Sonic's White Glove Diaries -

Updated and maintained by Johnny 'Sonikku' Wallbank and A.J Freda

2nd October 2000

What makes SRB2: Music.

Jarel Jones, the creator of some of the music for SRB2, and the music for Sonic: Emerald Quest RPG agreed to talk a little about the making of the music for SRB2 / S:EQ-RPG...

So, I've got to talk about making my music, huh? I guess I'm supposed to use Sonic Robo-Blast 2 as an example. Well, that's not possible. You see, I made the SRB2 music about a year to a year and a half ago. That put me at about 3 years worth of experience. I knew what I was doing, to an extent. But I was used to making midis of existing video game music from the past 3 years, not original music. Since I didn't really know a thing about making original music then, I really didn't know what was required of me. Meaning: how to make the midi's mood fit the atmosphere of the stage it was to be the theme of very well. How to make a *good* original midi. Etc. Case in point, Deep Sea and Mine Maze Zones. I made some bad instrumentation choices for Deep Sea, and Mine Maze was too short and riddled with some off-sounding stereo effects, in my opinion. Other people think they're better than I think they are, but my finely tuned musical ear has me cringing in horror when I have to listen to many of my older songs.

Bleh.

Well, I know a little better now. Not a whole lot, but I've been making enough original tunes within the past year to know my way around making them, and making them well (at least, I think I've made them well). Of course, that's way too late for the Sonic Robo Blast 2 midis. However, it's not too late for the Sonic Emerald Quest midis and modules. So, with Sonikku's permission, I'm gonna talk about those instead of the SRB2 midis.

Making the S-EQ:RPG midis can vary between easy to difficult depending on what I'm making the midi of. But it's a standard process everytime; sitting down, opening Noteworthy Composer, plugging notes on the staff, choosing instruments, putting in controllers, and voila; I have a midi. Making modules is a little bit more difficult, but it's the same thing really. The hard part of the process of making music isn't *making* the midi though, it's *designing* it. It's sort of like writing a book; you've got to outline what you plan on doing in your head and follow through, making sure it reads (sounds) great all the way through without contradicting yourself. You've got to make right choices in what you use, instruments and controllers (pitch bends, stereo pans, etc.) for example. You've also got to be original; it's no good to make an original midi that sounds the same as everything you've done before. Now *that's* hard. I've already been noticing a small pattern my original midis have had recently, and I've taken the initiative to change it. That's another thing; you've got to be on guard at all times to catch all your lousy mistakes. It helps if you walk around daily thinking of cool beats that you have heard or you imagine up yourself that could work well with your midis. That normally backfires on itself since I forget it before I get home from school, and that doesn't help me at all. When I can actually remember it, however, it makes the midis I create much better and much more original.

The joy of pumping out a cool midi overrides the difficulty in making it though, especially if you do it right. Especially one that sounds really good and has neat stuff you've never used before in them. That's when I can sit back and say, "Hey, I'm doing my job *right* for a change."

That's my two cents on the subject.

Thanks to Jarel Jones for writing this for everyone!

Next time: Replay Value.