Music: Difference between revisions
(writing your own engine) |
(expanded on the justification for rolling your own) |
||
| Line 6: | Line 6: | ||
*Famitracker | *Famitracker | ||
But some of these general-purpose are fairly large, and in an [[NROM]] game, their features might not justify their size. | But some of these general-purpose music engines are designed for making NSFs where the only thing executing is the music player. | ||
This means they can be fairly large, and in an [[NROM]] game, their features might not justify their size. | |||
If you want to write your own music engine that targets the NES [[APU]], you'll first need a lookup table for the note periods. | If you want to write your own music engine that targets the NES [[APU]], you'll first need a lookup table for the note periods. | ||
This means you'll need the frequencies that correspond to various pitches. See [[Wikipedia:Pitch (music)]], [[Wikipedia:Semitone]], and [[Wikipedia:Equal temperament]]. | This means you'll need the frequencies that correspond to various pitches. See [[Wikipedia:Pitch (music)]], [[Wikipedia:Semitone]], and [[Wikipedia:Equal temperament]]. | ||
Revision as of 02:58, 19 February 2010
Music is available for the NES. It is most often stored in NSF files, which package the data for one or more songs along with 6502 machine code to play it back. NSF files can be played on a NES or on a PC with an appropriate player which emulates the NES sound hardware and CPU.
The music from a large number of NES games has been "ripped" into NSF format, and people are actively creating new NES music with sequencing tools. The two main music sequencers are
- MCK/MML
- Nerd Tracker II
- Famitracker
But some of these general-purpose music engines are designed for making NSFs where the only thing executing is the music player. This means they can be fairly large, and in an NROM game, their features might not justify their size. If you want to write your own music engine that targets the NES APU, you'll first need a lookup table for the note periods. This means you'll need the frequencies that correspond to various pitches. See Wikipedia:Pitch (music), Wikipedia:Semitone, and Wikipedia:Equal temperament.
