Welcome to our first staff spotlight of 2016! We have ergazoobi, who is one of our newest SM64 section moderators.
Let's go...
Let's go...
Sixcorby Hi, ergazoobi!
ergazoobi Hi!
Sixcorby How are you today?
ergazoobi I'm doing good, my day's been pretty chill.
Sixcorby That's good.
Sixcorby You're one of our newest SM64 section moderators. How have you felt being one so far?
ergazoobi Pretty good. There's a lot that needs to be done still but I think I'm off to a good start.
Sixcorby Is there anything you've moderated so far that stood out to you?
ergazoobi A few of Mr. Greenthunder's recent ports have really impressed me, after some tuning issues were cleared up at least.
ergazoobi He's been experimenting with a lot of the features of the SM64 music engine that the current tools do not support.
ergazoobi I'm working on new tools that will allow that stuff to be done without any manual hex editing but until then it's a nice example of what ports should be sounding like in future.
Sixcorby What got you into making music for SM64?
ergazoobi I've always been following the SM64 hacking scene to some extent, and I've always made music
ergazoobi But the turning point was really when I realised that the capabilities of the SM64 engine could allow me to port the kind of music I make over pretty cleanly.
ergazoobi I mean there's still a lot of work to be done to get to that point, namely custom sample banks, but I feel there's a ton of potential.
Sixcorby Do you find composing SM64 music to be different than other methods of composing?
ergazoobi At this point yes since I have been keeping it to the original samples, and also due to the limitated DSP effects.
ergazoobi I usually take a very sound-driven approach where sound design comes first, whereas with SM64 I've found myself trying to emphasize melody more than I usually would to make up for those limitations and to make something more suited to a video game.
ergazoobi Really in the past I considered myself more of a producer than a composer so it's a pretty big shift.
Sixcorby Seems manageable though.
ergazoobi Yeah for sure.
ergazoobi Definitely easier than my attempts at composing for SMW, even with custom samples.
ergazoobi I'm a bit of an audiophile so it always pained me to have to reduce the sample quality so drastically to fit the things I wanted in.
Sixcorby You mentioned that you're working on new tools. What should people expect from them?
ergazoobi Well I've hit some snags with my initial plans of introducing a new music format closer to that of SMW addmusic due to some major fundamental structural differences
ergazoobi But they should expect something both more powerful and easier to edit by hand than musicXML.
ergazoobi Also since the internal music format is rather similar to MIDI already I plan to write a converter from MIDI to my new format.
ergazoobi If all goes as planned, then for most midis the only thing that would need to be done after the conversion would be adding loops.
ergazoobi I still need to figure out more of the specifics of the engine before that happens though.
Sixcorby Sounds exciting for SM64 hackers and music porters.
Sixcorby You've been on SMWC for around 8 years. What's kept you around?
ergazoobi Well I won't pretend I didn't have several extended absences but I guess none of them were long enough for me to go inactive.
ergazoobi For a while it was largely just the community keeping me around
ergazoobi There are quite a few people here I consider to be very good friends, so even when my interest in hacking was lower, the community made me stick around.
Sixcorby :>
Sixcorby Lastly, other than the music porting stuff you mentioned, do you have any plans for SM64 hacking in the future?
ergazoobi I am in the planning stages of an SM64 hack.
ergazoobi Don't really have much to say about it right now, I'll get a project thread going once I have something to show.
ergazoobi The working title is ♪~Super Tsundere Cop Magical Derpy-Chan 64~♪.
Sixcorby kek
Sixcorby Well, we're done. Got anything else you wanna add?
ergazoobi Nah I think I've rambled on enough.
Sixcorby Alright, was nice talking to you.
ergazoobi Likewise! Peace.
coolergazoobi Hi!
Sixcorby How are you today?
ergazoobi I'm doing good, my day's been pretty chill.
Sixcorby That's good.
Sixcorby You're one of our newest SM64 section moderators. How have you felt being one so far?
ergazoobi Pretty good. There's a lot that needs to be done still but I think I'm off to a good start.
Sixcorby Is there anything you've moderated so far that stood out to you?
ergazoobi A few of Mr. Greenthunder's recent ports have really impressed me, after some tuning issues were cleared up at least.
ergazoobi He's been experimenting with a lot of the features of the SM64 music engine that the current tools do not support.
ergazoobi I'm working on new tools that will allow that stuff to be done without any manual hex editing but until then it's a nice example of what ports should be sounding like in future.
Sixcorby What got you into making music for SM64?
ergazoobi I've always been following the SM64 hacking scene to some extent, and I've always made music
ergazoobi But the turning point was really when I realised that the capabilities of the SM64 engine could allow me to port the kind of music I make over pretty cleanly.
ergazoobi I mean there's still a lot of work to be done to get to that point, namely custom sample banks, but I feel there's a ton of potential.
Sixcorby Do you find composing SM64 music to be different than other methods of composing?
ergazoobi At this point yes since I have been keeping it to the original samples, and also due to the limitated DSP effects.
ergazoobi I usually take a very sound-driven approach where sound design comes first, whereas with SM64 I've found myself trying to emphasize melody more than I usually would to make up for those limitations and to make something more suited to a video game.
ergazoobi Really in the past I considered myself more of a producer than a composer so it's a pretty big shift.
Sixcorby Seems manageable though.
ergazoobi Yeah for sure.
ergazoobi Definitely easier than my attempts at composing for SMW, even with custom samples.
ergazoobi I'm a bit of an audiophile so it always pained me to have to reduce the sample quality so drastically to fit the things I wanted in.
Sixcorby You mentioned that you're working on new tools. What should people expect from them?
ergazoobi Well I've hit some snags with my initial plans of introducing a new music format closer to that of SMW addmusic due to some major fundamental structural differences
ergazoobi But they should expect something both more powerful and easier to edit by hand than musicXML.
ergazoobi Also since the internal music format is rather similar to MIDI already I plan to write a converter from MIDI to my new format.
ergazoobi If all goes as planned, then for most midis the only thing that would need to be done after the conversion would be adding loops.
ergazoobi I still need to figure out more of the specifics of the engine before that happens though.
Sixcorby Sounds exciting for SM64 hackers and music porters.
Sixcorby You've been on SMWC for around 8 years. What's kept you around?
ergazoobi Well I won't pretend I didn't have several extended absences but I guess none of them were long enough for me to go inactive.
ergazoobi For a while it was largely just the community keeping me around
ergazoobi There are quite a few people here I consider to be very good friends, so even when my interest in hacking was lower, the community made me stick around.
Sixcorby :>
Sixcorby Lastly, other than the music porting stuff you mentioned, do you have any plans for SM64 hacking in the future?
ergazoobi I am in the planning stages of an SM64 hack.
ergazoobi Don't really have much to say about it right now, I'll get a project thread going once I have something to show.
ergazoobi The working title is ♪~Super Tsundere Cop Magical Derpy-Chan 64~♪.
Sixcorby kek
Sixcorby Well, we're done. Got anything else you wanna add?
ergazoobi Nah I think I've rambled on enough.
Sixcorby Alright, was nice talking to you.
ergazoobi Likewise! Peace.
@♪~Super Tsundere Cop Magical Derpy-Chan 64~♪
