How to Make 8-Bit Music (two free methods)

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO:
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83 Free Resources for Game Composers: https://composer-code.ck.page/81b6b10522

NES VST plugin: https://www.mattmontag.com/projects-page/nintendo-vst

Deflemask Tracker: https://deflemask.com/

Ultimate Guide to Become a Video Game Composer: https://composercode.com/guide/

CHAPTERS FOR EASY ACCESS:
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0:00 - Intro
0:29 - First method (VST)
1:04 - NES VST
2:30 - "Authentic" chiptune
5:01 - Second method (tracker)
6:53 - Composing in Deflemask
12:00 - Finished track
13:00 - 8-bit composition tips
17:20 - Free composition resources

VIDEO SYNOPSIS:
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Hey!

In this video, I’m going to teach you two methods for making authentic 8-bit chiptune music, like that produced by the NES, GameBoy, and Commodore 64 sound chip, entirely for free.

I’m also going to give you some compositional tips to make your 8-bit music even better.

8-bit music has made a significant resurgence in the past decade with many high-profile indie games utilizing it as their main sound palette. Apart from games, there’s a thriving chiptune community that enjoys making this kind of music just for fun.

So let’s talk about how you can do that, too.

So the first method for making 8-bit music is to use a free VST instrument inside of your digital audio workstation. I’m using Reaper for my DAW and this NES VST is the best one I’ve found on the web.

Now if you’re wanting to make just general 8-bit chiptune, you’re not looking to emulate a particular console or sound chip, you can just pluck away and use this sound palette however you want.

But, in my experience, it’s more fun to limit yourself to try to actually create something that could have been played on the NES or GameBoy or Commodore 64 or whatever.

In this case, you’ll want to do a little bit of research on the sound chip you’re trying to emulate because there are differences.

For example, the NES has five sound channels. Two square wave channels, a triangle wave channel, a noise generator channel, and a DPCM sample channel, which could play very, very low-quality samples, like the iconic bongo sound from Super Mario Bros 3.

The Gameboy had a different setup, as well as the Commodore 64.

Now we don’t have access to the original software composers in the NES era used, but a tracker is about as close as we can get to replicating it.

A tracker is a free piece of software that emulates how retro chip music was composed...

Видео How to Make 8-Bit Music (two free methods) канала Matt Kenyon