Offline

What is truly chip? *holds up skull* Is it having lots of basic waveforms? Is it arpeggios? Is it keeping a song's original file below a certain size i.e. below 100kb? Is it videogame music? Is it a dubstep song with a SID pwm sound for a lead? Is it really tiny sounds? Is it only music made with obsolete consoles?

I don't think we'll ever know. There's no real CLEAR boundaries in my eyes/ears.

Offline
shanghai

well i feel like alot of beans, myself included dont want to stick to the limitations of making 8 bit music forever.
Not that i ever made that much 100% chip, but a few years back i was using mostly all samples of that nature (on farewell static)
I think the limitations are what draws some, but for some its the sound. i was never that interested in working in limitations.
after a while i moved on a bit, and realised there is not a place for regular 8 bit sounds in the recent stuff im making. Still posted my last record on here though : P ....there were still a few moments of chip that popped up hear and there.
hmmm i always struggle to make a point
well i always have done this, made a glitch idm record, amde a sort of folktronica thing, made an 8 bit thing, then made more of a hip hop thing.
I think theres equal number of artists that either stick to a sound forever and those that fleet about different genres and styles
well i guess this happens in all genres. drum n  bass dudes moved into dubstep, dubstep dudes moved into electro house. I guess they still have them playing crossover events. because they fan-base is kind of shared across genres i guess.
In respect to ANanmana you gotta think alot of people listening to them don't listen to chip exclusively. if they like that kind of chip pop punk then they'll probably be down to a bit of bleepy electro house too.
I have no gripes with people like sabrepulse, and homesweet getting less chip. It'd be a shame for people that talented to stick to only one side of producing and not exploring other sounds.

Offline

real question: how can we expect the medium to move forward and not be taken as some silly niche thing when people still focus on junk like this?

do we call music made with yamaha synths 'yamaha music'? people have latched onto this coined term cos nobody can move past "omg we can use chips to make beep boops like video games, 8-bit chip chip 8-bit blits w00!"

stop embracing dorkdom, stop embraicing bit-blits-video-game-bleepsdom. stop being such a huge parody of yourselves(as a general statement).

make your music and choose your sounds, leave the ego shit and labels in the fucking dust for once.

Offline
California, United States
gyms wrote:

make your music and choose your sounds, leave the ego shit and labels in the fucking dust for once.

This made me smile smile

Offline
BOSTON

eh, i guess i should have expected this to turn into the classic BUT WHAT IS CHIPTUNES??? discussion, but it wasn't my intent i promise hmm

Offline
Earth

To try to answer this more directly, if the only chiptune elements are pulse waves and arpeggios, then it shouldn't be called chiptune imo. So yeah.. I think if you want to change your style then just say you're changing. Nothing wrong with that.

Offline
Douglas, Wyoming
VCMG wrote:
PianoGameboy wrote:

I mean, can you really say that Bud Melvin and Electric Children are the same genre?

One of my biggest peeves is when people lump together entirely different genres just because they used the same medium and assume that it all sounds the same.
I've gotten a few more friends into chip recently by starting them off with The J. Arthur Keenes Band, Anamanaguchi, and the like, and working from that towards other stuff, but if I just started them right out with Part II of Moe Moe Kyunstep, Bud Melvin, or Supercommuter, they probably wouldn't have taken to it as well as they have and moved on by now.

This is true and all, but I don't think the "issue" is whether they're in the same genre or not, it's more along the lines of "when does 'chiptune EDM' (or whatever genre you want) become 'EDM with chiptune elements'" or just straight EDM . A lot of pop songs these days have the occasional square wave or arpeggio here and there, but they aren't considered chiptune by most people.

I feel like chiptune is a very relative catch all term for this style of music. The definition varies from person to person but in the end only one question remains..

Does it really fucking matter that much?

Last edited by Monotron (May 19, 2013 7:27 am)

Offline
Nomad's Land
gyms wrote:

make your music and choose your sounds, leave the ego shit and labels in the fucking dust for once.

nuff said.

Offline
Sweden
Monotron wrote:

Does it really fucking matter that much?

Does anything? On what basis? Maybe you just have a different idea about the point of visiting a discussion forum than I do.

Last edited by boomlinde (May 19, 2013 9:20 am)

Offline
Douglas, Wyoming
boomlinde wrote:
Monotron wrote:

Does it really fucking matter that much?

Does anything? On what basis? Maybe you just have a different idea about the point of visiting a discussion forum than I do.

On the basis of really sick of weekly scene existential crisis

Offline
Sweden

I think I missed the part where this was an existential crisis.

Offline
Montreal, Canada

I love how this topic can never be discussed for the sake of discussion. There's always some guy who comes in and declares the whole thing pointless and the discussion goes to hell.

Heh.

Offline
Brunswick, GA USA

Your foot is on the coffin, don't post on the weekend, today is Bump Day.

*bump*

Offline

my post-chiptune identity is a dozy bunny in a haystack

Offline

<edit: can't be bothered>

Last edited by 4mat (May 19, 2013 1:20 pm)

Offline
Abandoned on Fire
BR1GHT PR1MATE wrote:

Chiptune is a dabblers genre to be sure, so many artists come and go of course. But something that I've found very interesting is that quite a few who were previously involved with the scene and "proper chiptune"* that have now "quit chiptune" or simply transitioned into other genres (mostly some form or another of EDM) still label themselves as "chiptune", do chip shows, etc., and generally carry on in a chiptune fashion despite supposedly being beyond all that.

Now I'm not passing judgement, nor is this aimed at anyone in particular (in fact I think its a good thing in certain regards and at the very least leads to a diversity of sound), but it is curious to me and I'm interested in other peoples thoughts on the matter.

So, back to this then...

I expect that an act that is no longer really chipmusic but that came up through that scene initially is going to have a hard time letting go of the "8bit" label if they still enjoy that type of music.  Maybe we can give some of these guys the benefit of the doubt and treat their not-really-accurate self labeling as an homage or tribute or a way to show their roots.

And in the cases where that's obviously not what's going on... well then just remember that someone that is genuinely curious about chiptunesmusic will follow the trail of bread crumbs back to the good stuff.  Right?