hey i wanted to share a little technical something i stumbled onto lately with snes sound design.
i often run into problems using the more 'sophisticated' samples, aka more complex waveforms like flutes, strings, etc(stuff that's not simple chippy waveforms) in that they usually either sound too muddy or too thin for how i end up using them in my cramped 8 channel arrangement.
the problem is of course working with these lower sample rates. there's just not much harmonic content, so you have to really stick close to the notes where they were orginally sampled...but even then things can get muddy or thin.
i've read interviews, some of the old snes composers lamented over how difficult it was to get a set of samples that sounded good together. "once you finally found some that worked well together, of course you'd keep using them over and over in other games..."
anyway, i was doing a midi transcription of the snes rainbow road yesterday and discovered something really neat that happens soon after the intro:
when the xylo-sound first comes in, the melody D-E-F-G-D etc, it's set in the fifth octave. arrangement wise it belongs up there because all the brass stuff is happening an octave below, however i noticed my midi arrangment sounded quite thin and weak with it up there in the fifth octave.
there was something unique going on within the mariokart xylo sample itself, so i decided to take a closer look:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q28wy8vfhz6foca/snes_mariokart_xylo.png?dl=0
there's a subharmonic in there! when i applied the subharmonic with a similar ratio to my midi transcription, it sounded just right. there are also a lot of other very clever things they did with their samples, but i'll save that for another time.
so what does this mean?
it means that you can use acoustics to your advantage to further overcome the challenges of low fidelity and limited channels. there are samples that have a similar 3:1 or 5:1 ratio applied to the first octave above the fundamental to give it a bit more presence.
also it's good to keep in mind is that that overtones contain harmony within them! snes mariokart used this to their advantage as well, they did a lot of really clever things. when considering an arrangement and how to make it sound deep and full with samplerate-dictatedly dull samples and limited channels, you can use harmonics as a way to simultaneously augment your arrangement while adding harmonic excitement.
PRACTICAL BOTTOM LINE: if your sample is feeling a bit too thin, add a subharmonic an octave below. if it's too muddy, try layering a pitched up copy of itself an octave above. make sure to lower the volume of your added harmonic, a 3:1 fundamental to harmonic ratio is a good starting place.
you can do this with audacity: just layer two instances of a sample over one another, pitch one up/down an octave and then lower its volume. keep playing with the ratio and check how it sounds in your song until it sounds the way you want.
there's also ways you can muck with harmonics via loop points, but i prefer to just edit and resample. audacity does the trick. and of course the snes delay brings life to things as well...
