So I do this sorta thing on the ChipWin group but I figured maybe I could bring it here.
Why do you choose chiptune as your means for creating music? Do you just like the sound? Is it the software? The hardware? Or is there more to it?
-Sam
Offline
Finland
I'm a two-parter. When I was very little, my oldest brother would watch Amiga demos with me and we'd listen to the music and stuff. So naturally I remember a lot of those tunes to this day, but mostly subconsciously. So they left some kind of mark on me for sure.
But I grew to love chiptune specifically composed on Game Boy around 2006 or so when I was looking for electronic musicians on Myspace, that's my conscious choice LOL.
So the chiptune I love and admire, mostly the demoscene stuff is different from the stuff I love to create, mostly because of the insane skills one would have to possess to be able to do demoscene-quality tunes. 
So in short: to answer the question: one part "I can't help myself" and one part of "Game Boy fucking rules." equals to my reason for making and enjoying chiptunes.
Offline
Melbourne
I started with FT2 from a PC Format cover disc. It came with a bunch of demoscene MOD and XM files that I listened to religiously for a few years. I didn't really know what chiptunes were back then, I just started making music with FT2 and then eventually other trackers. I still prefer MOD/XM music over most stuff made on LSDJ/nanoloop, although some of the nl2 stuff has been getting pretty innovative these days.
tldr: I don't really like to listen to a lot of "trad" chip stuff but enjoy making it for the challenge. Fleshbrain fkn rules though.
Offline
Brunswick, GA USA
Why not?
For me, it was a combination of nostalgia and being in a certain place at a certain time. I stopped making MIDI+Synths music and learned trackers, finding I prefer the way trackers handle and display notes.
Last edited by chunter (Jun 7, 2016 10:30 am)
Offline
Part nostalgia, I grew up with various home computers, with their respective video game musics and demoscene demos. Chiptune also tends to have a nice adrenaline videogame rush feeling to it. On the other hand I just like weird and eerie soundscapes, whether they're generated with some modular synth monstrosity or ancient computer hardware.
Also I have a lot of respect for 80's chip design. They were sure clever with the limited resources they had and given that they had to do everything by hand, they achieved a lot.
Offline
Edmonton, Alberta
Why? (My answer is probably a touch autobiographical with some pretty large omissions for the sake of brevity.)
I'm an insufferable nerd who spent too many hours of his youth playing NES/SNES games, so chiptune music naturally appeals to me. Though, in my (probably uncommon) position, my passion with music began with learning how to play guitar and composing stuff long before I ever opened a tracker (eleven years ago). I got into writing chiptune last year because of my morbid curiosity in what I was capable of. People kept telling me that my (non-chip) songs sounded like they came straight out of Mega Man games. I was also especially inspired to try because I heard the Shovel Knight soundtrack around May 2015 and it completely changed my conception of what chiptune could sound like. So I thought, "okay, let's see if I actually know how to write that kind of music".
As it turned out, I found Famitracker incredibly easy to use. Every small technical hurdle I was able to leap over just gave me more confidence to do bigger things. Writing stuff that inspires me also hasn't been a challenge. I'm not gloating, I'm just not experiencing the weird reaction some people get when they listen to their own music and think they suck. I'm not afraid to say I love my own stuff. Whenever I listen to my older work, I think in upward trends of what I can improve musically or technically. What is sobering: the process of finding people who'll even give two shits about what I've made. I've made some good friends who do care, and I make it my priority to support what they do as well.
To ultimately and honestly answer why I got into chiptune, I got into this because I'm an artist who's evolving in an effort to find an audience. Someday, I will find one, but it remains to be seen if it's within the chipscene.
(I realize that's a problem many of us face. But hey, I'm just saying how it is.)
Last edited by hoffman_iv (Jun 7, 2016 12:11 pm)
Offline
Atlanta, GA
I got into it by means of it being a cheap entry point and I like tracker interfaces. I've since moved on to trackers, ableton live, and nanoloop (mostly the latter) and I've also moved on to spending quite a bit more money than I originally intended on doing. I don't regret any of it as I quite love the sounds.
Offline
Melbourne, Australia
I guess I love the limitations, and getting cool sounds despite them
And I love that, to an extent, I don't have to worry so much about the aesthetic of my music
(which wouldn't be true if i did sample based stuff but w/e)
Offline
Dresden. Germany
For me it started with being just a means of doing something creative, while at the same time allowing me to somehow express myself. I kept at it because it's tons of fun, because the gameboysound is just great and also the feedback I've gotten always kept me going.
Offline
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ el ass dee j
herr_prof wrote:
For the ladies.
That was the correct answer.
Offline
Naptown
yeah it's a fun creative challenge with limitations and all that. but i've found i actually want to make music that appeals to a wider audience. which probably seems contradictory given that chip music is somewhat niche. but people my age are familiar with game boys and 80s video game sound since we grew up with all that, and nostalgia is big these days. so if the music is any good, people will be into it. it helps if they can dance to it too.
lastly it's so simple to lie in bed with a game boy and create on a whim, there's no excuse not to do it.
Offline
Clermont-Ferrand, France
Simple : I suck at composing, but I suck less when I have limitations.
Searching through thousands of sounds inside infinite libraries isn't for me.
And yeah, the nostalgia thing.
Offline
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ el ass dee j
donotrunwithpixels wrote:
For the pizza.
The correcter answer.
Offline
Joliette, QC, Canada
Surely because chiptune is the mix of the 2 things in life that avoided myself to commit suicide !