Nsf, Midi, Wtf

[Zintendo]

Looking across the epic soundtracks of 2A03 type compositions of NES vidyas versus the roms filesize, I'm seeing with my own eyes that an entire video game of Music, complete with scores unique for dozens upon dozens of circunstances, weighs 10x less than a single .mp3 song off that same track.

The whole NES game is magically under a Mb, and I haven't even started on graphics. I'm mad because I took classes in Flash and studied flash for years, and when I finally decide to make my own epic 8 bit, hopefully as extensive as the original Final Fantasies, I come to find that flash interface is extremely counterintuitive, regarding efficiency. I found a workaround via Ben Silvis‘ bitmaptransfer method for graphics. Easy enough. Can you guys help me get my chiptune files rendered under the wing of .swf without bloating into a fat monster. Thanks

[MetalRenard]

I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. What you call "8 bit music" was sound created by instructing a piece of hardware what noises to make and the result was limited by the capabilities of the time. You can't authentically recreate 8 bit audio these days because the computers that run it are not equipped for it. They are equipped with midi interpretation software and soft synth sounds called "General MIDI"; i.e. if you hit play on a midi file the computer will interpret it in a similar fashion to how old hardware used to. The sounds it uses are simply a LOT more complex.

What you can do, is create the 8 bit audio in some music software and render it as an mp3 which your computer is able to read. This way you get the sound you want but it comes from the music software project and is saved "as is". There is no alternative.

Ways of reducing the size of the file do exist though. One way is to reduce the bit-rate of the audio track (bare in mind this reduces the quality so don't go below 128kb/s).

[MetalRenard]

Examples:
MIDI. Very small files, read by your computer in a similar way to NES music.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28025798/My%20Music/violin.mid

.ogg file (smaller than mp3 but higher quality)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28025798/My%20Music/VIOLIN%20THING.ogg

[EagleGuard]

In addition to what MetalRenard said, you could also opt to use module file formats (e.g. .MOD, .XM, .IT) instead. The great thing about these, is that they will sound the same on each computer, because module file formats have samples integrated into their file. The file size is also extremely small. Lastly, these files will give you that authentic chiptune sound!

[EagleGuard]

Also, while I said it could be used to create authentic chiptune sounds, it isn't limited to that. It all depends on the samples that are being used in the music.

Here you can find some examples:
http://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_chart&query=tophits

[samulis]

Regarding .mp3 or .ogg compression, you can probably get away with a lot of it. Ways to get your audio super small include reducing the sample rate and bits (so instead of 16 or 24-bit audio, you can put it at 8) and even turning it mono (will cut size in half).

[MetalRenard]

I didn't know about MOD files. Thanks for teaching me something new! :D

[EagleGuard]

At 2/12/14 11:58 AM, MetalRenard wrote: I didn't know about MOD files. Thanks for teaching me something new! :D

Anytime :)

[midimachine]

nothing about OP's complaint makes sense. you're using flash, but want the game to fit 30 year old hardware constraints?
if the game isn't running on a NES or emulator then use whatever sound file format you want. nsf wasn't even a thing before famitracker anyway.

[midimachine]

http://p1xl.com/fun/flashnsf/ <- this is a flash NSF player which you might be able integrate if you ask the developer nicely