Author Topic: Trial:To nearly perfectly play ZUN's midis WITHOUT a SD-90  (Read 4137 times)

Trial:To nearly perfectly play ZUN's midis WITHOUT a SD-90
« on: June 22, 2017, 08:07:38 AM »
(Firstly I?ll tell that I'm not a English native,or I am a Asian,so my English expression may be weird.But I will try to make myself understood.)

I have read some old posts about the sound canvas that ZUN uses.SD-90 is literally the sound canvas he has been using,but can we play ZUN's midis WITHOUT a SD-90,and also reach a high similarity?
In the posts I read about,many people complained about the low quality of THFONT and it is also illegal.Besides,Hyper Canvas also shares a reputation of low similarity to SD-90 since many waves were replace from the SD series.
So it seems that it's hard to reach a good similarity to the sound of ZUN's style?

But I believe I can.
I decided to have a try.And the first result has come out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I82PMPsejTo&feature=youtu.be
The above one is the song of 6boss of B side of 東方永夜抄 ~ Imperishable Night
It sounds pretty similar to the original one.

The sound canvas (SoundFont) I use are as follows:
Hyper Canvas
Super Quarter
LM-4 Mark II
THFont

6 years ago,there is a person who remade some Touhou songs with Roland TTS-1,but it didn't sounds like the origin.That's not only because he didn't have a SD-90,the reasons I conclude are here.
1.ZUN not only uses SD-90.
As the sound canvas I lists above,I uses Hyper Canvas and THFont to act as the SD-90 parts,but what about Super Quarter and LM-4 Mark II?
They are actually the software sound canvas ZUN uses.Yes,the same ones.
Super Quarter was firstly used in Perfect Cherry Blossom.Its bass and piano were mostly used in ZUN's music.
LM-4 Mark II is the most used drumkits in ZUN's music,firstly used in PCB,lasted until UFO(In UFO ZUN started to use Groove Agent)
That's to say,even though you have a SD-90,you may fail to play like the original one.

2.ZUN's midi isn't the same as the wav's.
When I am play ZUN's midis,I found that the instruments ZUN gave in midi is not the same as those in the midi.
For example,the beginning of Flight Of The Bamboo Cutter - Lunatic Princess should be played by Brightness,but ZUN provided Electric Piano 2 in the midi.
And the trumpets in the midi doesn't have a harmonic(or chorus?),but in the wav it can be obviously heard.
So to make your midi play more like the original wav,you should make some changes in the midi.

I will continue to record more midis with the sound canvas I have,and make them more like the original music.Please wait for a while.

By the way,if you think it's meaningless to just play ZUN's midi,I can also upload some ZUN's style songs I made myself.


Goomba98

  • Touhou ga daisuki!
Re: Trial:To nearly perfectly play ZUN's midis WITHOUT a SD-90
« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2017, 11:20:29 AM »
If you're talking about the midis, then you're thinking of the wrong sound module.

Drake

  • *
Re: Trial:To nearly perfectly play ZUN's midis WITHOUT a SD-90
« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2017, 01:14:53 AM »
If you're talking about the midis, then you're thinking of the wrong sound module.
That isn't relevant here. Their aim is to reproduce the full track, not the extra MIDI track.


Whether I think what you're trying to accomplish is worth doing or not, there are still some serious problems present in the track. Many of them clearly stem from how bad THFont sounds. You mentioned that the trumpet has no harmony and such, but the recording also just suffers from THFont's skewing of the sound and the difference in parameters and effects. It might be the most obvious with the trumpet since it's so prominent but is definitely there with various other instruments as well.

You're also correct, the instruments present in the MIDI files are not generally going to be the same as in the complete songs. Furthermore the note velocities, and even the notes themselves may have changed. The MIDI tracks and the WAV tracks are simply not the same; it isn't like ZUN wrote the MIDIs that you can find in-game and then plugged them into his modules, unlike how many people tend to think.

For a really obvious example you can skip to 0:22 where the percussion ends up sounding like three knocks, where this is not accurate to the original nor the SC-88Pro version that the MIDI was meant for.

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