

Fruity Loops, but this time, we're going to look at how to use the piano roll to create melodies and such. I'll also show you how to use the arpeggiator function and how to create basic 8 bit tunes, because a lot of people keep asking me about the easiest way to make 8 bit music. bit of everything here.



it follows on spiritually from



=========

First Step - Obtaining The Instruments For This Tutorial

before you make decent 8 bit tracks, you'll need a decent 8 bit VST. there's one set up with Fruity Loops which could serve as one, the 3x Osc instrument, but it doesn't support important things such as frequency sweep direct from the VST. so where do we get our awesome 8 bit sounds from?



Second Step - Emulating The Z80 Soundchip

first, set up your four channels. if you want to make this as authentic as possible, remember that the GameBoy and NES only used four sound channels at a time; three monophonic sound waves and one white noise channel. the Gameboy's third sound wave could also play PCM, hence Pikachu's voice samples in Pokemon Yellow, but hey, let's not overly complicate things now! =P



it's simple to break these channels down into a simple chiptune song a la Sabrepulse, one melody, one bassline, one bass drum, and one for snare and hihats. no prizes for guessing which the noise channel belongs to.



to insert the VST into Fruity Loops, simply select it from the list by rightclicking and going to insert:







if it doesn't appear there, go to More... at the top and refresh the page. once Magical8bit has appeared, set your step sequencer as accordingly:







don't panic if yours don't show up like such, I renamed the channels. it's a good idea really, considering there's no patches built into the VST, like there is with Sytrus or WASP. basically we need two melodic channels; which I've chosen to be a square wave (my bassline) and 25% pulse (my melody). the triangle and noise channels are my drums. so now all we have to do is set those up accordingly:







so let's see what each part does. there's only a few of any importance considering 8 bit hardware...



OscKind: goes from Square, Triangle, Noise, 25% Pulse and 12.5% Pulse. they're basically different soundwaves; Square is perfect for basslines, Triangle is like a softer, subtractive synth sort of noise, good for bass drums, Noise is well, white noise, and 25% + 12.5% are soundwaves with different pulse widths, which gave the GameBoy that distinctive sound. both 25% and 12.5% should be used for melodies.

Volumn: should say volume! haha, them crazy Japanese. but yeah, this basically controls how loud the oscillator is.

Attack: this isn't relevant to tempo of the FL project, which sucks. setting this gives a fade in of the note, the higher the setting, the longer the fade in.

Decay: not necessary really.

Sustain: same.

Release: opposite of Attack, basically. fades out notes instead of fading them in.

Bend Range: you won't need this really.

Sweep Switch: important for bass drums and effects you may want to use. Negative sweeps the pulse frequency (i.e the pitch of the note) down, Positive sweeps it up.

Sweep Time: how long the note is swept. it doesn't repeat; you have to trigger a new note for a new sweep.



ideally we want a triangle for our bass drum, set to sweep downwards quite fast. that gives us the characteristic "UHN" in a techno song. our "TISS" is the noise channel, which we use for snares and hi hats. we'll set this up accordingly now:



Third Step: The Piano Roll

to access an instrument's piano roll, simply right click and go to Piano Roll. you'll be greeted with a piano going horizontally along the screen, with a grid marking straight 16ths. you basically draw your music in, which if you're used to sheet music, can be a little bit daunting at first.







the above is the chorus melody from Super Sonic Racing, the title track from the SEGA Saturn game Sonic R, but put in using the piano roll. and by ear too. at this point I stop showing off and show you how to set up your 8 bit drums:







so that's the triangle bass drum there. anything around C3 will do for a bass drum sound, as long as the sweep is there. the same applies to the snare sound, we really only want it hitting on the offbeats for a techno track (chiptune rock hasn't exactly taken off yet). that gives us our UHN-TISS-UHN-TISS sort of pattern. the snare should be about two octaves higher than the bass drum ideally, and also only a 16th in length with a slight bit of "release" in the settings.



play about with patterns and such as I demonstrated in my first masterclass; perhaps one pattern solely for drums, one for bass, and multiple patterns for different phrases. but hang on! bear in mind that the sound channels of the Gameboy weren't polyphonic, they were monophonic. but we can still create the impression of chords!



Final Step: Arpeggios

to give the impression of chords, what composers such as Koji Kondo would do would be to arpeggiate chords instead of using up three sound channels for one chord. the arpeggiator on Fruity Loops will do that no problem. it can also create what I like to call the "Crystal Castles" sound. anyone who has heard Alice Practice, Love and Caring or xxzxxcuzx me by Crystal Castles will know of the really shrill bleeps in the main riffs. it's easily emulatable.







what you don't see is me building a C major chord in the piano roll. it's easy to figure out; just overlay notes of the same length in the correct places on the piano roll. here we have the arpeggiator set to go up three octaves and to repeat the first arpeggio once before it goes up to the next octave. let's have a closer look at the settings:



Time: unlike the sweep and the attack settings in the 8 bit VSTs, this IS relative to tempo. setting it to 1:00 means it's straight 16th notes relative to the tempo of the project; so setting it below that increases the note values, where as setting above decreases the note value.

Gate: this shortens the notes being arpeggiated. pretty useless.

Range: the range of the arpeggio. if this is set to 1 or -- this basically just repeats what you've input. so if it's a C major chord, it will not repeat the C major chord in a higher or lower octave.

Repeat: how many times the arpeggio should repeat before it shifts up/down an octave.

Chord: redundant unless you like really weird noises or if it's a single note you're "arpeggiating" (which isn't as odd as it sounds)



the buttons at the top also set the "direction" of the arpeggio. hovering over them will explain what they do; the question mark however randomises the arpeggio, which gives us some very interesting effects at times.



and the Crystal Castles sound you ask? use short single notes in the piano roll, set the time in the arpeggiator to around 0:05 and the Range to around 5. the Chord setting should be left alone for maximum effect. if you really want to sound like Crystal Castles, remember to pitch shift vocal patterns and cut them up using the Slicer, and to rip off other 8 bit musicians by "sampling" their work! =P



thus ends another tutorial. any questions, see me after class, or post in this thread. <3 okay we're back with another one of my masterclasses. again we're looking at, but this time, we're going to look at how to use the piano roll to create melodies and such. I'll also show you how to use the arpeggiator function and how to create basic 8 bit tunes, because a lot of people keep asking me about the easiest way to make 8 bit music. bit of everything here.it follows on spiritually from my first thread , so look there for some tips and tricks I may mention.=========before you make decent 8 bit tracks, you'll need a decent 8 bit VST. there's one set up with Fruity Loops which could serve as one, the 3x Osc instrument, but it doesn't support important things such as frequency sweep direct from the VST. so where do we get our awesome 8 bit sounds from? Magical 8 Bit of course! the VST download link is at the bottom, and essentially in your Fruity Loops VST folder (which is wherever you installed Fruity Loops, then plugins > VST). once you've done that, it's time to get chiptuning:first, set up your four channels. if you want to make this as authentic as possible, remember that the GameBoy and NES only used four sound channels; three monophonic sound waves and one white noise channel. the Gameboy's third sound wave could also play PCM, hence Pikachu's voice samples in Pokemon Yellow, but hey, let's not overly complicate things now! =Pit's simple to break these channels down into a simple chiptune song a la Sabrepulse, one melody, one bassline, one bass drum, and one for snare and hihats. no prizes for guessing which the noise channel belongs to.to insert the VST into Fruity Loops, simply select it from the list by rightclicking and going to insert:if it doesn't appear there, go to More... at the top and refresh the page. once Magical8bit has appeared, set your step sequencer as accordingly:don't panic if yours don't show up like such, I renamed the channels. it's a good idea really, considering there's no patches built into the VST, like there is with Sytrus or WASP. basically we need two melodic channels; which I've chosen to be a square wave (my bassline) and 25% pulse (my melody). the triangle and noise channels are my drums. so now all we have to do is set those up accordingly:so let's see what each part does. there's only a few of any importance considering 8 bit hardware...: goes from Square, Triangle, Noise, 25% Pulse and 12.5% Pulse. they're basically different soundwaves; Square is perfect for basslines, Triangle is like a softer, subtractive synth sort of noise, good for bass drums, Noise is well, white noise, and 25% + 12.5% are soundwaves with different pulse widths, which gave the GameBoy that distinctive sound. both 25% and 12.5% should be used for melodies.: should say volume! haha, them crazy Japanese. but yeah, this basically controls how loud the oscillator is.: this isn't relevant to tempo of the FL project, which sucks. setting this gives a fade in of the note, the higher the setting, the longer the fade in.: not necessary really.: same.: opposite of Attack, basically. fades out notes instead of fading them in.: you won't need this really.: important for bass drums and effects you may want to use. Negative sweeps the pulse frequency (i.e the pitch of the note) down, Positive sweeps it up.: how long the note is swept. it doesn't repeat; you have to trigger a new note for a new sweep.ideally we want a triangle for our bass drum, set to sweep downwards quite fast. that gives us the characteristic "UHN" in a techno song. our "TISS" is the noise channel, which we use for snares and hi hats. we'll set this up accordingly now:to access an instrument's piano roll, simply right click and go to Piano Roll. you'll be greeted with a piano going horizontally along the screen, with a grid marking straight 16ths. you basically draw your music in, which if you're used to sheet music, can be a little bit daunting at first.the above is the chorus melody from Super Sonic Racing, the title track from the SEGA Saturn game Sonic R, but put in using the piano roll. and by ear too. at this point I stop showing off and show you how to set up your 8 bit drums:so that's the triangle bass drum there. anything around C3 will do for a bass drum sound, as long as the sweep is there. the same applies to the snare sound, we really only want it hitting on the offbeats for a techno track (chiptune rock hasn't exactly taken off yet). that gives us our UHN-TISS-UHN-TISS sort of pattern. the snare should be about two octaves higher than the bass drum ideally, and also only a 16th in length with a slight bit of "release" in the settings.play about with patterns and such as I demonstrated in my first masterclass; perhaps one pattern solely for drums, one for bass, and multiple patterns for different phrases. but hang on! bear in mind that the sound channels of the Gameboy weren't polyphonic, they were monophonic. but we can still create the impression of chords!to give the impression of chords, what composers such as Koji Kondo would do would be to arpeggiate chords instead of using up three sound channels for one chord. the arpeggiator on Fruity Loops will do that no problem. it can also create what I like to call the "Crystal Castles" sound. anyone who has heard Alice Practice, Love and Caring or xxzxxcuzx me by Crystal Castles will know of the really shrill bleeps in the main riffs. it's easily emulatable.what you don't see is me building a C major chord in the piano roll. it's easy to figure out; just overlay notes of the same length in the correct places on the piano roll. here we have the arpeggiator set to go up three octaves and to repeat the first arpeggio once before it goes up to the next octave. let's have a closer look at the settings:: unlike the sweep and the attack settings in the 8 bit VSTs, this IS relative to tempo. setting it to 1:00 means it's straight 16th notes relative to the tempo of the project; so setting it below that increases the note values, where as setting above decreases the note value.: this shortens the notes being arpeggiated. pretty useless.: the range of the arpeggio. if this is set to 1 or -- this basically just repeats what you've input. so if it's a C major chord, it will not repeat the C major chord in a higher or lower octave.: how many times the arpeggio should repeat before it shifts up/down an octave.: redundant unless you like really weird noises or if it's a single note you're "arpeggiating" (which isn't as odd as it sounds)the buttons at the top also set the "direction" of the arpeggio. hovering over them will explain what they do; the question mark however randomises the arpeggio, which gives us some very interesting effects at times.and the Crystal Castles sound you ask? use short single notes in the piano roll, set the time in the arpeggiator to around 0:05 and the Range to around 5. the Chord setting should be left alone for maximum effect. if you really want to sound like Crystal Castles, remember to pitch shift vocal patterns and cut them up using the Slicer, and to rip off other 8 bit musicians by "sampling" their work! =Pthus ends another tutorial. any questions, see me after class, or post in this thread. <3





