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Mega Man Mega Drive

by Alexander Emenheiser

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about

WEAPON GET FROM MEGA MAN 3
I was working on a YM2612 cover of Prelude from Castlevania III, but I couldn't seem to get the instrumentation or the notes of the arpeggios right. So I decided to do this instead! I think it turned out amazing! Definitely an improvement over the Wily Wars version. I exported this song as a ROM and played it on my Analogue Mega Sg in order to simulate the DAC noise effect that a real SEGA Genesis would have. The version that comes straight out of DefleMask sounds a lot different without the DAC effect! It's a lot more aggressive and makes the whistle patch sound similar to a square wave despite it actually being a sine wave.

I decided to use a whistle patch because I wanted it to represent Proto Man. He loves whistling.

Only the YM2612 is used, no PSG, and all patches are custom made; no presets! Probably half of the time working on this song was dedicated to making the instruments sound good. Making FM patches sure is hard!!

TOMAHAWK MAN FROM MEGA MAN 6
This was requested from a user who commented on the Weapon Get song on TikTok.

For years, I thought the music in the classic Mega Man series took a dive after 3. The compositions weren't as memorable as they were in 1, 2, and 3. But after listening to and transcribing Tomahawk Man to sheet music, I've gained a new appreciation of the music of these games. Learning that the song is supposed to be a spaghetti western song really helped me understand what the song was going for. Most Mega Man songs are interpreted from its NES chiptunes as basic rock music, but as it turns out there is variety in there!

Only the YM2612 was used, no PSG, and all FM patches were made from scratch. Ordinarily, I would use the sample channel for drums, but this time I wanted to use it for acoustic guitar! I had to create drum sounds from FM patches and it was very challenging to get a decent kick and snare sound. Even now, I'm not fully happy with them. The guitar samples were taken from Reason 10. The same process from the Weapon Get cover of converting the DefleMask file into a ROM and playing it on my Mega Sg for DAC simulation was used. The results are interesting. If anyone wants a cleaner direct export from DefleMask, let me know!

STAGE SELECT FROM MEGA MAN 8
Ever since I started using DefleMask, I've never understood how to use the EXT.CH3 of the SEGA Genesis. I asked on r/chiptunes and got a very helpful explanation! Thank you to u/Scotty_SR!

I wanted to get more bang for my buck when it comes to the Genesis's few sound channels. There are only six, which more often than not can be limiting. On top of that, the sixth channel is often used for samples. So realistically that's five available channels. I've been making a lot of songs recently that use a sine wave lead. A lead and a separate echo track means that two of the six channels are used up. I could have used two of the five channels for a sine wave (workable, but not ideal) or I could use the Genesis's EXT.CH3 mode and get an additional four extra channels of sine waves! Using the advice from above, I was able to cram a sawtooth bass, a sine wave lead, lead echo, and sub-bass into what would have been one channel! That opened up the remaining channels for fuller sound design and a lot more creative freedom.

There are other uses for EXT.CH3 besides an additional 4-voice polyphony, but I have yet to try them out.

I ran into a problem when trying to recreate the original's vox poly synth. From what I was able to do with FM, I could not make a decent patch. I did get close, but not close enough. So, I went into Reason and quickly slapped together a similar sounding synth and imported it into DefleMask. In the end, I think it works nicely! I love the way the chords smoothly blend together, especially in the transition back to the top of the song.

I tried exporting this song as a ROM and playing it on my Mega Sg for DAC simulation, but the results were REALLY noisy and some instruments were out of tune. I don't know why. I heard that DefleMask's audio emulation isn't really accurate, so these problems are to be expected, unfortunately. There is a new YM2612 tracker being developed in protest of DefleMask going from free to $20 and using non-open source code. It's called ZorroTracker and I look forward to using it when it comes out!

As usual, all patches are custom made, no PSG. Overall, this was a fun attempt at recreating the original and—given the limitations of the Genesis—it turned out surprisingly close!

FUN FACT: The PlayStation and SEGA Saturn versions of Mega Man 8 have different music! Some are completely different songs (most notably Tengu Man), but some are different versions of the same song. The Stage Select Theme has some additional synths in the PlayStation and is mixed differently, I think. This cover is based on the Saturn version.

PROTO MAN'S FORTRESS FROM MEGA MAN 5
I was going to stop the Mega Man Genesis cover album at the previous track, but then I came across a cover of this song by Paul Mann IV. It was spectacular! I felt such a strong connection with this song. The Mega Man Megamix and Gigamix manga have shown me that given the right artistry you can make a game as simple as Mega Man a lot of emotional weight. This cover of Proto Man's Fortress made the idea of your own brother turning evil (which is what Mega Man 5 is all about) more impactful. Giving the song a lot more driving low- and mid-end instrumentation gave the song a lot more gravitas that the original was lacking. I was inspired to make my own cover similar to this one.

I quickly started running out of channels in DefleMask as I progressed. I started with the horns at the beginning doing the melody and added a harmony. That was two channels gone. Then I wanted an echo on both those channels. Four of the six total channels on the YM2612 were used up. I didn't want to sacrifice the fullness of those horns! Then I remembered a little-used feature of DefleMask: the ability to sync up two simultaneous projects! Despite it not being technically possible on one Genesis, that didn't matter because the feel of the song was more important than being hardware accurate. (Besides, this is hardware accurate if you play it on two Genesises.)

All FM patches are custom made, and the only usage of the PSG is for the hihat.

After I was happy with the song, I exported both project files to ROMs and recorded them from my Analogue Mega Sg to simulate the characteristic DAC distortion found on actual SEGA Genesis consoles. I was unsure if the results would sound pleasant because my attempt with the Stage Select theme from Mega Man 8 didn't sound good at all. But it turns out that it made everything sound nice and thick! Fantastic!

After starting this whole Mega Man Genesis cover project, someone on the ZorroTracker Discord server showed me this amazing new fangame called Mega Man: The Sequel Wars, a homebrew (not hack) sequel to The Wily Wars! This fangame runs on an actual SEGA Genesis! It has Mega Man 4 through 6, two player co-op, and remixed stages! I was hoping that I'd be able to help do music as it's still in development, but I feel that would be arrogant of me. Besides, the developer is intentionally trying to stick to the Wily Wars music style, albeit improved in my opinion from what I have heard so far.

credits

released May 20, 2021

ARRANGED BY Alexander Emenheiser

Tomahawk Man from Mega Man 6
COMPOSED BY Yuko Takehara

Weapon Get from Mega Man 3
COMPOSED BY Yasuaki Fujita

Stage Select from Mega Man 8
COMPOSED BY Shusaku Uchiyama

Proto Man's Fortress from Mega Man 5
COMPOSED by Mari Yamaguchi

Stage Select from Mega Man 10
COMPOSED BY Ryo Kawakami

Intro Stage from Mega Man X3
COMPOSED BY Kinuyo Yamashita

Album art and logo designed by Alexander Emenheiser.
Aurora borealis photo by Lisaleo on morguefile.com.
Logo font is Vertigo Upright 2 BRK.

Special thank you to:
- The members of the ZorroTracker Discord server
- My Patreon supporters Ashley, Aleah, and Froggy

Mega Man © Capcom

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Alexander Emenheiser York, Pennsylvania

Animator | Composer | Comedy Let's Player

Composer for video games, new and old.

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