… a good idea yes or no?
If so, what would it actually improve?
I did that once and it was really fun, I have to say, because I really love that sid tune. But you have to do by ear, since every sidtune came with custom player code, so there isn’t a note converter AFAIK. The notes of fast c64 arps can be hard to hear exactly.
So I rendered all three voices of the tune with the awesome Mac osx sidplay (which is quite advanced over any Windows version). Then I slowed down the voices by one octave. I did not use phrases, but instead entered everything directly on the pattern, with a high LPB, I think 16.
I wouldn’t say that it helps to improve though, but maybe good to learn some pattern commands. And maybe regarding a good mixing of chiptune arps, quite different from normal mixing.
why not, if it helps improving not only your current boredom situation, it will improve the speed you can enter notes with and going from ear in the melody and arps, finding intervals on the keyboard, such skills you can only improve by actually doing tunes. SID tunes are probably better suited than the avery pop song, because it takes production out of the equation, mostly have very melodic features but only 3 voices, moar notes to track down than with whats up the charts…
Nah I don’t do it out of boredom, I’m pretty busy with all kinds of stuff atm. I just want to improve everything about my music making really.
And I wouldn’t touch a pop song with a 10-meter pole, although there is one pop album I do like.