Uploaded July 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
So I've finally begun recording some samples directly from my Casio CT-S200 keyboard to try to avoid using samples that I don't know the copyright status on and to learn more about audio processing as a whole. While it's a rather soul-crushing experience to manually do this for a handful of instruments in the sound bank, it is a one-time occurrence where the recorded samples can be reused.
It actually has some rather nice acoustic instruments and while I was unable to find a suitable Erhu substitute, I did manage to put together three instruments to give a decent synthesized sound instead. The Yang Qin sample that was available really did pair well with what was used in this track.
Speaking of the track, I've been wanting to revisit the Dynasty Warriors franchise again as I really do love the style of the music overall and I adore how well those Chinese instruments have been paired with the classic metal instruments and heavy percussion. I know that "Straight Ahead" is probably the most popular track out there but I think "Dark Angel" shines even more, alongside a previous track I've covered, "Verge of Despair".
One struggle that I did have was balancing the guitar samples I had as they do have a tendency to sound very similar at certain octaves, to the point where they can clash a little. I did my best to come up with a suitable lead guitar tone and while it can be a little grating at times, I'm overall fairly happy that I took this route. I do think that instead of exclusively using samples from a specific sound back, avoiding that blandness by sprinkling a few of those sampled instruments in a track along with some of the more "traditional" synths would yield far better results. It was definitely a learning experience about how to handle things in the future.
(Also please do excuse the update notification showing up towards the end - I've outed myself as an EndeavourOS user it seems, oops!)
Do let me know what you think in the comments below as always!
All the best.
#sunvox #dynastywarriors4 #electronicmusic
MY LINKS
- - - - -
Bandcamp:
jonpon.bandcamp.com
Website:
https://music.jonherbst.dev
Soundcloud:
soundcloud.com/jonponsvids
Twitter:
twitter.com/jonponsvids10
So I've finally begun recording some samples directly from my Casio CT-S200 keyboard to try to avoid using samples that I don't know the copyright status on and to learn more about audio processing as a whole. While it's a rather soul-crushing experience to manually do this for a handful of instruments in the sound bank, it is a one-time occurrence where the recorded samples can be reused.
It actually has some rather nice acoustic instruments and while I was unable to find a suitable Erhu substitute, I did manage to put together three instruments to give a decent synthesized sound instead. The Yang Qin sample that was available really did pair well with what was used in this track.
Speaking of the track, I've been wanting to revisit the Dynasty Warriors franchise again as I really do love the style of the music overall and I adore how well those Chinese instruments have been paired with the classic metal instruments and heavy percussion. I know that "Straight Ahead" is probably the most popular track out there but I think "Dark Angel" shines even more, alongside a previous track I've covered, "Verge of Despair".
One struggle that I did have was balancing the guitar samples I had as they do have a tendency to sound very similar at certain octaves, to the point where they can clash a little. I did my best to come up with a suitable lead guitar tone and while it can be a little grating at times, I'm overall fairly happy that I took this route. I do think that instead of exclusively using samples from a specific sound back, avoiding that blandness by sprinkling a few of those sampled instruments in a track along with some of the more "traditional" synths would yield far better results. It was definitely a learning experience about how to handle things in the future.
(Also please do excuse the update notification showing up towards the end - I've outed myself as an EndeavourOS user it seems, oops!)
Do let me know what you think in the comments below as always!
All the best.
#sunvox #dynastywarriors4 #electronicmusic
MY LINKS
- - - - -
Bandcamp:
jonpon.bandcamp.com
Website:
https://music.jonherbst.dev
Soundcloud:
soundcloud.com/jonponsvids
Twitter:
twitter.com/jonponsvids10
![Akumajou Densetsu [Castlevania III, JP] - Beginning (FamiTracker FDS)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pIjf7II8mKE/mqdefault.jpg "Akumajou Densetsu [Castlevania III, JP] - Beginning (FamiTracker FDS)
Ive finally had the chance to work on something from the Akumajou Densetsu series, also known as Castlevania III outside of Japan and immediately made a beeline for the headline track in the entire OST, that fittingly being Beginning.
In the same way that Simons Theme is a cornerstone of another game in the series, I feel that this encapsulates the feelings that I get when watching gameplay videos from the game. Theres something about the first track from 2D platformers that just seems to hit different, the other one springing to mind being Strike the Earth from Shovel Knight.
Getting back to this, I wanted to use a different expansion chip as an exercise to see whether I could integrate the sounds from the other NES versions to replicate something similar with the FDS expansion, ultimately attempting to get something more akin to what you would find on the GameBoy. I went with some square bass so I could utilise a modified sine wave as the main portion of the lead sections.
Im glad that this one turned out how it did and tried to maximise each channel where I could. I tend to stray away from using the DPCM channel for samples these days as they tend to skew the output for me quite a lot and dull the other sections so its fun trying to get around that limitation.
Hope you enjoy this one. Let me know what you think in the comments below!
All the best.
#famitracker #8bit #chiptune
MY LINKS
- - - - -
Email:
admin@jonherbst.dev
Website:
https://music.jonherbst.dev
Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/jonponsvids
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/jonponsvids10")
