U3.5 Pax Britannia: Soundtrack Conversion Complete; Converted Tracks Released
http://soundcloud.com/cheveron/sets/u35-pax-britannia-chip
Andrew Owen has completed the conversion of U3.5: Pax Britannia’s soundtrack from its original version to the AY-8910 sound chip format.
Soundtrack conversion complete. I may muck about with some of the instruments before the final release, but I’ve got all the note data in the AY-8910 sound chip tracker format used by the ZXodus][Engine now. I still need to look through the source and see if I can find any repeating bits I’ve missed to reduce the amount of data used. The longest track is 2.5K in size, which is a bit more than I was hoping for.
He has, as such, released all the converted pieces on SoundCloud; the embedded player above should allow you to listen to all of them.
In particular, check out Theme, which is the piece Andrew let me preview in advance. It’s a major key reworking of a classic piece of Ultima music (not Stones)…makes me feel like I’m playing Ultima 6, but in a happier Britannia.
Sounds excellent, although the use of similar instruments between songs denies interesting tonal variation. On the plus side it makes the soundtrack more cohesive.
Something you might want to consider (and what in my mind has been sorely overlooked by most Ultima music fans) is the music from Ultima Exodus for the NES. There are at least three songs on that soundtrack that are heartbreakingly beautiful, IMHO better than much “official” Ultima music. Here’s a YouTube playlist of the songs. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which ones whip the llama’s ass. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrtsnKVdjMk&list=PL62C12E880E53EBDD
The instruments are just placeholders. I’m working on creating a set of nine “natural” instruments based on real instrument volume and pitch envelopes. Most of the tunes are folk songs from around the British Isles. The exceptions are Stones, the theme, the dungeon and combat music, and Rule Britannia. I consciously wanted to avoid using anything where there might be a rights issue.
Methinks thy exceptions justify the additional risk of pilfering Ultima Exodus for all the bounty it has to offer. 🙂 FCI and Pony Canyon will forgive thee. Or not… In any case I’m looking forward to the new instruments. I love chiptunes as I love life and all things Ultima.
@Sanctimonia
I don’t understand how people like the Ultima III NES soundtrack!? It makes my ears want to bleed compared to the original masterpiece that Ken Arnold did for the C64!
In my opinion, every true Ultima fan needs to experience the Ultima III (plus Ultima IV & V!) soundtrack on a real Commodore 64/128 using the SID chip (the emulation videos just don’t do it justice).
The C64’s sound chip (SID) had true analog synthesizer circuitry in it which could produce a much “warmer” sound then other systems because of it. It’s sort of like listening to analog vinyl records over digital forms, which I’m sure the hipster types dig. The C64 SID sound chip was and still is the “vinyl record” of all computers.
This NES version is nothing like the original Ken Arnold soundtrack, in fact, it doesn’t even seem like any of his original compositions are in it?!
I really feel for gamers who first had to experience this great game on a console instead of on a system like the C64 or Apple II for which it was designed! I guess ignorance is bliss. 🙂
Tonal quality, such as instruments/samples and mixing, must be somewhat cast aside when considering the value of melodies and chord progressions in chiptune (and most other) music. I think of it more as notes on paper that could be interpreted by a conductor and communicated to musicians to produce an emotionally satisfying performance. Ultima Exodus was a Japanese game, including the soundtrack, based on Ultima III. I dumped it from an .nsf file for full quality here:
http://eightvirtues.com/misc/Ultima%20Exodus/
The best tracks are “Ultima – Exodus-1.flac”, “Ultima – Exodus-3.flac”, “Ultima – Exodus-4.flac”, and “Ultima – Exodus-8.flac”.
C64 music is awesome, but this is a different soundtrack than that of Ultima III using more primitive instruments/synthesis (the NES). I don’t think it’s logical to dismiss it as inferior or otherwise not worth listening to or iterating upon because it is different in tonal quality and content relative to Ultima III’s music for the Apple ][ or Commodore 64.
What is the source of your disdain for the music in Ultima Exodus? Is it because people don’t appreciate that of Ultima III? I like both, though they’re very different.
@sanctimonia
My source is my ears of course! 🙂 I’m probably so used to the C64 version that the NES one just sounds totally wrong. Besides, Ken Arnold songs just sound way better melodically to this soundtrack. His songs still stick in my head after all these years. Just wondering if any of the NES tunes do that for you?
Maybe it deserves another listen. I’ll take a more constructed listen of the ones you named, but last time my ears really did find the tone of the instruments pretty harsh to handle.
I’m a chiptune junkie. When I got my NES I hooked it to a receiver and starting recording songs on “the blue tape” which turned into an archive of all my favorite stuff. I even faded the volume out smoothly at the end of each track (manually, of course). When I started writing music in high school, everything sounded like game music (at that time SNES or Turbo Duo).
The chiptune songs that I still remember and know nearly verbatim are from the games:
Super Mario Bros.
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II
Metroid
Contra
Jackal
Castlevania and Castlevania II
Final Fantasy
Ninja Gaiden
Rush’n Attack
Stinger
Mega Man and Mega Man 2
Ultima Exodus
Ys IV
Phantasy Star III
Golden Axe
Life Force
Double Dragon
Wizards & Warriors
Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
Shark! Shark!
I’m sure I’m leaving out plenty (including my SNES favs), but those are the ones that come to mind.
I know Ken Arnold did the original Apple ][ Mockingboard versions of the Ultima music, but didn’t Chuck Bueche do the C64 port? Of course the Mockingboard uses one or more AY chips, which are purely digital, unlike the SID. I first experienced Ultima on the Atari ST, which also uses a variant of the AY chip, and so for me for it to be Ultima it has to be AY. And the Spectrum +2B also has an AY. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the merits of the SID. The AY simply can’t do the harmonics unless you use it as a very low res DAC. However, don’t write off the AY until you’ve heard the instruments I’m modelling for it, all of which are based on real instruments.
Personally I just don’t like the tunes of Ultima III for the NES, Kenneth Arnold of no Kenneth Arnold.
However I really like Ultima NES’ music and it was just as different.
(And debate about music aside, these were good ports)
The music of Ultima: Exodus was very dark and brooding. Definitely a classic among games from that era.
Here is one of the things I usually can’t admit to anyone but myself. I too kind of really enjoy the Ultima III NES music. J-Pop and all! We’re all dragons here, I can say it, right…
Knife of the Eye:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xCTD7cGWKc&list=LLkNrdTuRnYrLw0BWFtxJ-eg&index=6
Exodus’ theme was my fav though.
I even tried to mix some of it up myself:
U3 Knife of the Eye 1 https://copy.com/8oHmEWTSNEdiZaWs
U3 Knife of the Eye 2 https://copy.com/umHcfbYJHeRF8iJn
U3 Ambrosia https://copy.com/mWylK6VByTWel4kN
U3 Town https://copy.com/9f2Jo0bKNqz4FV2c
Some U4
U4 Bard’s Tune (runes) https://copy.com/SczYmZg0QndI83cf
U4 Castle https://copy.com/crYTtTU6dqTrLVfj
Pretty much just nostalgia for me, I didn’t have a PC that could run Ultima until V came out so U3 and U4 on the NES were my first Ultimas. That is no doubt the reason for the attachment to some of the NES music for me because Ken Arnold’s music is much better and just amazing! 🙂
So this is where Spoony took his theme song from! I always wondered where that tune was from.
Well I finished modelling the instruments. Haven’t figured out which to use for which tracks yet. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=841047925936435&theater
Nice job. People don’t realize how much of an art creating chip tune instruments are!
Thanks. So having created the instruments I’m now limited in the number I can use per tune by the length and complexity of the tune. I’ve had to settle on a hard limit of a 2K buffer per tune. So that means the combat tune, which is really complex, can only have two separate instruments, and I had to cut one tact off each to get the total tune length down to the right size. On the other hand I can make the simpler tunes more interesting by using more instruments. I may still use the simple instruments I originally created where appropriate. So now I have a library of 12 instruments to choose from: nine natural, and three synthetic.