EXPLORING CHIP TUNES - new youtube show (Page 1 of 3)

for what it's worth, here's my constructamative criticithing: explore outside the gameboy

just some random thoughts:

- first, SUPER glad you guys decided to do this.  i think a couple of months ago i expressed a desire to see or make a chip show that features a panel consisting of mostly chiptune artists (as opposed to people who merely enjoy chip music).  you guys are making it happen!!

- video quality was really great and gives off a "prosumer" quality to the show.  The fact that you're committed enough about the show as a learning resource that you're willing to get a decent camera setup and do some basic editing to make it go down easier (and to move away from the archetype of the Amateurish Artefact-ridden Webcam Sh0w) is a big, big plus.  How long did it take to edit the episode btw?

- audio quality in the room could use some improvement.   i found your speaking volumes to be really quiet and room-echoey compared to the output of whatever your gameboy setup was.  i recommend hobbling together a more dedicated mic solution, like setting up some makeshift boom mics just out of the camera frame, or even by getting/renting for the day some lapel mics to clip on your shirtz.  ( i don't imagine this is too hard to do, nick, since you and BC play in a live band.)   i think that a good room recording coupled with the good video will really give your show a polish appropriate for the respectability it deserves.

- i think it's good to have the panel be made up of people from different backgrounds, and it was nice to have meaningful discussion between noobier types and more experienced chiptune artists.  at the same time, i also found myself wondering who, ultimately, this show is geared towards.  is it for those who have no idea about chiptune?  is it for the veterans who have a fairly complete understanding of the software?  cast too wide a net for noobs and veterans and that can have an adverse effect on appropriate pacing / exposition.  if the intended audience is to change from episode to episode, will there be an easy way to gauge who the episode will be intended for (even something as simple as a literal rating system denoting "casual listener", "beginner songwriter" and "veteran")?

- personally, i consider myself to be an "advanced" LSDJ user and although i wasn't nearly as invested in the explanation of technical details, i really liked the parts of the discussion that connected the technical know-how with the artist's writing process.  i'm more interested in questions like "why did you decide to write this part in this way instead of in another way?" or "how did your vision/goals for this song inform the musical techniques that you used?"  those are the kinds of questions that really give you an insight into what the artist is about, and can even give the show a broad universal appeal.

- hey, see if you guys can record a skype video conversation for panels featuring out-of-town artists! i assume it'd be relatively easy to edit into the show as an inset or another screen to just cut to.   better yet, if you can find a way for the out-of-towner to control a session of LSDJ remotely (would BGB be able to support that via whatever netplay features it has?), that would be amazing.

8/10 would bang

Alright so after actually watching it properly... here's a little more...

- Video quality / presentation is excellent
- Sound could use a lot more love. There's a huge jump in volume between the music and the talking. I found myself riding the volume fader all the way through to avoid being blasted with super loud music every few seconds and still be able to hear the discussion properly. I started watching it on my tv pretty late, so I had to switch to headphones to make sure I wouldn't wake up the neighbors. I personally didn't mind too much about the room recording for the voice, but the final audio should be mixed properly and compressed.
- An hour is a bit long. I'd aim for something closer to the 20/30 minutes mark per episode. If you really have too much stuff to cram in 20 minutes, you can make it a two parter.
- I like the format where you have different people from different backgrounds.
- Although it's cool to have you all sitting in the same room like that, this will ultimately limit you only to have the same few guests on the show. It can either be a great thing if you guys are adept enough with a variety of software to be able to dissect songs from artists that don't necessarily use LSDJ. It could mean that you'd become regular reviewers and people would become used to your style of doing things. But it can also mean that we're only gonna get LSDJ tracks from your local area.. in which case there's a lot less appeal for the masses.
- Even if you're all in the same room or something, I'd suggest coming up with a format where each person is streaming from the same skype group chat or something. That way when you can do shows with people from outside your local area without having a different format/presentation for the show. Skype can stream screen data pretty easily with decent enough resolution for what you are doing.
- If you plan on having more than just gameboy material presented there, I suggest you build a team of advanced users to use on the "know ma shit yo" side of the discussion.One guy for LSDJ, one guy for atari trackers, one for amiga, one for slapping cats in the face with a microphone and mixing it on a tascam four track, etc etc.
- To encourage your audience to come back, make them feel like they can participate a bit. At the end of the show for example, you could have a selection of three songs people can vote on and the most popular is the one selected for the next show or something.
- Make sure to release them on a schedule and stick to it. There's nothing worse than liking a webshow and have the episodes released whenever at random.
- I would put the complete song at the start, not the end. Like introduce the people, talk a bit about today's show, then play the song.. and then go into the review/analysis.

Overall though, great work. I enjoyed it a lot.

Last edited by n00bstar (Apr 5, 2013 9:54 am)

The quantity and quality of this feedback is incredible and almost too much to respond to. When I get home from work, I'll write something longer.

This is better than what I was expecting. It was good to have people who are naive to trackers.

good video

Last edited by breakphase (Apr 5, 2013 3:11 pm)

This is a really great first episode! There are way too many "wassup fellas it's me alone in a room teaching you about LSDJ" videos, so having some conversation and discussion of more than the basic stuff is cool. It's more natural than one dude poking a keyboard and reading off the LSDJ wiki. I just hope you go beyond the GB at some point, and I know you have experience with chip software other than LSDJ (you helped me a bunch with learning VGM_MM like... two years ago?) so I hope you get around to that at some point.

Very informative. Awesome!