Piipperin rajoitukset ja mahdollisuudet PC-pelien musiikissa

Menetelmä piipperimusiikin transkriptioon ja musiikkianalyysit peleistä Alley Cat ja Stunts

Abstrakti

Abstract

The article presents a method using which it is possible to accurately transcribe PC speaker music in games. The idea of the transcription method is to modify the DOSBox emulator so that it records PC speaker events (note onset times and frequencies) while playing the game. This results in an initial transcription which can be processed using music notation software.

Using the transcription method, music from two PC games are transcribed and analyzed. In Alley Cat (1984), an impression of polyphony is achieved by playing sounds in different registers close to each other. In Stunts (1990), a large number of PC speaker events are created to produce polyphony, vibrato and glissandos. The analyses show examples of restrictions and possibilities when composing PC speaker music. The article presents a method using which it is possible to accurately transcribe PC speaker music in games. The idea of the transcription method is to modify the DOSBox emulator so that it records PC speaker events (note onset times and frequencies) while playing the game. This results in an initial transcription which can be processed using music notation software.