spacetownsavior wrote:L-tron wrote:I just get tired of all the praise people give some of these 2xLSDJ tracks for the sound design and how huge it is, especially when the artist doesn't mention that it is 2xLSDJ and just says "Made with LSDJ". It's like duh, this was made with 2 game boys, of course it's going to sound bigger. Again, there's nothing wrong in 2xLSDJ stuff in itself, it's just annoying when people view it and praise it as if it's made with 1.
Why does this annoy you? I don't really see any reason for it to bother you or anyone at all.
EDIT: the praise part, specifically
I entirely empathise with L-Tron's thought. It's misleading in that, there's a certain implication by saying 'LSDJ' that it is one copy. If the person feels the need to omit the 'x2', it may also follow that there's deceptive intent. That, whether we like it or not, people are going to just blend x1 and x2 in their head. And not appreciate the difficulty of writing with x1.
It's like the One Channel and Two Channels compilations. Most tracks didn't interest me much as songs, but more for technical studies. It wasn't going on my iPod, but I would listen to it. LSDJx2 feels te same. It's a great for technical study, but the songs don't hold true to something, and that something that works in my head as follows.
The joy about writing with one copy of LSDJ for me is that I grew up with the GameBoy. It was my only form of portable music until I was 13, when I bought myself a portable tape player. You attach your ears to that aesthetic, and it's one of my influences. I make video-game style chip music. Many wish to push their music into other aesthetics, but it's the video-game style that interests me. I simply can't get my head around people who didn't grow up with the sounds and playing the games, wanting to take to it. I'm faced with the same limitations as the composers who wrote the music I grew up with. I feel like a composer. I don't feel like a musician. Now, I make music that's guitar, uke, synths, drum machines, and vocals all meshed up with LSDJ, and they make me feel like a musician. But they're very separate kinds of songs. Like Radiohead having an acoustic track on an album. At that point, purity goes out of the window.
Many scoff at 'composer', "pft, haha, you're not a 'composer' you're fucking about with a GameBoy" and yeah, maybe so. But you're still working within the confines that digital composers, many moons ago, were working with. You are on equal par. And after the first time you write something that sounds polished enough that it could actually be in a video-game, it's beautiful. It's like homebrew games, how you'd want to make a video-game, and you did in your head - but if you were able to make a comprehensive game on the GameBoy itself, can you imagine how popular that would be? (Neil Baldwin, I thank you in advance.) Seeing your characters move on screen for the first time, but then there being a bug where you can't pick up items, the same sort of problem solving, frustration and relief felt with writing music on the console. And I think everyone has that want to make a video-game. If you could pay £40 or $60 or whatever to have your thoughts translated into a playable video-game, you definitely would.
But it's that want to push the system in a way that your predecessors couldn't, and didn't have time to. The next point is when you write music that's better than some of the really good music on the console. That's just great, then. It's validating.
But when I'm adding other instruments, I'm not making the music because of the limitations of the hardware and software, I'm making the music for the audial aesthetic. I'm making an art instead of a chiptune. I'm being a 'musician', not a 'composer'.
So, in for a penny in for a pound, why use just x2 LSDJ? No-one else did. I feel the solo guitar instrument isn't valid. I'd compare it more to a full band, then adding another full band over the top. If you have six guitarists on stage, you either must be a member of Minus the Bear, or have a bloody good reason. Then you tell four of the guitarists that they can only use a very basic effects pedal, with very simple tone. And tell the two bassists that sometimes they may be a drummer and may need to occasionally shout "BRK", "ASS" and "TITTIES". You really have to ask yourself what it's bringing to the table.