Music sequence
Music in Super Mario 64 is controlled by sequence files. They are in .m64 format, which is similar to MIDI. A sequence file has a sequence script, that can spawn channels, which have channel scripts, that can spawn layers, which have layer scripts that can play notes. Each note is performed using an instrument from a sound bank. A sequence file can use multiple banks. The mapping from sequences to sound banks is described in sound/sequences.json. Channels can switch between banks using a command. However, in practice most sequences limit themselves to a single sound bank. The main exception is sequence 0, which is responsible for sound effects.
Create sequences
There are several ways for creating new sequence files.
Seq64
Seq64 is a GUI program for editing sequence files for Super Mario 64 and other Nintendo games. It also features full MIDI importing and exporting.
https://github.com/sauraen/seq64
Manually
Sequence files can also be created manually in a textual format. Create a new assembly file in the sequences directory, for example sound/sequences/us/23_custom_sequence.s. This file should begin with the following header:
.include "seq_macros.inc"
.section .rodata
.align 0Next you can write down a series of commands. See include/seq_macros.inc for a list of available commands.
See also
- Custom music for SM64 on SMW Central