Throughout the years, we’ve had a certain fondness for arcade games here at DJ Techtools. So when finger drummer Tim Murray posted a new video featuring all retro video game samples, it only feels right to share it. Enjoy the drumstep performance, then read on to learn where the sounds came from, including using images of Pacman and Mario as synth wavetables!
Tim Murray’s “Arcade Attack” on Midi Fighter 64
You can watch the full performance video above – but it’s especially interesting to note that some of the samples in the track are actually built out of images of video game avatars, input as wavetables into Serum. Here’s what Tim writes in the video description:
My DJ TechTools Midi Fighter 64 finally arrived a month ago, and so here is another sample challenge video. The idea of this track is that every sound is either a sample directly from a retro video game (Tetris, Super Mario Bros, Super Mario 64, Pac-Man), or a wavetable made from a picture of a famous retro game character. [..]
As soon as I found out that you could import pictures into Serum as wavetables, I just had to use it in a sample challenge video. [..] Everything in this video is 100% live, with no backing tracks.
Wait, You Can Use Images As Synth Wavetables?
For the producers out there who find the above technique a surprise, we thought we’d share a great tutorial on importing PNG image files into Serum. The luminance of an image actually is mapped out as amplitude for the synth. Watch the process in action in the below tutorial from ADSR Sounds:
