Original Chiptune Song

[Nostalvania]

Hello,

This is my first original Chiptune(?) Song: http://tindeck.com/listen/metw

Comments and feedback welcome.

Edited June 25, 2013 by Nostalvania

[Phonetic Hero]

I'm gonna go ahead and lay out some stuff about chiptune restrictions while I'm listening and it's fresh on my brain. Not that it's a bad track, just that it's not exactly chiptune limitations. Feel free to disregard if it's not something you're particularly concerned about, but I always liked learning about the restrictions of chiptunes

All the synths sound like their layered in some way, which would use more than one channel. The triangle has another waveform on top right off the bat for extra clarity, but part of the charm of the triangle wave (in my opinion) is the quality it gets from the overtones and the lack of clarity it gets at lower frequencies

The squares that come in for harmony don't sound particularly layered, but they do sound like they've been rounded off on the high end. Another bit of chiptunes that really makes them sound authentic is the high end being really present. There's even slight distortion on most authentic waveforms, which makes them sound really sharp instead of rounded off like they sound here.

Also, worth mentioning that at this point, you're maxed out for channels with the standard NES chip before the lead even comes in 2A03 has 2 pulse channels, one triangle channel, one noise channel, and one DPCM (sampling) channel that was typically used for drums. There were quite a few different chips for the NES though, my favorite being the VRC6, which had two extra pulse channels and a saw channel

When the lead comes in, it sounds like it's got an extra octave above it (with possible chorusing/unison on the extra octave?), which is fine, but like I mentioned, it's going to be using 2 channels (3 for chorus/unison) instead of just one. At this point, except for the saw channel, you've used everything that the VRC6 has, if that's the limitation you're going for

I can also hear 2 separate noise channels for pretty much the whole track, 3 in spots. In just about every old game system, there's only one noise channel

Not that it's a bad track at all, it's just not exactly a chiptune, and people in the scene can be real dicks about authenticity; I'm actually not one of them, I really enjoy 9-bit and fakebit, and I just thought if this is a route you want to take musically, a bit of knowledge might help get you going in the right direction Playing to the limitations can really help your composition and even your creativity with sound design, because you've got to outsmart the system, in a manner of speaking, to get a really good end product. Researching the hard/software of old game systems that you want to emulate can be enormously helpful too, I've spent my share of time on wikipedia reading through the limitations of different NES sound chips and have learned quite a bit about the gameboy chip from fellow chiptuners who are really into LSDJ

Hope that helps!

[Nostalvania]

I'm gonna go ahead and lay out some stuff about chiptune restrictions while I'm listening and it's fresh on my brain. Not that it's a bad track, just that it's not exactly chiptune limitations. Feel free to disregard if it's not something you're particularly concerned about, but I always liked learning about the restrictions of chiptunes

All the synths sound like their layered in some way, which would use more than one channel. The triangle has another waveform on top right off the bat for extra clarity, but part of the charm of the triangle wave (in my opinion) is the quality it gets from the overtones and the lack of clarity it gets at lower frequencies

The squares that come in for harmony don't sound particularly layered, but they do sound like they've been rounded off on the high end. Another bit of chiptunes that really makes them sound authentic is the high end being really present. There's even slight distortion on most authentic waveforms, which makes them sound really sharp instead of rounded off like they sound here.

Also, worth mentioning that at this point, you're maxed out for channels with the standard NES chip before the lead even comes in 2A03 has 2 pulse channels, one triangle channel, one noise channel, and one DPCM (sampling) channel that was typically used for drums. There were quite a few different chips for the NES though, my favorite being the VRC6, which had two extra pulse channels and a saw channel

When the lead comes in, it sounds like it's got an extra octave above it (with possible chorusing/unison on the extra octave?), which is fine, but like I mentioned, it's going to be using 2 channels (3 for chorus/unison) instead of just one. At this point, except for the saw channel, you've used everything that the VRC6 has, if that's the limitation you're going for

I can also hear 2 separate noise channels for pretty much the whole track, 3 in spots. In just about every old game system, there's only one noise channel

Not that it's a bad track at all, it's just not exactly a chiptune, and people in the scene can be real dicks about authenticity; I'm actually not one of them, I really enjoy 9-bit and fakebit, and I just thought if this is a route you want to take musically, a bit of knowledge might help get you going in the right direction Playing to the limitations can really help your composition and even your creativity with sound design, because you've got to outsmart the system, in a manner of speaking, to get a really good end product. Researching the hard/software of old game systems that you want to emulate can be enormously helpful too, I've spent my share of time on wikipedia reading through the limitations of different NES sound chips and have learned quite a bit about the gameboy chip from fellow chiptuners who are really into LSDJ

Hope that helps!

Oops! Maybe i should have learned what chiptune really means before posting my track ha,ha:tomatoface:.

Honestly, it wasn't my intention to sound authentic, my goal was just to create a song which is entirely made of NES sounds, but without all the limitations of the NES soundchip.

I want to talk about some things you've mentioned:

The squares (chords): You're right, i used a high cut to round off the high end.

The leads: Yep, I layered the lead with an other sound and the main lead plays octaves. later in the song there is even an additional third lead voice which plays in fourths.

Noise channels: I used at least 4 noise channels for drums and percussion.

So how should i classify my song? 9-bit or fakebit? And is there even a difference?

Thanks a lot for your informative comment PH!

Edited June 25, 2013 by Nostalvania

[Phonetic Hero]

So how should i classify my song? 9-bit or fakebit? And is there even a difference?

Thanks a lot for your informative comment PH!

Well, 9-bit is when you incorporate chiptune elements into a song with more modern stuff as well (pretty much anything Ben Briggs does - I'd say halc too, but he's gotten into LSDJ lately... anything halc or Briggs have on OCR, at least ). Fakebit is anything that's not using a tracker or the hard/software of an actual game system to make chiptunes (this includes Genesis, SNES, etc.; anything that used a sound chip, not just 8-bit systems). So, the two may end up overlapping, or not; they're not *quite* the same.

So, even though this adheres to the limitations of the VRC6 chip from the NES and uses waveforms sampled from the NES, it's still considered fakebit, because I made it in FL Studio rather than using a tracker (like Famitracker). Most of the reason for distinction is because the NES sound chip was actually 4-bit, which means it has 16 values for volume (0-15), whereas a modern DAW has many, MANY more, and because of little tics that are unique to the hard/software (for example, pitch bends and vibrato aren't as smooth when they're written in a tracker as in a modern DAW)

No problem dude, hope that clears things up a bit!

[Damashii!!]

You learn somethin new everyday. I never even heard of the term "9-bit." I thought that was halc trademarked.

I did know there was a distinction between legit tracker stuff and chip-inspired things, I just never knew there was an actual term for it.

But yeah, ^this^ guy knows his chips and blips.

I've personally got no criticism that'll help you improve production wise or whatever, but composition-wise I really like your song. Carry on, sounds great so far.

[Phonetic Hero]

You learn somethin new everyday. I never even heard of the term "9-bit." I thought that was halc trademarked.

Haha, as far as I know, halc was definitely the guy to coin the term, but it's a lot more popular now than it used to be