Last edited by TetrisEffect (Feb 16, 2020 10:16 pm)
Damn it, I'm just getting into chiptune more! Learning my lsdj, checking out vst emulations of classic platform synths. I'm late to the game and I'm an old dog trying to learn new tricks but it doesn't stop me from wanting to figure it out and add it to my arsenal of music creation possibilities. I know the "craze phase" has passed, but that always happens, and there are still many people making music with chip. The only difference between now and then is that those who are sticking with it are the more serious musicians. Like modern classical composers, jazz performers, even old school rock bands, their hay-day may have passed but a real audience will still continue to exist. I have friends that primarily listen to chiptunes. There's no reason to say it's over. Truthfully my main goal isn't to be a chiptune composer, it's simply to be a better composer. I want new sounds and new styles, to continue to broaden to my pallet. Anyway I still hope to find information useful to my goals here. Lastly when I write I write too much! Sorry about that.
i dont get it, there are still just as many great shows (in the uk) and just as many great releases as there always has been, and i dont really follow the virtuoso vgm or fluorescent dance sides of the scene
netlabels are dead, forums are dead, all the cool kids went modular
I remember seeing Nullsleep in New York for Blip. I think it was 2011. It was the day the Christian Rapture was supposed to happen or something... I remember it rained a lot for a very short period of time. May 21st.
Felt like Nullsleep was bringin' down judgement upon us all. He was gunna be there when the end came.
Holy fuck I'm the blue asterisk. I don't know what to do with this information.
For what it's worth... quite a few of the chipmusic people I've met IRL have little to no online presence at all...
Chipmusic is dead.
I just fck with LSDJ between getting high and watching RapBattles on Youtube.
Isn't that the dream?
From what I can tell there are more people making chipmusic now than ever. I look at chip compilations coming out now and recognize like 5% of the names. As netlabels go, Cheapbeats is on fire, lots of quality stuff being released at a pace I can't keep up with. Seems like there's a lot of live activity too from what I can see. Might be a decline in event series with rock-solid regularity (i.e. monthlies) but I still see a lot of semi-regular and one-off events, and there are annual festivals going strong. Seeing new events / event series popping up too, which is always inspiring, like the Binary event N3M3515 is launching in Singapore.
I've been really quietly making bleeps and bloops for over ten years but it seems like now that I'm ready to make a mark For Real, the scene is definitely not the same as it used to be. The nice thing is, in the broader world of live music performance, somebody singing pop/rock with a Game Boy as the backing band is still super unusual, and people enjoy it.
I never "needed" to be part of a "scene" but it does feel like I missed something by not being more active sooner? I feel part of that was the whole "are you going to live as an artist or are you going to get yourself situated in life" dilemma that lots of us face. But ahhh nobody likes to hear people say "I feel old!"
I try to think of it as when Nintendo systems last past their heyday and buzz... They're not the same fad they were, but the software starts getting really, really impressive. That's chipmusic! Some folks are looking at the next-gen systems and we're here perfecting, transforming, and expanding the medium. Got a lot of tricky tricks to show off still.