Edit Music
From Sleep is Death
This article is incomplete, I will update when I get the time.
Contents |
Introduction
There are many aspects of telling a story, pictures and words are two, sound is another. Creating a soundscape in conjunction with pictures and the right pacing of words is a powerful tool in storytelling. To give hints and clues through playful use of melody and sound or even as simple as progressively raising the volume as the suspense tighten its' grip on the scenario will immerse and enrich the player experience.
The edit music in SID is a very simple tool to use but under the veil is a very complicated and sophisticated part of SID.
Music Terminology
Okey, there are some terminology you need to know.
- Interval
- Interval is the distance between notes
- Octave
- An octave is the interval between the same notes but a pitch higher or lower.
- Half-step / Whole-step
- A set interval between notes. Scales are measured in half- and whole-steps. A half step is on step on the piano (including the black keys) a whole step is two steps on the piano.
- Scale
- A scale is a set of notes that "belong to eachother" harmonically.
- Time Signature
- Time signature determines the rhythm of the song. The most common time signature is 4:4 which is four beats per bar
Edit Music Interface
Scale
The scale is shown in intervals, whole steps and half steps. The Major Scale in whole and half steps are: Whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half.
For example, the major scale in SID looks like this:
You can see that (beginning from left to right) it mimmicks exactly the pattern of the Major scale. If you can't find the last half-step its because the last square and the first square is the last half-step of the Major scale.
Most importantly, the scale dictates what notes you acccess in a phrase. The Major scale in SID is actually the F-major, but it's actually irrelevant for now.
Last thing to be said about scales is that in western tradition most pop songs play melodies within one scale -- in effect it means that no matter what crazy combination of single phrases after eachother you create it will not be "incorrect" music. This is a beautiful thing about SID; it's hard to make dissonant music. Unless you do chords, but more of that later on.
Phrase
As stated abive, which notes you can get is dependant on what scale you use. Here is the complete list of notes you can get from the basic scales:
Heptatnoic Scales:
| Natural Minor | Melodic Minor | Harmonic Minor | Arabic | Locrian | Major Locrian | Major |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | G | G | F# | F# | G | G |
| D# | G# | E | E | G# | D# | E |
| C# | D | C# | C# | C# | C# | D |
| C | C | C | C | B | B | C |
| A# | A# | A# | A# | A# | A# | A# |
| G# | G# | G# | A | G# | A | A |
| G | G | B | F# | F# | G | G |
| F | F | F | E | F | F | F |
Pentatonic Scales are different because, unlike normal scales, it only has 5 notes in an octave.
Pentatonic Scales:
| Pentatonic Major | Pentatonic Minor |
|---|---|
| D | D# |
| C | C |
| A | A# |
| G | G# |
| F | F |
There are different colored tracks - which is only an octave lower or higher than the green, so basically it's only a repition of these notes.
Timbre
NOIZE
Sound Metric
Time Signature
1:4
2:4
4:4
Note properties
Attack time etc
Tutorial 1: Recreate a song in SID
- 1. First step is to find a song you like and get a note sheet to extract the notes. I chose Mary had a little lamb because it's such a freaking badass song!!!!
- It goes like this:
4:4 | E D C D | E E E - | E E E - | E F F - |
- or as a note sheet, like this:
- 2. So what scale is that? By looking at the table at the top, all the notes can be played in the major scale. So let's use the major scale.
- 3.
Tutorial 2: Recreate an advanced song in SID
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