NES Audio Workstation

v2.0.0 PAL & NTSC

Risa Tracker for the NES

Risa is a music tracker for the Nintendo NES, shaped around familiar song, chain, phrase, instrument, table, and groove editing pioneered by the renowned Gameboy tracker Little Sound Dj. It targets real NES constraints while keeping the workflow close to handheld trackers.

Risa allows you to utilize the capabilities of the 2A03 APU and in addition to that, the two pulse channels provided by the MMC5 mapper which is used by the software.

The tracker is still in early development, so expect bugs and data loss - back up your saves often! If you encounter problems, please send mail to risa@laamaa.fi.

Media

Screenshots

Song arrangement screen showing chains across PU1, PU2, TR, NO, and DM channels
Song arrangement
Phrase editor showing notes, instruments, and FX columns
Phrase editing
Instrument editor screen
Instrument settings

Demo songs

Tunes rendered straight from the tracker.

  1. Hevander laamaa
    Open in emulator
  2. Let Go laamaa
    Open in emulator
  3. 4XTREME Infu
    Open in emulator
  4. blumarbl HangOnGetReady
    Open in emulator
  5. e.coli soul DEFENSE MECHANISM
    Open in emulator

Downloads

Latest builds v2.0.0

The easiest and most reliable way for using the ROM image is Mesen NES emulator, which is used for development also. For using the software with actual NES hardware, the Everdrive N8 Pro flashcart by Krikzz is recommended.

For trying out the tracker quickly, there is also a browsed-based emulator available with links below.

Use PAL for most European NES timing targets; use NTSC for North American or Japanese NES timing targets.

Try in browser: PAL NTSC

Before using another emulator for real projects, make sure it preserves the full 64 KB MMC5 save file. Some emulators and cores are known to mishandle MMC5 save RAM, which can truncate or corrupt saves and lose song data.

What changed in v2.0.0

  • BREAKING CHANGE NOTE: save catalog storage is reduced from 40 KB to 32 KB because WRAM bank 3 is now used for live song data. Back up saves before upgrading; very full save catalogs may need songs exported or deleted before migration.
  • The max amount of phrases has been increased to 0xFE
  • FEATURE: Add WAVE instrument type for DMC channels (two melodic looping dpcm sounds)
  • FEATURE: FX2 lane in tables has now its own independent playhead/tracking
  • IMPROVE: Vibrato depth/rate tweaks
  • IMPROVE: minor performance optimizations
  • IMPROVE: editing fx values triggers note preview
  • FIX: switching views between tracks could leave a stale playhead cursor visible

View full changelog

Past releases

User guide

Read the Risa-specific notes

Risa follows the handheld tracker workflow established by LSDJ. This guide focuses on what is different in Risa.

Open the user guide

ROM patcher

Edit kits, themes, fonts, and songs in the browser.

Manage sample kits, themes and fonts with a web based ROM patcher.

Open the ROM patcher