337 Reply by bryface

(114 replies, posted in General Discussion)

i'm not sure how many people see streaming of chipmusic as "THE NEXT BIG PHENOMENON THAT'Z TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM", or a soon-to-be predominant way that chip is proliferated, or anything like that.

i get that streams do have the potential of hurting the integrity of whatever else you've put out there though.   i think that's where i found myself feeling the most conflicted tbh.

on one hand, considering i've really only played like 1.5 live performances to date, i was actually quite pleased with how my clipstream set turned out.  it was fun to prepare for and i think it was representative of the tunes and other resources i had at my disposal.  i think i did about as good as i could have with a single-camera setup and no visuals.  and as much as a live performance flies in the face of my perfectionist nature with respect to releasing anything over any medium, it was a fun thing to do in the moment and it was great to get to know other chip artists better in the process.

On the other hand, is that recorded stream something i would use as "press material" per se?  probably not.  most people who don't understand where a chip streamer is coming from would scoff at it or dismiss it, which is why i haven't shared it on facebook.  i don't think such a set represents the kind of "whole package" i would want to put forth, which i think would entail some kind of multisensory experience.  what that experience would look, i haven't had the time/energy to formulate yet, but i'm pretty sure it doesn't involve me bopping in front of a camera for half an hour.

so there's this weird internal conflict between
a) the idea that i'm free can do whatever i feel like in a live stream and people can enjoy it in the moment for what it's worth, and
b) the fact that this supposedly spontaneous event has been recorded for on-demand viewing - taking away from the spontaneity and intimacy of the live act, and giving undesired permanency to any mistakes or other aspects that we'd like forgotten.

I wonder if people might feel differently about streaming if there was an unwritten rule in the chipscene that any live streams should only be broadcast and recorded?  or at least, that any recorded streams get deleted after a couple of days?

Go to forum: General Discussion

338 Reply by bryface

(114 replies, posted in General Discussion)

cripes, a ton of thoughtful answers all up in here.  definitely appreciate everyone's candidness and i'm glad that many of the criticisms are being taken really well - shocking! 

yeah, by no means was my intent to tear down any particular web show, but instead to be honest about aspects that inherently don't work, in the interest of refining something that has potential.  (btw Glenntai, i totally appreciated the relative responsiveness and attentiveness of the Clipstream staff, the support alone really does bolster one's confidence about doing a stream.)

If i had to tl;dr all the discussion so far into a few key points of near consensus -- here goes:

- streams are not a replacement for live shows, nor do they need to be.  when presenting a streamed show in the same way, something just doesn't translate well, and it has something to do with either the separation of the artist from the audience, or some visual factor.  streams have the potential to be something else altogether though - something that makes sense given the medium, and something that plays to the medium's strengths.

- there's some untapped potential of video streams as a means for connecting the chip community in interesting ways, like realtime chat, Q&A, interactive games/visuals/whatever.  there's also a sense of immediacy and intimacy that's of value.

- setting up streams can cost some significant effort, many times for little or no (financial) return.  to actually achieve a setup resembling some kind of TV studio would be cost-prohibitive for most people, so to emulate TV broadcasts (at least in terms of production value) is probably not the best way to go.  btw, many "professional" e-sports broadcasts actually dump a whole lot of their sponsor-fueled budget into the logistical and technical aspects of the streaming production itself, so that already gives you an idea as to its feasibility in a community that isn't known for their extravagant spending.

- there's a hosting/editorial component that definitely could be expanded upon, instead of just having a loose string of artist after artist with little cohesion otherwise.


Overall i'm pretty excited by the possibilities and ideas that everyone's brought up!  the idea and the desire is cool, but there's no reason to just touch down at the familiar tropes like "lineup of artists".

Go to forum: General Discussion

339 Reply by bryface

(114 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Battle Lava wrote:

I watched a video performance of you on ustream.tv not too long ago. I was very happy with the quality of your songs. Great stuff, really.

That said, watching the video was boring as shit.

haha, i'll be the first to agree with you there.  originally i was thinking of ways to incorporate visuals but didn't have enough time/skillzzsz.

as such, i've realized that trying to come up with visually meaningful things for my physical person to do in an empty room - things that deserve attention for the full duration of a set - is REALLY difficult and not sustainable for most people except the most charismatic folk.

the only real novelty is in those moments that you know that you're watching someone live, but that novelty fades pretty quickly after the initial realization.

i think i'd be more comfortable streaming if there was a common expectation that no, you don't have to "put on a show" if it's not natural for you.  i wouldn't mind focusing more on chatting in-depth with the audience while my tunes are playing. that's something that adds to a more tight-knit community, too.

Go to forum: General Discussion

340 Topic by bryface

(114 replies, posted in General Discussion)

so, there's been an increase in streamed shows as of late and i thought i'd be interesting to see everyone's thoughts on streaming in general as a paradigm - what are some things that are done right, and what are some things that need rethinking.

overall i think that the very existence of streamshows, alone, is a GREAT thing - it shows that the chip community is still thriving and is looking for new ways to connect and congregate.  it's particularly a boon for those who don't live in geographically chip-heavy parts of the world.

but definitely there are some challenges to the organization, format, and presentation.  to be fair though, streaming in this fashion is a relatively new phenomenon and i'm sure the various shows are just trying different kinds of things to see what works and what doesn't.

here's some more random brain noise from me:

- most shows are simply way too long and don't have enough of a benefit-to-cost ratio.  i appreciate the sheer novelty of having 10-hour streaming extravaganzas, but now that i've experienced it, i don't think i really need to experience it again in that way.  i realized that my attention span can only sustain me for about 4 hours or so, beyond that, my mind kind of burns out.

- artist delays are kind of a big problem.  hopefully there'll be some common policy/understanding as to handling late starts, cutting sets short, etc.  one way to mitigate this is to have intermissions every couple of hours.

- curation needs to be more discriminate and editorial.  this is so that a viewer has a reasonable confidence that if they check out a stream, it'll definitely be worth their time and attention.

- maybe the whole streamed show / Lineup Of Artists is fundamentally flawed format?  one alternative i had in mind was a "variety show" of shorts, a two-hour format where 2-to-4 active chip people discuss the latest goings-on panel-style over skype.  pepper in one or two artist interviews/streamed performances, and small segments like "chipmusic 101" or modding tutorials.  basically it would be an amalgamation of shows like  TrueStar's NoiseChan, Seaking's Seaglass and those State of the Game starcraft podcasts where players/casters just shoot the breeze in a 5-way split screen window.

- people performing from their homes:  some (rightfully) think that it's lame, others see it as a refreshing window into the lives of chip artists.  what do you think?

Go to forum: General Discussion

341 Reply by bryface

(40 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

i've done pretty well with this so far

Go to forum: Nintendo Handhelds

342 Reply by bryface

(167 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Kris k wrote:

Not sure if you guys know this but LSDJ already has tap tempo built in. Just go to the main menu and put the cursor over the tempo and start a-tappin'.

well whaddya know!  it works.  thanks for the tip.

nickmaynard wrote:

this idea would be very very easy to make with just an arduino. i'm sure there's tap temp code on arduino.cc and it would be easy to copy the tempo code out of the arduinoboy.

i'm sure it could be done with an arduino!  there may be some who may not want one in their setup though.  but i guess kris' tip negates the need for a dedicated tempo tapper, i suppose you could just link cable sync two GB's and tap away with the master GB.

Go to forum: Nintendo Handhelds

343 Reply by bryface

(167 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

i think a cool simple program would be a Tap-for-tempo utility. 
tap a button of your choosing to set BPM - either by sampling the most recent interval between two presses, or some combination of a rolling average.

tempo changes could have adjustable inertia for extra smoothness.  actually, having a multitude of different settings or scripts could be really useful for a variety of different purposes.

if you could use it to set the tempo for another gameboy running LSDJ/nanoloop, via link cable, it would be a neat tool for live performances!
maybe the utility could emulate a midi device, for greater compatibility.   i'm not too familiar with the depth of midi support but is it possible to retrieve the current BPM from an instance of LSDJ/nanoloop?

i think such a program would be a good alternative for accessing a subset of MIDI-specific functionality for those who would rather not have a MIDI and/or arduinoboy setup

-----

the other idea i have is perhaps a primitive looper program? i remember reading something about there being an extra GB cartridge pin to accommodate an external sound input?   not sure if that's just meant for piping external sound chip outputs through to the main output though.

if there is some mechanism for recording audio though, maybe on a basic level the input could get sampled to the WAV channel, but the other channels could somehow aid in reproducing the recorded sound?  i really don't know what this would involve from a hardware/algorithm standpoint though.

Go to forum: Nintendo Handhelds

344 Reply by bryface

(97 replies, posted in Rules & Announcements)

whoops wrong thread

Go to forum: Rules & Announcements

345 Reply by bryface

(97 replies, posted in Rules & Announcements)

i agree with the rule.  we should treat all cylons with the same dignity that is afforded of the typical human.

Go to forum: Rules & Announcements

346 Reply by bryface

(81 replies, posted in General Discussion)

my parents got me a second-hand C64 when i was 8 - it came with a box of about 60 games.  about a quarter of the time i'd use it to code dinky text-based programs in BASIC:

10 PRINT "WHAT IS YOUR NAME";:INPUT A$
20 IF A$="BRY" THEN 40
30 IF A$<>"BRY" THEN 50
40 PRINT "UR KEWL"
50 PRINT " U R GAY"
60 GOTO 10

my parents sold it off about a year before i learned of the C64's demoscene pedigree though.  BIGGEST MISTAKE of their life.

Go to forum: General Discussion

347 Reply by bryface

(206 replies, posted in Motion Graphics)

did this the other day (on Clipstream III) and i'm pretty happy with it.   30 mins of mostly new/unreleased LSDJ material! 

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/27596119

Go to forum: Motion Graphics

348 Reply by bryface

(5 replies, posted in Past Events)

THIS
NOW

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/clipstream

about 5 more artists left!

Go to forum: Past Events

349 Reply by bryface

(5 replies, posted in Past Events)

about halfway though but there's plenty of artists hopping on for the next few hours!

Go to forum: Past Events

350 Topic by bryface

(5 replies, posted in Past Events)

odd that there's no post about this, but this is happening tomorrow.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/clipstream

http://www.facebook.com/events/470821929627745/

FEATURED:

Aeros
Ninterido
DJ-PIE (gmt+1)
Cooshinator
Best Defense
Zalza
Vegas Diamond
bubu
Storm Blooper
Shanebro
dsv101
SPRY
sp00ked
b4by f4c3
CCDM
Kloudygirl
Invisible Robot Hands
Juice Pouch
NickelPUNK
Orbital Strike
Alex Powrs
Decktonic
bryface
Taste the Rainbow -- A One-time-only Rainbowdragoneyes cover band
Cheapshot

Go to forum: Past Events

351 Reply by bryface

(36 replies, posted in Releases)

super enjoyed.  great mix of dance and prog elements!  looking forward (read: cowering) for the upcoming 2xLSDJ album.

Go to forum: Releases

352 Reply by bryface

(97 replies, posted in General Discussion)

1.  stop using so many pentatonic scales
2.  melody lead lines need to have rests so as not to fatigue the listener's attention.  quite often i hear songs where melody lines just go on forever, snaking every which way, with no pause.  the longer the melody line, the harder the brain to retain it in its entirety until an "end" is perceived - at which point it can then start to file and categorize it mentally.

that's is the extent of the highly biased and uninformed advice that i can give in this highly contentious thread

Go to forum: General Discussion