Booze
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France

Hello everyone,

I'm all new to the chiptune scene and I have ordered a cartridge with LSDJ for my Game Boy. Waiting for it, I'm trying to make some tunes on my LSDJ rom with an emulator on my mac. (Gambatte) I've been through the whole LSDJ Operating Manual and I already stuck on a problem :

For what I've understood, LSDJ uses 4 channels : 2 pulse channels, 1 wave channel and 1 noise channel. Which brings this question to my mind : If I want to make a song with, for example, 1 lead, 1 bass line and some chords, I'd have to use 2 sync LSDJs right ? Since I only have 2 pulse channels, I could only make lead + bass line, or bass line + chords, or lead + chords.

Sorry if this has already been discussed before, and sorry about my poor english skills. Thanks in advance for your answers !

J3wel
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...you can put as many instruments as you want in each channel though. So you could for instance put drums and bassline in wav channel and pulse 1 being lead and chords and pulse 2 just being chords. You can play around with it as much as you want!

Also.. i would suggest using BGB rather than gambatte. Bgb is just flat out better :')

Timbob
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I'd advice you to watch a lot of YouTube lsdj tutorials. There are some tricks to overcome those limitations in a way smile

Booze
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France

OK, thanks for your advices !
Didn't think this way... And I guess I'm gonna watch YT tutorials too !

sandneil
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the wav channel can be used for melodic instruments and is basically like a third and even better pulse channel, so you can do lead+bass+chords across those three simply

Kris k
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BK

Also to clarify what J3wel said- yes you can use as many instruments as you like in a channel, but only one note will play at once. For instance you can put your kicks on the downbeats and bass on the upbeats but you cannot play both the kick and the bass at the exact same time. Just want to make sure that's clear. You can do chords within one channel, but again they'd have to be arpeggiated so the notes in the chord technically dont play at the same time,

Hope that helps.

The One Electronic
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Detroit

One of the most exciting challenges of LSDJ is the limitations it puts on you and how to circumvent them.  Making super dense LSDJ tracks that trick people into thinking you used more than one Gameboy is very rewarding!

Shameless plug example: https://soundcloud.com/sky_box/effervescent-iridescent

ForaBrokenEarth
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Nottingham, UK

LSDJ learning goes in 3 stages:
1. Learning how to use each channel.
2. Learning how to juggle channels to cram loads in!
3. Learning to make it sound like you're not cramming when you are, and learning to sound like you're cramming when you're not.

Also WAV is the most flexible tool in LSDJ and you'll eventually use it for everything.

Last edited by ForaBrokenEarth (Mar 30, 2016 5:05 pm)

Timbob
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Learning Wav channel steps:
1: ha, the wav channel does whoouaap
2: Gheez, that wav channel makes no sense... I'll just use samples
3: omg, I can see forever!

egr
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Abandoned on Fire
Timbob wrote:

Learning Wav channel steps:
1: ha, the wav channel does whoouaap
2: Gheez, that wav channel makes no sense... I'll just use samples
3: omg, I can see forever!

Booze
Offline
France
Kris k wrote:

Also to clarify what J3wel said- yes you can use as many instruments as you like in a channel, but only one note will play at once. For instance you can put your kicks on the downbeats and bass on the upbeats but you cannot play both the kick and the bass at the exact same time. Just want to make sure that's clear. You can do chords within one channel, but again they'd have to be arpeggiated so the notes in the chord technically dont play at the same time,

Hope that helps.

Yep. I just watched Pandastar's tutorial on YT where she's showing how she's using wave channel for both bass and kick. Thanks for your explanation !

The One Electronic wrote:

One of the most exciting challenges of LSDJ is the limitations it puts on you and how to circumvent them.  Making super dense LSDJ tracks that trick people into thinking you used more than one Gameboy is very rewarding!

I guess you're right ! I'm already a musician/composer but I'm really new to chiptune, and I find it really appealing to work with a limited palette of sounds. Is Skybox your project ? Because if so, I just preordered your album today !

ForaBrokenEarth & Timbob > Your advices sound like a prophecy... Thanks for your explanations !

Edit :
BTW J3wel : I'm on OSX, that's why I'm using Gambatte !

Last edited by Booze (Mar 29, 2016 10:48 pm)

The One Electronic
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Detroit

Thank you! it me heart