Help with a Chiptune Sound

[Maverickmode]

I'm working on a chiptune for Pixel day, and I want a little advice on how to create a certain synth sound. I've noticed it in a lot of chiptune music, but I don't know how to describe it.
It's used in this song: starting around 0:34. I don't want to sound like an idiot, but it has kind of a "fluttery" sound to it. Not sure if this is done using filter modulation, LFOs, or what?

I'm also curious as to what kind of modulations can be used before a song becomes "not chiptune". For example, were low-pass filters available to 8-bit chiptune composers? Is there any measure I can use to tell if what I'm making has become "not chiptune"? I would use Milkytracker or something, but I really just couldn't figure it out and I had to delete it to save space on my hard drive.

[DEM0NW0LF]

What you're hearing is a very fast arpeggio, typical of chiptune. It is achieved by playing the notes of a chord in very quick succession (think 1/32th notes or faster.)

You can achieve this sound by running chords into an arpeggiator.

As to what can be considered chiptune, nowadays it varies a lot, since more and more chiptune artists are doing "fakebit" (chiptune using modern PCs). A few ground rules :

- Limit yourself to simple, unfiltered waveforms. Many old machines didn't have filters. The only one who had one that I can think of is the Commodore 64.
- Limit the number of channels you are working with. Most old machines have at most 3 or 4 channels.
- Don't use samples. Unless you can process them to convince your audience it was played by an era-accurate computer.

[Maverickmode]

At 12/18/16 07:41 AM, Demon-Wolf wrote: What you're hearing is a very fast arpeggio, typical of chiptune. It is achieved by playing the notes of a chord in very quick succession (think 1/32th notes or faster.)

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks for the help.

- Limit yourself to simple, unfiltered waveforms. Many old machines didn't have filters. The only one who had one that I can think of is the Commodore 64.
- Limit the number of channels you are working with. Most old machines have at most 3 or 4 channels.
- Don't use samples. Unless you can process them to convince your audience it was played by an era-accurate computer.

I will keep these things in mind. I believe that I already have more than 4 tracks, so I guess I might end up making fake-bit after all. Oh well. They still had ASDR volume envelopes though, right? They were available in MilkyTracker so I assumed they were okay.