Is was wondering...
What equipment do i need for my PC to rearrange MSX music?
What is commonly used by you guys, like Wolf or J-War?

You can also rearrange music for a totally different chip (on MSX) and record it on PC to make an MP3 or something.

uh .. that question is quite generic You could also have asked: "what equipment do you generally use?", since (my) remakes or normal songs aren't really different, technically.

I'm the tracker-type so I use Impulse Tracker 2 for composing/arranging, with a load of samples, and software like Vegas 4 and Soundforge to mix and master..

But I know that J-War fo_Or example wO_orks co_Ompletely different. There's no formula for all this.. The only thing you can do is just 'do it', release it, and ask for opinions. Generally I always give tips when I give opinions, because those tips are usually based on my opinion about the remake

Oh.. there's one hint tho: if you're doing a remake of a Konami game, try KSS .. (not the winamp plugin, but that neat little player by F.Groen), it supports diskwriting.. which is a good method of getting all the correct notes!

And some more hints: use ParaMSX, disable some sound channels with it, and let it write the output to a wavefile. Then you can load that wavefile in a sound editor, slow it down, and pick out the notes at leisure! At least that's what I did for a really tricky part in an F-1 Spirit song I was rearranging

And it's basically just like Wolf said, it depends on yourself. Wolf prefers trackers and lots of samples, I prefer MIDI (synths) + a few samples, and I think J-War prefers real instruments supplemented by synths for the stuff he can't play

My sequencer is Cakewalk Sonar 3 it allow me to manage all midi and sample operations. It features full compatibility with ASIO and WDM drivers plus VSTi and DXi plugins.

The other famous sequencers are Cubase SX 2, Logic Audio 5 and Pro Tools. There's no realy best progs between those, you'll have to see which fits the best your needs.

If you only use samples and no midi i'd suggest to find a tracker like the one wolf spoke about above.

You need a 'decent' sound card too, actualy most of basic sound cards should be enough for you to begin comfortably.

Ah and i forgot : as it was told before, using fGroen KSS will help retrieving notes accurately. Kss will also allow you to output the isolated track to a wavefile, if you put this wavefile in Sonar and lower the Tempo, that will lower the wavefile tempo too which will allow to make the retrieveing process easier.

Having soundforge could be useful in many way too, this prog allow you to edit any sample with almost ullimited possibilities if you have the right plugins.

Wow, I never knew KSS could mute individual channels and write the output to wav too... nice tip!

o_O .. that's already a fact for more than a year I think

Yeah. Using File, Sound settings you can mute channels.

o_O O_O O_o

O_o o_o o_O

When using KSS and mute all but one channel, it's impossible to make errors, so there should appear some flawless covers once

I still use different tools too... I mainly use Cakewalk Pro with a synth, but lately I've been using Reason 2.5 too... cakewalk+synth arranges faster, but you don't have as much 'direct' control as in Reason (Reason allows you to compose AND master a track) though I usually do some postprocessing with Adobe Audition.

to master: Cool Edit Pro. period.

Quote:

to master: Cool Edit Pro. period.

Adobe Audition == Cool Edit Pro

Same here (same as profile): Cakewalk with synths, post-processing in Audition and a lot of plugins (Izotope stuff). I don't use Reason though. Everything is hardware.