DiJiTKal - 1st Bit Dragon (Electronic | House | Game - My First track in 1BitDragon!)

I was looking for a music creation app compatible with Linux, more specifically the Steam Deck. I wanted to have a way to make music during lengthy downtime at work. I came across an app called "1BitDragon" on Steam, which is designed to make music production easy, which is great for a total novice like myself.

It took some tinkering with settings, and using Desktop mode instead of Gaming Mode, along with using a bluetooth mouse and keyboard, but I made it work. 1BD simplifies the music making process by limiting your "playspace" and playing notes from an instrument in a tracker style.

The Bass Line is originally a preset in the program, but I shifted the notes a bit and added extra notes to the end of each measure (hope im using that right). The Chiptuny-synth was the happy result of random clicking that worked out surprisingly well. This is probably the greatest strength of IBD of being able to click randomly or even haphazardly and still being able to get something that sounds good. I copied those notes to the Electronic Piano that enhances the melody. I need something with "long, held notes" and thanks to a recent update, I was able to do that with the "guitar" track. I put guitar in quotes because that same instrument becomes more a synth in the fourth "section" of the song. Also, 1BD has an arpeggiator that really enhanced the Piano for the final bit. Finally added some low notes in the actual Synth to give the end a more bass-y impact.

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. Honestly, I could have done more, but once I reached the stopping point, it really sounded like something that could have looped in the first level of Streets of Rage 2 - again, I took inspiration from Yuzo Koshiro, but by pure accident.

It's hard for me to call 1BD a "Good DAW". It's more of an interesting tracker or sequencer that would allow a producer to prototype a track quickly, or give an "extreme novice" some ability to make music with little or no skill, but with not enough features to be used professionally. I intend to make a review of it on the Steam page using this song as an example.