KVR Audio

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Sat Dec 13, 2014 7:26 pm

I'm making a chiptune album. No VST instruments or FX, just pure tracker minimalism. This will probably be the opening track. I'm having so much fun and I don't even have to open my DAW!

http://soundcloud.com/sendy/supernatura ... -much-done

Made in FAMItracker, with the Namco 163 expansion, giving me the following monophonic channels:

2 pulse waves - with 3 selectable duty cycles (actually 4, but two are phase equivalent)
1 4-bit triangle wave - no volume control for this
1 pitched noise channel - with 15 colours of noise
1 DPCM sample channel - no volume control, limited pitch, and it messes with the volumes of the other channels and sounds very bad (I only used it for the orch hit in this track)
2 4-bit wavetable channels - with 8 or 16 arbitrary, drawable waveforms that you can step through for crude sweeps. I use this for 16-step PWM, fake filter sweeps, sync effects - pretty much anything you can imagine and draw!

From these crude ingredients, there's much fun to be had. I dare say, by reducing the possibilities available to you, you can truely experience how limitless music is. It's almost asif the endless possibilities of the VST environment obscure the endless possibilities that exist in music, a priori. (anyone who composes at a piano will possibly know what I mean)

Anyone looking to get into chiptunes, feel free to ask me questions!

Aleatoriac · Post by **Aleatoriac** » Sat Dec 13, 2014 8:15 pm

Love the arp sound that comes in around 3:00 to 3:10 and the lead just after that. I've never really heard music like this until recently. It's very catchy and makes you want to move! If I start adding chiptune-ish sounds in my own work... it's all your fault!!!

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Sat Dec 13, 2014 9:37 pm

That's blame I'm willing to carry

Thanks for listening! Somehow, this did turn out quite dancey, more so than my usual excursions into DAW-land. Not sure why, but the chiptune aesthetic often makes me try making/listening to music that I don't normally get into that much. For example - there's a lot of r+b tinged acid jazz style chiptunes that get quite popular (one was even sampled by some commercial rap dickhead, he ripped the whole song, added an 808 beat and lyrics+girls, and instant profit). Not a style I'd normally listen to, but when it's chiptune, I love it.

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Sun Dec 14, 2014 1:55 am

Quite catchy! Lots of good hooks.

Unfortunately, I don't enjoy chiptune sounds. I would like to hear this redone with warm analog retro synths.

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Sun Dec 14, 2014 2:31 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvCeQhfv7dM

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Sun Dec 14, 2014 2:05 pm

Frantz wrote:Quite catchy! Lots of good hooks.

Unfortunately, I don't enjoy chiptune sounds. I would like to hear this redone with warm analog retro synths.

Funny you should mention that, this track is actually a remake of a tune I made on the Amiga when I was at school. Obviously, since I'm a lot older now, my arranging skills are a little better, so I prefer this version, but it's true to the source material.

The problem with VST environment is that it's hard to get those soaring portamento leads, but I may have a go at a remake of the remake, by either redoing it from scratch in Cubase, or importing the individual tracks and replacing some parts with VST synths, and running others through some filters etc to take the edge off a bit.

Certainly I can understand chiptune sounds are very bright and artificial sounding, and an acquired taste

Thanks for listening!

Tricky-Loops · Post by **Tricky-Loops** » Sun Dec 14, 2014 2:23 pm

Funny chiptune, remembers me a bit of Lemon Jelly...

Makes me wanna dream of my old AMIGA 500 in the 90ies...

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Sun Dec 14, 2014 3:01 pm

Sendy wrote: Funny you should mention that, this track is actually a remake of a tune I made on the Amiga when I was at school.

That explains the 80s style "orchestra" hits. I think the whole thing would sound great Diva-fied.

I got started with Music-X on Amiga. It was ahead of it's time.

Genetic_Junk · Post by **Genetic_Junk** » Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:55 pm

Great composition and sounds! What is the VST limitation for the soaring portamento leads?

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Sun Dec 14, 2014 7:22 pm

Thanks

Well, in a tracker you have instantaneous control of portamento, vibrato, volume, etc, wheras in a DAW like Cubase you have to draw curves or use a fixed portamento time as set in the synth. It doesn't help that there are no markers on the graph you have to draw for pitchbends, and it can all get a bit messy and trial-and-error prone.

PurpleCatfishBettie · Post by **PurpleCatfishBettie** » Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:46 pm

thanks for posting this piece. if you had a tracker like renoise, would it help with your portamentos and such while using vstis?

it sounds really good as it is (some of tones in particular are excellent); but maybe renoise would be a way for you to use vstis in a tracker fashion?

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Mon Dec 15, 2014 11:08 pm

Thanks

I do have Renoise, but last time I installed it I was out of practice with the tracker workflow. This burst of productivity with FAMItracker has fixed that, though.

It's amazing just how much sound design you can do with a lot of these old soundchips. I've learned so much by studying other composers' chip works and working on my own. I honestly believe that it feeds back into my regular music in a very positive way and fosters creativity and working within limitations.

I've also tidied up and re-uploaded the track. Now it has a coda, it's been tidied up a bit, the mix has been improved (read: volume adjustments and envelopes) and some harshness removed from the snare!

http://soundcloud.com/sendy/supernatura ... -much-done

3ee · Post by **3ee** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 10:16 pm

Sendy wrote:I'm making a chiptune album. No VST instruments or FX, just pure tracker minimalism. This will probably be the opening track. I'm having so much fun and I don't even have to open my DAW!

Anyone looking to get into chiptunes, feel free to ask me questions!

Cool, looking forward to your album!

... no DAW but same (or more) fun I guess... goofed off with some trackers some time ago, they were very interesting but I didn't persevere learning them to actually have that much fun.

actually I'm looking to get into chiptunes if I'll have time in the future... I always enjoy/love creating melodies and instrumentation... chiptunes are cooler than "normal" music since you can imagine what the instrumentation sounds like real or whatever ( as comparison it's like reading the book instead of watching the film I guess?) + it's the nostalgia and cultural factor...

Can't wait for Plogue to release the voice synth!

You know what you should do just for fun? take the RAW tracks, import them into your DAW and do a fun mix...feel free to add as much DSP you like... for example, try to add this new NI Replika on every track or something...

epiphaneia · Post by **epiphaneia** » Sun Dec 21, 2014 5:48 pm

Very entertaining piece, made me want to go to the cellar and dig out my C64!

Progressive NES chiptune - Supernatural Trolley