Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo DS Game and Music Composer All in One
An anonymous reader writes "In the shadows of launch titles like Super Mario 64 DS, Feel the Magic XY/XX and Wario Ware Touched! is Daigasso! Band Brothers (the working title is Jam with the Band in America). This little gem is a music game similar to a Bemani title. It features over 50 songs with a blend of J-Pop, TV themes and Nintendo melodies. What is hidden inside the title is a full out MIDI composer. You can use the stylus and the touch screen to write your own songs." An aspect I found interesting with this title is that it can use the microphone to sample sounds, which can then be mixed with the composer.
A band called "The Electric Family" composed an entire album using Mario Paint's composer and named the album after the game. I can't find any useful info about the album on the web though.
Finally, a worthy successor to Mario Paint, at least! The touch screen makes a tolerable substitute for the SNES mouse, but I wonder if anyone will make a wireless mouse to work with the game...
For more information, click here.
Is this Nintendo's way to prove that the DS can be more than just a video game player? I think they are beginning to regret not launching the DS like the PSP as a multi-purpose video/mp3 player out of the box.
It'll be a matter of time before they realize the DS was launched similar to the N64 missing CDrom capabilities. Go ahead laugh at the PSP battery issue. Watch that be the only weakness.
Considering this is the same company that famously did not include a headphone jack on the GBA SP (opting instead to charge me $$ to buy a custom jack, play in silence or piss people off), I have to ask if there's going to be any practical way to get your MIDI compositions off the DS (as opposed to sharing between DS's) once they're done.
Ah... another adapter to come, I assume.
Seriously though, without that ability (or the ability to input MIDI data), saying this game has full MIDI composition capabilities is a bit misleading.
It's hard to soar like an eagle when you're surrounded by turkeys.
We get a Mario 64 port. OK, decent - but like 99% of the world has played it.
Ping Pals, a chat program for a platform with a free chat program.
Sprung - a dating sim.
Feel the Magic - a dating sim on acid.
Now a MIDI composer?
OK sure, Ridge Racer, Spidey 2 and Madden at least round things out - but about half of the titles for DS right now are odd enough to make Sega shake their head.
IGN has a number of videos, from which you can glean single-player gameplay. They also have footage of Nintendo's conference presentation, which talks about the multiplayer aspect. The latter is more interesting, as the former seems similar to other games in the genre. (Tap the controls in time with the music.)
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Inago Rage - Fight in 3D arenas of your own design.
We're indie. We're working on our 14th game.
Here are some recent 'concerts' of people using the game. It looks very interesting, IGN has a few videos of what the screen looks like during gameplay.
I can't wait for it to be released over here.
These were posted on a msg forum. Mario Theme
Original
???
Skip to ~2:10
Chewie does not get a medal. Come on, George. Can a Wookie get a medal?
as an avid bemani fan i got this when it launched in japan. i was quite disappointed at first. The sound engine is a straight port from the original GBA project Gameboy Music, so the MIDIs sound quite tinnish, it doesnt show off the DS capabilities at all. Let's say the songs sound like nokia polyphonic ringtones; horrible! -_-; Im any case, playing the game solo is no fun. The REAL fun is actually hooking up with other DSes and playing at a band. here is where you can look past the sound quality and have some multiplayer fun. With a single cart, 8 players can join in, with multi carts, its an infinate number of players.... Theres even a built in pictochat function to send messages while you play. and no lag. if i can recommend anyone playing it, increasing the song's speed by 10-20% actually makes the song sound better, especially the F-Zero medley.
Games of this type are much harder than you'd think, but when you get good at them, it's amazing, fun and addictive! I've played mostly Beatmania IIDX, and I always felt that a note editor would be fun to play around with. IIDX is sequenced, though, so editing on the existing sequence would be challenging.
This game's editor looks more like Jester Interactive's Pocket Music for Gameboy Advance. It's main limitation is memory. It's other big problem is bass. But otherwise, you have so much freedom that if you write your own RIFFs, the variety is endless.
I'm looking forward to this.
Does it really use the MIDI standards or is the article's author just making assumptions / mis-use of the term?
-1991
It's not the first time we have seen a music composer on a PDA. No that is not a typo. The DS is a god damn PDA.
Hacker Media
" Is this Nintendo's way to prove that the DS can be more than just a video game player?"
Given that this is a video game, no, I don't think this is Nintendo's way of proving it can be more.
It's a rhythm game, like DDR, Samba de Amigo, Donkey Konga... you know?
It's just that the put in a fun mode where instead of playing along to the song, you play your own song, and a mode where you can sync your performance with other DS' over the wireless network. That's kind of fun, it means you can create a DS band with your friends at lunch.
You know, fun?
As for the whole cd-rom, battery, fan boy issue... Yeesh. Let that work itself out. Just remember that UMD is as proprietary as the carts this time around.
This is great.
This is GREAT!
I'm serious guys, this is just so awesomely cool. I can't believe there are so many people down on this here, they're releasing a cartridge with a full music composition tool in it! Here's a sampling of comments:
"Is this Nintendo's way to prove that the DS can be more than just a video game player?"
Oy, what's with all the antagonism? Does everything have to be through the reacting-to-Sony filter? One thing about Nintendo, you can't honestly say they plan products just to react to other companies.
"I have to ask if there's going to be any practical way to get your MIDI compositions off the DS (as opposed to sharing between DS's) once they're done."
It'd be cool to get them off my DS, yes, but c'mon! Remember the many hours kids spent with Mario Paint? (Link is to a large, but familiar, Quicktime file.) Fun creation software for game systems is a huge, largely untapped, market, and one of the ways that video gaming can actually make a positive impact on this tired old world. I'd think that Slashdot's strong individualistic streak would turn people out in this game's favor.
Plus, since the DS has wireless, and the composition mode probably has multi-system playback, I figure it's only a matter of time before someone hacks together a program that intercepts the intersystem play stream and saves it in a file.
"...about half of the titles for DS right now are odd enough to make Sega shake their head."
And why do I love Sega? It ain't because of Sonic Adventure!
"It's not the first time we have seen a music composer on a PDA. No that is not a typo. The DS is a god damn PDA."
Thanks for that insightful comment. Labels are fun, kids!
ARGH! Don't you guys see how COOL this is?! Is that worth nothing?
This just doesn't impress me that much. You gotta be near a wireless hub to watch video, you can only see what makes it through Sony's narrow rights filter, and it's unlikely you'll be able to save a copy of what you watch.
A TV tuner, a piece of technology you could get way back for TurboDuos and Game Gears, would actually be cooler. There's already one announced for the DS, but that doesn't mean much since a third party will probably make one for the PSP in short order.
In the american version, will the jpop songs be replaced with american pop? Because if so, I'll be importing.
Here is where you can download the album. I got it off Xarph.net. It's pretty decent stuff. They are put out by a publisher who provide their recordings for free, but ask that you still buy the CDs. Though I'm not sure exactly where you can get the CDs, you can get their merch Here.
By the way, Google is very useful. I plugged in "Mario Paint" + "Electric Family" and got those results instantly. Try Googling well before saying you can't find any useful info on the web.
And someone might want to make some mirrors, this is Slashdot after all.
I imported the game a couple weeks ago, so I've had time to play with the editor. It's extremely powerful compared to things like Remix mode in Frequency and Amplitude. You pick treble or bass clef, adjust the key of the song, pick a tempo, and start placing notes. The music theory behind it is very solid (I assume - I know very little about music theory). You can also have the game generate chord progressions and harmonies based on key signatures that you choose. It's extremely impressive overall. The max BPM you can use is 300, and the songs can be at least 70 measures. I haven't checked the maximum length yet. As for instrument voices, there were about 40 or so when I counted.
i ndex.h tml
;-)
There are a couple limitations, though. You get 8 individual instrument tracks, but each of those tracks is monophonic. To do any chording, you'll have to allocate more than one track for a particular voice. Also, you're limited to 4/4 time signatures.
The other editor mode (Hanauta de Gakufu) is quite interesting. You hum a tune into the microphone, and it quantizes into appropriate notes and adds a background track. Then you can load the creation in the full editor for further refinement.
Also worth noting is the official Nintendo Band Bros. download site. They've got some sheet music available. Right now they have Jingle Bells, and Slider (from Mario 64).
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/abbj/download/
And one more thing - it's not MIDI. MIDI is a serial interface spec for transmitting music control data, etc. Band Bros. has a synthesizer, not MIDI. Saying it has MIDI is like saying my web browser has broadband.
A friend of mine imported the game from Japan and has been playing around with it for a while. He has made some execellent song renditions of other songs and it has impressed me wholeheartedly.
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before (pressed for time to read other replies) but there are some cool features. First, it is single cartiridge multiplayer with up to 8 people with realitivly low load time. Second, if done right, people without the game can hold onto one song indefinitly and play as any instrument and # of times as long as the DS doesn't turn off (sleep mode comes in handy here).
Figured I would throw 2 pennies in.