breakphase wrote:Hahaha yeah that's really what it's about. It's for hobbyists mostly. And sometimes you can get enough people together to listen to it at the same time.
While to some it's a curious oddity to dip their feet in, I wholeheartedly disagree.
I've found chiptunes to have a surprising amount of depth despite limited capabilites, ESPECIALLY when working in medium (not fakebit).
Why is this?
Essentially the workaround we use to get the most out of our hardware (demoscene mentality) causes us to use extremely unique compostion ideas. The monophonic nature tends to lend to "hypermelodicism" (a word I came up with) which are those breakneck monophonic melodies that you might hear in a Trey Frey song. They're usually a mix of impossible bends, crazy vibratos, extreme panning, multi-octave arps, and peculiar note runs and rhythms all at a breakneck pace. Why? Because those are all things that the Gameboy or NES is GOOD at. On a conventional instrument it would be STUPID to program these sorts of things. Even on a digital synthesizer, it's extremely conventional and laborious for people to program melodies in this fashion.
This is just ONE example of many. Do you think I would program extreme 12 note arpeggios mixing runs and chords, in which each note has millisecond panning switches, millisecond octave cycling within each note, and high frequency vibrato to add timbre on a regular instrument, all while modulating the duty cycle in a counter polyrhythm to the arpeggio rhythm on a tradition instrument or synth?
It's not a sick perversion. It's a mindblowing approach to composition that's truthfully a breath of fresh air in a world increasingly full of presets. BTW apologies if I failed to notice sarcasm.
Well yeah it was kind of sarcastic. I don't think it's technically a "perversion", but maybe just an extreme form of composition? I think it can be very profound and you get out of it what you put into it. But I think it is more for people who want to experiment. It's not like were trying to be superstars or something (or maybe some people are..). I just see it as being more casual than other forms of music.
Anyway I don't mean to denigrate the artform. I agree that the limitations can bring about complex compositions. I just think it's something you should do mostly for personal reasons because you enjoy it. Nothing to break a pool cue over.
just scanned through all this. glad i decided to take a break from the internet, bake a cake, and watch mad men today.
Ahh I forgot about that!!!
u2babby