Commodore Remix

Is there some way to load a SID into a tracker so that you can clearly see what notes are being used? I can usually copy a melody by ear, but once in a while I'll want some of those less prominent double-notes or notes that I just can't make out and that annoys me.

So how do you avoid wrong notes?

Try the SID2MIDI tool. It translates SIDs to midi files (duh?). Don't have a link, but search this forum.

Here is the Sid2midi link.

http://home.arcor.de/ms2002sep/bak/SID2MIDIw.exe

When arranging, I always play the SID as wave along with my remix to make sure I've got the right notes. It can be a very time consuming and frustrating method. I find it to be good though, not only for getting the right notes, but also to get a feel for the melody and the song.

Makke wrote:When arranging, I always play the SID as wave along with my remix to make sure I've got the right notes. It can be a very time consuming and frustrating method. I find it to be good though, not only for getting the right notes, but also to get a feel for the melody and the song.

Add some beer and some pr0n on the tv and it's the same method i do use those days.

Makke wrote:When arranging, I always play the SID as wave along with my remix to make sure I've got the right notes. It can be a very time consuming and frustrating method. I find it to be good though, not only for getting the right notes, but also to get a feel for the melody and the song.

I typically use a combination of SID2MIDI to help out with the really complicated bits such as the arpeggio notes which I would normally turn into a pad or maybe into a arpeggio in my remix (albeit much slower) and also SIDPlay/W which allows you to export each SID Channel (1-3) as a seperate WAV file to check that everything SID2MIDI produced is actually correct which becomes very obvious if you play the various MIDI channels and WAV files together.

The first thing I always do when remixing is to do a one-to-one cover of the SID using a SID2MIDI file as a guide. Once I have the basic bones of the SID I will then check that each part follows the 3 (or 4) WAV exports of the original SID. At this point I actually start remixing the SID Tune and this is the fun part

What program do you use to visualize the MIDI-file as a piano-roll? I tried MIDI maestro and Anvil studio, but both have horrible visual representations of the tune as a piano roll (I cant use notes).

Mordi wrote:What program do you use to visualize the MIDI-file as a piano-roll? I tried MIDI maestro and Anvil studio, but both have horrible visual representations of the tune as a piano roll (I cant use notes).

FLStudio XXL

"How do you hit the right notes?"

i don´t

1) ear
2) importing the entire tune to Soundforge for easier rewiding, playing over and over the same little part etc. eventualy splitting L and R channels for easier separation. or even better if you can mute one channel at a time in the player (can deliplayer do that?)


3) if it's still real horrible: try to use timestretch or pitchshift tools, or simply change the samplerate and play it one octave higher or lower whatever. i tend to have problems picking out certain bassnotes that are real deep and muffled and groovy, play it an octaver higher and they pop out much more clearly

there are also some tools that are supposed to be good at analysing notes (melody for instance) but i haven't gotten around to trying those yet

for amiga tunes; try to load the .dat files as raw data and see if i can find the samples; when you have the chord samples by themselves it's pretty easy to pick out the chord voicings. And obvisouly if the entire tune is a protracker mod then everything is REAL easy

Makke wrote:When arranging, I always play the SID as wave along with my remix to make sure I've got the right notes. It can be a very time consuming and frustrating method. I find it to be good though, not only for getting the right notes, but also to get a feel for the melody and the song.

That's how I do it.

It's great for "training" your ears as well, you pick up melodies, chords and stuff easier after a while, and for a musician the ears are our most valuable asset.

I usualy play on the keyboard... I try practising the tune manualy by ear at first according to my memory... if that seems fine, then I do nothing more... which can lead to faults like the wrong note in my Action Biker Remix...

so I recommend you always check up with the original to make sure you got everything right.

Some passages are simply so horrendously fast it's impossible to decipher, like One Man and his Droid for example... here SID2MIDI comes in handy to get those impossible parts directly coppied...

But I generally try to learn to play the tunes as well as possible... I feel a kind of selfaccomplishment from being able to just "fire up the SID tunes" on will... and it also impress people more

Guess there are as many ways to do this as there are remixers.

DHS wrote:

Makke wrote:When arranging, I always play the SID as wave along with my remix to make sure I've got the right notes. It can be a very time consuming and frustrating method. I find it to be good though, not only for getting the right notes, but also to get a feel for the melody and the song.

Add some beer and some pr0n on the tv and it's the same method i do use those days.

Subtract some beer and add The Amazing Slowdowner and it's about the same methond I use.

by ear as much as i can, for the more difficult parts i'll sid to midi it or see if anyone else did a mod/med/xm of it and have a look at that.

I also find the getting drunk method works a treat too, seems im not the only one lol.

Infamous wrote:by ear as much as i can, for the more difficult parts i'll sid to midi it or see if anyone else did a mod/med/xm of it and have a look at that.

I also find the getting drunk method works a treat too, seems im not the only one lol.

Indeed! Coz ear and beer... Well, it differs just one letter, see? Well, soundwise anyways...
Maybe I should stop smoking this stuf... *ponders*

Tron