well, part of the point i was making wasnt just about originality, but also using chip instruments with a wide range of other instruments (there's a bit more guitar & chip stuff now, at least)... so if people have suggestions of people writing non-dance stuff with chip gear that is mixed with other gear they can send em to me...i guess i basically thought that chip would become less of thing on its own and just seep into other music, since its really just another type of digital synth...
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Los Angeles, CA
danimal cannon wrote:
e.s.c. wrote:im not saying that arent some, just that as a percentage of the scene, i think the unique acts are actually a smaller part of the scene than they were in 2007-2008.. seems for every new artist doing something really different there are15-20-30 artists all copying other peoples sounds (intentionally or not)
I think that's probably some sort of rose-colored-glasses hipster talk, but I really have no idea where you're finding new music. I haven't really noticed this trend at all. I dunno, I find rad shit all the time, 90% of it not chip unce. I go to a lot if shows and check out cool stuff that my friends post.
In fact, there's a lot of stuff out there today that makes some of the earlier chip records sound weak
I know that personally, even the huge mindblowing new stuff is generally dance music, and I find it really hard to get excited about dance. I'd most certainly say that almost everyone new I see get into chip is interested in dance music, and the production thereof, and that can be more than a little alienating for someone not into that.
But of course there are people making awesome new stuff not geared toward that kind of stuff. Please Lose Battle is freakin sweet, Timmy and the Robot Band are great as well, and Ubiktune releases awesome stuff. It's depressing to have to look that deep to find things that you consider interesting.
Maybe you just have a very good group of friends showing you new stuff? I know that despite digging a lot, I've had more of a similar experience to E.S.C. than to what you're describing.
I'm also consistently disappointed in people using, and recommending for that matter, the same gear over and over again. Gameboys are cool, I use one literally every day. But can we teach new people about FM? Or how to write MODs? Or just about synthesis in general? I hate that all of the literature about how to get started in chip is so technical, and so much less about understanding sound than it is about how to bloops.
That being said, I still like the scene a lot.
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UK, Leicester
Reading through this thread has made me realize that chiptune is a bigger thing than I (and many other people) imagine. The thought of people who were writing this stuff 14 years ago, and are still writing amazes me. I've only known about chip since around 2010, back when 8bc was a thing, but that's it, it stopped being a thing, and will eventually be all but forgotten. I've only been trying to write chip for just over a year, however I have yet to even release an EP let alone a full album. I can still see myself here, maybe not here, maybe on a different website, but still making chip in a few years down the line. I tend not to stick with something for more than a year if I'm going to give up on it, if I was going to stop making chip, I would have made a shitey 4/4 LSDJ gabber album, then dropped out after 5 months. Sure, there is a lot of gameboy dance music, not all of it is good, but there are people making good music. There are artists who make great LSDJ dance music, others that write different types of music, but still on old machines, no matter what they are.
Deep down I hope that I'm still here in 30 years, and that people that predate me will still be here to call me a newfag
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Youngstown, OH
I hope to one day retire from chip with full pension.
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Arizona
e.s.c. wrote:
well, part of the point i was making wasnt just about originality, but also using chip instruments with a wide range of other instruments (there's a bit more guitar & chip stuff now, at least)... so if people have suggestions of people writing non-dance stuff with chip gear that is mixed with other gear they can send em to me...i guess i basically thought that chip would become less of thing on its own and just seep into other music, since its really just another type of digital synth...
I feel like a part of the problem you're describing since I use chip gear in conjunction with drum machines, samplers and synths while adhering to the happy hardcore genre. If it helps at all, I've been a happy hardcore DJ for 13 years so it's all I've ever known really.
I'm not taking offense at all by the way, just chiming in for conversation's sake.
Last edited by Limitbreak (Apr 2, 2014 8:08 pm)
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IL, US
yeah, and as blunt as my words may have come across, im not trying to say anything really about those types of music beyond that they don't interest me and that i'd expected the variety to have expanded more in pace with the overall growth of the scene while it hasnt really seemed to have worked out that way
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Brunswick, GA USA
e.s.c. wrote:
maybe, i just expected more from this scene as a whole.. sorry, youve collectively let me down (not that you give a fuck
).. had a few conversations with other guys about this, and im not alone on thinking things were going to go a different direction back then..
I think chipmusic has become a caricature, because I agree that there's nothing like Tree Wave happening now, I think Goto80s projects might be closest to what you're thinking of.
Most mature kinds of music are now filled with people who look for tutorials and forums for step by step instructions on how to make things, it's the current way people learn.
I don't like Ubiktune as much as I ought to, for me insane virtuosity does not instantly equal good music. I don't think fragmentation into specialty genres is the answer either.
In the long run, I'm going to make what I like to make until I can't or don't want to make it anymore. As time passes more of my music sounds less like it belongs; I'm sorry I couldn't do much for the scene.
Last edited by chunter (Apr 2, 2014 9:09 pm)
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buffalo, NY
I dunno there's a new George and Jonathan coming out this month. Bryface just made a song entirely on using the dubhorn.wav sample, Xyce and Ctrix are making incredible Amiga jams, An0va released Ego Depletion recently. There's a new Knife City coming out this month. Rekcahdam has the Band Saga album coming out soon, and there's always a steady stream of chill Disasterpeace tunes coming. Nullsleep released a track today (haven't heard yet) which is probably more modular synth than chip.
I dunno, I regularly have more stuff to check out than I even have time for. It's a good time to be a music lover folks.
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Who knows. I hope so... would have a lot of time to fill otherwise. As it stands I still enjoy making stuff and enjoy how easy it is to make stuff when limitations are involved.
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the flow of music has def. receded in this forum, but the ratio of really great music is still super high. Just because unfriendly grumps have chased away interesting artists from the forums and online communities, doesnt mean its not still out there.
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I don't think I'll ever stop doing chip, even if I'm slow and pretty much the opposite of prolific, hahahahahaha
I do hope to be able to learn how to properly play a lot of instruments (though I need my schedule to free up a little from "stuff you can't get out of doing", which is to say, graduate from University) and I also hope to make projects outside of the chiptune bubble, but I'm not the kind of guy to abandon things I like just because.
And as for "chiptune is getting locked into one genre" or "now people are becoming unoriginal"... naaaaaaaaaaaah
I'm in constant contact (thanks, IRC) with a lot of people doing very unique things (some unique enough to be borderline bizarre), the only thing they need is to release formally and get themselves known (kfaraday has the bitpuritans label, but so far there's only 1 thing released...?)
Last edited by El Huesudo II (Apr 2, 2014 10:25 pm)
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IL, US
no one seems to be paying attention that i was saying as a percentage of the scene as a whole, not that unique stuff which mixes in other hardware doesnt exist at all (and dan seems to be caught up on the unique and unoriginal part, its great and all that those guys are putting things out, but cTrix, knife city and most acts you listed are still primarily dance oriented so not really my thing.. by original i meant styles of music, not just instrument design and sounds.. sorry to say bryface is far from the first person to make entire tacks from a single sample in a tracker either)..
nullsleeps set he put online today and the stuff stagediver is doing lately is a little more what im into and care about
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As long as using samples in a tracker counts as "making chip", then I'll be doing this forever. Whether it sounds like video games or not, well, fuck it.
Now, about the lack of growth or development of the "scene"... There's been a trend towards EDM in all music in general for the last decade. That will go away, probably sooner than later. I don't know if it will ever disappear from chiptunes, though. Think about how easy it is to make 4 On The Floor stuff in a tracker. Really fucking easy. There's more to it than just holding "Z" with a space value of 4 or 8, but basically, it's really fucking easy.
Then there's the use of pattern chains as the structural method, which lends itself to EDM production, and the use of common synthesizer waveforms in many different platforms for chipmusic creation, which also lends itself to EDM production, and it starts to seem like chipmusic and it's means of production is almost purpose made for EDM. It's not, but it's easier than attempting Beethoven using the same means.
Also, many of the older tracker group music disks were mostly an EDM genre of some sort. House, techno, jungle. The popular 90's stuff. It wasn't technically chiptunes but it's part of the heritage.
I personally prefer the ultra-melodic, European tracker stuff, like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRCZ8l4pAk4
That, and the other music like it, is what I have always thought of as chiptunes. Before I ever found this forum, or attempted making chip myself, I listened to tunes like that and imagined there was a world out there of musicians who were virtuosos with melody.
I came to find that currently, chipmusic IS mostly just EDM that's been realized on a Gameboy, but there are still people out there doing the melodic stuff, and those out there doing other things beyond, as well. EDM works well for live shows. It works well with the most popular non-tracker software, like Live. It's easier to get into than learning scales and theory, although maybe that's contentious because it requires it's own separate set of rules.
Of course, it all comes down to the fact that "chiptune" is one of the niche-iest of niche genres, and no one but people like us will even give two hoots about it. It's probably better to appreciate what you like, ignore what you don't, and try not to eat each other alive when there's only a population of MAYBE tens of thousands to begin with.
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vancouver, canada
i can understand how people can feel as if the cookie cutter dancey DMG stuff is taking more prominence, because it's true - but what else do you expect when chipmusic is becoming more and more part of the global collective consciousness? as people find out more about chiptunes it makes sense that they'll want to dabble in it via the most methods that are the most iconic and are of the least resistance. ergo, DMG unce everywhere.
in my idealized world the neophytes would have more of an opportunity to be exposed to the history and techniques of good chip writing earlier on, things like single-channel echos and lead writing and tools for more intricate composition, as well as the history and hardware limitations that gave rise to these concepts. i think that would help to slow the proliferation of uninteresting chip that has all of the detail of a gsxcc rip.
also in my idealized world, the club venue/feel would not be the only expression of a live performance. when i think about how i would want to cultivate a local chip scene, i'd love to find a way to make it more of a loungey concert where people are encouraged to sit and "chew on the incoming music" with attentive ears.
and that's also why i think curation is becoming more and more important - trusted people who help determine what's the cream of the crop. you can't really control what music gets released by whom, but you do have a degree of control over determining what the average person's first impression of chipmusic will be like, via the intersection of google searches and reputable chip sites. if nothing else, it'll at least establish early on that the "default" style of chiptune (the cookie cutter unce kind) is considered mcdonald's quality and there are better treasures to be had..
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vancouver, canada
also i'll continue writing chip for as long as i remain too lazy to produce a song with non-chip sound design
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Brunswick, GA USA
Curation doesn't solve the problem if the listener doesn't trust the curator.