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[music] ColecoVision Africa by Toto


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I get messages asking how do I compose music for the ColecoVision. I hope this will answer your questions.

 

SCREENSHOTS

 

The only softwares I'm using to compose music for years now.

post-3651-0-57825900-1525192427.jpgpost-3651-0-54406000-1525192451.jpgpost-3651-0-24547900-1525192468.jpg

 

 

VIDEO

 

The music playing on BlueMSX at 50Hz clock

 

And that's it. I'm not using any music tool nor a midi keyboard which I would like to use; I use my imagination and start coding with time and dedication, trials and errors.

 

STORY TIME

 

Late April 2018

With the positive comments received about my CV Commando music-box, and not yet decided about a game project to do, I wanted to compose another CV song during the last week of April. After watching multiple videos of beloved 80s music, and some videos about a SNES ROM hack called GrandPooBear World filled with music, I've finally selected Africa by Toto. I was a bit afraid to not be able to make it sounds good after hearing the Commodore 64 version I've found that I didn't like much, but the song repeats enough and uses an interesting rhythm variation that I love composing with a drum beat (usually when we *clap* our hands) at every 3/4 per bar (measure), like in Commando and many other songs I've composed so far.

 

April 28, 2018

I went babysitting to help a friend who desperately needed someone for an hour or two. On my way back home, I've stopped at a coffee shop to compose my vision of the ColecoVision version of this music. After many hours calculating and tweaking what each sound channel should do to get a pretty good version of the chorus part, and probably looking like a weirdo moving my hands in the air to the music nobody was hearing, I've decided to stop there, send an email, and let my ears relax. My calculations surprised me to see that power of 2s cycles per note were ideal for the PAL version and so I've decided to go with it.

FILE: toto-20180428.zip

 

April 29, 2018

Encouraged by what I've started, I've composed the music intro (riff part) which added the xylophone instrument and a reverb voice effect. But hearing both parts back to back felt a bit off. After some tweaking by reducing the duration of the drum sounds to give more time for the bass notes, both parts sounded finally great together (uniformity of the rhythm). Then I got a call; my friend needed my help again. Back home, I've composed a verse by using the same trick as in Time Pilot by playing the same note on 2 channels but slightly different to get almost the same effect as singing on multiple tracks. (save)

FILE: toto-20180429.zip

 

April 30, 2018

After dinner, I've started to compose pretty much everything else which added the flute (recorder) instrument, with the help of some music sheets. I've also tweaked the high pitched notes in the chorus part to not be that loud compared to the rest of the song. I had to stop before completing the solo part; my eyes were redder than ever, it was time to sleep. As a surprise and email test, I've sent this file to some Coleco homebrewers and fans; got a bunch of emails bouncing back but some reached destination.

FILE: toto-20180430.zip

 

May 1st, 2018

At lunchtime, I took a moment to complete the solo. Finally! Time to share it online! I've created this post on AtariAge and sent a message on Twitter about it. (save)

FILE: toto-20180501.zip

 

Not bad, isn't it? I've even muted one of the 3 tones channels to use its frequency to play bass notes on the noise channel. And keep in mind the sound chip has fewer possibilities than many other sound chips of the time, no triangle wave, no PCM sample, nothing.

 

Simulated instruments: drum *clap*, maraca, bass, keyboard, guitar, flutes, xylophone, voice, chorus.

 

Share and Comment :-)

Edited by newcoleco
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