NES Audio: Single Channel Echo in Moon Crystal

In a previous post, I explored a technique for single channel echo utilized by Neil Baldwin. I wanted to demonstrate another example that’s found in a Japanese game:

Moon Crystal by Tsukasa Tawada features this effect in a couple of its tracks. It’s accomplished by writing a pattern of notes, and then inserting a copy of those notes in-between itself at a reduced volume. In musical terms, it’d be like taking a pattern of 16th notes, then doubling the notes up so that you have 32nd notes instead.

Additionally, to exaggerate the impact of the echo effect, the notes can be shifted so that the quieter in-between note isn’t a softer version of the note immediately before it. Instead, it’s delayed and falls after the next note. Here’s the beginning of the part heard at 4 seconds into the above video:

The basic melody without echo is shown on the left, what you hear in-game is shown on the right. 8 and 4 are the volumes of the notes (you can ignore the number “15”, that was the designation of the instrument I was using).

The notes (without volume commands) would look like this in sheet music:

(^before the effect)

(^after the effect)