Hi friends, looks like exciting changes are coming soon. I guess this might be the last song I make before 0.2.6 is out so this is my send-off to Pico-8 audio as we knew it. See u on the other side! 🙂
I can only imagine how much the sound design wizards are going to do with the new waveform system.
Also, killer track - glad to listen to it!
@packbat Thx so much! Also, I'm sorry bc I ended up throwing out the phrase you liked from the demo 😰
No problem at all - my musical memory is pretty untrained so I genuinely didn't notice. I recognized it as the piece inspired by that phrase, and was glad that it did indeed blossom into a full thing!
Only just discovered this. Once again, you are the master of P8 audio - I am amazed at what you produce from this virtual console. Cannot wait to hear what you do with the wavetable update!
This track just blew my mind, I am currently learning about pico8 and the waveform instruments but you made me realize the quality you can get with the default 8
Is there any way to look at the notes in pico-8? I see it's encoded. Would love to have a look at how you managed these sounds.
The song is a banger would listed to it on spotify or smthng
@Arukemi Thanks and thanks for listening! The encoding helps keep the secret sauce secret, but I'm happy to try to answer any specific questions u might have!
@ridgek Ah I see, I thought the encryption was more on the size side and not the keeping sauces secret, I understand!
Let't see, I'm really struggling with volume changes, I am trying to fade out and fade in notes smoothly over a time period, but if I just go like volume 5,4,3,2,1,1,2,3,4,5 it sounds like the note drops in volume like steps and not smoothily. In your song there is like a background sound that start with high volume then goes down a little and then it goes high again without it totally fading in or out, the volume is going up and down smoothly and not in steps... how? xD
Edit: My own dumb mind just thought "It feels like the sound volume slides... wait slide?" I ran to my pico8 to test it and I don't know why haven't I thought about it before! of course with the slide effect the volume would slide XD I guess I just answered myself lol
Is it really just the slide effect tho? Could you share a little bit of knowledge about it? Thanks again, such an inspiring song, I wouldn't have thought about this without it
Not gonna lie, main melody instrument causes me a ton of curiosity, like a space trumpet or something, how do you do that kind of instrument with just the 8 default sfx? and the little sound in the back that fades in and out?, reminds me of the song "musician" by Porter Robinson. Can't stop listening
@RealShadowCaster Thanks! stat(57) returns true if music is playing.
@Arukemi You got it, the slide command indeed modulates volume as well as pitch. The vibrato command can also help cover up volume stepping, assuming u want vibrato on the notes, but if your arrangement is busy enough, u can totally get away without either, especially if the sequence has a fast spd setting
sfx slots 0-7 can be used as "sfx instruments", which are analogous to command tables in LSDJ. Because u can sequence different waveform shapes on a single channel, Pico-8 is more similar to FM or wavetable synthesis than a straightup PSG, and it might help to think of it that way. As far as the "little sound in the back", it's trying to emulate Think break 1, which is sampled by the Porter Robinson song u mentioned (and is an important sample in hiphop/dance music in general). Also, thanks for mentioning that song, I haven't listened to Porter Robinson in years and wasn't familiar w that one
Edit: Oops, the Think break link gets broken by the BBS input sanitizer, jump to 1:20 to hear break 1. Also jump to 1:33 for break 2, which is popular in jungle/dnb
Thank you so much! You have lit a candle in my brain, looking at sfx instruments was an "aha" moment. Now I understand way more why waveform instruments change the way pico8 music can be made.
I heard the samples and I got to say that as a programmer with little to no musical education, hearing them and looking more into samples and how they are used was very helpful. Thanks again :D
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