Daft Punk 8-bit (Page 1 of 2)

wow cool thanks

I contemplated not writing this post. This is the kind of post that makes me feel old and bitter and jaded and mean. But this is horrible. I'm getting the feeling that you simply took a bunch of MIDI files you found, imported them into Garageband (I'm assuming) and assigned a bunch of Magical 8-bit Plug instances (again, assuming, from your description) and then didn't edit any of the note data further. The impression I'm getting is that you have little understanding of the music you're covering. What you have created is an album that in many cases lacks the drive and the spirit of the original. Many of the smaller details are missing, which I think would have been completely possible to include within the limits of chip music. A couple of the tracks are so different I would almost call them entirely new songs.

lol

If you can call using piano transcriptions you can find on Youtube "legit," sure. I have made some pretty lame covers in my time, but I at least try to be true to the original song and make it recognizable. Given, I transcribed my covers by ear and often tried to add a lot of creative substance. Sometimes I feel like I excelled, othertimes I feel like I failed. Your album does not have a single cover that is remotely close to being "a good cover." It is one thing to release a covertune, and if it sounds like a kid at a piano trying to play The Beatles, it's whatever. It is a very big deal what you have done wrong.

You uploaded some tracks on here, noteably Face to Face, amd your description clearly indicates a lack of confidence. This is a big deal, because the following track has that same sort of text like "i tried" or whatver. I'm on a phone, copy-paste isn't fun. But you have been on these forums for just over a week. In your profile you tell us you use the Magial8bit plugin and garage band. The issue is that it feels like you did not spend a ton of time on this release, and to a point some would call it insulting due to the lack of detail. It has nothing to do with what you use, but HOW you use it. Check out "Da Chip" compilations I and II. Amazing chip Daft Punk covers, and they are the ruler which we seem to measure all other Daft Punk covers by.

My advice - don't pump out a release like this in a week. Original content is one thing, but a cross-genre masterpiece like Discovery is hard to cover well at all. Learn how to use your plugin, it's damn powerful. Find a style that fits you - it doesn't have to be super simple stuff, or only six channels or whatever. If you want, make a pseudo-chip symphony.

I don't want to be too harsh on you, but this release is a slap in the face to those of us who work hard to make good cover tunes, the Da Chip crew, as well as Daft Punk. It's just like all of those "8bit cover of xxxxx song by yyyyyyyy artist" on Youtube. If you transcribed all of this by yourself, good for you. Try harder music to transcribe. Study it. Write your own. If you feel like it sucks, don't release it. We don't have petty release agendas. We shouldn't feel the need for them. Take time to learn your software, establish a workflow. Then practice writing songs originals or covers. Write stuff that will make you want to see people's eyes light up in wonder. Take them somewhere in their mind, to a memory or feeling. Everyone has the potential to do this, to write music and express SOMETHING. Don't be like the DAW using kiddies on Youtube, they choose not to be so much more. If I were you, I would take a 2 week break and focus on establishing what music YOU want to make, and how to make it enjoyable for you and your audience.

Best of luck, hope I don't watch this post drown in a flame war.

maybe you all have heard this cover by gamechops on youtube, but this is one of the best 8bit covers of Something About Us. (no broken gameboys)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6bSitk3nwc

just wanted to put in a high note in the conversation. I'm not going to give critique because while I get the distinction and you need to work on the music, I'm no one to talk because I myself am not experienced enough to be telling people what they messed up on.

i just started to make chiptunes. i'm just looking to see what people think about my music. I dont use transcriptions or anything. And i am very, and i mean VERY limited to what i can use, so a plugin is all what i can work with for the time being. I don't know if i should stop making this kind of music or not, but I just joined this site so I could get some criticism from people who know lots about chiptunes. I don't really know much about chiptunes, but I just wanted to see if I could do a decent remake of Discovery. As I have stayed previously, access to real hardware is not possible for me, so I use software. I'm young, and I don't want to make people's ears bleed.

All of you seem to rage over me using simple and primitive software that is not very good sounding, but I have a MAC. Famitracker is not available for mac, and MilkyTracker is just plain confusing. I cannot use emulators because I have had no experience whatsoever with emulators.

Also if this is tl;dr for you, then go to another post.

Last edited by garageband_chiptunes (Nov 15, 2012 8:51 pm)

I think the problem is that cm.org in general doesn't seem too keen on the 'chip version of popular music' thing that is so prevalent on youtube and previously 8bc.

I'm sure you'll find magical 8bit very limiting in terms of it's sound design capabilities and sound quality in general. If you can, I'd suggest chipsounds.
It will run as an audio unit so it will be usable from garageband. It's $95, but Christmas is coming up. If chip is something you're keen on, talk to your parents about it.

Work on some original music, and when you've worked your guts out and have an original track you can be proud of, show us.