Samples and Instruments

I created samples by recording my synthesizers, guitars, and other instruments using SoundForge. I saved these recordings out as wave files and imported them into DirectMusic Producer, where I sat for hours and built my DLS instrument banks. I used DirectMusic Producer to work out loop points, rather than SoundForge. I was always very impressed with the "find best loop end" feature in DirectMusic, which seems to be better at finding functional loop points than anything else I've tried. In fact, I still use DirectMusic Producer to find loop points in files when creating samples.

I decided early on not to use the preconfigured General MIDI instruments. In my experience, music made with General MIDI instruments tends to get that "General MIDI" sound that gives off a whiff of low budgets and shareware distribution. So I custom made every sample in every instrument used in the game.

One of the most time-consuming tasks involved in this project was the breaking down of premade drum loops. I split up each loop into several very short loops, which I then rebuilt in DirectMusic Producer. I would take a one-bar drum loop and slice it up into sixteenths. This resulted in 16 stereo samples. Then I would import these 16 stereo samples into DirectMusic Producer and design an instrument with 32 regions — 16 left and 16 right. At the time I was using DirectX 8.0, and DirectMusic Producer treated stereo samples as two separate samples, so two separate regions had to be created in the instrument designer. Luckily in version 8.1, this can be done faster and easier, since the instrument designer now recognizes stereo samples and automatically creates the two separate regions.

A useful tool in the above process is Square Circle Software's WaveSurgeon (www.wavesurgeon.com), which slices loops and saves the individual short phrases as separate wave files and also exports a MIDI "timing template." This small MIDI file can be imported into DirectMusic Producer as a pattern and, when played with the instrument created from the individual loop slices, gives a reproduction of the drum loop, which can be played back in different tempos. So if the music increases or decreases in tempo, or the game experiences a momentary system halt or slowdown, the drum loop will still be locked to the rest of the music.