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Portal – Still Alive (8 Bit)

Jul 15, 2011

(Originally posted on Blogspot on Sunday, April 17, 2011)

Portal 2 comes out Tuesday (or Monday due to the Potato ARG)! In honour of this, I programmed Still Alive in 8-bit!
There is an incredible amount of crappy fake 8-bit covers of this on YouTube… kind of disappointing. Anyhoo, this one took a bit of time to program because of all the sections, layered/changing instruments, and the overall length of the song. I’m pretty satisfied with the results, though!
A few things of note: I love the bass roll at 45 seconds. I programmed a separate instrument for those few notes. Also, near the end, there was a tricky bit where all the instruments are going, including the electric guitar. I almost left the guitar out… but then I figured a way to include it without totally removing the backing instruments. To accomplish this, I have the electric guitar take over the Square Channel 2 for a moment (which is what I was using the the ukulele sound). Then I used Square Channel 1 (used for GLaDOS voice) to pick up the Uke melody. By doing this method, the Uke is only gone for a few notes, and since the emphasis is on the Electric Guitar, you don’t even realize it’s gone. (This is a technique I actually use on a lot of my 8-bit songs.) It makes it sound like I have 3 Square channels in a way. Here’s a picture of what I did:

As well as an audio file:
(Square 1 by itself first, then Square 2 by itself, then both Square channels together, and finally all five tracks.)
Well, that’s mostly it! Here’s the finished product!
Enjoy!!! Thanks for reading!
-Pouch!

Mario 64 – Wing Cap Theme (8-bit)

Jul 15, 2011

(Originally posted on Blogspot on Thursday, April 14, 2011)

Here it is – March’s second 8-bit cover…. in April! I got a late start last month, so I’m posting this now. I still have two more 8-bit tracks to post this month, as well… so be on the lookout!

Also, for the future, I’ve decided that I’ll have one shorter, bite-sized 8-bit track (songs without a lot of instrument changes, etc…) and one larger 8-bit (full songs, lots of instrument changes, etc…) each month. Sonic 2 – Mystic Cave was a larger more complicated song to program, so this Wing Cap Theme will be March’s short song.

This one was created as a challenge to me on an 8-bit forum. I tried to program it as close to the original Mario style as possible. It was important to use both square channels for the string parts, which left the triangle to play the backing melody (the ‘classic’ Mario invincibility music.) I believe I used a wav ripped from Mario 3 for doubling the percussion (to give it some more Mario-feel/authenticity.)

Enjoy!
-Pouch!

(OH! And I’ll be posting my next 8-bit track (a full-length one) on Sunday or Monday for a special occasion… heh heh. Any guesses on what it’ll be!?)

April Updates!

Jul 15, 2011

(Originally posted on Blogspot on Sunday, April 3, 2011)

First things first, the art section of my site is now open! Take a look! I implemented a nice fancy flash picture viewer into the table on the site – worked out well! Now I just have to upload some graphic art work as well…

Second: I did not post a second 8-bit track for March, so I will be posting three this month, as well as my ‘regular’ remix. Speaking of which, I downloaded a TON of great acapellas last night, including, but not limited to: IAMX, Bat for Lashes, Arcade Fire, Nirvana, The Beatles, Metric, MIA, and a bunch of others… should be interesting to work with.
Thirdly: www.MikePouch.Bandcamp.com is now open for business. There isn’t much posted there right now, but it’s all set up. I still need to set up the store page on my site, though. All in due time.
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading!
-Pouch!

MikePouch.com – redesigned!!!

Jul 15, 2011

(Originally posted on Blogspot on Wednesday, March 30, 2011)

In continuation of my ‘setting up an internet presence’, I’ve done a ton of work to the design of my site, MikePouch.com. I’ve decided to make it easier to edit, to remove clutter, to make a cleaner looking layout, and to add more useful content.

1. Making it easier to edit: I’ve linked this blog to the main home page, rather than having an HTML news page. It’s very easy for me to sign in to blogger and type up some quick news from any computer, without having to type any html code.

As well, the top ‘link bar’ used to be a jpg. This made it very annoying to have to edit, as I would have to edit a new jpg to add or remove a link. Yikes! Now, when I make a new store page (for instance), I can add a link on the bar in minutes. Nice…

2. Remove clutter: I had each page have it’s own individual ‘news’ page. If I was working on producing an album, there would be news for it under the Mike Pouch Productions page. For my solo album, there was news on the Mike Pouch Solo Music page. If there was news of a film score in the work… film score page… etc. What would happen with this format, is that nothing would ever get updated, and there would be a lot of outdated news very quick. With one single ‘News’ homepage that updates weekly, it simplifies things. As well, if I am working on a film score, album, etc – or something new gets release – you’ll hear about it on the main page.

Also, there was a lot of unused pages, and a lot of ‘coming soon’s. I have removed all of those placeholders, and rather – I’ll just post a link to those pages when I add them.

Some other things I removed were the individual bios for each page. There was one for my film scores, one for my solo, one for my production work, etc. This just led to a lot of uninteresting content, and an excessive amount of outdated content.

3. Make a cleaner looking layout: I decided to make the backing pages white, and the font black. This is pretty basic, but it looks much cleaner than the dark grey backgrounds with white font. Also, I’ve been making effective use of tables! I used to center everything – now all content is formatted to the left of it’s section. Much easier to read!

4. More useful content: While many of the pages are not updated yet, I am posting a lot more music onto the individual music pages (I plan on uploading a lot of music this weekend). And as I stated before, a centralized news update with this blog.

Here’s a sample look of the old design vs. the new design.
OLD:

(Lots of ‘coming soon’s that were there for years, lame content, centered fonts, dark backgrounds…)

NEW:

(Cleaner white background, simple content, MUSIC!)

-Pouch!

Sonic 2 – Mystic Cave Zone (8-Bit)

Jul 15, 2011

(Originally posted on Blogspot on Monday, March 28, 2011)

Posted a new song to my Youtube! This is the first of two monthly 8-bit tracks for March. (I know it is late in the month, so I’ll post the next one in a day or two.) I did this one a while ago, it’s certainly one of my best. I layered a lot of the channels to give it a really thick sound – (doubling the melody anywhere where there wasn’t a counter melody.) Not much else to say. Enjoy!

March 2011 Remix – Michael Jackson – Billie Jean

Jul 15, 2011

(Originally posted on Blogspot on Sunday, March 20, 2011)

I’m doing a monthly remix, starting right from this point onward. My first official remix release: Michael Jackson’s – Billie Jean. I made this over the summer to coincide with the anniversary of his death, a sort of memorial tribute. I finished 95% of it, before it was temporarily shelved.

I brought it back out recently, to test out my mixing/EQing skills, as well as to start my monthly remixes off.
When making this remix, I wanted to make something a little heavier than the original. I put some overdrive on the vocals, which really gave it some edge when he yells. I designed a few synths for this as well. I’m really proud of the effect breakdown at around 55 seconds in which leads into the bridge.

Enjoy! Thanks for reading!
-Pouch!

Starting Up An Internet Presence.

Jul 15, 2011

(Originally posted on Blogspot on Sunday, March 20, 2011)

Greetings! I have finally decided to start using this blog more often… so here we go!
There are a few things I am going to start doing:
1. Blog more often. This will be to post updates of my music progress, music inspirations, sound design techniques, etc. I will also post music releases.
2. Use Twitter more often. This will serve a similar purpose as blogging, but in a shorter format.
3. Release a monthly remix. I want to promote my music, and a great way of doing this is through remixes. If people like your remixes, people will often check out your own solo music. (Hopefully.)
4. Release a bi-monthly 8-bit remix. I have seen some great success with my Halo 8 (see below), and there has been a real resurgence of interest in 8-bit/chip tune music. I’ve become pretty efficient at Famitracker, a “free windows tracker for producing music for the NES/Famicom-systems. […] One of the features is NSF-file exporting. That allows music created in this tracker to be played on the real hardware, or even for for use in your own NES-applications.” In lament’s terms, you can make LEGIT Nintendo music that could actually be put onto an NES cartridge (as apposed to synths that simply sound similar to NES music).
 

Well, That’s mostly it for now. Thanks for reading. More posts coming soon!
-Pouch!

Introduction

Jul 15, 2011

(Originally posted on Blogspot on Saturday, August 14, 2010)

Greetings.

This is the current placeholder for a blog I am starting. I send a lot of emails to my friends about new songs, demos, projects in the works, inspirations, etc etc – and so, I have decided to make a lot of this public.

And so, this blog will document my current works of music/art/film/etc – I’ll talk about songs/films that inspire me, songs I am working on (recording/writing/demoing/etc) – and pretty much anything else I choose. That is all for now – expect a better design coming soon, as well as the first ‘official’ post.

-Pouch!

                       

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