Chiptune forum

for synthesizing instruments and sequencing tracks for free (with save support) on gb i know of music box and carillon.
i would recommend carillon as it is very easy to use and even has some points that make me stick to it instead of moving to lsdj.

carillon points:
- view all 4 channels when tracking
- you can create a 64kB player rom for a song, and have tons of tracks in your cart without caring about sram, backups and crap

lsdj points (i know of):
- you don't need to patch it to use samples, there are lots of kits and you can play 2 kits at the same time (effectively duplicating the wav channel for sample usage.
- you can store more patterns and instruments (but carillon has enough space for a track)
- you can use effects on all channels. on carillon you can only set one effect and choose the channels it applies to, like in a mixer.
- you can have a continuous volume envelope. carillon's volume envelopes can't be set to linear, you just set a new volume value for each step.

carillon is enough for me (i don't use samples), and i couldn't live now without the capability of creating a sram-less player rom.

it wasn't the first time for me to think about both programs' merits. i think carillon is my way to go for now, but you might (not) like to know that carillon has no live mode at all. carillon is meant more for demo/game music than for live performance.
and that's one of the reasons for me to base live performance in muddygb (by S.O.) or e-drum (by the same carillon author aleksi eeben).
sorry for forgetting about live in the comparison above!