robertphillips4 wroteI'd like to make an 8 bit synth using Mai Tai (because I don't own pro). Any tips or tricks to make the vst sound like that?

HI.

Not sure what you are asking about. I'll try to respond this way.

Mai Tai have 2 Oscilators with the basic waveforms, 2 LFOs and other modulation possibilities, a quality setting and more. I believe all the needed tools to make sounds like that is present in Mai Tai/ Studio One. Use the tools.
Some tips:
For example don't use delay, reverb and chorus unless you think that work better.
Perhaps use the 80s quality setting unless you find another setting work better.
Perhaps export sound files in 8 bit, but again use what work best.

You can transfere some basic stuff on how to make sounds like that from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btFH6JIJ0oQ
And i guess you can find more tutorials on the web if that's what you are looking for.
And perhaps you can even find some applications to especially create that kind of sounds if you think that's better.

To me saying "sounds like that" don't say much except perhaps saying cheap or basic sounding sounds from a period where computeres did'nt have much power. There are so many variations in sounds like that, so the phrase don't tell much.

Is this answer what you are looking for, or what excactly do you ask about?

If you're talking about recreating chiptune, use only one simple square wave, drag the PWM knob all the way clockwise, and leave it dry, with no effects. In the Amp ADSR, set the Attack, Sustain and Release all the way to the left, set the Decay to about 500ms. Set Voices to 1 and set Mono mode.

For chords, you obviously can't layer notes - just as you couldn't with, say, the original AY-8910 chip - so you can put notes into the Piano role to create a very fast (1/64 of a beat) down-up arpeggio. Or you can put the synth in Poly mode and use the Arpeggiator to play 1/64 down-up arps.

For melody, you can either use single notes or put a short string of 1/64 notes into the piano role to represent each melody note. If you're going to do it this way, t's probably easiest to lay down your whole notes then set the grid to 1/64 and Split to Grid.

Thanks so much for the help! I found the use of your instructions plus fiddling around got me the sound I wanted.

Try setting up MaiTai as per normal and use the Bit Crusher Plugin. Easier all round and it might even get you closer to the sound you are after. There are a bunch of 8 bit presets in there. Try them and see how they sound.

Not sure if Bit Crusher is available in the version you are using though. It is in Pro.