hi

see the very end for the question or read on for dumb shit.

i see all these videos of milky tracker for example.

looks cool.

i love all the gameboy, nes, c64 sounds.

i would like to make chipmusic.

also make some stuff with 707, 808, 909 also and stuff or whatever.

sort of like as if aphex twin did chiptune maybe.

but the problem is...

i dont know how to chiptune...

btw ive had ableton live for 2 years so im not a COMPLETE n00b.

but then again.

isnt everyone a complete n00b here?

but i digress.

how do i get that kind of 8/16-bit looking cool software with all the numbers? whats the best? do i need a real life c64, nes or gameboy to actually use it? how do i get started? are there any higher levels of chiptune production that i could progress to?

HOW DO I CHIPTUNE?

the most popular trackers (that's the sequencer software with all the numbers) used here are openMPT for sample-based and VST composition, famitracker and its 0cc fork for NES, deflemask for several other sound chips, and renoise as something more DAW-like.

you don't need any real hardware since (afaik) there are emulators for all the sound chips used on botb. hardware trackers like LSDJ and nanoloop are popular in the game boy scene (you put the tracker software on a cart and put in in your game boy like a normal game), but not so popular here.

what i did in your situation was:
1. web search for the tracker(s) i wanted to use
2. download it
3. read the documentation and play around with the tracker
4. load other people's modules and look at how they do things

if you have specific questions you can always drop by IRC ( http://webchat.esper.net/?channels=botb ) and ask the community, but you should probably do steps 2-4 first for any given tracker, since that will give you foundational knowledge.

If you want info on specific platforms/consoles you can check out all the formats. Each article should have information about what tools you can use to produce said formats.

Also, I learned on trackers so I have no idea if moving from Ableton's piano roll style will be another wall to climb on your way. I honestly prefer trackers by a long shot. Just remember that during playback time moves downwards instead of to the right. And read whatever software's manual comes with the software you choose. It's alarmingly important as many have different key shortcuts and effects commands.