FamiStudio is a simple music editor for the Nintendo Entertainment System or Famicom. It is targeted at both chiptune artists and NES homebrewers.
Latest Major Release 4.4.0 (June 1st 2025)
FamiStudio 4.4.0 was just released! This is the first major release that has been driven almost entirely by community contributions. While I am focusing on another project, Steo has stepped up in a big way, conducting extensive hardware comparisons and adding numerous quality-of-life improvements. Thanks to him and everyone who contributed to this release!
Changes/Fixes:
FDS multiwave support (thanks Steo!)
DPCM options for "Trim to 16" and "Trim to 16+1" (thanks Steo!)
Separate bass filter for FDS (thanks Steo!)
PWM for FDS, including a fourth PWM preset (thanks Steo!)
VGM FDS import support (thanks Steo!)
NSF/VGM import tuning option (thanks Steo!)
Linux support for kdialog and zenity for dialogs (thanks Steo!)
Reworked C-binding and ability to combine identical channels in sound engine (thanks jroweboy!)
Breaking/Behavior changes:
Default filtering options for FDS were changed slightly to better match the hardware
Release notes of previous versions can be found in the documentation.
On Windows, simply download and run the installer (Setup.exe), which should take care of installing most dependencies. A shortcut to FamiStudio and the included demo songs will be added to your Start Menu. If you get a warning when installing or if the app crashes when running, please check out the documentation for the fix.
On macOS, download and uncompress the file anywhere and the launch the FamiStudio app. The demo songs are included in the zip. The app is unsigned and might require you to ignore a few warnings. If you do not have .NET installed, it should prompt you to install it.
On Linux:
If you are using the standalone version from the ZIP file, you will need to install .NET yourself. Please see the installation instructions for more information.
The FlatHub version should take care of installing all dependencies.
Documentation
Please visit the documentation page for detailed documentation.
Getting Started on Desktop
Here is a 20min video tutorial that will show you how to create a basic song from scratch.
Getting Started on Mobile
If you are using the mobile version of FamiStudio, please check out this tutorial to get you started!
