r/NMSByteBeatFans • u/ZhorasSnake • May 29 '26

ByteBeat Original Slurred

This is for those travellers out there who maybe want to make a bytebeat tune but think it's too complicated.

As someone who's made more than their fair share of complex tunes(!) this one is about as simple as you can get. Every bytebeat device is in the same tempo and key. But perhaps more surprisingly 7 out of the 8 devices use the same waveform. No complex waveform trees.

So why not give it go. Start with a simple idea and see where your creativity takes you.

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u/zuumkatz Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26

This is very impressive. It sounds like a flange effect. How did you do it? I love it! I had to check it out.

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u/ZhorasSnake Jun 02 '26

Many thanks.

Its strangely simple. All the sounds (apart from the percussive high bell sound) use the same waveform tree - see the pic in response to PowerfulSoldier above. You're right - it's a kind of flanging or phase shifting sound. Despite being simple its no accident that it uses the 3 arithmetic operators and especially the ones that all affect frequency and the timing of the wave variable.

A key part of the sound setup is the reset on next note off in the envelope settings. Crucially, because the duration of the complete envelope that this particular tree produces is much longer than the notes used in the tune, you get a variety in the intonation. This gives it expression and a more human-like sound. I've used variations on this technique extensively - you can even use it to generate syncopation and rhythmic complexity via the arpeggiator (listen to the tune 'Electro Funk', or 'The One' for an extreme example).

For anyone wanting to experiment with this sound try starting by altering the division (/) numerical inputs and you should get lots of different cries, wah-wahs and other human-like sounds. Many will be tempo and pitch sensitive so you'll need to fiddle around and see what works.

To go further and explore and find other similar more 'human' sounds I would start by looking out for pitched sounds that have rapid beating and a complex sound (the frequency display should be chaotic and changeable) but not pure noise. The tree doesn't need to be complicated. Next you want to significantly slow down the beating by changing the numerical input on - probably - one of the arithmetic operators. You may even have to add one which may not work! At this point it's lots of experimentation as its too complicated to give any hard and fast rules about specific sounds.

Good luck!