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. 👍👍