So, Zep (or anybody who has some tips)!

  I'd like to start composing my own chiptunes. At this point I'm fairly comfortable with MilkyTracker from tutorials and covering songs, and I'm familiar with basic music theory from playing piano, but I still run into a brick wall of uncertainty when trying to compose anything original. I was wondering where you start when composing your tunes. How do you choose what instruments you want to use and what you want them to sound like? How much does knowledge of music theory affect your composition decisions? Do you use samples from other sources in your chiptunes, or do you create all your own instruments? 

 As it is now, it feels a little like I'm trying to make a sculpture by shouting hexadecimal values at a ball of clay.

Don't focus too much on being original. Anything you write will most likely have inspirations from something whether you realize it or not. For me, it's an on-and-off sort of thing where a melody pops up into my head now and then.

Thanks! That makes sense. By the way, I heard your Dekishibara from the bug thread and it sounds great. Have you been making chiptunes for long?

Thanks. I'm glad I could help. And no, I'm actually fairly new, but I do know a thing or two about musical theory and I play the piano, so... yeah.

Dude, I sometimes produce EDM when I have time, what alot of people tell me about producing music is don't rush & go random :).

Music is hard...