Tips for Transcribing Video Game Music

A channel in pre-N64 audio hardware was monophonic, meaning it can only play one sound at a time.

having done hundreds of vgm transcriptions, i like this video one trick i use occasionally that ive never seen anyone else do is using a spectrogram (i use the one in foobar2000 with colors adjusted so that its easier to distinguish fundamentals from overtones), its great when you have dense chords that are easier to see visually than they are to hear. it's not something you can rely on 100% of the time cause it does depend on the mixing and making educated guesses but its just a cool extra method

7:39 Oh hey, it's me.

Thanks for making this! I love to see more videos from VGM arrangers talking about their process

Thank you for making this! I've only done arrangements a few times on very simple scores but I've always wanted to arrange more complex ones like "Hitting close to home", so this video's very helpful

I've been doing transcribing by ear for several months, so I can definitely say your tips are pretty good!

This is a really cool summary for how transcribing works! Thank you also for all the tips! I've been loosely transcribing things since basically when I learned to play the Piano as a kid. I'm shit at playing the Piano, and I never wanted to practice, but even after I stopped having lessons I went back to it every time I got the urge to play some random tune and started transcribing things onto paper. At some point I started doing things in FamiTracker, and now I even notate some things in MuseScore for practice. I still can't perform anything remotely complex to save my life, but sequencing things in a Tracker works reasonably well for me now. I even have some finished covers of a few tracks now!

"The downsides of this are you need to know how to read it, and understanding what you're looking at can be daunting" Yeah same with sheet music

I've enjoyed your music for years and this video might be the thing that pushes me to start transcribing/arranging some of my obscure favorites. Thanks!

Thanks! It was very interesting and it helped me transcribe old records, in which the instruments are not even differenciated (Berliner Gramophone records are usually so poorly recorded that the band is a single mass entity and is almost imposible to notice bass or counterpoints)

So, This video popped up in my recommended right after I finished a transcription of the Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake's Intro theme for piano, I just could spread the register for the inner voices in the final section, but made an epic pianistic-right-hand-chord arrangement that works fine, and raises the bar a little bit for my current technique level. I hope I can share it played soon. It can indeed be an art form in itself

This is something I want to do, mainly so I have an easier excuse to learn them. Biggest problem is playing by ear, so that should be the priority.

Well made video, nice job.

I just attempted to post a comment, but I think it didn't go through 😭 Great video though, this is exactly what I would have wanted when I first started transcribing ❤️

Very helpful. Thank you.

Painting the midis in a blanket way like that is misleading. There are good arranged midis, good midi rips, and some midi leak files. Do they each have issues? yes but many are still useful even for a novice arranger/player. I’ve arranged a lot of Pokémon and N64 songs this way.

MIDI is Dave Smith's legacy.

I remember making a song (a pretty complex one.) and I told a friend to transcribe it. At the first 10 seconds, he already gave up. 💀

i have no idea how I wasn't subscribed sooner lol (i saw some of your Shovel Knight harpsichord videos a few years back and guess I forgot)

Good vid! 👍