Your Own Keen Music!

This is where you can post your Commander Keen related stories, artwork, or other stuff that is related to Commander Keen but otherwise doesn't belong in another forum.
Toomuchsparetime
Vortigaunt Elite
Posts: 417
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:39
Location: cAnAdA
Contact:

Your Own Keen Music!

Post by Toomuchsparetime »

I didn't see a thread for this, so here it is now! Post your own remixes and Keen-related musical compositions here.

I'll start because I just made this while learning to use Ableton. (It's the 2nd thing I've made in it.) It's an "Eat Your Vegetables" remake.
https://soundcloud.com/andrew-kepple/ea ... bles-remix :dopekeen
User avatar
XkyRauh
Mortimer's RightHand Man
Posts: 418
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 16:32
Location: San Diego, California

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by XkyRauh »

That was fun, TMST! I have to say, the clipped releases of the melody's first few notes combined with the already short duration of the bass/marimba accompaniment made those particular few seconds sound hokey, but the rest of the composition was fun to listen to. :) Thanks for sharing!
User avatar
troublesomekeen
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 1244
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2012 8:01
Location: Three-Tooth Lake
Contact:

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by troublesomekeen »

Heehee... That was great! Do another if you have so much spare time. >:
The chords at 0:43 feel like the song could be taken into one of those far-out never-ending jazz tangents. Love it when the wild sawtooth appears. You'll have to swing by my place to give me Ableton lessons once you deem yourself pro.

I also did a thing for this thread because it needs more replies. :helmet
https://youtu.be/4CVMKEc4wuM
Image
Commander Keen in... Canteloupe Quest!
User avatar
entropicdecay
Mad Mushroom
Posts: 576
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 15:00
Contact:

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by entropicdecay »

I dig it. The beginning has maybe kind of a detective vibe.

I did a couple of Keen remixes years ago but I think I already posted 'em here at some point. Or if not here then on a previous version of the forum...
Benvolio
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 976
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 12:43
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by Benvolio »

Excellent postings. Have nothing to offer right now. I think I once made a horrible, crudely overdubbed version of Fribbulous Xax music on cassettes when I was ten, on my violin, tin whistle and, uh, some percussion. I doubt it still exists.
User avatar
nanomekia
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 559
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2016 19:11
Location: FARM COUNTRY!
Contact:

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by nanomekia »

Pretty damn sweet tune, that.

Violin you say, Benvolio? I can't compose digitally but perhaps I could whip up something with my violin now you've given me the idea...
Writer. Translator. Player of games. Only bites when asked nicely.

"That's ten pounds of yikes in a five-pound bag."
User avatar
TheBigV
Vortininja
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 13:43
Location: LXTerminal
Contact:

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by TheBigV »

Here are 8-bit covers of some Atroxian Realm music I made with Famitracker last month (the Scrolling Story one has a slight edit done by proYorp):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iy6Ys ... uoUzWrVw9c
Gridlock
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 617
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:20

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by Gridlock »

Here are 8-bit covers of some Atroxian Realm music I made with Famitracker last month
Nice! I always get excited when people do Atroxian Realm remixes. By the way, for any AR remixes on YouTube, I'm happy to add them to the game's soundtrack playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo5cVtF ... MdKZHDfH-s
Image
Armageddon Begins Again. The Alphamatic has arrived.

Atroxian Realm: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3536
The Alphamatic: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4086
Hisymak
Vortininja
Posts: 112
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 20:13

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by Hisymak »

While we're already on Atroxian Realm note, I'd like to post my rendition of "Great Ziggurat" music I made some time ago. Most of instruments are improved, and this is how I imagine the music should originally have sounded like:
https://soundcloud.com/hisymak/atroxian ... t-ziggurat

I can easily remix more tracks this way, but Great Ziggutat is the track that gets the best improvement from all.
Gridlock
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 617
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:20

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by Gridlock »

I've said this before, but I really do like this style. It manages to capture the unique, old school spirit of the IMF format while also sounding a bit more modern. If you do have/make other AR remixes in this style, I'd love to hear them. It's kind of crazy, but I still listen to the AR soundtrack from time to time, despite however many hundreds of times I heard many of those tracks loop during development. I just love Gamebird's music so much. Makes me dream of what a sequel soundtrack could be...
Image
Armageddon Begins Again. The Alphamatic has arrived.

Atroxian Realm: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3536
The Alphamatic: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4086
Hisymak
Vortininja
Posts: 112
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 20:13

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by Hisymak »

Gridlock wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2020 4:07If you do have/make other AR remixes in this style, I'd love to hear them.
I could indeed do that, however, be aware, that some of the tracks unfortunately sound worse than the originals, which was the main reason I did not do that. That is mostly caused by different way how IMF utilizes the voices on the OPL chip (but that's for some more detailed technical explanation), which cannot be easily replicated in my method. And for some reason, some of the MIDIs play at different speed than the original in-game music.
If IMF format supported OPL3, your in-game music could sound much richer, pretty much similar to what I could produce. However that would significantly increase the needed space and memory. A compromise would be implementing double-voice instrument support, which means one instrument utilizes two OPL voices to produce a sound, with optional detuning of the second voice. This is greatly used in Doom's DMX sound library and I'm taking big advantage of that.
So if you want, I could record the entire soundtrack, or choose only those tracks that sound better or at least same good as the originals.
Gridlock
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 617
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:20

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by Gridlock »

So if you want, I could record the entire soundtrack, or choose only those tracks that sound better or at least same good as the originals.
I don't think it's worth spending too much time on this unless you want to. If it's easy enough to record all of them, then why not, but otherwise I think it'd be great to hear just the best ones. This is really just for fun. I don't plan on making any attempts to overhaul the actual in-game tracks.
Image
Armageddon Begins Again. The Alphamatic has arrived.

Atroxian Realm: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3536
The Alphamatic: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4086
Hisymak
Vortininja
Posts: 112
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 20:13

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by Hisymak »

Gridlock wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:57I don't think it's worth spending too much time on this unless you want to. If it's easy enough to record all of them, then why not, but otherwise I think it'd be great to hear just the best ones. This is really just for fun. I don't plan on making any attempts to overhaul the actual in-game tracks.
So, I finally made it!
https://youtu.be/vXDKZe6AuFU
As I said, I recorded only part of the music tracks, not all of them. Enjoy and let me know your thoughts, if any.
User avatar
Roobar
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 3263
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 16:12
Contact:

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by Roobar »

The beginning sounds like an 8bit version of a Star Wars music.
Gridlock
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 617
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:20

Re: Your Own Keen Music!

Post by Gridlock »

This is really cool! It's a treat to hear new, improved renditions of these themes. I've added this video to the AR soundtrack playlist.

Some of the tracks work better than others, for sure. It seems that switching formats sometimes causes certain instruments to get lost (like the strings in Exile of the Krile), but then other instruments end up sounding a lot better. A few tracks seem especially improved in this format, like The Elder, which was one that I struggled quite a lot with on the instrumentation. And Sky Sanctum, wow, having a better organ instrument adds a lot to the opening of that track.

And yeah, I love that terminator text music. Maybe I could actually make use of that in the future.

I haven't had a chance to listen to every track intently yet, but I'm really enjoying this. Thank you for taking the time to make these!
Image
Armageddon Begins Again. The Alphamatic has arrived.

Atroxian Realm: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3536
The Alphamatic: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4086
Post Reply