Leads a la Anamanaguchi and virt

[bucketbeck]

Hey, there. Long-time listener, first-time poster, perhaps an impending contributor, etc., and stuff.

I'm just getting into electronic music from years of piano and guitar, and I feel like I've finally gotten my head above water.

WHAT. A. LEARNING. CURVE. I've never seen anything so front-loaded as electronic music.

At this point, my biggest hangups are figuring out exactly what the hell you do in Reason and how to make fantastic 8-bit leads that sound similar to Anamanaguchi and virt.

I've been hand-drawing my waveforms in Renoise, and while the waves sound good, they don't sound fantastic. The sound I'm really shooting for is the more pure and piercing lead tone often found in Anamanaguchi (basically every song in Dawn Metropolis) and several virt songs as well.

Anyone have some advice on how to achieve those tones or just 8-bit (or otherwise) instrument-making in general? If it helps at all, I've become very familiar with Renoise, so speaking in terms of that program would be easiest for me to process.

Thanks!

[suzumebachi]

renoise eh? then you're already familiar with trackers. might i suggest famitracker?

[OverCoat]

you have to use pitch, vibrato, and other effect commands if you want to make the most out of a chip lead. fortunately, pitch bends and vibrato are incredibly easy in trackers. I can't tell you exactly how to make an expressive lead, because everyone has their own special way of doing it. Download Modplug Tracker and take a look at some of virt's tracked music [like his Tracked in Time songs] and you can try to dissect some of his music that way. I learned a lot by looking inside other people's music mods [for example, Alexander Brandon totally abuses premade drumloops in Deus Ex!]

[bucketbeck]

you have to use pitch, vibrato, and other effect commands if you want to make the most out of a chip lead. fortunately, pitch bends and vibrato are incredibly easy in trackers. I can't tell you exactly how to make an expressive lead, because everyone has their own special way of doing it. Download Modplug Tracker and take a look at some of virt's tracked music [like his Tracked in Time songs] and you can try to dissect some of his music that way. I learned a lot by looking inside other people's music mods [for example, Alexander Brandon totally abuses premade drumloops in Deus Ex!]

Thanks! I'd never heard of Tracked in Time. Awesome stuff.

Time to analyze