You two are added now. I might not have much time to get really experimental again until this weekend, but feel free to send over a few you're particularly proud of!

Story of my life.

I will send a few different selections over, probably a couple more straightforward recordings and a couple that look beyond the original song; send anything you've got, and certainly don't hesitate to play with anything you get from me.

I've got three pretty decent jams so far...one on Scarborough Faire, one on Sukiyaki, and one, surprisingly, on Swan Lake. That's what I'll send. The rest is just my practice stuff, and failed attempts.

Do you tend to gravitate toward certain songs, out of curiosity? I intend to play with them all extensively, but I get the feeling that, in the end, I'll probably be most comfortable with a handful of songs that I find "conducive" to the kind of things I like to do.

I've still not used a good deal of the tracklist, though when I sit down with the game now, I always try to start with one I've never used for a video before. The ones I've most played with don't really seem to share any characteristics -- they range from the simple pieces to the classical, folk, pop, and Nintendo tunes -- but they might just be ones that have a good structure. One of the things I find most enjoyable is building sections in a song, and moving between different moods / textures / crescendos a couple times before hitting the end. I'm fascinated sometimes by the really simple parts of arranging, like syncopating the rhythm suddenly or just changing the feel for the bridge. While I spend about half my time trying to turn songs into something entirely new, I also find that producing a really tight, interesting, and dynamic arrangement of the original melody is an equally difficult and rewarding process.

I've still to unlock everything, so after doing some pretty experimental stuff I'm trying to stick to the script more and just use the different style arrangements that have become available. I've been so busy with the big epics like Little King's Story and Fire Emblem as well as new download stuff and Japanese imports I've not put aside time for this, but I look forward to watching videos from you guys and I still have a few to send out.

I agree a special Channel for this would be a great solution for anonymous sharing short of a free-for-all online community. Actually I think I'll write Nintendo UK support a letter suggesting it!

Yes, do write them! Although I wonder how it could be implemented -- the original game can't be patched of course, and it only knows how to send videos to friends on your list. That still doesn't seem to be an insurmountable problem, however; why couldn't they just have the Channel's upload address show up essentially as a "friend" that anyone can add, and let you send videos to that in the usual manner. Then, maybe they could have a system in the channel whereby you can, if you like a video, request it to be sent to you, and it would automatically be sent overnight the same way as you would normally receive a friend's video.

As for watching the videos within the channel, I don't know how they'd make it work -- the actual videos are not stored in a video format, but instead are really just a complete record of all the actions / button presses / Miis / etc that happened during the recording, which is then rendered in real-time when watching. This is why you could never send videos to someone who doesn't have the game; I suppose the channel could access the game disc during viewing and load all the necessary assets the usual way, or perhaps they would automatically convert all videos received into an actual video format, so that you can view them as prerendered clips without the need for the game's system to load up and create everything.

Anyhow, weekly contests and other events would be fantastic, as would the ability to rate any video you watch, so that you could quickly pull up the top 10 recordings, say, of Mute City Theme.

Hey WariosWoords...set up that online Wii Music Fan Community ASAP!

You two are added by the way, but my Wii isn't always connected to the internet so I don't know if it recognized us as friends yet. I'll connect it up tonight and leave it sitting for a few hours to see if that does it.

You two are added by the way, but my Wii isn't always connected to the internet so I don't know if it recognized us as friends yet. I'll connect it up tonight and leave it sitting for a few hours to see if that does it.

Oh, yes that will be a problem. The game says that it requires WiiConnect24 to be enabled in order to work -- if you have it enabled and online long enough tonight, it might kick in and confirm you for us, but usually it takes Wii Music a while, even after the friend has been confirmed for the Wii in general (and you are confirmed for my Wii right now), to determine that the new friend has Wii Music and is set up properly with WiiConnect24, after which it will finally give you a notice upon opening Wii Music, saying that a new friend has been added. The way that it sends videos seems to rely on the 24-connect as well (I'm not sure that it sends them immediately -- it seems to put them in a queue somewhere for later delivery), so you may have difficulty receiving anything if it's not left online long enough. Is there a reason that you aren't able or prefer not to keep your system online at all times?

Yeah, I've just got one jack and I've got to physically plug in either my computer or my Wii to go online. Since the computer is more useful (to me) to keep online, that's what I tend to leave plugged in. Also, power surges are frequent in my area this time of year, so I can't even leave anything plugged in when I go to work or leave the house for extended periods. It's...pretty bad.

I'll keep it plugged in overnight tonight, though, and see if that helps anything. I plug it in every so often to play Mario Kart and access the shop channel, so if anyone sends me videos I will get them...eventually.

I see, that's unfortunate; really, with only a small investment, it would be easy to set it up so that your Wii can stay online, but it all depends on what option would work best for you. If you don't want to spring for a router, just installing a second network card, wireless or wired (since it sounds like you must have the Wii ethernet adapter), into your computer would allow you to set up the computer to share its internet connection with the Wii, so that your computer would just have to stay on and act as host. I don't know if you're a Windows or Mac user, but it takes literally ten seconds to set that up in OS X if you have multiple network adaptors, and it's a pain but still very doable in Windows. You can even do that in a completely non-invasive manner by just buying a USB wireless network adaptor, which can also be set to accept a connection from the Wii.

Then again, none of that would address your power surge issues -- sounds like you get a bit of lightnin'.

I plug it in every so often to play Mario Kart and access the shop channel, so if anyone sends me videos I will get them...eventually.

I think you'll get them eventually, but I'm not entirely certain. If there is indeed some kind of queue out there on Nintendo's servers that receives the videos and holds them until you connect, then it should work, but I've never found any confirmation of exactly how the transfer takes place.

I got your vids, Wario, and it looks like we've been established as friends, Sean.

Your stuff was pretty cool, Wario...definitely jealous of your percussion skills. Material Girl had a great buildup (if only the song were longer) and Scarborough Fair was probably my other favorite. How did you get your Miis to do special things like jump up and scream, and play that fiery-fast guitar solo?

One critique: why the heck are your Miis so creepy!?

I presume she's your Chick, then?

I crack me up, sometimes.

If they can enable the Mii Contest Channel for Mii uploading/downloading then they can do the same with Wii Music videos. I did write them and got a speedy response to the effect that they have no plans, but that doesn't mean they won't in the future, check the site for news on all new Nintendo stuff, etc.

I've been playing Arkanoid Plus!, Splatterhouse and Muscle March, so haven't checked out your vids yet warioswoods, but I'll make the effort to tonight!

Hello Wii Music fans,

i'm from Italy and i think Wii Music is a really nice videogame.

i would like to exchange some videos.

My code is:

0769 6133 5781 7675

Thank you!

@Metroid Italia

I'll add you tonight; my friend code is a few posts up.
EDIT: actually, it's way back there, so here: 8378 9716 1696 8633

@ChickenBrutus

How did you get your Miis to do special things like jump up and scream, and play that fiery-fast guitar solo?

As for the guitar soloing, the guitar-like instruments in the game allow for a great deal of control if you play around with them long enough -- I use a lot of different techniques, but for speed sequences the crucial thing is to use double-picking by holding down on the directional pad. If you bend a note and hold it, you can keep hitting that same note until you un-bend, which allows for some control of where the melody goes, or lets you basically take something you like and keep holding it out with fast-picking or whatnot. Of course, using those two techniques along with careful application of the A button (which makes your notes repeat more and match more closely to the melody) and with the nunchuck button which switches to chords allows you to get all kinds of interesting variation.

As for the Miis jumping and yelling and all that -- play around with it. Pressing up, right, or left on the directional pad while playing does different things depending on the instrument and the stage, and synchronizing one or more of your Miis in such an action can produce even more unusual results in different stages. Also -- try holding a direction on the Wii remote while clicking on Start Jam or whatever the button is called when you're about to record, for a nice surprise.

One critique: why the heck are your Miis so creepy!?

You find the PowerPuff girls and monkeys with blank stares creepy? That one video for The Entertainer is downright cute, if you ask me, ha. By the way, load that video back into the Custom Jam mode and watch bebops or put in some of the computer players -- you'll see that I used a rhythmic trick of sorts to get that one to work, basically matching 2 measures for every 3 of the original, depending on how you look at it, but it works out mathematically.

hey Wario thank you,
i added you; i hope to send you something for today.

I'll be adding you as well Metroid Italia; this is finally a motivation for me to trade friend codes!

warioswoods, clearly you've got some musical education; I need a bit of work to get my stuff better. I usually succumb to just wanting to thrash about rather than pay attention to the entire composition; I've also been trying to jump into really hard stuff when I'm clearly not there yet, so I think I need to do more with the existing arrangements and try to learn from that. Mute City theme from F-Zero is really really hard!

C. Brutus I'll be checking out your vids tonight. I do wish WiiMusic would tell you when you've already sent a video to someone; if I send one twice I apologise in advance!

I hear you there; that's always been a huge annoyance for me, since I send different videos to different people then later can't remember who has received what. This time, with the latest people I've added due to this thread, I actually went ahead and wrote down which tracks I sent each person, ha, because I knew that I'd send repeats otherwise.

Sean, thank you. I'm adding you right now! I hope to send you something too for this evening. From tomorrow i won't be at home for some days; next week i hope to play something with you all!

Wario: ok, i sent you two videos, tell me what you think about. I like heavy music, so be prepared (nothing of special, of course, but a little chaos).

ah, last thing: can you send me your mii? it's easier for me ordering the videos by looking the face of the mii. I will send mine too, of course.