Build a coin pickup, layer by layer

About 10 minutes

You will build the classic coin sound: two quick notes, the second higher, with a sparkle on top. You will learn how a sound is made of layers that start at different times.

Each step has a link that opens the sound as it should be at that point. Use them to check your work or to hear what is coming.

Start from nothing

Open a blank sound (opens in a new tab)

It opens with no layers, so you are building from zero. (Or press Undo until the list is empty.) To change a number, click the box beside its slider, type the new value and press Tab.

1. The first note

  1. Press + Tone. A layer appears and is selected.
  2. Under Pitch, set Wave to square. Square waves sound buzzy and retro.
  3. Set Pitch to 988 Hz (the note B5).
  4. Under Timing, volume and pan, set Length to 0.08 and Volume to 0.25.
  5. Press Play. A tiny "bip".

Hear step 1 (opens in a new tab)

2. The second, higher note

The ear hears a jump up as something good, which is why pickups go up. The second note must wait for the first to finish.

  1. Press + Tone again. A second layer is added under the first.
  2. Set Wave to square and Pitch to 1319 (E6).
  3. Set Starts at to 0.08. That is exactly when layer 1 ends, so the notes follow one another. Look at the Timeline: the second lane begins where the first ends.
  4. Set Length to 0.3 and Volume to 0.25.
  5. Play. Already a coin.

Hear step 2 (opens in a new tab)

3. Let the last note ring, and add sparkle

  1. Select layer 2 in the Layers list. Under Fade, set Hold to 0.06. The note now stays at full volume for a moment before fading, so it rings instead of dying straight away.
  2. Press + Tone for a third layer. Leave Wave as sine (smooth), set Pitch to 2637, Starts at to 0.08, Length to 0.25 and Volume to 0.08.
  3. Play. The third layer is a very quiet, very high note (an octave above the second note) that plays with the second. You barely hear it as a note, but the whole sound gets brighter. That is layering.

Hear the finished coin (opens in a new tab)

Volume adds up. Layers that play together get louder together, so keep each one quiet (0.1 to 0.3). If a sound is too loud, lower the volumes instead of the whole device volume.

4. Make it yours