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NES music in FLStudio


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There are a variety of VSTs out there that attempt to recreate the sound of the 2A03. However I'm frustrated over the fact that they either suck, or just leave some functions to be desired. There's the Toad/Peach VSTs from Tweakbench which are just sampled, pre-sequenced sounds straight from games and would be more suited to glitch producers than actual chiptune composing. Then there are those in SynthMaker which all have that weird attack at the beginning even if you set the attack envelope to 0, it just pisses me off.

But in reality, you don't really need any of that stuff. My all-time favorite native FL generator is the 3xOsc. It lacks the proper pulse wave used in the NES, but it has the ability to load in custom oscillators from .wav files which I never really thought about before, so I just loaded up pulse samples on different widths.

The real beauty of 3xOsc is the amount of features it has though, there are LFOs and envelopes for everything from volume to pitch, something that's missing in a lot of synthesizers. Pitch envelopes are pretty important if you are serious about programming NES sounds, since it allows you, among other things, to easily create bassdrums or toms out of the triangle. You can also easily make delayed vibratos using the pitch LFO, very good for leads.

The 3xOsc also works with the piano roll's pitch bending unlike external VSTs, which makes pitch-bending a quick and inspiring process as opposed to the MIDI wheel.

The only thing it has problems with is playing noise oscillators, since it seemingly refuses to play them in different pitches. I guess this is easily solved by instead using the FL sampler, though I haven't tried it yet.

I've assembled a zipped flp package with a recreation of Stone Man from Mega Man 5.

http://www.zshare.net/download/17044661310dcc80/

MP3 example: http://www.zshare.net/audio/170447240a3e8f7a/

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  • 3 weeks later...

I really like Magical 8Bit Plug.

http://www.ymck.net/english/download/index.html

No bells and whistles, just as simple as it should be.

The fact that it's GUI-less also is a plus in FL, much faster to automate by right clicking.

Using any simple synth works as well of course, but if you care about realism you'd have to reduce the sample rate of the oscillators.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just a couple things: i didn't download the actual FL files since I don't use FL anymore-- but...

1) your triangle doesn't have the aliasing sound the NES's does (it's stair-stepped). I don't know if you even CAN recreate this though. Minor issue.

2) your MM5 song sounds really good except for the background square from :05 and beyond should be a 12.5% width instead of 25%.. easy fix :P

also if you want, i can sample a lot more NOISE stuff for ya

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Hi all,

I've had Flstudio on my computer for a while, but I've never gotten around to learning it and using it much. I'm interested in learning it, and I specifically want to try to create NES music. Can anybody give me some starting tips/pointers/useful tutorials/links for complete beginners? I really have no idea how to start learning; every time I try, I start to get flooded with all these terms and jargon that I don't understand.

Thanks all! :<

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

I'm having some problems with the Magical 8-bit Plug and was wondering if someone could help me out. I've downloaded the plug-in and copied the .component file into the folder mentioned in the readme, but even after restarting GarageBand and restarting my computer, it still doesn't recognize it as a possible track. What should I do? How do I get GarageBand to use this plug-in? By the way, I have one of the mew MacBook Pro models.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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Now, don't get me wrong, as I'm not that much of a purist, but when writing chiptunes it's not only the timbre of the music but the limitations of the hardware that gives it the feel of the past for me. Personally I prefer the chiptune sequencers over the DAW attempts at mimicking them. Of course, if you emulate the 2 square, triange, and noise perfectly and incorporate the limits into the music while writing, then I'd be all for it. However, I think that would be a bit difficult to do in a DAW. Just sayin' is all :)

It isn't a bad alternative to real chiptunage, for the sake of convinience, though :)

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I'm having some problems with the Magical 8-bit Plug and was wondering if someone could help me out. I've downloaded the plug-in and copied the .component file into the folder mentioned in the readme, but even after restarting GarageBand and restarting my computer, it still doesn't recognize it as a possible track. What should I do? How do I get GarageBand to use this plug-in? By the way, I have one of the mew MacBook Pro models.

Thanks in advance for any help.

This question is unrelated to the main topic at hand is considered derailing a thread, plus you're a lot less likely to get any help in here (FL studio is PC only) than if you had your own thread. Please go start your own thread if after research you can't find the answer, but please, do some research first.

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