Definitions:
Chiptune, also called 8-bit music, is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The term is commonly used to refer to tracker format music using extremely basic and small samples that an old computer or console could produce.[1]
A music tracker (sometimes referred to as a tracker for short) is a type of music sequencer software for creating music.[2]
What I’m wondering is what they mean with “biggest”, though. Largest binary? Most features? Highest resolution? Most users?
I'd assume it means that it supports more chips than deflemask https://www.deflemask.com/
more than 3 chips, basically
For people who didn’t grow up in the 1980s and 1990s, these will be key insights!
And for people who did, but have never heard it referred to as chiptune nor trackers!
This is what I wanted:
> mix and match sound chips! // over 200 ready to use presets from computers, game consoles and arcade boards... // ...or create your own presets - up to 32 chips or a total of 128 channels
Do you want a SID chip based system with as many channels as you want? There you are...
A cool feature for sure, but, kind of ruins the whole concept of that a chiptune is. For me its about the limitation of the system. If that is not one of the core reasons you are into chiptunes you might as well use whatever you like to make music that go plipediblop. (edit): Then again, i have always considered mod and xms that use samples and sound like chiptunes to also be chiptunes even though they fall outside of the true definition.
You are confusing two dimensions: being masterful and cunning in the use of an instrument, and fully expressing creativity. The first thrives on limitations, for the second limitations are unwanted.
You can create a masterpiece with a stick and a pebble - but not all masterpieces.
It's nice to have all the limitations in one box, maximal minimalism.
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.
Calvin Harris famously used an Amiga 1200 for his first album (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-..., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8vaccttxsg) - although I'm not sure to what extent it was actually used...
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.
Agree NES is a good place to start. C64 SID is not FM at all, but agree it's not easy to learn.
> 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).
perhaps give https://glicol.org/ a try?
Is it possible to use this to make songs for multiple chips at once?
In the pokeymax and sidmax projects I have dual pokey, dual sid, dual ym2149 and a simple dma sample engine available. It would be great to make some songs using all of them for their strengths at the same time.
README:
Features:
[...]
- mix and match sound chips!These guys do this with real vintage hardware:
This is pretty crazy - even the ZX Spectrum beeper is supported. Is there some Z80 player code allowing the music to be played on real hardware?
> even the ZX Spectrum beeper is supported
You know what we can do with 1-bit music, right? I.e. Tim Follin's Agent X ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T42WuUpBuHE ) or Agent X II ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNc_xczyGLc ) or Chronos ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-D24A_N4d4 ) or Raw Recruit ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl8dAVybwq8 ) or Future Games ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orEXKOBIv_8 )...
A modern attempt, the ON and OFF album by Rich 'Tufty' Hollins ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nEfO4Yu7Mg )
From the comments:
> Say, we switch our signal at a rate of 440 Hz. Or any rate, as a matter of fact. One would assume that the signal is on for half of the time, and off the other half of the time (which is what’s known as a square wave). But it doesn’t need to be that way. We can also create a signal that’s on for 1% of the time, and off 99% of the time. As long as we switch at 440 Hz, we still get a 440 Hz note. However, we now have a lot of space between the “on” pulses. Within that space, we can render a second train of pulses at a different frequency. The result will be that both frequencies are audible. This gives a very characteristic sound. This is pulse frequency modulation. Funny side node, that’s actually how your brain cells communicate with each other. Anyway, Tim Follin’s early works on ZX Spectrum are typical examples of that.
I wish I could use my relative youth as an excuse here, but I'm afraid I don't quite understand what "on for 1% of the time" means. Like the envelope of the beep is extremely short? And then if you pulse at regular intervals, it creates a sustained tone? And then interleaving differently-spaced pulse sequences creates the illusion of polyphony? Or is it something fancier? Does the ZX have any notion of sample rate or is the signal not even digital?
This is a delight. I loved the intro, had a blast from the past with the keygen exes back when.
Looks very sofisticated, gonna give it a go!
Are there any sample tracks extant that utilize the broad range of chips that Furnace has ?
Youtube is full of them! Search for Furnace Tracker and check out AshKirby's monster playlist.
Looks awesome! But does it play s3m files? :-)
Isn't s3m a bit too modern for chip tunes? :-)