aL BeasTie
Well-known member
Someone had asked me to do something like this a while ago, (thou I forget who) so here goes.
There are countless ways to make you own game music remixes , I'm going to show you a simple method that anyone can do using free software, SynthFont.
SynthFont
http://www.synthfont.com/
First download SynthFont, then grab some MIDI files you want to remix from here.
Video Game Music - MIDI's
http://www.vgmusic.com/
You will also need some soundfonts, what you download will depend on the type of remix you want to do. There are many free soundfonts available, single instruments to entire GM sets that replace all general midi instruments.
SoundFonts
http://soundfonts.homemusician.net/
http://hammersound.net/cgi-bin/soundlink.pl
SNES Soundfonts
http://williamkage.com/snes-soundfonts-and-samples/
---------------------
Step 1 -
Load SynthFont and click 'open midi or arrangement' You will see the arrangement and a track for each instrument/section. In this example I'm using Double Dragon level 1 midi.
Step 2 - From this screen highlight an instrument track, I have highlighted the electric bass track that's using the 'Electric Bass (finger)' instrument.
Click 'SF FILE' here, choose open and navigate the your soundfonts files, choose the soundfont you want to use.
If this soundfont file has the same instrument it will replace automatically, otherwise you must choose which instrument in the soundfont file to use. Click SF2 Preset if you don't get this screen automatically
You will get a list of available instruments -
select the one you want.
If you want to change the original midi instrument, click 'midi program'
And choose a new instrument, the midi program instrument will change how the soundfont will be played. Example a drum kit instrument using a bass guitar soundfont is going to sound strange, but changing some strings into guitars might sound cool. Experiment with different combinations to get interesting results, thou it is usually best to use a matching soundfont.
To preview your mix click the 'Play to Speakers' button at the top, when you are ready to save your session to file, click the 'play to file' button.
( If you want to use your track in openbor you should choose to save as .WAV file, 16bit. )
That's the basics of making a track.
SynthFont will also support VST plugins, they can range from effects like reverb or distortion for example, to entire instruments. VST effects can be used together with soundfonts to create rich sounds. For example add a guitar amp VST plugin to your guitar track for real sounding distortion. VST instruments on the other hand can be used instead of soundfonts to change the instrument sound.
To use them click the 'VSTi' button and choose the VST plugin you want to use.
Then choose 'VSTI Prog' to open the plugin.
you will see the plugin screen, im using PEACH here, adjusting the settings changes the sound of this instrument.
I'll try to cover more on using VST plugins another time.
There are many free VST plugins out there, just do some google searching.
Some worth mentioning here is these free NES soundcard inspired VST instruments, Peach, Triforce and Toad
http://tweakbench.com/peach
http://tweakbench.com/triforce
http://tweakbench.com/toad
These are great for making your own authentic sounding NES tracks
There are countless ways to make you own game music remixes , I'm going to show you a simple method that anyone can do using free software, SynthFont.
SynthFont
http://www.synthfont.com/
First download SynthFont, then grab some MIDI files you want to remix from here.
Video Game Music - MIDI's
http://www.vgmusic.com/
You will also need some soundfonts, what you download will depend on the type of remix you want to do. There are many free soundfonts available, single instruments to entire GM sets that replace all general midi instruments.
SoundFonts
http://soundfonts.homemusician.net/
http://hammersound.net/cgi-bin/soundlink.pl
SNES Soundfonts
http://williamkage.com/snes-soundfonts-and-samples/
---------------------
Step 1 -
Load SynthFont and click 'open midi or arrangement' You will see the arrangement and a track for each instrument/section. In this example I'm using Double Dragon level 1 midi.
Step 2 - From this screen highlight an instrument track, I have highlighted the electric bass track that's using the 'Electric Bass (finger)' instrument.
Click 'SF FILE' here, choose open and navigate the your soundfonts files, choose the soundfont you want to use.
If this soundfont file has the same instrument it will replace automatically, otherwise you must choose which instrument in the soundfont file to use. Click SF2 Preset if you don't get this screen automatically
You will get a list of available instruments -
select the one you want.
If you want to change the original midi instrument, click 'midi program'
And choose a new instrument, the midi program instrument will change how the soundfont will be played. Example a drum kit instrument using a bass guitar soundfont is going to sound strange, but changing some strings into guitars might sound cool. Experiment with different combinations to get interesting results, thou it is usually best to use a matching soundfont.
To preview your mix click the 'Play to Speakers' button at the top, when you are ready to save your session to file, click the 'play to file' button.
( If you want to use your track in openbor you should choose to save as .WAV file, 16bit. )
That's the basics of making a track.
SynthFont will also support VST plugins, they can range from effects like reverb or distortion for example, to entire instruments. VST effects can be used together with soundfonts to create rich sounds. For example add a guitar amp VST plugin to your guitar track for real sounding distortion. VST instruments on the other hand can be used instead of soundfonts to change the instrument sound.
To use them click the 'VSTi' button and choose the VST plugin you want to use.
Then choose 'VSTI Prog' to open the plugin.
you will see the plugin screen, im using PEACH here, adjusting the settings changes the sound of this instrument.
I'll try to cover more on using VST plugins another time.
There are many free VST plugins out there, just do some google searching.
Some worth mentioning here is these free NES soundcard inspired VST instruments, Peach, Triforce and Toad
http://tweakbench.com/peach
http://tweakbench.com/triforce
http://tweakbench.com/toad
These are great for making your own authentic sounding NES tracks
