your 'easy route' sounds amazing!

your 'easy route' sounds amazing!

Thank you, that's very kind! I just felt like using this very simple chord progression and went from there, using tried and proven composition tricks and a very 'confined' sound palette - which I find to be freeing limitations. But I also enjoy the result a lot!

[quote=circuit_breaks]your 'easy route' sounds amazing! [/quote] Thank you, that's very kind! I just felt like using this very simple chord progression and went from there, using tried and proven composition tricks and a very 'confined' sound palette - which I find to be freeing limitations. But I also enjoy the result a lot! :)

A+ demoscene spirit—masterful melodic slides and the arps are delicious!  Favoriting on account of how straight-up fun this is to listen to

I'm curious what sorts of "tried and proven composition tricks" you're thinking of—I'm very interested in how folks approach this kind of demoscene chiptune

A+ demoscene spirit—masterful melodic slides and the arps are [i]delicious[/i]! Favoriting on account of how straight-up fun this is to listen to :heart: [quote=LeBernd]I just felt like using this very simple chord progression and went from there, using tried and proven composition tricks and a very 'confined' sound palette [/quote]I'm curious what sorts of "tried and proven composition tricks" you're thinking of—I'm very interested in how folks approach this kind of demoscene chiptune

Thank you so much!

The first things coming to mind, in somewhat chronological order:

Strict separation of a voice providing the chord arps and another doing the melody.

A melody that is just a rhythmic pattern centered around one note that goes well with the main chord progression (in this case, the chord progression is in F minor, and the melody is centered around F. Started out with just the first 1-bar loop and then made variations).

Going from my main chord progression (I-bIV-bIII-bVII, a classic pop progression) to another staple (bIV-bVII-I) at half time.
Having the bass vamp on the root (F) for a section.

Having an arp just play one chord over that progression (it's a little masked by moving between two voicings that add up to a 4-note-chord Abmaj7, i.e. Ab-C-Eb/1-3-5 and Ab-Eb-A/1-5-7)

Creating a melody variation by keeping the defining notes/steps, but slowing it down to half time as well.
In terms of drums, varying intensity by adding/omitting Hihats or the shaker/tambourine loop, or dropping out the groove.

Hope this helps!

[quote=ineff]A+ demoscene spirit—masterful melodic slides and the arps are [i]delicious[/i]! Favoriting on account of how straight-up fun this is to listen to :heart: [/quote] Thank you so much! [quote=ineff] I'm curious what sorts of "tried and proven composition tricks" you're thinking of—I'm very interested in how folks approach this kind of demoscene chiptune [/quote] The first things coming to mind, in somewhat chronological order: Strict separation of a voice providing the chord arps and another doing the melody. A melody that is just a rhythmic pattern centered around one note that goes well with the main chord progression (in this case, the chord progression is in F minor, and the melody is centered around F. Started out with just the first 1-bar loop and then made variations). Going from my main chord progression (I-bIV-bIII-bVII, a classic pop progression) to another staple (bIV-bVII-I) at half time. Having the bass vamp on the root (F) for a section. Having an arp just play one chord over that progression (it's a little masked by moving between two voicings that add up to a 4-note-chord Abmaj7, i.e. Ab-C-Eb/1-3-5 and Ab-Eb-A/1-5-7) Creating a melody variation by keeping the defining notes/steps, but slowing it down to half time as well. In terms of drums, varying intensity by adding/omitting Hihats or the shaker/tambourine loop, or dropping out the groove. Hope this helps!

Amazing—thank you for taking the time for write all that out!  It definitely does help—it's going to be hard not to duck out for a few hours right now to try some of this out in a new track. 👍👍

Amazing—thank you for taking the time for write all that out! It definitely [i]does[/i] help—it's going to be hard not to duck out for a few hours right now to try some of this out in a new track. 👍👍

if this is your easy route, perhaps it's worth investigating whether this shouldn't be your main route
Shame it's on week 50, because that's the kind of thing you'd explore through WB
- Ebrit

if this is your easy route, perhaps it's worth investigating whether this shouldn't be your main route Shame it's on week 50, because that's the kind of thing you'd explore through WB - Ebrit

Thanks! I don't know, I feel in the long run I'd feel bored. I've been doing quite a bit of exploration during Weeklybeats and I'm trying to find just the right line of challenging myself without navigating into dead ends. With sonically simple ideas/tracks I tend to hit a point where I'm like "okay this works, now I just have to... ugh. Finish it." Things start to feel kinda grindy from that point on. In this case, that's mitigated by the constraints of the sound, but I wouldn't want to confine myself to that niche.

[quote=Devieus]if this is your easy route, perhaps it's worth investigating whether this shouldn't be your main route Shame it's on week 50, because that's the kind of thing you'd explore through WB - Ebrit[/quote] Thanks! I don't know, I feel in the long run I'd feel bored. I've been doing quite a bit of exploration during Weeklybeats and I'm trying to find just the right line of challenging myself without navigating into dead ends. With sonically simple ideas/tracks I tend to hit a point where I'm like "okay this works, now I just have to... ugh. Finish it." Things start to feel kinda grindy from that point on. In this case, that's mitigated by the constraints of the sound, but I wouldn't want to confine myself to that niche. :)

this is so fun. i really like how the melody works with the chords and sounds you chose!

this is so fun. i really like how the melody works with the chords and sounds you chose!

Yeeeessss this has such great cracktro keygen vibes, I LVOE IT!!! This is the kind of music that originally got me hooked on chiptunes in the first place. Hard agree with ineff, the melodies and arps here are incredible. Amazing job!!!

Yeeeessss this has such great cracktro keygen vibes, I LVOE IT!!! This is the kind of music that originally got me hooked on chiptunes in the first place. Hard agree with ineff, the melodies and arps here are incredible. Amazing job!!!