Cyril Beckwith

Many people want to create audio sounds or music with computers, but do not know how to code. This article is for them. I will show you a way to start experimenting with sound design without software, and then I will show you an easy way of creating sound effects with software.

This article will be split into two parts: the first part about designing audio in a non-linear fashion, and the second about generating sound effects with bfxr (a free program).

In the first section, we discuss NFTs (non-functional transforms). It seems strange that there would be no function in this type of transform yet it’s still useful for making complex sounds. The way this works is by using an LFO (Low-Frequency Oscillator) to combine multiple parameters at once.

In the second section, we will use bfxr to generate sound effects. Bfxr is easy, it’s quick, and it and open source so you can use it freely in your games and apps.

I will first explain what an NFT is and how it’s different from other transforms. After that, I will discuss the benefits of using NFTs in the creation of designed audio, followed by a discussion of a possible disadvantages of using this type of transform.

In the Naughty Dog’s article Achieving Authentic Soundscapes Shawn Purdy talks about how understanding the way sound behaves in video games can lead you to new and unique ways of creating sound design. To understand how to manipulate these sounds I highly recommend reading this article. Understanding the entire article is not required, but it’s a good read. For this explanation, I will be using what Shawn describes as an “NFT” (Non-Functional Transform). An NFT is a transform that has no functions, but can still be used to achieve specific results. It is composed of multiple parameters that can be multiplied into a single number.

In the image below, an NFT is constructed that has two parameters, an LFO (low-frequency oscillator) and a filter. The LFO controls the speed of randomization, and the filter controls how intense the randomization will be at each step. For example, if you wanted to make a sound effect that was constantly fluctuating in pitch, you would set your LFO to a high rate and set your filter to 100%, meaning all of the signals will reach the output. You could experiment with making sounds by changing these values and seeing how they affect other aspects of sound design on your computer or even in real life.

The flexibility of randomization: An NFT is very flexible in the way that any value can be input into it, and any value can be output. This means that you could use an NFT to generate a random value for each interrupt. In this way, you would call the NFT with a new number each time, and it will output a different number each time. This type of transformation could be used to make very complex sounds. Control over different aspects of sounds: NFTs can increase or decrease the effectiveness of certain types of sound design on your soundscape. For example, if you were making a track for an arcade racing game, you might want to make the engine sound faster and more frantic with an NFT. This would give your car a sense of speed by speeding up the pitch, but also increasing its loudness with the increase in speed. You could also make other aspects such as the reverb quieter or softer so that it doesn’t distract from other sounds on your level.

There is one possible disadvantage to using an NFT: It can be difficult to find a use for them when making/creating music. You would rather have a parameter that controls the pitch and another that controls the volume than have to create an NFT to control both. But for sound effects, it is very useful. You can use an NFT to control the mix of different sounds in a game, or you could use it to control which random sound is chosen each time a random sound plays. In this way, you could design an interesting track by playing a certain type of sound after another certain type of sound at different times.

Strength: 100% Normal value: 123 Volume: 0% Speed: 0%

Bfxr is a free program used to make retro sounds and effects, with many presets already provided. In the video below you can see it used to record ambient sounds and then to create a sound effect. The same thing could be done with NFTs, but it would be less complicated. It is very easy to use bfxr, so if you want to learn more then I recommend reading this article on making bfxr sound effects.

Make a new audio file by right-clicking on bfxr and selecting “New Sound Effect” (or File>New Sound Effect). This will open up the file in BFXR which is a text editor, where every line represents one parameter of an NFT. Each line has several parameters that can be edited, and they are separated by semicolons. For example 1;2;3 represent three parameters all with the same value of 2. There are also other characters such as brackets and commas which you can use to make your audio sound different. These will be explained in the article mentioned above. Inside the BFXR editor, you can see that there are different tabs for audio recording (left), editing (right), and export/compile (top). The audio of your new file will not be saved as an .ogg or .wav file. Instead, it will be saved as a text file. You can edit this text with any text editor. To add effects to your sound file, you have to go to the export/compile tab and choose “FX” tab. This will open up another text editor where you can save your file.

To make sounds, change the number at the top of each line in the variables tab. For example, if you want to make a sound that has a pitch of 440Hz, set the first number to 0 and the second number to 440. If you want to make a sound that is louder than normal, add or subtract the first value from the second value.

I will guide you through how to create an NFT as follows:

Make a new audio file by opening bfxr and clicking on New Sound Effect (or File>New Sound Effect). This will open up your file in bfxr where all lines are numbers with two values separated by commas. These numbers represent sound parameters. The first value will be the input value, and the second value is the output value. Click on File>Save As… to save your file as a text file. A new tab will appear that is called “Main”, make sure this tab is empty before writing your NFT. You should now see: 0;0;0;0;0;0;0 Copy and paste this line into the Main tab with {brackets}. This means that each bracket represents a semicolon in your bfxr editor. The semicolon represents a comma in bfxr, so your line will now look as follows: 0;{bracket}0;{bracket}0;{bracket}0;{bracket}0;{bracket}0;{comma}.

You can add more lines to your NFT by clicking on the + sign at the top of the editor. Add these lines in this order. The first number in a line should always be the first number in your previous line, and the second number in a line should always be the second number in your previous line. If you want to add two different parameters and only want one to be random, you can use this format: All parameters default: {bracket}0;{bracket}0

Parameter 1 random: {bracket}123

Parameter 2 random: {bracket}456 Now when you playback your file with bfxr, then all of these parameters will be set to values randomly chosen. You can edit these values by clicking on the File>Open Main tab. Add the following lines to your NFT. The first number should always be the first value in your previous line, and the second should be the second: 1;2;3 Each number represents a different parameter in your bfxr file, and you can use semicolons to separate parameters. If you want to make things more complicated, you can add more parameters. For example 1;{bracket}2;;3;;4;;5;;6 These numbers represent: pitch (1), volume (2), speed (3), distance (4), panning (5), reverb loudness (6)

Parameters that don’t have an input value will randomly pick a whole value between 0–100%. For example, if you make a line as follows: 1;2;3;4; This will randomize by picking between 0–100% for each parameter.

If you want to know how to use the other characters in bfxr, read the article mentioned above.

Here is an example of how you would use BFXR to create an NFT:

To save your results as an .ogg or .wav file, open up a new tab and write whatever name you want for your .wav or .ogg file. You can then open it with BFXR when you are done creating your NFT. Remember that every time you save your file with File>Save As… you will lose all the changes you have made.

I will guide you through how to create an NFT as follows:

Make a new text file by opening bfxr and clicking on File>New Sound Effect (or File>New Sound Effect). This will open up your file in BFXR where all lines are numbers with two values separated by semicolons. These represent the parameters of your NFT. The first value is the input value, and the second value is the output value. Copy and paste this line into the Main tab with {brackets}. This means that each bracket represents a semicolon in your bfxr editor. The semicolon represents a comma in bfxr, so your line will now look as follows: 0;{bracket}0;{bracket}0;{bracket}0;{bracket}0;{bracket}0;{comma}.

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