Let's have a play with the Audio side of things, huh?
-=-=-
Ableton/DAW
Since I've set ALBox up as its own little world, it means my Ableton setup isn't really all that easy to transfer over. All the VST/AU instruments need to be transferred, and a lot of them seem to be locked down to accounts, making it even harder to do.
So that's a fairly huge no-go for me. It's not an issue, of course, because everything melodical is still on the laptop, but it does mean that "a quick ditty" would always have to be done on the MacBook then transferred over should I need to do anything over on the ALBox side of things.
..
I'm not sure what that sort of circumstance might be, though.
I'll probably just stick to MacBook for compositions and the like.
Wave Editing
I found myself with a .wav on the ALBox yesterday, and couldn't upload it to SoCoder because SoCoder doesn't allow .wav uploads, only .mp3
I needed a simple Wave editor, then, and though I could've just stumped with Amadeus Pro, which was suggested on here a year or two ago and that I have been using, I instead asked CoPilot if there were any decent freeware wave editors out there.
.. After a lot of "No, CoPilot, I'd rather not sell my soul to Adobe" comments, CoPilot actually came back with a decent result, which makes a change, and suggested OcenAudio, which I hadn't heard of previously.
I gave it a quick try, and without a full stress test yet, I can at least testify to its "Remember CoolEdit?!"-ness.
It's pretty much exactly what it was that I was hunting for, a few years ago, and if you're someone who hates Adobe subscriptions but still want's something that acts like CoolEdit used to, then you'll probably love what OcenAudio is.
And it's free. (With a Donate page should you feel yourself using it enough.)
Neat!
MusicGPT
I then came across MusicGPT*, which takes Facebook's MusicGen tech and wraps it all up so that you can more easily work with it. It needs a "decent" system, so runs quite well on the MacMini M4, and can render in almost realtime, when using the "Small" version of the engine.
It can only do 30 seconds, though, which is a shame, and it also can't riff off things like Suno can, nor can it generate any lyrics.
... It's not that great, if I'm honest.
Yeah, I've heard better.
This particular AI Generation will NOT become part of AGameAWeek!
I think we'll be sticking with Suno for the music.
*Note that the timeline's wrong here. I found MusicGPT first, and that's why I needed to convert the resulting wav files to mp3, which led me to finding OcenAudio. But writing about it this way around feels more like it's building up, instead of stumbling around in a chaotic manner, so we'll just roll with it..)
[verse]
The grumpy man is staring at computer screens.
The A.I. doesn't understand the things he means.
Instead of ukeleles and piano melodies.
There's a really weird cacophony of endless roaring screams.
[gargled chaotic scream]
Aarrgh!!!
[break]
[pre-chorus]
"Why are you not performing all the things that I have said."
As he slowly goes bananas, and begins to rock his head.
The A.I. isn't working. It's all gone kind of shite.
Perhaps he won't be listening to his music, then, tonight.
[chorus]
Where did the music all go wrong?
Why can't he hear any sort of song.
The computer is crazy, and the output is lazy,
Now all he can hear are the clapping bells.
(bells : ding, ding, dong)
Why did the music all go wrong?
Did all the wires get crossed along.
Something's badly amis, As he hears a large hiss.
Is it a snake or maracas, endlessly twirling away.
(hiss)
[eclectic interlude]
[panpipe solo]
[verse]
The grumpy man is throwing out his headphones.
He's sick of all this Artificial noise.
Where have all the lovely pan pipes gone?
It's enough to make him want to hold, Control, Alt and Delete.
[robotic voice]
REBOOT
[break]
[pre-chorus]
"Why are you getting it all wrong, all the time?"
"I wanted it to sound great, 'cos it's mine."
The A.I. musician's gone to hell. None of the songs are working well.
Perhaps he won't be dancing to the musical hits, tonight.
[chorus]
Where did the music all go wrong?
Why can't he hear any sort of song.
The computer is crazy, and the output is lazy,
Now all he can hear are the clapping bells.
(bells : ding, ding, dong)
Why did the music all go wrong?
Did all the wires get crossed along.
Something's badly amis, As he hears a large hiss.
Is it a snake or maracas, endlessly twirling away.
Int. Dave's Living Room - Evening
[Dave is hunched over his computer, frantically clicking. Green peers over his shoulder.]
Dave: Seven floors out of one!
Green: You can't have seven floors, Dave. It's a single-story shop.
Dave: No, there's storage space upstairs.
Green: Really?
Dave: Yeah, I got a real bargain! And look at all this floor space in AutoCAD! It's brilliant!
Green: That's because you've set the scale wrong. That wall is definitely not 500 metres long.
Dave: Think of all the arcade machines we could fit in 500 metres!
Green: The shop is only 30 feet wide, Dave.
Dave: I don't know how to do feet with this software.
[Lady Computer beeps a warning]
Dave: See? She agrees we need meters and miles, not silly feet and inches.
Green: I think she's warning you that your measurements are impossible. And Miles?
Dave: Nothing's impossible with the right trajectory!
Green: Why is there a PacMan arcade cabinet in the kitchen?
Dave: So you can play whilst waiting on the ScrunchCakes, obviously.
Green: Next to the oven?
Dave: It provides ambient lighting for baking!
Green: And that spiral staircase in the corner?
Dave: That leads to the experimental bakery level!
Green: I thought you said it was storage space?
Dave: Not yet! But look - [points at screen] - if we just place a few fridges around the upstairs, it'll be ScrunchCake haven.
Green: .. Are those.. load-bearing ScrunchCakes?
Dave: Exactly! Maximum structural integrity!
[Lady Computer beeps again, more urgently]
Green: She's trying to tell you that ScrunchCakes aren't construction materials.
Dave: It's ok. They're only fridges.
Green: Fridges are fairly hefty Dave, especially that many.
Dave: But look how neatly everything fits!
Green: Also, why are you storing that many ScrunchCakes? Shouldn't you be selling them?
Dave: Eventually, sure. But only once people have bought some games.
Green: .. You aren't going to sell that many copies of Count Duckula 2..
[End credits roll as Dave attempts to explain how Pac-Man dots could be replaced with mini ScrunchCakes for "maximum gaming-culinary synergy"]
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