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[mrfredman]

So I'm working on a new game, and I was thinking that it might be fun to try and do all of the sound myself instead of outsourcing it. The game is done in a very old-school style and I really want to accompany it with some classic beeps and boops to maintain the feel.

Are there programs out their for generating 8-bit sound effects? I was hoping to have lots of control as I come from a somewhat musical background, so should I just be using a music making program like FL Studio? Or is there something out there designed for giving game designers customizable 8-bit noises?

[deadeye]

SFXR is what you need for one-off bloops and blips, and it's free.

http://www.cyd.liu.se/~tompe573/hp/project_sfxr.html

For music there are the Peach, Triforce, and Toad VST plugins available for free as well from tweakbench:

http://www.tweakbench.com/

[Laremere]

I have milky tracker, and while I haven't used it too much, I think it will allow you to get what you want.  I would listen to the samples that come with it and see if you like the product it produces.  Also free.

http://www.milkytracker.net/?about

[mrfredman]

SFXR is what you need for one-off bloops and blips, and it's free.

Wow, that looks super useful. Thanks for the quick response. I just DL'ed it, but sadly it only supports 32-bit Windows while I am running 64-bit Windows. Are there any workarounds for that? And if not are there any similar programs that would run on 64-bit Vista?

EDIT: nvm, milky tracker seems to run fine. Now lets see if it can make the sounds I want.

[Mir@k]

Personally, i use FL studio to create my sound effects, using the 3x Osc and the Magical 8-Bit plugin i've come with rather nice results like these:

Arcade-like "press start" sound
Splash sound
Rain loop

Sure, they might not be top notch sound effects, but you can still wipe them out exactly like you want them to come up like.
I tested that sfxr program deadeye suggested, it makes some spiffy sounds, and i thank that suggestion since it provides a quick and good original sound effect resource. You can even tweak the sound effect you got until you're 100% happy with it.

If anyone wants, though, i'll make a tutorial of how i made the sounds i linked above.

[BMcC]

Personally, i use FL studio to create my sound effects, using the 3x Osc and the Magical 8-Bit plugin...

Moi aussi -- but I'm super jazzed to mess around with SFXR!

I just recently learned George ("The Doctor") wrote a retro sound-maker, which he uses for his (excellent) music.  Gotta get my hands on that, too.

[Bad Sector]

http//www.badsectoracula.com/projects/soundfx/

You can make simple effects easy and with some extra care you might make something cool.

At some point i'll add more features to this :-P.

[Ivan]

SFXR also saves its native sound format .sfs, which are just the waveform settings and are really tiny. It's really easy to use SFXR's source code to play them back in-game. Much better than .wav files IMHO.

[lordmetroid]

You need a few sinus wave samples and a mod editor and then some skill...

[Batmanifestdestiny]

A really good 8-bit sound thing would be Famitracker, it's at famitracker.shoodot.net
it makes .fmi, and .nsf, but you could easily record the stuff as mp3 with Audacity, or mp3 my mp3.

[Ivan]

Or, once again, play NSF natively

[Kekskiller]

I'm making all the stuff I need with Synthedit, recording the output as wave. You can make all kinds of things when getting into it, but you'll need a tool for converting to 8-bit...

[godsavant]

I was so intimidated by sfx...I thought I was going to have to bribe a special 'sfx guy' onto our team. Then I got SFXR, and it was so incredibly easy, I just lost a few notches of respect for anyone who does it as a job.

[grizzly]

I make music in my spare time and I've scoured the net for the best NES sounds.
I find that soundbanks which claim to have 8 bit sounds never do... they've always got flanging or phasing or reverb over the top of the samples, which are rarely genuine in the first place. I've never found a good VST/AU (well, maybe one or two but they weren't that good). once or twice i ripped a few notes/chords/sfx out of some NES games, chopped them up and got a few passable bits and pieces. trackers and pretty great if you get some good basic samples. sounds quite good if you do it right.
the ALMIGHTY way to produce 8 bit music (at least if it's NES we're talking about) is with this program called MCK and a composition language called MML. You compose the music in a text file and run it through some kind of DOS program, and it outputs an .NSF file. It uses a near-to-completely-authentic emulation style, including the five NES synth's advantages and shortcomings. grab yourself a few 1 bit samples of snds and hhs and the like and you've got all you need. it's a little complicated to get into but well worth it i think

check out this tutorial
http://www.nullsleep.com/treasure/mck_guide/
and here are some examples from the same guy
http://www.nullsleep.com/more.php