cfxr is a Mac port of 8-bit and 16-bit sound effect creator sfxr. It provides a high degree of control over various sonic qualities for four types of wave: square, sawtooth, sine, and noise.
There are 22 different features available for user adjustment, each of which can be tweaked very finely. Whether you want a retro explosion sound with a slow attack or a retro jump sound with deep vibrato, the possibilities within the low-bit realm seem endless. There are also various playback options: the sound can be played when it's changed, on loop, and/or on demand with a button press. Playback volume and sample volume are controlled independently, and there are two choices for sample rate: 44.1 kHz and 22.05 kHz. Topping off the features is an automatically generated sortable catalog of sounds with a rating system, should you like all your experiments for a particular project in one place.
I experienced choppy in-app playback under Mountain Lion, but the exported sound clip plays back just fine.
Pros
- So many aspects of customization, that you won't know where to start
- Intuitive interface is easy to play with
- Both projects and specific sounds can be saved for revisiting or immediate use
Cons
- In-app playback still choppy under Mountain Lion