No Man's Sky ByteBeat Device Tutorial [A Detailed Guide] 

who would ever wanna dislike this?

@@anon8586 Don't know, but if they do, now they have a way to publicly show it if they want 😁

@@nanosam7883 It is a great tutorial though

If you are a public dislike button, and I dislike you comment... That that mean I liked your video? ^_~* Awesome tutorial. Still getting a bit hung up on the "Advanced Waveform" tab, but this tutorial went a long way to smoothing my track. Thank you.

@@alexandrewhinman8761 Well, two negatives equal a positive generally, but who knows if RU-vid thinks that way 😁 Anyway, glad the tutorial helped, and in regards to the Advanced Waveform, it might just take practice to get better at it. Honestly, I think I got the basics, but never understood it fully myself. Most of the time I was playing around with it and testing it and in time got better at getting the sounds I wanted. I remember randomizing waveforms to find the initial sound I later tuned more finely was usually the trick for me. Anyways, happy music making!

Hey CaptENGELIC, thank you for your ideas. ByteBeat as a music creation tool is a bit stubborn in that regard as it would not allow me to create most full music tracks because its loop duration is very limited (X-Files melody is pretty simple so a nice-sounding loop is possible, but you can't create the whole 3 min. long song as the darn devices won't allow a loop that long). For example, if you take a look at any of my other music videos, they were made by recording many short music loops ingame and then patching them together in a video editing software to create the full song/music video. Finally, while the game has these limitations, RU-vid does not 😁. And to be honest, your ideas are similar to one of the paths I envision this channel might take in the future as eventually I'd like my audience to be more involved in the content I'm making. Your suggestions are well appreciated - cheers!

Thank you - yess, 'twas the beauty of nostalgia that made me do that cover. I believe the Monkey Island theme is permanently etched into my memory, so had to make a tribute. If you do find yourself back there, say hi to that old geezer that's probably still spinning on that chandelier 😉

Thank you! I must admit I'm content with the number of views as this is currently a very small channel and ByteBeat is kind of a niche thing in No Man's Sky so my expectations for the video are pretty humble. I am glad that some people do manage to find it, enjoy it and even maybe learn a thing or two. You might consider yourself one of the lucky few who managed to find this rare gem :D

@@nanosam7883 yeah for real though, how the fuck do you have 94 subs, your content is good

@Nox Echo Bah, didn't get a notification so seeing your comment just now 😥 But thx - this channel is a bit small and has a relatively low number of videos and I don't really push the "comment, like, subscribe" agenda on my videos so these are the main reasons my channel sub number can be seen as low. I'm quite happy with the numbers I must say and I hope that that number will go up if I'm doing more videos in shorter timespans & remind people to subscribe 😊

@@nanosam7883 yeah ive looked up a few guides and all the top people either dont know what theyre doing and messing with it or stating obvious things, or they say theyre gonna teach but they just make a song for themselves on camera and dont show the tinkering that advanced waveform needs, but you, your video is what pushed me past that point, i made a few songs so far, none of em are based on any song, i have a giant act-indium mine that makes 600m+ units daily and the bytebeat there plays something that would be great for a pirate theme.

@@nox_luna Nice to hear that you understood the advanced waveform better on the account of the tutorial and that it helped you make music with BB. 🙂 Oh, and one more thing - if you're interested in more people potentially hearing your piratey tune, there's a dude who made a No Man's Sky radio station featuring ByteBeat music made by players. He's @VeritasVelez on Twitter. You can also contact him on his YT channel and ask him if he'd add your tune to the radio station. The station is on zeno.fm and it's called NMSFM if you're interested.

Glad you discovered this tutorial, Ivano. Hopefully it will come in handy when dealing with ByteBeats 🙂 And while I'm no music professional, I can relate when talking about music addiction. Wishing you much fun with ByteBeats & hope they will enrich your NMS gameplay experience 😊

Thank you very much for your positive thoughts - it makes me very happy to see that this tutorial is helping others :)

Yep, this thingie has potential - let me know if you manage to create some nice tracks with it. I'd love to see how your calling manifests itself into sound. :)

Thank you - glad you noticed the little details I put in there 😊 Cheers!

Thank you very much - I don't know how much of my meddlings with ByteBeat devices have reached their developers (Sean Murray did share a couple of my vids on Twitter, though), but I'm surely glad that people like yourself appreciate the effort I put into making these projects :)

Thank you - and your thoughts remind me of my own when I started making this tutorial. Turns out ByteBeat hides quite a bit more features than it lets on at first glance.

I share your hopes, @joujimiichi1 🤞 Thank you for watching and appreciating the effort I put in 🙂

Tina MC, thank you very much for your kind words. It means a lot to me when my videos get to help people learn something new 😊 If you like experimenting with bytebeats, don't worry - just keep at it and with time you'll get better and better and I'm sure with enough practice you will be able to make your own tunes (talking from my own experience here). I wish you much fun out there, traveler 🙂

Thank you for subscribing & for the tips. Am doing & will do my best to continue making quality content & to continue encouraging dialogue with my viewers. I'm glad people such as yourself notice this 🙂

Thank you - hope you enjoy putting this new-found knowledge to use & hope you have fun with ByteBeats 🙂

I'm very glad that this video motivated you to try musicmaking in NMS :). Oh, and do feel free to ask additional questions if something is not clear enough and I'll help the best I can.

You're very welcome - and thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it :)

That's awesome to hear - have fun with it!

That's great! I am very happy for you and glad that the tutorial helped 😊

You're welcome! Glad the video helped you understand ByteBeats a bit better 🙂

Thank you for watching, I'm happy you like the tutorial so much 🙂 And, while this one has not been featured by NMS, Sean did retweet a few of my works, so I cannot complain in this regard & I'm grateful for that.

I'm happy that you are happy 🙂

You're very welcome, I'm glad it's helpful to you 🙂

Thanks for the comment - glad you've gained more knowledge about ByteBeats. We also have a subreddit where we share our music if you'd like to join - feel free to post whatever you come up with there: www.reddit.com/r/NMSByteBeatFans/

I'm happy that you enjoyed it and thank you very much for liking, subscribing and sharing ;)

You gonna make the song califoniacation or hotel California? 😂

Thank you for your feedback. I'm just wondering, since I have a habit of talking a bit fast sometimes, was the narration speed easy to follow?

@@nanosam7883 I think it's fine but I can't speak for all. I like the fact is was quite fast as it kept my interest.

@games without front ears Thank you for the elaboration, much appreciated

Thank you very much, I'm glad the video taught you something new 🙂

You are very welcome :)

I'm afraid of trying to imagine that 😂

No worries, I get that these musicmaking machines are a niche thing. Have fun out there doing other things & enjoying No Man's Sky 🙂

Thank you 😊 & have fun with ByteBeats!

It's a bummer, but the game does not let you manually do that sometimes. If I understood you correctly, then you have a similar issue I was dealing with as well. The way I did it was to randomize certain sections until I got the pattern I wanted. I don't know the exact pattern you'd like, but if you take a look at the video on 16:21 it will show you how I had to use the randomize function to get to the exact pattern I wanted where I was able to "create" nodes and numerical inputs by randomizing them and manually cycle through them afterwards. Also, note that when randomizing sections, it will not affect the nodes above what you're randomizing. Hope this'll help a bit

Yes - that's the pitch function & it affects only the device you set it on. This is explained at 05:09 in layman's terms, but it's how you change octaves on an individual machine. Higher number = higher octave, lower number = lower octave. Hope this helps 🙂

Your senses do not deceive you 😉

hey @blackatron666 - you did good to power all 3 devices. Once they are on, they all start playing random sounds by default. To make them play the melody you want, you need to create the melody on every one of them. If you want all of them to play the same melody, create the melody on the first device and create a specific sound on the advanced waveform. Then copy the synchronizer and the advanced waveform sections to the other two devices and you'll have all devices playing the same. Hope this helped :)

Hey shivrow, first I'd like to thank you for taking the time to write such an extensive comment & for subbing. In regards to the advanced waveform, I feel this is the section I still understand the least & when I'm searching for a sound, I still mostly wing it, so that might be one of the reasons behind this part being more difficult to understand. Also, feel free to expand on that - I'm interested in specific parts which were harder to follow (as I'd like to improve on this in case I make a similar tutorial in the future). In regards to Clair De Lune, I know how it feels - ByteBeat can be a real pain when covers come to play. Had similar experiences with most of my covers: the one note thing and matching the tempo when the shortest note in BB isn't short enough to replicate the original so you have to fiddle with tempo using an editing tool 😅 Considering getting a piano-like sound, here are some screenshots that may help you get started in the right direction: ibb.co/9tz1bs1 ibb.co/TvsLDFt The waveform should be sine with a simple "Add" operator - this way you'll get a mellowy tone. The second screenshot shows the envelope & the pitch which also help define the sound better so it sounds like pressing a piano key a bit. The two combined should be reminiscent of a five-year-old playing on a piano that sounds a bit like those Carribean steel drums 😁 I'd change the waveform to sawtooth/square if you'd like to get a harpsichord effect. Hope this helps a bit 🤞

Thanks so much for that detailed and helpful response! As far as feedback would be concerned, I think it's less to do with anything you did and more to do with the UI in general. I find it completely obscure how to do things like add numerical operators in the first place without randomising till you get a convenient tree, completely aside from not having any understanding of what the numerical operators do. The effects the different logical gates have on sound is also extremely confusing as a result, particularly because different branching tree paths can produce completely different effects (say an AND gate with Shift Left vs an AND gate with Shift Right) despite looking very similar. Still, even you just giving an example was invaluable, going in knowing that if I found what you had in the video it wouldn't sound so much like nails against a chalkboard. The suggestions you made as far as the waveform format to use worked an absolute treat by the way, thank you again! Most egregiously, it made me realise that what I thought was an AND gate was an XOR gate which I'd copy pasted to every device. However, changing it to ADD and setting the attack as you suggested has really mellowed it out and made it enormously more pleasant. Really appreciate it, and look forward to whatever comes next from you!

@@slowboating You're very welcome & I'm glad my response was of use to you 🙂 In regards to Waveform UI, same thing here. I recently wanted to replicate an older waveform I used in one of my songs, but was unable to do so just because I couldn't get the exact tree with randomization. Tried for half an hour or so & gave up as there were no other ways to replicate the tree other than rolling the dice & hoping that the right sequence will pop up. Also, in regards to numerical inputs, I found that they change the pitch in some combinations, but in other cases, they seem not to do anything at all 😀. If you're having more questions about how these work & about waveforms in general, try contacting "The ByteBeat Guy" here on RU-vid as I believe he might know more & might be able to help you cast some light on these topics

You can change the length of all notes in one sequencer section like stated here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ptUKrg6v1Os.html You can't change the individual note length in the same sequencer without affecting the other notes. At least that's how it was the last time I played with ByteBeats. Haven't played NMS in a couple of years now so don't know whether that's changed or not.

I've made some tunes on the ByteBeats by looking at music sheets first, yes - if that's what you're asking

Hmm, if you've tried, but cannot figure things out, there is another option: you can go to the subreddit /NMSByteBeatFans and ask folks there if someone could make that specific tune you want - there are many people there who do amazing stuff on these devices so with any luck, some1 might pitch in. When they're done, just copy the song from their base and paste it in your own base. Good luck!

It is possible to place more than 8 bytebeats (Using adjacency or blender glitching). And the switch can also be added, however the trigger might be a bit complicated, as these are linked to notes or beats.

The game sadly, lets you build only 8 devices per base, no matter whether they're connected or not (woops, it seems more than 8 devices can be glitched - thanks @Beeblebum for the info). And yes, you can hook up a ByteBeat switch (it's in the same build menu group as ByteBeat devices) to a ByteBeat device and it states in its description that they can trigger "lights and other devices". I've tried to trigger a lightbox when playing a specific tone and it worked. However, I didn't explore these options further than that so my knowledge here is limited. Hope this info helps you out :)

@DadGuy Hey, just a little update: tried placing more than 8 devices recently. While you can have more than 8 physical devices if you glitch them in, when you go over 8 the Synchronizer section of the added devices disappears and the melody breaks (some devices that were playing music stop doing so and their displays break). So if you're building ByteBeat devices just as visual decoration you can freely go over the limit, but if you're planning to use them for music purposes, I would not recommend it.

@@nanosam7883 awesome, thanks for the in depth replies! I tried my hand at making a set at the rave planets and boy... Do you make it look easy :)

@@nanosam7883 you could try my dual base technique, not for scaffolding but for overlapping an area! 😊

I wish I could as that track is a banger, but I still have lots to learn till I get to that level of musical knowledge 😅

Noted 🙂 I'm compiling a list of musical requests in case I decide to do some of them in the future. The Mandalorian theme is something I already looked at, but haven't been able to find a good music sheet for it just yet (by music sheet I mean Synthesia cover, as I'm mostly using that as template for my songs). While I probably can do some sort of a cover, I don't know if a tutorial would be useful. The reason being that you cannot make the whole Mandalorian theme in ByteBeats at once. The X-Files theme segment I covered in this vid is simple enough & sounds ok when looped. Mandalorian, on the other hand, is a bit more complex imo, so while a song cover is possible (I'd have to record many short music loops, adjust the tempo & stick them together outside of the game), a tutorial might be a bit meh because any Mando loop on ByteBeats might not sound anything like the original theme. Take for example my Teminator cover - the theme sounds pretty close in the music video, but if you land on that planet & hear the actual music snippet that plays on it, it sounds nothing like the original because I had to make multiple short music snippets, adjust them, synch them & patch them up outside of the game. However, as mentioned, your suggestion is noted down, and is a good one because I really do like the Mando theme 🙂

Can you describe that in more detail or share a screenshot? Is this the first time you've built these devices? If not, did they work fine at the start and then suddenly started behaving unexpectedly? And does clicking on any functionality work at all? And we're talking about ByteBeat devices & not soundboxes, right? Would love to see a screenshot so I can have a better understanding of what's going on

@@nanosam7883 yes, this is my first build. The constant single frequency continues even after the ear is turned off. I cleared all the preloaded tracks and shut off track progression. Q. Where is the time slider and splicer? I can't stop the constant motion of play.

@@MariDutton Hmm, what you're describing sounds like you have the stop button turned on - see 2:31 on the video. Try pressing that button once to see whether the sound will stop. In regards to preloaded tracks and track progression, you're talking about the Melody Sequencer, right? And you've cleared everything as shown at 2:40, right? In regards to the time slider, I'll presume you're talking about the tempo and that can be found at 3:54. In regards to the splicer, you're probably talking about dividing notes, or steps, which can be seen explained at 4:45 in the video. Hope this helps a bit. If you're still having issues, it would be best if you could share a screenshot via imgur or similar service so I can have a better view of what's going on on your machine. Oh, and you've built only ByteBeat devices, right? You haven't built a noise box close by, right? Because noise boxes only emit a high frequency and they don't stop, so if you have those nearby, maybe that's the issue. Finally, it might also be a bug

@@nanosam7883 Sorry it took so long. In my recent travels, I found a nice studio for a sample. I know NMS is simply playing with concepts, but... aim high. The program, Autacity. The vid. Kevin Stratvert - How to use Audacity to record & edit audio - beginners tutorial

Don't know, sorry. Stopped playing the game. Maybe some1 else might help. Or you can go to the NMSByteBeatFans subreddit and ask there

Hmm, have you checked whether you have it muted by accident (the ear icon on the upper right)? But if it's not that, it might be a bug - I'd try reporting it to zendesk in that case.

You go for it! 🎵 Also, do you mind if I steal that idea if I ever come across a calm planet with pristine green grass?

Don't have a tutorial, but can explain in short: 1. Find sheet music/synthesia tutorial, like this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xAMsLDQi2b0.html 2. Find bass sheet, like this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dw9TLOB7eCY.html 3. Make short melody & bass parts in ByteBeat & record each of them 4. Patch all the recorded parts together in a video editing software & adjust the tempo if needed 5. Render the song as a video 6. Done - good luck! 🙂

Hmm, there can be many reasons - I would suggest checking if you connected it to power properly. Also, try checking if the volume value is set properly in the ByteBeat UI. You may also check the music volume in your general No Man's Sky settings because if it's set to 0, you will not be able to hear ByteBeat devices play.

The simplest way would be if the track is from another ByteBeat device, for example, from another player's base - you copy the track in your playlist and paste it to your base when you build your ByteBeats. Otherwise, you might want to find notes to the track somewhere online & basically manually enter & arrange them with ByteBeats.

Hmm, the first thing that comes to mind is maybe your music is set to 0 in the music settings. But, all in all, what you're describing sounds a lot like ByteBeats are bugged for you. What I'd do in your place is go to HelloGames' Zendesk & report this issue

@@nanosam7883 thanks pal I was being dumb and didn't turn the sequencer on...

@@jacob.1820 Aah, cool, cool - glad there was an easy fix after all. Have fun musicmaking! 😊

Your observations are on point. I believe why ByteBeat differs from the rest, more streamlined functionalities in the game is because it is largely the work of a single developer (it was his pet project). Hello Games, since they had fond memories with tools such as Fruity Loops and since it seemed cool to enhance base-building in terms of adding musical creativity to it (for those musically inclined players), agreed that this side project can be included ingame. From this standpoint, I assume it was never their intention to make it more streamlined as this is not a core part of the game (I think you'd agree that electricity plays a much more fundamental part, and as such it is logical to assume that it is streamlined in order to be available to a larger player base). And I must say, being a little biased towards musical creativity, I adore that they included this feature as I like games that offer multiple layers of creativity - which is very fitting, especially in the case of a game the magnitude of No Man's Sky. With this said, this is where I find your points very valuable as they call for enhancing the creative capabilities of the power system. So if I understood your thoughts, you have nothing against streamlining the power system, but would like to see more options for those more technically creative, as I'm guessing you are as well 🙂. And I agree, enriching a simplified power system with more advanced functionalities would not do any harm to those who just want to stick with the basics, but would give more options and creative power to those wanting to do more complex stuff. And I fully support this view - tell me, have you tried writing about your suggestions on Reddit? Or contact the devs directly? I have a feeling that if your suggestions gain enough traction on social media, there is a chance the devs might consider and even implement some of your suggestions.

😁 Yess!

Hmm, there are several possibilities: 1. Maybe check your music and sfx volumes 2. If nothing is appearing on the ByteBeat screen, you can check whether you've connected everything properly 3. Maybe the mute button on your ByteBeat is on 4. You can try asking at r/NMSByteBeatFans and some1 may have better suggestions there 5. Maybe it's just a bug (try posting a ticket to zendesk) Hope you'll find a way to resolve this. Good luck!

@@nanosam7883 that’s, I noticed I kind of hear it near my base computer but not near where I placed the machines themselves. And even near the computer it’s super quiet which is weird cause my volume on all sides are maxed. :/

@@jonahbutterfield5792 Hmm, I had the same case when my music volume was turned off. When you say "my volume on all sides are maxed", do you mean on your ByteBeat devices? Because I'm talking about going into options in the game menu and setting your music volume to max there. If your music volume setting in the options menu is fine, then it could indeed be a bug, but if it's low or you have it turned off, that's probably the reason why this is happening, imo.

@@nanosam7883 that and my game volume, I’m wondering if there is something I’m missing

@@jonahbutterfield5792 hmm, I'm thinking on maybe it's the accentuation volume, but that would make the volume loud when you're near the ByteBeats and low when you're far away, so don't think that's it. At this point I'd say try the subreddit I mentioned earlier, or write a ticket to zendesk as it may indeed be a bug.

You can and here's a synthesia track that you can use as tutorial: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XDmczii5-R0.html Just fyi - if you go for it, you'll have to make a video for the whole tune as ByteBeat devices are limited to short loops. But if you make many short loops, record them and patch them together (maybe even speed them up a bit), you'll have a nice Super Mario tune 😊