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Furnace is a tool which allows you to create music using sound chips (“chiptune”), most from the 8/16-bit era. It has a large selection of features and sound chips. From the NES, SNES and Genesis to ES5506, VIC-20 or even Arcade, Furnace has most likely covered your target with many presets to choose from. Every chip is emulated using many emulation cores, therefore the sound that Furnace produces is authentic to that of real hardware.

Getting Started

If you just want to jump right in and get going, we recommend you go through the quick start guide first. It should get you familiar enough with the program to comprehend the rest of the documentation.

Understanding Hexadecimal

Furnace uses hexadecimal (abbreviated as “hex”) numbers frequently. Hexadecimal is a base-16 numbering system that uses digits 0-9 and letters A-F:
DecimalHexadecimal
0-90-9
10A
11B
12C
13D
14E
15F
1610
255FF

The Tracker Interface

Furnace uses a music tracker interface. It can be thought of as a spreadsheet for notes. For an introduction to a tracker interface, see tracker concepts and terms before using Furnace. There’s also a glossary of common terms available. Furnace uses a flexible windowing system which you may move around and organize. The interface section provides more information about organizing your workspace.

Learning Resources

Once familiar with the tracker, here are some resources to help you learn:

Quick Start Guide

Get up and running with Furnace in about an hour

Basic Concepts

Understand fundamental tracker terminology and workflow

FAQ

Find answers to commonly asked questions

Troubleshooting

Solve common issues and problems

Video Tutorials

  • How to Learn Chiptune Trackers: video tutorial created by Button Masher. Covers the basic mechanics of chiptune tracking using Furnace for demonstration.
  • Furnace Tutorials: video tutorials created by Spinning Square Waves. Be noted that these may not apply to the current version.

Need More Help?

See the frequently asked questions for common questions and answers. If something seems to be going wrong and nothing else in the manual helps, see the troubleshooting page.

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