If you want to learn how to make chiptune for video games that are based on pixel art
or have a retro feel, stick around.
This video is going to guide you through making this track from the ground up.
[How To Make Chiptune Music Tutorial Example]
Hey everyone, Jake from Transverse Audio here.
To start making Chiptunes, you'll first need a Digital Audio Workstation (known as a DAW)
and some synthesizers and effects.
I put together a playlist with some free ones you can use in the card to the top right.
You might want to grab some of those first so you can follow along with me.
I really like to start out a track of this genre with a cool sound effect build up
to jump straight into the action.
So, I'll just throw in some white noise and with this, we can slide it from a lower note
to a higher one by automating the pitch.
To get to the same note in a higher pitch it needs to be set to 12 semi-tones,
each note being one semitone and 12 making an octave.
By setting the pitch-bend to 12 in the plugin
and the plugin wrapper's pitch range to 12 as well, it will move correctly.
Without doing this it may not work correctly.
Now if the plugin doesn't have a pitch-bend parameter, you'll only need to change the
pitch range on the top right. This goes for samples and loops as well.
To make it easier, simply set the pitch to where you want it to arrive at and copy the value.
After pasting it in the automation clip, you can then change the curve to make it progress
as you'd like.
To give it even more progression, we can add in an Equalizer to filter out some of the frequencies
in the sound and actually automate that.
Before you add any effects, assign the channel with the sound to any mixer track and
add the effect to that mixer.
One way I like to make a transition with an EQ is by using either a high or low pass filter.
I'll just use a high pass in this case.
A high pass filter is a type of curve you can apply to any of the 7 bands you see here.
This will cut off or remove the lower frequencies, and let the higher ones pass through
(hence "high-pass").
What we'll be automating is the position of the band it's applied to
along the frequency spectrum in the EQ.
This is usually between 20 and 20 thousand hertz, which is the range of frequencies
most humans can hear.
There, now that we changed what happens to the sound when it's being played,
we can add effects to change how it will sound after it is played,
and it will let it fade out a bit smoother.
Just so you know, these will change a sound as it's being played too
but that's not what I'm trying to use them for in this case.
Let's start with reverb.
To give the simulated space some grit, choosing a low diffusion rate will make it sound more choppy,
which I think is pretty good for Chiptune.
Now, let's add some delay to the sound (including the reverb since it's going to be applied
after the reverb in the effect chain).
You could always put the delay before the reverb to apply space to each echo instead
of echo to the space.
Sounds like it doesn't make a difference but it does.
For the settings, I'll throw the panning all the way to one side and set it to ping-pong mode
to bounce it back and forth from left and right.
I'm not sure if it'll make a huge difference but I'll drop the smoothing down to give it
more of a rough edge.
Finally, we can automate the wet signal (which is just whatever is processed by the effect)
and have it turned off until the end of the sound to prevent it from making everything
wash together while it's being played.
Now, let's kick it off with some arpeggio, and nothing too fast either.
Those rapid sweeps up and down are usually good for quick sound effects throughout the
song to keep things interesting, we'll add those later.
To help it make an entrance, you can automate the volume to fade in.
By copying the level it's originally at, it will make it much easier to bring it from
0 to that level again.
Now, time to go in and add some subtle differences to every second arp sweep, at least in the
first part to keep it from getting annoying.
Let's move onto the bassline.
Out of all the basic waveforms that are used in making chiptune, sine waves will translate
the best in my opinion to lower notes where the bass will be.
You can use anything you'd like though.
I'll split the bassline into two parts, this first part will be consistent and will follow
the movement of the arpeggio.
To prevent this from being really boring, adding some automation will help keep things
moving by fading it in and out.
Adding in the second part to the bassline, I won't make it be present all the time
like the other one and simply use it to guide into each bar, which are the four sections you
see right now divided by darker lines.
Then make the last part guide to the beginning of the pattern so it will sound better when it loops.
Okay, we'll put some percussion into this track then well move on to making a melody.
For some of the drums, I'll use TAL Noise Maker, which is a great plugin even for stuff
that's not chiptune.
Again, you can find it in the playlist to the top right (it's under "the best free synths" video,
not the one for chiptune synths).
There's no real pattern you must follow for this genre and what I'm doing is just listening
to where the kick would make the most impact.
Before I add in the snare sound, I'll just use a kind of high hat sound to fill in the
spaces around where I think the snare will be.
Now for the snare sound.
You don't always have to make all of the percussion stay at the same note either.
You can actually use these to add some melodic elements to the music, not just impact.
Since this will be looping often, it's good to guide the ending to the beginning.
Whether that be through the direction of notes, or simply the amount of notes you use.
Basically, it's good to make the ending more exciting than the rest of the loop.
Alright, to prevent things from getting too messy I'm just gonna order my channels
since I have them all assigned to a mixer track.
Time for the melody, I'm gonna to start with a pluck sound and just play until I find
a cool pattern to use.
As you can see, I kinda suck, and.. it takes me a while to find something worth exploring.
And that's the thing, even if you're not good at playing the piano or other instruments,
by experimenting and playing along to the rest of the song, you can discover even the
tiniest section to then expand upon in the piano roll.
It also helps in this case as some DAWs will let you see the notes from other instruments
in the same pattern, which can make it easier to find out where to actually put the notes.
And you know what?
Not everything you make is going to be in the final track.
So don't limit yourself to what ideas you have down and try out different directions.
I'm not going to use this melody, for example, I'll just try out something new.
Maybe a typical synth instead of a pluck will work better in this case.
When making it lead into different notes, you can add very short notes between the others
to help it slide into the next.
The beginning of the melody doesn't have to be very similar to the end either,
nor does it need to be playing all the time (which actually could be a bit much for the listener).
If you do come up with new ideas, it's also good to mute the ones you where using,
just to reference or use later.
You never know where it might come in handy.
Alright so, now for the quick arp sweeps I said I was going to make earlier.
Don't go too crazy with these either.
You should also take into consideration whether or not this will be played during game-play,
as adding these kinds of effects to music can throw the player off if there are similar
sound effects from the game itself.
It's Just something to be aware of.
And when I said quick, these really do have to be quick, or they'll just sound weird.
They may also sound better in a different octave or pitch so don't be scared to try out that too.
It's also good to use different kinds of these arp sweeps to change things up a bit.
Sometimes you need to cut out a few notes,
sometimes use it for a segue into the next loop,
and sometimes you might even need to cut off half of the effect
as it could be a bit too much.
Okay, now for some bassy effects to use as this track is kind of lacking some parts
in the low end.
By that I mean it doesn't have much character or sound present
in the lower end of the frequency spectrum,
which is anything below about 300 Hertz.
To make it more interesting, I'll add a delay effect and make sure it's snapped to the tempo
so it can fit the rhythm and not be all over the place.
As a final touch to the melody, I'll make the last part unique so I can edit it independent
from the original pattern.
This way I can give the song a cool ending.
To make it even better, I can add some reverb and use a mostly processed or wet signal and
fade it in so it turns from the dry - unprocessed signal to the wet one...
You'll see what I mean.
Now I can begin to tidy things up a bit and group together the automation clips
to the track they're used with.
Then collapsing them to keep things organized.
Time to finish things up and set levels and equalize the sounds.
Ideally, you want to set the levels during the whole process then do some tweaking later on.
It's important to keep everything below 0 dB (or decibels) to prevent clipping,
which is a type of distortion caused by part of the waveform being cut off due to it passing
the maximum level (which is 0).
Now, you can have the setting higher than 0 but what the actual sound reaches is what
really matters.
First I dial in what volume I think everything should be at by running through and changing everything
until it fits well with the rest of the elements.
The reason I'm doing this is to allow certain things to either stand out or sit back in the mix.
After playing the soundtrack for a bit, I noticed the melody could use another layer
to give it some thickness.
Layering two different sounds together is not only great for music but also sound effects.
The key is to find a sound that will compliment the other by filling some of the empty space
in the frequencies.
Now for some equalization (also known as EQ).
By adding the EQ before the other effects we will be able to shape the sound
before it's processed.
You can always add it after everything but I just like to use it as the first effect.
Although chiptune is really basic in nature and may be easier to EQ,
you should still take the time to trim off the unnecessary parts of the sound.
And an attention to detail when it comes to this process.
I do this by subtracting frequencies until I hear that I'm making a difference in the original,
then I'll ease back a bit so I don't actually change the sound - instead just what isn't heard.
Basically, all these "unheard" parts will add up to reduce the clarity of your song.
Cutting these out will sharpen things up.
As for the sounds that are always played together, I like to line up each of their EQ vertically
so I can easily see where things need to be shaped according to the other sounds.
Such as where to cut or boost, depending on what I did with another sound.
A very important thing to mention is that you don't need to EQ absolutely everything.
I just think sounds that are isolated to a specific part of the spectrum
should be kept there by getting rid of the rest of the frequencies that don't matter.
And this is totally different for things that take up the majority of the spectrum.
You might just want to leave them alone or trim out certain parts.
There you go! We made a track.
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especially if it's feedback that can help me make better videos for you.
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