Research: ds music discovery

[Fallenleader]

well, it didnt take me too long. on top of everything that has been reasearched i made a minor discovery that i though should be listed.

ok, the ds sseq file that is responsible for sound contains 3 types as you already know. that is the sseq, or sequence (aka midi) the sbk or soundbank, originaly though to be a soundfont like clone, and the sample files in a wave like format.
the basic understanding when working with midi is it usualy uses a general standard called respectivly, gm or general midi. the gba followed this standard with very strict exceptions. the ds, however, followas a varied standard.

ok, time to slow down. we need an example. ok, lets say, the pokemon trainer midi file has a gm instrument of a flute, as does the rival. in gm, it always plays the sample associated with the flute. but on the ds, the soundbank controles what sample is to be played. so you may have these 2 songs containg the flute in it, but they may play a trumpet sound. why is that? the soundbank tells the ds the samples to load. so one song may play a trumpet, one may play the sax, and the 3rd my play the clarinet, even though they may all be listed as a flute. that why ds rips sound less like their counterparts on the ds, and why you can have 3 channels for drums, even though the gm channel for drums is channel 10 only. i hope this continues to make the research clearer. feel free to ask any question and i will try my best to answer it.

 

[The 100 Mega Shock]

It's completely up to the developer whether they follow GM instrument conventions when it comes to creating their games' music sequences and sound banks.

(It's probably easier on the composers to be able to come back too if everything's GM, but there may be some advantage to not having sample banks full of gaps, I don't know.)

I've seen PS1 games, PS2 games, Game Boy Advance games and DS games that were composed following the GM specification and those that weren't.

Off the top off my head:

Pokémon Ruby / Fire Red: Mostly follows General MIDI

Pokémon Diamond: Mostly follows General MIDI
Pokémon Heart Gold: Does not follow General MIDI, but instruments are consistent across the game
Pokémon Black / White: Does not follow General MIDI and instruments differ between songs. (Almost every song in BW has it's own SBNK file)

Sonic Advance 1 / 2 / 3: Do not follow General MIDI
Sonic Colours (DS): Does not follow General MIDI for most songs (Because there's too much sampling), a few that rely purely on orchestral instruments were composed following GM.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: Does not follow General MIDI
Final Fantasy XII: Does not follow General MIDI

I've done this with plenty of other games but you get the picture.

 

[The 100 Mega Shock]

Could be the same - the Pokémon Center music uses the same patch numbers as a HGSS track, just with new samples.

 

[Fallenleader]

what i sataed isnt that the games follow general midi, its that the system has to. a composer could make a trumpet in song a call bank x which plays a flute sound in it, while if it referd to bank y, it might play a sax. soundbanks are like soundfonts, just pointing to whatever samples the composer intended. and the trick to the old sounds would easily be explained by some sort of midi event or other coding. e.g. the slising bell sound at the start of the rival battle in black and white. it cant be a pitch bend event as its waaaaaaaayyyyyyyy too smooth.

 

[Fallenleader]

That's because it isn't. It's just the same insturment sample playing and progressively increasing in pitch with each individual short note that is played, for example, 1 note that is about 0.5 seconds plays atone, then the next note plays a tone or two higher and it keeps going, like stairs.

i understand that, what im saying is if you rip a 1:1 of the midis from the game, you notice, that its the same, but a synthisizer cannot make that bend. i guess its something only the ds hardware can do :/ ah well, im going to keep reasearching this and a few other things about it. for the time being, the soundbanks tell the ds to load certain samples. bottom line, the ds uses gm in its songs, but the soundbanks dont. therefore a soundbank is nothing more than a special custom soundfont, the only difference being it doesnt actually contain the instrument samples, just points to them and tells the ds what to apply it to.

 

[The 100 Mega Shock]

The sample being played at that point has a short release time specified, that's what makes each note transition "smoothly" into the next.

 

[Fallenleader]

so basically the soundbank has a almost immediate release time making that bend stlye. it isnt something the midi does and to get it in a soundfont you will literally have to take hours perfecting it and tweaking it. again, something that just shows how much time and effort is spent making the games. im researching how to make custom soundbanks, but it isnt going well. may just stick to gba hacking for now.

 

[RHIOneAlbum]

This seems simple enough :P just replacing as stated above by Team Fail. But nonetheless, I'm sure newbies will be catching up to us in DS hacking soon.