^ this

GBXSCC

If you're that interested in doing a big cover project, what about using specifically a game boy interests you?
The joy is in the frustration.

Pretty much all this.

Whenever I want to go about a cover (or arrangement) I usually listen to the original song, analyze the midi file (if available), figure out how I want to organize the chains and phases and think back at how the original song is structured, and work on each channel individually. Though if I decide to take the original song and arrange it my way (while utilizing the methods above), I usually think and ask questions as to what direction I want to take the arrangement (i.e. "Do I want to slow it down a bit and make it much more expressive?", "If the drum track in the original song isn't all that, do I want to go all out in the noise channel?", "Should I mess around with the placement of the notes within the lead melody and add some wobbles", etc.)

The "100 hours" will fly by. I find myself messing around with new table combinations, different grooves, and instrument parameters as I'm going about covering/arranging the said song. Whatever I learned after the fact, I would apply some of the methods I picked up to an original song. : )

daw -> arduinoboy -> LSDJ
???

Use chipsounds in a daw

Actually, I've never heard about a tool to convert midi to gbs or sav for lsdj.
But when I'm doing covers on LSDJ, it's basically to learn how music is structured, why does it sound good, etc. and I feel like I'm learning a lot. The 100 hours you will pass inputting, they will not be wasted if you want to learn from your favorites bands (I presume if you want to do such a big project, you will take songs and musics you're loving).

no

Is there a simple way to load a large amount of notes into LSDJ from a midi file?

About to take on a big cover project, and wondered if there is any way I could save the 100s of hours inputting...