An Old Man's Guide to Making Chiptunes with DefleMask - itch.io
I am engaged in an epic and crucial project: to publicly release 20-or-so CC-licensed tracks usable on real Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) hardware (https://safetystoatstudios.itch.io/free-vgms). This project is the result of a lot of grumbling about the availability of such music and a borderline obsessive need to fix it myself.
One crucial skill needed to create Mega Drive music is the ability to use one of a few capable chiptune trackers. I found the learning curve for this category of tools to be very steep, and I would like to record my findings in a manner digestible by people with a similar experience and learning style. In particular:
I'm assuming that the reader knows a tiny bit of music theory. If you've taken 1 month of piano lessons when you were 10 years old, that's probably enough. If not, you will benefit from learning how a keyboard is laid out and what tempo is.
You'll also want to familiarize yourself with the Mega Drive's sound hardware. A good source is the "Audio" section of https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/mega-drive-genesis/.
