Intro music of Monkey Island

[per]

The intro of the game "The Secret of Monkey Island", is one of the best game intros I have seen so far. What I note the most is the catchy music-track. It's not difficult to hear that the rythm is certanly not standard square 4/4th beat, nor 3/4th beat.

What I have tried to do is to find the bar arrangement just by listening to it. Quite a tricky task...

So here is what I got:
First there is a formata, with a small solo, followed by 4 bars of sloppy 3/4th beat, terminated by one additional 1/4th note.

Then the backgound music starts, apparently in 3/4th beat (the base seems to go in cycles of 3/4th beat, but since it doesn't maintain therse cycles durning the melody, it's difficult to say). The background music is supported by two rythmic 1/16th note chords evely later half 1/4th note.

In the 7th 1/4th note after the background-music started; the melody starts, seemingly in 3/4th rythm, then 4/4th rythm the next bar, followed by a single 1/4th note. Then it keeps on with 4/4th rythm in 4 bars, and the line ends with two bars in 3/4th rythm.

Now the base background music is back to the original 3/4th cycles again, for five 1/4th notes (actually 6, but the first one is on the last 1/4th note of the above line, just as if it had been going on in 3/4th all through the melody part).

Then there is a line of 4 bars of 3/4th rythm, yet another single 1/4th note, and 4 bars of plain 4/4th rythm.

Last, the beginning of the first phrase is repeated, but instead of being terminated by two 3/4th bars, it's terminated by one 2/4th bar, and three 4/4th bars.

So to just organize it (every number is number of 1/4th notes in spesific bar):
fermata | (slowly/sloppy) 3 3 3 (rall) 3+1 || (moderate/Leggiero) 3 3+1 | 3 4+1, 4 4, 4 4 3, 3 | 3-1 3 | 3 3 3 3+1 | 4 4 4 4 | 3 4+1, 4 4, 4 4 2, 4 4 4 ||

 

[barythrin]

I wasn't blessed with the experience of playing this game so for my own curiosity, what version and system is this one you're referring to on? I looked up a few videos but wasn't sure if they're all the same music or not.

 

[per]

I wasn't blessed with the experience of playing this game so for my own curiosity, what version and system is this one you're referring to on? I looked up a few videos but wasn't sure if they're all the same music or not.

It's the PC version, but due to the fact that it actually got support for at least 6 different sound devices, there are different revision, but they should all contain the same music (except the internal speaker and tandy versions, as they don't start before the melody starts).

I have to say that I personally like the Adlib version best, but the gameblaster version is also nice. The problem with the more "advanced" soundcards is that they suffer from the fact that the more real something artifical sounds/looks, the more we're likely to notice it's artificalness (this problem is most common for people making robots and 3D images).

---

The fan-made piano version is however sligthly different.

 

[digger]

The problem with the more "advanced" soundcards is that they suffer from the fact that the more real something artifical sounds/looks, the more we're likely to notice it's artificalness (this problem is most common for people making robots and 3D images).

I don't think that argument would be valid even for the Roland MT-32/LAPC-1, on which the music was originally composed. The music of Monkey Island 1 and 2 sounds the best on that (to most people at least), since that was what the composers originally used to create the music in the first place. Do a search on Google, and you should find MP3 or OGG Vorbis recordings of the Monkey Island theme music (both 1 and 2) on both the MT-32 and the Adlib. There's really no contest, once you compare them.

That being said, Monkey Island 1 and 2 are particular examples of games that sounded quite well on Adlib/OPL2/OPL3 synthesizers. Perhaps in part because the music in those games featured a lot of xylophones and steeldrums (because of the Caribbean theme), which Adlib/OPL2/OPL3 synthesizers can reproduce fairly well.

 

[per]

I don't think that argument would be valid even for the Roland MT-32/LAPC-1, on which the music was originally composed. The music of Monkey Island 1 and 2 sounds the best on that (to most people at least), since that was what the composers originally used to create the music in the first place. Do a search on Google, and you should find MP3 or OGG Vorbis recordings of the Monkey Island theme music (both 1 and 2) on both the MT-32 and the Adlib. There's really no contest, once you compare them.

I think it's just my opinion on the use of syntisizers. I personally can't stand when artists uses synths to simulate the sounds of actual instruments, when they just could have used the actual instruments instead. When listening, I begin to think about how much better it would have sounded with actual instruments.

The founder of Moog once said in an interview that his idea of syntisizers in the start was to produce brand new sounds, not reproduce already existing ones.

I see it's quite difficult for computer hardware to actually play (not just reproduce the sound of), say a trumpet, so I understand that the best way is in fact to use synths to simulate the sound, but since I have the bad habit explained above, it's difficult for me to prefere it. The Roland revision is clearly the best one, it's just more difficult for me to listen to, therefore I don't like it as much as the Adlib or GameBlaster revisions.

 

[carlsson]

Interesting discussion. I tend to remember that Monkey Island was ported to the Amiga and other systems. At least the Amiga uses four channel DMA sample based sounds, not a dedicated FM OPL chip. Although one can produce chip sounds by generating very short samples played over and over, I would assume the music on these games was made out of traditional 8-bit samples. Now comes the question what did the developers sample, would they record every single instrument from a MT-32 and store those as one or many samples in the Amiga module? Frankly I haven't looked up these songs but it could be worth investigating.

 

[digger]

I think it's just my opinion on the use of syntisizers. I personally can't stand when artists uses synths to simulate the sounds of actual instruments, when they just could have used the actual instruments instead. When listening, I begin to think about how much better it would have sounded with actual instruments.

The founder of Moog once said in an interview that his idea of syntisizers in the start was to produce brand new sounds, not reproduce already existing ones.

I see it's quite difficult for computer hardware to actually play (not just reproduce the sound of), say a trumpet, so I understand that the best way is in fact to use synths to simulate the sound, but since I have the bad habit explained above, it's difficult for me to prefere it. The Roland revision is clearly the best one, it's just more difficult for me to listen to, therefore I don't like it as much as the Adlib or GameBlaster revisions.

Fair enough, and your point would certainly apply to wavetable synthesizers, but the MT-32 was a Linear Arithmetic synthesizer. Even though it relied in part on PCM samples, it combined them with generated sounds to create unique instruments, not necessarily emulating "real" instruments. As a matter of fact, I recall reading somewhere that the MT-32's weak spot was creating a convincing piano sound. As with FM synthesizers, the MT-32 could also be programmed with custom instruments (not necessarily using samples) through so-called SysEx messages over the MIDI port. Many games in fact did this, instead of relying on its standard instrument set.

Taking all of this into account, you might actually appreciate its distinctive sound. But I could be wrong. It's a matter of taste, I agree.