Hi, i wanna make some chiptune music.
I know what sounds i should use.
But i dont know what other restrictions are and i love restrictions. It is main reason why i wanna compose some chiptunes, concentrate just on composition, not on sound, synthesis and not relying on plugins so much…
What i cant find are restrictions of composing.
I’ve heard about 4track concept. I like it but i am not sure what it really means with Renoise.
Does it mean that i should have just 4 tracks with one collumn each but i can use any number of instruments on them?
Or should be each instrument tied to one track?
And what about chords? They are created by three tracks? So one track is left for drums?
Or they are not used at all usually?
I tried to find more about 4track and other concepts of composing chiptunes music but i couldnt find anything that left me without question :-).
It would be very nice if somebody can help me :-).
Tell me about some concepts, i dont wanna create my own that isnt tested by all that years. :-)…
And what are your restrictions that make your music chiptune?
Originally chiptunes were tunes where the sound was generated by a simple oscillator, making very static and simple sounds (like sine waves, saw tooths or pulse/square). Sometimes an oscillator would be modulated by another oscillator, generating sounds that were slightly more complex (like the SID chips pulse width modulation). All this is possible within Renoise or via third party VSTi:s.
It’s a delicate matter trying to sound olschool but listenable, while not making the synthesis too complex. This is an example that, in my opinion, shows how far synthesis can been taken (to this date) without losing the “chiptune feeling”: http://mp3.ziphoid.com/SweetNSour.mp3
I’m making “chiptunes” using milkytracker and I’m restricting myself to 64 byte waveforms which imo will grant an oldschool sound, but I’m trying to make it more listable by layering sounds and using lots of tracks/polyphony. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSICoS1MhOM
Your mission is to find your own restrictions. Listen to other artists and decide which direction you want to go in terms of synthesis complexity and polyphony.
So you are saying that chiptunes are based mainly about used sounds, not about composition.
I am aware of that but because i wanna train composition and i am not very good in analyzing someone else track i wanna know about commons restrictions under which “the best” chiptunes were usually created.
If somebody knows about some manual, handbook or some string where history of chiptunes composition is described, i would be very thankfull.
Otherwise, this forum can be good for summarizing informations about it
Why Milky Tracker and not Renoise?
I know both and i know that Milky Tracker is more used for chiptunes (or famitracker) but i dunno why.
If you’ve heard of Famitracker then you realise it for writing music that’s playable on an actual NES right?
Take a look in the Famitracker manual and you’ll get a good idea of the limitations of that particular platform.
Chiptunes are partly defined by lack of polyphony as far as composition goes, for instance the NES or gameboy had 5 monophonic channels. A triangle wave generator, two variable width pulse generators, noise, and a really lofi sample channel that was usually used for percussion. The lack of polyphony means no sustained chords(well you could play one triad at a time but nothing else with it), so lots of arpeggiation, counterpoint, and riffs and a lot of the music was characteristically melodic where a lot of game soundtracks these days go out of their way to not be melodic…modulation effects are also very important when you have just a few simple sounds, really utilize vibrato and tremelo. Pokemon RedBlueYellow is one of my favorite gameboy examples, lots of good use of vibrato in that soundtrack especially
Radian: I didnt try it yet. I will look at the manual, thank you.
Shadowpsyc: Thank you! Great starting point. So chords are not needed to create great music :-).
So you are saying that chiptunes are based mainly about used sounds, not about composition.
Indeed. Regarding sounds and pitfalls, I think the fastest way of making chiptune sound non-chiptune is to use normal pads instead of arps or very simple pads. Too modern drum samples is also a give-away (unless lofi filtering). At least it doesn’t provide the style I associate with ‘chiptune’.
Why Milky Tracker and not Renoise?
I know both and i know that Milky Tracker is more used for chiptunes (or famitracker) but i dunno why.
The simple answer is that I’m used to Milkytracker. Doing the same in Renoise as I do in Milkytracker would take too much time due to bad workflow. Setting up vibsweep and detune delays is too much of a hassle, for instance. Also, the restrictions in Milkytracker are good and the possibilities of Renoise can easily tempt me to divert from the chiptune sound. Be careful of dsp effects - the general rule would probably be that more dsp effects can be used the more simple the arrangement is.
What is vibsweep and what do you mean with detuned delays? Sorry for the noobish questions
Vibsweep means the vibrato depth is increasing after time. XM has it as an instrument setting, and it’s possible to make in Renoise since V3 by using the pitch envelope.
Detuned delays means the “echoes” are slightly detuned (like ±8 cents). It will make them sound more spatious, especially when panned left and right.
Also don’t forget a lot of real chiptunes used actual synthesizers. There might well be some lo-fi going down due to… whatever… but maybe not re-pitched sample grunge/aliasing. The chip referred to is a synthesizer on a chip.
Vibsweep means the vibrato depth is increasing after time. XM has it as an instrument setting, and it’s possible to make in Renoise since V3 by using the pitch envelope.
Detuned delays means the “echoes” are slightly detuned (like ±8 cents). It will make them sound more spatious, especially when panned left and right.
