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> Introduction
For a long time now, most people have been learning about Nightcore through hearsay and guesswork, two very unreliable sources. This has led to the word slowly losing it's true meaning, detail after detail peeled away one after another until eventually only one core idea remained, that Nightcore means sped-up music. There is much more to it than that, and this guide is an attempt to put all of that remaining information in one place, so keep reading if you want to know what Nightcore actually stands for.
Apart from that there's also the practical aspect: how do you take a song and an image and turn that into a finished Nightcore video? There are many steps in this process, many choices to make and many places where things can go a little awry. This guide will help you through these steps, so that by following it you can be certain that your video will sound as good as it possibly can.
Happy reading!
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> Table of Contents
1. What Is Nightcore?
- History
- Definition
- Foreword
- Preparation
- Step 1: Audio Editing
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> History
Nightcore is the name of the collaboration project between two Norwegian DJs, DJ TNT and DJ SOS, who in the early 2000s released a series of albums featuring high tempo electronic Trance and Dance songs. These tracks were all speed-ups of already existing songs, something that wasn't known at first, but was eventually revealed as the tracks gained popularity on YouTube. Once this happened, Nightcore fans realized that they too could create this style of music, and so they did.
At first there were very few differences between fan-made Nightcore and the original Nightcore tracks. The songs were new, but the music style was very much the same, all made in mimicry of the Nightcore DJs. These similarities slowly faded over time, details lost with each new generation of fans, until today when all that remains is the notion that Nightcore indicates sped-up music.
More information on the history of Nightcore:
- Nightcore | Know Your Meme (2016)
- What is Nightcore? (2011)
> Definition
Nightcore is supposed to sound as if it was made by the Nightcore duo.
That is the shortest, simplest way to put it. If you want to stay true to the definition of Nightcore, you should view it as a continuation of what the original group started. This implies a limit on which genres can become Nightcore, by how much tracks can be sped-up, how vocals should sound, etc.
Where these limits stand is not quite as clear cut. Different people will give you different answers if you ask them whether a particular song counts as NIghtcore or not. Some will stand firmly behind the idea that true Nightcore must sound very much like the original tracks in every possible aspect, while others treat it as more of a loose rule that can be bent, but not broken.
Should Nightcore sound like what the duo made back then, or should it sound like what the duo might make today?
Helpful links to understand the definition: • • •
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> Foreword
This is a beginners guide to making Nightcore, a good starting point if you've never touched audio or video editing before and don't know how to begin. The goal is to get an acceptable video out the door as quickly and easily as possible, while avoiding the most common pitfalls that I often see new people fall victim to.
It is NOT a guide that will teach you the optimal ways of doing things, but once you've learned the basics you can continue on to the following sections if you wish to learn more.
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> Preparation
Aside from free online tools and a few programs built into your operating system, you're going to need these things:
- A Song
- An Image
- An Audio Editor
Audacity for Windows:
- Windows Installer
- LAME for Windows (needed to export MP3)
- FFmpeg for Windows (needed to import/export M4A, WMA, and many other formats)
- Mac Installer
- LAME for Mac (needed to export MP3)
- FFmpeg for Mac(needed to import/export M4A, WMA, and many other formats)
> Step 1: Audio Editing
Let's begin by doing the actual Nightcore edit. Start your audio editor and open/import your song. If you haven't listened through the entire file before, I would recommend doing so first to make sure there's nothing wrong with it.
Now you want to look for the speed-up effect. This has different names in different editors, such as "Change Speed", "Change Speed and Pitch", or "Change Tempo and Pitch".
Decide by how much you want to speed up the song. Personally I like to start with 20% and adjust up or down from there. If your editor has a good preview option, go ahead and use that, otherwise you'll have to undo (Ctrl + Z) and re-apply the effect until you're satisfied with the result.
The last thing you want to do is trim away any unnecessary silence from the beginning and end of the track. Select those areas and hit delete to erase them, but make sure to listen first to make sure that they are actually silent, and not just too quiet to be seen in the waveform. If clicking and dragging causes the track to be moved instead of selected, switch to the selection tool and try again.
Now you need to either "Export" or "Save" the track, depending on your editor. There are many formats to choose from here, but let's go with the classic MP3. Choose a 320 kbps Constant bit rate, with the channel mode set to Stereo.
Note that in some editors you have to first confirm the format before you can change the settings.
If you want perfect quality audio, choose the FLAC format instead, or WAV if FLAC is not available. You generally don't need to tinker any further with the settings.
That's it for audio! Now we move on to the image.
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Next up go to Effect -> Change Speed and decide by how much you want to speed up your track. About 20-25% is usually good for a first test.
When you're finished, go to File -> Export and make sure that "WAV" is selected as the file format, then hit Save and you're done!
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Method 1: The Imgur Online Editor
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Start Movie Maker and drag-drop your image onto the large timeline section, then do the same with the song.
If the song (green waveform) became misaligned with the image, correct by dragging it to the left.
Now we just need to render the video. Click the "Save movie" button and choose "Create custom setting..." at the bottom of the drop-down menu. Base your new setting on the "Windows 8 (1080p)" default and set it up like this:
Congratulations! Now get that video onto YouTube so you can show it off in our User Uploads section ;)
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This concludes the beginner section. Hopefully it was a clear and easy to follow first look into Nightcore.
The rest of this tutorial will go more in-depth on various topics, so feel free to keep reading if you're interested in taking Nightcore more seriously, such as if you're planning on starting up a dedicated channel of your own.
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You will also need to download the LAME/ffmpeg encoders if you want to export MP3/M4A files. Instructions for doing so can be found here:
LAME: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/fa ... p3&lang=en
ffmpeg: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fa ... tml#ffdown
Audacity can also be used to check the audio quality of tracks through the spectrogram view, and to edit/combine multiple tracks.
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+ Easy to use
+ Great spectrogram view (read the Audio Quality section)
+ Easy to edit and combine multiple tracks (read the Editing Tips section)
+ Completely free
- Requires third-party encoders to export MP3 and M4A.
- Bad preview function
- More advanced editing features are hard to use
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it's not a deal breaker by any means, but definitely something to keep in mind.
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+ Very easy to use
+ Automatic BPM detection
+ Basic features are free
+/- Weird sound quirk (read above)
- No support for multiple tracks
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