Remaking/Remixing DKC3 for GBA music

Edit: Just finished remaking Stilt Village from scratch.







Edit: Updating this post with finished songs.

Been painstakingly recreating sound samples, combining some with the original muffled samples. Example https://instaud.io/3eLl

As well as recreating synth's in FM8 and Massive. Other sounds are taken from various Korg synths and 90's sample CD libraries.

Aiming to be done by the end of the year hopefully. Can't wait to finally answer what Donkey Kong Country 3 could've sounded like if David Wise made the music for the original game as well! In "CD quality".

Good take, I really like the sound, you have a great talent
By end of the year you mean... like 12 months?

Conn wrote:Good take, I really like the sound, you have a great talent
By end of the year you mean... like 12 months?

Appreciate it! Yeah around that time frame I hope. Always wanted to hear these songs in clarity so can't wait, won't rush it though.

@R1ggles Wishing you the best of luck, Cannot wait to here the final product :-D

Polargames wrote:@R1ggles Wishing you the best of luck, Cannot wait to here the final product :-D

Thanks a ton!


I'll be needing some ears and opinions. Remade this synth sequence that's in Mill Fever, but added an atmospheric bass note playing, something the GBA couldn't do but I felt fit the track, a lot of DKC1 songs does this like the Temple Ruins theme.

Just for this section, might not keep it if it doesn't end up fitting with the rest of the song.

First playing is the original scratchy GBA sample, and then my recreation.

https://instaud.io/3fCY

@R1ggles, Your very welcome and I really liked your recreation so far. The bass playing really helps to bring a pop to the pcm. For me at least it gives it a more Mill type atmosphere. I like the echo that it brings. Keep doing what you have been because for me at least I think its great. :-D

Polargames wrote:@R1ggles, Your very welcome and I really liked your recreation so far. The bass playing really helps to bring a pop to the pcm. For me at least it gives it a more Mill type atmosphere. I like the echo that it brings. Keep doing what you have been because for me at least I think its great. :-D

Appreciate your comments, keeps me going! I actually revised Stilt Village a bit, so the audio mixing is better, updated my post with the reupload.


Progress update:
Gotten quite a bit done with Mill Fever too, improved mixing
https://instaud.io/3gkD

R1ggles wrote:

Polargames wrote:@R1ggles, Your very welcome and I really liked your recreation so far. The bass playing really helps to bring a pop to the pcm. For me at least it gives it a more Mill type atmosphere. I like the echo that it brings. Keep doing what you have been because for me at least I think its great. :-D

Appreciate your comments, keeps me going! I actually revised Stilt Village a bit, so the audio mixing is better, updated my post with the reupload.


Progress update:
Gotten quite a bit done with Mill Fever too, improved mixing
https://instaud.io/3gkD

Your very welcome and I am happy that my comment was helpful. I just took a listen to your newer post, I really like it, but and this a minor issue to me at least is that the bass seams a little loud when it starts. Its not to bad at all, I would suggest toning it down maybe 5 db's or so. I think that would work for the start of it. Just a little constructive criticism, I hope I am not to harsh..Other then that I really like what you have done and its great :-D. Keep up the great work.

Polargames wrote:

R1ggles wrote:

Polargames wrote:@R1ggles, Your very welcome and I really liked your recreation so far. The bass playing really helps to bring a pop to the pcm. For me at least it gives it a more Mill type atmosphere. I like the echo that it brings. Keep doing what you have been because for me at least I think its great. :-D

Appreciate your comments, keeps me going! I actually revised Stilt Village a bit, so the audio mixing is better, updated my post with the reupload.


Progress update:
Gotten quite a bit done with Mill Fever too, improved mixing
https://instaud.io/3gkD

Your very welcome and I am happy that my comment was helpful. I just took a listen to your newer post, I really like it, but and this a minor issue to me at least is that the bass seams a little loud when it starts. Its not to bad at all, I would suggest toning it down maybe 5 db's or so. I think that would work for the start of it. Just a little constructive criticism, I hope I am not to harsh..Other then that I really like what you have done and its great :-D. Keep up the great work.

Yeah haven't tested it on different speaker setups yet or monitored audio levels much, definitely will do more mixing once I've done more of the song, like the drums being just a bit overpowering as well.

This remake should be higher quality than Stilt Village since I won't have the need to use many samples from the GBA ROM. Appreciate the feedback.

@R1ggles, Your very welcome. If it helps you out my speakers are HD Realtak Audio, So they do pick up on the sound fairly well, but like you have said every speakers set or headphones will be different. Keep up the great work on it, Your doing a awesome job and I enjoy listing to your samples. :-)

Polargames wrote:@R1ggles, Your very welcome. If it helps you out my speakers are HD Realtak Audio, So they do pick up on the sound fairly well, but like you have said every speakers set or headphones will be different. Keep up the great work on it, Your doing a awesome job and I enjoy listing to your samples. :-)

Feedback is super helpful so thanks for taking the time to listen, just did a bit more with Mill Fever, just starting on the "genesis" sounding FM bass line part.
https://instaud.io/3h5s

Much higher quality than Stilt Village since I basically don't have to use GBA samples because of the track being synth based.

In Stilt Village, that rhythmic metallic mallet combined with something that has a cutoff and res sweep all in one sample I wasn't able to figure out how the hell that was made, browsed so many samples and tried a lot of things. Some things you can't remake just like human voices I guess, oh well having the ROM samples fill in certain spots will be something I have to accept until we miraculously figure out what samples David Wise used for the GBA game. I think the rest of the soundtrack is easier to figure out though and uses more standard instrument sounds.

For mixing I'm mostly using DT770 Pro's with a Fiio amp which sound great but like with all headphones its more difficult to judge than speakers, so it's not until I've tried the track on different speakers around here that I know it's fine.

R1ggles wrote:

Polargames wrote:@R1ggles, Your very welcome. If it helps you out my speakers are HD Realtak Audio, So they do pick up on the sound fairly well, but like you have said every speakers set or headphones will be different. Keep up the great work on it, Your doing a awesome job and I enjoy listing to your samples. :-)

Feedback is super helpful so thanks for taking the time to listen, just did a bit more with Mill Fever, just starting on the "genesis" sounding FM bass line part.
https://instaud.io/3h5s

Much higher quality than Stilt Village since I basically don't have to use GBA samples because of the track being synth based.

In Stilt Village, that rhythmic metallic mallet combined with something that has a cutoff and res sweep all in one sample I wasn't able to figure out how the hell that was made, browsed so many samples and tried a lot of things. Some things you can't remake just like human voices I guess, oh well having the ROM samples fill in certain spots will be something I have to accept until we miraculously figure out what samples David Wise used for the GBA game. I think the rest of the soundtrack is easier to figure out though and uses more standard instrument sounds.

For mixing I'm mostly using DT770 Pro's with a Fiio amp which sound great but like with all headphones its more difficult to judge than speakers, so it's not until I've tried the track on different speakers around here that I know it's fine.

Your very welcome, I took a listen to your new post and I have to say its sounds just right, Its not to loud or no to soft, which I think should be great for sd2snes hardware. It sounded great on my end :-), I have to say your doing a great job. I like your equipment that your using, Fiio are a great speaker brand and nice mixing board also. Would like to get one some day so I can play around with my music collection lol. Hey at least you have high end sound quilty covered. Thats a great thing to have done.

[quote="Polargames"][quote="R1ggles"]

Polargames wrote: -snip-

I'm beyond excited how this is turning out that I just have to show! Check out this keychange and chord progression! It's so so fresh, I never paid attention to it in the GBA track. Been able to crank the production values way higher thanks to being able to make the sounds from scratch.

https://instaud.io/3hM5

Added a few more notes to the chords, made the synth morph into a piano before the key change and layered filtered sawtooths to the piano bass notes with this cool growing cutoff almost formant sounding effect.

@R1ggles, You have hit it out of the park. I really like the keychange. It sounds like the snes version in my opinion. What ever your doing, keep it up because so far its been spot on. :-D I really like how even that track was.

Polargames wrote:@R1ggles, You have hit it out of the park. I really like the keychange. It sounds like the snes version in my opinion. What ever your doing, keep it up because so far its been spot on. :-D I really like how even that track was.  

Done! Updated the first post with some info, going to revisit Stilt Village and just do a remix of it even if it doesn't sound as close to the original, but yeah, GBA samples is hell so I'll go that route instead.

Sweet, I will take a look at it for sure. Hey take your time on it. Your doing great so far, don't burn yourself out. :-)

Updating with a quick half remake, it's based on the E3 2005 version but with new instruments added on top to make it stereo and much higher quality.

Extended the tune and added strings and choir that weren't in the composition originally, but felt fitting.

R1ggles wrote:

Updating with a quick half remake, it's based on the E3 2005 version but with new instruments added on top to make it stereo and much higher quality.

Extended the tune and added strings and choir that weren't in the composition originally, but felt fitting.

Great Job on it. I really dig it. Keep up the great work. This is a very even track as well.

Polargames wrote:

Great Job on it. I really dig it. Keep up the great work. This is a very even track as well.

Thanks! Finally been revisiting Stilt Village, without game samples this time. Chopped up a funk rhythm guitar, added a wahwah chickachika effect to it, layered a bunch of metallic percussion like potlids and other stuff I could find (took ages to find sounds that fits that weird sample). Finally did it I think! Really wasn't able to recreate that rhythmic part last time.

https://instaud.io/3kaM Please tell me how it sounds ( I've not yet adjusted audio levels so they might be off )

it sounds great so far, besides you saying you have yet to normalize the track. it is great, So far you have been doing a great job remixing the gba and snes sounds!

Polargames wrote:it sounds great so far, besides you saying you have yet to normalize the track. it is great, So far you have been doing a great job remixing the gba and snes sounds!

Finally, all mixed and done ( I think, I'll have to relisten tomorrow to be sure ).
Ended up replacing basically everything, the quality difference is massive.

Also let me know what you think about the "monkey cries*" I always worry about adding stuff, but idk it seems nice for that part with the repeating guitar, I also let the water ambiance play during that section as well just to keep it interesting.

*they're actually pitched down seagulls

The image is from an eBay listing that I found and edited ( Neither DK Vine or DKC Atlas has a scan of this, browsed around a lot and there doesn't seem to be a scan of it anywhere )
Thankfully the seller used a pretty good camera, skewed the image to the right size and edited stuff like paper creases. ( for this I replaced the dk land 3 logo for a dkc3 one )

Going to submit the original looking image to both those places.

I really like the sequel and monkey sounds, they fit well. Keep up the great work. I love listing to your new remixes. Also I do like the cover art from the eBay seller also. :-)

What a wonderful job.

I was involved in the first packs of DKC3 MSU-1 and a lot of people asked me about a PCM pack with GBA themes. I didn't try to do it yet because I think that the GBA song quality is worst than the SNES. The songs aren't even STEREO. (So, your job is turning them really good to listen. I have watched your videos before notice that there was a topic here about them.)

Keep up this great job

@daniloroxette, I understand about the GBA sound quality. It was pretty bad, even on the actual handheld. When the ds came out I thought it would make it better, nope, it showed me it was a lot worse lol. I do agree 100% with you that @R1ggles has done a wonderful job. Cannot wait for the finished set. :-D

Always in development?