So I have tried trackers before but I always fail with learning them because I come from a modern DAW I guess.

I have reached quite a good level in my modern DAW when it comes to my other genre that I’m into.

Anyways to me Renoise looks the best so I have decided to learn it for chiptune. Only problem is I don’t know how to make the sounds at all. I have tried loading a VST but then all the effects commands doesn’t seem to work and I guess it’s because it’s a VST.

So my guess is that people that make chiptune in Renoise create the sound inside Renoise as a native sound so all the effect commands work.

Am I right? And if I am how do I make these sounds?

Thanks!

Renoise has/is a sampler. Yu can load or draw samples. Mostly square waves and saw waves will do the job ... and they are pretty easy to draw (also triangle wave can be helpful and some random drawings for noise). Then you have volume envelopes and filters with envelopes to shape the sound, and of course lots of built-in fx (check the Renoise manual) or watch tutorials like the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0SCzrg0_tQ&list=PLOMuI-j1vRxTeFyke3uX8RMrVR0AnQ7TJ&index=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYALDWKbQ6Y

hope that helps :)

i'm unfamiliar with renoise, but if it has a built in signal generator (like 3xOSC in FL Studio or Analog in Ableton) then just using simple square, saw or triangle waveforms is enough to get a chiptune-y sound.

you might want to seek a few samples for drums though, or other elements that are chiptune but not easily reproducible with simple waveforms. i'm sure a google search will get you what you need though

Ah so I'm right in assumming most people don't use VSTs in renoise for chiptune?

This helps a lot by the way!

Would love to find an existing renoise file to look at but honestly I haven't found one.

I recommend the Renoise Forum

renoise has a feature that converts a plugin to samples by deep-sampling at whatever settings you choose, so you could always do that, unless you want to go heavy on automating stuff within the vst

you also could browse the renoise format here on this web site for examples, since they are all modules that don't use external plugins

that said, i indeed don't think it's super common to use renoise for chiptune. it's more like the other way around - for tracker users (many of whom are chiptuners), renoise is the best option for a more fully-featured daw with dsp options and vst support. if you are gonna use a tracker, stuff like furnace, famitracker, lsdj, and even deflemask are better options for chipping the tune. and by-and-large they are hardware accurate too

another way you could go about it would be to just use other trackers long enough to either record or export some simple beeps and use those as samples. aside from fm, there's a lot of simple waveforms that are easy to loop and use that way

Here are 3 tracks from botb battles and the renoise files can be downloaded and investigated so see how it was made (all tracks with no VST):

https://battleofthebits.com/arena/Entry/omg+savestates+upload+speed+nooooooooooooooo.xrns/15789/

https://battleofthebits.com/arena/Entry/still+learning.xrns/33122/

https://battleofthebits.com/arena/Entry/9999.xrns/33684/

Thanks for all the replies everyone! Hmm well I like how renoise looks and it feels less intimidating than other trackers. I also like that I can import midi and study tracks that way, would you recommend something else?

i'm going to recommend you at least try to understand openmpt, as it's the basis for a lot of sample-based formats on the site with support for .mod, .s3m, .xm, and .it (it does this the best of any tracker out there currently)

i don't use renoise myself but i know a lot of people will completely ignore openmpt and they end up never trying it as a result, however, openmpt is a lot simpler overall than other trackers, renoise has a looot of features to learn

I tried renoise but i could never find a solution to change the keyboard inputs to the extent I wanted and gave up, maybe i'll give it another shot

anyway, the setup for shortcuts in openmpt is imo the hardest part, as it's got a note input scheme that's veeery different from other software that you'll probably want to change

I recommend using only 3 or 4 mono tracks in the beginning:

1. pulse wave for melody with heavy use of portamento and vibrato
2. pulse wave for arpeggio or accompanying melody
3. triangle wave for bass
4. drum samples (only one sample at a time)

This setting replicates a NES 2A03/2A07 chip nicely.

You may combine track 3 and 4 to one single track. The challenge here is that the drums and the bass can't play simultaneously.

With this setting a SID 6581/8580 could be replicated pretty well. Although the SID has one single filter for all of its three voices and all three voices can play all possible waveforms (including noise).

Listen to chiptune music you like and try to replicate parts of your beloved tunes only by ear. Doing so, you will learn a lot.

As I started out over 3 decades ago, I had no choice. There was the SID and the SID was it!

I actually ended up with famitracker and it goes actually better than expected for the first time in my life.

Probably my name is recognized by others here but I have lost count of how many times I've tried learning a tracker in the past.

I'll probably use renoise too but for now famitracker is good enough.

if you're used to a DAW then you might prefer FamiStudio, it has (almost) all of the same functionality as FamiTracker but is laid out like a DAW rather than a tracker. can still export nsfs!

For now I'm making a lot of progress in famitracker, obviously I'm not amazing at it but it sounds decent and like something. It's a cover so that kinda already fixes the structure of the song and I can focus on learning commands etc and get comfortable.