Alister
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ive been listening to a lot of chiptune lately and me and my three other friends want to start a chiptune band with a style like anamanaguchi's [I play the guitar, we also have a bassist, a piano player and a drummer]. Were all musical and weve made music of other genres but chiptune is a new one to us.

I want to be start making chiptune songs with synths but when I look on tutorials etc I get words thrown at me that I don't understand like DAW and trackers. Can I someone explain to me what I need to understand and what I can use to make chiptunes?

Thanks dudes

herr_prof
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Try this:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/spoon-fed

Sorry I mean:

http://famitracker.com/downloads.php

Last edited by herr_prof (Mar 1, 2012 5:46 pm)

Alister
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Ive seen famitracker before, but what is it actually for?

e.s.c.
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IL, US

Writing nes tracks, files made in it can play back on an nes or famicom console and it emulates the Nintendo sound capabilities/limitations

PULSELOOPER
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São Paulo, Brazil
Alister wrote:

Ive seen famitracker before, but what is it actually for?

C'mon man, there is a ABOUT session in the first page you see on famitracker's URL.

BR1GHT PR1MATE
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BOSTON

for common terms like daw and tracker, google is your friend

as for "how to make chiptune", there are many many many ways, all of them with specific advantages and disadvantages depending on what exactly you want to do. with most of these options there are pretty steep learning curves attached,  and hardware investments to be made, so do some research, listen to artists associated with the different systems/methods, and play with a bunch of techniques before you go all band style

as for anamanaguchi, the reason their music is awesome and notable isn't just that they "used chiptune sounds with a band", it's that they are EXPERT LEVEL tracker musicians... combined with an awesome band. It's something that takes a lot of time. their method, I believe, is that Peter (or occasionally someone else) writes a ballin ass track in famitracker (NES tracker software for PC) and then they load that track onto a powerpak NES cart (a special NES flash cartridge) for live performance. and they they play, as a band, along with the NES track, triggering different song changes and various things using the NES controller.

this works for them really well, because unlike using VSTs or just loading "chiptune-esque" samples into a keyboard, they get all of the sonic details that makes chiptune "chiptune": bends, slides, phasing, tons of channel changes, intricate noise channel effects, etc., rather than just "band playing with square wave keyboard sounds".

eh, food for thought

Last edited by BR1GHT PR1MATE (Mar 1, 2012 6:18 pm)

akira^8GB
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New York City

Alister
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BR1GHT PR1MATE wrote:

for common terms like daw and tracker, google is your friend

as for "how to make chiptune", there are many many many ways, all of them with specific advantages and disadvantages depending on what exactly you want to do. with most of these options there are pretty steep learning curves attached,  and hardware investments to be made, so do some research, listen to artists associated with the different systems/methods, and play with a bunch of techniques before you go all band style

okay, so what should I start with? I mean, Ive still got a snes somewhere but I don't want to dive into some complicated program that requires me to disassemble the snes and take the sound chip or something then realise that i have no idea what im doing

Vile
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San Diego

SNES + Modded Super Gameboy + LSDJ .......done. You can get the software of LSDJ from http://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/ you can get the 64M cart to put this program on from http://store.kitsch-bent.com/ or http://nonelectronics.com/ both of which can preload the cart with LSDJ if you have proof you've paid for it, and you can get a modded Super Gameboy from http://thursdaycustoms.bigcartel.com/pr … y-for-snes    ......or hell even I can mod a Super Gameboy for you, +parts and labor, if you're already got one laying around. If you get something like Famitracker first it will help you understand a program like LSDJ though without having to spend any cash right away. If you like something you can take to a gig, getting a modded Gameboy and LSDJ is one of the easiest ways to go.

Last edited by Vile (Mar 1, 2012 7:01 pm)

egr
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Abandoned on Fire
Vile wrote:

SNES + Modded Super Gameboy + LSDJ .......done. You can get the software of LSDJ from http://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/ you can get the 64M cart to put this program on from http://store.kitsch-bent.com/ or http://nonelectronics.com/ both of which can preload the cart with LSDJ if you have proof you've paid for it, and you can get a modded Super Gameboy from http://thursdaycustoms.bigcartel.com/pr … y-for-snes    ......or hell even I can mod a Super Gameboy for you, +parts and labor, if you're already got one laying around. If you get something like Famitracker first it will help you understand a program like LSDJ though without having to spend any cash right away. If you like something you can take to a gig, getting a modded Gameboy and LSDJ is one of the easiest ways to go.

Out of curiosity why suggest "modding" right off the bat?  Neither the Super Gameboy or Gameboy require any mods to find out if you're interested in using them or not.

BR1GHT PR1MATE
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BOSTON

uhhh... nothing mentioned here requires you to disassemble your super nintendo. famitracker is a program for PC. its free to download.

you may be confused as to why you are getting hostility from some of the natives here. it is because chiptune historically has been a heavily DIY community. most of the people/artists on this forum have been experimenting and playing with these things, for fun, loooooong before it was "a thing". now that some artists are becoming visible in the music world, there is a steady influx of new people on these forums asking people to give them step by step instructions so they can emulate popular artists, which annoys all the people who spent years learning these things on their own.

chiptune isn't like guitar center: there are no sales people telling you "you need this or that easy-to-use $500 product to make chiptune and some monster cables." it is a sound aesthetic, and therefore requires one to explore what it is for themselves.

thats probably the best information i can give

Last edited by BR1GHT PR1MATE (Mar 1, 2012 7:08 pm)

egr
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Abandoned on Fire

Damn, Pr1mate serves up more "Quotable Quotes" than Alex Trebek.

Vile
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San Diego

Because the modded ones allow you to hook them up to a mixer. That's why I said Famitracker was better to get first.....

Bit Shifter
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Brooklyn NY US

Nothing stops you from hooking an off-the-shelf SNES's audio outputs up to a mixer.

danimal cannon
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buffalo, NY
egr wrote:

Damn, Pr1mate serves up more "Quotable Quotes" than Alex Trebek.

roboctopus
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Madison, Alabama
Vile wrote:

Because the modded ones allow you to hook them up to a mixer. That's why I said Famitracker was better to get first.....

You can still run a stock DMG into a mixer though... Seriously, there's no need to mod a DMG right off the bat.

Alister likes Anamanaguchi.  Don't they use famitracker for a lot of chip parts?

Just download famitracker.  Watch some youtube tutorials on how to get started, then play around with it.  Boom.