Audio Design

This week, I decided to talk about a neat tool I've been using to design audio clips for different projects. Unlike most professional audio editors, this tool, Bfxr, is a free alternative to creating fun 8-bit sounds. The current interface is debatably the ugliest panel I've ever seen, but it has a very functional layout:

(This is a screenshot of the browser-based tool)

Go ahead and give it a try here (Warning! it's stupidly loud): http://www.bfxr.net/

The best part about this tool is definitely the history box in the bottom left corner. If you click 'Randomize', an audio clip will be generated according to a preset. The history box will remember each randomized selection and you can come back and save any previous audio sample.

I made an Android game last semester and ended up using this tool for a few sounds such as JUMP or even EXPLOSION effects. It was a ton of fun being able to quickly create sounds for my game without needing too much experience. You can check out and download the game on the market if you're interested: Boxel

(This game used a few audio samples from Bfxr)

Design goes beyond the visual perspective all the time. If you haven't played around with music or audio, I highly recommend investigating it for fun.