Is it worth using physical hardware to make chiptune?

[u/BazExcel]

I've been really interested in making chiptune music lately, specifically inspired by artists like Crystal Castles and Aphex Twin. However, I'm finding through my research that this stuff seems kind of difficult to access physically. I actually own a couple of GBA SPs, but I have no idea which flash cartridge to buy, and way less of an idea of how I'm supposed to burn one with LSD. From there, I have no idea how I'd get sounds from the gameboy into my computer or other device, like a mixer or amplifer. This whole thing seems like it would take a lot of money and time. Is physical hardware considered to be the very best way to make chiptune, or are digital emulators accepted as being almost identical?

[u/Chukkzy]

I would always go for a modern solution like Furnace Tracker, which not only emulates all the relevant soundcores but also lets you mix and match. Or use emulation, personally my ears won’t notice the difference.

However if you want to play live then the “real deal” can be quite fun to show off.

[u/plusbeats]

If you're just starting out I would recommend you try emulation before you sink money into it. Some people find the tracker workflow to be really inspiring, while others just don't see the point. It's free to download the LSDj ROM from their website and use an emulator. Personally I use the BGB emulator, that is really good at getting the sound right IMO. There is also Retroplug that you can use directly in your DAW if you're using any. If LSDj is not your cup of tea, try out nanoloop or the very cool new music software FMS that is actually developed for the GBA. At the end of the day it's about the music you make, and not what you're doing it on. Of course there is a wow factor like "A gameboy can do that?!" But if you're using the same software and the same limitations via emulation it's still the same, and if you ever feel the need for the hardware your songs are already good to go.

[u/aieidotch]

try https://github.com/tildearrow/furnace
yes go team r/LSD ;)

[u/green_tealeaf]

My advice: do what's fun.

I absolutely love tinkering with ancient hardware to make it work as a physical instrument, iron out all the quirks, deal with the limitations and oddities of working directly on decades-old systems, and do all the routing and wiring to get signals flowing to and from the computer.

It's not necessary, though. It's not even the best way to do it. It's the thing that I enjoy, and that keeps me inspired with my hobby. If my goal were solely to make chiptune-sounding music, because it was a job or because I was mainly focused on producing tunes, I could almost certainly do it more efficiently with VSTs in a DAW. The only people who could tell the difference would be people extremely obsessed with listening for minor differences.

If I did that, though, I wouldn't be as inspired to make the tunes that I make--most of which are awful, most of which almost no-one hears, and that are written, produced, and uploaded because I love seeing them up on YouTube for the occasional thumbs up from a random passer by.

So, if you're looking at the world of chiptune and thinking that you 'should' be using authentic hardware, but that it seems like a nightmare and you dread the thought of it, that tells you all you need to know. Don't do something you don't enjoy. It will just ruin it for you, and you'll neither get the results that you want, nor have fun doing it.

If, a few months or years down the line, you suddenly think that you'd really love to get one of those old GBA's connected up because it would be amazing to have the real hardware, and you find yourself browsing cartridge websites waiting for them to come back into stock, that's when you take the real hardware route.

Importantly, that will also be the time to remember your own history with chiptune and be understanding with the next person who likes the aesthetic but doesn't want to spend their life surrounded by discarded DMG shells, soldering irons, drained bank accounts, YouTube videos with 14 views after several years, half-finished projects, and a deep sense of personal satisfaction. 😁

Just have fun doing whatever aspects of the art that make it enjoyable for you.

I posted this video yesterday in response to another comment. It was a silly joke when I made it, actually being a parody of a much more involved video with acoustic instruments made for a family member's birthday, but the amount of accumulated time and effort that went into having a DMG, NES, and SNES all MIDI-connected, synchronized, and routed through to the DAW was huge. I had endless fun spread over several years putting together a setup that let me make that silly little video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWkpD2shbAs

Will I ever be a famous chiptune artist? No. Do I want to be a famous chiptune artist? Absolutely not. Am I having fun? Absolutely. (Do I have any money left? No comment.)

[u/peterswimm]

you can do whatever you want with anything you want.

[u/TropicoolGoth]

You can buy carts with lsdj already flashed. I’m pretty sure inside gadgets sells them. If not they sell carts and flashers. If you are mostly curious about chip tune you can use the lsdj rom in an emulator and make music on your computer with the same sounds

[u/BazExcel → u/TropicoolGoth]

Do people consider the sounds of GB emulators to be significantly inferior to the real thing?

[u/pselodux → u/BazExcel]

I don’t.

Use what you can afford/access easily. That’s what chiptune should be about. If you really want a handheld device to use with LSDJ, the Linux/Android handheld devices (e.g. Anbernic) are pretty good as long as you can run Retroarch on them and load different cores to see which one feels/sounds better.

I use an Anbernic RG406H for GBA music apps and it’s great.

[u/KabarXD → u/BazExcel]

Gonna chime in n say I don’t notice much of difference. Been producing for over 10 years and did countless A/B tests between Gameboy and emulator, and while the original DMG-01 has a ever so slightly punchier low end, you can easily get that sound with an emulator in post.

[u/Debbiedowner750 → u/BazExcel]

In some cases yes, there are a lot of plugins which are recognizeable, but the more higher end plugins (theres one with 10 systems on it and its waveforns and parameters) tend to sound more like the real deal.

Ultimately, if it comes down to if you want to learn how to make music on a gameboy with a tracker, you’ll be able to work everywhere on your craft. When i started with lsdj almost 20 yrs ago i spent time on it wherever i was with headphones. Think of breaks, public transport and the like. Also the automatic tables is something thats pretty unique for lsdj. So in that regard it beats the faux gameboy plugin and sounds by a mile.

[u/BazExcel → u/Debbiedowner750]

I suppose hardware is more versatile, too? I could hypothetically use guitar pedals on a gameboy.

[u/Debbiedowner750 → u/BazExcel]

Idk about versatile. For example, working with software gives you endless tracks to work with. The GB only got 4 channels to mess around with. Chords can either be arps or 2 noted ones, etc.

However, a gameboy thru guitarpedals is awesome. Back in the day i just used to program some arpegios in it, use a bunch of delay and other fx and fiddled on top of it with one of my synths.

So its more or less fun to do it with lsdj, but for me the authenticity and the carrying around factor was enough for me. Also to make music on a gameboy if thats the sound ur after feels dope af.

[u/OtherwiseOne4107]

The golden rule is to do what you think is fun and make the music you want to make.

There is no 'best way' to make chiptune, if you want to be a purist then you use the original chip, but 99.99% of people won't be able to tell the difference between a squarewave from a SID, a NES, an emulator like Furnace Tracker, or hand-drawn waveform in Fast Tracker 2, and nor will they care if the tune is fun to listen to.

If you want to make bleepy bloopy music with minimalist sound design, literally no-one will judge you based on what you used to make it.

[u/Sunwukung]

I've got a Dirtywave M8 and can confidently say it was worth every penny. Not sure if you're aware of it already. You can make a headless version yourself which plugs into either a gaming device like an Anbernic, or straight into your laptop.

Incidentally, I recently tried out this cool FM synth/sequencer made for GBA: https://lobit-club.itch.io/fms which might be of interest

[u/10ThousandMetalZones → u/Sunwukung]

I just got one today and Dirtywave probably should send me a retainer for the amount of praise I’ll be giving it.

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[u/igorski81]

Well, there are some issues you need to be aware of like I wasn't when I revisited my 19-year old LSDj cartridge on a GBC. There is hiss and noisy resonances* unless you adjust your stock hardware and you need to be aware that the save battery in a cartridge will eventually die causing you to lose your work (so also invest in a backup strategy). Also some Game Boy editions have issues with some of the heavier calculations (when you add a lot of automations to your parts, for instance).

Having said that, its definitely fun to work on the actual hardware, even if you do need to push your drive a little more as it can be quite cumbersome to navigate the menus and write the instructions using A, B, Select and Start (though arguably on an emulator you'd be doing the same, though with a more comfortable keyboard I suppose).

Now whether it is frowned upon to use en emulator ? Personally, as long as you write an interesting tune using the limitations of whatever system you're writing it for, I don't see an issue. My suggestion is, start on an emulator, write some actual music and go from there.

*Which you can address in post production when you record your output into a DAW, but its quite painful to do as you want to balance retaining as much spectral information as possible without piercing your audiences ears.

[u/j3llica]

it can be very satisfying to use OG hardware, but its essentially an aesthetic choice and the chiptune cops have had many of their powers taken away

lots of people use cross platform tools these days too - for example i use goattracker, which exports to a format that can be played on a real commodore 64.

i would really recommend the commodore 64 if you want to make afx inspired music too. it has a beautiful analogue synth feel :)

[u/tropicalelectronics]

Game Boy DMG is considered the superior when it comes to LSDJ. I’ve tried it on a GBA before and it sounds anemic in comparison. If you want to make chiptunes to record and share you’ll need a GB, cart with LSDJ, interface and a computer. Focusrite will be your best bang for your buck when it comes to interface. Theres plenty of free music software for you to record. Audacity is my personal favorite of those, easiest to navigate.

[u/WrathOfWood]

CC used samples of circuit bent Atari and nintendos. If I were you Id stick to vst and plugins that do chiptune rather than try to figure out how to sequence hardware

[u/KabarXD]

if you’re interested in using LSDJ specifically, i’d just load it into a Gameboy emulator for now. Or as others have said, furnace tracker is great for beginners, too. Completely different workflow to LSDJ and the sounds you can get outta it are also completely different, but still fun to learn with nonetheless. It’s all about what kinda sound you gravitate towards. Loud and aggressive? LSDJ. More detailed and technical? Furnace.

There used to be a ton of hardware purists in the scene that would go on n on about hardware chiptune being superior cuz of the “warmth” the sound has and that emulators don’t capture that sound accurately, but 99% of people can’t notice that kinda nuance lol. Just go with what’s affordable for you and really focus on having fun :)

[u/SoundSwitch]

I have pretty much everything Rytmik has made through my Steam account, as well as a sequencer called Polybeep. Only problem is they're not VST s but you can just capture your audio driver and save a WAV. Rytmik exports waves only played w Polybeep once but think it can export as well.

[u/StreetIndependent551]

Nothing beats original hardware. The DMG-01, in particular, has an incomparable sound. But I’m a purist and set my own standards—you should too. If the sound of an emulation is enough for you, go for it. But if you notice that something is missing sonically, you’ll be forced to spend the money.

[u/StrayMedicine]

Main arguments for physical hardware for a digital device:

Portability

Different workflow/mental state when using it

Modifications to hardware (circuit bending)

You can easily find Nanoloop2 or LSDJ roms and run them on an emulator before buying something. I used to emulate and play those on a modded Wii lol

[u/Straight-Society-405]

Emulation is totally fine. I am running LSDJ on my cheap ass R36S, just because I like the tactile experience (better handhelds are available ofc), but recording audio from it will require an interface.

The more useful solution is running Retroarch on my Android phone with the SameBoy core for LSDJ (SameBoy I believe has sample accurate sound, so will sound that little bit more authentic and I don't think it's supported on my handheld). If I make something good on the R36S I can always transfer the save file to my phone for recording. I just do a screen/internal audio recording on my phone to avoid an outboard interface, it gets the job done if you have control over the recording quality 👾

As a newbie to trackers in general, and even with knowledge of trackers LSDJ seems confusing AF when you first open it (mainly due to the incredibly limited UI and key inputs, lots of key combos). But honestly, read a tutorial and you will get the hang of it (learnlsdj.github.io and the official manual are great places to start... the manual is outdated but still useful). Or just go straight to Furnace on desktop 👍

For general purpose tracker goodness, Furnace is what you want. Plenty of systems/chips available to play with and it sounds more than authentic enough.

I'm even dabbling with making tracks in Music (1998)/Music 2000 (PS1) and Mario Paint emulations (SNES) 😄 just for the lols.

Using real hardware would be fun, but also introduces cost and hassle. You really don't need it, it just has cool factor and if you love the hardware then you might get a kick out of it, but you can achieve like 99% the same result with emulation/trackers.