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Sound Studio

Make music and sounds for your game

Turn the sound off in your favorite game and see how different it feels. Music tells players how to feel, and sound effects tell them what just happened.

Your first beat

Music in the Sound Studio is a grid. Each column is one step, and the music plays them left to right, then loops. Four steps make one beat. Copy this pattern to get a beat that bounces:

A 16-step drum grid. Kick on steps 1, 9 and 11, snare on 5 and 13, hi-hat on every other step, clap on 13.KickSnareHi-hatClap

Tempo

How fast the music goes, counted in beats per minute (BPM). 120 is a brisk walk.

Pitch

How high or low a note sounds. Higher rows on the melody grid play higher notes.

Scale

A set of notes that sound good together. Pick Happy, Mystery or Space and every note fits.

Instrument

The voice of a note. The same tune on Bell and on Robot sounds like two different songs.

The Sound Studio music tab with tempo, scale and instrument controls, a beat grid and a melody grid.
The real Sound Studio, playing a beat.

Sound effects in four knobs

Pick a starting sound, then twist pitch, length, slide and wobble until it fits. A slide that goes up sounds like jumping. Down sounds like falling.

  • Jump
  • Coin
  • Zap
  • Boom
  • Power-up
  • Bonk
  • Win

Match sounds to moments: a short high blip for coins, a low thud for landing, a happy run of notes for winning.

Rather describe it?

You can also ask the helper: “Make a splash sound when I land in water.” Then change it by hand. Making sounds by hand never uses energy, and neither does drawing your characters.