Filed under: Audio, Software, How-tos, Odds and ends, Freeware
Create an 8-bit masterpiece in Garageband
In my day videogame consoles had 8 bits and we liked it. Nintendo ruled the gaming landscape and Microsoft was no where to be seen. Ah, those were the days.Why am I going on about 8-bits games here on TUAW? Because Create Digital Music has discovered a plugin for Garageband that turns your Mac into an 8-bit videogame theme making machine (and really can you think of a better use of your Mac? I didn't think so). Check out the tutorial and leave a link in the comments to any 8-bit tracks you create.
Update: As George points out in the comments this is PowerPC only. Sorry, Intel Mac users.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jay said 2:18PM on 7-11-2006
This is really cool! I will definitely try it out. I have already "re-imagined" a few different NES themes in GarageBand using the built-in sounds. Check it out.
Reply
Jay said 2:22PM on 7-11-2006
The link is http://www.mimetype.net. Sorry for the double post.
Reply
George said 2:31PM on 7-11-2006
Sadly, there is no Universal Binary of this app, so people with Intel Macs are out.
Reply
Snack Time said 3:24PM on 7-11-2006
I just tried this without reading the "No Intel" comment. I'm really disappointed, cuz this is alot easier than having to hook up nanoloop or LSDJ, or even the sound test in Kickle Cubicle
Reply
BM5k said 3:44PM on 7-11-2006
Damn... I've been screwing with this for 30 minutes. Guess I should've read the no intel macs comment earlier... *sigh*
Reply
Mike Burvill said 3:47PM on 7-11-2006
I've been using GarageBand to make 8bit sounds for a while, but without using plug ins, it just took some tweaking of the virtual synths. here's and example:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QrGcIJt39TM
It was fun to take a 21st century band and make them sound 8bit 80's
Reply
Nate MC said 4:35PM on 7-11-2006
If you have Ableton Live you should be able to load up the VST version, but I have no idea if it's intel ready or not either.
Reply
David said 5:24PM on 7-11-2006
Hello world, you can easily do this on any Mac. Create an instrument (real or software) and for the type go to Effects>Atari Sings. Congratulations, you now are creating old school Nintendo sounds. I'm glad I'm around as someone who has actually dug through the menus in Gband and doesn't just pretend to use the app.
Reply
Peter Kirn said 6:28PM on 7-11-2006
The only Mac version is AU, not VST, but you can use the Mac AU with Ableton Live. (Live supports both VST and AU. The Windows version is VST, but unless you're using Cubase on Mac, you probably don't care.)
Commenters are absolutely right that you can use any number of synths to create simple synthesized music in a chiptune style. The advantage of using one of these dedicated plug-ins is that they model the low-bitrate clipping that's particular to the sound chip on systems like the NES, and limit your sound choices in the way that Nintendo composers were limited. Getting that sound just right actually does require either some work with the synth design or sampled waveforms. There are some interesting examples of other custom solutions, though, in Reaktor ensembles like Okicomputer (mentioned in the CDM story; thanks, Brent) and even the low-bitrate wavetables in Ableton Operator (for Live). Operator/Live, at least, are Intel native, and Reaktor should be soon.
Anyway, this is free, and gets what sounds to me like exactly the right sound. Not that I'm anywhere near the masters of it that the band are:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=YMCK&search_type=search_videos&search=Search
Of course, for some real fun, it's worth hooking up a tracker and a Game Boy, and plenty of chiptune musicians use Mac laptops for additional effects and sequencing.
Reply
codeman38 said 12:59AM on 7-12-2006
For what it's worth, the "Atari Sings" effect (referenced in David's comment) is *not* included with GarageBand, but seems to only be available as part of certain Jam Packs.
So no, if you couldn't find it anywhere in the Effects menu at all, you're *not* insane.
Reply
Rogerio Penguino said 1:05AM on 7-12-2006
For people wondering about comment #8, just Create a Real Instrument, now you can select Atari Sings from the Effects category, under the Instrument Information, ie Get Info
Reply
phatbhuda said 10:35AM on 7-12-2006
You can also try the trick of running garageband as a power pc app. In Finder, get info for Garageband. At the bottom of the "general" section, there's a check box labeled "Open using Rosetta". With that enabled Garageband should open as a PowerPC application and be able to load PowerPC plugins.
At least, that's how it works with Safari/Quicktime and getting WMV to play.
Reply
M.Bischoff said 9:12AM on 7-14-2006
Wow! This is insanely great! I have played with it for a couple of minutes and if you dare, listen to what came out..
http://irulan.net/dropbox/8bit%20Garage%20Band%20Loop.m4a
Reply