Track

A track, in the context of video games, refers to music that plays in a game, completely un-modified.
On the VGMArchives channel, however, instead of being straight video game music, the songs (or "high quality tracks") featured on the channel are generally remixed, or involved in a mashup with other songs or memes.
== Format ==
The objective of the channel is only for the sake of entertainment, and also an imitation of another "video game music bait-and-switch" channel called SiIvaGunner, which imitates an actual video game music channel called GilvaSunner.
=== Video descriptions ===
Tracks are YouTube video uploads that are titled in the format "Game Name OST: Song Title", with a description that usually reads:
"Music" is a track from Game. I do not own this track, this was composed by Composer. Game was developed by Developer.
Thanks to Ripper for archiving this track.
Game Tracks:
Link
However, there are some tracks that deviates from this format. But most of the time, the only change is the top line of the description.
=== Channel descriptions ===
We archive tracks from your favorite video games. We do not own the rights to any of the music heard in these videos.
Submit tracks here:
https://forms.gle/5P2BHJYsycT6dhbR9
=== Playlists ===
Every track video is put into a playlist corresponding to the ripped game. 
== Types of tracks ==
=== Streamed and sequenced music ===
The kinds of tracks made for a given game are usually heavily dependent on whether its music is streamed or sequenced.
Due to technical limitations, many games (particularly on retro consoles) use sequenced music, which means that notes and other sounds are encoded as MIDI-like instructions. Often, this means that an exporter program that reverse-engineers the format can convert this data into an editable format, making it much easier to produce melody changes and arrangements. The ripper can also create a simultaneous melody swap and a mashup with sequenced music. The export format is usually either a tracker file or a combination of a MIDI sequence file and a SF2/DLS soundbank file that contains the sound samples. In some cases, PC games will directly use MIDI files in their soundtracks.
Other games use streamed music, which means that each track is stored as a complete audio file (analogous to a WAV, FLAC, MP3 or OGG file). In these cases, the process for making a mashup is the same as for sequenced music, but making a melody change or arrangement is typically much more difficult and either requires recreating the base track from scratch or scrubbing the lead melody from the track and replacing it with a similar sounding instrument. 
Sometimes, the process may be made easier if isolated stems are available (which is often the case for rhythm games, some non-video game music with published stems for remixing or songs that have been featured in the Rock Band series, as the stems can be extracted from the game's files), which may allow the recreation to use samples from the stems or to directly use the stems in full; this is also done for some rips of sequenced music where the export process is cumbersome or nonexistent.
Sometimes, the author of the game uses everyday methods available to the public in order to make their game's music. If the samples are known, it is possible to recreate the songs in an editable format from scratch, therefore allowing them to be used for melody-swap rips. Examples of this are and , which were scored with FL Studio and free soundfonts that can simply be downloaded from the internet.
There are many exceptions to these general descriptions which are out of the scope of the overview provided in this section; for example, some games use a mixture of streamed and sequenced music (For example, the rendition of "Slider" from Super Mario Galaxy 2 is sequenced, while a majority of the other tracks are streamed), and some games' soundtracks (e.g. Shovel Knight) have been directly released by their composers or publishers in editable forms.
=== Melody change ===
Melody change (or melody swap) in a track involves modifying the notes of the advertised track, usually the lead instrument, to form the melody of another composition (though in some cases the inverse is done). Many tracks contain multiple melody changes, and some tracks that are primarily in a different format also contain melody changes. Most melody change tracks are tracks of sequenced music, and vice versa. Melody changes are also possible with streamed music, though they are much harder to produce, as detailed above.
=== Mashup ===
Mashups consist of putting elements from another source along with the original source. It goes from adding simple sound effects to unharmoniously or incoordinatedly mixing several songs together, but most mashups are made by superimposing the vocal track of one song seamlessly over what is typically the instrumental of the advertised track, changing the tempo and key where necessary. However, a song without many instruments can be mixed with a track in its entirety without sounding cluttered, such as rap or trap music.
Mashups, while sometimes performed on tracks with no lyrics at all, can also be done with tracks with singing, provided there is a karaoke version available for use. If not, the ripper has to manually scrub the singer's voice from the song to acquire a clean slate, or use an AI tool, which can vary in quality.
=== Melody addition ===
A melody addition involves taking any piece of music and layering instruments over the top of it, typically ones that sound similar to instruments in the advertised track. It is similar to a melody change, but without needing to rip the song from the game in an editable format. As such, it is much easier to attempt this sort of track, since it doesn't limit the ripper's choice to sequenced music, and it doesn't involve extracting MIDI files and soundfonts from the game in question, which some may not have the tools or knowledge to do.
=== Arrangement ===
Arrangements are tracks featuring a song remade in a different style and instrumentation. Generally, this involves arranging a composition in the instrumentation and style of the advertised track, or vice versa. Compared to a melody change, an arrangement is much more likely to alter the chords, accompaniment and structure of the track that the arrangement is in the style of.
=== Medley track ===
Tracks are considered medleys when they feature modifications from at least 5 different sources. They can be melody swaps, mashups, pitch-shifting tracks, and arrangements, although some tracks combine some of those.
=== Switcheroo ===
The switcheroo is bait-and-switch put to the extreme. It is when there is (almost) no trace of the original song whatsoever, switching it to a completely different track. 
=== Sentence mixing ===
Sentence mixing consists of mixing the lyrics of a song to create completely different lines for comedic effects.
=== Pitch-shifting ===
Pitch-shifting consists of changing the pitch of a sample, most often with song vocals to match the key of the instrumental. This is a technique frequently used in YTPMV: the samples are arranged with pitch-shifting so that they are heard in a different melody.
== Memes ==
Throughout the channel's history, it has incorporated melodies and songs into tracks, however the jokes fundamental to VGMArchives have always been its memes.
== See also ==
*:Category:Tracks - for all documented tracks on the .
**:Category:Tracks by joke - for tracks categorized by the jokes.
**:Category:Tracks featuring... - for tracks categorized by the memes they feature.
*Uploads - for the uploads to the VGMArchives channel.
*VGMArchives - for behind-the-scenes information on the VGMArchives channel.
Category:Content