could op please give me an example of some "throwaway" chipmusic releases?
Idk about you guys, but the cats I roll with put their all into every single song they write. I mean, there isn't any reason to do otherwise, if you want your music to have ANY impact, to cause ANY small ripple at all in the massive ocean of the universe, you have to embed your soul into everything you do.
I'd tell people who don't give their all to go fuck themselves and make an active effort to delete them irl, but there isn't really any need. Those who aren't in this for the luv will fade with time, sooner rather than later.
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Godzilladelph
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Godzilladelph
Jellica wrote:
I'm sure that it is 10 times worse in dubstep communities or somewhere like Deviantart.
That's actually why i don't go on dsf (dubstepforum) anymore. 2 years ago you'd see Benga, Excision, Zomby, Joker, Reso, etc just shooting the shit and dropping tips/new jams (skream has released a SHITTON of free tunes, just, because, why not). Now though, all you really see are people trying to one up each other with flashier photoshop effects, excision midrange basslines, and more followers (listeners? questionable) on soundcloud.
I mean... one of the major reasons the terms "post dubstep" and "bassmusic" exist now are because chill cats have had to distance themselves from all the bullshit the newwave of "producers" has... produced.
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Montreal, Canada
El Huesudo II wrote:
The quality of a composition, sadly, is not subjective. There are ways of telling when a composition took effort and/or skill into being made, and when it doesn't. Even if it 's not your cup of tea, even if you hate it, if you can recognize a piece of artwork as something that the artist worked hard on getting right, then you've stumbled upon a work of good quality.
However, even if you like something, if you can tell it was pretty much thrown together whimsically and without much thought, could you say it's quality material? Wouldn't you be more prone to call it a "guilty pleasure" of sorts?
That is also exactly where I come from. Quality productions are quality productions no matter if they strike your fancy at any particular moment. There are a buttload of examples throughout history, from classical composers that have complete knowledge of theory and whatnot, yet still produce sub-par material because they're phoning it in, to utter shit like the Sex Pistols who couldn't tell their asses from a D flat and produced one of the most memorable records in history. Personally, I call it "honesty". Honest music shines, whether its good or bad. There is a legion of musicians I don't care much for musically speaking, but have complete respect for because you can sense the work and the intent and the honesty and the [insert another stupid word here that can never really describe what I'm trying to say]. On the flipside, there are tons of songs I adore that were obviously thrown together at random. And yes I agree these fall into the "guilty pleasure" category more than anything. You know it's not very good, but you like it. That is the only place where subjectivity is relevant.
SKGB wrote:
could op please give me an example of some "throwaway" chipmusic releases?
Well that is tantamount to asking me to start shit. But I will indulge. These are all example from what is on the frontpage as I am writing this.
this song for example is stuff that should be kept between friends. That was thrown together in an hour or so with little care. Whether it's a joke or not or whatever, its bad.
This thing here is about 87 ideas that don't fit together thrown into the same piece. There's no continuity a very little regard for harmony. Some parts are actually decent and could've been worked into a pretty good song, but to me it sounds more like at attempt. It's a sketch of different things put together but not yet made into a "song".
This is just 30 seconds. It's like "hey, I found three and a half notes that sorta kinda fit well together but I couldn't manage to build an actual song out of it". It's not freaking awful, but you can feel the composer giving up on it. Instead of doing the sensible thing and letting the song sit on the hard drive for 1, 2 or 232 days and come back to it when you find something worthwhile to add.. this is just thrown on the internet for want of being 'a musician' in the public eye. Good effort, you're going somewhere, but that wasn't meant for a release.
And for good measure, to balance it out. Here are some songs from the front page that I consider material worth releasing. Some didn't "hook" me at all, but I can still respect the artists because you can appreciate the work and musicianship behind it. It might be somebody's cup of tea, it might not be.. but these are what I like to hear when I sample new music. Maybe all, maybe none, maybe some would make it into my list of songs I want to listen again a few times, but at least none of these made me feel like I was losing my time listening to them:
This is great. It doesn't hook me particularly, but the guy who made this put in time, and thought in it. It might have taken him six weeks or six minutes, that is not the debate... Inspiration comes in spurts and sometimes songs just come out of you whereas other times you need to kick them out bit by bit. But the bottom line is that this is a song. There's a concept, a theme, an ambiance... a story.
This barely qualifies as chip music IMO, it's clearly processed in a DAW with quality filters and a side chain compressor etc etc. But my point is... there's music in there. Not my cup of tea at all, just another generic electro-house song to my ears, but you can see the composer knows where he's going with it, and the amount of effort put into it. There will be people for whom this song is the bomb and I totally respect that.
This is quite nice. There are different parts, harmony and again you can clearly hear the composer is going somewhere with it. Good sense of rythm and melody. Sounds were chosen for how they sound together to form a whole.
This was obviously recorded on half a potato in full mega ninja nuclear mono with rabies. But no matter...the song is fun. It's telling something. The composer has a grasp on the material and he's doing something with it.
And now I'm sure a lot of people think I'm a pretentious fuck because omigod I'm judging people's ART but meh.
Last edited by n00bstar (Feb 28, 2013 6:53 am)
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Holland
I agree with your vision but saying chiptunes is synonymous with low quality and then only showing a couple of songs from cm.o is really a barrelvision. There is still a lot of great chipmusic being released, just not on cm.o perse.
And it is just what I said earlier, it is easy to make shitty chiptunes and because cm.o (and some others) offer a platform to discuss and release this music people tend to release faster I guess.
Hearing this music and wanting to make it yourself is easy as you can start making it without spending shitloads of money on instruments and what not. It is also easy getting notes out of for example a gameboy, where learning an instrument is a lot harder when you haven't got feeling for it.
Last edited by xylo (Feb 28, 2013 8:29 am)
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England
basing your opinion on a handfull of tracks on this website seems a bit silly.
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ad-hell-aide
Just a bit.
i just don't quite get this whole argument - the same could be said about any other production style or genre of music.
We live in an age of a wealth - an overbearing wealth - of information. Music communities are no different in this regard, many things are made, only some of them are good enough to be considerably above average.
In the end - let's create technology and culture that allows people to broaden their own horizons, and thereby have the opportunity to make the best music that they can.
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Holland
Jellica wrote:
basing your opinion on a handfull of tracks on this website seems a bit silly.
Jep.
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TSSBAY01
who even cares about quality, its a gameboy GOD, yolo
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Holland
tempsoundsolutions wrote:
who even cares about quality, its a gameboy GOD, yolo
Have you even read the damn thread?
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rochester, ny
i think there should be a new piece of punctuation to indicate when you are joking on the internet.
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zobe
aanaaanaaanaaana.net :: cinnamonymous with crow jollity
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Austin, TX
nickmaynard wrote:
i think there should be a new piece of punctuation to indicate when you are joking on the internet.
alternatively this needs to make a comeback
Last edited by Fatal Labyrinth (Feb 28, 2013 3:39 pm)
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Philadelphia, PA
Imagine going to an art and crafts show in your local area- just any arts and crafts show.
There's going to be hundreds of vendors selling all kinds of things- from amateur to professional. How many of those vendors are actually selling something you're going to buy? Very very very few, if any. You may pick up something that looks cool and say "Hey, this is neat" but it doesn't mean you're going to buy it. It's a good allegory for this website and bandcamp and basically all websites full of music/art/choices- how many times have you actually BOUGHT something? If we don't like it, we have the choice to move on. We also have the choice to pick WHAT we like. That's kind of great!
What is being proposed, in part, is that we make the craft show ONLY display the 5 vendors from which we want to buy and that quantity, in this case, is not to the community's advantage. The thing is... we can't rent a venue, find space, or even really have a craft show without all of those other vendors, even if they are selling poorly crafted birdhouses and lanyards. The mere fact that there is so much stuff out there should provide bigger audiences for the music... and therefore allow our allegorical craft show to rent a giant space rather than a tiny, specialized one.
TL;DR. With this board comes all levels of talent, from beginners to pros. I think that cultivates a community. I think that's a really positive thing! Is it really all that bad that people are really into making chiptunes and trying to put their work out there? I like it. It's inspiring to see people trying. And if we don't like their work, we don't like their work. It's that simple. There's no anger or frustration about it. Listen to what you like to listen to.