[Video Game Music] Rival Division! .it + soundcloud

[Brozilla]

Battle theme I did at the end of 2015. VERY recently added stereo (only in .it file) and actually tried surround sound..... but had no luck.
Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/user-347001047/rival-division
OneDrive
<iframe src="https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=5A3B4F072C63425D&resid=5A3B4F072C63425D%21223&authkey=ADJPvehIBJFl0GE" width="98" height="120" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

[Saga Musix]

Very oldskool, SNES-like.
For a more naturaly feel, you may want to randomize your volumes a bit though. For example in pattern 7 in the first channel, you retrigger the same note again and again with the same velocity, which sounds very mechanical. You can either manually enter some random volumes or use the volume variation slider in the instrument settings to make it sound a bit more natural.

tried surround sound..... but had no luck.

Surround and panning are mutually exclusive in IT. Hence you instantly disable the surround effect right after enabling it everywhere. Using surround when you already use a reverb for more spacy sound is probably overkill, anyway.
Speaking of reverb... Instead of applying the reverb manually on each channel, you can also simply check the "Master" checkbox in the plugin settings.

BTW, the IT version had all channels but one muted, you may want to fix that.

[Brozilla]

For a more naturaly feel, you may want to randomize your volumes a bit though. You can either manually enter some random volumes or use the volume variation slider in the instrument settings to make it sound a bit more natural.

tried surround sound..... but had no luck.

Surround and panning are mutually exclusive in IT. Hence you instantly disable the surround effect right after enabling it everywhere. Using surround when you already use a reverb for more spacy sound is probably overkill, anyway.
Speaking of reverb... Instead of applying the reverb manually on each channel, you can also simply check the "Master" checkbox in the plugin settings.

BTW, the IT version had all channels but one muted, you may want to fix that.

Thanks! Learned a lot of things from that (tried to make fixes based on feedback.) Honestly I technically use MilkyTracker but do final stuff in MPT. Out of curiosity do you think you can tell me how exactly surround sound works? I thought by using S9B Quad Surround and enabling it on a channel with S91 would redirect the sound to the rear speaker thus panning effects would occur on rear speaker.

[Saga Musix]

Honestly I technically use MilkyTracker but do final stuff in MPT

I guess that also explains the excessive use of panning commands. In the IT format you can disable the per-sample default panning setting and just set the panning once per channel and then forget about it. Hence, you don't need to put a panning command next to each note.

Out of curiosity do you think you can tell me how exactly surround sound works? I thought by using S9B Quad Surround and enabling it on a channel with S91 would redirect the sound to the rear speaker thus panning effects would occur on rear speaker.

Ah right, using S9B would help here, but I'd advise against using it in IT files since apart from ModPlug/OpenMPT I don't think any other applications support it. The way you describe it is correct, though in practice I haven't tested it in a long while. Do you have any problems with that? I've attached an example file which demonstrates how it's done, and quickly looking at the resulting WAV export, it seems to work.
Not though for real surround you will have to explicitely choose Quad (rather than Stereo) in the sound card options in OpenMPT; otherwise OpenMPT falls back to Dolby Pro Logic surround, which merely inverts the audio on one of the channels.

[Brozilla]

In the IT format you can disable the per-sample default panning setting and just set the panning once per channel and then forget about it. Hence, you don't need to put a panning command next to each note.

Ah right, using S9B would help here, but I'd advise against using it in IT files since apart from ModPlug/OpenMPT I don't think any other applications support it. The way you describe it is correct, though in practice I haven't tested it in a long while. Do you have any problems with that? I've attached an example file which demonstrates how it's done, and quickly looking at the resulting WAV export, it seems to work.

Not though for real surround you will have to explicitely choose Quad (rather than Stereo) in the sound card options in OpenMPT; otherwise OpenMPT falls back to Dolby Pro Logic surround, which merely inverts the audio on one of the channels.

Thanks, learning new things after each post. Your S9B surround sound example does work for me. The default "WavesReverb" plugin that I was using doesn't allow for the surround sound so by removing it I was able to see the rear output. Thanks for all the neat info. Will try and make something new using the advice you've given. If I may ask again, can you clarify what you mean by using S9B for .it? Is it merely that specific surround sound mode I shouldn't use (like S9A is more "universal") or is it just surround sound period? Most of my finishes are stereo but just kinda figured done right you can do some cooler things with surround sound.

[Saga Musix]

Oh right, I forgot that plugins won't actually receive the rear channels, they only apply to the front channels. This might change with a larger rewrite I am currently working on.

If I may ask again, can you clarify what you mean by using S9B for .it? Is it merely that specific surround sound mode I shouldn't use (like S9A is more "universal") or is it just surround sound period? Most of my finishes are stereo but just kinda figured done right you can do some cooler things with surround sound.

S9B is a command that ModPlug Tracker added to the IT format, so most other players that can play IT files will not understand it. Hence, if you want to spread your module as an IT file, don't rely on the back channel panning to work - only center panning will work in those players. On the other hand, since MPTM is OpenMPT's own internal format (and actually just a superset of IT, so the file can be converted without problems), using S9B would be no problem.