audio8bit - turn any song into 8-bit chiptune music

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A command-line tool that turns any song into 8-bit, video-game-style music. It finds the melody (from the vocals or the instruments) and replays it with retro "chiptune" sounds, like an old game console. Everything runs locally.

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Requirements

  • Python 3.9 or higher
  • ffmpeg on your PATH (it ships ffmpeg and ffprobe). Install it with sudo apt install ffmpeg (Linux) or brew install ffmpeg (macOS).

Installation

pip install audio8bit

Or from GitHub:

pip install git+https://github.com/yumiaura/audio8bit.git

First run is slow: it downloads a small AI model (about 80 MB) and can take a few minutes. That is normal; later runs are faster.

Usage

# Convert a song (auto-detects vocal or instrumental)
audio8bit -i song.mp3

# Just the main melody, no chords
audio8bit -i song.mp3 -V lead

# Take the tune from the singing or from the instruments
audio8bit -i song.mp3 -s vocals
audio8bit -i song.mp3 -s instrumental

# Save as a different format
audio8bit -i song.mp3 -f ogg

# Play it 5 semitones higher
audio8bit -i song.mp3 --transpose 5

# Show help and version
audio8bit --help
audio8bit --version

Command Line Options

  • -i, --input - input audio file, required (any format ffmpeg can read)
  • -o, --output - output path (default: output.<ext>)
  • -f, --format - output format, e.g. ogg, wav (default: same as input)
  • -s, --source - melody source: vocals, instrumental, auto (default: auto)
  • -m, --method - note finding: transcribe or pitch (default: transcribe)
  • -V, --voices - chords (with harmony) or lead (single line) (default: chords)
  • --transpose - key shift in semitones (default: 0)
  • --bits - bit depth, 1-8, lower is crunchier (default: 8)
  • --rate - sample rate in Hz, lower is more retro (default: 22050)
  • --duty - pulse-wave duty cycle, 0-1 (default: 0.25)
  • --version - show version

Exit codes: 0 success, 1 conversion error, 2 bad arguments.

Features

  • Works with vocal songs and instrumentals - picks the melody source automatically.
  • Polyphonic transcription (basic-pitch) keeps the chords and bass, or reduces them to a single lead line.
  • Source separation with Demucs, deterministic so the same input always gives the same result.
  • Alias-free chiptune synthesis with loudness dynamics and a smooth limiter.
  • Key transposition and adjustable bit depth, sample rate and pulse tone.
  • 8-bit PCM output as WAV, or any format ffmpeg can write.
  • A quality report after every run, and everything runs on your own machine.

License

Noncommercial

Key dates

PyPI data
Data sourced directly from PyPI's database.
  • Released:
Newer release available (0.0.3)

1 maintainer

PyPI data
Data sourced directly from PyPI's database.
Avatar for yumiaura from gravatar.com yumiaura

Credits

Author: Olya Pimenova

License

Other/Proprietary License (Copyright (c) 2026 Olya Pimenova)

Requires

Python >=3.9

Tags

audio 8bit chiptune melody transcription cli dsp ffmpeg

Classifiers

Report project as malware

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