Favorite instruments to compose on: GO! (Page 3 of 3)

no that's a launchpad

this is a thing of beauty

and the same price as a used car

My starting instrument depends on the project, and in fact, starting from different instruments is how I try to introduce variety in my work.

More often than not, I'm just using the qwerty keys of the tracker.  The samples may or may not be tuned correctly.

Other times, I've used a chinese 12-string guitar (mine has a pickup glued to the soundhole):

Or the easy sequencer+faux kaoss pad of DS-10:

guitar, usually my very simple Yamaha EG-112, and then copy out my most favourite of melodies from the day on one of my GB Cameras, and then just create something juicy either by using LSDJ or a varied collection of VSTs.

What cartridges do people prefer to use with a gameboy? I'm thinking about getting into making chiptunes with a nanoloop or lsdj and I'm wondering what is most reccomended. I know the lsdj is discontinued but there are always some on e bay. Which one should I buy ?

I always find myself composing either on my roland sh-201 or my acoustic upright piano. I was trained on the piano and have been playing forever, so I feel like thats the one instrument that I can truly doodle around on without really using my intellect and just "feeling" things out.

That said, I think theres certainly something to be said for composing outside of your comfort medium or instrument, as we all have compositional habits when it comes to using whatever instrument we've been trained on. (I for example i have a couple key signatures that i refuse to compose in if I'm using the piano be cause the fingering drives me nuts).

To that end, even though I  prefer piano as  an instrument or fast/milkytracker for sequencing, stepping out of my comfort zone and working with stuff that is really off the beaten path (i.e. nanoloop) can really be helpful for breaking out of a rut.