FamiStudio NES Music Editor

FamiStudio is very simple music editor for the Nintendo Entertainment System or Famicom. It is designed to be easier to use than FamiTracker, but its feature set is also much more limited. It is targeted at both chiptune artists and NES homebrewers.

Features

Modern DAW-style UI with sequencer and piano roll, no hexadecimal anywhere
Instrument & Envelope edition
NSF import
DPCM sample editor (WAV and DMC support)
Full Undo/Redo support
Copy & Paste support
Note drag & drop with audio preview
Import from FamiTracker FTM & Text (official 0.4.6)
Export to various formats (WAV, ROM, NSF, FamiTone2, FamiStudio Text, FamiTracker Text)
Volume, fine pitch, vibrato effect tracks
Slide notes (portamento)
Arpeggios
NES sound engine (CA65, NESASM, ASM6)
MIDI input support
Audio expansions supported: VRC6, VRC7, FDS, MMC5, Namco 163 & Sunsoft S5B.
Windows, MacOS and Linux versions.

Latest Release

Fixes in 2.4.2 (Hotfix)

Fixed crash on startup.
Fixed crash when exporting SFX to sound engine from command-line.

Fixes in 2.4.1 (Hotfix)

Fixed corruption when importing looping samples from .FTI files.
Fixed minor graphical issue in piano roll.
Fixed issues on Windows 7 installations that are missing some D3D11 components such as KB2670838.
Removed 320 kbps MP3 export option since it creates choppy audio.

New features in 2.4.0 (Latest major release)

Basic DPCM sample editor
Darker theme and more color choices
Ability to use QWERTY keyboard input without using recording mode
Slightly reduced audio latency and configurable number of buffered frames
Right-clicking anywhere in the background also starts a selection
Seek bar can be dragged and respects snapping precision
Pattern duplication preserves names when possible
Instrument picker tool (hold "I" + click on a note)
Paste special in Sequencer
Pattern are created automatically when adding notes.
Quickly repeat last export by right clicking button or CTRL+SHIFT+E
Edit multiple custom patterns at once
Video export resolution/framerate options (Contributed by Thomas McGrew)
Multiple VRC7 fixes
Multiple FamiTracker fixes
Multiple sound engine improvements & fixes

Blaarg smooth vibrato support for SFX
Unlimited SFX size (Contributed by Brad Smith)
Linker support in CA65 (Based on idea by Brad Smith)

Release trailer

Download

Download links


Windows Installer Windows Portable EXE	MacOS Bundle	FlatHub Linux AMD64 Binaries	NES Sound Engine (CA65, NESASM, ASM6)

Installation Instructions

On Windows simply download and run the installer (Setup.exe). 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 FamiStudio app. The demo songs and included in the zip. The app is unsigned and might require you to ignore a few warning.
On Linux, the FlatHub page contains the instructions, if installing from the ZIP file please read the installation instructions.

Demo Songs

A few demo songs are included in the installation folder (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\FamiStudio). Songs marked as FT2-friendly on uses the feature set that FamiTone2 supports.

After The Rain (by Shiru, included with FamiTone2)
Danger Streets (by Shiru, included with FamiTone2)
Mega Man 2 - Stage Select & Dr. Wily's Castle (my approximate recreations)
Journey To Silius - Intro (my approximate recreation)
DuckTales! - The Moon (my approximate recreation)
Castlevania 2 - Bloody Tears (my approximate recreation)
Shovel Knight - Strike the Earth! (Plains of Passage) (my approximate recreation)
Shatterhand - Final Stage (my approximate recreation)
Gimmick - Strange Memories of Death (my approximate recreation)
Silver Surfer : BGM2 (my approximate recreation)
Gradius II - Farewell (my approximate recreation)
Layla : The Iris Missions - Iris (by Supper, my approximate recreation)
Tower of Heaven - Indignant Divinity (Flashygoodness, cover by Danooct1. Thanks!!!)
FamiStudio - Tutorial Song (song created in tutorial)

Documentation

Please visit documentation page for detailed documentation.

Getting Started

Here is a 1h video tutorial that will show you how to create a basic song from scratch.

Source Code

The entire source code is available on GitHub.