Uploading and Sharing Covers - How to Music Makermatic

Hi guys! This is the last informative post before I make the final one in a week to answer any questions I might have missed! This post will be about the different ways you can record your DIY covers for sharing on the internet. Then I will go over the best place to share your songs.

Recording

AUX/Audio Cord with laptop
This method allows you to basically record the audio from your DS of choice to your computer. For this method, you will need;

• A PC/laptop with a place to plug in a microphone - This will vary in price
• An audio card attachment (if you don't have a mic plug in) - Cheap online
• AUX cord/male to male lead - Cheap online

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Its easy to use
• Its cheap to do (unless you don't have a laptop)

Cons

• You will miss out on visuals with this method unless you can video edit

Phone/Camera on a tripod
This is how I started out, simply because I didn't know there were other affordable ways. For this method, you simply point your phone or camera towards your DS of choice and record the creen. For this method, you will need;

• A phone or camera

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Easy to use
• Its cheap to do (unless you don't have a pone/camera)
• Allows you to record visuals

Cons

• Static Warning!
• You'll need to record in a dark room and be quiet for the best quality.

DS/3DS Capture Card

This is the best form of recording someone could get their hands on. It allows you to record in the best quality (both visuals and audio). I'm not going to go in much detail here because it is extremely difficult to find a capture card. Even if you do, its a crazy price.

My recommendation would be to use the AUX cord method if you can.

Where to share covers?

• YouTube - This is where I share a lot of my covers. Its the best for sharing videos of anything!
• Soundcloud - If you use the AUX cord method, this is another great site to share your covers. Plus, you play them in the background (unlike with YouTube
• Twitter - Even though I moved on from the phone/camera method of recording, I still do it on Twitter to share sneak peeks of future covers
• Discord - This is kind of cheating, since you can't share large files (unless you have Nitro), but its a good place to share YouTube/Soundcloud links! You can join the Warioware DIY Discord server here!

Well that is all the information I have to teach everyone through my own personal experience and findings. Now I need to find out what I missed! I will give everyone a week to ask me any further questions, then I will write a final post answering as many as possible. I don't know much about extremely technical computer things, but I can help with anything in the base game.

Thank you so much t everyone for reading through all these posts and I hoped I helped!

Using thw Warioware DIY interface - How to Music Makermatic

This post will be dedicated to features in Warioware DIY that are really useful, but that are also not really used to their full potential. I'm going to look at them today!

Underrated In-game Features

Shuffle Beat
See the little dude on the pogo stick? Click on him and you might be able to make your song sound better with a Shuffle Beat. A good example of when I used the Shuffle Beat is in Staff Roll - Super Mario 64. Note that it only really works if notes are right next to each other, like the Rhythm section of Staff Roll.

Tempo/Speed
Use the tempo to your advantage! Once you figure out what all the different notes from my second post mean, you can half both the tempo and the sizes of all the notes in order to fit more of a song in the 24 tracks. A good example of when I used the tempo to my advantage is in Tomorrow Hill - Warioware Smooth Moves. The tempo of Tomorrow Hill is usually 120, but if you look at the top of the video, I changed it to 60 so I could fit the whole song.

Mix and Match
Don't be afraid to mix and match different instruments together. Since a lot of instruments sound so different, they often compliment each other somehow. Some examles of instrument combos I like include;

• Flute and Melodica
• Piano and Acoustic Guitar
• Marimba and Banjo
• Wah Dude and Opera Man (sounds like a superhero duo lol)
• Fah-Fah (Blooper) and Melodica
• Any 8-Bit sounds with each other.

Save Often
I know I said this already, but I've lost quite a few songs forgetting to do this. Please don't forget!

For tomorrow's post, we will go over in detail the different ways you can record and upload DIY covers. I'll be back tomorrow for that!

Midis and Sheet Music - How to Music Makermatic

Hello everyone! This post will be dedicated to sharing websites that are for finding midis and sheet music. This isn't really a guide or anything, just an informative post with links to any websites I mention.

Before I start...
I would like to say this, if anyone heavily uses any of these sources, please credit everyone involved and link to the midi/sheet music you use. People put a lot of effort into putting these sites together and putting midis/sheet music towards them.

Also, if a person/website doesn't state how you can use their content, ask first! A lot of people are often willing to share, but not everyone. Better to get a confirmed response after asking than to screw over another creator because you didn't ask. Nothing bothers me more than seeing cool artists get their work stolen.

Midis
I'm not the most knowledgeable on midi sites. If anyone else has any other recommendations, feel free to mention them!

• VGMusic - This website has almost 32,000 midi files from many different video games, from NES all the way to Nintendo Switch. It even has non Nintendo music and meme songs too! You can check out VGMusic here!

Sheet Music

• NinSheetMusic - This is one of my favourite sites for Nintendo sheet music. It has nearly 4,000 sheets from a variety of Nintendo games (and a few non Nintendo games too). Best part is its still being updated 14 years after the site was made. You can check out NinSheetMusic here!
• Ichigo's Sheet Music - This website not only has video game music, but also sheets from anime and cartoons too! It has about 3,500 sheets of many different instruments such as piano, violin, voice and more! You can check out Ichigo's Sheet Music here!
• MuseScore - This sheet music site works a little different from the last two. The sheets are shared here for fun, rather than for the website itself. For this website, it is very important to ask before using them. MuseScore has thousands of sheets from games, anime, TV shows and normal music too. You can check out MuseScore here!

So those are the websites I'm aware of. Of course there are probably a lot more, but those are the most popular ones. I'll be back here next time with some information on actually using the Warioware DIY interface.

Song Recommendations and Tips - How to Music Makermatic

Welcome back! Yesterday's post was a little heavy and wordy, especially for some of you still learning. So today, I will be going over a few song dos and don'ts, along with some other advice!

Note that these are just guidelines. If you feel like a song I mentioned to be easy is actually hard, or vice versa, that's up to you and do what you're comfortable with.

Song Recommendations
So for this, I will be going over songs from video games that would be easy to make and that will get yo used to the Music Maker. I recommend

• The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask - I asked the Discord server what they would recommend and a lot of people mentioned these two games. I agree wholeheartedly! Not only are they great for getting the hang of it, but they also help with easing beginners into the 3/4 time signature I briefly mentioned yesterday. One thing though, I would look at Ocarina of Time's music before Majora's Mask, since MM tends to have music that uses 3/4 more.
• Almost any Mario Music - With the exception of anything orchestrated (I'll explain why later), music from any Mario game is great for starting out. Since there are so many different versions of the same songs, you can mix and match almost any instruments and it would still work.
• Most music from RPGs - A good thing about RPG music is that it repeats the same bars of music. So making these kinds of songs are extremely easy to do since you can copy and paste a lot of it and it will still sound finished.
• Older Pokemon Music - I'd personally say that any music before Gen 3 would be easy to make. Gens 4-5 are okay too, but that would be similar to the Zelda music thing I mentioned earlier. Plus like the RPG music, there's a lot of repeating.
• Music from Simulations - Similar to the RPG music reasoning, but also because simulation music can be extremely relaxing. 

I wouldn't recommend...

• Any Orchestrated - Of course there are exceptions, but the issue with orchestrated music is that it commonly uses a lot more instruments than the game allows. Best to avoid these as a beginner.
• Songs with weird or changing time signatures - For the love of Wario, don't do what I did and try to cover Marx's Theme. You can avoid the suffering... Seriously though, even I find weird and changing time signatures to be confusing. The game is laid out in 4/4, so its best to stick to that for now.
• Long Songs - At least to start out! A lot of my own covers at first were no longer than two minutes. It took me until Staff Roll (Super Mario 64) to feel comfortable.

Other Tips!

• Look for a 4/4 version of a song! - They do exist! A great example is Kass's Theme from Breath of the Wild. The original version is in 3/4, but the Smash Bros Ultimate version is in 4/4. Keep an ear out and you might find what you're looking for. Unfounded Revenge from Mother 3 also has a 4/4 version in Smash!
• Try a variety of instruments - Don't think the electric guitar really works? Try the acoustic guitar instead. Sometimes, a instrument isn't the best for it's intended purpose. Experiment! 
•  Ask for help! - Other fellow creators are more than happy to help out! I'm also available to help as best as I can.
• SAVE YOUR WORK! - I cannot stress that enough! I've lost full songs because I "would save in five minutes". Do it anytime it comes to mind and often.

I will be back tomorrow with how to find midis and sheet music!

Basic Music Theory - How to Music Makermatic

This post is for those who use MIDIs and/or sheet music for their covers. Reading the sheet music can be like a second language, but I'm here to teach you some basic sheet music and will translate some of it into what I call "DIY Theory" for you!

Note: I will be calling the notes and other phrases by the names commonly used in Europe/the UK, not their American names.

The Stave and a Bar
The stave is the lines and spaces used in sheet music. In DIY Theory, our stave is the place where we pace our notes, like in real sheet music! It would look like this.

I tried making a template...

A Bar is four beats, so there are two bars per track. For example, there are 24 tracks in one song max, so that means there are 48 bars per song max.

Notes between versions
So I only found this out recently. In European copies of the game when you hold a note, it shows the letter name. So when I hold a C note, it shows a C in the little bubble. Like this!

Unfortunately in American copies of the game, the letters are replaced with "Do Re Mi". I remember a friend and I found this out a week before this post came out and a majority of people on Discord were shocked. So here is what each note means.

This still blows my mind and has given me so much more respect for American creators.

The Treble and Base Clefs
Okay, let's start from the very beginning with the Treble Clef. This is the most commonly used Clef in the stave (the lines and spaces). It looks something like this.

When translated to Warioware DIY's "stave", the spaces look like this.

While the lines look like this.

The Bass Clef is the same thing, except it looks like this instead.

G would be the bottom line, D would be in the middle and it would end with an A on the top line. Again, here are the spaces and lines translated into Warioware DIY.

Music Notes
There are a few music notes that aren't really needed in Warioware DIY, So I will only talk about the ones that show up a lot from longest to shortest.

Semibreve
The semibreve is the longest note that you'll see in a lot of sheet music and midi files. It is a whole note, so it is the length of all four beats in the bar. The note itself looks like this and below it is the Warioware version.

Minim
The minim is next! It is known as a half note as its half the size of a semibreve, so its two beats in a bar. The note itself looks like this and below it is the Warioware version.

Crotchet
We have the crotchet, the most commonly used note (I think). It is known as a quarter note, since it is a quarter of a whole note. Its only one beat in a bar and looks like this.

Quaver
The quaver is you guessed it, an eighth note since its an eighth of a semibreve. It is half a beat in a bar and looks like this.

Semi-quaver
You're probably getting sick of how all these notes work, but don't worry this is the last one. The semi-quaver is a 16th of a semibreve. It is a quarter of a beat and is the smallest note that fits in Warioware DIY (sort f, but I'll not confuse you further). It looks like this.

Sharps and Flats
You see the hashtags on the black notes? That's the symbol for a sharp note. Here's something annoying about Warioware DIY, they just called all their black notes sharps, while sheet music calls a lot of those black notes by their "flat" terms.

It was extremely annoying when I was starting out, so here is a piano diagram that shows both the sharp and flat terms for each black note. Remember that the "#" is a sharp while the tiny "b" is the symbol for flat.

Time Signatures
This is the last music theory thing I will be talking about during this post. A time signature is when the amount of beats change per bar. There are only two you really need to know about to start out.

4/4
4/4 is how I've been explaining the rest of the notes as its the easiest way to follow. The top 4 represents the number of beats, while the bottom 4 represent the actual kind of beat. So 4/4 means 4 crotchet (quarter notes) beats in a bar.

Examples of songs that use this time signature include;

• Smiles and Tears - Earthbound
• Fever - Dr Mario

3/4
I wouldn't recommend working with this time signature as a beginner, but I figured I'd mention it anyway since its used often as well. The 3 represents the number of beats, while again the 4 represents the actual kind of beat. So 3/4 means 3 crotchet (quarter notes) beats in a bar.

Examples of songs that use this time signature include;

• Mgicant - Earthbound Beginnings
• Zelda's Lullaby - The Legend of Zelda series

That is a lot to take in (apologies), but I hope I explained it all okay. I'll be back tomorrow with some song recommendations and other tips!

Getting Started and what you'll need - How to Music Makermatic

Hello everyone and welcome to the first step/category in my "how to" series. Today's post will just be a quick rundown on what exactly you will need to make songs in Warioware DIY and what you would need if you wanted to effectively share your creations with others. So let's get started.

Things you'll need

A copy of Warioware DIY for the Nintendo DS 
Yeah seems obvious, but i've had people ask online if the music creation was a feature in games such as Touched or Gold. Nope, it is a feature in its own game.

You can find the game pretty cheap on websites such as Amazon and Ebay. You might also be able to find it secondhand in your local game store. Most copies I have found of the game were between £8-£15 (aound $10-$18). You could also emulate it but I heard doing that can be a little laggy and laggy music isn't great, so I recommend buying an actual copy

A Nintendo DS system of soe sort
The good thing about Warioware DIY being for the DS and not the 3DS is that it can be played on any system in the DS family. Those include;

• DS
• DS Lite
• DSi
• DSi XL 
• 3DS and its newer counterpart
• 3DS XL and its newer counterpart
• 2DS
• New 2DS XL

If its portable, made by Nintendo and has two screens, you're good to go!

Since the game can be played on all these devices, buy whatever suits you. If you only plan on playing Warioware DIY, then you'll be fine with getting a secondhand DS since you won't be missing out on anything.

If you have everything that is shown in the picture below, you're ready to make some music!

Yes my circle pad is broke...

Optional Stuff
These are things that will either make song creation easier, or will allow you to effectively share them online.

Warioware DIY Showcase for the Nintendo Wii
If you were one of those lucky souls who bought this game before the Wii Shop died, congrats on not having a guilty conscious because the only way others can get this now is through not really ethical means. I won't go into much detail as I'm honestly clueless about that stuff, but you are free to ask about it in the Warioware DIY Discord server. There are people there who know what they're doing and would be happy to help.

IDI Files and/or sheet music
I will go into more detail in another post about these, but these can be extremely useful of you struggle to listen to a song by ear or need to check a part of a song you're having trouble with.

A way to record DS audio/video
This is mainly for those who wish to share their Warioware content on social media sites like Youtube or Soundcloud. I will go over the pros and cons of every method and what I would recommend for beginners in another post.

A laptop with Audacity and a video editing software
If you're going to do anything with your songs online, Audacity is the best! It's free, has a lot of tools and is easy to use after fiddling around a bit. For video editing, the one automatically on Windows 10 does the job (or Windows Movie Maker if you don't use Windows 10). Again, I'll go in more detail later.

So that is everything you'll need I can think of. I'll see you back here tomorrow for some basic Music Theory. Feel free to ask any questions!

How to Music Makermatic - A New Tutorial Series!

Hello everyone! I'm Squishy and I will be showing you all how to make songs in Warioware DIY. I will be going through the details of every step, giving each step its own post and answering any questions you might have once all the steps release.

The "How to Music Makermatic" series will be starting on Saturday 27th July and there will be a post every day until I've went through everything. After that, I will wait a week to gather any further questions you might have and answer them in the form of a final post.

If you have any other inquiries or just want a fun place to hang out with other fans of the game, feel free to join the Wariowware DIY Discord server here or follow me on Twitter @SquishyPixelz. Thank you for reading and I'll see you all back here Monday!