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I wanted to try composing some music in this way and this style, but I found it hard to get started, being paralysed by choice. It’s big, it’s multi-system… but

I wanted to try composing some music in this way and this style, but I found it hard to get started, being paralysed by choice. It’s big, it’s multi-system… but I just want to start with something decent. I’m not targeting any particular device, just making music. Sometimes simple, sometimes with more harmonisation, effects like wobble and pitch bend and such, but I’m not interested in things like sampling; mostly I just want something a bit more powerful than BeepBox. I know I’m being vague, but does anyone happen to have any suggestions and recommendations for which systems might work well? For a different project, I’d also like this sort of thing but with a Web Audio API-based player, potentially real-time scriptable rather than static. So ideally the perfect system would also be easy to use on the web.

HelloNurse 2y ago
> I’m not targeting any particular device, just making music. Then think of the music first and then find a suitable target device and configuration: enough tracks and channels for the various parts, appropriate synthesis and effect possibilities (FM/PM, phase distortion and wavetables, good filters, LFOs, reverb and distortion...) for the timbres you intend to use, a sufficiently high bit depth and sample rate to avoid unwanted artifacts (or a sufficiently low bit depth and sample rate to cause wanted artifacts).
chaosprint 2y ago
perhaps give https://glicol.org/ https://glicol.org/ a try?
snowram 2y ago
A classic for starting is the NES sound chip (Ricoh 2A03). It only has 5 channels and is very straightforward to use. FM chips like the one in the Megadrive or Commodore 64 have a way steeper learning curve in comparison.
- ilkke 2y ago
  Agree NES is a good place to start. C64 SID is not FM at all, but agree it's not easy to learn.
  - snowram 2y ago
    SID chip does have some FM components to it, for exemple ring modulation or LPF/HPF. This is what makes the learning curve pretty high for it.
    - mrob 2y ago
      Ring modulation is a form of amplitude modulation, not frequency modulation. Filters are not modulation at all.
- thesuperbigfrog 2y ago
  >> A classic for starting is the NES sound chip (Ricoh 2A03). It only has 5 channels and is very straightforward to use. Such a simple chip and yet it was capable of producing amazing music in the right hands. Tim Follin created some legendary game soundtracks with that chip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzTDAgG4EXk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzTDAgG4EXk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gObHt1uZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gObHt1uZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQlLl2j5THQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQlLl2j5THQ
  - jstr_ 2y ago
    Can't talk about Tim Follin and not talk about Plok! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peuTnilEv9g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peuTnilEv9g Feels very proto-Hotline Miami to me
    - duskwuff 2y ago
      Plok! was SNES, not NES, though. Very different audio hardware.
  - snowram 2y ago
    The Follin brothers used straightforward methods but took them to the extreme. Arpeggios? Double them and make them use complex chords. Triangle channel? Use it both as bass and drums. Note attack? Use the octave to simulate guitar sound. Wrap all that in prog rock composition and you get a very unique entry in the chiptune landscape.
rob74 2y ago
Calvin Harris famously used an Amiga 1200 for his first album (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Harris#2006%E2%80%932008:_Career_beginnings_and_I_Created_Disco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Harris#2006%E2%80%93200...) and even had one on stage for the Brit Awards this year (https://www.retropassion.co.uk/at-the-brits-well-one-of-our-refurbished-a1200-units-was/ https://www.retropassion.co.uk/at-the-brits-well-one-of-our-..., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8vaccttxsg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8vaccttxsg) - although I'm not sure to what extent it was actually used...
deleted 2y ago
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dimatura 2y ago
Like other commenters said, I would just choose a single chip and limit yourself to that. That's pretty constrained by today's standards (arguably, even all of furnace tracker is rather limited compared to your typical modern DAW) - but still plenty to make great music. Which chipset? Maybe you can listen to tracks made with any of these and see which you like best (if you search for the chip name you'll probably find examples on youtube). Good ones are Gameboy (hugely popular thanks to gameboy-native software like LSDJ and nanoloop), YMF2612 (the Sega Genesis chip, primarily FM-based, so can be pretty modern), YMF262/OPL3(also FM, ubiquitous in old PCs), NES (very barebones, more so than gameboy), SID (the commodore chip, which was pretty ahead of its time in terms of sonic capabilities, has a cult following).

HelloNurse 2y ago

> I’m not targeting any particular device, just making music. Then think of the music first and then find a suitable target device and configuration: enough tracks and channels for the various parts, appropriate synthesis and effect possibilities (FM/PM, phase distortion and wavetables, good filters, LFOs, reverb and distortion...) for the timbres you intend to use, a sufficiently high bit depth and sample rate to avoid unwanted artifacts (or a sufficiently low bit depth and sample rate to cause wanted artifacts).

chaosprint 2y ago

perhaps give https://glicol.org/ https://glicol.org/ a try?

snowram 2y ago

A classic for starting is the NES sound chip (Ricoh 2A03). It only has 5 channels and is very straightforward to use. FM chips like the one in the Megadrive or Commodore 64 have a way steeper learning curve in comparison.

ilkke 2y ago
Agree NES is a good place to start. C64 SID is not FM at all, but agree it's not easy to learn.
- snowram 2y ago
  SID chip does have some FM components to it, for exemple ring modulation or LPF/HPF. This is what makes the learning curve pretty high for it.
  - mrob 2y ago
    Ring modulation is a form of amplitude modulation, not frequency modulation. Filters are not modulation at all.
thesuperbigfrog 2y ago
>> A classic for starting is the NES sound chip (Ricoh 2A03). It only has 5 channels and is very straightforward to use. Such a simple chip and yet it was capable of producing amazing music in the right hands. Tim Follin created some legendary game soundtracks with that chip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzTDAgG4EXk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzTDAgG4EXk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gObHt1uZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gObHt1uZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQlLl2j5THQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQlLl2j5THQ
- jstr_ 2y ago
  Can't talk about Tim Follin and not talk about Plok! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peuTnilEv9g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peuTnilEv9g Feels very proto-Hotline Miami to me
  - duskwuff 2y ago
    Plok! was SNES, not NES, though. Very different audio hardware.
- snowram 2y ago
  The Follin brothers used straightforward methods but took them to the extreme. Arpeggios? Double them and make them use complex chords. Triangle channel? Use it both as bass and drums. Note attack? Use the octave to simulate guitar sound. Wrap all that in prog rock composition and you get a very unique entry in the chiptune landscape.

rob74 2y ago

Calvin Harris famously used an Amiga 1200 for his first album (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Harris#2006%E2%80%932008:_Career_beginnings_and_I_Created_Disco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Harris#2006%E2%80%93200...) and even had one on stage for the Brit Awards this year (https://www.retropassion.co.uk/at-the-brits-well-one-of-our-refurbished-a1200-units-was/ https://www.retropassion.co.uk/at-the-brits-well-one-of-our-..., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8vaccttxsg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8vaccttxsg) - although I'm not sure to what extent it was actually used...

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

dimatura 2y ago

Like other commenters said, I would just choose a single chip and limit yourself to that. That's pretty constrained by today's standards (arguably, even all of furnace tracker is rather limited compared to your typical modern DAW) - but still plenty to make great music. Which chipset? Maybe you can listen to tracks made with any of these and see which you like best (if you search for the chip name you'll probably find examples on youtube). Good ones are Gameboy (hugely popular thanks to gameboy-native software like LSDJ and nanoloop), YMF2612 (the Sega Genesis chip, primarily FM-based, so can be pretty modern), YMF262/OPL3(also FM, ubiquitous in old PCs), NES (very barebones, more so than gameboy), SID (the commodore chip, which was pretty ahead of its time in terms of sonic capabilities, has a cult following).