Whelp, finally decided to join up here, for I don't think I will be able to find anywhere else that might have people who could help me out with a little endeavor I've become addicted too...
So, some background here: I am a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, drums, and bass. I've also been producing my own music, at the moment 80% of what I've done so far has been video game music covers along with a few Metallica covers. As for touhou related stuff, The first cover I did was from Mystic Square, "Plastic Mind":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLXOF7GsgbYAnd something more recent, Metal Slug 3's fourth level theme, simply called "Desert" on the OST:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBqVorFW5DQI also have a soundcloud, of which leads me to where I am right now... another touhou song that I had covered was HRtP's "Civilization Of Magic", after taking some serious evenings sitting with my guitar, REAPER, and the Akyu's untouched score version slowed down to transcribe by ear the synth solo and the various harmonies. I finally made a cover, but i'm dis-satisfied by it:
https://soundcloud.com/jonman/video-game-covers-touhou-hrtp-civilization-of-magic-remixThe biggest thing that urked me about it was that I couldn't get that lead synth sound to be what I wanted: an HDed and beefed up version of the Akyu's Untouched Score version. So I went on a hunt for somekind of PC-98 VST, but all I could find was a WAV sample folder consisting of PC-98 samples from Deviantart, which later lead me here to the TTS-1 remakes another user here had done and which I give props to. For the past month I've been trying to figure out how to make a soundfont of out all the samples, but alias, I got really frustrated with it and gave up on it.
Recently however, I discovered and purchased something (after some deep researching) that might not only get me to the sound I really want, but it might allow me to do get closer to that PC-98 sound than any sound-font could: Aly James Lab's FMDrive 2612 VSTi, which is a VST snyth that is based on the Yamaha YM2612 chip found inside Sega Genesis consoles. According to my research, that chip is the stripped down version of the Yamaha YM2608 chip, which is found in the PC-98 computers.
http://www.alyjameslab.com/alyjameslabfmdrive.htmlHe also has another VSTi, called Super-PSG, which emulates the SN76489 PSG, the soundchip of the Sega Master System. According to the description, it can also emulate some of the features of the other part of the YM2608 chip that FMDrive doesn't emulate, the SSG sound source (the internally implemented YM2149/AY-3 8910 chip). If I can, I might also buy that as well.
Where am I going with this? Basically, I want to try my hand at doing remakes of PC-98 songs, but I'm looking for anyone who could help me along in getting the various instruments used in ZUN's compositions as close as possible using FMDrive. So far, my own experimenting has shown some serious promise, for I compared the sound I was making to a sampled piano sound that someone had made as part of a very small soundfont from youtube.
Hopefully this weekend, I will be trying my hand at re-recording Sariel's theme using the VST for the synths and piano sounds, and maybe for the first time, showing off what FMDrive can do when it becomes apart of a mix, rather than being the sole driver of an entire song.
