AlienX wrote:
So, the short answer is: "You can't modify the samples to MIDI instrument samples, unless you make an external program." That's too bad. It would've been interesting to hear how a lot of games would sound like with these new sound samples.
[rant]
We've heard it before -- or at least I have, and likely all other folks who were around when "NES emulation" started -- a version of iNES (I think it was iNES, but maybe it was Pasowing or something?) offered a "MIDI output" option in its audio configuration. The result sounded like dogshit being shovelled through a plastic funnel: it was atrocious. Once you learn a little bit about how NES/FC audio works, you realise how the two things are really quite separate/unrelated and shouldn't be directly connected in this manner.
Every single aspect of NES "songs", all the way down to the sequencing/composing, is intended to be heard on the console itself. That's how the composers and sequencers intended. Changing any of that (e.g. making it use MIDI, doing weird/wonky post-effects on it, "stereo mods" nonsense) results in something that both sounds truly awful and was not what the composer intended. You have to understand that the composition methodologies were done with the NES hardware in mind; yes, many musicians would compose something on a keyboard/MIDI system as a baseline for what they wanted, but the effort didn't stop there. Those same musicians would quite often be the same people to make their music sound how they wanted it on the NES. Meaning: *they intended for it to sound the way it does*.
If you want evidence of this, check out the differences in how the songs sound (both audibly and their actual sequences/compositions) between games that are on NES carts vs. the same game but on the Famicom Disk System. Castlevania 2 is a perfect example (NES = Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest, FDS = Dracula 2: Noroi no Fuunin) -- they sound similar but the sequences are actually quite different because the composers had different limitations/ideas in mind when working on one system vs. the other. There are some exceptions to this comparison though -- specifically NES = Magic of Scheherazade vs. FDS = Arabian Dorimu Sherazado -- where the FDS version was composed by someone different. But I hope you understand what I'm getting at.
Then there are composers like Rob Hubbard and many others who literally would just sit down and bang out raw bytes that correlated with the music they wanted, through both experience and trial-and-error getting what they wanted. That's a form of composition in itself, but it's not the same as, say, entering notes via a MIDI keyboard. In turn, their songs sound very different compared to the aforementioned type (not to mention the obvious style differences).
If you want "MIDI-ised" versions of NES songs, there are tons of musicians/composers who make great MIDI mixes (or remixes) of those songs, do all the sequencing themselves, choose good patch sets, and go the extra mile to make it sound amazing (
Jake Kaufman/Virt is one such individual). Likewise, orchestras that are hired to play classic game songs (
example) take the time to get a composer and conductor who understands what's needed, but these sound
absolutely nothing like what comes out of the NES. There are bands that try to merge the two "technologies" (for lack of better term), like Powerglove, Minibosses, Armcannon, etc., but again these are effectively "remixed" or "reperformed" much like an orchestra.
The point I'm trying to drive home here is that people need to just leave NES music/audio alone and be heard how it was originally intended. I am all for people doing remixes and coming up with new/tweaked compositions and all that (I'm a huge fan of all of that too!), but when it comes to things like emulators, the audio output should remain as true to the actual console as possible -- no exceptions.
[/rant]