Bible Black ~ Grimoire

for YM2612 + SN76489

by MetallicOrwell

The very nature of something like Bible Black basically demands ironic detachment--you wouldn't flat-out admit you're into a game like this, unless you're on the seediest Discord server imaginable. Then again, a lot of people are horny on main nowadays, so what do I know? Personally, I have no problem admitting I'm fond of Bible Black's badass satanic orgies, as well as its mood and especially its branching paths. Any game where you get to choose to be good or evil is a winner for me, and the ending where you seize power, take over the school and build an empire of sex and black magic was catnip for me when I was Minase's age. Nowadays it's *mostly* an object of nostalgia for me, and the music is obviously part of that. I've covered its Main Theme before, as well as Walpurgis Night, which plays during the climax (I'm not apologizing for that pun) of the game. Grimoire here is very different: mellow yet unsettling, perfect for when you're turning the pages of a centuries-old book which contains evil secrets.

For some reason I expected this to be more of a challenge, but it really wasn't. It's got a flute, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, warmpad, some strings, and not much more--all instruments I know how to make sound good. By combining a whistle instrument with the SN76489's square waves, a very nice flute sound is achieved. Since it's a mellow piece with a soft acoustic bass, I went with extended channel 3 mode. By using it with algorithm 4, I can fill FM3 with simplified versions of the flute and guitar to have a lot of echo, which I think is important in mellow pieces, because otherwise they can sound quite empty. Of course, once the bass comes in, that takes up half of FM 3, and the other half is used to keep doing the guitar's echo. The second square wave channel can do the echo of the first, so even though the flute loses a little bit of that effect, you don't notice it too much.

There was some redundancy in the chords, like notes repeated across octaves and channels, so I got rid of those. I had to do some trickery to get some of the guitar arpeggios to sound right, but it wasn't too bad. I included some nice vibrato effects on the flute and square waves, too. Finally, there are some custom strings to enhance the main melody at the very end. This sounds like me recounting my experience buying groceries or something. Anyhow, the most complicated part is that the drumming is quite complex in some sections, as there are a few sounds playing at the same time. So, I recorded the samples playing at the same time (they're almost all from FLEX's jazz kit) and even added some echo to some of them. Of course, I used the noise channel for the hi-hats.

I think that's it, so there you go: shortest write-up ever. Crank this up, pick up a good book and do some responsible reading--above all, don't think dirty thoughts. There, a little bit of detached irony.

See you around.

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