Best instruments in GBA soundfont?

Questions
1

I’ve gotten into making MIDIs in Anvil, and one of the challenges I’ve faced so far is figuring out which MIDI instruments sound best in the FE8 GBA soundfont. Some instruments are different, or simply removed, but they all vary a bit when actually inserted into the game.

Does anyone with more experience on the matter have recommendations for which instrument and rhythm tracks to use for the best results? Any to avoid?

Thanks all - hope the answers here will help me and anyone else looking to compose their own work.

1 Like
2

Which game?

I don’t actually know how they’re numbered in FE8, but you should probably actually look at the instrument table so you know which instruments exist, and which don’t. Basically, if you didn’t already hear it in the vanilla FE soundtrack, it doesn’t exist.

That said, the best way to figure this out is to actually listen to the soundtrack and pick out which instruments you like. Then you can just grab the pointers for those instruments and customise your instrument map to your liking.

It’s important to note that a lot of the bass instruments are tuned down an octave so you’ll need to push them up an octave in your MIDI. The default electric bass and timpani are such examples.

I’d need to see the FE8 native instrument map to say anything more

Ah yes, and if you’d like to import some custom instruments, Mother 3 and the Advance Wars series generally have instruments that match the timbre of the FE games quite well. The FE11/12 instruments actually work quite well too, but are just a little soft so you’d have to adjust the volume for these tracks up about 30%

3

Thanks for the reply - this is for FE8.

The tips are helpful. Will try that out.

4

The string ensembles are highly versatile instruments that can do anything, though they’re admittedly only good in medium to small doses. Some types of bass are a must in some tracks. And if your track does not include any sort of percussion (the last ones on the list) how dare you. (There are exceptions to the percussion rule, though). Of course, we’re assuming FE8 and FE7.

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Hope I’m not too late.
Pan flute is pretty good, and regular violin as well (Though it’s often too loud, so I advice lowering the volume). Aside from that, “Bright acoustic piano” (Instrument 1) sounds far better than the default Grand Piano (Instrument 0). Anything else is up to personal taste I guess :v