[Poll] Midis vs Chiptunes

Which do you prefer?

  • Midis

  • Chiptunes

  • Depends on the song

Results are only viewable after voting.
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Do you prefer your soundtrack in games to be Midis or Chiptunes.

I personally think the song has to be right for it you know? For example Kirby's Adventure soundtrack sounded better on NES than GBA but on the contrary i think Kid Icarus's soundtrack was done better on the FDS as oppose to the NES.
 
They are sort of the same thing in that they're music instructions that are played by the consoles. One uses square waves and white noise etc. while the other uses samples. I'll give my pick to midis since I feel chiptunes are overdone at this point.
 
It really depends on the composer and composition. Back when "chip tunes" were a necessity and not just a preference, composers often used a wide range of traditional musicians/styles as their inspiration. Take this slow, catchy reggae-style theme from Alberto Jose Gonzalez, for the GB version of The Smurfs.



I want to see people create original pieces based on a wide range of music styles. The genre is growing stale from too much pedestrian NES/C64 stuff and club-sounding fare.
 
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First real experience with " chiptunes " would have been a few years ago when a friend of mind have fave'd many Megaman styled remixes of them. As of now don't really hear what's too different about the two. Apparently they're created a little differently but they still sound the same to me.



It sounds funny when songs that aren't 8-bit much like the Roll theme from Battle n Chase actually being remixed in the chiptune style doesn't sound too bad. There have been weird uses of these compositions especially Thriller midi which sounds weird not in a good way or bad way take a listen.

 
Metal said:
First real experience with " chiptunes " would have been a few years ago when a friend of mind have fave'd many Megaman styled remixes of them. As of now don't really hear what's too different about the two. Apparently they're created a little differently but they still sound the same to me.



It sounds funny when songs that aren't 8-bit much like the Roll theme from Battle n Chase actually being remixed in the chiptune style doesn't sound too bad. There have been weird uses of these compositions especially Thriller midi which sounds weird not in a good way or bad way take a listen.

Click to expand...


That Thriller remix is not too shabby. I much prefer the style and sound of the remixes from Moonwalker on Mega Drive/Genesis and Arcade. It helps that MJ was involved with Sega, too. Wonder what he would think of that Castlevania remix...
 
The great thing about Midis is that you can do all kinds of amazing things with the different sound channels.

Ever heard of iMuse? (Interactive Music Streaming Engine)
It's this amazing music system that was used in a lot of Lucasarts' Adventure games like Monkey island 2 or Day of the Tentacle.

It could do things like dynamically add or remove instruments to the song without halting it...
But the best part about it was that it allowed for the music to seamlessly transition from one song to another whenever it needed to.

Take a listen:


No matter when you leave an area, the transition will follow almost immediately, and it never feels like the songs are just being patched together.

It's really amazing and I'm so sad there hasn't been another game with music transitions as beautiful as these! :STTnTT:
It took a lot of work too! The composer had to write a ton of different endings for each song but it really pays off.
Sadly, the Special Edition didn't manage to recreate it very well. Leaving the main area only has one transition for every point in the song. S:(

Thing is, depending on which soundfont you use, Midis can sound radically different. So technically, if you had a chiptune soundfont then you could have both. :STongue:
 
Metal said:
You sure about that?

Click to expand...

I said you CAN use them. You have to actually use 'em though. :STongue3:

Games like Banjo-Kazooie use midi channel fading for when you - for example - go underwater and all the instruments change.
Or when you get close to a level and in Grunty's Lair and the music changes its style to reflect that level.
Conker's Bad Fur day had stuff like that too. Like when Conker starts whistling when he's bored. The whistling is another channel in the midi.

GBA games use midis too but they all have their own soundfonts. Mayyyyybe SNES too but I'm not sure about that.
 
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