Audiophiles' site

Full Manual for PXTONE

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 04:54:15 +0000

PXTONE is a music editing program created by Pixel (of Cave Story fame). It uses its own format, but results can also be exported to WAV files.

"PXTONE is my third generation sound editor. Originally it was intended to develop background music for games in a 80's style. It turns out to be a convenient resource for those who are looking to integrate their own sound waves." -Pixel

Scared off by the Japanese on the site? Don't be. Gryzor87 (of Hydorah OST fame) has recently created what appears to be a very robust manual.

"This manual is dedicated to all videogame lovers and musicians. It has 96 pages fully illustrated, 18 songs, 57 examples and 92 voices to choose. There are also detailed explanations for songwriting, tips & tricks and recommended stuff as well. The Great Pixel, author of Pxtone, has written the foreword. If you think its worth it, I accept a donation." -Gryzor87

It's all free. Check it out.

Composing Retro Themes with FamiTracker

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:32:11 +0000

I love to draw retro pixel art, but doing only that sometimes inspires the musician in me (which I am not by far). I finally found the holy grail to creating those blips and beeps of the old 8-bit machines that once emitted in my past, and that is FamiTracker! FamiTracker is free under the GPL license and is open source to anyone on its webpage.

"FamiTracker is a free windows tracker for producing music for the NES/Famicom-systems. The interface is based on MadTracker and should be easy to use if you've been using trackers before." - FamiTracker

You may say the 8-bit days are dead and whatnot, but they live on for me. Looking at some games on Byond, such as Regressia, Casual Quest, PlunderGnome, NEStalgia, and some 8-bit tributed fan games, it appears I'm not the only one trying to relive those days.

While it isn't for Linux (sadface), I'm still quite pleased and will be finally putting use to Windows more, just for this. I absolutely demand for this to be on one of the Audiophiles resources list!

Want to learn how to get started using FamiTracker? I found these video tutorials to be extremely helpful getting started and understanding some of the basics. 8BitDanooct1, the person doing the tutorial, uses the Craig theme from Metroid as an example, and you can see a few other examples he demonstrates on his YouTube page based on other games.

Famitracker Tutorial Part 1 - The Instrument Editor and You
Famitracker Tutorial Part 2 - The Pattern Editor
Famitracker Tutorial Part 3 - Note Effects
Famitracker Tutorial Part 4 - Covering a Song
Famitracker Tutorial Part 5 - Finishing the Cover

Easily Generate MIDI Music

Wed, 05 May 2010 04:18:14 +0000

Wolfram Tones is a site that allows you to generate midis based off a selected genre, allowing you to customize certain settings such as instrument and tempo. In doing so, this immediately struck me as a easy way to create music for Byond games :D. Seeing as presentation plays a major role in development and most programmers while talented may not be as talented in other categories, this could easily help enhance projects without much work. Here's a few examples of what I came up with within a few minutes:

Rock/Pop one slowed down a bit : http://tones.wolfram.com/id/ GL1mJtkbqDqQZKnLRos2u0MzSoLmhnQaumYGDpzKaOixZp

Ambient, unedited:
http://tones.wolfram.com/id/ G1J13sFu4IWo2NWL8KTmxZXSsULFIsm80QVPQtGLCf1ESnMW8

Another unedited ambient:
http://tones.wolfram.com/id/ GRPiC7RXGbTCdTOYigHfmO2gVNHrgCwdpZZ567vOVPTmzk

Do you need a little love'n?

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:52:02 +0000

Making Regressia has taught me a lot about creating sounds and music, and now that the project is done I'll have time to share that knowledge with you in a new tutorial series to replace the old Mod Tracking tutorial. That's right, Audiophiles is going to get the love and attention it's been missing out on.

I'm officially changing my software recommendation from MadTracker to MilkyTracker. MadTracker was a buggy and feature poor (feature crazy is more accurate, the features they had made little sense, and the features you needed were glaringly absent) program with terrible work-flow. MilkyTracker has issues of it's own, but it is stable, reacts how you expect it should most of the time, and has exactly the feature set you find yourself needing most often.

If you want to get a head start on the tutorials, download the program from MilkyTracker.org and take a look at the included help file.

Have fun, and be back soon.

SynthFont

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:41:07 +0000

A great tool for converting MIDIs to WAVs. You can even listen to the MIDI-converted-to-Audio-Data form before saving it as a WAV file. I first heard about it while reading the manual for the Adventure Construction Kit 3.2 by Chris Hopkins. Infact, I used to use the Adventure Construction Kit (2.2 for the longest time) before ever joining BYOND. My first use of that program was around 2000.

Anyhow, enjoy this great program:
http://www.synthfont.com/

Note: Can also be saved to some of the other file types like the supported OGG type. :D

Gold Audio Suite

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:08:04 +0000

Gold Audio Suite is free only for today at giveawayoftheday.com

"Gold Audio Suite is a mighty and handy application to match all you requires with audio data. It can record audio from microphone, internet radio, CD and any sound you can hear from your computer, besides converting audio files between popular audio formats based on your need with best quality. This unique digital audio editing software is intuitive, full-featured and flexible."

Features:

Record any sound passing through your sound card, such as sound from internet streaming, CD, cassette, mic, etc.
Convert audio files into the format you need with detailed adjustment.
Easily editing audio files and add effects with few clicks.
Fast video to audio extraction with high output quality.
Audio CDs ripping gets the music you like onto your hard disk.
Burning audio CDs has never been so easy â even for a newbie.

Terms and Conditions Please note that the software you download and install during the Giveaway period comes with the following important limitations:

No free technical support
No free upgrades to future versions
Strictly personal usage

THIS SOFTWARE PRODUCT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. WITHOUT LIMITATION, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWABLE BY LAW, END USER ASSUMES THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE DOWNLOADED SOFTWARE PRODUCT.

WavePad Sound Editor (Free Version)

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:11:54 +0000

Another tool that I just learned about recently for "professional audio editing" is the WavePad Sound Editor. It comes in two versions, the free version, which I'm sharing here, and the Masters version, which has a few extra features. I haven't used the software much yet, but it seems to support a lot of the same features as Gold Wave Editor Pro (posted previously, but not free), including text-to-speed functions. Don't know how it compares with Audacity, so if you're familiar with these kinds of programs you can leave a comment on how they compare.

From here out, I'll just quote what the web sites says about WavePad and its list of features.

This sound editing software is a full featured professional audio editor for Windows, Mac OS X or Pocket PC. It lets you record, make and edit music, voice and other audio recordings. When editing audio files you can cut, copy and paste parts of recordings and, if required, add effects like echo, amplification and noise reduction. WavePad works as a wav editor or mp3 editor but it also supports a number of other file formats including vox, gsm, real audio, au, aif, flac, ogg and more.

We make this program free with the hope you will like it so much you will be tempted to upgrade to WavePad Master's Edition. The Master's Edition has additional effects and features and is a comprehensive audio editing software application for serious sound engineers.

Features:

Sound editing functions include cut, copy, paste, delete, insert, silence, autotrim and more.

Audio effects include, amplify, normalize, equaliser, envelope, reverb, echo, reverse, sample rate conversion and more.

Full featured Mp3 editing software support.

Supports a number of other file formats including wav (multiple codecs) vox, gsm, real audio, au, aif, flac, ogg and many more.

Batch processing supports up to 32000 files allowing you to apply effects and/or convert your files as a single function.

Tools include spectral analysis (FFT) and speech synthesis (text-to-speech).

Recorder supports autotrim and voice activated recording and more.

Audio restoration features including noise reduction and click pop removal.

Supports sample rates from 6000 to 96000Hz, stereo or mono, 8, 16, 24 or 32 bits.

Includes its own CD ripper with 'ultrafast 'rip mode and cddb music database lookup.

Works directly with MixPad multi-track audio mixing software.

Links directly to the Express Burn CD Recorder to burn your sound files to CD.

Edit tracks for the Zulu DJ software.

Easy to use interface will get you started editing in just minutes.

Gold Wave Editor Pro, Free for Today (Expired)

Sat, 23 May 2009 19:49:20 +0000

THIS IS EXPIRED. SORRY, YOU MISSED IT.

Gold Wave Editor Pro is free only for today at Giveaway of the Day.

"Gold Wave Editor Pro is an ideal solution for audio editing and mastering. The program contains everything you need to create great sounding recordings and audio CDs, including professional tools for recording, analysis and editing. The Gold Wave Editor Pro user interface was designed with speed, accuracy and ease of use in mind."

Features:

Included all the great features of Gold Wave Editor - and much more - with Gold Wave Editor Pro!
Tools include Audio File Merger. Easy-to-use tool to merge audio files in one large file.
Tools include Audio CD Ripper. Copies music tracks from audio CD's and saves them as Ogg Vorbis, WAV and MP3 files. Free CDDB Supported.
Tools include Audio CD Burner/Eraser. Create audio CDs from MP3 collection or WAV files.
Change WMA metadata/WMA tags. Simple-to-use tag editor that allows you to change tagged information about your WMA music files.
More professional. Gold Wave Editor Pro is designed to be a very easy and intuitive to use audio editing package. Within minutes you will be able to open or record a file and edit it. But if you take time to explore the other features you will find many powerful tools designed with the professional sound engineer in mind.

I mention this because I've been using a demo of Gold Wave for years to work with sound effects. I'm sure there are better sound tools out there, but if you don't have anything else, this is a great tool to use (especially for free!).

I'd also like to mention that if you install it today, you can reinstall it any time in the future by downloading the standard Gold Wave Editor Pro installation files, installing those, then copying the Gold Wave Editor Pro directory from the Giveaway of the Day install on top of it. Finally, use the registration keys provided by GotD to register it again.

Please note that the software you download and install during the Giveaway period comes with the following important limitations:

No free technical support

No free upgrades to future versions

Strictly non-commercial usage

Reformat The Planet

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:10:47 +0000

For one week only, Reformat The Planet, a documentary on the chiptune scene, will be available in streaming video on Pitchfork.tv. I'm not sure when the week started so watch it now if you're interested.

From the site:

It started with sequencing 8-bit chipsets on Nintendo Game Boys, but the Chiptune scene has now expanded well beyond game systems. Directed by Paul Owens, Reformat the Planet is the essential introduction to this awesome new genre, and proves it's more than just a blip.

http://pitchfork.tv/week/reformat-the-planet/

sfxr -- You need this

Sat, 24 May 2008 16:57:02 +0000

sfxr is a small utility designed to generate sounds as easily as possible, and it is extreemly good at it's job. Need some sounds for your game? Click a couple buttons and within 30sec you'll have more explosions than the game will ever need. Need samples for use in a mod file? Play with the sliders for 3min and you'll roughly have the instrument you were looking for. Really, I can't think of anything to say to properly hype sfxr; you need it, download it.

More info here: sfxr home page

Samples:
get_item.wav
lasers.wav
no_clue.wav
step_in_snow.wav
sword_swipe2.wav
sword_swipe.wav