BeepingBoomBox sound effect generator

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

As a side project from eXo PAX I’ve worked today on a small tool in Java to generate sound effects, somewhat like SFXR. BeepingBoomBox is a small standalone Windows application (no Java installation required).

Current features (v0.4):

  • generate a wide range of sound effects in just one click using the presets!
  • intuitive editing of frequency and volume envelopes using drag & drop
  • mix sine, sawtooth, triangle, square and noise waveforms
  • refine the sound using echo, repeat effects and a filter
  • optional smoothing of the envelope lines for a nicer sound
  • export the result to a WAV file (different bitrates, stereo/mono, 16/8 bit) for use in your games or applications!
  • load & save sound settings for sharing with your buddies!

Some sounds generated with the current version: explosion, failure, bonus, and a machinegun.

Screenshot:

http://www.java-gaming.org/user-generated-content/members/60362/bbb-screenshot-0-4.jpg

You can download the tool on the following page:
http://www.grunngames.com/beepingboombox/

For now I’m back to working on eXo PAX, but maybe I’ll add some more functionality later. Although it should not become much more complicated than it currently is. Have fun!

#2

Nice! This is an interesting coincidence as I am working on something similar, but for soundtracks instead of effects.

Ideas:

  • Be able to use splines instead of straight lines, especially for the freq envelope, could improve sound.
  • Add more envelope types, like panning, filter, etc.
  • Be able to save sounds and load them later (probably custom file type), then people could share effects.

I always liked working with graphs and envelopes for sound instead of 20 different sliders and knobs, so this is nice, looking forward to any updates! :smiley:

#3

Hey @BurntPizza, thanks for the tips ;D Good ideas, all of them. The additional envelope types and saving/loading were things I had in mind already, but the splines thing may be a good improvement (and not too hard to implement)!

It’s a challenge to balance new features with keeping it simple to use. It’s so tempting to just cram in a gazillion features and ending up with something that needs a builky manual to use.

#4

Sounds really great and really intuitive! :wink:
I want to test it, but when I click on the exe file I’ve got an error message.

[quote]Fatal error: Excelsior JET 7.60 installation cannot be found.
[/quote]
For the ideas, I was thinking about an option to smooth the edges in order to get smoother sounds.

#5

Hey Tim, thanks for the feedback! I’ll go figure out why you get that message.

#6

Okay, I think it should be fixed now. I forgot to include the JET runtime, duh… Weird that it works on my system. I’ve uploaded a new ZIP with the neccessary files included!

#7

Works better now ;D
It is really fast and the sound matches perfectly the expectation of my editing.
I was expecting some drag & drop for the different points of the curve. I think the interface can be a bit more user friendly (just for the curves). Yet the global interface is pretty good and simple so far (simple=good ;)) (it took me maybe 3 sec to understand how everything works, so that’s a great thing)

#8

Great, good to hear! Maybe i’ll change the mouse interface to something more drag & drop style, should be doable.

#9

Make the length changable and put it into a single executable file.
Really good idea! Keep working on this!

#10

This is doing great good work :smiley:

#11

I just tried it out! Love it.

I recommend that you try out SFXR, you could get some good ideas from it.

#12

Thanks, I’ve looked at SFXR for inspiration ;D It’s a great little tool as well.

#13

Man, I love how this works… Its UI is very good, I really really like how you edit these lines, works perfect and its a lot of fun! Can’t wait for updates.

#14

Okay, another update!

Whats new:

  • Sawtooth wave!
  • Mixing two wave types: select one on the left, one on the right, and use the slider to determine which one gets emphasized
  • Line smoothing for smoother sounds: toggle on or of using the “smooth” box
  • A number of presets that generate recognizable random sounds (a bit like SFXR does, with more to come)

You can download the new version from the same page: http://www.grunngames.com/beepingboombox/

#15

Wow! That’s really great, I love the presets and the fact that they are generated each time!
The smooth button is really useful. Great job so far! I hope you’ll still working on this project to make it always better :wink:

#16

Man, I never played with ‘sound generators’ before, but I like it so much! :smiley:
Time to become the new superDJ with this

#17

Thanks guys, I kind of like to play with it as well - my girlfriend keeps wondering what all the beeping and honking sounds are ;D

When I have time I’ll add some more functionality, although I don’t want to make it too complex. But, say, some special effects such as echo, a low-pass filter, and a good load & save function would be cool additions. And of course moar presets.

#18

Presets are always nice :stuck_out_tongue:

What would be cool too is if you can make more frequency+volume lines at one time, (with tabs or so) so you can mix it all…
Still one sound, one length, but with different lines (that you can manage (in tabs or whatever), so it doesn’t become a mess) :D.

#19

Another update to the generator. It’s coming together nicely now!

Updates:

  • More intuitive editing of frequency and volume using drag & drop. I was afraid that continuously updating the spline smoothed lines would be impossible performance-wise, but this turned out to be no problem at all
  • New wave types: square and triangle
  • An echo / repeat effect that can both be used to add an echo to the generated sound, and to repeat the sound a number of times with varying frequency
  • A bell-shaped frequency filter that can be used to (de)emphasize a frequency range
  • Export settings, allowing you to set a sample rate, bits per sample and stereo/mono
  • Loading and saving sound def files containing the selected generator settings, for remembering and sharing cool effects with your buddies
  • Some updated presets. I’d like to make some more later.

Take a look!