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FamiTracker
I enjoy creating tracks with famiracker and recording it to put on my ipod to listen to later. However, I can't help but notice how my tracks seem to lack in quality compared to other chiptune mp3s I've downloaded. Mine sound sort of damp and "sloshy", while others sound crisp and clear. How do I get my tunes to sound like THAT? Any help is appreciated. ^.^
What sample rate are you outputting your MP3s at? 32 KHz and above should sound crisp (I recommend 44.1 KHz sample rate).
The songs in the link on my signature, for instance, use 32 KHz and they sound crisp enough so you won't hear much difference from the FT output.
If sample rate isn't the problem... uh, I don't know what it can be.
EDIT: I exported your otaku_beenz from FamiTracker at 44.1 KHz sample rate and converted it to MP3 using Audacity with LAME MP3 Encoder. You can download the MP3 from [url=https://www.dropbox.com/s/5m3hdnr3bv47kyz/otaku_beenz_44khz.mp3]here. Does it sound good to you?
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[url=https://www.dropbox.com/sh/md3lbsamcj39c9v/t0g5rFmzX_][Dropbox (my FT stuff)]
Perhaps you could link us to these "other chiptunes" you were talking about? Try messing with the treble filter in Famitracker's settings and then listen to your songs again. I also recommend what Dr_Mushtache said with changing the sampling rate, as that will probably help.
[quote=VinylScratch]Perhaps you could link us to these "other chiptunes" you were talking about? Try messing with the treble filter in Famitracker's settings and then listen to your songs again. I also recommend what Dr_Mushtache said with changing the sampling rate, as that will probably help.[/quote]
Compare one of my tracks:
http://chipmusic.org/sparkyrogers/music/wistful-aphrodesiac
With this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkp4EhagOAA
Don't you hear a difference? It could be just my ipod...
Try putting both songs on your ipod and compare them. I don't hear any big difference.
By the way, that song of yours... it's nice!
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[color=#b0b0b0]This version of Dr. Mustache is outdated. Please download latest version [url=about:blank]here.
[url=https://www.dropbox.com/sh/md3lbsamcj39c9v/t0g5rFmzX_][Dropbox (my FT stuff)]
1) Make sure you're exporting/encoding at 44.1Khz sample and 192 or higher bit rate at every step. (You can get away with lower, but this is a good amount for chiptunes.)
2) Make sure the volume is good - a song that's quieter than it needs to be can sound 'worse' because it's harder to pick out sounds and seems less vibrant for it. If you're not sure, load it in audacity, select the whole thing, hit 'Normalize', then export it as mp3 (after making sure the quality is high, see 1) )
3) Watch out - other chiptunes might have special effects applied to them, such as reverb, stereo panning of different channels (NES only has mono, even gameboy only has hard panning or no panning) and compression/equalization/etc. This is technically not chiptune legal, but makes a lot of songs sound better if applied right. Up to you if you want to experiment with this or not.
4) If none of the above apply - it might just be that you need to learn more chiptune techniques so your songs sound cooler and more awesome to the ears! For example, have you ever tried an instrument with 2 1 0 for duty cycles and 0 12 0 for arpeggio? Have you ever tried the Konami Snare (tm) noise instrument? Have you ever tried Tim Follin style triangle bass kicks? Have you ever looked at Tim Follin's stuff in NSFPlay Synthesia? Everything he does is gold and you can learn a lot from trying to mimic his techniques.
Nevermind, guys, I'd already solved the problem days ago. It turns out that my triangle kicks were too high, so there wasn't enough bass. But I fixed it. Thank you for all of your help.
