Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
A tutorial on how to edit Game Boy music. This is accomplished by getting a GBS (Game Boy Sound) file of the music you want to edit, running that file through my gbs2midi tool, then editing the midi in a DAW with my Nelly GB synth. This tutorial is meant for people who want to make arrangements of songs from Game Boy games, and people who want to make SiIvagunner "High Quality Rips" of Game Boy games ( https://siivagunner.wiki/wiki/Rip ). This tutorial does _not_ provide a way to inject edited songs into Game Boy games for romhacks.
Links:
- gbs2midi: github.com/Thysbelon/gbs2midi
- Thaumoc: github.com/Thysbelon/Thaumoc . *Note*: Thaumoc is slightly more polished than Nelly GB
- Nelly GB synth: thysbelon.github.io/Nelly-GB-synth
- GBS files for all official Game Boy games: gbs.joshw.info , or zophar.net/music/gbs.html . (Tip: the website vgmpf.com has useful information on a lot of chiptune file formats like GBS.)
- REAPER DAW: https://www.reaper.fm/ . (Note: This tutorial may work with other DAWs, but REAPER is the only one I tested. This tutorial will not work with FL Studio: gist.github.com/Thysbelon/a69da7038e65023a29168d9ef449acda )
- https://chiptune.app (For playing back GBS files. Note: this website does not have perfectly accurate stereo panning with GBS files. gbs2midi's stereo panning is accurate.)
- How to Install VST Plugins in REAPER: makeuseof.com/how-to-install-vst-plugins-in-reaper (Use this link if you would like more instructions on how to use plugins. Note: Nelly GB is not available in the VST plugin format. Nelly GB is only available in either the LV2 plugin format or the CLAP plugin format)
*If you find my software gbs2midi and Nelly GB useful, please recommend them to other people! And please check out my other software:*
- Thysbelon's GBA Mus Ripper, Midi2AGB and gba-song-assembler; can be used to edit music from Game Boy Advance games and inject songs into GBA games for romhacks: github.com/Thysbelon/gba-mus-ripper
- Thysbelon's sseq2mid, midi2sseq, and vgmtrans-alt-nds-adsr; can be used to edit music from Nintendo DS games and inject songs into DS games for romhacks: github.com/Thysbelon/midi2sseq
Chapters:
0:00 - Download gbs2midi and Nelly GB
1:09 - Convert GBS to Midi using gbs2midi
2:06 - Add Nelly GB synth to your DAW
3:13 - Open the converted Midi file and Nelly GB synth in your DAW
3:53 - You can now listen to your Game Boy to Midi converted song!
4:07 - Start of Song Editing Walkthrough: Set the correct tempo
6:32 - Edit the notes of the song
8:11 - Fix errors created during editing
8:28 - Fix tiny overlaps between notes
8:47 - Fix CC07 "Volume" misalignments
11:36 - Fix CC68 "Legato Mode On/Off" misalignments
14:52 - Render the edited song to an audio file
A tutorial on how to edit Game Boy music. This is accomplished by getting a GBS (Game Boy Sound) file of the music you want to edit, running that file through my gbs2midi tool, then editing the midi in a DAW with my Nelly GB synth. This tutorial is meant for people who want to make arrangements of songs from Game Boy games, and people who want to make SiIvagunner "High Quality Rips" of Game Boy games ( https://siivagunner.wiki/wiki/Rip ). This tutorial does _not_ provide a way to inject edited songs into Game Boy games for romhacks.
Links:
- gbs2midi: github.com/Thysbelon/gbs2midi
- Thaumoc: github.com/Thysbelon/Thaumoc . *Note*: Thaumoc is slightly more polished than Nelly GB
- Nelly GB synth: thysbelon.github.io/Nelly-GB-synth
- GBS files for all official Game Boy games: gbs.joshw.info , or zophar.net/music/gbs.html . (Tip: the website vgmpf.com has useful information on a lot of chiptune file formats like GBS.)
- REAPER DAW: https://www.reaper.fm/ . (Note: This tutorial may work with other DAWs, but REAPER is the only one I tested. This tutorial will not work with FL Studio: gist.github.com/Thysbelon/a69da7038e65023a29168d9ef449acda )
- https://chiptune.app (For playing back GBS files. Note: this website does not have perfectly accurate stereo panning with GBS files. gbs2midi's stereo panning is accurate.)
- How to Install VST Plugins in REAPER: makeuseof.com/how-to-install-vst-plugins-in-reaper (Use this link if you would like more instructions on how to use plugins. Note: Nelly GB is not available in the VST plugin format. Nelly GB is only available in either the LV2 plugin format or the CLAP plugin format)
*If you find my software gbs2midi and Nelly GB useful, please recommend them to other people! And please check out my other software:*
- Thysbelon's GBA Mus Ripper, Midi2AGB and gba-song-assembler; can be used to edit music from Game Boy Advance games and inject songs into GBA games for romhacks: github.com/Thysbelon/gba-mus-ripper
- Thysbelon's sseq2mid, midi2sseq, and vgmtrans-alt-nds-adsr; can be used to edit music from Nintendo DS games and inject songs into DS games for romhacks: github.com/Thysbelon/midi2sseq
Chapters:
0:00 - Download gbs2midi and Nelly GB
1:09 - Convert GBS to Midi using gbs2midi
2:06 - Add Nelly GB synth to your DAW
3:13 - Open the converted Midi file and Nelly GB synth in your DAW
3:53 - You can now listen to your Game Boy to Midi converted song!
4:07 - Start of Song Editing Walkthrough: Set the correct tempo
6:32 - Edit the notes of the song
8:11 - Fix errors created during editing
8:28 - Fix tiny overlaps between notes
8:47 - Fix CC07 "Volume" misalignments
11:36 - Fix CC68 "Legato Mode On/Off" misalignments
14:52 - Render the edited song to an audio file
