Skip to forum content

ChipMusic.org

chipmusic.org is an online community in respect and relation to chip music, art and its parallels.

You are not logged in. Please login or register.

Solar Cowboys (SNES)

ChipMusic.org / Music / fluidvolt's music / Solar Cowboys (SNES)

Solar Cowboys (SNES)

By fluidvolt on Apr 27, 2011 6:36 pm

A short VGM track in the style of space SHMUPS, made mostly with samples from... College Slam for the SNES. Besides testing out the College Slam samples, it's mainly an exercise in drums; Most of my tracks have somewhat dull drums, and recently I've been trying to rectify that. I definitely think this is a step up from my usual drumbeats, but I'd like to know what you guys think. Hopefully this is still within the scope of this site.

This submission is licensed by author under CC Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works (BY-NC-ND)

Thanks dudes.

@Krubbz I was mainly concerned with variations, fills, etc. Trying to not make the drums stale. As far as I know there unfortunately is no SNES tracker to actually write on the console. I know tadpole has a method, which is replacing samples in Super Mario World and writing new music then running it in an emulator. Check it out here if you're interested, and there's also SNESMOD. Those are too much of a hassle for me though, so what I do is just use samples from SNES games to write with whatever I want. That way you can use a DAW or sample tracker or what have you, just limit yourself to 8 channels if you want a closer to authentic style. Hope that helped.

@gyms: Ha-ha I thought it was a funny portmanteau as well. And thanks man, I'm glad someone feels my pain wink . I think you're right about the hi-hats, the only other china in the game is a ride cymbal, but that could probably do the job. Thanks for the great advice; I've been paying more attention to percussion while listening to drum giants (Bonham, Baker, etc.) but the thought to look up transcriptions hadn't even crossed my mind. I think it'll really help.

haha, College Slam VS SHMUP big_smile

Yea, I think the drums sound ok for what the song's doing; nice fills, flams, alternating rhythms and use of dynamics. My only complaint is the water sprinkler hat (tch tch tch tch tch tch tch). I understand that hats on the 8 keep the energy flowing, but having the hat open up every now and then would help, I think(unless there were no other hat samples...)

I totally feel you on drums man, I HATE programming drums. It seems that programming a good drum track takes just as long(if not longer) than composing the track itself.

One thing that's helped me a bit(something I should actually spend more time with) is heading over to drummersworld.com or any of the other drum communities out there, watch the videos and take a look at the transcripts if they are available. You can pick up on all the nuances of the different styles from a real pro drummer. Taking a look at transcripts are great. Even buying drummer sheet music from your local music store would be a good idea.

Cheers mang,

I think the drums kick pretty well on this one, if that's what you were worried about.  Nice job.  I like the key changes too.  SNES is my favorite system for gaming, hands down.  What do you use to make music on one?  I've, up to this point, only used LSDJ and NTRQ. 

You need to login to leave a comment.

ChipMusic.org / Music / fluidvolt's music / Solar Cowboys (SNES)