Considering that our friend here has been told, basically to get a Greyboy and LSDJ, I'm not sure how helpful that really is.
It's like going to guitarmusic.org and asking "how do I start guitar" and being told to buy a Fender Stratocaster.
Myself, when it comes to Fender classic guitars, I'm a fan of the Telecaster sound. But really, given a free choice, I'd get an Epiphone Coronet.
But fact is, I'm really happy I never spent much money on buying a guitar. I spent $400 on an OK acoustic guitar, after trying a few of them in my price range, and it turned out that guitar wasn't for me.
When I was in junior high, I took music. The teacher had older students play all the instruments for us and answer our questions on how learning it is like. We were then given an hour to try them out, and a week to make our choice. I never thought I'd enjoy playing the clarinet that much, and would've never known without that process. I would've probably picked the violin, and drop it for the same reason I dropped guitar.
More to the point here :
Greyboy+LSDJ isn't all there is to chipmusic.
There are a few questions you need to ask yourself before you go and make a choice as to where to start. If you start with something that doesn't suit you, chances are you're just gonna drop it all.
1- What kind of soundset do you like?
Listen to all sorts of different artists, not so much for their compositions, but for the sound of the "instruments".
If you fall in love with specific sounds, go check what gear they're using.
You'll soon find that a lot of what you hear isn't "pure" chip.
Some people do most of the work from the original hardware.
Some make their own sample from original hardware, but use modern software to bring everything together.
Some use trackers on modern computers.
Some use more modern ways of composing music with modern computers.
Some use original outdated computers that don't have a chip but a soundcard, but have a very distinct sound.
Some use old keyboards.
Some circuit-bend new keyboards.
Etc...
2-Does this way of writing music suits you?
As you've seen, there are many ways to go and make "chipmusic".
There are even more interfaces available to you.
If you fall in love with the ZX Spectrum, there won't be that many choices available to you, so make sure you'd feel comfortable tracking on those old beasts, by trying a tracker via an emulator, for instance.
However, if you decide to go with modern software and modern computers, there are a lot more options available to you and you might want to try out a few demos before you spend too much money and time trying to learn something that doesn't work with you just because you were told it was the "best' software.
I'm sure actual chipmusicians can improve on my post and give our friend here a couple more pointers.
**Edited some obvious typos out**
Last edited by George (Apr 10, 2011 7:43 pm)
No rush