Mega Man 9 NSFs

[tssf]

Hi everyone, a lot of you may or may not know me but my name's Mathew Valente, known most by the alias "tssf".

Anyway, to get to the point, I recreated the entire Mega Man 9 soundtrack in S3M, then used the tool S3M2NSF to convert it all to NSF. It took a fair amount of time, and I never planned on doing the whole soundtrack, but once I got started I just couldn't stop. Haha.

Anyway, I thought I'd let people know about this and see if anyone was interested. I submitted the NSFs to Zophar's NSF archive, however I'm not sure if there's anything in the rules stating the NSF *must* be ripped from a game, and not created from scratch.

Anyway, here (http://tssf.gamemusic.ca/Remakes/GIBStuff/tssf_mm9_nsfs.zip) it is if anyone's interested in hearing.

Enjoy. :)

P.s. Wasn't sure where to post this message, so I chose this board. If I chose the wrong one, I apologize. Hehe.

[tssf]

Hm, a few views but no comments.

[D--]

That's really cool. Is there any way to merge it all into one NSF file, or are the programs all too different?

[The 9th Sage]

Ah, nice. I didn't know anyone had recreated the whole soundtrack in this way yet. :) I'll give it a listen.

[tssf]

D--: Unfortunately not, since the S3M's are converted to NSFs one by one, I'm sure S3M2NSF treats each NSF as it's own "game" as it were. The music in NES standards are probably so large because of the S3M format nature that it wouldn't work in one NSF.

If I had a custom made music system that supported macro instrumentation, tempos and the like..and maybe an S3M to that format converter..well, things might be much different. :)

Hell maybe if I get bored enough, I'll make this soundtrack for the GBC using my GBC music software.. okay maybe no. ;)

The 9th Sage: Cool, any comments would be appreciated..I really did work a long time on these songs. :) I strived for accuracy but there are a couple errors I noticed in one or two songs that I could have made better..however I've already released the soundtrack to various NSF archives. :(

[Rattlehead]

Wait...we are talking about Mega Man 9 which came out on the Virtual Console, right?

[tssf]

Er, yeah..well, WiiWare..same difference right?

These NSFs were recreated from scratch by me via S3M, they're not dumped from any roms.

Tomorrow I'm going to be fixing a couple songs that I noticed I had some problems in. I guess my perfectionist side just won't let it end.

[Reaper man]

I'm betting if you look at the NSF format, you can merge them yourself.

[Rattlehead]

Er, yeah..well, WiiWare..same difference right?

These NSFs were recreated from scratch by me via S3M, they're not dumped from any roms.

Tomorrow I'm going to be fixing a couple songs that I noticed I had some problems in. I guess my perfectionist side just won't let it end.

Umm...I thought NSFs were NES music files, essentially. Not WiiWare, though. Well, I'll be damned...totally blew that theory out of the water.

[D--]

Umm...I thought NSFs were NES music files, essentially. Not WiiWare, though. Well, I'll be damned...totally blew that theory out of the water.

Anyway, to get to the point, I recreated the entire Mega Man 9 soundtrack in S3M, then used the tool S3M2NSF to convert it all to NSF. It took a fair amount of time, and I never planned on doing the whole soundtrack, but once I got started I just couldn't stop. Haha.

Learn 2 forums.

[Bodomi]

This is cool.
I've listened to tssf's mods before, his always sounded best from the others. :)

[tssf]

Umm...I thought NSFs were NES music files, essentially. Not WiiWare, though. Well, I'll be damned...totally blew that theory out of the water.

There's a tool out there that creates NSF files from S3M files, that is the tool I used. It's called S3M2NSF.

People are able to create NSFs from scratch without them being in games, depending whether or not the actual software used to create them allows for exportation to the NSF format.

Bodomi: Thanks! I've always strived for accuracy in any remake I've made. MM9 was no exception! Hehe.

[The 9th Sage]

I'm not sure what to say other than they sound pretty good to me. :) I love the fact that fans took it upon themselves to make an NSF version of the soundtrack.

[Ugly Joe]

I'm betting if you look at the NSF format, you can merge them yourself.

It depends on how the converter works. An NSF is essentially the game's music engine, music data, and some pointers. It may be that the converter is sort of "hard coding" the song instead of feeding data into a music engine. In that case, you'd have to write some 6502 asm to function as a sort of playlist and then mash all the songs together with that on top. It could work, but the NSF would be pretty big.

[tssf]

Ugly Joe is correct. I believe the S3M2NSF converter merely streams the notation back, using no macro instrumentation like regular NES sound systems.. since that's how the S3M format works. I don't have the knowledge to combine all the music into one large NSF (which wouldn't be such a big deal since the NSF would compress well via ZIP anyway) ..It's pretty obvious that the music wouldn't work in an actual game situation. If I made this music using an actual NES music driver that supported macro instrumentation, a lot of the glitches probably wouldn't happen in the music, as well..or at least they'd be less noticeable. But since it's streaming the notational information and the "instrument notation" is being simulated via the sequence itself, these versions of the songs will just be really large and not work out.

I tried Famitracker, hated it. Lol. I opted for S3M2NSF instead.

Anyway, thank you to the content managers here at Zophar who allowed me to upload this into their archive. I really appreciate it!

[tssf]

Sorry for the double post everyone. Just wanted to say that I have updated the soundtrack for a last time (sorry to the content manager who has to keep approving my updates..I promise, this will be the last one)

Copy and pasted from the change log:

[Change Log -Nov 25, 2008]
**THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE FINAL UPDATE. ANY MISTAKES WILL BE COMMITTED. :)*

Converted all NSFs to NSFE, complete with Track timing from the soundtrack. (Or, close to it anyway) :)
Stage Select had Vibratos stop at a point..I took mine out at that same point for authenticity.
Magma fixed. Using Quickman style snare now. Also lengthened the notes, some people liked the non-NES styled version of it I guess. Also, imagine getting 90% complete then the file getting corrupt, then having to redo it. You guys better appreciate this. ;) heheh.
Fixed Maze of Death once again. It's now got all the kicks I can hear. It's also as accurate as I could EVER make it in
either S3M, OR NSF, regardless of program. :)
Wily Stage 1 had a minor defect which annoed me, and I fixed. (Missing a few hihat notes which I popped back in)
Wily Stage 2 had a different pulse width selection for Channel 1 in the game as opposed to the soundtrack. I fixed that.
Also, the echo was a little too loud.
Wily Stage 4's note cuts removed, to fix some of the NSF glitches.
Wily Castle Intro now has a slight volume fade at the beginning of the vibrato of the lead tone.
Fixed so many wrong notes in Splash Woman..oy.. Also fixed the fade out from continuing too long.
Tornado Man's kicks were lowered in velocity. Too loud in the NSF.
Jewel Man's Vibrato depth increased.
Shop and Get Rush Jet changed slightly to be less glitchy in the NSF.
Fixed Game Start to have a faster note trill in the end. It now sounds like it was ripped right out of Mega Man 2, even though it was remade from Mega Man 9.


[Change Log - Nov 22, 2008]

Staff Roll notes fixed
Tornado's Snare fixed. Sounds more like the Mega Man 2 flavour
Hornet Man's Theme had a note that ended too short. Sue me. :)
Magma's snare can't be fixed because of it's pattern speed setting. The song would require a rewrite to double pattern sizes
Ending.s3m just didnt' feel right. Doubled the patterns and added in that Mega Man 2 snare, along with a better echo.
Stage Select / Wily Stage 4's Tempo fixed. Wily Stage 4 had some wrong notes. I fixed them. Also their Hihats were too low pitched.
Wily Stage 1's noise hits were an octave too high. Lowered them, fixed the snares
Fixed of Splash Woman's stage a bit..can't believe I forgot the vibrato in places
Maze of Death was missing some kicks right at the end of the song. Also fixed the way the kick sounds
Wily Machine's Tempo fixed.
There's one song in the entire soundtrack where I know I missed a triangle note. I just can't find it now to fix it.
Fixed Special Time Attack Stage song (missed a couple low notes..)
Damn. Oh well. At least the songs are more accurate now.


Once again: http://tssf.gamemusic.ca/Remakes/GIBStuff/tssf_mm9_nsfs.zip or, simply wait until the content manager approves the update.

[The 9th Sage]

Thank you for the NSFEs. :)

[tssf]

No problem! I wanted to include them due to the fact that Staff Roll ended too soon in some NSF players, etc..

EDIT: Okay, last update released..I haven't submitted it to the NSF department here yet, I don't want to piss off the content manager. Heh.

http://tssf.gamemusic.ca/Remakes/GIBStuff/tssf_mm9_nsfs.zip