i am super glad to be done with this; i have listened and revised so much that the song has become semantically saturated

for me. i think there are actually four or five minutes of potential content in here, but i just can't work on it any more.

i wrote this as an adlib screamtracker 3 module in schism tracker and wrote a python script to convert it to mml. volumes and envelopes are adjusted from opl2 -> opna so that it sounds nearly the same in the tracker as it does after compilation. if anyone else wants to use that method, i can make the source code available on github or something.

shamanic saturation

(interesting method and wonderful song! would love to have a github thing of this! yes!)

here's the git repo! https://github.com/jangler/s3mml

edit: the implication of future support for other formats is genuine. i used this for the last nsf ohb, but then i threw out the ppmck-specific stuff when i was reorganizing the code.

edit 2: there are already multiple s3xmodit -> nsf tools out there, though. for that format you're best off using them instead.

edit 3: SHINEBAR.S3M

Hell yes, this is beautiful and well balanced between complex and simple phrasing. At first it reminded me of Tony Williams sgen stuff, but quickly turned into something more like return to forever/weather report/billy cobham/spastic ink. Your special attention the percussion is appreciated and stellar. Sorry it drove you nuts!
-Clicked "listen"
-Pooped myself
-Listened all the way through before heading to the bathroom
10/10 would drive you nuts again and get another rash to finish listening to the song.

Very interesting stuff. Highly enjoyable :).

smooth! good job :)

I misread it as "shrine barrier" lol. I think I need to get off my touhou mind for pc-98...

Anyways, this sounds so OPL I love it.

gosh i love this so much

my jaw hit the floor a few times during this

I know that feeling. When you're composing a song and hit a block, or it starts to become misguided, so you just listen to what you have over and over, and it just begins to sound like mush. It's so relieving once you finally finish it!

I love the energy of this tune. Nice job!

i only have three words to describe my feelings about this track

GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY

Sooo prog. Really reminds me a lot of the aforementioned bands.

<3 wah instrument @ 1:07

i leik dis a lawt.

post-mortem: it's cool that this got 8th place

the main problem i think i encountered was difficulty filling out the lowish mids in the mix. arps need to be above a certain pitch range to be sensible and then the leads and chords need not to step on each other too much and then opl timbre harmonics can get kinda weird, so in a way i painted myself into a corner. i'm also sad that i reprised the first section much later in the song but something had to go there and it sure wasn't gonna be me.

ultimately i am pleased with it though; i like the rhythms and textures even if the harmonies are mostly simplistic and tend toward modality. imo the melodies are the usual post-hoc jangler melodies with basslines probably busy enough to qualify as countermelodies; this is fine and comes naturally but sometime i'd like to try some countermelodic songwriting beyond that and the call-and-response things in this song.

edit: it also would have been nice to let the section with the ♭3-♭7-1 bass ostinato simmer for a while longer