YERZMYEY wrote:

Sooooooo very very well-done album. Great compositions - pure mathematics. smile

Thank you man, I appreciate that a lot coming from you. heart

Hoffy's debut release on Cheapbeats is a full-length, 13 track album featuring progressive rock, jazz and more.

>>> Bandcamp link <<<

1. Genesis 00:44
2. Whiskers 03:17
3. Through Thick and Thin 03:39
4. Chasing Birds 02:36
5. A Case of the Mondays 03:52
6. Live at the Red Dot Cafe 03:11
7. Staycation 02:19
8. Economy of Emotion 03:59
9. Nines 05:04
10. The Euthanasia Suite I. To Embrace the Unknown 01:18
11. The Euthanasia Suite II. Countdown to Oblivion 04:40
12. The Euthanasia Suite III. Decline 05:55
13. The Euthanasia Suite IV. Goodbye 02:06

› Cheapbeats Records Catalogue

3

(617 replies, posted in Releases)

My next album, "The Life and Times of Whiskers Mahone", is coming out on Cheapbeats very soon.

https://soundcloud.com/cheapbeatsmusic/ … hone-cb065

There comes a time in a person's life when he has to stop expecting a community to pop out of nowhere, and start taking responsibility for the development of his idealized world. I'm speaking, of course, about the Canadian Chiptune scene. We /do/ exist. We are fractured, but whole, divided by rocky mountains, dense stretches of farmland and most importantly, over whether maple syrup is an acceptable substitute for blood. But no more! I've started a Canadian chiptunes group in the hopes of developing a more inclusive and active community. I have plans for yearly volume compilation releases, working towards opportunities for chip artists to play shows, and so on. Ambitious, I know. There'll be a lot of hard work involved, but nothing worthwhile ain't easy, eh? Feel free to join even if you're not from Canada!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/gwnchiptunes/

5

(38 replies, posted in General Discussion)

nanode wrote:

For those of you (nobody) wondering my stance, I'm in it as a learning experience. After I reach a point I feel comfortable with my music and style of writing, I plan on moving on from chiptune. Not to say I won't be active, but that I won't be making as much chipmusic.

I found that limiting myself has worked so very well when trying to learn about sound design, and introducing yourself to a HUGE complex system or DAW like Ableton can be extremely difficult and challenging. Hopefully that won't be the case after a few more releases.

In my experience, DAWs are actually easier than trackers. The interface looks scarier than it actually is. What -is- difficult is knowing when to restrain yourself production wise. It's really easy to go overboard and add way too much instrumentation and layering, when in most cases all a composition usually needs is three to four distinct voices. Hence a widespread preference for chiptune based composition. The benefit of a DAW though is that you can find more technical ways to still have all those extra layers but have them play nice with the main elements of your mix. Sidechain compression is a godsend in that regard.

The MXR Carbon Copy Delay is a nice choice. It's actually analog (has a bucket brigade chip in it). I'd swear by it if I didn't have better sounding and more flexible delays in my studio.

7

(38 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Why? (My answer is probably a touch autobiographical with some pretty large omissions for the sake of brevity.)

I'm an insufferable nerd who spent too many hours of his youth playing NES/SNES games, so chiptune music naturally appeals to me. Though, in my (probably uncommon) position, my passion with music began with learning how to play guitar and composing stuff long before I ever opened a tracker (eleven years ago). I got into writing chiptune last year because of my morbid curiosity in what I was capable of. People kept telling me that my (non-chip) songs sounded like they came straight out of Mega Man games. I was also especially inspired to try because I heard the Shovel Knight soundtrack around May 2015 and it completely changed my conception of what chiptune could sound like. So I thought, "okay, let's see if I actually know how to write that kind of music".

As it turned out, I found Famitracker incredibly easy to use. Every small technical hurdle I was able to leap over just gave me more confidence to do bigger things. Writing stuff that inspires me also hasn't been a challenge. I'm not gloating, I'm just not experiencing the weird reaction some people get when they listen to their own music and think they suck. I'm not afraid to say I love my own stuff. Whenever I listen to my older work, I think in upward trends of what I can improve musically or technically. What is sobering: the process of finding people who'll even give two shits about what I've made. I've made some good friends who do care, and I make it my priority to support what they do as well.

To ultimately and honestly answer why I got into chiptune, I got into this because I'm an artist who's evolving in an effort to find an audience. Someday, I will find one, but it remains to be seen if it's within the chipscene.

(I realize that's a problem many of us face. But hey, I'm just saying how it is.)

8

(274 replies, posted in General Discussion)

https://www.twitter.com/hoffman_iv

I tweet about music a lot and often post stuff I'm working on.

9

(13 replies, posted in Releases)

Might as well share this one! I released it last month.

https://hoffmaniv.bandcamp.com/track/fl … hirodeyaru

10

(16 replies, posted in General Discussion)

theghostservant wrote:

My sense (I could be wrong) is that most chip labels are currently holding themselves to a high quality level for new releases, which is why there hasn't been much probing for demos. Doesn't that mean they aren't accepting? You'd have to ask the netlabels.
Unless someone new really is bringing  quote fleckled, lit fire unquote (that's what the kids are saying, right?),
it hasn't been getting put out on netlabels, that I've seen.
But, I could be talking out of me bum. Don't refrain from educating me on what's happening on the chiplabel front, my dudes.
edit: There's also been good success with self releasing for some chip dudes recently who have been bringing fleckled, lit fire.
If you got fleckled, lit fire, who needs a netlabel?

I think that there's a bit more to the story than that. The landscape is changing for some netlabels. Before the release of my debut EP I sent my material as a demo to Ubiktune, a fairly prominent and well-respected progressive netlabel. I was turned away not because it wasn't quote-unquote "lit", but because Ubiktune is moving in a more compilation-based direction.

I don't know how representative that is of other labels. The general trend indicates to me that it's more economical for netabels to push compilations because it lets them utilize all of their onboard talent for each release. It's easier to promote as a result, and with something that's there for everyone on each compilation, the albums are more likely to sell as well.

On a final note, it doesn't matter how good your stuff is: if you don't have someone to help promote and push it, it's practically impossible to break ground by yourself. Well, unless you want to be spending all of your time promoting your stuff instead of making more music. I'd rather be doing more of the latter and leave the legwork to someone who's in the business of doing that.

Awesome! I love your music, Yerzmyey. Looking forward to giving this a full listen today!

12

(7 replies, posted in Releases)

Thanks, BeatScribe! big_smile

13

(21 replies, posted in Releases)

BLEO wrote:

I get it now. Thanks for clarifying. Sorry for the misunderstanding, haha!

BUT SERIOUSLY. What an arrogant, self-entitled prick.

(okay, no more artist bashing, sorry)

14

(21 replies, posted in Releases)

tempsoundsolutions wrote:

tbh your music sounds like something from Myspace in 2008 so there's a reason i havent heard of you

Uh ... that's kind of dickish to say? If you're going to post something that decries somebody's work (not to mention someone's work which happens to be very successful and well-regarded in the community), why is it that you aren't being particularly constructive about it?

15

(7 replies, posted in Releases)

Thank you, Panda Chan! If you haven't already, I encourage you to check out Flight of Shirodeyaru which is posted on my Bandcamp as well, which -- when combined with Boundarymen Volume I -- makes 34 minutes ish of Famitracker goodness.

16

(7 replies, posted in Releases)

Thank you, irrilichtproject! An update, if anybody's interested: Boundarymen Volume I was recently reviewed by Kuma Bronx of Chiptunes = WIN fame and he had some very poignant things to say of the album! You can find his review of my EP (and another release by Otherman records, which warrants a looksie) here!