how to do chiptunes?

I've used the YMCK Magical 8bit Plug-in for all of my NES-era sounds. It's fun and simple to use but takes some tweaking to nab the kind of sounds that came from that era. Once you get into the swing of things, however, you'll find yourself instinctively moving the sliders to emulate whatever sound you're aiming for.

It's not perfect and you can tell when compared to true chiptunes which one is the updated version, but it works. The site is in Japanese, so good luck if you don't use any sort of translation feature.

http://www.ymck.net/magical8bitplug/index.html

all Chip-tune talk seems to be completely dominated by talk of 8-bit or previous synth chip technologies so i thought i'd inject some 16-bit chiptune info here

VOPM (emulation of the genesis fm synth chip, can find libaries ripped from Genesis games, unfortunately this aspect of VOPM only works in power PC mac or Intel windows mode, not intel OSX)

this track is 100% vopm made by a friend of mine, this album will be coming out soon on RLR for free

Adlib tracker

There's lots of .mod's, .it's, .XM's, .sid's to be found on the web. You can all open em up with Renoise (some of them will not sound exact though).

Check this one out for example:

http://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=54790

what a fooking tune :D

VST's and downing the samplerate on drums can get a real cheap and fake sound quickly. It's comparable to people who want an "analog sound" on a computer. If you want that oldschool 8bit chiptune sound, use shitty 8bit oneshot samples, 4 tracks and only pulses, triangles, saws, etc. and tracker patterncommands to create your tunes. :)

  On 8/10/2011 at 9:35 PM, Awepittance said:

all Chip-tune talk seems to be completely dominated by talk of 8-bit or previous synth chip technologies so i thought i'd inject some 16-bit chiptune info here

 

VOPM (emulation of the genesis fm synth chip, can find libaries ripped from Genesis games, unfortunately this aspect of VOPM only works in power PC mac or Intel windows mode, not intel OSX)

this track is 100% vopm made by a friend of mine, this album will be coming out soon on RLR for free

Adlib tracker

The chiptune scene here in melbourne seems to be gaining more 16bit acts, which is good because i'm one of them. And also good because i get a bit fatigued going to a chip gig and hearing constant gameboy music for 5 hours..

I've used Goattracker in the past, liked it but it's hard to get into ye.. Klystracker is really fun!!

I have an old pentium 2 with a SoundBlaster Pro (and three CD drives?) in it which I want to install DOS on so I can run Adlib Tracker II for real, but not really priority or anything.. :)

There's also nanoloop for Android and iPhone which is really good fun.

id rather just sample sounds from old 8 bit or 16 bit video games and incorporate them into real tracks. people who made these original tunes did so because they were limited by the chipset they were making sounds on. if they had the ability to make "real" tracks, or at least better sounding ones, they would have. the concept of limiting their sound back then would have been ludicrous, because back then there was no elevated status of "novel" approaches to making tunes, or any kind of culture around it. maybe im just old, but to limit yourself to making tunes that sound like they were made in the amiga/nes days or whatever just seems boring. not to mention in the big picture it's probably regressive to music as a whole because people focus less on the musical aspect and more on the gimmick. unless of course you have some other intention like fitting into a particular crowd, being recognized/paid attention to by a certain group of people.

its no more regressive than any other form of new music trying to capture an old style. You might as well lump in Broadcast, Focus Group or any other talented musician who makes music strictly in an old style a lot of the time

also i find the idea of incorporating 8-bit lead sounds from NES in modern electronic music extremely distasteful personally. A lot of the stuff on early 2000s that was like IDM / nes hybrids takes a lot of the fun and soul out of what original chip music so good.

  On 8/11/2011 at 1:03 AM, hardcode said:

id rather just sample sounds from old 8 bit or 16 bit video games and incorporate them into real tracks. people who made these original tunes did so because they were limited by the chipset they were making sounds on. if they had the ability to make "real" tracks, or at least better sounding ones, they would have. the concept of limiting their sound back then would have been ludicrous, because back then there was no elevated status of "novel" approaches to making tunes, or any kind of culture around it. maybe im just old, but to limit yourself to making tunes that sound like they were made in the amiga/nes days or whatever just seems boring. not to mention in the big picture it's probably regressive to music as a whole because people focus less on the musical aspect and more on the gimmick. unless of course you have some other intention like fitting into a particular crowd, being recognized/paid attention to by a certain group of people.

Where does that stop though? Should we also stop using synthesized versions of real instruments, breakbeats, artificial reverb/delay, etc? Why record music at all? It's just a fake version of the real thing.

From my experience in the chip scene, it's an aesthetic thing. Isn't all music essentially based on aesthetics?

It's dangerous to swing around the word fake on a forum dedicated to making electrical pulses sound like stuff.

  On 8/11/2011 at 1:31 AM, Cryptowen said:

It's dangerous to swing around the word fake on a forum dedicated to making electrical pulses sound like stuff.

+1

while i dont personally believe using 8 bit sounds is extremely distasteful, personally i wouldnt do it, im just saying i would rather that, than an entire chiptune. the whole notion that chiptunes are based on aesthetics is bullshit. its nothing more than a fad, just like scratching records.

5 years from now where will chiptunes be, they will all still sound the same its not like people now are doing some groundbreaking shit that will be revered for years to come

  On 8/11/2011 at 1:42 AM, hardcode said:

5 years from now where will chiptunes be, they will all still sound the same its not like people now are doing some groundbreaking shit that will be revered for years to come

where music goes is pretty unpredictable. that goes for music in general, and for all of those genres (and subgenres), too.

  On 8/11/2011 at 1:42 AM, hardcode said:

while i dont personally believe using 8 bit sounds is extremely distasteful, personally i wouldnt do it, im just saying i would rather that, than an entire chiptune. the whole notion that chiptunes are based on aesthetics is bullshit. its nothing more than a fad, just like scratching records.

 

5 years from now where will chiptunes be, they will all still sound the same its not like people now are doing some groundbreaking shit that will be revered for years to come

I agree in a sense that it's getting a bit samey, but you can say that about a lot of genres. There are some artists within the chiptune scene who are quite innovative (Cheapshot is a good example). And from my conversations with the guys who make purechip stuff, it's more than just a passing fad, it's a passion for them - they share ideas about modifying hardware, writing software etc. I highly doubt they're going to give it all up once some other flavour of the month electronic style comes along, like a lot of people seem to be doing with stuff like dubstep, juke, etc.

Make the square waves sing. :sup:

  On 8/11/2011 at 1:42 AM, hardcode said:

while i dont personally believe using 8 bit sounds is extremely distasteful, personally i wouldnt do it, im just saying i would rather that, than an entire chiptune. the whole notion that chiptunes are based on aesthetics is bullshit. its nothing more than a fad, just like scratching records.

 

5 years from now where will chiptunes be, they will all still sound the same its not like people now are doing some groundbreaking shit that will be revered for years to come

your comparison is somewhat comparable but how is scratching records just an aesthetic? It's been around longer than digital sampling and people still use it constantly

whatever.

  On 8/11/2011 at 1:17 AM, Awepittance said:

also i find the idea of incorporating 8-bit lead sounds from NES in modern electronic music extremely distasteful personally. A lot of the stuff on early 2000s that was like IDM / nes hybrids takes a lot of the fun and soul out of what original chip music so good.

I don't agree about that, I personnaly like to incorporate 8-bit square waves styles lead & melodies in my music. In fact, I think it's pretty neat. Of course, if the artists who made the tunes you're talking about back in 2000 sucked, then it have nothing to do with the "genre mixing" that was going on at the time.

  On 8/10/2011 at 9:35 PM, Awepittance said:

all Chip-tune talk seems to be completely dominated by talk of 8-bit or previous synth chip technologies so i thought i'd inject some 16-bit chiptune info here

 

VOPM (emulation of the genesis fm synth chip, can find libaries ripped from Genesis games, unfortunately this aspect of VOPM only works in power PC mac or Intel windows mode, not intel OSX)

this track is 100% vopm made by a friend of mine, this album will be coming out soon on RLR for free

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHP9ZJ41bT0

Adlib tracker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3AJE7eEDCw

Looks cool - do you know where VOPM can be downloaded from so I could make my own tunes?

www.micromusic.net

are there some midi file collections of great chiptunes so I can take a look at how the chord progressions are done?

  On 8/11/2011 at 3:51 PM, Promo said:

do you know where VOPM can be downloaded from so I could make my own tunes?

Yeah it's a free VSTi - http://www.geocities.jp/sam_kb/VOPM/ (yep Geocities still exists in Japan !)

Like all FM synths, it rock hard to program - I just move the sliders almost at random until I get something useful !

NB It's also quite unstable (Well it is on Buzz anyway) so save regular backups....

  On 8/11/2011 at 4:28 PM, mcbpete said:

  On 8/11/2011 at 3:51 PM, Promo said:

do you know where VOPM can be downloaded from so I could make my own tunes?

Yeah it's a free VSTi - http://www.geocities.jp/sam_kb/VOPM/ (yep Geocities still exists in Japan !)

 

Like all FM synths, it rock hard to program - I just move the sliders almost at random until I get something useful !

NB It's also quite unstable (Well it is on Buzz anyway) so save regular backups....

Cool! Does it have drums or is it just synthesis?

  On 8/11/2011 at 6:51 PM, Promo said:

  On 8/11/2011 at 4:28 PM, mcbpete said:

  On 8/11/2011 at 3:51 PM, Promo said:

do you know where VOPM can be downloaded from so I could make my own tunes?

Yeah it's a free VSTi - http://www.geocities.jp/sam_kb/VOPM/ (yep Geocities still exists in Japan !)

 

Like all FM synths, it rock hard to program - I just move the sliders almost at random until I get something useful !

NB It's also quite unstable (Well it is on Buzz anyway) so save regular backups....

Cool! Does it have drums or is it just synthesis?

it's an fm synth so you can synthesize your own fm drum sounds

Renoise + single-cycle waveforms + quadraSID for me. In fact, I like that combo even for non-chiptune stuff.

I usually use non-chip drum samples though. Not as big of a fan of the crushed drum sound as some.

  On 8/11/2011 at 9:24 PM, wahrk said:

Renoise + single-cycle waveforms + quadraSID for me. In fact, I like that combo even for non-chiptune stuff.

 

I usually use non-chip drum samples though. Not as big of a fan of the crushed drum sound as some.

the quadraSID was my first synth I got from this long synth list posted earlier and its exactly what I was looking for