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Musician

A chip sounds like a chip.

It was a peeve of mine that synthesizers started off on a quest to replicate realistic instruments, because to me, a synthesizer should deliberately sound like nothing else. Now that there is some separation from that history, I think we've finally reached a point where people can say that a synthesizer sounds like a synthesizer, and not be concerned about it sounding like brass or violin or organ or piano. A sound chip is a synthesizer with different capabilities and intentions.

It was an accident with a lot of gravity. I started messing with PC trackers (FT2, then IT) after its scene was considered gone, as a way to indulge myself after I had quit my previous musical ambitions. I was in the channel when members of #mod_shrine decided to test mukunda's s3m2nsf by entering Famicompo Mini Classical.

Before that, I had listened to tree wave, early nullsleep, and others.

I'm no longer interested in convincing people that they need to like something.

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Hi folks! I'm new here. Hopefully that title grabbed some attention. I've been listening to chip music on and off for a few years now but I've never been too plugged in to the community. I'm actually a graduate student in anthropology and I'm writing a short paper on chip music for my anthropology of sound class (yes, that is a thing that exists, and yes, it is awesome).

I was hoping to ask a few questions of you guys. I wouldn't be doing my due diligence as an anthropologist if I didn't give you guys some general informed consent, so know that while I have no intention of publishing this paper, it might be something I present at a conference in the future. If you'd like to stay confidential, just let me know. And don't feel obligated to answer every question.

1)    How would you define yourself? (Are you an enthusiast, casual listener, musician, artist, programmer etc.)

2)    How would you describe chip sounds in terms of their sonic qualities? (What does chip sound like. So for example, we might describe a trumpet sound as bright or a flute as airy.)

3)    Why do you listen to or create chip music? (This one is completely open-ended. Do you just like the music? Do you like experimenting with retro technology? You could give me your whole life story as it relates to chip music if you’d like. ^_^ )

4)    What would your argument be against someone who said chip music was just noise? (Or maybe you agree it's noise! In which case, how do you define noise? Tell me why you find that appealing, and how you would argue for the importance of noise.)

Thanks in advance. I hope this results in some interesting conversation.