The hidden magic that makes GameBoy music so good.

Toss a Koopa shell at that LIKE button real quick.
I wrote an entire FREE pack of retro gameboy inspired music and sounds for you fellow creators to use in your content: hypeddit.com/track/8mw1n1
(the download asks you to subscribe, just a friendly heads up)
Listen to the pack on my SoundCloud:
/ raynboy-vol-1-a-free-r...
It was time to make some more music for my youtube videos and i thought that it would be fun to learn how the retro, chiptune, 8bit style music of Nintendo gameboy color was made. I ended up making a whole pack of royalty free music that you creators are welcome to use in your own content.
These retro, vintage videogame consoles had some pretty cool tricks to make all of the music fit on these tiny gameboy cartridges, and I was really inspired to write my own after learning just how limited the whole process was for the composers.

[@zoologist_stan8333]

as a fellow chiptune musician, i can 100% say that it's such a fun feeling to make a great song out of only 4-5 channels!

[@zombieregime]

For some perspective, $70 in 1998 is $132.18 in 2023, an inflation of 88.8%. And this is why the current state of the economy makes us 80s born 90s kids cry.....

[@HedgehogY2K]

1:34 EXACTLY LIKE Halo 3's Theater Mode? Wow, I didn't know that was quite literally the exactly process to making cartridge music.

[@WigWoo1]

When I made 8 bit music I would use multiple gameboys to get around the channel limitations. Money of my later 8 bit songs used 2 to 3 gameboys so I’d get 6 pulse channels. Perfect for chords without needing an arpeggiator

[@Kortrexx]

Man your videos always have the production value on pare with that of big content creators! I really hope you‘ll gain some more traction soon! Regardless, amazing video. Super insightful and also educational! I wish you would have shown a bit how you created your 8bit songs, but definitely didn’t make the video bad. Looking forward to your next uploads man! Cheers :)

[@jaredrain]

thanks a ton kortrex! im tryin to find a balance of content that both producers and non-producers will enjoy to give my channel the best chance but ive certainly got a lot of learning to do still. appreciate you checking out the vid and dropping some useful feedback.

[@djalexander968]

you're an absolute blessing, im working with the most basic version of digital music processing, so i needed someone else to run before i could crawl

[@specmusic5462]

Loved that Dreamland track you uploaded on SC and absolutely digging this too 🙌

[@jaredrain]

thanks Spec!

[@c.m5043]

What a great video. Loved your delivery, keep doing what you do!

[@Nikku4211]

I think you might have got the order of the last two channels mixed up, but good video.
Though so many of the music people actually remember from the Game Boy don't use arpeggios at all, instead using other tricks to provide a full sound or just embracing the low polyphony entirely.

[@husrev_vv]

great video yo!

[@harshmalhari8519]

Holy shit, youtube couldn’t have recommended this at a better time than now.

[@notoscar5074]

Yooooo this is awsome we need more stuff like this

[@jaredrain]

thanks dude appreciate the feedback and support.

[@russellwoodstechno]

great points made in this video

[@invitationtoleave.]

Amazing video, hope this blows up

[@jaredrain]

thanks Jordon, really appreciate that.

[@onkelhiphop]

Nice I’m looking forward to play around with it nice video keep it up🤘😎

[@jadearo9397]

This is great!

[@TomPlattsMusic]

Underrated 🔥

[@jaredrain]

thanks man, appreciate that

[@SuperMakeSomething]

This is a great explanation of how Gameboy sound generation works! Thank you also for the sound pack -- I can't wait to explore it! Fantastic work all around!

[@jaredrain]

thanks and enjoy the pack!

[@ArcticWolfOfficial]

Awesome video

[@jaredrain]

appreciate it

[@disuko]

sick video

[@SparkyMK3]

This is fascinating, and it explains why GB songs sound the way they do! Does the NES use monophonic sound too, or can it do chords?

[@samlletas]

Similar to the GB, the NES could only play one note per channel so arpeggios were used there too.

[@joliekay9409]

Thanks for sharing here!! What tools did you use for creating those tracker music? I am trying to write my own gameboy tunes! Cheers

[@orjis]

Very like a flashcart for the GB with a LSDj rom

[@elliotcampbell7284]

This ones for the algorithm my man

[@jaredrain]

much appreciated

[@tails_the_god]

to be honest... i wish tech companies could learn that... sometimes you dont need to keep progressing with better tech to make progress all the time

[@baxtardboy]

Pfff. 48k Sinclair Spectrum had one channel and produced some absolute bangers, such as Fairlight. You kids don't know how good you got it.