How to make chip samples?

[kaiplak]

how can I make chip tunes how do you get the little beeps and boops to do it?  I know they are called samples, but how I get my own and how do I use others peoples and my own? Do I take .wav files and make them crappy, that seems to be what this tutorial says? -> http://www.modarchive.com/db/boards2/viewtopic.php?t=45

Thanks!!!

Edit by Mod:Decapitalised topic

[speed-goddamn-focus]

that tutorial pretty much sums it up.

[kaiplak]

you know I also just realized I can copy other people's samples from their songs that use to make their songs, thats working alot better.  what is Soft Synth is it some kind of software, where  would I get the software to make  beep wave form's free hand? thanks alot! :?

[Sam_Zen]

Search at http://sourceforge.net/ for free soft synths.
Try to learn more about the nature of soundfiles.

[kaiplak]

thanks, what software do you guys recommend fo audio editing to make chiptune beeps, is there away to make your own beeps with mod plug  freehand?

[speed-goddamn-focus]

Audacity is in my opinion the best freeware sound editor.

[LPChip]

Or you can use MPT

You cannot draw freehanded samples though.

I once made this picture to show how you can make a nice chipsample out of a drum sample.

I hope the image will speak for itself, otherwise ask, and I'll write the description of it. Basically, its like selecting and trimming to get to the result, and then set a loop on it.

[Sam_Zen]

As SGF says, Audacity is the best.
And not only as a sound-editor, but you can create sounds as well from nothing. With a chosen duration.
New - Generate :
With 'Tones' you can make some basic waveforms like sine, square or sawtooth. Or you can generate some 'Noise'.
Basic chip-ingredients I think. The basic waveforms for the tonal things, the noise for percussive things.

2 LPChip
Very nice idea. A single waveform out of an existing sound.
I like to add, that in the trimming it is quite important, that both start and end of the selection have the same level-value, to get a proper loop without some ticking.
Your selected part seems to fit this condition, so explains your point very well.
But personally, I would not have chosen this part, because, besides having a distortion at the top, it doesn't have a zero-value at both ends. The so-called zero-crossing (on the line in the vertical middle).
So in this case I would have chosen for the part between the two white dots :

[speed-goddamn-focus]

Actually both Sam Zen's and LPChip's examples are bad because they have a DC offset. In Sam Zen's case, even tho the loop points are on thte zero line, there is much more of the samples energy below the line than above. This decreases the dynamic range of the whole song.

[Sam_Zen]

Although I don't agree about a DC offset (zero is zero), I agree about the unbalance of the waveform regarding positive and negative amplitude. It indeed restricts the dynamics. But it can be trimmed easily by normalizing the positive phase-part. Or reducing the amplitude of the negative part.

[LPChip]

For chip samples, it doesn't really matters if there is lots above and a few below or the other way around. True, It becomes a bit softer, but as result the sound becomes more sharp, which can be a desired result.

Relabsoluness gave me my old post regarding making samples with just mpt, so first of all my thanks to him I'm going to post this article again with all the text and the (same) image.

[speed-goddamn-focus]

Although I don't agree about a DC offset (zero is zero), I agree about the unbalance of the waveform regarding positive and negative amplitude.

It's not the loop points and not the amplitude, it's the energy! An easy way to put it is that the area above and below the zero line should be the same. To have the sample start and stop on the zero line is nice tho.

True, It becomes a bit softer, but as result the sound becomes more sharp, which can be a desired result.

It doesn't become more sharp, unless you mean the clipping? Anyway, to me DC offset always matters.

[LPChip]

It doesn't become more sharp, unless you mean the clipping? Anyway, to me DC offset always matters.

Actually, it does.

I had a sine waveform that was all the way up, and below the line for like 5%. (yup, really little)

The sound was sharper than a normal sine, but the volume was about half.

Maybe sharper isn't the right word, but it did altered the sound in a better way.

[rewbs]

The put sf's point another way, given that all sounds are produced by your speaker cone moving back and forth, the parts above DC 0 (the middle horizontal ine) could be considered to represent the speaker cone in a forwards position, and below the line represent the cone in a backwards position.

If your sample puts bias either way, you reduce the average amount of space that the speaker will be able to move in a given direction when it wants to produce other sounds at the same time. This means you will clip at a lower volume, amongst other things.

LP, based on the last description you gave, I don't think you should hear a difference if you are playing the sound in isolation and it is not clipping, unless your speakers are broken. Can you give us the samples so we can understand what's going on?

[LPChip]

Its one sample, but sure.

I'll do it when I get home. If I forgot, please remind me