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Yeah, every piece i do is meant to be either directly applied or easily converted to work with some BGM engine or another. I find it hard to motivate myself if it wouldn't be applicable.

I don't think any of the common engine (famitone, pently) supports the fine-tune effect i'm using here, but it's easy to work around. Digression:

I do see *some *value in that effect as it allows me to detune/chorus independently from using an instrument vibrato (making multiple vibrati instruments just with varying detunes would be size ineffective), but since vibrati tends to kick in after a while, i could in this case get away with non-vibrating detuned instruments for the short notes + gain finer control over when the detune kicks in. But it for the sake of the example file, having just one instrument for each legato/nonlegato mode was clearer.

One thing i find very convenient/useful is being able to gliss x seminotes up/down over n time, but that can also be worked around, albeit uncomfortably/a bit backwards; sometime size ineffectively.

Hi-pitch would be useful if you want percussion and/or percussive attacks on tonal notes.

What common engines support the note off MML command? It could be used for a lot more than "just" simple releases

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http://www.frankengraphics.com - personal NES blog

Interesting post. It made me go in and try adding volume 0 to the beginning of some of my envelopes. I didn't like how it sounded in the context of my own music. I find that the style of attack in a volume envelope is often enough to give a punchier sound to the beginning of notes (which may or may not include a volume entry of 0 at the beginning) When I want it to sound like an instrumentalist is tonguing their clarinet or whatever I use note cuts. In other words, I don't think it necessarily makes sense to use this hammer for all nails, so to speak.

*edit* I suddenly realized however this may be incredibly useful for fast triangle tremolo picking, so that I don't have to have different length envelopes for NTSC and PAL for instance. (thinking of a case where note cuts don't 'cut it') I'll have to try this out. Thanks for the thoughts.

Yeah, having the tri bass play 8th note/quaver or semiquaver (for example) makes the notes distinct without having to care for playback speed vs envelope length.

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http://www.frankengraphics.com - personal NES blog

I'm aware I'm bumping a 1 month old thread. Apologies.

Something I really like in PPMCK (that tool that nobody uses anymore apparently) is the @q command, which allows you to cut a note early by a desired amount of frames. For example, @q1 would cut all notes played by the current track one frame early. This is exactly like the solution with an envelope starting with 0, without the delay.

It's sad that FamiTracker has no quantization control, but that's how trackers are designed.

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FamiTracker has the S0x effect, which cuts a note x frames after the start of a row. For example, if the current "speed" is 7 frames per row (F05), S05 will cut it two frames early. The G0x effect, on the other hand, starts a note x frames late. Impulse Tracker and OpenMPT have the same effects but name them SCx (early cut) and SDx (delay). Or you can make a volume envelope that cuts after a particular number of frames, such as 9 6 5 5 5 0.

Pently has a few similar features.

• Pently 1 has "detached", an instrument setting that cuts all notes played on that instrument one half row early. It can be heard in the cover of "Leck mich im Arsch" in the Thwaite OST, as well as in several sample tracks included with the source distribution.
• Pently 3 (Thwaite and Zap Ruder) introduced attack envelopes in imitation of FamiTracker volume, duty, and arpeggio envelopes. If an instrument's sustain volume is 0, it will stop when the attack envelope completes. Setting volume 9 6 5 5 5 0 on an instrument makes all its notes 5 frames long.
• Pently 4 (RHDE) introduced grace notes, a generalization of S0x and G0x. A row's duration can be set in frames instead of fractions of a whole note using the 1g through 9g durations. The following row plays for the remainder of the original row. To play a note that cuts early, use f#4g r8, which plays an F# for 4 frames before cutting it and lasts a total of an eighth note. To start a note late, use w4g f#8, which waits four frames and then plays an F#, taking a total of an eighth note. It's called a grace note because acciaccatura happens if you make both events notes instead of waits or rests.