I'm back with a look at what makes Mega Man 2's soundtrack sound like Mega Man 2's soundtrack. PATREON: patreon.com/8bitmusictheory TWITTER: 8bitMusicTheory
Dude, thank you so much for this. I'm like 29 years behind my deadline on this project and you totally just saved it, hopefully they won't notice how late these songs are.
blue notes are chromatics. I didn't notice he said that because in my mind blue notes is a thing, and he can color them in any color he wants. I guess it was a joke
That's really lost on the United States. This is a game where the deciding factor is "we want the music to be so amazing that it defines the character" Yet, in the US, the music DID define the character, just, most of us never noticed it at all. In Japan, they kept on with the theme, with other characters like beat and bass. But we were mostly left out of that loop.
verdatum lol yeah that's pretty ironic but I guess totally awesome if your a fan The music is really thought out and just plain fun to listen too it's like the gateway to chiptune lol but yeah rock roll beat bass forte treble all that stuff
Not really, Mega Man is the only one changed from his Japanese name. Roll, Beat, Tango, Rush, Bass, Treble, Ballade... we weren't really left out all that much.
Sure, but of those names, Treble is the only particularly musical term; furthermore, of the characters, only Rush and Beat were in the original NES games. As a kid, I presumed Rush was named because he rushed to help you, and beat because the bird beat it's wings to fly. In my head, I always pronounced "Bass" like the fish, not like the musical register; and by that point, I was fully aware that Rock Man was named after the music.
Despite the fact I have no idea how music theory works & I can't read sheet music, these videos are strangely entertaining to me for some reason. I dunno what you're doin' to make me interested, but you're doing it right! Edit: I'm a VGM composer now.
LoftyPaby It's at least 60% because you get to listen to good music, and 20% because you're just trying to find the patterns between the sheet and the music.
For me it's the fact that something so artsy like music can sound so sciency. Not saying that I'm some sort of poser or hipster or someone who wants to feel faux smart, no I have always wanted to learn the secrets of music but never did the step until a few months ago. But the fact that it actually has all these intricacies to it is fascinating, especially for bleepbloop vidyagames. Plus, the guy has a fun delivery and humor (imho). Which adds to the charisma of the whole situation, too. Edit: Another example is "AvE"s channel (arduino vs evil), a guy who does all sort of engineering stuff, and, well, like a simple gear, for example. Pretty much everybody knows what a stereotypical gear/sprocket looks like. But then you get told how pretty much every facet of it, like the curvature of the grooves, the way it tapers or something has really, really, really big ramifications sometimes. It just makes me appreciate humanity a bit more...hehe. And then it's done in such a fun way...it just makes the world seem a bit more "alright"...plus, in the day and age of "everything equal mush" it's nice to see people to look up to, "magicians" that know arcane secrets of even simple things. It stimulates the old fat glob in the skull.
I think I always subconsciously knew that my lifelong love of rock, funky bass lines, harmonized melodies, and rhythmic offbeats and syncopation came from Mega Man, but here is proof. 😂
The part about the NES's audio limitations reminds me - Have you thought about making a video all about the sound of different consoles (especially older ones) and what makes them that way? The NES, SNES and N64 for example all have their little trends that carry over between games, franchises and composers, and I'd love to see a breakdown of that!
This is the easiest video to understand that you've produced yet! It's way easier to relate what you're saying to the music you're showing on the screen this time around. And offloading some of the comments to written annotations was a wonderful idea! Please make more videos like this :D
You should do so anyways. Like what the top comment is, maybe make your own composition at the end after an analysis to make your stuff a bit different.
tim time just because you're not the first doesn't mean there isn't demand for that type of content. 2 channels doing this type of video is better than just 1.
I've been waiting for this video my whole life. To say this soundtrack was important in my musical development would be an understatement. Thanks for picking it apart and identifying those motifs that make it so simple but nuanced at the same time. Excellent work
Very informative, but I would have loved to see you actually take your rules and use them to make an example of a new "Mega Man" song. The theory is one thing, but I'd really like to see what the application comes out sounding like. It would help to demonstrate how following these steps produces a similar but different sound.
If you want to see some original music in the Mega Man style (which I have noticed uses the same concepts), look at RushJet1. I mean, other than the fact that he's just an amazing 8-bit artist, period. And if you want to know of even more original Mega Man music, look up Mega Man Time Tangent. It was originally going to be a full fan-game, and a full soundtrack was made, but Capcom shut the project down (possibly because it was turning out to be superior to most of their games.)
It's less about wanting to hear some original music (though that is a bonus), and more about the fact that I'd like...not a visual aid, um, an auditory aid?...a demonstration of how these concepts come together for the purpose of composing new songs. It would be something to give context to the ideas being discussed, to merge theory and practice. That said, thanks for the recommendations!
This video is super informative and gives me a better understanding of how composers (at the time) were able to work with the limitations of the Famicom/NES. Also gave me a bunch of ideas on improving/approaching my original LSDj works.
Subscribed. Hard to put into words watching this, being a young composer who loved video game music. You filled in many blanks and make me want to write again. Great work, thanks.
30 years later and the music from this game continues to entertain, educate, and inspire me. I will never not say MegaMan2 was the greatest game with the greatest soundtrack ever made. full. stop.
8-bit I just have to say I think I got the money! The harmonic analysis is great and it brought back some Nostalgia from me as making me into as one of my favorite games of all time! Please keep these videos up... I use them to help teach my kids music theory and develop their interest in understanding how composers write music. Thanks a million and keep up the good work!
This was REALLY good. I unwillingly knew a lot of this internally, but didn't realize what it was exactly that I knew. This makes me feel like I can write music better now than I could before. Like I said, this was REALLY good.
I love your videos like this! It's so incredibly helpful to hear how these irregular chords can work in context. Thank you so much for doing these!!!! :D
Nova Comedy there is, but not necessarily in the context of "gamey" music, because the music itself is just kind of typical dance music in a flat 4/4 rhythm (out of necessity because the pacing of the game is tied solely to the BPM of the music). You could put literally any rhythmically flat 4/4 music onto the game and it would still work. Though that's a game design function rather than one of the music.
I really had no idea if there was. This channel has been my introduction to "serious" music theory. I just kind of thought it was interesting that it didn't have to be written to loop. Maybe there's something to both sides of zone 3? I don't know. There's probably not much.
This was the first NES game I ever got way back circa 1990. As an 8-year-old, I did not appreciate the music as much as I now know I should have. Thanks for the video! Also, I'll pile on to the "Castlevania" bandwagon & say if it's worth exploring (specifically Castlevania 2) please do.
The amount that these videos are helping me with my own compositions is incredible. I write 8Bit music using only the voices from the original NES chip and was REALLY lacking inspiration as of late until I discovered your channel! Shall be most definitely making a donation come pay-day. Many thanks from a new fan in Cornwall UK!
14 minutes of gobbledygook I don’t understand but still reaffirms the fact that Mega Man 2 still has the best video game soundtrack of all time. Thank you, sir.
The level of detail and fine craft put into the breakdown of this video is absurd and impressive. This is seriously high quality content, in terms of craftsmanship at least.
Just stumbled on your channel a bit ago, and as a video game/music nerd who knows nothing about music theory, these are amazing!!! I love trying to understand what you're saying and then getting to recognize it as I follow along with the music as you give examples. Keep up the great work!
bVI-bVII-i is sort of the minor key equivalent to IV-V-I. In fact, the bVI and bVII in minor are literally the same chords as the IV and V in the relative major.
This is definitely one of your better videos. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what is different but I definitely enjoyed this one a lot more than usual.
Really impressive video. Thanks for making it. Is there a good book you'd recommend that covers this kind of knowledge you have about what functions the various compositional techniques perform? Examples of what I'm talking about: 1) You implying that bVII -> i and bVI -> bVII -> i lends a "cool" or "rock" sound. 2) Syncopated 16th note basslines create "energetic" music. 3) Moving a chord progression back a half beat or 16th to the previous bar creates excitement.
I don't know anything about music, and you make me want to learn. that's a gift to be able to break down incredibly complex topics to where almost anyone can (begin to) understand them. well done and thank you.
At 1:39 in bars 3 and 4 why is it written bVII? Why not just VII? isn't VII of C minor B flat major chord (B flat - D - F) which are pretty much the notes that appear in those bars? In a flattened chord which I assume is what bVII means, wouldn't the second tone (in this case the D) be flattened, thus giving B flat - D flat - F? In the melody D is used rather than D flat!
On the first part, you are right; Bb it's naturally VII of C minor, so it should read just VII. On the second part, that chord you are saying (B-Flat, D-Flat, F) would Bb minor (Bbm), the VIIm of C minor. If it were bVII it would be: B-double flat, D flat, F flat (Bbb), or enharmonically speaking: A-C-E, an A minor chord (Am), the VI# of C minor.
ARMS has been a recent topic on using leitmotifs in music. Might be a good "relevant" game to talk about, but just a suggestion. Great video nevertheless.
This is an excellent video. Music Analysis videos that talk shop about chord progressions are a dime a dozen on youtube, but this one does much more than usual to really show what's going on and demonstrate what you're talking about. I didn't pick up on every bit of jargon, but this is a damn fine job.
This is the first video of yours that I almost fully understand ! Don't know if this one was simpler or if I got better, but I feel great either way ! Amazing video !
4:35 Actually, The NES has 5 channel sounds. The fifth channel sound is the DPCM, that produces an 1-bit sample sound, and it can be heard on SMB3 as the bongos on the Overworld Theme or in some Sunsoft games like a bass line, like Batman Return of Joker, Hebereke, Mr. Gimmick, Fester's Quest, etc. But the DPCM channel is frequently is used for drums because this channel requires a lot of memory space. Obviously, none of the Megaman NES titles uses this channel. :P
I think you made a small mistake with regards to the amount of sound channels the NES has. You have two pulses, a triangle, and a noise channel, plus the DPCM channel for samples. You do only have three types of waves you can create, maybe that's what you meant? The video is still smashing, good job m8.
Well yeah but the Mega Man soundtrack never uses DPCM. You also made a small mistake, it's not three type of waves, just three waves that can play simultaneously. There are a bunch of waveshapes for the pulse channels.
I am seriously nerding out about how cool this is! I'm studying to become a music teacher myself and I just absolutely adore this type of stuff! Awesome job!
I think you have to be a bit more specific than that. ZUN's music has evolved a lot- just compare TH15's "Frozen Capital of Eternity" and TH7's "Fantastic Legend of Tohno."
"And with that you all now know how to compose music for one specific game on a console and genre that hasn't really been relevant in like 20 years. You're welcome!" LOL
Love these videos so much because it has both things I love, the music theory behind music and video games. It would be cool to see classical music rearranged into the styles of NES games or something like that.
I love your channel and it was incredibly exciting to see that you covered Megaman 2 as it is one of my all-time favorites. I wrote a bunch of chiptunes stylistically inspired by it but it was a year or two before I realized how few voices are present in this stuff. LOL
This is the first time I've checked out this channel. Wonderful! And I agree with others, I want to hear what you might come up with for a mega man theme/tune!
UGGHH I love the soundtrack to this game. The music is just so deeply amazing and interesting to me. It sounds so mysterious and intense. Thanks for this video!
7:46 - "Blue notes in RED"
Ah, of course.
MarioMart Makes perfect sense!
Its like its in 3D!
you know
Protaman is blues
I'll be honest: I was expecting a composition of yours in the end :D
Yeah that would've been a lot cooler.
Yeah that was kind of a let down.
Necrossauro yeah same
does do his own compositions on his other videos?
fuckin right?!??
it's all about the O N E
thanks bootsy
I would love to see how a mega man jazz cover from you would turn out. Please make one!
Fancy seeing you here! This channel is totally awesome, just like you!
DAMN.
i literally watched that bootsy video last night for the first time then i see this comment the next morning,how weird. lol Know what i mean?
Apparently the One is something Bootsy picked up from James Brown
Dude, thank you so much for this. I'm like 29 years behind my deadline on this project and you totally just saved it, hopefully they won't notice how late these songs are.
You seem like a nice kid. Tell you what. Borrow my time machine, go back and get it done on time.
I hate to break it so late, but I already used the Dragon Balls for that.
"Blue notes in RED"
What does it even mean?!? щ（ﾟДﾟщ）
I loved that bit. He must have been in a weird mood when he made this video. XD
Just imagine a red blues note. Or a blue stop sign.
blue notes are chromatics. I didn't notice he said that because in my mind blue notes is a thing, and he can color them in any color he wants. I guess it was a joke
actually after a google search it seems there's a difference between blue notes and chromatics, but can't figure out what it is, can anyone help me ?
I mean he is called rock man after all
eyyyyyyy
That's really lost on the United States. This is a game where the deciding factor is "we want the music to be so amazing that it defines the character" Yet, in the US, the music DID define the character, just, most of us never noticed it at all. In Japan, they kept on with the theme, with other characters like beat and bass. But we were mostly left out of that loop.
verdatum lol yeah that's pretty ironic but I guess totally awesome if your a fan
The music is really thought out and just plain fun to listen too it's like the gateway to chiptune lol but yeah rock roll beat bass forte treble all that stuff
Not really, Mega Man is the only one changed from his Japanese name. Roll, Beat, Tango, Rush, Bass, Treble, Ballade... we weren't really left out all that much.
Sure, but of those names, Treble is the only particularly musical term; furthermore, of the characters, only Rush and Beat were in the original NES games. As a kid, I presumed Rush was named because he rushed to help you, and beat because the bird beat it's wings to fly. In my head, I always pronounced "Bass" like the fish, not like the musical register; and by that point, I was fully aware that Rock Man was named after the music.
Despite the fact I have no idea how music theory works & I can't read sheet music, these videos are strangely entertaining to me for some reason. I dunno what you're doin' to make me interested, but you're doing it right!
Edit: I'm a VGM composer now.
Me too dude xD
LoftyPaby It's at least 60% because you get to listen to good music, and 20% because you're just trying to find the patterns between the sheet and the music.
Same here! It's like he's speaking a different language, but I somehow understand it, and I'm fascinated!
Same! Most of what he's saying is totally lost on me; but I still like the videos!
For me it's the fact that something so artsy like music can sound so sciency. Not saying that I'm some sort of poser or hipster or someone who wants to feel faux smart, no I have always wanted to learn the secrets of music but never did the step until a few months ago.
But the fact that it actually has all these intricacies to it is fascinating, especially for bleepbloop vidyagames.
Plus, the guy has a fun delivery and humor (imho). Which adds to the charisma of the whole situation, too.
Edit:
Another example is "AvE"s channel (arduino vs evil), a guy who does all sort of engineering stuff, and, well, like a simple gear, for example. Pretty much everybody knows what a stereotypical gear/sprocket looks like.
But then you get told how pretty much every facet of it, like the curvature of the grooves, the way it tapers or something has really, really, really big ramifications sometimes.
It just makes me appreciate humanity a bit more...hehe. And then it's done in such a fun way...it just makes the world seem a bit more "alright"...plus, in the day and age of "everything equal mush" it's nice to see people to look up to, "magicians" that know arcane secrets of even simple things. It stimulates the old fat glob in the skull.
"It's got to have a funky bassline!" *shows picture of Joe Dart* = subscribed
Came to the comments to say this!
I think I always subconsciously knew that my lifelong love of rock, funky bass lines, harmonized melodies, and rhythmic offbeats and syncopation came from Mega Man, but here is proof. 😂
The part about the NES's audio limitations reminds me - Have you thought about making a video all about the sound of different consoles (especially older ones) and what makes them that way? The NES, SNES and N64 for example all have their little trends that carry over between games, franchises and composers, and I'd love to see a breakdown of that!
This exact concept with the 1, b6 b7 describes every Iron Maiden song ever haha. Love your content so much man
This is the easiest video to understand that you've produced yet! It's way easier to relate what you're saying to the music you're showing on the screen this time around. And offloading some of the comments to written annotations was a wonderful idea! Please make more videos like this :D
You have saved my current music composition project that is due in 2 weeks. Thank you so much for this small bit of inspiration!
I like this "make music in the style of this game" approach. You gonna do this for other games too, or is this a one off?
DKC 2 would be interesting, imo
You should do so anyways. Like what the top comment is, maybe make your own composition at the end after an analysis to make your stuff a bit different.
tim time just because you're not the first doesn't mean there isn't demand for that type of content. 2 channels doing this type of video is better than just 1.
Go do it!
good luck with the channel!
I've been waiting for this video my whole life. To say this soundtrack was important in my musical development would be an understatement. Thanks for picking it apart and identifying those motifs that make it so simple but nuanced at the same time. Excellent work
Very informative, but I would have loved to see you actually take your rules and use them to make an example of a new "Mega Man" song. The theory is one thing, but I'd really like to see what the application comes out sounding like. It would help to demonstrate how following these steps produces a similar but different sound.
If you want to see some original music in the Mega Man style (which I have noticed uses the same concepts), look at RushJet1.
I mean, other than the fact that he's just an amazing 8-bit artist, period.
And if you want to know of even more original Mega Man music, look up Mega Man Time Tangent. It was originally going to be a full fan-game, and a full soundtrack was made, but Capcom shut the project down (possibly because it was turning out to be superior to most of their games.)
It's less about wanting to hear some original music (though that is a bonus), and more about the fact that I'd like...not a visual aid, um, an auditory aid?...a demonstration of how these concepts come together for the purpose of composing new songs. It would be something to give context to the ideas being discussed, to merge theory and practice.
That said, thanks for the recommendations!
Quarter/sixteenth note bass gallop ala Iron Maiden.
Same with the bVI bVII I thing. I swear that progression is in at least 75% of everything Maiden's ever done.
is that new world order black heavy metal?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_wave_of_British_heavy_metal
yeah like half of the music in the Mega Man series is basically Iron Maiden
exactly my thoughts
This video is super informative and gives me a better understanding of how composers (at the time) were able to work with the limitations of the Famicom/NES. Also gave me a bunch of ideas on improving/approaching my original LSDj works.
I grew up playing Rockman 2 on my Famicom. Got skin-chills throughout the entire video. Thanks for the walk down memory lane! Love your channel!
Subscribed. Hard to put into words watching this, being a young composer who loved video game music. You filled in many blanks and make me want to write again. Great work, thanks.
Just such a fantastic video. This soundtrack is so ingrained in my psyche and seeing it laid out like this is fascinating! Thank you!
Fantastic video! :D also at 4:40 it´s mindblowing how much these composers did with so little, OMG!
I think this was the first one of your videos where I wasn't totally lost. Maybe I'm finally starting to learn. Lol
This is one of those soundtracks where you wonder how they did so much with so many limitations and almost every tune is a winner.
30 years later and the music from this game continues to entertain, educate, and inspire me. I will never not say MegaMan2 was the greatest game with the greatest soundtrack ever made. full. stop.
tried making a megaman track before but it didnt sound megaman enough. thanks for the tutorial it really helped on my second attempt.
8-bit I just have to say I think I got the money! The harmonic analysis is great and it brought back some Nostalgia from me as making me into as one of my favorite games of all time! Please keep these videos up... I use them to help teach my kids music theory and develop their interest in understanding how composers write music. Thanks a million and keep up the good work!
You are the BOSS! Each video of you I watch sharpens my ability to understand music; thank you so much!
This was REALLY good. I unwillingly knew a lot of this internally, but didn't realize what it was exactly that I knew. This makes me feel like I can write music better now than I could before. Like I said, this was REALLY good.
I'm just jamming along to this episode. Mega man 2's soundtrack is my sh!t
Same here.
I love your videos like this! It's so incredibly helpful to hear how these irregular chords can work in context. Thank you so much for doing these!!!! :D
I'm rewatching this video after a while, it packs a lot of useful information. Well done!
Please do a video on why the moon theme from the Duck Tales game feels so nostalgic and beautiful.
please.
I'm curious if there's anything interesting to be said about the "The Crypt Of The Necrodancer" soundtrack.
Dude without a doubt.
Nova Comedy there is, but not necessarily in the context of "gamey" music, because the music itself is just kind of typical dance music in a flat 4/4 rhythm (out of necessity because the pacing of the game is tied solely to the BPM of the music). You could put literally any rhythmically flat 4/4 music onto the game and it would still work. Though that's a game design function rather than one of the music.
I really had no idea if there was. This channel has been my introduction to "serious" music theory. I just kind of thought it was interesting that it didn't have to be written to loop. Maybe there's something to both sides of zone 3? I don't know. There's probably not much.
This was the first NES game I ever got way back circa 1990. As an 8-year-old, I did not appreciate the music as much as I now know I should have. Thanks for the video! Also, I'll pile on to the "Castlevania" bandwagon & say if it's worth exploring (specifically Castlevania 2) please do.
It's like someone made a video specifically for me! Thank you - keep up the awesome work!
JOE DART ON THE FENDER BASS
Have you thought about doing a video on Dragon Quest's music? I'd love to see your take on the heavy classical influences in those soundtracks.
Oh Hell yeah. Dragon Quest LOVED to bust out the odd contata, and they did it very well.
The amount that these videos are helping me with my own compositions is incredible. I write 8Bit music using only the voices from the original NES chip and was REALLY lacking inspiration as of late until I discovered your channel! Shall be most definitely making a donation come pay-day. Many thanks from a new fan in Cornwall UK!
This was awesome - thank you and any more vids like this would be appreciated!!
I have no idea what you're saying but I hear mm2wood and am happy
14 minutes of gobbledygook I don’t understand but still reaffirms the fact that Mega Man 2 still has the best video game soundtrack of all time. Thank you, sir.
The level of detail and fine craft put into the breakdown of this video is absurd and impressive.
This is seriously high quality content, in terms of craftsmanship at least.
Just stumbled on your channel a bit ago, and as a video game/music nerd who knows nothing about music theory, these are amazing!!! I love trying to understand what you're saying and then getting to recognize it as I follow along with the music as you give examples. Keep up the great work!
Galloping basslines....
bVI bVII I progressions....
Iron Maiden anyone?
Yep, with some Thin Lizzy thrown in along with a fair bit of Queen-esque harmonies.
Hell yeah, thought the same
bVI-bVII-i is sort of the minor key equivalent to IV-V-I. In fact, the bVI and bVII in minor are literally the same chords as the IV and V in the relative major.
I dont have any idea about making music, what am I doing here actually?!
This is definitely one of your better videos. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what is different but I definitely enjoyed this one a lot more than usual.
Well done man! Definitely got my subscribe for this genius breakdown!
Really impressive video. Thanks for making it.
Is there a good book you'd recommend that covers this kind of knowledge you have about what functions the various compositional techniques perform? Examples of what I'm talking about: 1) You implying that bVII -> i and bVI -> bVII -> i lends a "cool" or "rock" sound. 2) Syncopated 16th note basslines create "energetic" music. 3) Moving a chord progression back a half beat or 16th to the previous bar creates excitement.
nice >:]
memes aside, great video!
Pixel Cherries are emoticons memes now?
todokete
Elia, forse leave
no
mikeax24 well that wasn't too grand...
This is by far my favorite music related channel. Thank you for what you do. :)
I don't know anything about music, and you make me want to learn. that's a gift to be able to break down incredibly complex topics to where almost anyone can (begin to) understand them. well done and thank you.
just gonna like the video without even seeing it yet
Man, what a nice >:] tutorial.
I've been waiting for this video since my childhood, many thanks!
Great breakdown and musical analysis bro! I love what you're doing!
How to make castlevania music
Just Remix that third last stage music from Castlevania 3 for every upcoming Castlevania.
You're welcome
(just a joke the soundtrack is superb)
Maybe like this: ua-cam.com/video/jioJ6f1QhsI/v-deo.html ? ;)
At 1:39 in bars 3 and 4 why is it written bVII? Why not just VII? isn't VII of C minor B flat major chord (B flat - D - F) which are pretty much the notes that appear in those bars? In a flattened chord which I assume is what bVII means, wouldn't the second tone (in this case the D) be flattened, thus giving B flat - D flat - F? In the melody D is used rather than D flat!
You are correct and Im surprised how long I had to scroll down to find this comment
It's a major chord built around the bVII of C, which is Bb, D, and F.
On the first part, you are right; Bb it's naturally VII of C minor, so it should read just VII.
On the second part, that chord you are saying (B-Flat, D-Flat, F) would Bb minor (Bbm), the VIIm of C minor.
If it were bVII it would be: B-double flat, D flat, F flat (Bbb), or enharmonically speaking: A-C-E, an A minor chord (Am), the VI# of C minor.
I admit, I wasn't sure about this vid but 2 minutes in I was really bopping to this vibe. Nice work dude, can't wait for the next one!
You're wonderful!! Keep making videos, I love them!
If you're not gonna make a "how to write a Pokémon battle theme" video... nah, just do it
Luca Faustini PLEASE
i can already predict they all have that baseline signature of 2 notes repeated
Shadowmaxim and have a chord progression of I - II flat
Especially in bars 3-10! And no first two bars are complete without a flood of descending chromatic runs
AND rising. You don't wanna leave those ones out.
ARMS has been a recent topic on using leitmotifs in music. Might be a good "relevant" game to talk about, but just a suggestion. Great video nevertheless.
So totally relevant! At least to me. I love this format. Always thought the music just sounded so metal. Keep it up bud!
This is an excellent video. Music Analysis videos that talk shop about chord progressions are a dime a dozen on youtube, but this one does much more than usual to really show what's going on and demonstrate what you're talking about. I didn't pick up on every bit of jargon, but this is a damn fine job.
It's rock music because it's Rock Man
Shut up, imposter.
Joe Dart!
Dude! This was amazing! Great analysis!
This is the first video of yours that I almost fully understand ! Don't know if this one was simpler or if I got better, but I feel great either way ! Amazing video !
And how do you write a song if you can't defeat Airman?
4:35 Actually, The NES has 5 channel sounds. The fifth channel sound is the DPCM, that produces an 1-bit sample sound, and it can be heard on SMB3 as the bongos on the Overworld Theme or in some Sunsoft games like a bass line, like Batman Return of Joker, Hebereke, Mr. Gimmick, Fester's Quest, etc. But the DPCM channel is frequently is used for drums because this channel requires a lot of memory space. Obviously, none of the Megaman NES titles uses this channel. :P
Love this video! You're great at pointing out the right things in video game music
Loved this! Also enjoyed hearing about how they made the most of the NES' sound limitations! It still manages to sound incredibly busy
I think you made a small mistake with regards to the amount of sound channels the NES has. You have two pulses, a triangle, and a noise channel, plus the DPCM channel for samples. You do only have three types of waves you can create, maybe that's what you meant? The video is still smashing, good job m8.
Well yeah but the Mega Man soundtrack never uses DPCM. You also made a small mistake, it's not three type of waves, just three waves that can play simultaneously. There are a bunch of waveshapes for the pulse channels.
Nick Nuwe Yeah, you got your 12.5% 25% and 50% pulse waves as well, good catch.
insanely difficult 2d platformers have been relevant for the past 5+ years what are you talking about
I am seriously nerding out about how cool this is! I'm studying to become a music teacher myself and I just absolutely adore this type of stuff! Awesome job!
could you do earthbound beginnings plz 👍👍👍
Do one on Golden Sun
I know next to nothing about music theory. This stuff is absolutely fascinating. I want to go learn about this stuff now!
Wow, just wow
This was a great video thank you so much for putting all this effort into this amazing project
How to write a song from the Touhou soundtrack? :3
Ephelizard yoooo
Step 1: Give up
I think you have to be a bit more specific than that. ZUN's music has evolved a lot- just compare TH15's "Frozen Capital of Eternity" and TH7's "Fantastic Legend of Tohno."
Hi, my name is Troy McClure...
Actually, it's not a very good impression. I think he'd nail it if he practiced speaking from the diaphragm.
Scrunchy Howard You right
I like that your reference for a funky bass line is Joe Dart on the fender bass
This is my favourite NES soundtrack, so this video was perfect! Thanks dude!
"And with that you all now know how to compose music for one specific game on a console and genre that hasn't really been relevant in like 20 years. You're welcome!"
LOL
Check out mm2wood on UA-cam for a way better tutorial.
ThePyrosirys nice >:]
nice
I was hoping there'd be one comment like this
Found the siiva comment
Nice
Love these videos so much because it has both things I love, the music theory behind music and video games. It would be cool to see classical music rearranged into the styles of NES games or something like that.
I love your channel and it was incredibly exciting to see that you covered Megaman 2 as it is one of my all-time favorites. I wrote a bunch of chiptunes stylistically inspired by it but it was a year or two before I realized how few voices are present in this stuff. LOL
please stop stretching the 4:3 aspect ratio footage of old games into the 16:9 youtube video
yes
one of my favorite parts of your videos is the very sudden and strange humor you put in super casually. "our slimy lizard brains"
Great video, as always! I love this stuff!
After watching this I wrote a Mega Man style song and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, so thanks for making this video!
Until now, I didn't know it was possible for an entire video to go over my head.
Thank you.
Dayyum, this is some really good music nerd analysis. Going to share this
I like this, I'm not too knowledgeable in terms of music but I love there is a channel that goes through the classics of Video Games.
I'd love to see more videos like this one. Absolutely amazing.
Thie channel is awesome. Discovered this through reddit, thanks for the video!
You're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!! Missed your videos!
This is the first time I've checked out this channel. Wonderful! And I agree with others, I want to hear what you might come up with for a mega man theme/tune!
UGGHH I love the soundtrack to this game. The music is just so deeply amazing and interesting to me. It sounds so mysterious and intense. Thanks for this video!
Great video! Music gets so interesting by watching your videos :D