List of songs

First Priority Songs

Main Theme(Taken from Smash Bros., or new original theme?)
Final Destination-esque theme?
Super Mario Bros. 1-1
Wario’s Theme(Super Mario Land 2)
On the Halberd
Vs. Mewtwo(Pokemon Stadium ver.)
Vs. Meta-Ridley
Kraid’s Lair
Mother Brain(Super Metroid)
Porky’s Porkies (Porky's regular theme) (Finished)
New Pork City (one in Brawl)
Pig Mask Army theme
Vs. Poke’mon Rival(G/S/C)
Mario Boss Theme(Mario Sunshine)
The battle against Arceus
Legendary Poke’mon (R/S/E)
Star Wolf (Star Fox: Command)
Encounter
MGS main theme
Pollyanna
Fire Emblem Theme
Against the Black Knight
Power-Hungry Fool
The Mind of Izuka
Skyworld
Underworld
Vs. Giygas (completed)
Luigi’s Mansion (one in Brawl)
Danger!(Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time)
Vs. Veran
Veran's Theme
Hyrule Field
Vs. Ganondorf (OoT or WW or TP)
Wild Poke’mon Battle (R/B/Y)
Yoshi’s Island
Yoshi’s Island: Level 1-1 (completed)
Obstacle Course
Tom Nook’s Store
Animal Crossing Theme
K.K. Virtue?
VS Eggman (near completion)
Eggman's Theme
Jungle Hijinks
Aquatic Ambience

Second Priority Songs

Unfounded Revenge
Comrades(Fire Emblem 8)
Pikmin World Map
Snake Eater
The Roost

Would you want me to get these posted up and linked through here as I finish them? Or even the work-in-progress ones?

Yes, when you're finished, please post them here.
Hm... Use your best judgment. I trust you.
Maybe work-in-progress ones too, since I'd like to know how well you're doing with a particular song.

I've known Mozzaratti for a while now and have heard his works, you can trust him to do a good job.

Hey, a quick question or two for Mozzaratti:

You might not think it, but I've got a bunch of sheet music written at home, but I've got no resources to bring it all to life. (used to play trumpet and guitar.)

So...how exactly does the whole process work?
And what Program do you use?

Thanks for the extra vote of confidence, Smithy. I appreciate it. ^.^

You'd be surprised how many times this has been asked by the group already, but this is a great way to answer. Not to mention, it's good to know so many folks out there have interest in music making. No such thing as too many musicians and song writers.

So for starters, the cheap route is a reasonable computer (2.5Ghz or better with 512MB ram at the very least and that's insanely limiting, really) and a free sequencer software called Reaper by the same guy who brought us WinAmp. Some free VSTs (sound sets) out there too though most of them are of naturally synthy quality, not much in the realism department. Either you can Google easily enough.

Reaper is perfectly fine, but if you do want to get with a vaguely more professional approach, you'll want something like ProTools or SONAR (what I work with, though it constantly gives me problems). They are -not- cheap if you want the good stuff that outdoes what Reaper can do for free. So no real reason to go that far.

Naturally, a good soundcard and mic are important if you're recording instruments or voice and do to it well and fast, you're going to need a faster computer with a lot more RAM so you can be shoveling those big wav files around.

As for my system set up? I'm running everything on the .biggest baddest keyboard series rig currently in existence. But again, it was the expensive route, especially since I'm still learning even the basics of running such a monster with so many extra goodies, like several thousand more dollars worth of VSTs and software. And I almost have it paid off too! Wee!

I see this post is getting pretty big, so I'll wait till next time to explain the process a bit better. But get started for free sounds pretty good, no? So whether you're a musician, an artist, a writer or anything else, related to this project or not, keep those creative juices flowing. I'll see you quite soon. Maybe even later this afternoon. =P

That's...kinda crazy. I had no idea it'd cost that much.
I've been looking at a program called "Fruity Loops," and it's a little hard to judge which programs would best fit me.

Looking at what I have written right now, I'd pee my pants if I could get my hands on a program with realistic sounds (Is VST a plug-in or something?) and synthesized. (is that built in with SONAR/Reaper/Protools? or is that an entirely different program altogether?)
In terms of instrumentals, we're looking at orchestral brass, strings and winds, as well as distortion and techno-ish sound effects. That pretty much covers what I've got written out.

So if Reaper's free, I think I'll go check that out for now, see how that plays out for me.
(thanks for the help, btw!)

Alright, time for part 2! But first, to answer a few things from your post.

ACID and Fruity Loops are both very handy programs, especially in the drum departments (I have a demo of Fruity and own and older copy of ACID with an an extensive collection of their samples) which I will use quite often, especially if I feel something needs extra kick or groove since I'm a mediocre digital drummer at best. And just a reminder too, I believe both have demos available to tool around with.

VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology, and is sort of like a plug-in for certain computer based sound programs like the ones mentioned. And SONAR does come with some basic stuff, but it's not far from just high quality MIDI. I don't believe Reaper does but I could be mistaken, and no clue about Protools. Something easy enough to look up though, so if you don't yourself, just let me know and I'll check into it. On the plus side, I believe SONAR and Protools have demos you can download and trial for a couple of weeks to see if you like how they operate. Also, some VSTs can run by themselves for playing around with them if you have a MIDI instrument you can plug into the computer.

Instrument side, there's a lot of different orchestra VSTs out there, but you have to pay very good money to get decent stuff. Synful sounds awesome and is one of the cheaper ones (Google and tilt an ear to the demos on their site) but it's still about $500. Vienna and East West still have the best sounds in that department though. But prepared to pay over a grand or two. Still a heckuva lot cheaper than the real thing though, neh?

So now, how about that quick run down of how it all works? My Neko is a very powerful system that can run multiple VSTs without breaking any kind of sweat. I'll start with the basics of the song with perhaps a piano or something to play along with the original if a remix or just set the idea out if it's an original. Since I use a keyboard/computer hybrid, I just play straight through with the keys. But you can use a MIDI instrument (keyboards are the standard but there are devices now that let you do it with guitars and other instruments too!) or you can do like many digital composers and use a mouse to paint in the notes right on the program. You definitely can get a more accurate song that way, even if it might lose some of the emotion. At any rate, I then start adding the other instruments one at a time on their own track. And rarely do I play straight through, I'll play out a section and then stop and correct mistakes or add more to it before moving on to the next. But that's just my preference.
Then perhaps run an instance of ACID for some drumming assistance. I sometimes even do this first as a good drum track can get you into a particular mood for the song before it's even laid out, and can be much more enjoyable as a metronome than...clack click click click. ^.^ To run this many programs at the same time though, you better have 3+ GB of ram and at least a dual core. But that doesn't mean you can't run them separately (even the VSTs), record them off, then merge them back together with your sequencer, provided you have the disk space to run some long, high quality wavs.
Now when things are far enough along it's starting to come together, I add the effects. This is mostly for the guitar work, adding amplifiers and distortion boxes, but it's used for other goodies on occasion to. A lot of VSTs come with their own effects too like phasers, chorus, reverb, and the like. But sometimes you just need something more than what's offered and the sequencers come with a big box of toys plus a lot of free plug ins on the web for even more. It's also during this phase I try to play with panning a bit for a more stereo sound. I'm quite the novice on my mix downs still so none of my work quite has that professional sound yet, but I'm learning. ^.^

Alas, I didn't get half as detailed as I was intending and probably what I did mention was completely useless and pointless. But since all programs and personal playing styles are different, I realized it's more of a trial and error approach for most until they get the feel for their equipment and resources. Still, if you have any questions or theories or anything else, I'll try to help as much as I can.
...with less blithering. <.<

Sorry for the late response. Busy as hell.
So I just found Reaper. I'm trying to run it now...my computer doesn't run; it crawls. SO...

--About the digital drums: Does that mean the whole process is just easier? Or do they just not have the same capabilities as the other programs?

--So is every VST a different set of sounds or an individual instrument in and of itself?
Synth: would you know what the limit is to what kind of sounds you can produce? Or how does that whole thing work?


--Neko?? I just checked the link...and while it looks amazing, I'm not sure I have that kinda money right now. Of course...that's not the only way to go, right?
I think you already answered this, but you can just write out the notes just as you would on tableture or sheet music, right?

I don't think I have any more questions right now, but if I have any more, I'll drop a line. I guess I just need to play around and get into detail about this stuff.

Don't worry about the busy times, I think we've all been having them this last week, from the looks of it. So let me see if I can hit some of these questions for you. and I pray I'm explaining things clearly enough. You can tell I don't do this often.

Well, drums comes in different flavors. You have the purely digital which are sounds mimicked to sound like drums or something similar to them (techno music, etc), there are sampled drums that takes individual drums sounds and corresponds them to a note like the above, and then there are the loops which is what I was more referring to. A looping pre recorded drum track you can mix and match and set to your whims. How these various types get set into a song depends on the programs they come from. But it's simple enough even if you've never touched MIDI drums before.

Think of VSTs as a music keyboard. Some are cheap little Wal-Mart specials, others are the big bad boys the big professionals use. Either way, generally each keyboard comes with an array of sounds of varying number and quality. Sometimes only a handful but sometimes 100s or even a couple thousand. And often in the VST world, very adjustable. Because of the range of VSTs, some can work on a Pentium II with 32MB of ram, while others take something like my dual core 4GB ram monster to run well, and can vary just as much of hard drive space. From a 100k synth to my 80GB guitar setup. How many VSTs you can run at a time varies completely on the computer you are running it through. But to do fancy work, it does take a bit of power, sadly.

No, I wouldn't recommend a Neko to anyone who wasn't dead serious about making music. It's a solid investment for composers, keyboardists, and studios, but for hobbyists and musicians who play small venues or just for fun really need to go for something smaller. Especially when you consider, the Neko is only half the cost. The rest is software. x.x

Hmm, if you mean in a sequencer like Reaper, a little yeah. Some programs have a sheet music writer on board and can read from it but I honestly haven't looked into that much. Most writers just use the piano roll, which is somewhat similar indeed to sheet music, only you're looking at a sideways piano keyboard with a graph of lines you paint on with your mouse. It takes a little practice, but it's quite a precise way of writing and I'm 95% sure it's how most MIDI writers do their work.

Heck, I might take some screen caps from my Neko sometime if you think it might help, though SONAR is a bit different than Reaper in respects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1wAqIiHmJA

Ah, I got another song request.
This would be the Rival Battle theme in the game.

Oh yes. It's from Gold/Silver.
I hear none of the songs from that game was used.
And since this would be the first rival theme made, let's use this one.

I wonder how Smithy is doing. I haven't heard from him.
Is he swept up in finals too?

I'll add that one to the list for you and see what I can do about stretching it's length a bit.

Haven't heard much from Smithy in about a month, actually, so I imagine he's been pretty busy like everyone else. I'll check in on him next time I see him online though.

All right.
Yeah. I'm a bit worried here.

And thanks a lot!

Uh, hi there everyone. I'm here to help out with the music. I've already done a few songs on that list, which can be found here:

http://dededejr.newgrounds.com/audio/

So, yeah, just tell me what you want me to do.

Sorry to double post, I have finished the "Pokey's Bots Battle" Regular Theme or whatever.

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/download/149319

Featuring a nice solo violin!