The Coffin of Andy and Leyley ~ Halloween Chiptune

for YM2612 + SN76489

by MetallicOrwell

"Ah, I get it..."

Oh, we've really done it now. I've covered Bible Black's music three times already, and yet somehow The Coffin of Andy and Leyley feels even dirtier. Just like Nemlei used something as innocent as RPG Maker to make something unspeakably depraved, I've gone and adapted its music to the poor, innocent Sega Mega Drive. That console was meant for Altered Beast and Space Harrier II, not a satanic game where you eat your parents and fuck your sister. To be fair to TCOAAL, it lacks the sleaze of something like Bible Black; it's a very meticulously carved piece of decadence, and it doesn't have any explicit sexual content, which definitely helps to take it seriously. I'm a huge fan of the game, for better or worse (this must be what coming out of the closet feels like), so I've decided to cover my favorite musical piece from it: Halloween Chiptune.

Practices vary in the world of indie games, but Nemlei got the music for TCOAAL from a couple of sources, and the one we're interested in is this one right here. If you have a listen to Halloween Chiptune there, you'll notice it's way faster and higher pitched than the version you normally hear in-game. Indeed, when I first played TCOAAL, I wondered why that piece in particular sounded so muffled and lo-fi compared to the rest of the music. Now, I haven't messed around with RPG Maker myself in many, many years, but I'm pretty sure it allows you to play music and sound effects at different speeds, which naturally alters the pitch. So there's the reason: by playing it at 0.6x speed, the sample rate is effectively almost halved (from 44100hz to 26460hz), which leads to the lo-fi sound. It also looks like Nemlei edited the file to remove some sections, as well.

For me, covering this song was also a way to get out of my comfort zone a little bit. I specialize in heavy metal and orchestral music, not whatever this is. I almost always design my FM instruments to sound as realistic as possible (with the exception of synth leads), but Halloween Chiptune is exactly the opposite: as the title might imply, it's meant to sound like it's being played on old videogame sound chips. It's almost certainly fakebit rather than genuine chiptune; if this can run on chips from back in the day I'll eat my fucking hat. No, it was obviously made on a modern DAW (though it's not like that makes it any less of a banger), so it's time to bring it to the YM2612 + SN76489. I can't believe I'm doing this to my darling Mega Drive, but this is where life has led me, I suppose.

As for the musical analysis: I originally thought this was in 3/4 at about 105bpm, but it's actually in 4/4 at 70bpm. Regardless of the initial confusion, there is no doubt that the slowed down in-game version is in D# minor. It's got a groovy, bouncy bassline and brass/piano stabs here and there, and then a main melody played on various instruments, including flutes (kind of), square waves and rock organs. There is some accompaniment, usually "jump" sound effects done using square waves, and of course some arpeggios to make it sound even more chiptune-like. There's some nice counterpoint and harmonies throughout as well.

I decided to use extended channel 3 mode early on for detuned echoes to thicken the sound, and found out soon after that I needed the extra polyphony anyway for harmony and additional instruments, so that was a good call. For the rhythm section we have the fingered bass instrument I pilfered from SilverRIFF a while back, as well as Sakimoto and Molkirill brass patches. The drum samples were taken from the in-game version of Halloween Chiptune after running it through a splitter, and the noise hi-hat is also by Mokirill (the Siberian Tiger is seeing a lot of action today, huh?). For the leads, we have a flute, a rock organ, a little bell, some trumpet-like sounds and an FM instrument which mimics a square wave. Almost all of the instruments I've mentioned here were modified by me to some extent, and I also made simplified versions to play on channel 3. The chiptune-like effects from the original, like the jumps and arpeggios, were easy enough to replicate on the PSG square waves.

I think it can be argued this sounds better than the in-game version, at least when it comes to audio fidelity and quality. I'd say I got the notes mostly correct, though for a beginner musician like me, that's a little difficult to do without a perfect reference to look at. Regardless, Halloween Chiptune has now become a real chiptune, and the way the hi-hats continue for a little bit right at the end makes for a better loop.

Making this cover was mortifying. See you around.

 

Back to the index