Peshti
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So I have tried trackers before but I always fail with learning them because I come from a modern DAW I guess.

I have reached quite a good level in my modern DAW when it comes to my other genre that I’m into.

Anyways to me Renoise looks the best so I have decided to learn it for chiptune. Only problem is I don’t know how to make the sounds at all. I have tried loading a VST but then all the effects commands doesn’t seem to work and I guess it’s because it’s a VST.

So my guess is that people that make chiptune in Renoise create the sound inside Renoise as a native sound so all the effect commands work.

Am I right? And if I am how do I make these sounds?

Thanks!

nitro2k01
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Sweeeeeeden

There's a million ways to skin a cat etc, but one good way is with looped waveforms. Go into the sample editor. Click create. The standard settings should be good. Use the pen tool to draw something specific like a square wave or a sawtooth wave. Or something random. Then use effect commands. You may also want to add some drum samples for variety. Also look into adding effects, both as insert and send.

Depending on what you want to achieve, there are a lot of tools you could try.
Famitracker for a NES.
MilkyTracker for mods, ie Amiga/DOS style sound. This is what Renoise was loosely based on originally.
Deflemask or Furnace which are multi system trackers.

And yes, it's a different way of thinking, which comes from a place of using constrained resources efficiently, as opposed to just adding one more channel as you could in a modern DAW.

Peshti
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So I seem to be right into thinking that most people don’t use a vst for chiptune in renoise? I don’t even know how to create those sounds. Like I understand that I should draw a shape in the sample editor but not how to draw a specific sound if that makes sense.

Last edited by Peshti (Jul 23, 2023 7:30 pm)

ryba
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Czech Republic

Ah..
Yep. Most of Chiptune is based on pure unfiltered simple waveforms:
Pulse (50% duty cycle, 25% duty cycle, 75% duty cycle, 12,5% duty cycle)
Sawtooth
Triangle
Noise
google how these waveforms looks and draw them and loop them (ok, I don't count noise, cause.. I would be a little tricky...)
that's your starting point
now use envelope on them and use effects like pitchbend/sweep, vibrato, tremolo, arpeggios