Hey guys, this is EliteFerrex again, and today we're going through part two of my video tutorials on how to make 8-bit music. Today we're gonna be talking about Melody and the way we put our notes together to make actually the body of our song. So I know I called it melody but I'm also gonna be talking about the other parts that go into making a song such as the bass and the decisions we make as far as how we want the song to sound while we're making it. So for today we're gonna be working with a project that I made a while back, and this is actually the song that you hear in the intro and outro of this video called Adventurarius which is from one of my 8-bit albums. So, this is kind of what it sounds like at the beginning. So, the reason this is interesting is because just in the first 12 sections, the first 12 bars of this song, we actually see a lot of different techniques being done all at once here. So again, this video is going to focus primarily on the melody, so I'm not going to be talking as much about the percussion this time. But for starters, let's take a look at the main melody pattern here--and I apologize, this video is in FL Studio 10 because that's the editor in which this project was originally made, and so I don't want to port it over to FL 12 because sometimes I wind up having errors with bridging going from one to the other, but anyway, this is still basically the same layout as FL Studio 12, except I'm using patterns here as opposed to the the difference in the way it looks in FL 12. But, the function is the same. So anyway, getting back to it, here's our first pattern we're gonna look at. So there are three different instruments that play in this pattern, as you can see. The first are these channels here that I call square blips. And those are just very short notes if you hear them played. If I go to, say this one here... So, that one you can tell is a channel that's set exclusively to play to the left. I have the panning all the way set to the left on that channel and the other one you may have noticed is... ...all the way to the right. Now, there's a reason we do this... particularly because... this is a song that has a lot of layering to its melody, and so the reason I have these instruments separated out on the left and right channel is because it allows me to keep those sounds very clear, because you only hear them out of one of your ears as opposed to both. So, throughout the song, you will notice that I have different channels split to the left and right sides, if you look through this column here. You'll see this lead is in the left and right. These whistles section here are on the left and right, all the way down even down to these squares later on here. And so again the reason for that is to help make those melodies distinct from what you hear elsewhere. So, this third instrument here is just another regular square channel, and it is centered. So while these two instruments are playing on the side, even though all three of them are squares, if you look at their--the plug-in here, we can hear them clearly because one instrument is playing on both ears simultaneously, but since the others are unique to left and right, it makes them stand out more so we heard the square blips together at the beginning... ...and those are actually a harmonized melody split by the two channels. So here's what's interesting about putting those two together, is that because the melodies harmonize, despite the fact that they play on the left channel and the right channel uniquely, it allows us to still get the full sound of the melody that we're looking for without it getting lost alongside so many other synths that are playing at the same time. And that's the reason why I use this technique so often, especially in this song. Now, this other square is nothing special. It's just a plain square channel. You'll notice there is no decay, there's no sweep, there's no attack. It's just a plain square, but you'll notice it sounds different than a regular square when it's played. That actually has to do with the placement of the notes, so let's go into the actual piano roll and you'll see what it is that I did for this channel. So this is a technique that I call stacking or double stacking. I'm sure there's a true musical name for what it's called, but I have actually no formal music training, so everything I do here is all just by ear, and things I've learned over time. So you'll notice all I've done is--and I'll actually go ahead and delete these so you can see--is I laid out the original notes that I decided I wanted to use in the pattern here... ...and then I stacked them on top of each other just exactly by copying notes Laying them out and moving them up by one octave. The only other change I did is changing their length, and so I will do that really quickly just to show you why it is that I do that, because you'll notice if I make them the exact same length as the notes below them, it sounds different than what we started with. Whereas if we like--oh sorry--if we shorten these notes at the beginning, we instead get this kind of plinking effect that sounds much different than what we started with, kind of like a plink plink plink plink pliiiink... ...which is actually a note style that's used very commonly in Kirby games... Also, I believe on the Super Nintendo, the same strategy is used. So anyway, if we shorten these notes down now back to the length that they were before I deleted them, you can hear the difference in how it sounds, and again you'll hear that kind of plink plink sound as the notes play. So we have three diverse sounds coming in here. This instrument, which plays in the center, and then these two, which play on the sides and you'll notice when they all play together that you now get a combination of sounds that have this kind of "call and answer" back-and-forth sound that plays through. And so that's the reason why I separated them out like that. The first thing I want to talk about as far as melody is this the using the two different channels left and right with harmonized notes to make them stand out alongside other instruments. The second thing I wanted to talk about was this, what I call the stacking. That's the first part is the two of those there, but let's get into some other things here as well. So I'm going to bring these back in. So we're gonna talk about another part of this opening melody that you hear and Next that is the bass. So let's look at the bass. You'll notice that for this, the bass pattern actually has three separate instruments in it. I have this one that I called tri bass. Simply because it's a triangle sound and you'll notice again, this is very basic. No decay, because the sustain level is maxed. We have no modulation of the attack here. The sweep switch is off, so we have no sweep. All it is is very simple triangle notes in this pattern. And then this second one you'll notice, although I called it tri bass #2 is actually a 12.5 [pulse]. So in the first video, I talked about how the 12.5 channel is actually a fairly diverse sound and can be used in a lot of ways, and this is an example of when I used it as a bass sound, because you'll notice if I play just the triangle by itself that it sounds much different than if I add in the 12.5 alongside it. We've got just that plain kind of bee-boop bee-boop But then this very much changes the sound. It gives it kind of a rough edge to it kind of like... almost sort of like a rough kind of guitar-ish sound like an electric guitar. [Badly imitates guitar noises.] That kind of sound. And then the third instrument here... this is actually a plug-in that I did not discuss in the other video and this one I called it Fami Tri because this uses a different plug-in called FamiSynth, and so FamiSynth--I will create a... I'll have a link in the description of the video so you can download FamiSynth and find it. This is another excellent tool for putting together 8-bit sounds, and I will probably make a separate video, a short one, that discusses all the things you can do with FamiSynth separately. But for now I'm just gonna talk kind of about the core mechanics again of the melody in 8-bit songs. So, I've used FamiSynth here to create another bass sound because again if you listen to the regular triangle bass It actually sounds different than the FamiSynth bass. So this, actually you'll notice the bitrate is set to 4-bit for this instrument, so the sound is actually much closer to what you would have on a GameBoy rather than the Nintendo. So if we play all these together, you get the full bass sound that I put together for the track. So that's the first part, there. So the main thing to take away just from this section is that when we're trying to create bass sounds, it's important to try and use the 8-bit synths together to achieve the overall sound of the bass that we're looking for because if you again you notice the difference when I played simply the triangle, and if I mix the triangle along with the 12.5 Again, this would sound much different. Let's say I change this 12.5 to a square channel for example the bass will sound entirely different. Alright, and again, it'll sound even different if I change the level at which--I'm sorry, if I change the octave for the square notes So this is what you want to keep in mind is... Really the best way to figure this out is just to play around with it. Try using the different instruments together and find a style of bass that you like and it doesn't have to be the same sound that you use across every single song that you make, but rather find whatever you think fits the sound of that particular track best, because although this is a bass sound I chose to use for this song, it is definitely not one that I would use in every song that I've made. So there is our bass now the other thing. I want to talk about is how the bass? Progresses that the notes that we use for our bass line melody Change as the song goes on Ok so let's try this again, so this should be just the percussion and the bass here at the beginning So there are two steps in which the bassline actually changed there We have the starting one which is a pattern of high low high low High low high low low high high high at this one We followed that same basic pattern But you can see all I did is add in an answer to that initial high low To help get the bassline flowing and get the the feeling that the song is picking up and getting started one of the complications of making 8-bit music and really any any Instrumental music in general is that because there are no? lyrics to Pick things up or to focus your listeners attention all of the emphasis in your music has to be on those Instruments, and you need those instruments to do Everything they have to get the attention keep the attention and keep things changing as you move on to avoid The song from sounding boring as you progress That's one of the complaints that a lot of people have about Trance music that I disagree with And that they say that trance music is is boring sometimes because you know there's no change but there is the difference is the changes in in trance music are very subtle and that's what we have here - we have a Subtle change in the mentality that picks up as we move on and you'll notice from this pattern here to the pattern that follows There is really only one change and that is that while here we start off with high low on all of these in this one We then switch into low high the reason I switch the base notes here from high low to low high is because all at once when the kick hits and the bass note plays if it were high instead of low and The lead square synth here all plays at the same time all the notes together play so loudly that it seemed Overwhelming to the ear so just that simple switch helped not only change the pattern just slightly but also helps to clarify the other notes And so that's the reason I made that change so again Just we have a small amount of progression in the bassline from the very beginning To the second section of the beginning into the actual bass of the song And you will here that we have one more change in the base pattern and that is in really kind of the chorus of The song here, and that is when the bass notes go from this slower Kind of off you know How would you call it -? Again, I'm sorry my lack of formal music - two beats, I guess Two notes per beat to a faster pattern, so you'll hear again what I'm talking about if we go here So I'm gonna remove these squares again, and you'll hear just the bass So the main change that happened there is now We've made the base line even faster to Help again up the energy level of the song and show that now we're really getting into the melody there that things have progressed beyond Where we started and the song has picked up? And that is really the other change that is you'll notice because the second section here the bass continue Is that pattern that you saw in the last one the low high low high low high high low high? All the way through this section here Which is kind of the beginning of the chorus or the bridge if you want to call it that and then the choral part the? Ending before the melody loops back around And so that's really all there is to the baseline I have those three cents that I put together at the beginning once I got the sound that I wanted and then I just had a slight change to the melody that follows along with everything else and That's really it for the baseline So moving into another part here I'll go back to the melody and I want to show you another strategy that I use particularly in this section of the song here that you may have heard initially, and this is the use of Multiple synth channels to create extra effects such as delay and reverb and this is something I talked about briefly at the end of the first video and now I will go into more detail here So if we listen to this pattern you can hear kind of what I'm talking about first I'll play just the basic square, and I'll remove these left and right blips as I called them And I'll show you what I'm talking about so here is just the basic itself Now we add these others in and again You notice these are switched on to the left and right channels so that their sound Although the synth is designed exactly the same if you look Side-by-side you'll see that the decay in the sustain are identical for those two channels Except these second ones Do not have a release value whereas the other one does and this serves two purposes The purpose is that for the first one it helps lengthen the note and give it kind of a reverb feeling to it sort of a reverb effect and these ones instead because they move to the left and right channels give us a sense of Three-dimensional echo as the notes play so anyway again. I'm sorry. I'll play the the first one and then I'll play it with the differences And now here is what the echo added So you notice now There's that echo Sound that kind of fills the rest of the sound spectrum that you hear while the song is playing that really helps it Stand out and brings the melody more to your attention The reason I add that echoing sound to the left and right channels is to help it The melody sound as though it's more surround sound kind of to where not everything is just coming straight at you It adds more definition to the music So that's the first strategy there is that that echo and that reverb that we talked about here Oh, yes, all right, so this is kind of part of the start this lead Okay So this lead channel again uses Famy synth and so it actually has a built-in delay function which you can hear if I turn the delay off You can then hear it without it And then if we add in the delay you'll hear it's very clear So now for this track in particular that timing that it has on its delay Just happens to be good for the melody and the the speed of the song and everything if it was not Then I would have a second channel in there and would have made a different delay effect myself But since this one just conveniently happened to work for what I needed I went ahead and used that feature You'll notice one of the other things that famiiy synth has is this section here It does still have decay and sustain here in the green section just like magic lake that does but here this blue section ads in modulation so I can make the note a bend and give it that kind of Kind of noise which you'll hear if I increase the depth of the modulation you'll be able to hear it very clearly So that's a little excessive It sounds kind of funny But if I turn it down you can see just that right amount of Bend to help it stand out from the other notes That are very straight. There is no modulation to them So there's that part so this section of the melody has a delay feature to it and also uses that modulation to help diversify the notes a little bit, and oh I didn't mention the 12.5 the background, so I'll do that quickly before we move on one of the other things I talked about in the first video is using the 12.5 Pulse as a background kind of like a strings effect, and so here is one example of a track when I did that Starts off first here at the beginning to go along with the melody here So I'll turn on just those channels, so you can hear how I lined them up So there's just all it is is this 12.5% pulse so that it sounds gives you a background Sin string of harmonized notes to help carry on the song and again fill up the sound spectrum because you'll notice the song sounds Much more empty without it Whereas these really fill the sound So it's a good way to help fill in that sound that Otherwise might be kind of hard to get using only 8-bit sense to help the music from sounding too Hollow So two things to notice here first of all for the 12.5. Cent that I use for that background. You'll notice There is no attack no sweep. No decay or anything just a plain straightforward note The only difference however is that you'll notice not only have I decreased the volume the velocity technically of the notes here on the the piano roll But I've also heavily reduced the volume of the channel itself all the way down to 34% Because these 8-bit scents are very loud Based just for a magical 8-bit and so when you turn them down like that it helps them from being overpowering But here all I've done with the 12.5 sort of string effect is just again to fill in the melody here, which if I turn off the Main melody you'll hear as it just kind of parallels the bass So, there's the purpose really of that and these other channels here you'll notice have been split into left and right and the purpose behind that is that later on in the song I Split that string effect to left and right to help it stand out from the rest of the melody to help make it more pronounced In the listeners ears again another change that helps kind of keep the song alive as it moves forward, so Let's move on to the second section kind of the song here. We've got that We've got our start here, but right around this area And then eventually at section 33 here is when the song really starts to pick up so let's go to this section here Which in which you'll notice the first change in the melody where we take our lead? We split it into left and right and Then we also have a 12.5 that comes in here centered in the middle channel, and you'll hear the effect as it comes in So there's that part there here, these are just the same square pattern that we had earlier on Which again, you'll hear is the same as we had here at the beginning The only difference is that way that the pattern ends before it moves on because we have a change in the base the Section there that requires these notes to change to avoid dissonance so that's the only reason for the change there, but here again Let's kind of look at the difference between the way these sound Split into left and right than if we had them play on the same channel so listen again Just to these notes split into left and right how they are in the song Now you notice that has a very striking sound that brings your attention To the two different notes used in the harmony because it split whereas if we put them both in the center you actually lose some Of that depth really and it just doesn't sound the same It sounds much more flat, there's a lot less definition to it and so that's why I prefer it this way So there's that now because both of those lead scents are rather loud again. They're all the way up here at 84% volume I have this other answering section come in in a 12.5 lead of sorts It's not a true 12.5 because the waveform is different It's a different kind of synth, but I have it come in at a lower volume to help fill in some of the gap Now there's one other thing you might have noticed there, and that's in this last section of this pattern here I Actually had all three of the scents come together and harmonized with different notes, so here. We have an F Here we have a C and Then over here we have an A. So we actually have all three of these notes So we get that third layer of the Harmony that comes in and so I did this to kind of create sort of a dynamic feel to where we Have these two scents that start off on the left and the right and then once they get to this section here in the progression This other synth comes in and it kind of starts adding in while these go from rapid up and down notes to these sort of Calmer extend ones then this one comes in with the up and down and at the end of the pattern all Three of them come together for this three layer harmony quick note effect that rounds it all out so again I'll kind of just play the whole thing again from the starting you can hear the transition So there was that now at the end here are these I called them squares, but they're actually not they're 12.5 s And that's because initially I had them as squares and just never renamed the channels All those do at the end is to serve as a little transition between the end of this Melody before we get into the chorus section So that was only these here at the end Which gets us ready for this new section here So there's kind of our last section of transition so the only thing I really want to point out about the melody There is the way that we use these different notes in the central and left and right channels To create a melody that comes together before the big combination of all of our sounds together so again let's bring in all the other instruments, and you can hear it all kind of come together using these noise crashes also to Power up to this main melody here and here again is our bass line that we talked about before going from this slower kind of two Notes per bar up and down to the much faster now constant beat that goes all the way throughout So now we've got this much bigger much more powerful melody that we've brought in that We've spent all this time building up to from the beginning of the song starting off very slow Adding in some flavor with the are 12.5 strings here Bringing in our lead our 12.5 lead Elkin here Before splitting it off into the left and right channels using the 12.5 in the middle middle to really build the melody together And then the melody all builds up to that point and explodes into this new sound so Here you'll notice. We've got a whole bunch of things going on the bass language. We already talked about but now our background 12.5 strings have gone from three note harmony to four note harmony emphasizing this section here Which you'll notice is actually the same bass. Sorry the same note that the bass is falling we're starting off on an F that We've got the duplicate there and so here in few note the bass. We've also got an F So the purpose of those strings now is to fill in that space between the low and high F Notes of the bass to help bring it together So again if I turn off all of these leads You can hear how it fills that section in as well So that's really again the purpose we've got our baseline that we expanded we have the 12.5 strings to fill in that area between the low and high bass notes because again just if if you listen to it without Without that middle section there. You'll notice it just sounds much more empty These also help to serve that but I'll get to those in a moment And you'll notice if we bring our strings back in there it already makes such a big difference So again the idea is Filling in the sound spectrum making sure that every section of the song has depth to it and making sure that it all it all Sounds good coming together so now let me talk about these what I called stagger squares And if you were listening closely again, you will notice they're not actually squares But that is again because they started as squares like these notes did here at the end of this pattern And then I changed them later, so let's listen to these So they're what I did is create kind of a sidechain effect So even without the strings and without the main melody we can still hear the difference that these Sidechain notes have as they come in So again There's kind of the way those fill in but now let's talk about the melody that we've used here because this is where things start to get interesting We've got two different things going on here So we have what I called a whistle 25 and a whistle square And so we have two different sounds now working together to create the melody so here is the first one in the pattern and Then here is the other one So this follows the same pattern that we use early our on in the song where we have the two notes Separated out into the left and right channels again harmonized, but split left to right The exact same thing as we did here Now the reason for the change here was that because we've already heard lots of 25-percent pulses here, and as the lead here at this point I thought we should do something different, which is why I brought this in and I decided to use a Softened square waveform here. It's actually a sine wave here. You'll notice if you look But by dropping it down to 4-bit sound and adjusting the way these come in it gives us a nice Soft sound that we can use alongside this to create a good melody So this together along with these staggered sounds is what really fills this melody and altogether Now that empty section there is with where these come in These are again left to right, but because of the way Fam ascent is set up. You can only control so much about the length of the notes And so you'll notice the difference here is if we look at the green section here in the middle the decay time is very short So these notes Drop off in their volume very quickly Whereas these I needed something a little different, so I separated those out Into different channels so that we have this sound together So there's that part so again putting everything else back together here remember the same pattern I followed here is the same pattern I used in the melody earlier on Separating out into the left and right channels to help define the sound a little better so we have these filling up the left and the right and then we have the bass and the strings kind of In the center in the middle channel panning working together And then these ones we actually Have split up filling up all three the center the right and the left and again. You'll notice these notes are harmonized So again they work together to create that harmonized sidechain effect We have this filling up the center making more harmony And now here, we've got these and left and right helping bring the melody out So let's put it all together again And all we did at the second part of this to help keep things changing a little bit so that the listener doesn't get bored Is to add in these little square blips again? And we use the same echoey effect that we used before by having the left and right channels Split up and a little bit delayed after the first one to again help fill in the sound a little bit more So you'll notice our base follows the same pattern is we have here you'll actually notice the note pattern is identical It follows the same pattern up and down So we've got that there all we've done is now just keep that all the way up to the end before we go to Loop the track back together, but we did make a change here you'll notice now our strings of is separated from the central channel to the left and right so that actually makes them sound different and Stands out more than they did before so again. Here is what they sound like in the center And then here again is once we've separated them out So again just changing up the sound as we move through the the track changing things up to help keep our listener Interested but this pattern. This is kind of where the magic happens for this section To really fill it all in so starting here. We bring everything in Now there's one other thing you might have heard in this section here And that's the equivalent of what FL Studio uses as slide notes Where we start off at one node and move to another now this is another convenient little feature of Fami synth in that family synth has this porta mono switch here. That's controlled by the a button and So porta mono is what makes the difference between it sounding like this and allowing us to slide those notes. That is just to add a little bit of diversity to the melody as it moves along and allows us to kind of change that up a little. And so, right here when you see two notes that are stacked on top of each other like this--this is actually what controls where our notes start and where they slide to, and it's actually based on the prior--the note--order in which you lay the notes down. I'll experiment with that later, and I'll give a little bit more detail when I do the video about FamiSynth itself, but that's how we create this slide effect. But again, another thing to help keep the melody alive, sort of. Now, this section here you'll notice again, we split the melody up into the left and right channels to help change it up as we move along, which starts right here in the actual track. So if we listen again, you can hear the transition. So again, it's just one little way to keep the melody moving and changing again, to help keep the listener interested, because we don't have things like lyrics or stuff to draw their attention, so just one more little strategy. Now, let's talk about this part here. These again are using those whistles that we talked about before, but so let's listen to how those come in alongside the main melody. They help fill in and again do that kind of "call and answer" as we move through. So it adds an extra layer of instruments there to help fill in our melody in this last section. And then just like here, we have this-- these 12.5 notes that come in here to, just to fill in that LAST little bit of the melody... which is actually what you hear that finishes the melody here at the end before it loops around again. So again, putting all of that together, we get this nice, full sound. We have the little square blips here to fill in that part... we have our strings... and of course we have our bass. So we put it all together, and we get this, just... really it's--it's beautiful the way it all comes together. So, we have the end of the song here. And, that's really the progression from beginning to end there. I'm gonna be honest. I love this song. It's just, it's--it's fantastic. But, so then we just loop back around to the exact same way that we started. But the convenient thing is, because of this very simple sounding start off where we've lost a lot of the instruments, it makes it easy for us to fade out at the end and kind of close the song off. Because once we complete our second run-through of the melody, we just soften the amount of percussion and things that we do to finish the song off. And so that's really it. Those are some of the strategies that I use frequently for melody when it make 8-bit music. I use a lot of harmony, because when you put the 8-bit synths together, whether it's the same instrument, like a square or a 25, or NOT it just--it adds a lot of depth to the sound and you kind of start to see that all of these different instruments are really very versatile in the ways you can put them together and allows you to do a lot of different sounds. So anyway, I you know this video is getting kind of long, so I'm gonna cut it off there for this time. I hope you learned a lot about putting together melodies and the way we can use some of these different instruments together And again, the next video I do I will talk a little bit more about FamiSynth and the things we can do with it that make it different from Magical8bit, but in the meantime I hope this was educational for you. Hope you enjoyed it, and I hope it helps you in your music. Thanks for watching!
