I just have a few questions, because this is really bugging me.
- Any recommended Trackers?
- Do we have to stick with the GB limitations precisely?
If you want authentic Game Boy music, you can make it in Deflemask tracker.
http://deflemask.com/
Available for Win/Mac/Linux.
It's a little infamous among tracker users because it used to be fairly buggy and it's still being pretty heavily developed - two years ago it was /really/ inaccurate for the game boy, although usable - here's a terrible old composition showing what you could do with it back in the day.
Deflemask has gotten a lot better now though, and I think that it might be a great tool for people who want accurate GB music!
took a look at it for a bit, I can see why now. The user interface and GUI stuff is a disaster, but the fact that it has emulation for a variety of sound chip is very cool. Doesn't seem like there are any settings you can play around with either, which kind of sucks. Being able to pick any monospaced font would be nice as well
I think the interface and gui are fine honestly, but maybe I'm just used to it. I think you should be able to change the font by replacing things in the extras folder. There's a few things saved in the config.ini, mostly the contents of the options menu at the top.
But yeah, it is what it is I suppose.
FamiTracker is also a good choice for NES style music. It's not as accurate as Deflemask but a little less difficult to learn.
You can even write accurate GB music in FamiTracker if you know what you're doing - by exporting a specially formatted NSF and running it through this script. http://forums.famitracker.com/viewtopic.php?t=1834
Might be a little too complex for newbies, though.
While you technically don't have to follow the limitations strictly, for music you should stick with the limits because they're really not hard and it would be wrong to outright violate them. Playing sounds over the top w/o muting the channels is completely forgivable.
If you use SunVox, that means using a polyphony of 1 for everything and not using reverb.
Here's the channel allocations, by the way:
For GBJam3 I was going to target the real HW and stream audio on the wave channel, but I shot myself in the foot when trying to get the actual gameplay in, so I didn't end up entering.
Also, I'd probably end up using SchismTracker for stuff w/ a suitable packgen.