Song is Love Hurts by djpretzel. You can get it here: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00691
Sengin31
Montage from Titanfall 2 only containing clips that curve a kraber bullet *around* a grav star (not shooting at pilots stuck in them). The title comes from a tool tip for grav stars in game called 'Secret Ingredients' - see the first clip in the montage for more info.
Song is Love Hurts by djpretzel. You can get it here: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00691
Song is Love Hurts by djpretzel. You can get it here: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00691
updated 8 years ago
Song is Love Hurts by djpretzel. You can get it here: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00691
Jun Senoue's version of Big Arm in the 3DS version of Sonic Generations is legendary, and I think most would consider a true successor to the original (same goes for his version of Casino Night!). If you haven't listened to it, you can find it here: youtube.com/watch?v=sYV3e90zjE4
I was curious what it would sound like had it been created back in 1994 and used as the final boss theme, with the same restrictions on sound chip hardware. Unfortunately, no midi file existed so I had to create one from scratch. Thankfully, @deannkosi2079 had already transcribed the lead instrument on his channel, and I was able to enter the notes as the sheet music scrolled by. If not for that starting point, I can't say I would have made this - I am absolutely terrible at pitch detection and music transcription. Thankfully, there's tools these days for the pitch-inclined such as myself.
I used lalal.ai to split Senoue's version into as many stems as possible, so make it easier to look at the frequency spectrum to determine which note was playing. Then used Audacity with its EQ and spectrum analysis. I had to really EQ the stuff with some steep slopes to carve out the noise, but I think it turned out pretty well. I am sure there are a few wrong notes in the harmony as I could cleanly separate them out, so if you want to take a stab at fixing it please do - the midi file is linked above.
To recreate the Genesis' sounds, I used the Genny vst (wonthelp.info/genny/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2). I imported Sonic 3's version of Big Arm from vgmrips.net into Genny, which let me use the same instrument parameters the devs used for the original version. I used ValleyBell's (github.com/ValleyBell) vgm2mid tool to create a midi from the original Big Arm as a starting place, as the first part of the remix is the same (with only slight alterations).
Then throw in a bunch of work and experimentation and this is the result! It's certainly not expected to 'replace' the 3DS version or anything, but it was a curiosity of mine.
vgmusic.com is currently not accepting midi file uploads as they work on some backend stuff, so if they ever come up I'll upload the 3DS midi file there.
Music: Spoiled R0TT3N by Ben Briggs
Download here: ocremix.org/remix/OCR02158
Download links:
Full song restorations using source samples: https://1drv.ms/f/c/042790b2341089e6/EuaJEDSykCcggATfXAAAAAABPYungEkOmdj-FVoqjHgcqg?e=Jtx8L3
Original HQ Sample Pack: https://1drv.ms/u/c/042790b2341089e6/EeaJEDSykCcggATgXAAAAAAB4UILRGlkf0SFOSneEHCXXA?e=ydYzU8
Source samples for Vox and glass breaks: forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/does-anyone-have-the-original-hq-samples-used-in-sonic-3-knuckles.39173
Sonic 1, 2, 3, &Knuckles, 3D Blast sample ROM rips: smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=99680&page=1&pid=1515640#p1515640 (look for Ultima's first post)
I've been curious what Sonic 3 & Knuckles' music would have sounded like if the original high quality percussion samples were used instead of the highly-compressed samples stored on the Genesis' cartridge. After the better part of a year searching around and looking at samples in Audacity, I've finally been able to do so! Big thanks to @Xeranxies for the help in sample spelunking, ValleyBell for the absolutely INSANE tools and investigations he's done over the years (VGMPlay, SMPSPlay, ...) and enlightening conversations, and the "VGM & Other Instrument Sources" discord for some information including which kick + cymbol crash sample was used.
There are several factors that affect the quality of the Genesis' sample playback.
1) The chip the Genesis uses for DAC playback, the YM2612, runs at a high-enough frequency to support the standard 44.1KHz PCM playback rate. However, the Z80 processor, which was used to feed DAC data to the YM2612, is too slow to keep it fed with new sample data with all its other responsibilities. Every few milliseconds it stalls out, causing the most recent sample to be repeated throughout the stall. This results in audible distortion, adding a 'crunchy' effect, and stretches out the sound causing it to sound lower pitched. This can be beneficial in the low frequencies of the kick drum, but it eviscerates the cymbal crash and negatively effects most other samples (at least in my opinion).
2) Only one sample can be played back at a time. The YM2612 only supports playback of a single audio sample at a time, which means for DAC playback that only one sound can be active at a time. As the Z80 is already overloaded, it cannot handle mixing multiple samples together. This causes an active sample to be cut off when a new sample is played. This is more noticeable on longer samples like the cymbal crash or snare.
3) Cartridge ROM was very expensive.
a) DAC samples were trimmed heavily, shortening the tail of even the shorter samples like the kick. The cymbal crash was cut by more than half.
b) DAC samples were stored at as low a sample rate as could reasonably be managed. This reduced or even eliminated the higher frequencies.
c) Priority was given to graphics over audio as improved graphics were the biggest draw to selling consoles and games.
By finding the original sources of the DAC samples, we can find out what it would sound like as if these hardware limitations didn't exist - what the developers would have heard while composing. Unfortunately, the source samples for the tracks MJ's team did are currently unknown (which sadly includes Ice Cap).
To create the restorations, I used SMPSPlay to get a higher-quality version of the DAC channel's playback of each song, saving it as a .vgm file. Then I used VGMPlay to log the DAC channel, the SN76489's noise channel, and the remaining channels to separate .wav files. I used Audacity to analyze the DAC channel to sequence which drums were used and when, and used Reason to put it all together. I level-matched average DAC channel levels so the 'restored' DAC channel would be the same overall loudness level as the original console output. For the hi hats (which used the SN76489's noise channel instead of a sample), I chose a similar-sounding hi hat sample from Reason's default percussion library for each style of synthesized hi hat and decayed it at the same rate as the SN76489 to have the same groove. This was level-matched as well.
My goal was not to 'restore' every track from the 3 games, but only to restore my favorites.
00:00 Angel Island Act 1
02:20 Angel Island Act 2
04:36 Hydrocity Act 1
06:39 Hydrocity Act 2
08:32 Flying Battery Act 1
10:01 Flying Batter Act 2
11:32 Sandopolis Act 1
13:11 Sandopolis Act 2
14:55 Lava Reef Act 1
16:20 Robotnik's Theme
17:36 Big Arms
19:24 Rusty Ruin Act 1
21:22 Rusty Ruin Act 2
23:44 Diamond Dust Act 1
25:07 Diamond Dust Act 2
26:34 Volcano Valley Act 1
27:47 Volcano Valley Act 2
Full song restorations using source samples: https://1drv.ms/f/c/042790b2341089e6/EuaJEDSykCcggATfXAAAAAABPYungEkOmdj-FVoqjHgcqg?e=Jtx8L3
Original HQ Sample Pack: https://1drv.ms/u/c/042790b2341089e6/EeaJEDSykCcggATgXAAAAAAB4UILRGlkf0SFOSneEHCXXA?e=ydYzU8
Source samples for Vox and glass breaks: forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/does-anyone-have-the-original-hq-samples-used-in-sonic-3-knuckles.39173
Sonic 1, 2, 3, &Knuckles, 3D Blast sample ROM rips: smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=99680&page=1&pid=1515640#p1515640 (look for Ultima's first post)
I've been curious what Sonic 3 & Knuckles' music would have sounded like if the original high quality percussion samples were used instead of the highly-compressed samples stored on the Genesis' cartridge. After the better part of a year searching around and looking at samples in Audacity, I've finally been able to do so! Big thanks to @Xeranxies for the help in sample spelunking, ValleyBell for the absolutely INSANE tools and investigations he's done over the years (VGMPlay, SMPSPlay, ...) and enlightening conversations, and the "VGM & Other Instrument Sources" discord for some information including which kick + cymbol crash sample was used.
There are several factors that affect the quality of the Genesis' sample playback.
1) The chip the Genesis uses for DAC playback, the YM2612, runs at a high-enough frequency to support the standard 44.1KHz PCM playback rate. However, the Z80 processor, which was used to feed DAC data to the YM2612, is too slow to keep it fed with new sample data with all its other responsibilities. Every few milliseconds it stalls out, causing the most recent sample to be repeated throughout the stall. This results in audible distortion, adding a 'crunchy' effect, and stretches out the sound causing it to sound lower pitched. This can be beneficial in the low frequencies of the kick drum, but it eviscerates the cymbal crash and negatively effects most other samples (at least in my opinion).
2) Only one sample can be played back at a time. The YM2612 only supports playback of a single audio sample at a time, which means for DAC playback that only one sound can be active at a time. As the Z80 is already overloaded, it cannot handle mixing multiple samples together. This causes an active sample to be cut off when a new sample is played. This is more noticeable on longer samples like the cymbal crash or snare.
3) Cartridge ROM was very expensive.
a) DAC samples were trimmed heavily, shortening the tail of even the shorter samples like the kick. The cymbal crash was cut by more than half.
b) DAC samples were stored at as low a sample rate as could reasonably be managed. This reduced or even eliminated the higher frequencies.
c) Priority was given to graphics over audio as improved graphics were the biggest draw to selling consoles and games.
By finding the original sources of the DAC samples, we can find out what it would sound like as if these hardware limitations didn't exist - what the developers would have heard while composing. Unfortunately, the source samples for the tracks MJ's team did are currently unknown (which sadly includes Ice Cap).
To create the restorations, I used SMPSPlay to get a higher-quality version of the DAC channel's playback of each song, saving it as a .vgm file. Then I used VGMPlay to log the DAC channel, the SN76489's noise channel, and the remaining channels to separate .wav files. I used Audacity to analyze the DAC channel to sequence which drums were used and when, and used Reason to put it all together. I level-matched average DAC channel levels so the 'restored' DAC channel would be the same overall loudness level as the original console output. For the hi hats (which used the SN76489's noise channel instead of a sample), I chose a similar-sounding hi hat sample from Reason's default percussion library for each style of synthesized hi hat and decayed it at the same rate as the SN76489 to have the same groove. This was level-matched as well.
My goal was not to 'restore' every track from the 3 games, but only to restore my favorites. You can find the full track 'restorations' I did here: youtu.be/sHSdlW4SaO4
Discord link to VGM & Other Instrument Sources: discord.gg/m4qzYNGHuS
00:00 TL;DW
00:15 DAC channel comparison
00:46 Hi Hats comparison
01:13 Single sample comparisons
02:06 Song section comparisons
___________________________________________________________________________________
Old description below:
Download here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuaJEDSykCcEgbY8tsrwFVYBBerzPA?e=3hpHDi
You may need to hit the "x" in the upper left to see the file list if it defaults to playing the mp3.
Yeah I know, this is quite the departure from my regular content... A more accurate (but longer) title would be "What would Robotnik's Theme sound like if the Genesis was able to play back drum sounds accurately?"
So what is this? The Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive depending on your part of the world) uses a Yamaha YM2612 and a Texas Instruments SN76489 to produce sound. The YM2612 has 6 channels of FM synthesis, with the sixth able to play back sampled data (some sound effects, but mostly used to play percussion) instead of FM. The SN76489 was much simpler - it had 3 channels that could produce square waves (this is the sound you think of when you hear "chip tunes") and 1 channel that produced noise (typically used to emulate a hi-hat's sound). Due to worry over its main CPU not being able to keep the YM2612 fed while also dealing with everything else, Sega also put in a Z80 chip to handle the sound driver. But it was a pretty old chip at the time, and periodically it needed to halt processing sound logic in order to load more sample data from the cartridge.
The YM2612's DAC channel just played back whatever value was last sent to it, so during these pauses it just repeatedly output the same value. As the game/sound logic wasn't aware of this, it ended up affecting the sound as a sort of time-stretch effect (lowering the pitch a bit) that also added some "crunch" and boosted the low frequencies. The pauses last around ~3.2 milliseconds and occur every 13.3 milliseconds or so. I'm not sure if this is a limitation of the Z80 or a limitation of the driver for it. I'm not sure if you could theoretically develop a faster/different driver that was able to play back a sample as recorded.
Looking at the waveform of the DAC channel, it also seems like there are much smaller pauses (as the waveform is stair-stepped), either due to the Z80 just not keeping up or due to devs adjusting pitch by slowing down how often it feeds a sample to the YM2612. Regardless, it dramatically reduces the high frequencies, such as the rattling or hiss of a snare.
Originally, I was just going to remove the pauses in the waveform and re-create it that way. But I was able to find some samples that look to have been created by someone who grabbed the original sample data from the ROM/cartridge and somehow figured out it's original sample rate (it was common for different samples to have different sample rates on Genesis games, and you could play back the same sample at different speeds, so the ROM data did not include a sample rate). These samples were very obviously the same as my 'recreated' samples, yet higher quality - you could hear the drumhead on the kick for example. So I ended up using those instead. These samples came from one of Ultima's replies on this thread: smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=99680&page=1&pid=1515640#p1515640. Of course, I was hopeful to find the original samples that generated the drum samples (as in, before they were modified to fit in the very limited amount of space on the ROM), but I couldn't find a definitive answer when I was looking around.
I used VGMPlay and the Nuked-OPN2 YM2612 emulator to capture the sound with the DAC channel muted. I then used the ROM kick and snare samples to recreate the DAC channel and used Reason as the DAW to put them together. In order to compensate for the kick not being pseudo-pitch shifted (which moved the fundamental of the 'thump' lower and boosted low frequencies), I added a small low shelf boost to the kick. Drums should be approximately level-matched to the original drum volume.
I chose Robotnik's Theme as it was simple - just the kick and snare samples. The SN76489 wasn't even used for a hi-hat here, so it made for a great experiment to see if it was worth it. I dunno - I think it turned out pretty neat. What do you think?
If you found this neat, I HIGHLY recommend checking out @tssf's channel here youtube.com/user/tssf which is what sparked this idea. He has 'restored' the entirety of Final Fantasy VI's soundtrack and a ton of Chrono Trigger (and way more), using the same samples Uematsu/Mitsuda used to create the soundtrack before it needed to be modified to work on an SNES. It sounds incredible!
Song: Strip Mine by Beatdrop
Download free here: ocremix.org/remix/OCR01214
**Why does the audio sound weird?**
When you play a video with a speed modifier, youtube attempts to keep the pitch the same. Since most people use the modifiers to speed up presentations/conferences/talking, this avoids them sounding like chipmunks (at 2x) or like they inhaled sulfur hexafluoride (0.5x). So in order to get the audio to not be modified when played at 2x speed, I needed to modify the audio by changing the tempo without affecting the pitch (done via Audacity). Since this is not a perfect process (as you need to create information that doesn't exist), the audio sounds a bit artifact-y. On top of that, youtube then tries to do the inverse process by changing the tempo by 2x without changing the pitch when you play it back, causing even more artifacts.
Edit: wow that sounds like garbage... like a dead phone from 2000 was revived from a trash heap and told to play a 64kbps version of this on its sole speaker made for midi ring tones.
Youtube: "Audio quality or frame rate: pick 1" OOF
So... Secret Ingredients 8! A far more curvier curve montage - cross map curves, blind ricochets, collats, curves AND ricochets, 2 curves 1 combo... I am quite happy with these clips. I collected over 140 clips for this, using only the curviest ones and the most unique ones. No little curves here.
I know I said that Secret Ingredients 7 was my last one, and it really was going to be. But then Titanfall 2 launched on steam and it brought a massive influx of new players, making Pilots vs Pilots viable again. Plus I was able to record clips at 1440p@120 instead of 1080p@60... then got a few clips by curving around someone else's grav star and then I couldn't stay away.
I really do expect this to be the last curve montage. The player base is drying up (the game is almost 5 years old now), the servers are literally being attacked by a hacker to kill games (youtube.com/watch?v=UQ4HuBpeI4I), and I don't know if I could pull off many more novel curves. If you've seen all of these so far, at some point you are going to say "I've seen this before" and I believe after this vid there's only a handful left - not enough for a full montage to really hold someone's attention. There's only so many mid-range curves without obstacles one can see before it becomes same-y. With the maps not changing, and with this one closing out most curves that lend out a unique perspective on those maps (or unique situations), I don't think I could make another montage entertaining enough. No regrets here though - I definitely didn't expect to make 8 of these, let alone to be shouted out by Vince Zampella himself during an EA Play livestream!
Hope you enjoy.
Music:
Oil Spill by analoq
Download:
The album site appears to be down, but you can listen to it here: youtube.com/watch?v=TlJUat0-WRI
I've sent a request in with OCRemix about it and will update the description with the link if it comes back.
I know I said that Secret Ingredients 7 was my last one, and it really was going to be. But then Titanfall 2 launched on steam and it brought a massive influx of new players, making Pilots vs Pilots viable again. Plus I was able to record clips at 1440p@120 instead of 1080p@60... then got a few clips by curving around someone else's grav star and then I couldn't stay away.
I really do expect this to be the last curve montage. The player base is drying up (the game is almost 5 years old now), the servers are literally being attacked by a hacker to kill games (youtube.com/watch?v=UQ4HuBpeI4I), and I don't know if I could pull off many more novel curves. If you've seen all of these so far, at some point you are going to say "I've seen this before" and I believe after this vid there's only a handful left - not enough for a full montage to really hold someone's attention. There's only so many mid-range curves without obstacles one can see before it becomes same-y. With the maps not changing, and with this one closing out most curves that lend out a unique perspective on those maps (or in unique situations), I don't think I could make another montage entertaining enough. No regrets here though - I definitely didn't expect to make 8 of these, let alone to be shouted out by Vince Zampella himself during an EA Play livestream!
Hope you enjoy.
Music:
Oil Spill by analoq
Download:
The album site appears to be down, so I uploaded it here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuaJEDSykCcEgbcZqk9_ARJu5X6xYA?e=YRlunH
I've sent a request in with OCRemix about it and will update the description with the link if it comes back.
**Why does the audio sound weird?**
When you play a video with a speed modifier, youtube attempts to keep the pitch the same. Since most people use the modifiers to speed up presentations/conferences/talking, this avoids them sounding like chipmunks (at 2x) or like they inhaled sulfur hexafluoride (0.5x). So in order to get the audio to not be modified when played at 2x speed, I needed to modify the audio by changing the tempo without affecting the pitch (done via Audacity). Since this is not a perfect process (as you need to create information that doesn't exist), the audio sounds a bit artifact-y. The algorithm does pretty well for musical instruments, but percussion sounds weird (especially game audio sounds). On top of that, youtube then tries to do the inverse process by changing the tempo by 2x without changing the pitch when you play it back, causing a bit more artifacts. How tolerable is it? We'll find out...
**Where is the original audio?**
The song is "Down to the Hydrocity's Nightclub" by Dr. Manhattan and can be downloaded for free from OCRemix: ocremix.org/remix/OCR01926
If you are wondering about what happened at 3:21, there's an enemy grappling far away near the grounded plane (you can briefly see an outline through the ground due to the pulse blade's sonar).
Which curve shot is your favorite, from any in the series?
Music: Metamorphic Rock (remix of Marble Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog with a sprinkling of other zones) by Darkesword and Sixto Sounds. You can download it for free here: ocremix.org/remix/OCR01712
Thanks for checking out the series - I hope you found it at least interesting.
Music is "Time Chill" by mv, a ReMix of Corridors of Time from Chrono Trigger. You can download it here: ocremix.org/remix/OCR01132
Music: The Swaggin' Dragon by ToxicxEternity ocremix.org/remix/OCR03766
Music: Hydrofunk by WillRock
Download: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02301
Music: Hybrid by Machinea Supremacy machinaesupremacy.bandcamp.com/track/hybrid (you used to be able to download this track for free on their website, but I can't find the link anymore)
Song: Sonic Gargles with Garden Marbles (download link: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01952)
Music: Rusty Fingers by Dr. Manhattan
Download: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02610
Music: Spreading the Culture. You can get it here:
http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01834
Music: Ruinous Ruins! You can get it here:
http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03196
This is likely the final entry in the series, I'm looking for more traditional montages from now on.
Music: Made in USA (Ken Stage). You can get it here:
http://ocremix.org/album/8/super-street-fighter-ii-turbo-blood-on-the-asphalt
Song is Contract Cleaner: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01883
Song is 'Oboro Drive' get it here: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02556
Song: Chemical Burn. You can get it here: http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03495
Music: The Warp Zone - Sonic 2 Unplugged Chemical Plant Zone (Sax Cover) youtube.com/watch?v=qjbFjyP2rZo
Music is Siren Synapse and is available at OverClockedRemix:
http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01914


