David Wise

"I tried to take the technique even further for Donkey Kong Country 2, using a Roland Juno-2 Synthesiser and sampling waveforms multiple times with different filter cut-off and resonance settings. We didn't have the memory to use midi, so again I typed in HEX sub-routines to put the waveforms back in the desired order, with the desired envelopes, pitch, lfo, and delayed offset information. Also, I discovered that, when cutting off the end of single cycle waveforms, in order to save memory, desirable artefacts were introduced such as subtle distortion and harmonics."

"One of the keyboards I was using heavily at the time was a Korg Wavestation and it could synthesize single-cycle waves, move them around and resequence them in different orders so it could effectively simulate filter sweeps. I meticulously sampled many keyboards at different cut-off points to get single-cycle wave samples and by getting into the nitty-gritty of sub-routines, I was able to introduce portamento and filter-sweep into what sounds like a synth line at the very beginning. Those little sounds, that were supposedly impossible to do on a SNES, I was particularly proud of.”

"Tim, the creative force at Rare, was very much into German Rock bands at the time. His brother Chris, the technical director, had designed a Video Arcade Board, including a 12 channel, 12 bit sample playback audio engine, on which we made a version of Battletoads. I was using a Roland MT-32 sound unit, which helped me to compose the score. Some of the material on the Arcade version of Battletoads was used and converted to the NES and SNES versions."

"Wise says his soundtrack for Cobra Triangle came primarily from 'messing around on my DX7 [Yamaha synthesizer],' something he did when he needed a quick turnaround for the games he worked on. It's not surprising to learn Wise had to compose some of his retro tracks by messing around; he composed dozens of soundtracks for Rare in the NES' heyday, with a particularly heavy deluge from 1989 through 1991."

"Video game music producer David Wise reveals his process for creating "Aquatic Ambience" for Donkey Kong Country using the wavestate."

David Wise, the composer, stated on Twitter, "I certainly worked on the Megadrive - I remember getting my DX21 - and copying and adapting the data to work on the YM2612 soundchip," indicating his use of the Yamaha DX21 to emulate the Genesis soundchip.

David Wise, renowned for composing the SNES Donkey Kong Country soundtracks, mentioned in a tweet that he once owned a Roland U-220 Sound Module before the SNES era. He noted that by the time he worked on these titles, he was using the Roland S770. Interestingly, the sounds from these modules are still featured in Roland's modern 'ZEN-Core Pro' sound sets.

Composer David Wise confirmed the use of Roland D-110, stating, "We had Roland Kit like D110's / U220's / Soundcanvas and much more. I'm sure we might have emulated the odd patch here and there."

David Wise confirmed on Twitter that he used the Yamaha TX7 Desktop Module, stating, "I had a Yamaha TX7 ( DX7 in a box )."