So I've been playing with a few daw programs for roughly a year now (seldom), namely Garageband on iMac, and LMMS and FL Studio for Windows. I'm trash at making stuff, but I find it fun even when I have no idea what I'm doing. You can go make fun of me on my SoundCloud if you want (same name), but I swear by the boredom of my days and passion for video game music I'll improve!
-However, I'm completely clueless within this community.
It looks interesting and I really love the premise. But I honestly have no idea where to even begin.

I'm vaguely familiar with IRC, and I frequently use Discord, but haven't really gotten the help I was expecting.
I even went on Reddit looking for answers... Had no idea you could get negative karma just for being new, but thems the brakes I guess.

I've seen a lot of battle have requests for specific soundchips and/or formats, and although the Lyceum did offer a bit of help, I'm not familiar with a good 90% of the topics, apps, or lingo mentioned.

With that being said, I'm not new to the internet or anything, but a few tips from an actual person (not being forced to read confusing articles or unrelated videos with a snippet of relevant info) would be nice.

If there's something I missed before creating this thread I sincerely apologize, s0z. -a n00b

hi! i think i would get started by trying out some battles, you may be interested in the currently running major battles which are City Pop and GLITCH.98 (climb of mt.32 is in voting phase, where you listen to each entry and vote depending on the categories). it seems like you're interested in the creating side of things and battles are where that happens.

you can also join upcoming xhb battles: these are short-term battles that last usually 1hr but some people can host 2hr or 4hr battles -- this depends on a few requirements you can read on the 2HB and 4HB lyceum pages. To host an OHB you generally require a badge in a format, which you obtain after you have submitted 7 entries that score above 20 points, and 750 boons, which are like a currency you use on the site. you get the 750 boons if you manage to host a battle with more than 3 entrants. points are calculated from the culmination of all critisists' votes. if there's a battle you want to see at a certain time, feel free to ask in irc/discord and there may be someone willing to host for you. (btw if you want battle notifications you can get a special role on discord that pings you for when a battle is first announced and 15 minutes before battle start).

also feel free to ask in our communication channels if you need help with a specific format or program for creating entries for the site. we have resident experts in most of the formats here or at least can help point you in the right direction.

Advent calendar is an awesome low-stakes way to get experience in obscure formats. It helped me find a few of my new favorites!

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate it!
Also how do people leave a like on stuff? I feel rude not liking the responses and welcomes I've received.

But now comes a really big one...
Anywhere I can learn to use a tracker?
Since City Pop doesn't have much time left, I figured I'd look towards bamboo tracker for the GLITCH.98 battle.

Currently shuffling through videos on YT at the moment, but I guess I just need to keep struggling with it and figure something out.
Hopefully I'm content enough to give a battle a go after some time, but that's on me learning, so no worries there.

Most trackers come with sample songs -- I believe BambooTracker does -- and it can be really helpful to open those and see how they're constructed. Try right-clicking on tracks and selecting the "solo" option so you can listen to one track at a time.

lieking and haiting comments is possible when u reach lvl1 or 2, so keep being active to earn points and unlock more site features c:

>> Also how do people leave a like on stuff?
you gain access to this feature at level 3! which you'll get to quick once you start submitting entries :o)

for what it's worth, a lot of the formats on this site are not things that most of us come into this knowing stuff about already. i did not even use trackers when i joined this site, lol - while that's maybe slightly uncommon, i do think of this as a place of learning and practice for all of us! don't be afraid to dive in!

some of the most useful trackers to learn are (1) famitracker (which is sort of a chiptune gold standard, and bambootracker is very much modeled after it) and (2) openmpt (modern sample based software which saves to the .it/.xm/.mod/.s3m file types used for several battle formats here). being acquainted with a couple of these will make looking at any future tracker a lot easier, because then instead of "how do i do anything" it becomes "how do i accomplish what i already know how to accomplish in another program". fami and openmpt also have well-documented manuals.

i very much agree that looking at other peoples' songs in the tracker is very helpful for understanding the construction of things.
broadly speaking, in each (vertical) channel there are typically columns containing info for: the note, the instrument on which the note is played, the volume, and effects (think pitch bends, vibrato, etc). to help the music be less gridlike, a single row of info is also split up into multiple "ticks", the number of which is usually a setting you can change. lots of ticks per row means slower song. one or two ticks per row is ultra fast.

armed with that bit of knowledge you should be able to start processing some of the contents of existing songs/modules. lots of programs also have indicators of what each effect does if you put your cursor over them. bambootracker has a full effect list you can access via F1 (by default).

with bambootracker specifically i'd probably recommend loading up some instrument presets too

Hi Delita and welcome! I hope you'll find this to be a welcoming place as I have. It can be very daunting looking at learning a bunch of new stuff, and not knowing where to start. I agree with the comments about simply opening a module in a tracker to begin with. Some formats here use modules where you can see the source material, for example, and you could look at these by going to Browser > click one of the module format icons on the left (for example, the 4K > 64K ones would all work), and then open the module in OpenMPT.

One thing I wanted to mention, is that the lyceum on this site is a sort of wiki that people all contribute to. Within there you'll find information about some of the formats on the site, some tips and tricks for trackers and music composition in general, and even some random lingo used around the place. Definitely worth checking that out.

One final comment, take comfort in knowing you're not alone in not knowing some stuff. There's a good reason why a lot of people here refer to ourselves as "all noobs". In my mind that's one of the most interesting reasons to stick around - the chance to learn something new is endlessly fun.

Best of luck and see ya around.

So far it's been a welcoming place, and that's made it much easier for me to relax and explore at my own pace. It's daunting for sure, but I've managed to struggle my way through so far, and although I haven't battled, I hope to be prepared for when I do! While I get that I should just go for it, I also don't like going in too blindly as to not seem half-assed. I suppose it's my way of showing that I care..? That, and I'm just one of those people that never takes it easy on themselves, so I was never going to settle for less.

Anyway, I've read a lot on the Lyceum already. It's a great resource for sure, and I absolutely love that it's linked basically everywhere on this site! Although some links and references do appear to be a bit outdated, hopefully I can find some workarounds and be the one to help others in the future, as opposed to simply noticing these things. Would probably be better if I created an entry-friendly way for someone to know the things I didn't, or at the very least, in a way someone as dense as me could understand the next time around lol.

Yeah... There's a lot I don't know, but honestly, knowing that I don't know shit is already a blessing all on it's own. My only real problem is struggling to find the right terms when asking questions and searching, but I've been able to find help thanks to the kindness of BotBr's, and honestly it's been great learning from them thus far.

I hope to stick around, or at the very least, contribute enough that I don't feel regretful when the day comes that I inevitably move on.
...but considering I still play the same game (from 2005) annually, I'd say that's unlikely unless I kick the bucket.

Many thanks for your kind words, help, and encouragement!

I hope to pay it back in tunes as I upgrade from annoying alarm to slightly-tolerable ringtone. (Preferably the disgustingly catchy kind) :>

When you decide to jump in, it'll take some exploration but you'll find a pace that works for you. Some people do battles all the time, others (like myself) not so much.

after listening a bit of @delita account at soundcloud, as there is also human-voice format here, and if someones feel motivated on hosting "battle roads" in this format in a comfortable timezone, i think a badge can be reached quite soon!

and having some experience on daws can be useful, as 3 formats here are .mid (msgs, mt32 and xg) or close (musescore, jummbox) - as you can import .mid from openmpt, and the .mod files saved by openmpt can be opened in furnace tracker - perhaps it might be soon for talking about such interoperation among these tools, but i guess that sooner or later you'll realize how fine they complete each other, might be useful having this in mind, who knows...

the good part about all trackers is that they all work in a very similar way, once you learn one of them, like openmpt, you'll realize that you also learnt over 50% of all other trackers

and dont forget we all can also collab, which can also be very helpful in the learning and practicing process

and just like @ui profile description here says, we are all noobs!

Hah, that's a bit embarrassing. I know how mediocre that old stuff is.
Most of those are actually from when I was in high school over 7 years ago, and the grand majority of what I did make was local since I didn't have access to internet for a couple years during that time.
Unfortunately my old comp bricked so I only recovered what tracks you hear there. Left with a severe depression that caused me to stop making music for several years considering my (traditional) artworks were previously burned in a house fire the year prior.

Anyway, hopefully I've improved since then. I haven't been able to give anything 100% since then, and rarely create anything these days due to being busy and/or unmotivated. But I try, nonetheless.

I'm gonna try openmpt after I get used to bamboo a bit more because I've already put the effort into learning it, and already mpt installed ahead of time. Tbh though I feel like if I never knew the comfort of daw's I could probably do better here than wonder "why can't I just have my creature comforts" lol

Thanks for the info!