Cave Story WiiWare: Reconstructed and Refined

Jul 3, 2019 at 1:56 AM
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So a while ago, I got the midi and soundfont files from Morusque for the WiiWare soundtrack. I didn't think much of them at the time, I had no experience editing midi files and the soundfont file was incompatible with all modern programs anyways.

A month ago, however, I made a groundbreaking yet embarrassingly simple discovery:
I could save each track as a separate sound file.

This allows me total control not only over the volume of every instrument, revealing ones that were silent and allowing me to practice perfectly balancing them, but it also gave me the freedom to make very precise edits of the "quirks" that were baked into each song, such as voices that randomly got louder for a few seconds. I've also added reverb in choice places to aid the ambiance and mask the unpleasant square instruments.

I cannot over-exaggerate how much I've managed to perfect every song, from their melodies to their beats and even their overall sound quality. I'm even attempting to get in contact with Nicalis in the hopes that they could adopt it as the fixed version.

I hope you get a chance to give it a listen, and provide me with your thoughts and feedback.

Thank you.
 
Jul 3, 2019 at 2:36 AM
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These are pretty cool, It sounds kind of better than the actual cs+ soundtrack.
Keep at it!
 
Jul 3, 2019 at 2:53 AM
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Thank you!

By the way, a few songs that really have a noticeable difference are On to Bushlands, Safety, Geothermal, Last Battle, and the item jingles.
 
Jul 3, 2019 at 7:48 AM
Tommy Thunder
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Very nice work. It has been a while since I listened to your previous go at this, but this time around everything does feel a bit more balanced and higher quality in general. Being able to modify the original MIDIs definitely aids in that feel, I think.

If I had to nitpick a bit, I do feel like the reverb can be a little too noticeable at times. The beginning of Safety sounds a bit too echo-y, for example. It's far from a big deal, though, and I think the proper volume balancing between tracks more than makes up for any nitpicks I have. Being able to hear all of the details properly is great. I remember how the main melody carried over from the org version of the "Get Heart Tank!" theme was nearly silent in the Wiiware soundtrack, but this version totally corrects that.

Thanks for pouring so much time into trying to get this soundtrack to sound as good as it possibly can. It would be crazy if Nicalis added your version to any future releases of the game! :o Let us know if you hear back from them.
 
Jul 3, 2019 at 11:49 AM
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I do feel like the reverb can be a little too noticeable at times.
I agree, there were a few times where I didn't really want to apply reverb but the quality suffered too much without it, such as the intro for Mimiga Town.

I remember how the main melody carried over from the org version of the "Get Heart Tank!" theme was nearly silent in the Wiiware soundtrack, but this version totally corrects that.
There's quite a few examples of instruments that were inaudible before, you might end up surprised as I was.

Thanks a ton!


Also just a reminder: I created ogg files so you can update the music in Cave Story+.
 
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Jul 4, 2019 at 3:27 PM
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I appreciate that you gave it a comprehensive look and told me what you thought.

Granted, there was bound to be takes that were hard for me to swallow; given that I absolutely love this version's Bushlands, Meltdown, Safety, and Jenka 1; but it's nice finally being able to hear from someone who's put as much thought into it as I have. I'll be sure to try tweaking it according to your feedback.

Here's the midi files and soundfont. I don't know if you care about the soundfont but in case you do, I should mention that I could only get it to work in Synthfont.

And finally I did in fact try working with different instruments, I made this simple orchestrated piece with free resources and a tiny bit of tweaking. Granted, it's even more of what you didn't like about that version but what's a guy to do :p
 
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