Recording retro game sounds and town centre ambiences

I’ve always loved the old 8-bit sound effects I grew up with on the old Atari and later Nintendo and Sega games consoles. Just hearing them brings back the pleasure I had as a child hidden away in my bedroom taking on the world!

So when it comes to designing 8-bit game sound effects, I don’t mind at all. However, I used to spend several hours carefully crafting the right sound, then applying all manner of effects to dirty them up. That was until I discovered the free and amazing BFXR software, a clever little utility that using what appears to be FM synthesis, re-creates at the touch of a button all those classic game sounds. From explosions and gun shots through to power ups and coin pick ups, this nifty little tool is an absolute must for anyone wanting to quickly create retro 8-bit style sounds for your game. We’ve created a few ourselves and added them to our new Game Sounds category where you can download them free.

You can find out more about BFXR here

We spent the rest of the week busy recording ambiences out and about. We’ve just uploaded some town centre pedestrian zone ambiences and some other sounds of the local playground and we’ll be out recording more this week.