Sound samples with famitracker

Sound samples with famitracker
by Banshaku on 2008-07-08 (#34721)

I just started to create music on the nes. I decided to use famitracker because the interface was similar to scream tracker and I liked it.

My only problem now is I don't know how to make some sound samples. I would love to reproduce some square/triangle sounds that I heard in many nes songs but I have no idea how to reproduce them.

Since my goal is mostly experimenting (since I'm not that good with making music anyway), Is there any tutorial on common sounds that you can do on the nes or some kind of sound bank that some people made for famitracker? I know you can preset some sound in famitracker (they call it intstruments in that case). Did someone created a set a common instruments?

by No Carrier on 2008-07-08 (#34722)

Hi,

I would check out some of the (long-dead) threads on 2a03.org for this type of stuff... or even better, check out 8bitcollective.org. They have a ton of forums, as well as a newbie section, and they're all about music making over there. Also, you can check out 2a03.free.fr, a chiptune upload server. You can download some FTM's and look how others have come up with some instruments of their own. However, I would warn against just copying and pasting instruments, at least without explicit permission of others - most of them are CC licensed.

Not that you won't find help here, but I've already seen these type of topics spring up elsewhere and with a little searching you may find what you need.

Good luck!

NC

by Banshaku on 2008-07-08 (#34723)

Thanks for the answer.

Great, I will do some research on these forums them. I asked the question because I thought that maybe there could have been a tutorial on this website that I didn't saw yet.

For the instruments, if I use it for experimental use only then it may not be an issue. If I publish anything, then I should ask permission them.

I'm just a little bit surprised that settings on a square/triangles sound could be CC licensed. If you play on words it is technically an instrument made by someone but from my point of view, it was just some settings on a sound wave.

by yatagarasu on 2008-07-09 (#34748)

Start here: http://home.arcor.de/chiptuner/tutorial_famitracker.pdf
It got me going!

Once you know the basics of famitracker try these instruments. Paste this stuff into the MML row of your instruments and parse.

Cool lead (square):

Volume: 15 14 12 11 10 8 7 8 9 10 14
Duty/Noise: 1

Minor Chord Pulsing Rhythm(square):

Volume: 13 11 10 9 8 6 5 4 4 4 4
Arpeggio: | 0 0 3 3 7 7
Duty/Noise: | 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
("Slow" Duty Cycling 1 preset)

Major Chord Pulsing Rhythm(square):

Volume: 13 11 10 9 8 6 5 4 4 4 4
Arpeggio: | 0 0 4 4 7 7
Duty/Noise: | 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
("Slow" Duty Cycling 1 preset)

Snare(noise):

Volume: 15 13 11 9 7 0
Pitch: 1 6 -1 -6
Duty/Noise: 0 0 2 2 0

("9" or "B" notes sound best for this)

Kick (triangle):

Volume: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
Hi-pitch: -6 8 | 11 ("kick" preset)

vibrato bass (triangle):

Volume: 1
Pitch: | 0 0 2 2 0 0 -2 -2 ("Vibrato 1" preset)

To silence the bass, use a note off (I don't remember the key stroke).
I'll let you write your own hat cause' its the easiest instrument EVER.

If none of this makes sense, it will after you get your feet wet with FT. These instruments are free. Have fun!

by jsr on 2008-07-10 (#34772)

I think instruments are too easy to recreate for being covered by copyright, so that's nothing to worry about.

Banshaku: The only tutorial I know of is the one yatagarasu linked to, and it's a little outdated now. However I found this http://pico2.at.webry.info/200805/article_5.html but don't know exactly how helpful it is. Seems explain the basics.

The best way is probably to go to 2a03.free.fr and download some songs and see how instruments can be done.

by Banshaku on 2008-07-10 (#34775)

yatagarasu wrote:
If none of this makes sense, it will after you get your feet wet with FT. These instruments are free. Have fun!

Thanks yatagarasu　for the instruments. I will try them as soon as I can, maybe during my lunch break today if time allows me.

jsr wrote:
Banshaku: The only tutorial I know of is the one yatagarasu linked to, and it's a little outdated now. However I found this http://pico2.at.webry.info/200805/article_5.html but don't know exactly how helpful it is. Seems explain the basics.

Thanks Jsr for the extra information, I will give it a look too. I'm not used yet with FT but I really like it. It reminds me the time I was doing some basic s3m with scream tracker 3 a long time ago. I hope you will continue to improve it, it's a great tool.

I found 1 bug under vista 64 while using it at work. For some reason, the sequence editor screen, where you can select with the mouse the volume etc, doesn't show at all. This mean you can only enter values throught MML. Maybe it's a common dialog issue and this dll is maybe not under Vista by default? If you click where the sequence editor should be, all kind of random information is entered in the MML input box.

I don't know if it was reported since I didn't saw this information on the FT forum (I didn't search that hard, maybe it was there).

by Banshaku on 2008-07-10 (#34776)

By the way Jsr, the link you gave seems to be in Japanese only? I can read some part of it but do you know if an english version exist of that small tutorial? Maybe other people could be interested by this information.

by jsr on 2008-07-11 (#34804)

Banshaku: I have not heard about that bug before, the reports I've got is that it works fine in Vista (at least in 32 bit), so thanks for pointing it out! Gonna have to check that in some way.

And I don't know another tutorial in English beside bod's. (I hoped the page you got would be ok with your location in mind.)
Everything should be in the help files though, but those are not the best at the moment and will be improved.

by Banshaku on 2008-07-12 (#34831)

jsr wrote:
I have not heard about that bug before, the reports I've got is that it works fine in Vista (at least in 32 bit), so thanks for pointing it out! Gonna have to check that in some way.

It could be a bug related to the fact that I try to run a 32bit app inside a 64bit OS. Not all application may run fine. The emulation layer is not always perfect. Since I have access to the 32 bit version too, I will give it a try and let you know if the same behavior happens.

Regarding the link, my japanese is getting better because of my location but I still have a long way to go. I will give it a try!

by tepples on 2008-07-12 (#34833)

Banshaku wrote:
It could be a bug related to the fact that I try to run a 32bit app inside a 64bit OS.

Nestopia has no problem running an 8bit app inside a 32bit OS More seriously, any problems running old apps may come from to Microsoft's refusal to make a clean break in Windows the way Apple did in Mac OS X, running the old OS in what amounts to a virtual machine.

Quote:
Not all application may run fine. The emulation layer is not always perfect.

But sometimes a Nesticle-quality layer is "good enuff" for many end users, as we've seen for a decade.

by Roni on 2008-10-15 (#38516)

for analyzing and reproducing sounds that you really like from a NES game, i find nothing works better than using one of the emulators with individual sound channel control and listening to one or two of the sound channels at a time, or slowing the framerate. Nestopia does both.

by RushJet1 on 2008-10-19 (#38646)

Use NSFPlug or NSFPlay- they both have a keyboard view of the notes and you can slow the sound/song down to 1/8th playback rate.