Freesound Forums

Hey everybody, I have experience designing sound with Audacity and that's what I've just used for years doing theatre SFX and then through Qlab for live theatre.

However, I am now just with my 2011 Macbook Air with a music composition project for my friend. Anybody have any tips on what are the bare essentials I can use to make music sound like they're from old 80s video games? Could I do it just by software and samples alone without any other special electronic hardware?

You absolutely can!
Even though it means learning something new, I'd suggest you to approach some DAW (digital audio workstation) since they're the best fit for music making; at the very least, in your case, Garageband.
...or, if you like old school music making, even a tracker like this
https://bambootracker.github.io/BambooTracker/

Then, once you start digging in the plugin world, you'll find things like this
https://plugins4free.com/plugin/2839/
There are many emulators of 80's and 90's sound hardware around, so you should be well covered.

You talking Commodore 64 music, NES style music, or what?

Check out the Tweakbench plugins, and check out this site: https://woolyss.com/chipmusic-plugins.php

Between the Tweakbench and Woolyss stuff, you should be well covered. I recommend getting tb_peach and tb_toad. Peach is a very playable sampler with loads of classic NES sounds in it, and Toad is similar, but with NES drum sounds. And if you want more C64/Atari type sounds, check out basic65 and MiniSID.

Plogue got you covered!

Some things to check out.

••• Sample Libraries & Synths •••

Beat Skillz - Synth Wave Drums (sample library)
https://www.beatskillz.com/shop/synthwave-drums-v2/

U Jam - Vice (sample library)
https://www.ujam.com/beatmaker/vice/

Impact SoundWorks - Super Audio Cart (retro sample library)
http://www.superaudiocart.com/

U-He - Diva (synth)
https://u-he.com/products/diva/

Arturia - SQ80, Jun-6, Jup-8 and Modular V (Synths)
https://www.arturia.com/products#software-instruments,software-instruments-effects

••• Mixing Plugins •••

Most stock stuff will do fine, but if you must, here's some handy ones.

XLN Audio - RC-20
https://www.xlnaudio.com/products/addictive_fx/effect/rc-20_retro_color

Waves Factory - Cassette
https://www.wavesfactory.com/audio-plugins/cassette/

Waves Factory - Echo Cat
https://www.wavesfactory.com/audio-plugins/echo-cat/

Valhalla DSP - Valhalla Vintage Verb
https://valhalladsp.com/shop/reverb/valhalla-vintage-verb/

Fab-Filter - Saturn
https://www.fabfilter.com/products/saturn-2-multiband-distortion-saturation-plug-in

Waves - CLA Epic
https://www.waves.com/plugins/cla-epic#introducing-cla-epic-reverbs-and-delays

Waves - Retro Fi
https://www.waves.com/plugins/retro-fi#retro-fi-true-lofi-analog-magic

https://impactsoundworks.com/product/super-audio-boy/

I'm plugging this. It's very similar to the NES sound, and it's FREE (but uses the Kontakt plugin-player)

I really suggest Sylenth1 as a synth. If you're on a budget, you can download the free synth Vital: https://vital.audio/

I prefer vital cuz it's free. You can get 80's presets on community or sample packs.

https://presetshare.com/bundles/view?id=231
https://presetshare.com/bundles/view?id=228

What about https://beepbox.co/

For authenticity:

If you're not actually going out and buying an OB-X, DX-7, Prophet, TR-808/909 or any of the other types of synths they used back then (and still use today), you will need emulation software.

TR-808/909: easy. It's a drum machine and there are tons of one-shot samples you can load into your favorite drum machine.

OB-X: There is a plugin available through the KXStudio Repos called OB-XD that serves as a pretty fair emulator for the OB-X (https://kx.studio/Repositorieslugins#obxd-lv2)

Yamaha DX-7: Also in KXStudio's repos there is a DX-7 emulator called Dexed: https://kx.studio/Repositorieslugins#dexed-lv2

TB303 (For acid bass ): There's a built-in one in LMMS called LB302

If you just want it to sound like 80s:

Get a good synth that can do FM, Chorus, Reverb, and filtering and start messing around. A lot of 80s synthwave has a ton of reverb and chorus on it, and you can get a very 80s sound just by having a chorused sawtooth (start with like 8 voices at 10% unison) filtered by a lowpass filter with some resonance and the cutoff modulating with the envelope. Especially if you have a few ms attack on the envelope it's really convincing.

For acid bass, just make sure you have a 24 dB cutoff low pass filter with moderate resonance and then mess with the lowpass filter's envelope. No chorus, just use one voice.

I suggest Vital (it's open source):
https://vital.audio
or surge (open source and a ton of presets):
https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

Play around with some light frequency modulation and reverb the sh*t out of it!

I know this issue has probably already been resolved, but not many people mentioned the world of trackers. So here I am, mentioning it!

Trackers are perfect if you prefer authenticity over everything else. They emulate the sound chips of the systems you're working with, and usually have the ability to export a file that an actual machine can play, if you happen to have one sitting around. They can be a bit of a learning curve, though.

Trackers I would recommend if you're interested are:

Famitracker, a simpler-to-use tracker dedicated to the NES and its various extensions.

DefleMask, another tracker that supports various systems such as the SEGA Genesis and the Commodore 64.

Furnace Tracker, a newer tracker with an ungodly amount of supported systems.

All of these are free. DefleMask has a paid version.

If you're used to the world of DAW's, there is a program called FamiStudio which emulates the NES (and some of its extensions) but provides a DAW-like interface for controlling it.

Anything. Just bit-crush/decimate every sound individually

But also have a melody that sounds like the hero hasn't lost yet. 🤬