El Blanco - Digital Dreams: Getting Real Pt 16.

Last time I talked about how I cut echos and simplified the hell out of the complex rhythm parts in the score. Guessing Seven might need more space, I decided to keep going. There were still some things that I guess I could cut without being too noticeable. I think the results were mixed, but it did pay off.

For example, I had noticed that the Kettledrum part generally mirrored a couple other parts in the score. And the instrument I had created for the Kettledrum, sounded a bit like another instrument I had. So I went through and either cut or merged the entire part, or reassigned it's part to another instrument played at a lower octave.

I also went through and tried to standardize as many of the velocity/volumes as I could. I decided that in general, I'd allow two volumes, the default, and 30. There were some concessions I made for artistic reasons. If I felt an echo or a crescendo was particularly important I'd allow other volumes. But the idea was that a listener might not really notice a difference between a crescendo slowly moving up individual volume values, and one that just used 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60. But this might take a crescendo from 32 different note-velocity/volume combinations to just seven.

I also eliminated extra channels where I could. For example, in Skaven's original introduction, he used three channels for the hi-strings. I cut one out figuring that two notes would build up enough of a chord to sound okay. This killed off a few of Clinkster's "virtual" channels, shaving more bytes.

I also simply eliminated notes. For example, there's this wonderful cycle that Purple Motion starts his section with.

Bass

00 C#3 01 ..

01 ... .. ..

02 C#3 01 ..

03 ... .. ..

04 C#2 01 ..

05 ... .. ..

...

60 B-2 01 ..

61 OFF .. ..

62 B-1 01 ..

63 OFF .. ..

I know that musically, the B-2 and B-1 at the end of the pattern (positions 60-63) is just a lead-in into the next go around to the notes at positions 00-04. They're less musically important than the C#s. So I simply cut them out.

Another example from the Purple Motion section.

Solobrass

00 C#3 05 ..

01 ... .. ..

02 C#3 05 ..

03 ... .. ..

04 C#4 05 ..

05 ... .. ..

06 C#3 05 ..

07 ... .. ..

08 C#3 06 ..

09 ... .. ..

10 C#4 06 ..

11 ... .. ..

12 C#3 05 ..

13 ... .. ..

14 C#5 05 ..

15 ... .. ..

Was turned into this.

Solobrass
00 C#3 05 ..
01 ... .. ..
02 OFF .. ..
03 ... .. ..
04 C#4 05 ..
05 ... .. ..
06 OFF .. ..
07 ... .. ..
08 C#3 05 ..
09 ... .. ..
10 C#4 05 ..
11 ... .. ..
12 OFF .. ..
13 ... .. ..
14 ... .. ..
15 ... .. ..

I did this kind of note shaving everywhere I could. And finally got it down to Cut Iteration 6, the smallest the song would get and 3,653 bytes from where I started at 4,345 bytes. That's right the first 9 minutes of the Second Reality soundtrack in just hair over 4k.

At this point, Seven was still hacking away at Crinkler/Clinkster (we were attacking the problem from both ends) and building new versions of the production. We were getting really close and he was working non-stop.

<Prev. Part 15 - Part 17 Next>

1. Are we crazy?

2. Microscope

3. Constraints and Expenses and Pooping Parties

4. Origins

5. Entropy

6. Let's Talk Turkey

7. Getting Dirty

8. Knotty Knotes

9. Forgotten Magic

10. Pots and Pans

11. Your Left, Your Left