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ChipMusic.org / Forums / Nintendo Handhelds / How to get a good clean sound from a classic GBA w Nanoloop ?
Hello everyone,
So I've been learning nanoloop the latest months and I'd like to record some songs I've created.
I only have an original GBA and as you know it has some really noticeable background noise and the signal is rather weak.
How should I do to remove some of that noise and raise that level to get a decent recording?
I'm so inspired by this video of KODEKs Nanoloop workout and I wonder how he did to achieve that great sound
https://youtu.be/eW4BZ6nasDg?t=21m3s
Any Ideas ?
Prosounding a GBA should help.
You can also remove "noise" in post.
I've heard that DS Lites are good for recording Nanoloop.
you have a few options:
prosound mod the gba: this improves the signal to noise ratio by bypassing some of the noisier components of the game boy
use a noise gate: some compressors have these built in, like the behringer autocom pro xl
use software noise reduction: this is the easiest option, just make sure to record a few seconds before and after your recordings to use to define the noise for software reduction. audacity does a great job and is free
Thanks for you answers!
@katsumbhong
- Thanks so much for your answer, I'll definitely look into prosound modding it, I've heard it's hard to prosound the GBA though? What's your experience ? I've prosound modded several DMGs and GBC before so if it isn't too much harder I could maybe do that.
DS lite would maybe be a next purchase then, I also read about its' good sound quality at http://www.herbertweixelbaum.com/comparison.htm
@e.s.c.
- Thanks so much for your reply! It seems like that pro-sound modding would be a really good call.
Concerning the Noise gates built in compressors.. Are the one you mentioned hardware or software ones?
I have iZotope RX 5 on my computer, do you think I can get a good result from using those for noise reduction ?
What's your setup?
If you have Nanoloop 2.2 there is a fonction and a software (I dont know if it is still on the website since 2.2 is an old version but I'm pretty sure you can get it if you ask oliver !)
You choose a song in nanoloop you press a certain button combo (dont remember the buttons, I did that something like 8-9 years ago) and nanoloop will make some annoying pulses (a little bit like an alarm clock) for like 4 minutes, you record that with something like Audacity, load it in the software and boom a clean recorded Nano 2.2 song ! 
hardware, though some software ones have a noise gate feature as well.. personally i don't worry about noise for live gigs (since often the PA setup would add some anyway) and just do noise reduction in audacity for recordings.. 2-3 passes of noise reduction can even make 60+ year-old garage sale vinyl sound nice and clean
@XyNo
I have Nanoloop 2.7.5 I think! What you just wrote sounds really insane! Do you have any additional info/confirmation regarding that?
If that works on the later versions as well it would be really cool! I'm just so curious on how it works!
@e.s.c.
I agree with you, I think recordings from live sets are supposed to be a bit dirty/raw so that you get a sense of the "live" feeling in them .
I'm gonna look more into compressors with noise gating or just noise gating in general. I'm kinda new to that.
Could you brief me on how you do your recordings ? What audio interface do you have?
I have the EMU 0404 and Behringer UCA 222
i have a mackie onyx 1220i .. it's a 12-channel analog mixer that also sends each channel separately via firewire.. would be overkill for most people, but it's good for me since i still have a decent amount of hardware and like to do improv jam sessions.. comes in handy recording stuff like this album since i could just run through it once and have individual wav files for mGB, piggy tracker & the tr-626 so i could do a little more eq in post along with noise reduction passes on each one.. i also use an old (1999 or 2000-ish) creative usb soundcard for getting a basic stereo mix at the same time that goes from the main outs of the mixer through my FMR RNC 1773 compressor...
Prosounding a GBA isn't any more difficult than propounding any other gameboy. Just need to locate the points on the PCB to prosound and decide where you want to put external audio jacks.
Prosounding a GBA isn't any more difficult than propounding any other gameboy. Just need to locate the points on the PCB to prosound and decide where you want to put external audio jacks.
If I've got it right, there doesn't seem to be any evident way to where to put the 1/4 jack as it is when you pro-sound mod a DMG.
But if you look at the video I posted you see that KODEK gets a great sound from the ordinary headphone jacks. I guess he has some good hardware noise reduction and good signal processing. I don't have any fancy gear and neither do I have the space or the money to invest too much in it. But it would be cool if there would be a way to get a good sound without a ton of hardware.
kodek may have removed the noise after recording... doesn't sound like its room mic audio, he most likely was recording it using the line input on whatever interface he uses
kodek may have removed the noise after recording... doesn't sound like its room mic audio, he most likely was recording it using the line input on whatever interface he uses
I see! In that case he mas done a hell of a good job! So basically headphone output -> line in. Do you only use audacity for recording your songs? I always use adobe audition or ableton.
Last edited by Cobi (Jul 2, 2016 2:27 pm)
you can record with whatever.. pretty sure audition and ableton also have noise reduction (i haven't used audition since adobe bought it and renamed it from cool edit to audition, but cool edit has noise reduction)...just mentioned audacity because it's freeware, so anyone can get it
katsumbhong wrote:Prosounding a GBA isn't any more difficult than propounding any other gameboy. Just need to locate the points on the PCB to prosound and decide where you want to put external audio jacks.
If I've got it right, there doesn't seem to be any evident way to where to put the 1/4 jack as it is when you pro-sound mod a DMG.
But if you look at the video I posted you see that KODEK gets a great sound from the ordinary headphone jacks. I guess he has some good hardware noise reduction and good signal processing. I don't have any fancy gear and neither do I have the space or the money to invest too much in it. But it would be cool if there would be a way to get a good sound without a ton of hardware.
I haven't seen the video, but if he is using a GBA, he could have done an internal prosound mod.
A lot of prosound mods only do pre-pot tho, so you need post production anyways.
Prosound is not worth it imho, just use a noise gate or a denoiser.
Last edited by nanode (Jul 2, 2016 6:50 pm)
i agree on the prosound not being necessary.. only found it helpful when using a game boy alongside other hardware with much higher output levels (like the electribe esx-1)