jefftheworld wrote:
bryface wrote:

...there needs to be more trusted curators, more recommendations from trusted artists, and more of a catalogue for finding good chipmusic...

I strongly agree that chipmusic is an art form.  I listen almost exclusively to chiptune and Amiga/DOS music and I get sick nerd chills when I hear the PC Speaker rendering of the Monkey Island theme.  If chipmusic was a religion, I'd be living as close to chipmecca as possible.  That being said, I don't see anything wrong with people enjoying and having fun with chip music.  I don't think chip music has to be a dark, contemplative thing.  'Chiptune' isn't a genre, it's a very wide set of aesthetics and I think that it's great when people do a wide variety of stuff.

i'm in the same boat as you - i'm as much of a "chipmusic geek", obsessed with the finer details and history, but i'd also like to not take my music deathly seriously and leave plenty of room for myself and others to approach it with some levity.

It's just that the reality is this: no matter the good intentions of the veterans and new guard have where inclusion is concerned, there is friction between these two camps and there always will be.

But this is true in pretty much any discipline outside of chip.  sometimes i wish we would all just accept this, instead of lampshading the issue and pretending that the chipscene is the most welcoming community in the world, when there's clearly a (albeit vague) unwritten expectation for new artists who want to join in.

What i think oldies and newbies can agree on, though, is this: the chip scene celebrates innovation and adventurousness on the musical, technical, or cultural level.  those who merely take the well-trodden roads should not expect to be regarded the same way as those who carve new frontiers, and shouldn't be surprised if their work gets a "bleh" response or gets ignored altogether.

although i feel your questions are kinda trolley and presume quite a bit about the chip scene, i'll tell you what _i_ see from my subjective point of view and hopefully that might offer a bit more of a rounded perspective.

my theory is that many of the older veterans tend to be people who have a cerebral interest in chipmusic as an artform, and they have no time or interest in educating/cultivating/coddling the wave of newer folks who may not be coming in with a similar respect and reverence for the artform.  i think what you're seeing is the manifestation of this frustration.

this is not new, btw; this conflict has existed for as long as a few years back when at some point the chip community collectively accepted that if you obtained a DMG and excreted an uncey track out of your bunghole, that meant that you now "know" chiptune and are automatically a chip artist worth listening to.

i personally identify as being in the "chipmusic as an artform" camp and i feel that frustration too.  as much as i would like the scene to be as open as possible to newer people, i also feel that the sea of dime-a-dozen snoozer chip tracks undermines the hard work and effort of those who thoughtfully approach the craft and seek to create works that endure the test of time and the critical ear. 

cm.org also used to be more of a place for focused discussion on the advancement of chipmusic, and relatively free from the hordes of noobs wanting to know how to make a chip musics, before 8bc went kaput for good.  you can understand the disdain when you consider the increased number of dumb questions and topics that have popped up around here lately, by people who don't know any better.

nowadays there seem to be fewer mechanisms for sorting out the gems from the crap.  on 8bc, the likes and comments system was a reasonable (though still imperfect) metric that allowed people to easily get a sense of which music was good.  i think that netlabels are the primary mechanism for that now, but i don't think that's enough. 

there needs to be more trusted curators, more recommendations from trusted artists, and more of a catalogue for finding good chipmusic - otherwise it's harder for the veterans to bother fishing around for stuff by newer artists.

so no, the chip scene isn't dying or anything.  but i would say it's in flux, particularly in the area of online spaces.  the idea of a "central hub" doesn't really exist right now, i don't know if it will (or should) exist again, but if there ends up being one again that most of the other substituent chip communities can get behind, then chipfolk will find themselves enjoying a new period of stability.

nice and moody!  digging this, makes for some pretty rad evening muzak.

308

(135 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

fluxer wrote:

What kind of waveform does this sound resemble?

well, the characteristic clicks that would occur when you set the SID's volume register could be controlled to click at different rates.  modulate this and it would act like a DPCM channel.

309

(58 replies, posted in General Discussion)

ways i learned music, from most useful/influential to least:

1) opening tracker module files and looking at pattern data to glean the artists' techniques
2) tracking tracker files of my own to put #1 into practice
3) listening to music purposefully and picking apart the melodies/harmonies/rhythm
4) music theory class for one year
5) about 9 years of piano (still sucked afterward with not much development in the way of improvisation or sightreading)

the most important part, i think, is to identify the components in the music which evoke an emotional response.  it could be a specific encapsulated riff, or it could be a more holistic combination of those components that achieves the overall effect.  most of my musical development over the last few years is to attain a deep understanding of the latter.

great cohesive effort by the two of you guys!  mixed well, pretty good variety of styles, awesome cover, and a tour de force of technical prowess. 

i think what i'm most impressed with is how evenly represented you two were.  i can tell great care was taken to make sure there wasn't a ridiculous amount of domination by either party - hard to maintain on any joint project.

that and the colossal task of juggling .sav's back and forth - that workflow would have fizzled out pretty quickly for those with less dedication.

i agree with xylo, i think Legacy was my favourite track - it has a really solid motif and structure that allows enough space around it and doesn't get overtaken by the instrumentation.   Rhapsody was cool too, dan you should definitely sink your teeth into the more downtempo stuff!   The grooves in the middle of the last track were the biggest pleasant surprise because it was a cool departure from either of your styles.

anyway well done guys, pat yourselves on the back!  (but don't pat each other on the back, that'd be kind of weird.)

311

(135 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

nitro2k01 wrote:

Here's the technical explanation: http://blog.gg8.se/wordpress/2013/01/16 … planation/

ha!  that's brilliant.   reminds me of how the C64 SID chip's volume register could be hacked to produce a "4th" channel.   could something similar be done with the DMG hardware?

Hey guys, just thought i'd throw this up here. 

Feb. 15th 10:00pm
50 East Hastings Street - Vancouver, BC
FACEBOOK LINK - http://www.facebook.com/events/147080035444406/

Full Disclosure: it's not really a chip show per se, I believe i'll be the only bona-fide chip artist on a lineup of underground electronic musicians.  hitori tori has got a BEAST live setup with Renoise though, and lootcanal has had some contact with the seattle and tokyo chip scenes.   if you're looking for an excuse to swing up to vancouver, this might be your chance.

SHOULD BE FUN

also, one of those CD compilation album commercials

to be honest, if my music shows up in the playlists of the artists i look up to and respect, mission accomplished.  that tells me that i have provided for them in the same way that they've provided entertainment to me.

leno

aliceffekt wrote:

Sorry to revive an old tread. I thought you might enjoy this

I uploaded the recording of the set. and also the scripts I wrote for the visuals.

http://wiki.xxiivv.com/106

RIP Blipfest

snap!  as someone who quite literally weeks ago started playing around with Processing, this is a godsend.  thanks so much for making the scripts available.

great marriage of music and visuals too, at least from the videos i saw.

THAT'S EXACTLY THE THING A BOLD GUY WOULD SAY

what a nice album to punctuate my sunday afternoon.  great job!


(but it's not a full length album so i'm obligated to retract my previous statement, olololo)

319

(84 replies, posted in General Discussion)

i for one am mostly indifferent to the length of an album - what's more important to me is whether or not the songs are good and/or are grouped in a meaningful way.   if the artist's release has some kind of unifying theme/concept to it, then good on him/her, i don't care how long or short it is.

i feel that "album length" is more or less an artifact of older times when the preparation of an album was more costly and not as easy to iterate upon.

also, it's one thing when an artist wants you to devote a solid chunk of time to listening to a whole album - but multiply that by a whole assload of artists and it gets kind of scary.  for instance, this last week or two i was actually kind of overwhelmed by the sheer number of "new year" releases, and getting through all of them actually felt like a bit of a chore.  and these albums were all GOOD ones!!  imagine if just 2 or 3 of those albums ended up being stinkers.

also we need a GIF of that awkward luke head turn

you know the one