Using Audacity to get Video Game Music into your game

Started by shdwlink1993, December 31, 2008, 12:11:23 pm

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shdwlink1993

Use Audacity to get VG Music into your game
(Sorry the title's so vauge-sounding)


Introduction

This Tutorial will help you get music that normally wouldn't work well on RMXP and edit it so that it works well. Audacity, the program we'll be using today, is a great free sound editor. If you don't have it, you can get it from it's homepage at their homepage

Most music from soundtracks, especially from video game soundtracks, have a number of nuances that prevent the song from being used well. Most prominently is the fade-out at the end of the song. Although this works well if you're listening to the song on your computer, it doesn't help when you're trying to get it into your game. This guide will help you circumvent these measures and get the song in your game without any troubles.

Before starting, be sure that you are familiar with the song you are doing this to. Otherwise, you might run into some difficulties later on.




Step 1: The Fade-Out

The Fade-Out is used in most songs to create a sense of closure to the song, since VG Music can't have a standard musical ending, instead looping incessantly. To help for people listening to these on a CD, back to back, they have a fade at the end. Usually, a song from a video game has a basic structure, and works somewhat like this:

Intro (If present)
Entire Song (May be played through twice)
Fade-out

To get the fade-out out, all you need to do is select the section where the song repeats again (the part with the fade), highlight to the very end of the song, and delete it. volia.




Step 2: The Intro

If your song does not have an intro, feel lucky and skip this, because this part has problems with RMXP. Select the introduction segment, and Cut it (Don't Delete it!). Make a new project, and paste the section in. You'll need it for later.

Now, check if the standard song sounds OK by loop-playing through it (Hold shift and click Play). If there are no disernable skips in the song, then it's fine. Otherwise, you messed up earlier.




Step 3: Importing the Song

First of all, if your "main song" project repeats itself twice (Make sure it's an exact duplication of the first half), feel free to delete that part. You won't need it, and it'll cut back on file-size. Now, export the files. If your size-concious, export as an .ogg file. In fact, do so in any case.

Now, have RMXP import the main song as a BGM, and import the intro (if you had one) as a SE.




Step 4: Intro Nuances

If you were unlucky to have an intro in your song, then this part needs nothing but a good ear and time.

Put the song into an event (If you'll need this song a lot, then put this into a Common Event) something like this:


Play SE: 'Intro'
Wait: X Frame(s)
Play BGM: 'Song'


Now, you have to guess on what X is going to be. To do this, simply put in a number around what you think is right (40FPS is what RMXP usually runs at), and test-play the game (and run the event). If the song didn't start for a while after the intro ended, then make the wait less, and increase the wait if the two overlap. The reason that this isn't too great is because if you aren't running at peak FPS, then there will be a gap of some sort that shouldn't be there.

In closing, I hope this tutorial helps you out in making your games. :)
Stuff I've made:




"Never think you're perfect or else you'll stop improving yourself."

"Some people say the glass is half full... some half empty... I just wanna know who's been drinking my beer."

Tazero



If you were a fish...

DeXuS

Wish I had seen that BEFORE I went and paid for FL-Studio...   Oh well...  Atleast now I can make my own tunes for my games, lol

Starrodkirby86

Quote from: DeXuS on January 04, 2011, 06:59:20 am
Wish I had seen that BEFORE I went and paid for FL-Studio...   Oh well...  Atleast now I can make my own tunes for my games, lol
Hey, creating tunes out of that can really turn to be an invaluable talent. :>

This tutorial works wonders. For Audacity, you should always make sure to zoom in and constantly test your song, just so there won't be any weird cut-off snippets.

This might render this topic not as useful as before, but there was a script I remember seeing that programmed loops automatically and handled music much nicer for RPG Maker XP...

http://www.hbgames.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55486.0

What's osu!? It's a rhythm game. Thought I should have a signature with a working rank. ;P It's now clickable!
Still Aqua's biggest fan (Or am I?).