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IL, US
n00bstar wrote:

@esc, I think I was referring to both single tracks and EPs/albums really. I've seen terrible shit on either side. I see what you mean by not even listening to the individual releases anymore, but I kind of feel this part of the problem. If we don't pay attention to what others release, how can we expect them to pay attention to what we release? Shouldn't we collectively try to raise the bar instead?

(shrug) they dont pay attention to what i release anyway....
regardless, i havent the time to listen to new tracks by artists i haven't heard of, spoken to in any context or met very often and the fact that most chip music is a form of edm or leans towards vgm kills any interest id personally have in listening

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So my thread where I was "fishing for prices" on an item gets locked but this guy can start a troll thread attacking 90% of the musical uploads on this site?  How is that fair?  That's why I'm starting to like noisechannel.org better even though there's much less activity there.

To the original poster:  if you don't like it, don't listen.  If you turn on the radio and hate the music, you change the station.  I highly doubt you write a whiny letter to them.  So just don't listen to the uploads here.  Problem solved.

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Sweden
nerdsome wrote:

So my thread where I was "fishing for prices" on an item gets locked but this guy can start a troll thread attacking 90% of the musical uploads on this site?  How is that fair?  That's why I'm starting to like noisechannel.org better even though there's much less activity there.

Hint: One is against the rules, and the other is a personal opinion.

nerdsome wrote:

To the original poster:  if you don't like it, don't listen.  If you turn on the radio and hate the music, you change the station.  I highly doubt you write a whiny letter to them.  So just don't listen to the uploads here.  Problem solved.

Similarly, if you disagree with the original poster, why don't you just stop reading? Oh right, we're expressing opinions which we are entitled to even though we could just stop caring!

n00bstar wrote:

Would peer review be acceptable? Or would that create a kind of nazi elite that dictates what's good and what's not? How do we solve the problem of bad crappy music? Do we just ignore it and move on to the next piece? Is it in fact a problem or am I just a grumpy old fuck?

I think voting and structured sharing would solve a some of these problems. I'm not sure how it would create a nazi elite. Letting random people upload songs, giving them the benefit of the doubt by not revealing any substantial information of who liked/disliked it and why will at least cause people like me not to bother with it. For example, ordering songs by the average rating within a list of users you trust would be pretty useful.

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Well, you're right boonlinde on the second statement; I should stop reading.  But trolling and attacking is also against the rules so you're wrong on the first statement. He is breaking the rules too.  But whatever. I'll stop reading....

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Planet Zaxxon

Whoever uploads the highest quality lo-fi song, shall have control of the floor.

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Sweden

trolling

You disagreeing with what is being said doesn't make it trolling.

attacking

If the subject of this attack you are speaking of is offended, I'm sure s/he'll press the report button.

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vancouver, canada

Q: Does most chipmusic suck?

A: Yes.



most "great" art, though, has involved finding ways to climb up from the overwhelming sea of mediocrity.  same with chipmusic.

i think the problem is that at least nowadays there aren't that many effective mechanisms to sift the gems from the crap. 

you only have a small handful of netlabels that implicitly serve that function, but even their usefulness is diluted right now by other netlabels that release too much middling stuff because they either a) operate way too inclusively out of a distorted sense of equality whereby all chip musicians deserve the same kind of attention, or b) simply have a low standard of quality.

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Los Angeles
nerdsome wrote:

So my thread where I was "fishing for prices" on an item gets locked but this guy can start a troll thread attacking 90% of the musical uploads on this site?  How is that fair?  That's why I'm starting to like noisechannel.org better even though there's much less activity there.

As stated by boomlinde, I'm assuming your thread was directly against the rules, where as this thread could be perceived as offensive by some, it is not attacking anyone in particular and was presented as a open discussion to talk about the quality of chipmusic.

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Los Angeles
n00bstar wrote:

I was having this discussion yesterday with someone. And we both seemed to agree that there is very little high quality material being produced in this scene. There seems to be a general opinion that "meh, it's just chip music, it's okay not to put any effort in what I do" is an accepted fact of life. I've listened to a metric shit ton of releases lately and I'd say around 90% of it is entirely forgettable noise. People don't seem to take much pride in what they do, often using chip music just to put out unmusical pieces because "it's just chipmusic".

Have you listened to any of the classics? Or looked up some of the artist who've performed at Blip / Squaresounds / [insert large gathering of artist festival here] ? With every music & art scene there will always be a high signal to noise ratio. It's probably a good idea to get a good balance of both.

n00bstar wrote:

Would peer review be acceptable?

If you want to be reviewed.

n00bstar wrote:

Or would that create a kind of nazi elite that dictates what's good and what's not?

Someone would probably say that.

n00bstar wrote:

How do we solve the problem of bad crappy music? Do we just ignore it and move on to the next piece?

I would.

n00bstar wrote:

Is it in fact a problem or am I just a grumpy old fuck?

The issue is finding what you like in a sea of submissions. But yes, you are a grumpy old fuck. wink (welcome to the party)

Edit: I'd suggest as far as the music on this site, is to filter the music section by ratings by clicking on filters next to the search on the music page and select "high ratings". It should be more balanced due to higher activity from visitors, but not weighted by how popular it is necessarily.

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boomlinde wrote:

trolling

You disagreeing with what is being said doesn't make it trolling.

attacking

If the subject of this attack you are speaking of is offended, I'm sure s/he'll press the report button.

You're right.  Him saying all of the uploaded music on here sucks isn't starting shit.  Sorry for being wrong and defending all of the music on here...

I agree there are occasionally tracks uploaded that are a waste of space but it's not 90%.  That incorrect estimate is an attempt to start shit.... 

Have a nice day.  This is the last time I view this ignorant thread.

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Matthew Joseph Payne

Okay now that that's over, I still really want to hear people's answer to my question, so I'm going to repeat it.

kineticturtle wrote:

How do you define "high quality" music?

I look for musical development and intent, cohesive releases. I don't like repetitive music.
I don't particularly care about recording quality, aside from the most egregious offenders, nor do I care about advanced techniques unless they are used to achieve musical ends that otherwise can't be reached.

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Los Angeles
kineticturtle wrote:

Okay now that that's over, I still really want to hear people's answer to my question, so I'm going to repeat it.

kineticturtle wrote:

How do you define "high quality" music?

I define it as music that I like and would suggest to others to listen to. Which means it's highly subjective.

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Earth
kineticturtle wrote:

Okay now that that's over, I still really want to hear people's answer to my question, so I'm going to repeat it.

kineticturtle wrote:

How do you define "high quality" music?

I look for musical development and intent, cohesive releases. I don't like repetitive music.
I don't particularly care about recording quality, aside from the most egregious offenders, nor do I care about advanced techniques unless they are used to achieve musical ends that otherwise can't be reached.

I think he means quality in general. Time and care in making something I guess. But it's subjective too.

I manage to find a lot of awesome chip music. A low quality release can be spotted pretty quickly. I don't think it's a problem, and I dont think its limited to chip music.

Last edited by breakphase (Feb 25, 2013 8:21 pm)

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ohio gozaimasu
n00bstar wrote:

we both seemed to agree that there is very little high quality material being produced in this scene. There seems to be a general opinion that "meh, it's just chip music, it's okay not to put any effort in what I do" is an accepted fact of life. I've listened to a metric shit ton of releases lately and I'd say around 90% of it is entirely forgettable noise. People don't seem to take much pride in what they do, often using chip music just to put out unmusical pieces because "it's just chipmusic".

1. Ahem Ahem
2. Fuck you

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Montreal, Canada

Oh my. Turn around five minutes and drama everywhere. Okay then, let's pick at it.

nerdsome wrote:

You're right.  Him saying all of the uploaded music on here sucks isn't starting shit.  Sorry for being wrong and defending all of the music on here...

I agree there are occasionally tracks uploaded that are a waste of space but it's not 90%.  That incorrect estimate is an attempt to start shit....

First I haven't specifically talked about this website in terms of the music I have been exposed to. I have said 90% of all the chip music I have heard recently is forgettable noise, not "shit". Second, since there was already a thread with a similar general direction where discussions of limiting artist releases was starting to mix up the technical difficulty of maintaining such a huge archive with the fact that a lot of it might not be worth archiving I thought the "quality" discussion could be exported elsewhere and explored. Third, in three sentences you managed to say I attack all music here, then you say you defend all music here, then you say I attack 90% of it, then you defend only a portion of the music released here. You are more than welcomed to participate to the discussion, but momentary statistics that change to fit a volatile mood isn't going to be very constructive. Clearly you seem offended by my post. Such was not the intent. You are also picking one 1 line out of four paragraphs that are mostly open-ended and inviting for discussion, so if anybody is "trying to start shit", I don't think it's me.

Now onto the more constructive replies...

kinecticturtle wrote:

How do you define "high quality" music?

I look for musical development and intent, cohesive releases. I don't like repetitive music.
I don't particularly care about recording quality, aside from the most egregious offenders, nor do I care about advanced techniques unless they are used to achieve musical ends that otherwise can't be reached.

We're pretty much on the same wavelength there then. I appreciate music for its musical qualities. Interesting melodies, clever chord progressions, fun ways to reinvent classics, good overall cohesiveness and honesty in the writing. Whether the recording quality is good or bad is irrelevant to me unless, as you say, we're dealing with something that is just aberrant. Technique is interesting but by no means a necessity. Amazing songs have been writing on three basic guitar chords that are just as valid as virtuosos chaining 83 chords require 18 fingers each and jazzing a 8000 note solo in two bars. Both have their place and are enjoyable as long as the musical intent remains honest. I have a dislike for rock-bands-with-two-chips-sound-tacked-on-for-effect and overly generic electro/house material, but that is personal opinion and not a matter of quality.

boomlinde wrote:

I think voting and structured sharing would solve a some of these problems. I'm not sure how it would create a nazi elite. Letting random people upload songs, giving them the benefit of the doubt by not revealing any substantial information of who liked/disliked it and why will at least cause people like me not to bother with it. For example, ordering songs by the average rating within a list of users you trust would be pretty useful.

Well that's what I'm doing in a way. I've identified a few artists I really like and try to find more music by them. But I find the popularity rating is a bit weird. If I'm not mistaken it's not calculated by votes but simply by the number of listens which I find is a system that tends to push the same material on top while sending releases by unknown artists to the bottom. People listen to songs that are popular because people have been listening to it because people have listened to it etc etc. So far almost half of the tracks I really liked were in the sub-20 listens. I want to comment on them, but seeing as nobody else seems to do it, would it even matter? And tracks that ask for criticism...I feel if I indeed criticise them, I'll be accused of starting shit again. It all seems like a pointless argument in the end and I'm starting to see why Forabrokenearth told me to give up and not get involved smile

bryface wrote:

you only have a small handful of netlabels that implicitly serve that function, but even their usefulness is diluted right now by other netlabels that release too much middling stuff because they either a) operate way too inclusively out of a distorted sense of equality whereby all chip musicians deserve the same kind of attention, or b) simply have a low standard of quality.

Agreed. I don't like this "all musicians on this scene should be equal" philosophy. Healthy competition makes people want to get better. But maybe I am indeed looking at this from the wrong perspective and should focus more on the eps and albums rather than the single tracks.

trash80 wrote:

Have you listened to any of the classics? Or looked up some of the artist who've performed at Blip / Squaresounds / [insert large gathering of artist festival here] ? With every music & art scene there will always be a high signal to noise ratio. It's probably a good idea to get a good balance of both.

Well, I come from the old Amiga scene so my list of classic probably greatly differs. I was just recently exposed to the chiptune "scene" and found it to be mostly gb/nes-centric. I even saw a documentary which, while it was entertaining as all hell, basically ignored most of the chiptune history from the Amiga/ST and early PC days. I might need to sit down and brush up on what's considered the "classics list" these days.

trash80 wrote:

But yes, you are a grumpy old fuck.

If it wasn't time to change my adult diaper and take a 6 hour nap on the couch, I would totally cane you on the head.

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Montreal, Canada

@Cooshinator
HAhhaha yeah I should've expected Sturgeon to pop up big_smile Also, fuck you too.