for YM2612 + SN76489
by MetallicOrwell
I haven't done a fully original piece in a while, so it was about time. This one, again, resulted from yet another failed attempt at making synthwave--it's almost becoming a running theme. And while this is certainly no Metallic Maiden, I'm still pretty happy with the results. I have no idea what genre this is, by the way, because even though the Mega Drive's FM + PSG combo definitely gives it a video game-y feel, I don't think it has that much to do with the composition itself. Let's do the usual thing.
I watched some tutorials on YouTube on how to make synthwave and laid some foundations on FL Studio: bass, chords, simplistic drums and some arpeggios. I wasn't satisfied with how it sounded, so I abandoned it and went off to do the Eschatos cover. I then tried to make other original pieces, but I wasn't able to come up with good melodies. I came back to this one, added a melody on top of what I already had, and then it started to click. I think I've learned something important here: it is very difficult for me to just come up with melodies out of thin air and build a song around that, but the reverse is very much doable--in fact, I'd say Night Cruiser here has some really catchy ones. Lesson learned: start with the foundations, and then make a melody that fits that.
The main synth riff was inspired by the song Loved To Deth by Megadeth (I'll be a metalhead until the day I die, I suppose), and it goes very well with the arpeggios. I wonder if this could be considered counterpoint? Anyhow, once this thing took off, it was easier to let my instincts do their thing and compose the following sections. Again, it was all about coming up with the bassline first, laying some chords (all standard minor ones) with synth strings, the arpeggios, and then the melodies. Sometimes I made them into harmonies, and in fact there are some guitar ones, because of course I have Iron Maiden permanently burned into my brain. And then there's the pre-chorus, which I swear sounds like a 90s dance song or something--I have no clue where that came from, but I think I like it. After the second chorus, the song goes on for a little longer, revisiting some past melodies on the guitar, then we have a little solo, and it finally ends.
Once the MIDI sketch was done, it was Furnace time, so I got to work and copied all the notes manually. Obviously, because I composed it with the limitations of the Mega Drive in mind, the transition was mostly smooth. I used something very similar to my metal formula: on the YM2612, FM 1 is for the bass (Chunky, motherfucker), FM 2 and FM 3 are for two-note chords played on my custom synth strings and panned to each side, FM 4 and FM 5 are for the leads, and FM 6 for PCM drums. On the SN76489, the square wave channels are for the arpeggios, echo and occasional chord support, and the noise channel for hi-hats.
Anyway, about the chords: I had to get rid of one of the notes due to a lack of space. And since the bass guitar is always playing the root note, you can remove that one and it doesn't affect the overall sound that much, as long as the instruments themselves sound thick. That's another thing I've learned over time: modulation over polyphony, which is why I only use extended channel 3 mode when it's a good fit for the song. You could argue good FM instrument design *and* more polyphony is even better, and hey, fair enough--but I think my way of doing things works well enough.
So, aside from the chunky bass and the strings, what other instruments do we have here? A modified version of my trusty Trumpet Synth, the Synth Lead 7 instrument from DefleMask, a modified Sakimoto choir from Master of Monsters and a couple of lead guitar sounds. One of them is the original version of my Orwell Lead which debuted on Fire Field all the way back in November of last year, and the other is a modified version of the Time Trax guitar by Tim Follin. That about covers it.
As for the drums, the samples are from FLEX (FL Studio plugin)'s General MIDI electronic kit. I liked them, so I ripped them and used them as-is, with the exception of the kick + crash composite sample I made. Again, because this was originally supposed to be a synthwave song, I went with a very simplistic kick and snare pattern to mimic the feel of a drum machine from the 80s. But of course, being the way I am, I couldn't help myself and added fills here and there. That kind of kills the feel a little bit, but the fills definitely make the song more than what it would be otherwise. And it's not like it makes that much of a difference: this is still two and a half minutes of pure 4/4 in F minor at 135bpm.
Coming up with the name was weird. I couldn't call it "botched synthwave attempt #2 that somehow turned out good anyway", obviously. I mentioned before that there's one part that sounds like 90s dance music, which made me think of that old song "The Rhythm of the Night", and so the word "night" got stuck in my head. I thought about naming it "Escape From The Night", but that sounded kind of generic. The more I listened to the finalized piece, the more I realized it sounds a lot like Star Cruiser's main theme, which I had a blast covering before. So, I decided on "Night Cruiser". Incidentally, it has nothing to do with whatever they do in Australia at night, and I'm not even sure I want to know what "nighttime joyriding" entails exactly, but I suspect it has to do with very un-chaste activities.
TL;DR: I have no idea what the hell happened here, but I think the result is pretty good, so enjoy (?). See you around.
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