RedBookin' some goddamn Sonic music

[Ristar]

have a look at this http://soundcloud.com/tunners/launch-base-zone-redbookd

been working on recreating sonic 3 music. Imagine a "Sonic 3 CD" soundtrack yeah?

Remember when cartridges were competing with CDs and the CD version of a game would have redbook audio (i.e. all the same instruments but fucking SWAMPED with reverb and shitty sounding electric guitars)?

well I've fancied making a "CD" version of Sonic 3 without the early CD cheese if you get what I'm saying.

let me know what you think of the mix and request other Sonic 3 tunes if you want that shit.

[Rawr]

Marble Garden would be sweet.

I was gonna suggest Launch Base but you already did it (yay).

[TailsSena]

Sounds nice, but not much different from the original IMO.

[Hypersonic645]

Sounds rad...

Rad enough to think that Sonic 3K was on a Sega CD

[Rawr]

Sounds nice, but not much different from the original IMO.

I am pretty sure that's the point, its not supposed to sound terribly different.

[TailsSena]

Ahh. I suppose there's a difference between, "CD recomp" and "CD Remix"

[Ristar]

I am pretty sure that's the point, its not supposed to sound terribly different.

yeah basically I'm using high quality samples, nice synths (I used oxe fm synth for the bass and clav sounds) and mixing everything nicely.

I will have a go at marble garden zone! might get my friend to play some slap bass or I might just go and create some cheesy as hell FM slap bass sounds.

thanks for the feedback though

[Smidge204]

FYI "Redbook" audio has nothing to do with sound and has everything to do with the way the audio data is encoded and physically imprinted on the CD. By definition, any audio CD that is playable in a standard CD player is red book compatible.

It was only a big deal back in those days because it meant the game music could be played anywhere, rather than needing platform specific hardware such as a synth chipset.

So if you release tracks in any format other than 44.1kHz, 2 channel, 16-bit PCM files, it's not Red Book.

=Smidge=

[TailsSena]

Dude, regular CD players read .WAV last time I checked.

[Ristar]

FYI "Redbook" audio has nothing to do with sound and has everything to do with the way the audio data is encoded and physically imprinted on the CD. By definition, any audio CD that is playable in a standard CD player is red book compatible.

It was only a big deal back in those days because it meant the game music could be played anywhere, rather than needing platform specific hardware such as a synth chipset.

So if you release tracks in any format other than 44.1kHz, 2 channel, 16-bit PCM files, it's not Red Book.

=Smidge=

they are all encoded as 44.1kHz stereo 16-bit PCM files.

i could have referred to it as just "Bounced" or "CD quality" music or whatever, but because I was doing sonic 3 and just about every game released on CD circa '93 boasted "Redbook Audio!" on its cover I thought the title would be appropriate.

same way people refer to anything with a square wave as "chiptunes", even though they're just using a square wave sample.

I did touch on why it was a big deal back then when I mentioned that everything was swamped in reverb (thinking Ecco Sega CD soundtrack and the Earthworm Jim 2 soundtrack) just because they could do it. Must have felt good to break away from 9 channels.

[GSF]

Dude, regular CD players read .WAV last time I checked.

Well, technically, you can't just slap .wav files to a CD as a data recording so that any "Discman" will play your music. (MP3-supporting systems do read mp3s written plainly as data, though)

If you insert a "Red Book" CD in your computer you'll only find .cda files, which won't do at all if you copy them, hence the famous "ripper" programs. But yeah, when ripping them you usually get WAV files unless you use a program that autoconverts during the process.

Red Book Audio, as Smidge said, refers to the way music is recorded and encoded in the disc, following a specific set of standards (for example, a "Red Book" CD can have up to 99 tracks.)

Aaaaaanyway, as for this "90's CDized" Launch Base track... I like it. An enhance of sorts, I'd say. It's especially notable on the background "YO YOYO!"s.

Seconding Marble Garden. And Hydrocity, pretty please? :]

I think the idea behind the name is easy to understand though. It is true that back then ZOMG REDBOOK AUDIO was everywhere.

[Ristar]

Aaaaaanyway, as for this "90's CDized" Launch Base track... I like it. An enhance of sorts, I'd say. It's especially notable on the background "YO YOYO!"s.

Seconding Marble Garden. And Hydrocity, pretty please? :]

I think the idea behind the name is easy to understand though. It is true that back then ZOMG REDBOOK AUDIO was everywhere.

hahah thanks, the "GO!" sample is from this song. Couldn't think of any other samples of MJ shouting "GO!" or "YO!"; if anyone has any suggestions let me know because I'm not 100% happy with the sample.

one of my fond redbook memories is Blue Mountains from Rayman

I'm definitely going to do Hydrocity Act 2, I think it'd be great to get some nice hard hitting percussion and electric guitar on it.

Another thing I was trying to recreate was the really nice, fat, compressed sound produced from the original megadrive hardware. A lot of "remastered" versions tend to add loads of reverb and delay effects which gives the mix a lot more spacial depth but also robs it of its fat sound.

[Strife]

Another thing I was trying to recreate was the really nice, fat, compressed sound produced from the original megadrive hardware. A lot of "remastered" versions tend to add loads of reverb and delay effects which gives the mix a lot more spacial depth but also robs it of its fat sound.

That's actually a major issue I have with my original compositions - trying to get them to sound fresh and fat instead of muffled from reverb effects. I've been trying to avoid using reverb, but some of my soundfonts have it built in, or they're of such low quality that adding reverb makes them sound much better than before. The most I've been able to do is to try and use equalization to get the treble boosted up. xD;

Anyway, I'm really digging that remastered Launch Base track. The GO! you used sounds pretty good to me. ^^

[Ristar]

That's actually a major issue I have with my original compositions - trying to get them to sound fresh and fat instead of muffled from reverb effects. I've been trying to avoid using reverb, but some of my soundfonts have it built in, or they're of such low quality that adding reverb makes them sound much better than before. The most I've been able to do is to try and use equalization to get the treble boosted up. xD;

Anyway, I'm really digging that remastered Launch Base track. The GO! you used sounds pretty good to me. ^^

I personally wouldn't add reverbs until you have a good mix balance. I also tend to dial back reverb about 2-3dB more than what I'd want, it helps everything sit better in the mix.

I used a compressor send on the drums to get them pumping and then used very light compression on the master track to get some tightness.

Then I exported the file and loaded it into a new project and used a VST called GClip. It's a really aggressive mastering plugin that really fattens and heats the mix up.

Final tip: avoid soundfonts where possible try Kore or program some Synthesiser VSTs or get yourself a decent sample pack

-----

edit:

thought I'd go into a bit more (yeah, more) detail for those who are interested.

First off, I work in REAPER, great, cheap program; demo available at http://www.reaper.fm

Bassline and "Clavinet" sounds use the Oxe FM VST (http://www.oxesoft.com/). It's old and kind of weird to learn, but it's very similar to FL Studio's Sytrus. Remeber the megadrive's fm chip had 4 operators so you only want to be using operators A-D.

I used a sampler called Poise (http://www.onesmallclue.com/poise.php) for the drumkit, you can use any other software sampler if you want (I think FL Studio has one called FPC) and I use various samples from http://samples.kb6.de/downloads.php

For the square, "brass" and lead sounds I used Synth1 (http://www.kvraudio.com/get/214.html) which is an amazingly versatile synth vst.

My reverb return channel uses SIR1 (http://www.kvraudio.com/get/736.html) which is a convolution reverb. You can download impulse responses from all over the web, use everyone's friend Google.

I use ReaComp for compression (http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/) it's nice and transparent.

I added a wee bit of chorus to the bass (above 300kHz) using Classic Chorus http://www.kvraudio.com/get/648.html

Finally I used GClip (http://www.gvst.co.uk/gclip.htm) for mastering.

I'd just like to add that if you're using loads of EQ just to make a soundfont sound good... bin the soundfont

[Ristar]

jesus this one took ages.

http://soundcloud.com/tunners/marble-garden-zone-redbookd

[Rawr]

Wicked job on this one man! I can hear why it took ages, it sounds amazing.

[Hypersonic645]

Someday, there will be a fanmade S3&K port for the Sega CD with your music.

[Strife]

I agree with the above post; It sounds awesome! Do let me know if you start taking commissions/requests.

Also, thanks for the advice you posted earlier. ^^ I unfortunately rely on soundfonts for my music, as I haven't quite gotten the hang of VSTs and I don't have any money to spend on good software. Is it possible to convert soundfonts to VST and vice versa?

[Ristar]

Thanks a lot for the comments. It's been super fun trying to remake these songs. I'm currently working on IceCap but it's a little tricky to get a nice synth sound that captures the "cold" sound of the original.

I agree with the above post; It sounds awesome! Do let me know if you start taking commissions/requests.

Also, thanks for the advice you posted earlier. ^^ I unfortunately rely on soundfonts for my music, as I haven't quite gotten the hang of VSTs and I don't have any money to spend on good software. Is it possible to convert soundfonts to VST and vice versa?

I'm a PRS registered freelance composer, I'm available now

Well there are VSTs such as Font! and Take1 which play soundfont files. They're just free versions (and variations) of the FL Studio Soundfont player.

What software are you using at the moment?

[Ristar]

Death Egg Zone

Not 100% happy with this. Sounded good on my monitors but it's not so great on the computer speakers downstairs...

[Rawr]

AHHH YES. I was gonna suggest this one too! Wasn't sure if you were including the Sonic and Knuckles in with the Sonic 3 ones. This is another favourite of mine. It does sound a little distorted, but I think its cool.

Also the fact you got gameplay in there is sweet too.

[Ristar]

oh the distortion is intentional, I put a bass synth through a guitar distortion vst

yeah I consider S&K part of Sonic 3 so I'm open to any of those tracks

[Rawr]

Hmm, I meant distortion as in things went crazy loud and it got choppy but for some reason I think it might just be the gameplay SFX that were making me think that because now I don't hear that anymore. STRANGE.

[Strife]

I'm a PRS registered freelance composer, I'm available now

Well there are VSTs such as Font! and Take1 which play soundfont files. They're just free versions (and variations) of the FL Studio Soundfont player.

What software are you using at the moment?

Ooh, neato. I'll keep that in mind. As for software, I'm using SynthFont, which does have support for VST's, but I haven't learned how to use it effectively yet.

Anyway, Death Egg sounds totally sweet. Have you uploaded a version without Sonic 3 sounds to SoundCloud yet?

[Ristar]

Ooh, neato. I'll keep that in mind. As for software, I'm using SynthFont, which does have support for VST's, but I haven't learned how to use it effectively yet.

Anyway, Death Egg sounds totally sweet. Have you uploaded a version without Sonic 3 sounds to SoundCloud yet?

not to soundcloud but there's a direct mp3 link here http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34309799/sonicmaster/deatheggmaster.mp3

If you're really wanting to try out a piece of cheap (30 day free trial) studio level software then you should try Reaper. Has piano roll support and with those VSTs I mentioned earlier you can still use all your soundfonts.

Otherwise the best way to get the hang of vsts is to download a simple one (like TAL Uno) and screw around with the settings

Hmm, I meant distortion as in things went crazy loud and it got choppy but for some reason I think it might just be the gameplay SFX that were making me think that because now I don't hear that anymore. STRANGE.

hmm shouldn't have clipped at all, I checked the overall volume before exporting to video. Weird eh?