Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. The instruments comply with the limitations of the original sound chip in regard to the following:

• the waveforms used for the creation of the samples
• the number of voices (limited to either one or two voices, depending on how the instrument would typically be used within a composition)
• the 15 available levels of volume
• the precise pitch frequencies
• the speed at which the sound within a sample can change over time (e.g. in arpeggios, samples that change pitch or pitch bend, the timing of volume changes, etc.)

There are a few minor exceptions, such as possibly overlapping voices when using the drum kit products due to how sample drum kits have to function with the respective software samplers.

And of course, the instruments can be used in any way you want! This is only to say that everything is compatible with genuine 8-bit music composition, but there are absolutely no restrictions on how you use the sounds!

Yes. You can safely delete any instrument formats that you are sure you will not use as this will not affect the samples or other instrument formats. All formats are located in the "Instruments" or "Kits" folder, depending on the product.

Different sampler programs have different methods of locating the samples when opening their patches. The document "Library Instructions.txt" (included with every product) explains what to do for each included format so that no samples are missing when loading a patch. It is also important to keep the folder structure and the folder & sample names the same, otherwise you can get a missing sample warning.

For authentic 8-bit instruments based on classic gaming sound chips, most instruments are set to a single voice (solo mode). If you want to change this so that you can play more than one note at the same time, you have to increase the number of voices in the instrument patches, either by changing the number of voices from 1 to 2 or higher, or by changing mono mode to poly mode, depending on which software sampler you are using.

Unfortunately yes, Maschine does not support saving sounds with relative sample positions so in order for the sounds to find the samples, each library folder has to be added separately for each product. In addition, if you move a library to a different location on your hard drive, you will have to add the new library location to the User library and rescan.

If you only want to use the individual samples in Maschine and not the instruments, then this is not necessary and you only have to add one folder to the User Library that contains all of the sample folders.

Not all samplers have the same capabilities, so some patches may be slightly different across the different platforms. For example, Kontakt instruments might use release samples to better match the original sound, while most other samplers don't have them because release samples are not supported. Another example is the ability to loop only some specific samples within a patch, which is possible in some samplers but not in others (relevant for some of the SFX patches). If you have a choice, it is recommended to use the Kontakt instruments when possible, as these patches have all of the authentic instrument features programmed into them.

This is intentional. Due to limitations of the original hardware, the highest frequencies were not able to be fine-tuned to exact note values, which resulted in notes that were slightly out of tune. The highest frequency samples in these instruments reflect that to maintain the authenticity of the sound.

No, the full version of Kontakt (4.1.3 or higher) is required to use the Kontakt instrument patches.

The bass instrument in almost all classic 8-bit games from a specific sound chip was a simple triangle wave. Therefore the bass instruments in the "Notes" packs reflect this.

The MPC Software has a slight attack fade in hard-coded into the volume envelope, which is impossible to remove. For other samples this can be useful to eliminate any clicks that come from improperly cut samples, but in this case it sometimes removes a little of the clicky attack sound that is common in 8-bit samples.

No! Individual WAV samples are provided with every product and can be used with anything that opens WAV files, including all DAWs. Instrument patches are provided for several of the most popular software samplers but do not have to be used.

Instrument note samples are also named with the root key and MIDI note values so they are very easy to map into any other software sampler format that is not directly supported by us.

Yes, the actual quality of the provided samples is 24-bit, but the fidelity of the samples is true to the 8-bit sound.

Yes, all samples in all products are royalty free.

Some payment processors require you to enter your shipping address in order for the payment to go through, but there are no physical products and all products are download only.

It is possible that the download email ended up in your spam folder, so check there first. If after checking your spam you still don't see an email, contact us.

If the purchase was made recently then in some circumstances yes this is possible, please contact us directly if this is the case.

The bundles are composed of products that are available at the time of purchase only and therefore products released after that time need to be purchased separately.

As exchange rates are constantly changing over time, sometimes a price shown on Google has not refreshed to the latest up-to-date exchange rate. Usually this time difference isn't longer than 24 hours, but this can sometimes mean the difference of a percent or two higher or lower than the displayed price.

Discounts are available for purchasing 10 or more licenses of a product or bundle for educational institutions. Please get in touch with us using the contact form.

If you would like to use our sounds in another product, please contact us using our contact form.

No. All of our products are strictly audio samples and software sampler instruments. No games were sampled for any of the products. All samples were created either 1) with waveform and noise synthesis and by manipulating the pitch and volume in microsteps, closely matching the hardware sound chips that created similar sounds, or 2) by recording acoustic samples (such as drums, percussion, vocals, etc.) and processing them through a sample playback engine that matches the same audio properties as the hardware.

No, the demos are only for providing examples of how the product sounds in a musical context.

The sounds in 8-bit music replicate the actual sounds produced by the limited console sound chip hardware from the 80s and early 90s. Chiptune uses 8-bit sounds but the hardware limitations are removed, so things like sound effects, unlimited tracks, and even additional instruments are allowed.