NSL Music Composer is a custom editor with accompanying scripts to create and manage music in your Unity projects. Songs are composed from instrument samples which are added to a step sequencer, arranged into complete compositions, and played back in-game.
There are several significant advantages to building out a soundtrack this way (not the least of which is being able to do it right inside Unity!). You can potentially save quite a bit of build space by storing only the instrument samples that are required for each level (the package includes 67 free samples which total less than 8MB, [I]uncompressed[/I]!). Because each track plays through a unity Audio source, you can place instruments in 3D space, turn them on or off with game events, and have them affected by reverb zones. Your scripts can subscribe to the SongManager’s event handlers to synchronize game events to the beat or to individual instrument tracks. This also opens up some exciting rhythm game possibilities (by comparing player input times to beat times, for example).
This started its life as a componant for a project I’m working on. I needed a good way to assemble drum beats and play them back in real time, while still having some control over tempo and individual tracks. It grew in scope over time, including things like melody creation through a piano roll editor and playlist management, eventually becoming the product that is available today.
Thank you for taking the time to check this post out. I can be reached with questions or support needs directly at ryan@namelesssyntheticlifeforms.com. I’m already cooking up new features that I can’t wait to share!