Converting audio

The Main tab (F1) turns audio files into reconstructions. You gather the recordings you want on the Converter card, decide whether each one becomes its own reconstruction or they all mix into one, choose which NES channels each recording may use, and start the conversion.

The Converter card lists the recordings a conversion uses. Add them from the Filesystem browser:

• Double-click an audio file, or Ctrl-click it, to add it. You can also right-click it and choose Add as stem. A stem is one recording that goes into a reconstruction.
• Ctrl-click a folder, or right-click it and choose Add folder, to add every recording inside it, including those in subfolders.
• Reconstruction ▸ Reconstruct file... and Reconstruct directory... (also in the browser's right-click menu) put the chosen files in the list so that each becomes its own reconstruction. If the list held a mix, the app asks first.

Turn on Playback ▸ Autoplay (Ctrl+P) to play a recording with a single click. This lets you listen through a folder before adding anything from it. With Autoplay off, right-click a recording and choose Play.

x removes a row from the list. Removing a folder removes every recording in it.

Click a row to select it, and the Source settings card shows that recording. Press Del to remove the selected row.

Output, at the top of the Converter card, sets what the conversion makes:

• One per recording — each recording in the list becomes its own reconstruction. Recordings added with a folder keep that layout in the saved files.
• One from all — all recordings are mixed into a single reconstruction. Folders are replaced by the recordings inside them.

A mix can hold up to eight recordings. If you switch to One from all with more than eight recordings in the list, a dialog asks which ones to mix. The same dialog opens when you add a folder with more recordings than the mix has room for. Double-click a row in the dialog to hear the recording.

When a mix has two or more recordings, the rows are grouped into levels. Levels decide which recordings get channels first: recordings on level 1 choose before those on level 2, so a lead melody can take what it needs before a background part.

Drag a row onto another row to put them on the same level. Drag it into the gap between levels to give it a level of its own. You can also right-click a row to use the same commands.

Order sets how the levels take turns:

• Round robin — the levels take channels in turns.
• Strict — one level gets all its channels before the next level chooses.

The NES has four sound channels: Pulse 1, Pulse 2, Triangle and Noise. Every recording in the list has a checkbox for each channel. Check the channels that the recording may use. Press 1 to 4 to switch a channel on or off for the selected row.

A folder's checkboxes act on every recording inside it: clicking one sets the channel for all of them. To change one recording on its own, open the folder first — click the marker next to the folder name, or double-click the name — and each recording inside has its own checkboxes.

The Source settings card sets how the recording you selected uses its channels. It has one line per channel:

• on repeats the checkbox in the list, so you can also switch a channel there.
• bend tunes each note to the recording's exact pitch (not available on noise).
• drive sets how hard the recording pushes that channel while it converts. 1.00 is the original level. Higher values give louder, more distorted notes, up to 5.00. Ctrl-click the slider to type a value.

Channels at once, below the lines, sets how many of its channels the recording may sound in a single frame. Set it to 1 to hear the recording on one channel at a time. It never sounds more channels than it uses.

A folder shows the setting its recordings share, and mixed where they differ.

With no row selected, the card sets the starting settings for recordings you add.

Click the button under Output to start the conversion. It reads Cancel while the conversion runs.

Destination: shows where the result is saved. Reconstructions go into folders named after the channels their recordings use. Click the path to open the location in your file manager. If the conversion would replace an existing reconstruction, the app asks you first.

When the conversion finishes, click Load to open the result on the Reconstruction tab, where you can listen to it and export it. After several reconstructions, the button reads Open. It takes you to the Reconstruction tab, where you pick one in the Browser.

If the open reconstruction has unsaved changes, Load asks what to do with them. If the conversion replaced that same file, click Cancel and use Save reconstruction as... to keep your changes.

If a recording can't be converted, the conversion skips it and goes on with the rest. The dialog at the end lists the recordings it skipped.

The first conversion with new settings takes longer, because it builds the instruction library for them.

The Instructions tab (F4) builds and browses the instruction library, the catalog of NES tones that a conversion searches. A conversion builds the library it needs by itself, so you rarely need this tab. Use it to build a library before a long session, or to explore the sounds your settings can make.

Generate library builds a library for your current settings. A library marked [!] comes from another version of SampleToNES. Click it to rebuild.

Select an instruction to see and hear a single NES tone. Click the waveform to play the tone from that point.