How to Copy 8-Bit Nintendo Sounds and Music (NSF Importer + FamiTracker)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.ค. 2024
- In this tutorial, I will teach you how to copy 8-bit Nintendo sounds using NSF Importer and FamiTracker. NSF files contain the sound and music data from NES games, and while these may be confusing at first, this step-by-step tutorial will teach you everything you need to know to faithfully recreate 8-bit Nintendo sounds. First, I will teach you how to use NSF Importer. Secondly, I will teach you how to understand NSF files. Lastly, I will show you how to directly copy sounds from any NSF file to FamiTracker.
NSF Importer is a powerful FamiTracker hack. It allows you to view, in an extremely precise manner, the code used to program sounds from your favorite 8-bit Nintendo games. Unlike other plugin based programs, NSF files allow you to clearly, and accurately, study the construction of Nintendo sounds.
NSF Importer:
rainwarrior.ca/projects/nes/ns...
FamiTracker Official Download Link:
www.famitracker.com/
For the most thorough FamiTracker book out there, check out
FamiTracker Fundamentals:
www.matthewivic.com/
Special thanks to FamiTracker creator Jonathan Liss (jsr) for permissions and to hawken king ( / hawkun ) for the FamiTracker Fundamentals cover art.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:45 How to use NSF Importer
01:39 How to Read NSF Files
03:22 How to Copy NSF Sounds
03:58 Example 1: Thicc Unison Riff
04:56 Example 2: Echo Instrument
05:53 Example 3: Super Thicc Arpeggio
07:10 What else can we learn from NSF files?
Intro + Outro + Example Tracks
© 2021 Matthew Ivic
Awesome stuff. Glad to see you're cranking out more videos. They are a tremendous resource to the FamiTracker faithful. Your book was a huge help to me when I was getting started with making chip tunes and it continues to be my go-to reference when I want to deepen my understanding.
Thank you for your kind words, IMM. I am glad it helped you.
Apologies for the lapse in quality for some of the video. For whatever reason, between recording, encoding to export, and then reencoding for upload, the quality became crud. I'm going to have to spend some time messing with settings to correct this, so I figured I'd let the video stand for now... If it becomes to unbearable, I'll reupload it when I solve the issues. Sorry for this.
nah thats cool, try exporting the videos only once if possible to retain the quality tho
@@UserSniper Unfortunately, my computer doesn't like that idea too much, lol. Upgrade is needed, but current circumstances make that a bit difficult. XD
I do appreciate the thought, though.
This is really useful, thank you so much for making this!
Appreciate it!
Dude I love your videos, got your book too. I'm gonna make bangers in FT someday and it's all thanks to you. I'll be sure to send some comments your way when I have some real questions.
Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad to help. Feel free to leave your questions, and I will get back to you. :)
Appreciate it! I’m well versed in music theory but I’ve never composed before and honestly I think getting started with that in general is the hard part, since it feels like everything I try to make is bad haha. To be expected I guess. Do you have any advice on getting past that in the early stages? Famitracker specific or not.
@@DevLogLogan If you're new to composing, I would start by writing really short pieces. I'm talking 8-16 measures.
Try to make each measure perfect in terms of counterpoint, harmony, melodic design, rhythm etc...
If you're trying to write NES music specifically, transcribe and analyze lots of NES music. You'll learn a lot doing this.
Using what you've learned, write a bunch of variations on your short pieces. See what happens when you change your music using different styles you've learned.
By doing this, you'll build up a general knowledge bank about NES music, styles, and small forms structures.
As you gain a grip on these small forms, try combining different phrase structures together to create bigger pieces (essentially binary form pieces). When you run into problems, study other scores and pieces to learn the answers. IMSLP is great for free scores to study!
Hope that helps some and good luck.
@@MatthewIvic exactly the kind of advice I was looking for. I will try this. Thanks so much! I swear I'm gonna get good at this eventually lol.
@@DevLogLogan It's a never ending journey. Pack snacks. Make sure to share your tunes, too. :D
Great video !
Appreciate it, LDD!
I have some hack games finished to put soundtracks from other games, but I don't know how.
friend what an amazing video!!! I would like to know what is the easy way to replace a soundtrack from one game to another?
Thanks for the comment, Phantom. I'm not into NES rom hacking, so I couldn't say!
Could you make a video on how old school chip drums are used in comparison to famitracker drums? I made my own drums for famitracker but I like learning more about "authentic" sounding drums
I'll add it to the list!
I have seen some super creative drums before. Rushjet1 made a song called FDX and it utilizes both the noise channel and the noise channel really well.
@@nathanlawrence2484 Yeah! The DPCM/Noise channels are great in that one. The FDS channel really steals the show, though! :)
Hey, thanks so much for this video. When you talk about Famitracker hacks at about 3:30, "0CCFT" flashes on the screen. Wonder if you can elaborate!!! :)
Thinking about it. Maybe soon!
@@MatthewIvic I've got dnFT, j0CCFT, and NSFImportFT. Still looking for a better "automated" way to be able to do this :)
Do you know if there is a way to download music data from games that used the VRC7 chip? in this video you used a tool to get NES music into famitracker, is there a way to get music made using the VRC7 chip into famitracker to study?
Yep. They use the NSF file type as well. You can use NSF Importer to import VRC7 music as well. It is compatible.
Have fun!
@@MatthewIvic oh wow, was unaware of this! Thanks for the heads up
@@MatthewIvic So I am trying to do something that I am not sure is possible, but I'm trying to get music from mame games into famitracker. I have found .vgz files of the songs i want to import, and dont know if this is the right way of exporting the audio from these games or if theres a better way to do it? also not sure if there is even a way to get vgz files converted to NSF or other formats famitracker might recognize? or any way to just get vgz files into famitracker? or just in general any way to get mame rom music into famitracker to study from?
MAME the arcade emulator? Don't think FT or any of the FT hacks out there support something like that. FT pretty much deals solely with NES/Famicom music. GL!
i was wondering if its normal when you import nsf files for some songs to just suddenly stop playing, it doesnt reach the max pattern which is 256 normally, is there a way to go arround this? or at the very least try to import the missing part of the song? has happened to me quite a lot, and im not sure if its normal or not.
I don't recall anything like that happening to me. Does the tracker stop and there is no audio, or does everything stop? Is there a C00 effect in one of the columns by chance?
@@MatthewIvic I guess the best way to describe it, it stops inputing any notes in the middle of the song, and since there isnt a C00 or a silence indicator it just keeps playing the last input played in the frame continiously until the last frame ends and then it loops back to the beggining. Honestly this might be an issue with how i import the nsf, as it shows a window were i have to tweak some information but i always just go with the default settings.
It's funny I tried to make the file in NSF
But when I put it in the NSFimport, pulse 1 and 2 make a horrible sound, which I don't know why that happens. If there is an error or maybe it doesn't detect the notes as it should, what can I do there?
Not sure what's going on there. If you tried to import a file from an existing game, it could be sound effect/junk data. If it's something you created and imported, perhaps there is a version mismatch/bad interpretation. Hard to tell without seeing directly.
@@MatthewIvic
I already managed to solve it, in the famitracker reddit the same thing happened to some people, so they told me to use another version for it and if the NSF works
Make Famitracker ROM Importer, but you can try it
Ok so I call it a gargle instrument but how can you get an instrument that cycles through duty voices not sound too jumpy? Whenever I try it, it usually sounds really choppy.
Great question! This gets into the mixing aspect of FamiTracker-Something that is not discussed often.
Here are a few suggestions:
Firstly, try adjusting the volume column to taste. For me, personally, a hex value of around 4 works; I also believe that's what I used in the initial track.
Additionally, lower note values for the arpeggio will add considerable mud and potential 'gargle' to the mix. I'd either stay away from that range for too long, taper the volume off, or adjust the arpeggio entirely. Naturally, this depends on your music and what you're going for.
Let me know if that helps at all. I appreciate the comment.