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81

General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania Bloodlines MSU-MD patch - full walkthrough and links

« Last post by Mysterii on August 17, 2022, 10:39:42 AM »

Cam you give me a link with that version?

Here you go. Taken directly from Chernabogue's YouTube

82

General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania Bloodlines MSU-MD patch - full walkthrough and links

« Last post by pepodmc on August 17, 2022, 09:52:10 AM »

Yes please. And a link to all the other music used in the above video too 

I dont have the links of the tracks at hand (i finished all this 5 months ago, but., because of personal problems, i released it this week) but i made a list with the youtube author or where i got the tracks

Some tracks are part of medleys, or 4 o 5 tracks in one video, for example, linux burns one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zs5LBqlHTg

or vision from dark secrets is part of a circle of the moon full ost cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnfkcrU2Jw8

But with this list, you have an idea how to find them


youtube authors channels


"01 - Konami Logo   -----   author: The Native Dialect

"02 - The Beating in Darkness (Title Theme)   -----   author:  Linux Burns

"03 - A Vision of Dark Secrets (Opening Theme)   -----   author: jattello

"04 - Bonds of Brave Men (Character Selection)   -----   author:  Linux Burns

"06 - Mysterious Curse (Password)   -----   author:  Linux Burns   

"08 - Reincarnated Soul, Part 2 (Stage 1)   -----   author:  ElroxVGC

"10 - The Sinking Old Sanctuary (Stage 2)   -----   author: Remastered VGM

"11 - The Sinking Old Sanctuary (Stage 2 - 2nd section)   -----   author: Andrew Malefice

"12 - The Discolored Wall (Stage 3)   -----   author:  Egotisticmaniac

"13 - The Discolored Wall (Stage 3 - 2nd section)   -----   author: DavidKBD Videogame Metal Covers

"17 - The Prayer of a Tragic Queen (Stage 5 - 2nd section)   -----   author: Fredrik Enochson

"18 - Calling From Heaven (Stage 6)   -----   author:  qwertine

"19 - Calling From Heaven (Stage 6 - 2nd section)   -----   author:  ansgaros

"21 - After the Good Fight (Game Over)   -----   author: Adam Harris

"22 - Pressure (Invincibility)   -----   author: Yuta Romeo

"27 - Messenger From Devil (Area Boss Theme)   -----   author:  Bruno Shinkou (GuitarDreamer)

"36 - Together Forever (Ending Theme)   -----   author: Pablo Diego Di Martino

"37 - Requiem for the Nameless Victims (Staff Roll)   -----   author:  Ephesian Zap




From other official castlevania games and OST releases:


"05 - Arduous Journey (Map Theme)   -----   author: Castlevania Judgment ost

"23 - Beginning (Classic Tune 1)   -----   author: Castlevania R.O.B ost
 
"24 - Bloody Tears (Classic Tune 2)   -----   author: Castlevania R.O.B ost

"25 - Vampire Killer (Classic Tune 3)   -----   author: Castlevania R.O.B ost

"26 - Nothing to Lose (Stage 1D)   -----   author:  Super Smash Bros Ultimate ost

"28 - The Six Servants of the Devil (Stage Boss Theme)   -----   author: castlevania R.O.B ost

"29 - Theme of Simon (Classic Tune 4)   -----   author: Castlevania P.O.R ost

"30 - The Vampire's Stomach (Final Boss Theme)   -----   author: Michiru Yamane's Autobiography Arrange





From Fan ost releases:


"09 - Reincarnated Soul, Part 2 (Stage 1 2nd section)   -----   author: Naoto Shibata Project

"14 - Iron-Blue Intention (Stage 4)   -----   author: Dartz Soryu Portrait of Ruin Remastered soundtrack

"15 - Iron-Blue Intention (Stage 4 2nd section)   -----   author:  DrManhattan "Dwelling of Duels"

"16 - The Prayer of a Tragic Queen (Stage 5)   -----   author: Fawzi Allouache ost "tears of pain"

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania Bloodlines MSU-MD patch - full walkthrough and links

« Last post by X on August 17, 2022, 09:29:22 AM »

Yes please. And a link to all the other music used in the above video too 

84

General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania Bloodlines MSU-MD patch - full walkthrough and links

« Last post by pepodmc on August 17, 2022, 03:21:30 AM »

What about the version in Vampire Variations?

Cam you give me a link with that version?

85

General Castlevania Discussion / So I kinda cracked CV3's music programming

« Last post by TheouAegis on August 16, 2022, 10:14:03 PM »

I'm partly just giving up because I've been working on it for so many days now, but I'm also genuinely satisfied with what I came up with.

First thing's first: I mapped out - I'm pretty sure - every variable used in Akumajou Densetsu's audio engine. You can find it on the Data Crystal wiki over at RomHacking. I don't know yet what changes to the audio engine were made for Castlevania 3, but I didn't really care about that right now.

As it turns out, the audio engine was more extensive than I had anticipated. I'm not sure how it compares to other games on the Famicom or NES, but I certainly wasn't anticipating al segno, coda, ritenuto, or a couple other musical terms I've long since forgotten since I was last in school. I mean, they weren't called that explicitly, but my brief refresher on musical terminology lead me to those terms.

Notes could be encapsulated inside a volume envelope or pitch envelope. Envelopes could be loaded once and disabled when not wanted. There was even some sort of note sustaining going on - as in one note would stop and a previous note would play in its stead. Yeah, it was pretty complex! Because of all this, some notes could be defined by 1 byte, while others required 5, 7, or even 9 bytes to define!

There was no Triangle Wave channel. The standard Square Wave channels were hardly audible at times, even with other audio channels disabled. Disabling the wave channels allowed me to really enjoy the DPCM drum kit, but I didn't really look too deep into the drum stuff or the sound effects.

Anyway, I know that none of this is interesting to 99% of the people out there, but it was just a hobby I took up in recent weeks. I don't plan on actually modifying CV3/AkuDen music myself, but maybe someone else out there could use this.

https://gmvania.blogspot.com/2022/08/cv3-audio-system-notes.html

(click to show/hide)

Please refer to my CV3/AkuDen RAM map here for variable & byte references. I will eventually update my RAM map on this blog, but for now I am editing the off-site one due to how slow Blogger has become. If you are confused about some of the terms I use, Google them - it could be educational.
 
Channels are organized in groups of 9, 7, or 5 referenced by X-register.
    9-Channel Layout:
        0: VRC6 Pulse 1
        1: VRC6 Pulse 2
        2: VRC6 Sawtooth
        3: BGM Square 1
        4: BGM Square 2
        5: SFX Square 1
        6: SFX Square 2
        7: Drumkit (defines DCM and Noise playback)
        8: Noise
    7-channel layout removes Drumkit and Noise.
    5-channel layout also removes SFX channels.

When a new track is loaded via routine $E249, the track's header is loaded to initialize the required channels.

Track Initialization
    00    ROM Bank
    01    Extra Channels
Instrument Data
    00    Instrument ID
    01    First Note Address (low)
    02    First Note Address (high)

Each step, the program checks if a channel has an audio track specified. If so, it checks if the pause jingle is playing. Otherwise it checks if music is paused (byte $06DC), in which case BGM tracks are ignored. If both those checks fail, then the ritenuto flag (byte $01BF) is checked for BGM tracks, in which case the current step would be ignored.

Once all those checks are out of the way, note_duration decreases. If it hits 0, the next sequence of note data is evaluated. Specific note data can take up any number of bytes. Each note starts with a Router, read as follows.
    NNNN AAAA
Program behavior depends on N as follows.

0 to 11: Multiply the duration of the next note by A+1; if using an envelope, reset envelope position; multiply note duration by fade_settings & #0f, set fadeout_start to value saved in upper nybble (e.g. #1C->#01); clear alternate duty attribute unless one is specified; initialize the volume envelope if enabled; get the note-specific period from a LUT based on N, adjusted by key_change (Pulse channels range from #0D5C (C₁) up to #01C5 (B₃), whereas Sawtooth channel ranges from #0F44 (C₁) up to #0205 (B₂)); shift octave up by #05-octave_shift (LSR/ROR raises the octave); set the next sustained period; add pitchbend_value to the period; write period to register.

12: Multiply duration of next note by A+1; reset envelope position; initialize control register.

13: Set next note duration to A; set duty_cycle to upper nybble of next datapoint and next_volume to lower nybble; set volume envelope to next datapoint; set note_dampen to next_volume if positive, otherwise set it to #00; set fade_settings to lower nybble of next datapoint and fade_delay_next to upper nybble. Evaluate subsequent datapoint.

14: Set octave_shift to A if less than 6, else subtract 6 from A and goto corresponding subroutine.
0: Set next note duration to next datapoint; if disabled attribute set, restrict next note duration within #0f.
1: Set volume envelope to next datapoint.
2: Set fade_settings and fade_delay_next to next datapoint.
3: If next datapoint is #00, set alternate duty to #00; else if it's a multiple of #10, set duty_cycle to datapoint; else set alternate duty to datapoint and set attribute.
4: Shift next datapoint left and set key_change to result; if carry bit set, set key_change to negative.
5: If next datapoint is #00, clear alternate duty attribute. Otherwise subtract #50 and set as sweep_envelope; set envelope attribute; expand next note duration by upper nybble of next datapoint; set sweep_rate to lower nybble.
6: If disabled attribute set and next datapoint is a factor of #10, or attribute is cleared and next datapoint is #00, disable sustain_state; otherwise set sustain_position to 0 and set sustain_state to datapoint value -3|#50.
7 or 9: Set pitchbend_value to next datapoint. (break)
8: Set ritenuto_cutoff to next datapoint.
In each case except 7 or 9, evaluate the subsequent datapoint.

15: Terminal points.
#FB: Al segno. Add Y+1 to working address to get loop address, then set al segno state.

#FD: Volta bracket. If looping state set, goto coda_address. Otherwise set note address to next datapoint; add Y+1 to working address to get next ending address; set looping state. Evaluate subsequent datapoint.

#FE: Repeat bracket. If next datapoint is not #FF, increase loop count and compare; if equal, advance note address, otherwise jump to alsegno_address. Otherwise, set note address to next datapoint (da capo al segno). In all cases, evaluate subsequent datapoint.

#FF: End of track. Set track and channel volume to #00.

#F0 to #FC: Exept for #FB, sets note_dampen to lower nybble. Evaluate subsequent datapoint.

If note_duration does not reach 0, all that note data is processed. First, the sustain envelope is handled, assuming the track is not a sound effect or sustain is currently disabled. If note_duration modulo next_duration is 0, the note is cut off and the next sustained note is played.

If not currently in "release" state, the pitchbend envelope is handled, assuming the pitchbend attribute is set. The modified period is then written to the registers.

If not currently in "release" state, the volume envelope is handled next. If note_duration is less than fadeout_start, the channel is set to the "release" state, then the duty cycle is fetched, coupled with the volume (after dampening), and written to the registers. Note that bits 2 and 3 of the alternate duty cycle are the volume, and bit 1 tells the channel to use the alternate duty cycle.

Now the current state is processed.

0: Initialize. Not used as a state. This is the function that applies the duty cycle and volume dampening.

1: Decay. If fade_duration decreases below 0, the channel is set to the "sustain" state (fade_duration is also made negative, which is pointless because it's already negative). Otherwise, the volume is lowered by 1.

2: Sustain. The code checks if in the "release" state first, which is odd since it's never called elsewhere that I have seen. Then it exits the code if in the "release" state - that part actually makes sense in context. Anyway, this is just the volume envelope handling we already saw earlier. In other words, this state is just a waste of time.

3: Release. The next sustained note is played and volume fades out (or at least to #01).

Let's look at an example of 2 sets of drum data.

D7 38 85 18 E2 C6
1. redirect to routine 1, set next_duration to 7
2. set duty_cycle to 3, set next_volume to 8
3. set volume_envelope to 85, set note_dampen to 0
4. set fade_settings to 8, set fade_delay_next to 1
Load next note data
5. redirect to routine 2, set pitch_sweep to 2
Load next note data
6. redirect to routine 0, set note_duration to #31 (7*(6+1))
ED 81 EA 00 E9 01 D7 40 58 1A E5 C0
1. redirect to routine 2, redirect to subroutine 7 (D-6)
2. set pitchbend_value to 81
Load next note data
3. redirect to routine 2, redirect to subroutine 4 (A-6)
4. set key_change to 00
Load next note data
5. redirect to routine 2, redirect to subroutine 3 (9-6)
6. set duty_cycle_alt to 01
Load next note data
7. redirect to routine 1, set duration_next to 7
8. set duty_cycle to 4, set next_volume to 0
9. set volume_envelope to 58
10. set fade_settings to A, set fade_delay_next to 1
Load next note data
11. redirect to routine 2, set pitch_sweep to 5
Load next note data
12. redirect to routine 0, set note_duration to 7 (7*(0+1))
 
Now let's look at a few notes from a Square channel.

50 A0 50 20 E3 A0 E4 90
1. set note_duration to 7 (7*(0+1)), reset pitch envelope, set fadeout_start, set fade_delay to 1, reset volume envelope, set note to F and adjust the octave
Load next note data
2. same as (1), but set note to A#
Load next note data
3. same as (1)
Load next note data
4. same as (1), but set note to D
Load next note data
5. redirect to routine 2, set octave_shift to 3
6. same as (2)
Load next note data
7. redirect to routine 2, set octave_shift to 4
8. same as (1), but set note to A
 
Note: There is a simplified chart on my blog.

86

General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania Bloodlines MSU-MD patch - full walkthrough and links

« Last post by Mysterii on August 16, 2022, 08:27:19 PM »

Yeah, i searched in every place i could. but i couldnt find a decent one yet

Only one that, in one part the piano sounds so loud that makes the track unusable

What about the version in Vampire Variations?

87

General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania Bloodlines MSU-MD patch - full walkthrough and links

« Last post by X on August 16, 2022, 09:46:45 AM »

Rats. 

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General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania Bloodlines MSU-MD patch - full walkthrough and links

« Last post by pepodmc on August 16, 2022, 05:17:14 AM »

That a nice touch for a Genesis title

Although I feel it would pass better if you used a CD quality arranged track of the CV bloodlines boss battle music rather then the Dracula X one. But I'm guessing that there isn't one to be found yet.

Yeah, i searched in every place i could. but i couldnt find a decent one yet

Only one that, in one part the piano sounds so loud that makes the track unusable

89

General Castlevania Discussion / Re: Castlevania Bloodlines MSU-MD patch - full walkthrough and links

« Last post by X on August 15, 2022, 08:55:10 PM »

That a nice touch for a Genesis title

Although I feel it would pass better if you used a CD quality arranged track of the CV bloodlines boss battle music rather then the Dracula X one. But I'm guessing that there isn't one to be found yet.

90

General Castlevania Discussion / Castlevania Bloodlines MSU-MD patch - full walkthrough and links

« Last post by pepodmc on August 15, 2022, 12:13:50 PM »

Hello, here i bring to you the game "Castlevania Bloodlines" with CD quality music thanks to a MSU-MD patch made by the user "VOID" from the page "Zeldix". And the music pack was compiled by me.

For this patch i could not decide if i wanted orchestra like tracks or more rock/metal tracks. So, i asked Void to make a little different kind of patch.

On this game, starts the stage track , when you reach the miniboss the track changes to the miniboss track, and after defeating him/her, the stage track starts again.
So i asked VOID to make an extra space for each stage after defeating the miniboss. So , the stage starts with an orchestra like track, and after defeating the miniboss, a rock/metal version of the track will start playing.

This way, the soundtrack will be more diverse.

When playing on retroarch using the core genesis plus GX, enable the option "disable seek times" so the tracks starts faster and the loop works.

If you can left a message on the youtube video would be very appreciated

I played using a spanish patched rom, but, there is a link for the original english version in the description of the video.