ubertaco
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Hi all,

I'm writing an ethnomusicology paper for my university Music Appreciation class and I'd like to get your answers to a few questions for use in my paper.

So if you've got a moment, please help me out! I've gotta fill 7-10 pages by Monday. This'll be crazy.

Questions time!

1.) How did you get into chiptunes/chip music (as a listener and/or as a creator)?

2.) What, in your mind, defines "chip music" and/or "chiptunes"?

3.) If you had to pick one defining track to give to someone who's never heard any chiptunes/chip music in their life, what track would you pick (and why)?

4.) I've seen some discussion regarding what instruments are used -- what instruments do you feel are defining for chip music or chiptunes as a whole? (I promise this is not flamebait. Please don't yell and scream and such here. I'm just gathering general opinion/feeling).

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help out!

herr_prof
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Chipflip is a good source fo other academic papers on this kinda of topic, if you need sources.

BR1GHT PR1MATE
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BOSTON

1. unemployment & the internet is an awesome combination

2. use of vintage sound chip in music production, or emulation / sampling of said sounds; "classic game aesthetic"

3. Trash 80 - Icarus

4. At this point, I think the scene is beyond the old "hardware vs. fakebit" argument. That said, even most fakebit is at least based on classic soundchips, so I'd say that c64 is probably the biggest "influence" on that level. Gameboy is certainly the dominant force for modern hardware chiptune performance, but I dont hear it used sampled. Considering that the 2 most successful chip bands (Anamanaguchi and I Fight Dragons) use the NES for their sound, it would be hard not to put it into a list of defining instruments, but its not quite as prominent as it once was as far as I can tell. (others will likely disagree)

µB
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A gray world of dread

Ok.

1.) First contact as a listener was the Last Ninja soundtrack on C64. As a creator, I started sketching out songs for my band with an Adlib card. I very quickly fell in love with the crazy sounds FM can produce, and started to make little songs specifically for the Adlib. Later I switched to sample trackers (ScreamTracker/FastTracker2).

2.) Music which uses simple waveform instruments, techniques and modulation types, reminiscent of or created by basic synthesis chips as sole or defining elements.

3.) Rob Hubbard - Monty on the Run (C64 version). It's a very iconic track, uses the SID (which in my very personal opinion is the chip that kick-started chiptunes), has a catchy melody, and a very nice spectrum of instruments (demonstrating the width of sonic possibilities with simple waveforms and basic modulation/filters).

4.) Any instrument that allows to produce music as described in 2.) will do. Pocket Calculators, bent toys, samplers... however, the in my opinion most iconic would be the C64 for the first, the Amiga 500 for the second, and the Gameboy for the third wave of chiptune popularity.

Zan-zan-zawa-butt
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AANABAY01

1. bought a NES in 2008 after suddenly missing them really badly, and after suffering a through games with musical scores significantly worse than i had remembered, searched the internet for tools to make compatible soundtracks and found famitracker. at the end of the year i found 8bc (which was already in "only old 8bc was good/8bc was never good" mode). of course before that i had experienced composing MIDI music for doom wads, for years and years, but not everyone really thinks of that as chiptune, and i hadn't heard the term until a few years ago

2. good question. i do feel as though i make music in this style simply because i love famitracker, and if it made music for musicboxes or player pianos then i'd love that instead. but chip to me implies the need to cut corners and deal with very limited polyphony, to make the most out of a very limited range of sounds.

3. tim follin's soundtrack for solstice. you get a prog jam and a serious piece of dark background music with enough sensitivity to make up for the prog jam, haha... it shows that the best composers were already looking for ways to push the envelope.

4. dunno. you can make chipmusic in the latest version of cubase if you really wanna - it's just that the old grey boxes won't let you make anything BUT.

ubertaco
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Thanks for all your responses -- especially herr_prof for the pointer towards chipflip!