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FamiTracker?
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89 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
Hello, I'm the guy that made the track.
Actually, the software I use is an emulation of the sound chip on the nes.
With a little tweaking you could put my song on an actual 8-bit Nintendo entertainment system. So yes, It's as "true 8-bit" as you can come I'm afraid. Download famtracker here!
Edit: I'd like to add that Mario 3 uses very similar drum samples which is (in my opinion) a step clearer than mine are. So much for "true 8-bit".
This site (via /r/chiptunes) has a number of helpful links to get you started.
For NES stuff in particular, Famitracker is well regarded, incredibly versatile, and comes with a number of demo songs to help you learn once you've learned how to work around the UI. Here's a pretty good tutorial to get you started..
Wouldn't that still allow you to just play and record a session off a keyboard?
I'm thinking of things like FamiTracker for NES, or BoyScout for GBA
In Famitracker, at least, there is only a limited amount of tempos available from the speed settings. As a way to get different, "intermediate" tempos, composers often rapidly alternate speeds between, for example, 2 and 3 to mix up a tempo in between those two. The Famitracker wiki has put together a chart of tempos that could be achieved with alternating speeds here: http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=Common_tempo_values
Applying the example above to the chart, Speed 3 = 300 BPM on NTSC and Speed 2 = 450 BPM, so the intermediate tempo between these two, using the pattern 3, 2, 3, 2... would be 360 BPM.
Let me know if you need more clarification/explanation!
FamiTracker http://famitracker.com/
Did some pretty awesome stuff with it. I love how the limitation of basic wavelengths and limited tracks really force you to be creative with your sounds.( Also if the snes ever makes a comeback l have my songs ready :p)
Org maker http://www.cavestory.org/pixels-works/org-maker.php
A tool the creator of Cave Story created to make the Cave Story soundtrack Really easy to use and has lots of great sounds
I used the free program FamiTracker.
I also used a template of an already-made arrangement by some guy on youtube. His arrangment already had specific instruments, the basic form, and drum samples that I used to make this track.
You can actually use the soundfonts directly from the roms. SNES games use a format called SPC which can be extracted from the roms and used to playback the tracks or play the soundfonts using a midi keyboard more info here. I don't remember which I used last time I tried this. Also, if you're interested in making this kind of music, I recommend looking into tracker software. Trackers are what music like this were made with back in the day. A good one is milkytracker. There's others as well. Here's a famicon specific one famitracker
If you're interested in creating NES-style music to go with your pixel art game, you may be interested in checking out FamiTracker. Its source is available under the GNU General Public License.
I would like to add that Famitracker also support expansion chips, which allows more channels to be used in compositions.
Jake Kaufman specificially used the VRC6 expansion chip (notably found in the Japanese version of Castlevania III) for the Shovel Knight soundtrack, and he was really good at using it.
It will take time to get into tracking, but it is worth it.
In the instrument editing screen there is a volume level thing. You can hit a + to add bars to it. This works essentially as a volume envelope. Make the last one zero.
Edit: picture. http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Instrument_Editor_Window.png
You remember (mostly) correctly! http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sound_hardware#Famicom_Disk_System_sound
The Famicom audio used in Zelda was quite improved, but the real shocker is some of the random carts I'd never played, like Jurassic Park.
It had sound as good as the best Impulse Tracker modules I'd heard! Which compared to most NES games was quite something. There were a few more like that, but I can't remember off-hand.
There’s a free bit of software that lets you write music for the NES: http://famitracker.com
It’s Windows-only, unfortunately. Assuming that’s not a problem, it’s a great way to learn about the capabilities and limitations of the NES’s sound chip.
this setup uses gb, flashcarts and the lsdj. a native tracker you use the gameboy. http://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/ https://handheldlegend.com/ if you want to start that way. if you want to have a go now, check out http://famitracker.com/ and tutorials, great tracker for pc
Check out FamiTracker. It's a bit of a learning curve if you've never used that sort of tracker before, but it's pretty much the gold standard in writing NES chiptunes stuff.
For some unknown reason I decided that I wanted to get into music making and now I've got about 55 seconds of a song composed in FamiTracker. It's nothing special, but I'm surprised by how competent the song is so far. It's got a good baseline going on in the triangle channel, I'm using the noise channel to add flavor to that baseline, and I'm interweaving melodies between the two pulse channels. Forgive my bias, but it's something that you would hear in a competently-made NES game, which is pretty encouraging. Currently I'm debating on whether I should try to make the song long enough to stand on its own legs (at least 150 seconds IMO) or just give it enough time to end gracefully (~90 seconds). Personally I'm leaning more towards the latter option as I'm still unfamiliar with FamiTracker and most of its features. When I get done with the song however, I'll be sure to post it over here.
The arpeggio effect works like this: It takes the note you entered(for instance C) then determines the second note in the arp based off that(going up in half-steps), so if you typed in "C 00 7 040" then it would do an arp of C + E using instrument 00 at volume 7. If you have a third note it the arp, it is calculated off the second note not the first, which I'm guessing is why it seems weirdly high pitched to you. So if you entered "C 00 7 043" then it would be an arp of C + E + G using instrument 00 at volume 7. The arp effect can only go up in notes, not down. If you need an arp to go down, you can create an instrument and use the arpeggio parameter to give it a specific arp macro. The reason you can't enter a G is simply because it stops at F, the NES itself couldn't calculate any higher fast enough without changing the base values. I suggest reading here for the exact technical reason why G's don't exist in hexidecimal notation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal
Also, make sure to familiarize yourself with the Famitracker wiki: http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Also, Famitracker has forums as well that you can search for more information: http://forums.famitracker.com/index.php
Sounds nice and the arrangement is good but if you want to get something more authentic then look up Famitracker. It's completely free and has a fairly steep learning curve but it's worth it if you want to try your hand at chiptunes. It perfectly emulates NES music with the two square channels, one triangle, one noise, and one sample. It'll give you a completely new appreciation for that music. Jake Kaufman used it to create the Shovel Knight soundtrack.
you do not use VSTs for making chiptune at all, that would be fakebit production - chiptune as a term is defined as the stuff that actually runs on the hardware, so you'd ideally be looking to start with something like FamiTracker, a gateway to both chip and trackers for many people
tracker's draft itself appears to be Mega Drive stuff, and the best available tracker is (regrettably) DefleMask
I made this using Famitracker. It's a free software that is used to create music for the NES/Famicon. It's a little weird to use and not very intuitive at first so I'd recommend watching this to get started. There are several parts and I found them all to be helpful.
I've messed with FamiTracker myself a few times, and I can say that it has a really nice sound to it. My biggest issue with trackers is that they aren't intuitive at all, and they have a pretty disorienting workflow, IMO. They're great for learning about the sort of limitations that old console hardware had, though, so that's good if you're looking for authenticity.
While this doesn't seem completely 8-bit (most notably the drums), this is some pretty freakin' great stuff. You should look into Famitracker if you want a perfectly 8-bit sound.
With all that said, I could actually use a composer for my Mega Man game if you're interested. Link
I'm just using placeholder music for now, and I've been wanting some original themes for a while. So if you're interested in helping me out, even if it's just one theme, let me know. :D
Yes, you can use any samples you want, up to a certain length. The quality is usually poor. Is it worth the effort? That's up to you.
A lot of NES games used DPCM minimally if at all because it eats up ROM space and puts some strong constraints on how you can bank memory. That's not necessarily a concern if you're just making an NSF, but it is absolutely a concern for any real game soundtrack.
RushJet1 wrote what is currently the nicest tool for building DPCM samples: http://famitracker.com/forum/posts.php?id=1282
The highest number of channels any NES expansion/augmented sound chip is 8 extra channels, as seen in the Namco 163 chip.
Here's a chart with each chip's additional channels:
| Chip | Add. Channels |
|---|---|
| Ricoh RP2A03 | none |
| Ricoh RP2C33 (FDS) | 1 (wavetable support) |
| Nintendo Multi Memory Controller 5 | 2 (pulse waves) |
| Konami Virtual ROM Controller 6 | 3 (two pulse waves with eight width settings & one sawtooth wave generator) |
| Konami Virtual ROM Controller 7 | 6 (2-operator frequency modulation (FM)) |
| Namco 163 | 1 to 8 (arbitrary/user-input waveforms) |
| Sunsoft 5B | 3 (50% pulse wave) |
Hey! So this is the only tool you need to start out: http://famitracker.com. It’s a free download. There’s other versions of it but this is the one I use. Tons of tutorials online as well. Always happy to answer questions too.
Call 'em “chiptunes”.
You don’t really need specialized tools for chiptunes. You can take ordinary synthesizers and tweak them to sound that way. Basically, take a subtractive synth and open up the filter all the way, and turn down the resonance. You can put the thing through a bitcrusher if you like.
If you want more authentic sounds like those from the NES or Sega Master System, you can use Famitracker or Deflemask. There are also trackers for the C64 SID but I don’t follow that scene.
If you want a more modern environment, get a free DAW and learn how to use it. This is generally an easier way to go.
To learn how to make music, you can use any old music theory book, or find a music theory website. It will teach you about chords and scales. Chiptunes tend to focus a lot on melodies because the hardware is so limited. If you need to come up with melodies, start by singing them. After you sing a melody, you can figure out the notes.
In any case, you may want a MIDI keyboard to input the notes. This makes a huge difference. You can get a small keyboard for around $50, like the Nektar SE25.
My friend is using FamiTracker for the music for his retro 8-bit game (some of the music is here). It's great for NES but I'm not sure if that's the level of electronic/synth you're looking for.
Maybe someday you can make a composition course that includes all genres and students can choose their favorites :)
Not aware of any soundfonts for musescore for this sort of thing—possibly because it's not typically the tool used for chiptune.
If you really want to get authentic NES music, you can use software like famitracker to make it. Has a bit of a learning curve, but it's really cool once you get the hang of it. You will even be able to export the music as a binary file for use in the game.
The base NES is almost exactly the same as the Redshift, in that it has two square waves, one triangle wave, and a noise channel. (Though the NES also has an additional sample channel and some later cartridges included more sound hardware.)
As a result, if you were able to find out how the data was formatted, it would probably be relatively easy to take NSF files (NES Sound Format), at least ones for the base NES, and process them into EXA DATA, or to modify a tool such as FamiTracker to output EXA DATA.
​
By the way, what do you mean when you say there is no pitch control on the noise channel? The instructions say that's what the register controls. I also performed a test of my own, and it did seem to be controlling pitch.
Having more variety on sounds for Redshift. Just like I mentioned in this analysis post, the current sound system has some similarity with 2A03/2A07 used in NES. It would be wonderful to have some kind of "effects" available, like this for example. Especially pitch slide, portamento, arpeggio, and vibrato.
> ... it also doesn't have details about bit depth aside from saying it could play back 7-bit PCM.
It has a single 7-bit PCM channel, which can be used for playing samples. I don't think it's used that often in music playback, though, as it takes CPU cycles and RAM space.
Most of the NES music is generated by the triangle-wave channels (indirectly) and the noise channel. These channels all have a 4-bit volume register:
http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=Effect_Axy
Here is a table of all possible volume outputs (produced as a sort of average of two input values):
I recently found this dude, and it was through this OST. It's really nice because it's technically chiptune because it's simulating 2 special chips used in Famicom games, the Namco 163 and Konami VRC7.
I'm not an expert in this topic, but I recommend you check out Famitracker. It's an stand alone program (no VST) so it means you will have to learn it from scratch, but it is very accurate to how the NES works and also very powerful, allowing you to do all sort of tricks that the musicians of the era did to get there sound.
If you are interested here is the official page:
And a nice tutorial to get you started
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoNOesbcpZi0fR2GM0equc5TqawfBphVP
BTW: I'm only learning myself but I hope you found this helpful/interesting
Thanks! I didn't make the keyboard view in NSFPlay, though I am its current maintainer. Two other options:
A tool to import an NSF file into Famitracker. If you're familiar with trackers, this lets you read the notes directly, not having to spot them in real time like on the keyboard view. http://rainwarrior.ca/projects/nes/nsfimport.html
Patashu wrote a fork of NSFPlay called "Synthesia" that adds a colourful piano roll kind of display to the keyboard view: http://famitracker.com/forum/posts.php?id=4220
I like Famitracker a lot. http://famitracker.com It's well used, and there are some good tutorials for it on youtube.
Otherwise you can use pretty much any MIDI / DAW program with "chiptune" VSTs, or there's like a thousand other ways to make chiptune style sounds with various tools.
Git for sure. For making my "retro-pixel-indie-8-bit" whatever you wanna call it I have found http://www.aseprite.org/ and http://famitracker.com/ pretty vital.
Also I am a fan of UML in places. I would say LucidChart but they recently got real stingy on what you can do for free. There are alternatives but I couldn't tell you what the best one is anymore, I have taken to using a paper notebook and pencil because they don't have subscription fees.
It depends on what you want.
As for NES/Famicom music, try famitracker.
http://famitracker.com/ - website (downloads)
http://forums.famitracker.com/ - forums
as for a gameboy, use LSDJ as previously recommended.
If you have time you could always try to recreate it by using something like Famitracker. I'm artistically stunted and pushed for time or I'd make one, because it does sound interesting.
Interesting! The Famitracker wiki also says that audio is updated once per blank. I suppose notes below 16.7 ms could be the result of very short sweeps, since those are updated by the frame counter at 120 Hz. That'd actually explain those 8 ms notes. I'll keep the 60 Hz update rate in mind for future sounds.
I spent some time looking through the Nesdev wiki, but it's very low level stuff, and a bit beyond my meager programming understanding. My eyes glaze over a bit at all the hex codes and different bit lengths.
Wow I didn't know that LBP3 had a sequencer in it. That's really cool you can do that kind of stuff directly in the game. The music is very good too, great work :)
Many of my Chiptune songs were created in Famitracker. It is PC only for now though. I heard that there is a Mac version named MilkyTracker. Finished projects in Famitracker look like this.
For my other music (and a handful of Chiptune songs that are too crazy for Famitracker's limitations) I use Ableton, which is fantastic software.
If you have any questions, either about what software/hardware I use or just writing music in general, feel free to ask! I love to talk about music :D
Haven't used Famitracker so can't speak personally about that but quick search found this thread that has a pretty good explo Famitracker file in it. Seems all about using the noise channel.
Edit: forgot to actually put in link... http://famitracker.com/forum/posts.php?id=244
My two cents:
Pretty good game. There are some things I've noticed so far that are a bit off, such as physics and animations and such being not quite right. That, and MIDI music. Ugh. No bueno. There's gotta be someone over on the Famitracker forums that would be willing to take a swing at this. Or hell, just take the original music itself. There are also some disparities in the sound effects, taking some from the 8-bit games, some from the 16-bit, and some that just seem kinda random.
Other than that, though, this is definitely a solid game. Level design seems pretty good so far (played through intro and Toadman). Different level paths are very nice to see. The levels are pretty long (which I think is a good thing). And even better, bosses have had some work done. I chose Toadman to start with because, let's face it, he's one of the easiest bosses ever. Thankfully, the battle did have some new stuff in it, including one of those newfangled "desperation attack" sort of things. So yeah, I like it.
Now, just fix the music. And the physics. And the animations. :D
OpenMPT! Holy hells, it's been a long time since I've heard that name. I still have my old ModPlug t-shirt floating around somewhere...
I haven't played with VST stuff in MPT at all, honestly...but you should be able to find some free plugins (distortion, filters, EQ, compressors etc) - googling for something like 'free VST effects' should give you a good starting point. I suggested outboard effects as I noticed your tracks sounded rather 'dry' - throw in some reverb, and also try adding distortion to leads / basses. Throwing a compressor on the drum track will help it to 'pop' more - I thought your drums sounded a bit flat.
You may also want to check out Famitracker - I think I read at some point that Anamanaguchi use this to write their NES tracks. Looks like it supports MIDI input, too, so you can likely use MIDI Yoke / Hubi's MIDI Loopback Device / whatever the equivalent is under Win7/8 (it's been a while since I dabbled) to sequence it from OpenMPT.
FamiTracker looks like it'll give you much broader control over the sound you're creating, unlike the few chiptune VST's I've played with which limited you to presets - this should help you get the variety you're looking for.
Good job, you just gotta get those kicks to sound better. My recommendation would be to use a sample, some noise, and some triangle.
Check out this link: http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=How_to_make_drums
Especially check out the "Noise and tone drums" section.
Personally, I use noise and tone, along with samples.
Also, for snares or claps, use samples and noise. You don't need tone for snares.
If you're serious about making authentic NES music, you might want to try something like FamiTracker. Regardless, the main limitations of the NES are in the oscillators: There are two pulse waves capable of being set at three unique duty settings, a triangle wave that can't have its volume adjusted, a noise channel with two basic settings and also the ability to load tiny samples.
There are numerous other quirks, so I suggest you read the FamiTracker wiki for a rundown of how things like effects are handled even if you want to do it in Ableton instead.
Suggestion for you: FamiTracker. Lets you compose NES music that can be exported to a format that an actual NES can play. Plus you can use the special expansion chips only used by Japanese Famicom games. Program looks like the usual tracker.
If you wanna make NES styled chiptunes, check out Famitracker. It takes a while to learn it, though (but the same can be said for any DAW).
It'll help to watch some Tutorials to learn how to use it and know some music theory for the actual music making process (although that last one is entirely optional.
I've got about twelve years of musical experience under my belt, but I haven't been working on chiptunes for more than a few months. Knowing how to read and play music will definitely be good. A background in music theory helps, but if you can write songs that sound good to you, it doesn't matter whether you know the theory or not. /r/chiptunes is a great resource for information on chiptunes. I made most of those songs using Famitracker, and added the finishing touches in Audacity. Both of those are free, and I wholly recommend them. And if you have any questions, definitely post it on this sub, or feel free to shoot me a PM. I'm no expert, but if I can help you out, I'd be glad to. Happy chipping!
Oh, and thanks for your kind words about my album! All the good feedback has just made my day!
Well I have the facilities to write 8-bit music, but I have no prior experience to offer. There are a couple originals I have written, (on that last one look for the one by icesoldier, called Recovery) but if you want some a little more proven who also works in FamiTracker you can go ask InterrobangPie, who already writes pony chiptune. I'd love to contribute a song or two, though!
Glad to see someone else interested in doing some chiptune style stuff and also someone else to work in FL Studio.
My suggestion for doing chiptune type things would be to grab something like [lsdj](www.littlesounddj.com) or famitracker and use those to create the chip sounds that you want to use, export them as .wav files, and import them into FL Studio. They're both pretty authentic to gameboy and NES sound chips, respectively.
As far as FL Studio stuff goes, I'd suggest looking into the FL Studio Bible. Somewhere, you can find a copy online and for me it's been a really helpful tool. Image-Line also has a good series of tutorials on youtube that you could check out.
Let me know if you have any questions about lsdj or famitracker. I'm really familiar with the first one and know my way around the 2nd. And also, I might be able to give you some more tips on FLS if you wouldn't mind giving me a better idea of what kind of sounds/music you want to make
Familiarize yourself with the limitations of those old video games and start writing music within that framework. For example, for NES games you'll want a chiptune tracker (FamiTracker is decent and free), while for SNES games (which used FM synthesis) you'll want to collect some cheesy soundfonts and GUS patches and compose music with those in a program like FLStudio or Reaper.
The Complete Guide to Game Audio may assist you.
Now that you've got some experience with the tools, try re-scoring some recorded gameplay footage (or even just some scenes from 80s movies) and don't forget to design the sound effects as well. Come join us in /r/gamedev or maybe poke around flashgamelicense.com and see what's cooking that you're interested in.
Good luck! :)
Best advice I could give is download modules from other people and mess around them to find out what does what. You can also look at the Famitracker Wiki for for information on how certain things like effects work (it's down right now but a mostly-complete version still exists on archive.org): https://web.archive.org/web/20210316182909/http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main\_Page
I don't mind at all! I make all of my 8bit style music in a program called famitracker.
It's totally free and there are lots of tutorials online for getting started. It's a bit of a learnibg curve, but worth it!
For the curious, the song was written in FamiTracker and uses the Namco 163 expansion audio (a little throwback to Megami Tensei II, which also used it). Unfortunately, I've not used wavetable synthesis much so I feel like some of the instrument sounds might be a bit underwhelming, but it was fun to make nonetheless!
For these I transcribed the songs using famitracker http://famitracker.com/ which is made specifically to sound and behave like the NES soundchip. I then mastered the songs in FL studio, so it's like NES+ in terms of how it sounds, since NES wasn't stereo and I made my songs stereo during mastering
Thanks for the kind words! I do all of my chiptune stuff in Famitracker, specifically the fanmade extension Famitracker 0CC. Both are good, standalone trackers, more or less authentic to early gaming hardware.
The biggest pro for me of 0CC is the ability to use more than two sets of sounds at once- it’s really good for filling out instrumentation (like here) but it can also be kinda intimidating and bad for learning sound design. Your choice for which sounds better to you.
Either way, these tutorials really helped me when I was starting out. Whatever happens, good luck!
I believe this page has everything you want to know:
http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sound_hardware
And Famitracker is used a lot these days to make NES music:
For a self-contained program, famitracker: http://famitracker.com/
If you run a DAW like reaper, famisynth is a good vst (I run it through FL with no issues), but it's harder to find now that geocities is down.
I'm using a program called Famitracker.
Essentially it emulates the type of tracker (music software) used in a NES/Famicom, which does make it a bit harder to use than your standard musical software, but it also produces incredibly authentic sound and is fairly flexible.
​
If you want to try it out for yourself you can download it here, and then either just play around with or find some tutorials online! http://famitracker.com/index.php
To add to these other suggestions - if you're looking to make retro style music, Famitracker is very powerful. It's a bit hard to learn, but once you get used to it you can make some really excellent stuff.
The Shovel Knight soundtrack was created using it, and it stands out as one of the best video game soundtracks of all time.
It's good to see some new blood getting into game dev, good luck! :)
I don't make them myself, but OpenMPT is a good one since it's still worked on and updated, I believe it has a midi interface too. This allows you to make module files.
If you want to artificially limit yourself, there is FamiTracker which emulates the original NES sound chip.
you mean in the app, Help > FAQ? It opened for me. What version windows you running? You can use the wiki, http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
There's a few things you should know about the stereo mod on the NES:
The NES carts were coded with a number of sound channels, and some carts came with some additional channels (via an extra audio chip) usually called the 'expansion audio'.
A good overview of which carts used expansion audio can be found here
The bass track that you're talking about is one of the expansion channels.
I'm not sure if the extra code gets processed through the emulator
The process to do this mod on your NES(the original one) isn't actually that complicated, and there's 2 steps to do it:
1: solder a resistor between pins 3 and 9 of the expansion port
then
2: find the 2 amplified channels and solder some RCA connectors onto them
Can you provide a source for NES audio being 4-bit? That sounds crazy to me, it would be only 16 quantization values. NES tech specs on Wikipedia says the CPU is Ricoh 2A03 chip which is 8-bit, but doesn't specify bit depth of the sound implementation. Then I found this other wiki specifically about the sound engine but it also doesn't have details about bit depth aside from saying it could play back 7-bit PCM.
>As a warning for the uninitiated, Nerdy Nights is written for nesasm, so it's an uphill battle learning from that if you want to use a modern toolchain (ie. cc65). It gets the job done, and it's actually a really good tutorial set, but you need to either be using an old and dated assembler that nobody really uses anymore or translate to cc65 as you go.
It's true, there are a number of different assemblers that target the 6502, and those tutorials use nesasm. If you're here on r/programming, there's a good chance you can manage the difference :-)
> NES development also doesn't have a lot of good dedicated tools to the task. Many of the better existing tools are completely unmaintained and many more of those are Windows-specific (though they usually work fine in wine).
Mesen is a fairly new emulator with an amazing debugger, high accuracy, and runs in linux via mono. It's WAY better than trying to run other tools in wine. Many of the other popular tools (NES Screen Tool, etc) are pretty painful, and I just tend to use custom scripts and tools instead. Famitracker is the one tool that I don't have a good linux solution for, although it works well enough in wine.
> Getting something working the way you want it too makes you feel like a wizard.
Absolutely. Seeing your game run on your childhood NES is an amazing feeling.
https://www.beepbox.co/ <- online tool i just googled. pretty basic but i'll bet you could make some interesting things with it. the different colors are instruments (grey is percussion)
if you want to try diving into the deep end, famitracker has been long trusted
On the Gameboy? Phew, not many actual trackers as far as I know.
The C64 has a bunch. MSSIAH (with full MIDI support cartridge), Prophet64 (like the synth), SID DUZZ'IT and many more. Most of them are abandonware today, I think? Not MSSIAH and Prophet64 tho.
On the PC (as emulation) there’s: Famitracker for NES/Famicom music. It’s neat, but nothing too fancy. (http://famitracker.com/)
Deflemask for NES, Sega Master system, Genesis/Megadrive, C64 and some more I believe. (http://www.deflemask.com/)
So my idea was basically to copy the limitations on an NES sound chip, which has 3 channels that can play notes, a noise channel, and a channel that can play some low quality samples.
So pitched percussion like marimba or timpani would be counted as a note.
There are times in NES music where they would sacrifice a channel to double a sound (usually with delay), but I think for the sake of making interesting arrangements, we can consider unison notes as just one.
Also I think to make things a little less restricted, the 3 note rule doesn't have to apply to the entire arrangement, just the majority of it. So if you want to introduce a solo on top of the arrangement, or fill things out for intros or outros then that will be fine.
Since these limitations are based around what NES hardware can do, any cover that uses the same arrangement from an NES tune will automatically qualify. I think it's more fun to challenge yourself by taking a more complex piece and seeing if you can make it work with simpler rules, but that's just me! I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I might take a SNES song and remake it in FamiTracker as if it were released on NES instead.
Let me know if you have any other questions or want to talk about arrangement techniques!
Sorry for the delayed reply. I use FamiTracker for my music, took me a while to learn the tricks I know though (and I still don't know all of the tricks).
Here is a link - http://famitracker.com/downloads.php
I think you want to click the word Binary (right under Latest Version).
>I think explicility writing functions would be too demanding?
Definitely too demanding. Timed global events, like crescendos, don't need a non-linear curve, as it should be left up the player's interpretation. Though, if we're talking computer synths, there's a lot to handle. There's no way to tell a computer how to do phrase expression besides using global data.
Music trackers are a great source of inspiration for defining how a note works, like Famitracker. Each line is a tuple of data: (note, instrument, volume, fx1, fx2, ...). However, while each fx slot has a defined triple (fx#, op1, op2), there's no guessing what option 1 and option 2 do until a user guide is looked up.
Therefore, a tuple system for human readable notes shouldn't specify data that the person can interpret himself. For example, vibrato could be specified for a computer as (attack time, vibrato speed, vibrato amount), but a person just needs a "do vibrato here".
Last one, you're basically getting the square/triangle wave out of the harmonica, with the extra space you could add a flute blow hole for noise. I'm not saying doing it with the current prototype but if you're going forward after this and it pans out consider the capabilities of the NES http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sound_hardware You could make an acoustic instrument that is basically tuned for the sounds the NES makes.
Here's one on the Famitracker forums. You'll have to dig through all the posts, but there's quite a lot in there. I've used some of their instruments for inspiration.
I'm a gameboy user, so I'm probably not the best person to answer this, but your best starting point would be Famitracker. It accurately emulates the NES and is widely considered a good starting point for using tracker-style programs.
I think if you really get into Famitracker, you can buy a powerpak for your NES and put your Famitracker songs on it for live NES play.
Hopefully some NES peeps can chime in though.
Use basic waves (mostly square, saw, triangle and sine), pitch slides, white noise... Take a look at Famitracker's Effects for an idea of what could be done on a NES. Or just make some samples in Famitracker and export them to whatever you use ¯\(ツ)/¯
Well if you feel up to the task,
you could try FamiTracker in your free time and compose it yourself. Its fairly easy to use, a 10 minute tutorial on youtube taught me enough to recreate this chiptune version of Haddaways "What is love" in 30 minutes.
> If you're excited about data compression
This is part of what I liked about Retro City Rampage. Tiny retro game that runs smooth with little load time, unlike some retro-styled modern games. Probably helped that the developer used tracking software to make the music. I'm familiar with FamiTracker.
Question for you, /u/MrToolBelt and anyone else: Is there really NO way to make an assembly language game work on other systems? Not even Windows/Apple/*nix?
If there is no other way, what tutorials do you recommend on writing NES-style games with NES-style limitations using C?
I created the actual music in FamiTracker, and then exported it to Propellerhead's Reason Limited to add stereo, reverb and the samples at the drops.
This is something I made ages ago - the first cover I produced with FamiTracker. I'm mostly pleased with how it turned out, although there's a couple of iffy bits. Let me know what you think!
For voiceover and simple sound effect stuff, I'd still recommend Audacity. That's where I do most of my work in.
For complicated sound effects and composing music, I use Ableton Live, which is not free. FL Studio is a comparable DAW with a lower price tag though.
If you are interested in writing Chiptune music, you can use Famitracker, which is absolutely wonderful. PC only though, which is kind of a bummer.
Hope that helps! :)
What do you use to make these? If you don't already, you should pick up famitracker to make chiptunes; it emulates the NES/Famicom (japanese NES) and it's expansion chips and has a active community!
For NES music, you want Famitracker. It's a lightweight and completely free tracker (note placement software) designed with NES limitations in mind. The Shovel Knight soundtrack was composed in this, if you want an example of its capabilities. Famitracker's UI is a little tricky, so read the documentation and stick with it for a few days.
There's no single definitive SNES equivilent because the SNES sound capabilities were more varied, and the console could handle sampling better. Still, you can take a look at SNESGSS or one of the many Mario Paint composer clones.
If you want to make your own music, FamiTracker is nice for Windows, but emulates the NES and not the Game Boy. If you have an original Game Boy/Game Boy Color, Little Sound DJ seems to be nice. Or, if you have money, you can hire people like Jake Kaufman (who did the soundtrack of Shovel Knight) to do the soundtrack for you. Good luck with your game!
you see how there are dashes representing different columns. the effcts column is the 3 end dashes starting with the 7th dash from the left . on that 7th dash is where you want to place your effect (represented by a letter/number) heres a list of effects http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=Effect_list theyre represented by letters/numbers and 2 value numbers. the number value determines things like the speed of the effect or the depth. this chart should help you understand what the letters and numbers represent for each effect. and the effect will stay on until you tell it to turn off by bringing the numbers back to zero. you can also add multiple effects ,heres a song for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2LdvE1FBgQ the effects are represented by the pink letter/number.
I'm a mad fan of chiptunes, so I'd go with that. I've already messed around with FamiTracker, which specializes in making chiptunes, so I'm sorta set?
I've already made a few using my DS, so all I have to do is figure out how to actually use FamiTracker effectively.
I've been using FamiTracker since the beginning of 2011, when I came back to PC after using a Mac during college. You can see some of my early attempts over on the FamiTracker forums (specifically here).
The .ftm for sushi parlor can be found over at Battle of the Bits on its entry page if you're interested!
Famitracker is a tracker that tries to emulate the NES sound. So it's more restricted (though it does have most expansion chips), but imo the sound is probably the most genuine I've come across yet. (it also allows the songs to be played on actual NES cartridges, due to .nsf exporting)
From the author's notes on this track:
> The track is supposed to tell the story of a man in the throes of death - he's just not aware of it for the first half of the tale. Up until that point Death is sort of whispering in his ear... it's an itch he can't scratch... an ominous feeling that won't go away.
> Somewhere around frame 21 he realizes what's happening and the initial reaction is shock. After that he begins to understand the true gravity of his situation and reflects on some of the things he will never have another chance to appreciate...
> ...after THAT he begins to fight desperately against that which he knows is inevitable... but ultimately the battle is in vain, the song slows to a crawl, and, well... he dies.
> Kind of depressing, I guess, but these are the places my imagination take me. :P
Enjoy.
on windows, famitracker's got you covered for chiptune creation needs; it's free, you just have to learn to write in a tracker if you don't already know how, and the sound is really decent.
I'm going to avoid the ever-so-obvious wub-wubs-aren't-real-music argument. You're on the right track! Here's a cover someone did on the famitracker forums that you might find both good and handy! http://famitracker.com/forum/posts.php?id=3541
Famitracker is really confusing at first. I don't know how much you know about trackers already, so I'll do my best to hopefully spew out something helpful.
In the "song settings" section, the number of rows is the maximum number of notes you can have in a pattern, and the number of frames is how many patterns long your song is. (each channel has its own patterns). I make extensive use of the Famitracker Wiki whenever I'm trying to use any of the effects. I would definitely recommend using the tutorial in the help file if you haven't already. Remember that the effects and volume parameters are in hexidecimal, and that volume can only be changed on the square and noise channels (there are also only 16 volume levels). Also, to be able to place notes, you have to press the spacebar to set it to "edit mode". The selector will turn red when in edit mode.
Quick Keyboard Tips:
Press spacebar to switch between edit and record modes, and press enter to pause or play.
The numbers 1-9 on the num pad will quickly select instrument number.
I recommend using the Delete key for removing stuff rather than the Backspace key because the backspace key fucks up all of the stuff in front of what you're removing.
Sorry if I'm not very helpful. Ask me if you have any more questions. I'd be happy to try to help you out.