Minecraft Note Block Studio (NBS for short) is a simple DAW sequencer for making tunes using Minecraft note blocks (ofc). It's actually got alot more features than you'd expect, with volume control, pitch control, and even panning for any note of any type of instrument.

The software most often used nowadays is the open source one you can find on https://opennbs.org. There's also an older (and i think discontinued) version that has less features. This could open up some potential for sub-formats like only using the old version for that extra limiting creative spice. You can find that version on https://www.stuffbydavid.com/mcnbs.

Like i mentioned earlier, the program offers some unique features, however these can limit how the song can actually be imported into Minecraft. What i mean by this is that NBS lets you create a schematic of your song, as long you abide by certain limits. Otherwise, you can only play your song through a data pack. For example, if you want to use irregular tempos in your song, those which are not 2.5, 5 or 10 ticks per second, you can no longer use a schematic and only use data packs to play your song which can support any tempo. Another example is that if you place notes of which pitch is outside the two octave range that note blocks have in-game, you can no longer make a schematic, and you have to also use a resource pack along with a data pack to play your song.

This could further create more sub-formats such as ones that must be for a schematic, and those that can freely use a data pack and/or resource pack.

It's also important to mention that you can also import your own unique instruments with their own sound files attached. This also makes it so your song requires a data pack, but also a resource pack.

The NBS sequencer is kinda like a sideways tracker, where you can place a note block of a certain pitch, volume and pan. Any instruments can go into any of the tracks, and these tracks can be individually muted or solo'd, named, or can have their overall volume and pan be modified. There is no pattern system, just a long sort of piano roll, which makes this a little painful to use, especially with large complex songs.

As a final thing, NBS contains little tools that you can use to make some tedious things easier. Think of them as macros that do things automatically upon a click and maybe a small settings menu. Some examples include tremolo, vibrato, volume LFO and fade in/out.

Anyway I personally love this program since its a very unique way for making music. Great for making covers, and pretty good at making originals. Although the UI can be a little buggy and perhaps unintuitive along with the sequencer, its got a pretty unique charm to it, and i could imagine people could make some INSANELY cool stuff with it.

List of proposed formats (for the mixist category):

- nbs (openNBS, datapack or schem)
- nbs_schem / nbs_sch (must be able to be exported as a schematic)
- nbs_classic (old NBS)
- nbs_data / nbs_dp / nbs_norp (use datapacks but no resource packs)
- nbs_[any other restriction]

(Since it's quite a few, its alr if you only include a few or condense some down into one format. These are just concepts and ideas for formats, in order of priority of being included)

this was proposed before and back then there was rarely any interest in it, link for reference:
https://battleofthebits.com/academy/GroupThread/20397/

that being said,
i don't think note block studio is gonna be relevant enough to need more than just one format for all the variants you explained.

I'm not opposed to a new format, we have enough obscure formats already, I say the more the merrier!

I have played with note blocks a bit before, but for me the joy of note block music is the ability to make interlocking polyrhythmic patterns and probabilistic circuits, somewhat like a modular synth, within the game itself. As far as I can tell Note Block Studio kinda takes that aspect away, and just makes linear sequenced music, which I'm not super interested in personally. As somebody in the previous thread mentioned, it's basically just midi with a Minecraft sound font.

Again, I wouldn't mind the addition of the format, just expressing why I'm not personally super interested in it, although I do enjoy in-game modular note block experimentation. Bespoke / VCV Rack / pd are probably better formats for that kinda thing though.

am i right in thinking moai has the mc noteblocks? so what we'd have here is just... a subset of moai?

why play minecraft when you can visit the easter island

well the whole gimmick isnt only that its for making noteblock music, its the whole importing into minecraft thing

the format would have to exist within the scope of just the noteblock music sequencer though because minecraft costs money and botb formats need to be free

can we just have minecraft noteblock sounds remix ohb instead?

well the idea of the format is that its *possible* to import into minecraft and that it should be able to be imported, but isnt a requirement to be played back: think of how you might be able to make NSFs for NES music that have to be able to be played back on real hardware but you dont need to buy said hardware yo play the song (im not FULLY sure this is how it works, correct me if im wrong but i think you get my point)

also ordinate while yeah sure we could do that, the whole gimmick with nbs is that its possible to play in-game organically (what i mean by this is that the game is actually playing note blocks and stuff and not just a sound file through a resource pack) so making just a remix thing using purely the samples kinda defeats that along with any limits put in place by the game

idk I mean Minecraft noteblocks are interesting enough, but as others mentioned before Moai has them already. So there’s no reason

> the format would have to exist within the scope of just the noteblock music sequencer though because minecraft costs money and botb formats need to be free

doesn't renoise cost money?

renoise costs money but the demo is practically fully functional, especially for the purpose of creating and opening others' entries - the big difference is that the demo can't render audio but you can record your pc's audio playback as a workaround or just have someone else render it for you

anyone know how well-or-not this OpenNBS program runs in WINE? it's Windows only and ideally formats should also be multiplatform... or at least handle well in WINE, as ends up being the case with some of them. if it's usable, i do think this bears consideration (as one format for OpenNBS, definitely not more). if it isn't... ah, maybe not. would rather not have a completely platform-dependent format.

my personal opinion: it's not something i'm particularly interested in, and it doesn't strike me as an especially creative or experimental format (i could be wrong and there could be weird exploits or unexpected functions in the software! moai sure has that!), but we certainly have weirder ones, and my own disinterest isn't really an argument against its inclusion anyway. if people wanna make music with it then why not? i used to be more worried about things "becoming dead formats" but the reality of the site is that there's so much stuff that we *could* be doing, there's always going to be ebbs and flows and little waves of activity/interest and inactivity/disinterest. even as a group we can't be into everything all the time. so... bring on the little noteblock renaissance

OpenNBS 3.8.0 running fine on Wine 8.0.1 here