I'm using renoise, which as a tracker has some lineage back to what might have been used for older amiga and PC games, but it wouldn't necessarily be less legit to use garageband or whatever you find comfortable, since it's all a kind of affectation anyway.
if you want chip tune "authenticity", working with original c64 or nes/gameboy formats is the way to go, though.
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 8 June 2016 02:09 (seven years ago) link
Thank you, these are fantastic
― Sentient animated cat gif (kingfish), Wednesday, 8 June 2016 03:14 (seven years ago) link
How does Renoise compare with something like FL Studio, which I have but haven't really cracked yet?
― Sentient animated cat gif (kingfish), Wednesday, 8 June 2016 05:37 (seven years ago) link
ha ha that "middle" theme, awesome!
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 8 June 2016 08:12 (seven years ago) link
I haven't tried FL, but fruity loops had a reputation of being beginner-friendly. Just looking at it though, it looks like as steep a learning curve as anything.
It depends what you're going for. It would be hard to input specific melodies (for say a TV theme cover) in something like nano loop but it does look easier conceptually to get a beat going:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ4yCiUSTc4
If you want something a little less feature-packed than Renoise but still in the pattern-based tracker family, you might try https://openmpt.orgIn some sense, MPT is closer to "real" VGM composing since it saves/opens files in some game formats like .mod
There are also neat web experiments in programmatically generating chip-py stuff: http://idroppedmyphonethescreencracked.tumblr.com
Is there a lot of interest here in making chip tunes? what kinds would you want to make?
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 8 June 2016 17:51 (seven years ago) link
these rule i have an actual podcast called illogical contraption that wants a thing!
― kurt schwitterz, Wednesday, 8 June 2016 18:00 (seven years ago) link
I'd just like to make cute little tunes as an intro to basic songcraft. I'm not a hardcore era-specific creator or anything, just basic waveforms maybe with the ability to add fuzzy synths later. Here's a beat, here's a bass line, here's a coupla melody lines, etc.
― Sentient animated cat gif (kingfish), Wednesday, 8 June 2016 19:20 (seven years ago) link
This Amway Life - stories from the trenches of multi-level marketing
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 8 June 2016 21:25 (seven years ago) link
illogical contraption theme:https://soundcloud.com/chiptheme/8bit-powerhouse
have you tried general sequencer programs like garageband? (they should have waveform instruments as options)there's also a lot of interesting web tools now:http://www.beepbox.co/
― Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 8 June 2016 21:36 (seven years ago) link
The only iOS device I own is my phone, but yeah I do have GarageBand on it.
― Sentient animated cat gif (kingfish), Tuesday, 14 June 2016 07:08 (seven years ago) link
Could you make the Pass the Mic sound clip downloadable?
― Sentient animated cat gif (kingfish), Saturday, 18 June 2016 04:46 (seven years ago) link
Ball-ywood Babylon: Step behind the scenes, as we interview the actors, directors, cinematographers, and foley artists behind the greatest crotch-hits in cinema history.
― how's life, Saturday, 18 June 2016 11:51 (seven years ago) link
This Amway Life theme:https://soundcloud.com/chiptheme/8bit-nina-totenbag-pyramid
Ball-ywood Babylon theme:https://soundcloud.com/chiptheme/8bit-ballywood
all clips now downloadable
― Philip Nunez, Saturday, 18 June 2016 14:14 (seven years ago) link
That's amazing! O_O
― how's life, Saturday, 18 June 2016 14:59 (seven years ago) link
Excellent. Thank you.
― Sentient animated cat gif (kingfish), Sunday, 19 June 2016 02:46 (seven years ago) link
Is there a rolling chiptune thread? There's the "songs that sound like earthbound" thread that sees a revive now and then, anyway I am very interested in chip tunes, I love that in many cases the music playing in an NES game was an afterthought, and in many other cases whomever was tasked with programming the music obviously put a lot of time and thought into it, and somehow quite a few of these computer programmers were also brilliant music composers, fascinating stuff!
Hearing the music from Mega Man 2, at the age of four, was almost certainly a formative experience for me
― it's sort of a layered stunt (sheesh), Sunday, 19 June 2016 03:14 (seven years ago) link
This Amway Life theme is spot on! Sadly, I know enough people involved in MLM schemes I could actually use it.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Sunday, 19 June 2016 08:02 (seven years ago) link
Garageband isn't a bad way to get into this -- just pick simpler sounding instruments and heavily quantize everything:https://soundcloud.com/chiptheme/beat-brat
Megaman music is really dense and I think it was designed to allow some tracks to drop out during game play to make room for sound effects, so it's a particularly challenging set of constraints to work with.I'd recommend starting with Ramones covers, then work your way up to Dr. Wily.
― Philip Nunez, Sunday, 19 June 2016 14:58 (seven years ago) link
That's another thing, that the NES could only handle so many (four?) tracks at a time, and the sfx would take up one or two of them during gameplay, and they'd have to account for that! That a punch or an explosion would just cancel out an entire track of your song quite all of a sudden, just tremendously interesting constraints to work with.
It's the limitations I think that elevates the "chip tune" into some kind of bizarre instrument unto itself, an instrument that only a handful of people learned how to play and then just as soon completely forgot about as soon as videogames could incorporate any kind of recorded music, for better or worse...
Philip, are you a chiptuner in a professional capacity?
― it's sort of a layered stunt (sheesh), Sunday, 19 June 2016 23:45 (seven years ago) link
haha no! unless some podcaster has a dumptruck full of squarespace money to unload...
also, the sample-based way of tracking is a bit different from the NES paradigm, though there was some crossover whenever you had space constraints, like fitting the music + samples to under 1K.but mostly it tended to be more maximalist:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAcWkfww30I
― Philip Nunez, Monday, 20 June 2016 15:28 (seven years ago) link
Philip, how should I credit you for the theme music?
― Sentient animated cat gif (kingfish), Monday, 25 July 2016 17:19 (seven years ago) link
The Mysterious Breakfast'r Cereal
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 26 July 2016 17:53 (seven years ago) link
Right then
― Sentient animated cat gif (kingfish), Wednesday, 27 July 2016 02:28 (seven years ago) link
Philip, are you still doing these?
― Google Murray Blockchain (kingfish), Saturday, 11 November 2017 08:52 (six years ago) link
as long as there are fictional podcasts without themes...
― Philip Nunez, Saturday, 11 November 2017 17:31 (six years ago) link
What about one about holding conversations with engineers located in the PacNW?
― Google Murray Blockchain (kingfish), Saturday, 11 November 2017 17:40 (six years ago) link
OK!https://soundcloud.com/chiptheme/8bit-rainy-day-singularity-conference
― Philip Nunez, Monday, 13 November 2017 18:21 (six years ago) link
Hey, that one sounds familiar. Thanks!
― Google Murray Blockchain (kingfish), Monday, 13 November 2017 20:35 (six years ago) link
I really want to do a podcast about video stores but I know I never will. if I heard a theme song, I could dream a little more vividly
― Simon H., Monday, 13 November 2017 20:37 (six years ago) link
I have an actual podcast with no theme tune, is it ineligible? https://centuriesofsound.wordpress.com/about/
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 13 November 2017 20:40 (six years ago) link
Video Stores are Still a Thing?
Lyrics:Video StoresAre still a thingYou owe 10 grand in late feeeeees
https://soundcloud.com/chiptheme/8bit-video-stores-are-still-a-thing
A centennial song for a century of sound:https://soundcloud.com/chiptheme/8bit-centennial-party
Though this old one might be more apropos, given that it spans both Daisy Bell (1892) and The Message (1982)?https://soundcloud.com/chiptheme/8bit-geriatric-rap
― Philip Nunez, Saturday, 18 November 2017 01:32 (six years ago) link
that rules philip thank you
― Simon H., Saturday, 18 November 2017 03:21 (six years ago) link
Brilliant, Philip, I love both of them, might make something with the second one...
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 18 November 2017 21:59 (six years ago) link