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Post by DarknessLink7 on Apr 12, 2016 12:16:29 GMT -5
We might not be the largest forum out there, but I've never before seen a forum as friendly and helpful as this one. I figured it would be fun to get to know each other a bit outside of XCX, hence why I made this topic. You all seem like a bunch of really nice people! All right, I guess I should start. My name is Adam and I'm currently studying law at university in Sweden. I've studied Engineering Physics for two years but decided to take a break to think about what I really wanted to do. For about half a year I was looking for a job and eventually found one in a store selling baby stuff (pacifiers, strollers etc.). One would think that it would be a pretty chill place to work in, but I learned that the employees had to compete to sell the most so that the boss wouldn't be disappointed. Some of my coworkers even stole each others customers just to get an extra stroller sold. I'm telling you, it was fierce! Anyway, I'm obviously very interested in video games and more specifically Nintendo. I guess I'm what you'd describe as a Nintendo fanboy seeing as I always buy all of Nintendo's consoles without hesitation. >___> My favourite video games are Xenoblade Chronicles, Virtue's Last Reward and Danganronpa. My other interests include game theory, board games and anime. Man, that makes me a real geek. I've created a lot of games too, so I suppose you could call me a game designer. At least I like to imagine you could. XD Not the best picture in the world, but oh well: imgur.com/UIszXtqIt would be awesome to learn a bit more about you guys too!
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Post by ancientrune on Apr 12, 2016 13:16:12 GMT -5
Damn you and your amazing hair, my genetics are not so kind
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Post by Primulus on Apr 12, 2016 15:11:48 GMT -5
That is truly amazing hair.
In any case, I'm pretty big on my personal anonymity on the internet and I won't be breaking it here (I may however opt to do so in private conversation), however I'll reveal at least a few details about myself. I'm 30 years old and have been a life long gamer, but with no particular loyalty to any brands. I'm a critic of Nintendo as much as I love Nintendo, however - there's a lot of things I feel Nintendo has done really well, particularly lately, and there's a lot of things I feel Nintendo has completely botched, particularly lately. Those who read my posts on GameFAQs will probably remember what a stubborn advocate I was of anti-censorship, and I still very much am.
My gaming interests outside of Xenoblade fall directly toward RPGs and fighting games the most, but there are a lot of genres I appreciate and most of the time I'm willing to try anything once. However, when I say RPGs, I don't just mean JRPGs or even WRPGs, but also tabletop RPGs such as Dungeons and Dragons (though I haven't played D&D itself in years). I'm a pretty big fan of Shadowrun in particular. As a fan of RPGs though, I feel it important to note that Xenogears was my second RPG I ever played and the first I ever finished completely, so the works of Tetsuya Takahashi have a special place in my heart, as imperfect as they all art in their own unique ways.
My personal life, however? Well, what I'm willing to say about myself is that I'm at the tail end of a long recovery from an illness that nearly killed me, and about a year and a half ago I had a surgery that kept me in the hospital for weeks afterwards. The surgery saved my life, and I wouldn't be here today if I had put it off any longer. Xenoblade Chronicles X comes at a time in my life where I have a lot of spare time and not much to do, but it probably won't be like that for long so it was a good send-off for this long recovery period. I look forward to being able to work again, and actually have a stable flow of income. (Technically, however, I am still considered disabled by the US government, probably because I'm missing part of my insides now. I'm kind of surprised, recently the US government reevaluated my disability status and ruled that I was still disabled despite having been "cured" of my illness - at the cost of those missing internal parts, of course. I was expecting the rug to be yanked out from under me while I was still recovering from my surgery.) I've been through a lot when it comes to medical stuff.
On further note about my personal life, I hope to begin writing science fiction novels in the near future as well. I'm deeply interested in storytelling, and would totally get into game development if I could. Part of me has always wanted to make a Xenogears-style indie RPG, but I lack the technical knowledge or education for anything other than the creative writing process as well as some art design. But that's just a pipe dream, but there's nothing to stop me from writing novels with my ideas at least. (Getting published however? That's actually going to be quite a challenge, too.)
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Post by flameheadshero on Apr 12, 2016 15:49:57 GMT -5
Like Primulus I'm not completely comfortable giving out too much about myself but I don't have a problem sharing certain things. I use my username pretty much everywhere. I'm flameheadshero on youtube and also on miiverse. I work in printing, at least for now, but I want to make art and music my career so those are things I work on on the side. Really into video games, obviously, and I'm really into video game music - I'd like to make my own some day. I mostly play Nintendo games but I am saving up for a PS4. My favorite games are Final Fantasy XII, Xenoblade, Xenoblade X, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Pokemon White 2. The most recent games I've played through are XBX, Pokken Tournament, Smash Brothers for Wii U, Twilight Princess HD, Fire Emblem Birthright and Fatal Frame V. Right now I'm looking forward to Tokyo Mirage Session #FE and Star Ocean V (as soon as I can afford a PS4.)
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Post by Max Galactica on Apr 13, 2016 0:02:42 GMT -5
Alright, I might as well introduce myself as well. As most of you probably already know, my name is Alex. I think I might be the second youngest person on this board, being 19 years old. I'm from the United States in the lovely state of Utah, which pretty much has the real-life version of Oblivia and Sylvalum. At least as close to it as I can think of. (http://www.blacktomato.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Monument-Valley-Utah.jpg)(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-07-06-1436143755-283629-SaltFlat1.jpg)
I'm currently a student at BYU. I'm still trying to figure out what to major in, though. We get out of school in about a week, so I'll be on break after that. I've been playing the piano for about 8 years now. I did a lot of competitions back in high school and got pretty high ratings consistently. I did dabble in clarinet for a while, but I stopped after three years of that. I used to do karate for about ten years, getting up to a second-degree black belt before I stopped that a few years ago.
If you haven't already figured it out, I'm a huge music listener. I listen to as much music as I can ranging from bands to soundtracks (game, movie, and anime) to whatever else I can find. I have music playing in some form almost 24/7. Hiroyuki Sawano is my favorite composer, with his huge variety of musical styles that he can write, which I've done my best to upload as much of his music as I can to my YouTube channel (which is definitely worth checking out). A lot of his stuff doesn't exist anywhere on YouTube, so I figured I'd be the one to do it. Some other composers that I enjoy include Yoko Kanno, Yuki Kajiura, Yasunori Mitsuda, Masahiro Tobinai, Jake Kaufman, David Wise, Grant Kirkhope, Go Shiina, Motoi Sakuraba, Jeremy Soule, Yoko Shimomura, ACE+, a lot of classical composers, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, and a bunch of others.
As far as gaming goes, I mostly play Nintendo titles. My favorites (apart from both Xenoblades) include Skyward Sword, both Super Mario Galaxy games, Wind Waker, the Metroid Prime trilogy, EarthBound, the Fire Emblem series, To the Moon, and the Ace Attorney series (as you can see by my username). I've watched a few anime (only shows composed by Sawano). Although the only show I really liked out of those was Attack on Titan. The rest were alright, but nothing special.
It's also hard to talk about myself without mentioning my religion, because of how big of a part it has in my life. Although I'm hesitant about talking about it on the Internet, due to the general attitude that the Internet has to religion. But you guys seem cool enough, I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormon church). And, as a member of that faith, I've been preparing for my 2-year LDS mission that I'll be going on next month to Perú. This is why it suddenly seems like I'm rushing through Xenoblade X. I do expect to 100% the game before I leave (my definition of 100% being kill all of the tyrants and get 100% survey rate). So you guys won't see me for two years once I leave. It's kind of scary, but exciting too.
I'll finish by sharing this song, because I love it so much!
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Post by Wolfe on Apr 13, 2016 13:16:08 GMT -5
I'm from Wisconsin and I'm 29 years old. I've played videogames for almost all my life, and I'm a Nintendo fan foremost but not a loyalist. I'm also an automotive enthusiast and a hardcore fan of racing games, which are almost entirely absent from Nintendo consoles. So I also have a Playstation 2 and an Xbox 360, and I'm planning to buy a PS4 in the future. There are very few games I play on Playstation or Xbox that don't involve wheels and an engine. My favorite Nintendo properties are Metroid, Kirby, Mario, Star Fox, F-ZERO, and now Xenoblade. My favorite racing games are Enthusia Professional Racing (PS2) and Forza Horizon (XB360). There are too many games I love to list them all, but I consider the 1990s to be gaming's golden era. I use emulators to revisit older games all the time. I'm also a musician and composer and have been kicking around ideas for developing my own game for a few years. I have just enough programming and pixelart know-how to make it a possibility (working in RPG Maker), but those aspects of development are an uphill effort for me and chronic depression has kept me from getting anywhere. Writing music comes naturally, and I've always wanted to write music for games, but it's harder to motivate myself when I don't have an active project for it. I work in MIDI, along with soundfonts or software synthesizers. Most of my recent unfinished scraps are chiptunes; I enjoy writing those. I joined RPGMaker.net a few years ago and participated in a couple music contests, so they host a couple samples I can share with you guys. "Over the Horizon" - Classic-RPG-style airship theme "Igneous Bits" - Chiptune theme for a fire temple It appears some of us share a common interest in games development, with DarknessLink7's interest in game design, Primulus' interest in writing and planning, flameheadshero's interest in art and music, and my interest in music and game design. So...what do you guys think of that? Writing, artwork, and programming are my weak areas. ...I've been preparing for my 2-year LDS mission that I'll be going on next month to Perú. This is why it suddenly seems like I'm rushing through Xenoblade X. I do expect to 100% the game before I leave (my definition of 100% being kill all of the tyrants and get 100% survey rate). So you guys won't see me for two years once I leave. It's kind of scary, but exciting too. Best of luck to you! My younger sister has also spent a considerable amount of time abroad, and it's a very enriching and rewarding experience for someone to have.
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Post by Max Galactica on Apr 13, 2016 13:42:10 GMT -5
I work in MIDI, along with soundfonts or software synthesizers. Most of my recent unfinished scraps are chiptunes; I enjoy writing those. I joined RPGMaker.net a few years ago and participated in a couple music contests, so they host a couple samples I can share with you guys. "Over the Horizon" - Classic-RPG-style airship theme "Igneous Bits" - Chiptune theme for a fire temple It appears some of us share a common interest in games development, with DarknessLink7 's interest in game design, Primulus ' interest in writing and planning, flameheadshero 's interest in art and music, and my interest in music and game design. So...what do you guys think of that? Writing, artwork, and programming are my weak areas. ...I've been preparing for my 2-year LDS mission that I'll be going on next month to Perú. This is why it suddenly seems like I'm rushing through Xenoblade X. I do expect to 100% the game before I leave (my definition of 100% being kill all of the tyrants and get 100% survey rate). So you guys won't see me for two years once I leave. It's kind of scary, but exciting too. Best of luck to you! My younger sister has also spent a considerable amount of time abroad, and it's a very enriching and rewarding experience for someone to have. Those songs were really nice, Wolfe! Especially "Over the Horizon". I probably could get into composition if I wanted to, but I feel it would get really time-consuming to do it. That would be cool if you guys made a game together. I'd certainly play it (as long as it's compatible on Macs!).
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Post by ancientrune on Apr 14, 2016 2:01:14 GMT -5
I'm from the United States in the lovely state of Utah I'm currently a student at BYU. I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormon church) kinda gave away your religion with the fist two
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Post by Primulus on Apr 14, 2016 5:30:36 GMT -5
I'm from Wisconsin and I'm 29 years old. I've played videogames for almost all my life, and I'm a Nintendo fan foremost but not a loyalist. I'm also an automotive enthusiast and a hardcore fan of racing games, which are almost entirely absent from Nintendo consoles. So I also have a Playstation 2 and an Xbox 360, and I'm planning to buy a PS4 in the future. There are very few games I play on Playstation or Xbox that don't involve wheels and an engine. My favorite Nintendo properties are Metroid, Kirby, Mario, Star Fox, F-ZERO, and now Xenoblade. My favorite racing games are Enthusia Professional Racing (PS2) and Forza Horizon (XB360). There are too many games I love to list them all, but I consider the 1990s to be gaming's golden era. I use emulators to revisit older games all the time. I'm also a musician and composer and have been kicking around ideas for developing my own game for a few years. I have just enough programming and pixelart know-how to make it a possibility (working in RPG Maker), but those aspects of development are an uphill effort for me and chronic depression has kept me from getting anywhere. Writing music comes naturally, and I've always wanted to write music for games, but it's harder to motivate myself when I don't have an active project for it. I work in MIDI, along with soundfonts or software synthesizers. Most of my recent unfinished scraps are chiptunes; I enjoy writing those. I joined RPGMaker.net a few years ago and participated in a couple music contests, so they host a couple samples I can share with you guys. "Over the Horizon" - Classic-RPG-style airship theme "Igneous Bits" - Chiptune theme for a fire temple It appears some of us share a common interest in games development, with DarknessLink7 's interest in game design, Primulus ' interest in writing and planning, flameheadshero 's interest in art and music, and my interest in music and game design. So...what do you guys think of that? Writing, artwork, and programming are my weak areas. It might be interesting to explore the possibility at least. I can do concept art to a degree as well, probably. Most of my practice in my story writing has gone into tabletop games however, as I'm actually currently running a weekly Dungeons and Dragons game that takes a bit of my time to prepare for. That said, I think I know writing enough to do functional stories and scripts, character development, dialogue and so forth. I also have a history in music, although it's been so long since I've composed anything, to the point that I forget that I even did that. I used to play around with MIDI programs as well, a long long time ago. I think the last thing I wrote in MIDI was around 8 years ago. I don't have the time to now, but I'd be glad to dig up a couple old tracks. (I haven't really taken the time to listen to the songs you've posted, but I will do so later in the afternoon today, before I go dig up my own work!) I wish you lots of luck and safe journeys, as well! I will be sure to help as well as I can with you to get to 100% before you have to leave, as well.
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Post by DarknessLink7 on Apr 14, 2016 10:18:36 GMT -5
Amazing hair? Aw, you guys... *blushes* XD It's awesome to learn a bit more about all of you! Thanks for taking the time to reply in this topic! Primulus : Wow, I'm glad you're recovering. That must've been tough... Also, writing science fiction sounds cool! I'd be interested in reading what you come up with! flameheadshero : Tokyo Mirage Session #FE is definitely on my hypelist as well! It looks super sweet! @max Galactica: Your YouTube channel is definitely great! It's been my companion on the long bus ride to school many times. Also, the best of luck to you on the mission! Sad that you're leaving, but I bet it's gonna be fun for you! Wolfe : Awesome to see that you're a game designer too! And holy moly, those two tracks are GOOD! I especially like the fire dungeon track. I wish I could compose like that... Regarding creating a game together with all of you... That sounds amazing! I'm kinda proficient in RPG Maker and I'm good at designing mechanics and I also have a few ideas for interesting stories. Music and art are my biggest weaknesses. ^^ I don't know if I'll have time to devote to a project like that, but I'd like to try!
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Post by flameheadshero on Apr 14, 2016 11:34:41 GMT -5
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Post by Max Galactica on Apr 14, 2016 12:09:03 GMT -5
Those songs were all really good, Flame! I really liked the percussion in Thine Deliverance is Not Thine Own. The strings and horns were fantastic as well.
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Post by Wolfe on Apr 14, 2016 14:24:29 GMT -5
Thanks, guys! DarknessLink7 -- I have RPG Maker 2000 Value (with Cherry Tree's "2009 Ultimate" patch) and RPG Maker VX Ace, which I'm still learning to use. I've actually been on board as a composer for two indie projects -- a turn-based strategy game based on the Battletech tabletop game called MechWar3D, and an untitled Metroidvania -- but they both fizzled out for a lack of commitment from each team. It's something nice to think about, at least. Primulus said that she has wanted to make a Xenogears-style RPG, which is relevant to our common interest. flameheadshero -- Nice work! I like Amber Road, it reminds me a lot of a field song from Secret of Mana. For chiptunes, I don't use the common method of a tracker like FamiTracker because I prefer to compose in staff notation. Instead I export to MIDI and play that back through a program that emulates an FM synthesizer.
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Post by Primulus on Apr 14, 2016 19:00:13 GMT -5
I finally have some time to sit down and listen to these, so here I go! I will offer modest criticisms ( edit: okay, I love them all and was not expecting to when I wrote this) and assessments as I listen to them each. Then? I'll offer my own! Over the Horizon is one I'm conflicted about. I think the opening is a little rough around the edges, but once it hits its stride and the song actually gets going, it is beautiful. It wouldn't sound out of place in Wild Arms 2 in particular. But then Igneous Bits? That is fantastic, Wolfe. It not only sounds legit, if you told me that it was in a classic NES game I would've believed it wholeheartedly. Amber Road is... damn, just damn. I cannot stress just how much I love this one. It also has a vibe to it that reminds me of Wild Arms, too. Thine Deliverance is Not Thine Own is terrific as well. Although I can't really pin down what it reminds me of, it really reminds me of something nostalgic, perhaps simply in its overall presentation. There is some terrific talent here. Lastly, we come to Stand Up and Fight. While I can tell it's an experimental venture as far as chip tunes go, it is SO catchy. It easily calls to mind the old NES and SNES Mega Man games in its execution. So all around, you guys have a lot of talent! My talent was unfortunately more for playing than composing, but I'll share a couple of my favorites. It's been so long since I've even uploaded anything that I didn't have anything to link to, so I had to make a Soundcloud just to upload these songs. They're nothing special in my eyes as far as technical accomplishments, but these four I uploaded (there's actually a lot more I didn't upload) I chose because they felt like the most interesting examples, and examples I'm more proud of than a lot of the others I've written. They were all composed on MIDI, but as of 2002-2005, the audio quality of MIDI was pretty terrible... so a friend and I used soundfonts to make mp3s out of what I wrote. The original MIDIs could probably be used on Wolfe's chiptune program for some interesting interpretations, but I'd have to dig them out of an old computer to get a hold of the original files. soundcloud.com/elkanah-music/sets/composed-worksIn any case, here it is.
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Post by Max Galactica on Apr 14, 2016 23:00:58 GMT -5
So all around, you guys have a lot of talent! My talent was unfortunately more for playing than composing, but I'll share a couple of my favorites. It's been so long since I've even uploaded anything that I didn't have anything to link to, so I had to make a Soundcloud just to upload these songs. They're nothing special in my eyes as far as technical accomplishments, but these four I uploaded (there's actually a lot more I didn't upload) I chose because they felt like the most interesting examples, and examples I'm more proud of than a lot of the others I've written. They were all composed on MIDI, but as of 2002-2005, the audio quality of MIDI was pretty terrible... so a friend and I used soundfonts to make mp3s out of what I wrote. The original MIDIs could probably be used on Wolfe's chiptune program for some interesting interpretations, but I'd have to dig them out of an old computer to get a hold of the original files. soundcloud.com/elkanah-music/sets/composed-worksIn any case, here it is. Hasstirade had some really awesome deep sounds to them (not sure what to call them, I have a hard time identifying MIDI instruments sometimes). The snare was nice as well, although it could've used some more variation throughout. Salvation was probably my least favorite of the bunch. Although the drums were incredible! Nice rhythms going there. The rest could probably use a more defined melody. But still, great song! The intro to Kyrios was definitely awe-inspiring. Mostly because of the gorgeous pan flute that you had going there. It is kind of short, but it was very good. I really loved the piano and the atmospheric synthesizer effects in Those Who Were Left Behind. This one was probably my favorite of the bunch. Slow and powerful. Nice job with the songs, overall, Primulus! You're definitely very talented to have made these!
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Post by Primulus on Apr 15, 2016 18:58:02 GMT -5
So all around, you guys have a lot of talent! My talent was unfortunately more for playing than composing, but I'll share a couple of my favorites. It's been so long since I've even uploaded anything that I didn't have anything to link to, so I had to make a Soundcloud just to upload these songs. They're nothing special in my eyes as far as technical accomplishments, but these four I uploaded (there's actually a lot more I didn't upload) I chose because they felt like the most interesting examples, and examples I'm more proud of than a lot of the others I've written. They were all composed on MIDI, but as of 2002-2005, the audio quality of MIDI was pretty terrible... so a friend and I used soundfonts to make mp3s out of what I wrote. The original MIDIs could probably be used on Wolfe's chiptune program for some interesting interpretations, but I'd have to dig them out of an old computer to get a hold of the original files. soundcloud.com/elkanah-music/sets/composed-worksIn any case, here it is. Hasstirade had some really awesome deep sounds to them (not sure what to call them, I have a hard time identifying MIDI instruments sometimes). The snare was nice as well, although it could've used some more variation throughout. Salvation was probably my least favorite of the bunch. Although the drums were incredible! Nice rhythms going there. The rest could probably use a more defined melody. But still, great song! The intro to Kyrios was definitely awe-inspiring. Mostly because of the gorgeous pan flute that you had going there. It is kind of short, but it was very good. I really loved the piano and the atmospheric synthesizer effects in Those Who Were Left Behind. This one was probably my favorite of the bunch. Slow and powerful. Nice job with the songs, overall, Primulus ! You're definitely very talented to have made these! Salvation is a song that I think would sound better in any other instrumentation, looking back on it. Those are really bad soundfonts being used for the guitars. As for Hasstirade, that was written at a time where I wasn't varying sounds or pace in a single song that much. Kyrios was a particularly fun project and meant to invoke a villainous sort of feel, especially as the song kicked in with the choir and trumpets later on. And finally Those Who Were Left Behind, I'm kinda surprised that one was liked as much, but I'm glad you liked it! There are some things about it I'd like to change around. Really, when I go back to my old music, I find that they're all mostly pretty dull, particularly compared to the rather lively compositions by Wolfe and flameheadshero. I've found the original MIDIs now (I actually had a RAR of them on my current computer that I completely forgot about until this morning) and have actually spent part of my afternoon toying around with them. I have so many more songs that I don't even really remember writing anymore, it's been so long, as well as a ton of incomplete projects. Maybe I'll spend the next week or two toying around with these, but now I'm interested to know what program Wolfe was using to convert to that chiptune style sound. (Also in what I found is an alternate MIDI version of Salvation I'm considering uploading now.)
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Post by flameheadshero on Apr 16, 2016 10:20:30 GMT -5
Nice work, Primulus. I think that your style tends to lean towards ambience that sets the mood to a scene. Hasstirade, for example, has me picturing two armies preparing for war under a stormy sky. Interesting to see that I'm not the only one with an interest in music! Wolfe - Ah, I'm actually the same. I've always written my work in notation in a program like Finale and then exported the midi of that to use for the mixing, soundfonts, etc. DarknessLink7 - Yeah, I love the bright colors and style of TMS:#FE. It should be great.
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Post by Wolfe on Apr 18, 2016 0:47:46 GMT -5
Primulus -- Thanks! Igneous Bits was recorded with a somewhat popular program called Gashisoft GXSCC, which emulates the Konami SCC chip. I'm happy you thought it sounded legit NES. I like working with a few more channels and additional waveforms, but in this case I limited myself to the NES 2A03 channel set: two square waves and a triangle wave. Although the percussion channel cheats with square waves in the drum set. In addition to GXSCC, I've also started playing with a command-line OPL emulator that produces Windows-95-era FM synthesis. I had been searching for something like that for a long time! The bass instruments alone are worth it for their extra oomph, and it's also good for leads because GXSCC doesn't play nice with some MIDI instructions like pitch bend and modulation (vibrato). Like Max, my favorite of the songs you shared is Those Who Were Left Behind. I also like the pan flute in Kyrios, which reminds me of one of the vignettes from the Mechwarrior 2 trilogy. Overall your compositions are similar to the style I had going for MechWar3D, including the snare riffs, low drums, and low strings.
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