Pico-8 Music Tutorial #35 - Using Sequences to Create Sound Effects

About a year ago I inputted all of the music and SFX from Super Mario Bros. into Pico-8 (You can listen to all the music here).

I’m not an expert in this, but I BELIEVE that when it came to designing sound effects for retro games, designers would often use sequences. By ‘sequences’ I mean a certain set of rules to determine an order of events. When writing code, or using trackers, it’s easier to program and play with sequences rather than programming each and every note and step. 

(In fact, there’s a virtual instrument called Chipsounds which emulates retro sound chips, and there’s an entire section devoted to sequencing)

When you study the sound effects in Super Mario Bros, there’s definitely sequences at the heart of them. One of the simplest is the fireball sound. It’s a one-row-sequence, +1 octave / row. (or +12 semitones / row)

The flagpole sound is also simple, +1 semitone / row (just like the chromatic scale). 

Of course, sequences can be much more complicated - the power-up sound is a three-row-sequence, +7, +1, -1 semitones, played four times. 

In this tutorial, I show how easy it is to create sounds using random notes and the transposition function to create sequences. Depending on its capabilities, when sequencing using trackers (or code), rules can also be applied to effects, volume, instruments, etc. 

Sequencing is also a technique often used to develop music compositions. If you listen to any piece by Bach, you’ll probably hear some kind of sequence within the first 15 seconds. In Bach’s music, these patterns are usually heard three times, with some kind of change or transition on the third time. Here’s an example, you’ll hear the repeating sequence at 0:10-0:15)

The song Autumn Leaves is another good example. The entire A section is built upon a “descending-5ths” sequence. 

I’m trying to think about ways I can make a tutorial video on sequencing in music. It’s a difficult topic to cover without also discussing music theory. In any case, I’m adding it to my to-do list! 

Hope you enjoy the tutorial! You can watch it above on YouTube and I’ve also attached the video to this post. 

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