than anything I like writing ambience and boss tracks. I struggle with making stuff in the major key (happier tracks), so these two are my forte. These days I'm playing around with key shifts as well as experimenting with samples.
Want progress on 100 Rooms of Enemies: The Nightmare Edition? Go here to see.

(rip my other userbars momentarily)

I basically found Addmusic first on a Japanese site and made it public here. Experimented with it and improved further and further. Some day I ported the whole KDL3 and Thunder Spirits Soundtrack for AddmusicM but never bothered to release it here as it wasn't reduced in file size, etc.. I even wrote a nice guide about porting with NintSPC and all songs known to that day using the N-SPC engine.
Some day I lost interest in porting and other people learned to do it and made a better job. :)