CRMVMT
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Hi, first post.

I've been going through the setup thread and seeing many photos of setups that include TR-626's, Arturia synths as well as many other "non-chiptune" gear with LSDJ'd Gameboys or other chiptune gear.

I myself am a mere tourist in chiptune music and have just recently discovered the wonders of Nanoloop 2.7. I have an approach where ideally anything should be combined with anything if it works sonically, but after doing some work with Nanoloop and trying to combine my Microbrute synth with it for leads or basses, I don't think it blends so easily into the Nanoloop sound realm aesthetically as I first thought it would. It easily sounds like it's been forced into the composition where Nanoloop's sounds sort of fall into place automatically. Or maybe I am just a poor user of my small mixer.

I do have a Boss Dr-667 (with 808/909 samples) which I will try with Nanoloop if I ever buy some sort of midi sync device. I am bound to think this would be a more successful combination, as I tend to go for these technoish kicks with a sharp thud and/or medium-longish transient with Nanoloop too. Or maybe an external drum machine would just proof itself useless as Nanoloop produces pretty nice drums itself. Of course the individual outputs would be a definite plus factor as Nanoloop won't hard pan anything else than noise channel (my synth channel bleeds into the other channel even when hard panned, is it my gameboy or the nanoloop itself..?)

What is your opinion, what works and what does not, in which context? I would especially like to hear some examples of tunes with TR-something drum sounds.

DeerPresident
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South Korea

You can make ANYTHING fit with chipsounds, MJP has even done flute and LSDJ, and it sounded fantastic! I think the big challenge comes in getting to know your gear REALLY well, and experimenting until it works. I read in your intro that you've only been Nanolooping for about a week, and I think you need a LOT more time to really get to know the software and it's sonic possibilities. Auxcide uses LSDJ and a bunch of synths (a lot of Minibrute) to great effect! Orloc/Coova uses Nanoloop pretty much exclusively and gets some sick sounds out of it, and if you are curious what Nanoloop and awholelotofothershit sound like together, go listen to one of the best chip albums ever. I think that Micro+Nano and some sort of drum machine would sound INCREDIBLE if done right! I am pretty keen to see what you come up with mate, good luck, and WELCOME to cm.o and the world of chipmusic!

CRMVMT
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DeerPresident wrote:

I think the big challenge comes in getting to know your gear REALLY well, and experimenting until it works. I read in your intro that you've only been Nanolooping for about a week, and I think you need a LOT more time to really get to know the software and it's sonic possibilities.

I agree, I am in awe of the possibilities of this little synth/sequencer and I am surprised how full sounding compositions it is possible to achieve with four channels and step-specified settings. I look forward to do and learn a lot of things with this. Maybe I am getting ahead of things with planning what other gear to include. I do however own a Microbrute and a few other things as well so the natural thing was to connect it all together and see what could ensue. I come from guitar background so this sort of very hands-on approach to making music comes naturally and I think ahead of how to jam and and control things in live situation. I just discovered solo/mute from Nano 2.7.1. that was not stated in the manual, so yet another "problem" has been solved without external gear smile


DeerPresident wrote:

Auxcide uses LSDJ and a bunch of synths (a lot of Minibrute) to great effect! Orloc/Coova uses Nanoloop pretty much exclusively and gets some sick sounds out of it, and if you are curious what Nanoloop and awholelotofothershit sound like together, go listen to one of the best chip albums ever. I think that Micro+Nano and some sort of drum machine would sound INCREDIBLE if done right! I am pretty keen to see what you come up with mate, good luck, and WELCOME to cm.o and the world of chipmusic!

I thank you for these recommendations and will definitely check them out.

Last edited by CRMVMT (Jun 29, 2014 12:10 pm)

e.s.c.
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IL, US

this track is tr626 + mGB + piggy tracker http://datathrash.bandcamp.com/track/no … ft-for-you
this is tr626 + yamaha cs01 + midines + DSI mopho + piggy tracker http://e-s-c.bandcamp.com/track/low-tide
this is a bent tr505 + nanoloop 2.3 http://e-s-c.bandcamp.com/track/505diving
this is nanoloop 1.3 + korg electribe ESX-1 http://e-s-c.bandcamp.com/track/grave-robbers-dream
and so it this http://e-s-c.bandcamp.com/track/sunday-morning
this is midines + Yamaha cs01 + DSI Mopho + bent Yamaha RX17 + piggy tracker + bent tr505 + tr626 http://e-s-c.bandcamp.com/track/blazes-in-the-night-sky
and this is midines + bent tr505 + dsi mopho + piggy tracker http://e-s-c.bandcamp.com/album/my-mechanical-heart

dont think i ever did a track with just 2.x & the tr626 though, not that it wouldnt work

Last edited by e.s.c. (Jun 29, 2014 12:44 pm)

Fudgers
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Indiana

I think a large part of this feeling may come from how you are mixing your tracks.

Nanoloop on the gameboy is a real all-in-one package and it ends up doing a lot of the mixing for you. When you add sounds externally you've gotta do some reevaluation, even within the gameboy, about the volume of your individual tracks.

I'm sure there are plenty of people here who disagree, but I feel like when you're trying to mix multiple sound sources in a recording its pretty necessary to multitrack each of your gameboy tracks into a DAW or something, and mix them precisely and individually. It's less of a purist approach to recording chip stuff, but I feel like a lot of people are still after a really polished sound with their chipmusic.

Last edited by Fudgers (Jun 29, 2014 5:57 pm)

Jellica
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England

ive got my DMG sync'd to monotribe and volca drums using the noise channel for analogue pulse sync.

sounds great n nice n messy. i like it a messy.

but yeah chip anything can be difficult to mix with other sounds and instruments, just a case of experimenting more :)

Last edited by Jellica (Jun 29, 2014 6:00 pm)

e.s.c.
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IL, US

i never multitracked the gameboy or nes parts on any of my stuff.. practice on setting the levels and some EQ/compression did the job fine
in fact, only that first track did i do any multitracking whatsoever, the rest was straight out of the mixer, through a  compressor and into the sound card

Last edited by e.s.c. (Jun 29, 2014 6:23 pm)

Fudgers
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Indiana

maybe I came off a bit strong, there's a lot of ways to get a good sound.

I just think multi-tracking is a good suggestion for somebody having mix problems who may have come from a different musical background.

CRMVMT
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Got myself a Roland TR-8 in exchange to another piece of gear.... oops! Nanolooped GB goes into the external input, beefed up with some OD from a tiny Boss BX-4 mixer. Takes some learning to balance things up since TR-8's kicks can be enormous. 909 HH's go well together with Nanoloop when sent thru a Mooer Lo-Fi machine. Can be synced by ear, but I guess I'll go for a LSDJMC2 or a computer clock sync in the future.

Last edited by CRMVMT (Jul 13, 2014 4:36 pm)

e.s.c.
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IL, US

using nanoloop with prohardware is really about the only time i see the value in using a prosound modded game boy...every few decibels of gain helps.. you can also boost the game boy signal by running through mixers with per channel input gain, im about to order one of these in the next few weeks, looks like it would do the trick
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=1 … =2#reviews

The One Electronic
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Detroit

ayy lemme know how it is, I was thinking of picking one up to use for when I have to fly out to shows

e.s.c.
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IL, US

will do

CRMVMT
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Looks very nice. EQ is a def bonus. Shame that Nanoloop 2.7. cannot hard pan the mono synths...