Hi!

Just started creating my first game. It's a very simple puzzle for kids (actually for my 2-year-old girl on Windows Phone).

Now I need to create some sounds. Any suggestions about where to begin? Free tools or even sample sounds in public domain?

Thank you very much for the attention!

Best regards
Mello

I had installed MilkyTracker a long time ago, but I never went ahead with it. But, judging by the musics I have seen made using this program, I guess it is a good tool.

http://milkytracker.org/

But, my first option, is Fruity Loops. It is really easy to use, but it is not a free tool. For sure, Fruity Loops is the best music/sound editor avaliable.

_________________
"Life finds a way." - Ian Malcolm
My WebBlog: PixelDeveloper
English is not my native language, so excuse me for any writing mistakes.

By the way, welcome to the community, and it would be a pleasure to see your game later.

_________________
"Life finds a way." - Ian Malcolm
My WebBlog: PixelDeveloper
English is not my native language, so excuse me for any writing mistakes.

Hey FelipeFS,

Thank you very much for the kind replies. I'm taking a look at both options.

I'll post the link here as soon as I publish the game at the Windows Phone marketplace.

I see you are from Brazil too. Greetings from Porto Alegre! :-)

Best regards
Mello

Dont go there mate. As in anything there is a lot of choices and personal preferences. So you cannot just go ahead an label something as the best for sure, especially if you haven't even tried the alternatives. There's a wide range of software that each have their own strength and weakspots, and FL-Studio certainly has it's own share of problems.

As for Cmello, it really depends what kind of sounds and samples you want to use. There are libraries such as http://www.freesound.org/ That sport a wide variety of samples. If you want some chip-tune like blips and bloops you can use http://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html which is a free tool tailored to get custom sounds.

You can create your own sounds with tools like MilkyTracker, FL-Studio, or whatever else there is, but it takes some time and experience to get decent results.

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Long pork is people!

wzl's burrow

This struck me -- Mello, are you interested in software geared toward actual, one-shot sound effects? Or are you interested just in making your own music?

If you just want something good for sound effects, the thing you'll want to look into first is Audacity. It is a very easy to use, yet powerful audio editor that allows you to take any sound effect (from a file, or recorded yourself) and clean it up, alter it, apply filters/effects, and on and on. Price tag is $0.

And, although it is certainly possible to engineer a complete song from scratch using Audacity... I would not recommend it. There are better tools available to handle that specific job.

If you want software that isn't too audio-geek (which can be just as bad as tech-geekery to the uninitiated), you have a few option. One that springs to mind is LMMS (the 'L' stands for "Linux" -- but don't let that scare you, there is a Windows version, too). Not the most feature-rific music tool, but comes with plenty of its own synthesizers out of the box (and includes a SoundFont player in case you want to play something more akin to traditional music genres), and it easy to use. LMMS is free.

Fruity Loops is also an option. It costs a decent chunk of change, but in comparison to other commercial audio software, it is a modest price (and it is tiered, so you can pay less and not get features you don't want).

If you want a more "full-force" and powerful audio package, I highly recommend REAPER (free to try, with a "consumer" license costing only $60). It has a definite learning curve, but is probably one of the most straightforward (and customizable) pro-audio packages out there (even in comparison to apps that cost several hundred bucks). The caveat is that it does not come with samples you can use to play your music (you have to supply your own). If you have none, you could look into something such as Acoustica Mixcraft which is somewhat similar, but can be purchased in packages with samples bundled with the software. Mixcraft will cost you a little more than REAPER, but I think their "top-ticket" package is still around $150.

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What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

There is this site: http://www.freesound.org/

Also, you can search Amazon and the like for sound effects CDs -- they're usually pretty cheap, and come with a number of samples. Your results will be hit-and-miss (if my experience is any indicator), and there is the issue of having to pull the audio off the disc and convert it to an audio file... and even then, you aren't always given permission to do so through the license granted by the publisher.

If you want music samples, there are a few Web sites that deal in such, too (my particular preferred format is SoundFont, though you may choose software that doesn't necessarily support that format. In either case, a simple Google search along the lines of "free soundfonts" should suffice).

Just keep in mind that sound effects and music are funny things... although paying for these assets increases the likelihood of being able to find adequate stuff for your purposes, it doesn't guarantee you will. Problem is that if you aren't willing to pay at some point, you'll have an incredibly difficult time finding what you need -- the pool of "free" audio assets is pretty barren when it comes to useful samples.

Of course, I guess it depends mostly on what you feel is "adequate" (I'm particularly fussy about... well, pretty much everything under the sun ).

_________________
What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

I always thought Audacity was only a mixer, not a editor/creator.

But, among all examples listed above, FL still looks the most complete tool.

_________________
"Life finds a way." - Ian Malcolm
My WebBlog: PixelDeveloper
English is not my native language, so excuse me for any writing mistakes.

If you want examples for high profile DAWs you can take a look at

Renoise
Reason
Ableton
Cubase
Logic

Those all (FL included) have all pretty much the same basic feature set:
Using samples and arranging them in a Pianoroll or otherwise structured pattern
The ability to use VSTinstruments or effects
DSP channel effects
Envelopes and automation
A sequencer to arrange patterns to a song.

The main differences in those are the Interface and usability they provide. I for instance don't like piano rolls all that much and i prefer a tracker pattern layout. You see it is very much a subjective preference more than definite fact when comparing those tools.
I wouldn't claim any being superior above the other, so please keep that in mind before making statements like that

_________________
Long pork is people!

wzl's burrow

Audacity is a sound-editing tool. It also allows you to record sound, and then master/enhance/alter and so on.

Mixing is but a small feature included in Audacity; but it is primarily used to "clean up" sounds.

_________________
What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

Sfxr is great for electronic noises. I use it all the time.

Skale Tracker was the closest match I found for FastTracker, SoundTracker, OctaMed, ScreamTracker, ImpulseTracker or whatever other trackers were around in the good old days.........

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10 PRINT "Bad Monkey ";
20 GOTO 10

Don't forget about sounds. Any half-way decent music software will come with at least a synthesizer (usually a few), but as far as sampled notes -- piano keys, guitar chords, drum hits, and so on -- those vary wildly, both in quality, and quantity.

FL Studio is one of those packages with lots of sounds, but they are apparently not of as high a quality as something along the lines of, say, Reason. But then again, Reason is considerably more expensive.

_________________
What most people don't understand about "enlightenment" is that it is not an end-goal; but where you find yourself just before taking a new "first step."

Hey guys,

Thank you so much for all the great replies! It's awesome to find people like you that really help. This forum is so great! Thanks and congratulations for making this valuable community.

Initially I just wanted to create simple noises as feedback to 2-year-old kids when they match a color shape in the corresponding slot. The sxfr is perfect for my needs. Thanks so much.

Thank you for the great information about music too. I lack the skills for any useful music production, but I'll definetly take a look and play with it.

Best regards!!!
Mello

Great to hear you found what you were looking for.
Enjoy your new found playground

_________________
Long pork is people!

wzl's burrow

Greetings from Feira de Santana-BA, Mello!

_________________
"Life finds a way." - Ian Malcolm
My WebBlog: PixelDeveloper
English is not my native language, so excuse me for any writing mistakes.