Nullatrum wrote:What do you mean with "wave" channels? isn't that a little redundant. Do you just mean any type of wave can be made there?
Yeah, basically. It means that the waveform is highly customizable, i.e. can actually be programmed to playback recorded sound samples (snare drum, vocal, etc).
I would invite you to explore chiptune from various hardware sources. sandneil's list is good.
Gameboy: check out artists like Trey Frey, roboctopus, nitro2k01, BitShifter, Danimal Cannon, e-s-c, Alberto "Joe McAlby" Gonzalez, this: https://cheapbeatsmusic.bandcamp.com/al
herent-fix for an idea of different approaches for using Gameboy
NES: classic video game soundtracks, Fearofdark's "Coffee Zone", 2a03 Puritans, the Famitracker forums, that one guy... uh what's his name.. Virt Kaufman? I'm sure there are plenty that I'm overlooking... but that's what comes to me off the top of my head.
C64: idk... Rob Hubbard, Tim Follin? Not really up on who is pouring their heart and soul into C64 sid music these days.
ZX Spectrum: Yerzmyey.
ZX Beeper: MR BEEP
Genesis: Jredd, classic video game soundtracks (Outrun, Sonic, etc)
Check out battleofthebits.org and listen to random stuff from there. They cover a ton of chiptune platforms
Also, NES can make use of expansion chips that increase the number of channels available beyond just 5. personal favorites of mine are the VRC6 chip and the MMC5 chip.
VRC6 adds 2 pulse channels with a wider range of width options, plus 1 saw wave channel, for a total number of 8 channels available to work with. MMC5 adds 3 pulse channels that sound identical to the stock channels, again expanding you to 8 channels of sound to work with.
Additionally, some artists utilizing the program LSDj to produce music on Gameboy, may choose to link 2 or more gameboys together.
The sky's the limit!
Edit: Also, your example video of that Bach 8-bit thing... sounds like a lazy "take a midi of a song, load it into GXSCC or some other '8-bit' soundfont, export audio" deal. I personally wouldn't trust any youtube video calling itself an "8-bit cover/remake/remix" as something to follow the example of...
Last edited by SketchMan3 (Jan 7, 2016 8:36 pm)