369 Reply by bryface

(55 replies, posted in General Discussion)

nitro2k01 wrote:

This kind of existential discussion is one the most badly flogged dead horses of the chip music community. There's just nothing worth saying that hasn't been said already.

Faerlight, I don't know if you're a troll, but I'm leaning in that direction. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like Washington state is a breeding ground for trolls...


maybe what this site needs is an Microsoft Word Clippy-esque character that pops up based on the content of the topic title/message

"Hi, it looks like you're creating a topic about the definition of chipmusic. this topic has beaten to death numerous times.  Would you like to continue? ( N / N )"

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370 Reply by bryface

(13 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

BAM http://lsdsng.com.   download away.

the cool thing is that as you gain more experience with LSDJ, you'll gradually wean yourself off of looking at SAV's anyway since you develop a more intimate understanding of the hardware/software limitations.  i mean, you only have so many simultaneous channels and sound types, right?  oftentimes when i hear a song it's fun to try and reverse-engineer it in my head.

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371 Reply by bryface

(76 replies, posted in General Discussion)

oh this topic again

for the purposes of discussion i'm going to take "going mainstream" as the following scenario:

- news publications no longer have to have a blurb explaining what chipmusic is
- the public sees chip acts as having roughly presence/stature as any other indie act so that it has no problems being on a lineup and no one has to ask why
- my real-life friends can appreciate my music on a purely musical level without needing to ask about its technical nature, if they don't want to
- the general public AT THE VERY LEAST understands the minimalist approach to chipmusic
- EDM lineups/columns/magazines are healthy interspersed with chip artists who are good at EDM
- chip artists will stop whining about whether or not they're mainstream
- major labels participate in the distribution of chip music without compromising the work in the process
- people stop asking whether or not i'm playing mario

if ALL of the above happens, i think i would be ok with it.

note that this has nothing to do with how much exposure chipmusic gets on top40 lists or the airwaves, or how popular any particular artist is.  i don't care about any of that stuff.  i just want the general public to have a higher minimum level of understanding of it so i can do my thing and not be questioned at every step of the way.  (unless the questioning is in the spirit of greater understanding of course)


also everything ant1 said

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372 Reply by bryface

(16 replies, posted in Releases)

cover art of da year

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373 Reply by bryface

(12 replies, posted in Releases)

gave it a listen.  very raw yet extremely well-mixed also!  i would think that'd be pretty difficult to do with the characteristic atari sound, to have it not utterly dominate the mix / frequency spectrum.

the one comment i might have is that there are quite a lot of fast-paced "punk" songs in the 1st half of the album.  i personally enjoyed the more varied entries in the 2nd half more and would have liked to have seen them dispersed more evenly throughout the release.  but that's just my personal preference.

again, super solid work!

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374 Reply by bryface

(134 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

lastfuture wrote:
bryface wrote:

take the case of 2 x LSDJ:
- more channels can make a song more impressive by virtue of thoughtful usage of the extra channels
- it can no longer be appreciated as a 1xLSDJ track
- BUT it can still be appreciated in a class of its own, with its own set advantages and limitations
- appreciation will increase over time as more listeners become familiar with the pros and cons of a 2xLSDJ setup.

You're giving listeners a lot of credit. I'll be going out on a limb here and claim that most listeners who are not also Game Boy composers (or at least musicians with technical know how of the platform) won't be able to tell that it was not made on one Game Boy simply by listening. Only the savviest ones will be able to say "meh but it wasn't a 1xLSDJ song... so screw it" if they even care. The average listener will be able to notice a richer soundscape and if it serves the particular song probably enjoy it, too.

i'm just trying to point out that this is how many of the older purists look at chipmusic.   to many, the tools are actually perceived as inseparable from the creation, because the tools' limitations and characteristics are directly responsible for determining the particular qualities of the songs.

i'd like to think that chipmusic differentiates itself from all other kinds of music in that the community tries to disseminate amongst itself a desire to understand the hardware/software.   as a composer, i'd certainly like the listener to gain a greater understanding of the limitations i was subject to, because they more they do, they more they can experience the music in its entirety.

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375 Reply by bryface

(134 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Victory Road wrote:
10k wrote:

I am so confused by this thread. It's like asking if bands should have one guitarist or two.

always five guitars, at least.

OR MORE

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376 Reply by bryface

(134 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

VCMG wrote:

Why does it matter if something's not "keeping with original GameBoy and NES music"? Your argument seems to be that 2xLSDJ is inferior (is inferior the right word?) to 1xLSDJ only because it doesn't have the same nostalgia or authenticity factor as a "pure" track that uses exactly what a composer did in its golden age.

Maybe it's because I entered this scene without much connection or nostalgia for these machines, but I just don't see why this adherence to an old standard matters so much.

for many of us, the appeal of the music is actually more than just the sonic aesthetics of bleeps and bloops.  the hardware and software restrictions are also large parts of its identity.  when the hardware limitations are not respected, it undermines the song's status as a musical piece that was composed in such a way to overcome limitations.

of course, i'm not saying it takes away from its overall worth as a track, just that there's a certain point where you begin to have a tradeoff of certain aspects of a song that add to its value.

take the case of 2 x LSDJ:
- more channels can make a song more impressive by virtue of thoughtful usage of the extra channels
- it can no longer be appreciated as a 1xLSDJ track
- BUT it can still be appreciated in a class of its own, with its own set advantages and limitations
- appreciation will increase over time as more listeners become familiar with the pros and cons of a 2xLSDJ setup.

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377 Reply by bryface

(42 replies, posted in Releases)

finally had a listen to the entirety of the album.  some great work in such a short amount of time!

glad to be part of it, i almost said no because i didn't think i'd be able to do it.  now i realize i almost forgot how fun doing compos was in the past.

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378 Reply by bryface

(3 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Saskrotch wrote:

tables and vibrato i'm pretty sure weigh the heaviest on the cpu

i've considered using a really fast groove instead of a table to recreate the arpeggio.  anybody have any idea if that will be of any difference on the CPU?

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379 Reply by bryface

(705 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

nitro2k01 wrote:
bryface wrote:

if that's the case, why does it say here on derpcart.com that LittleFM is in fact supported?  is that remark actually false?  just wanted some clarification.

Wasn't my message clear enough? I have it all working, but I haven't released that version of the software yet.

i guess it's just the difference between saying "it is supported" and "it's not supported yet officially but it will be soon."

in any case, looking forward to an updated littleFM release!

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380 Reply by bryface

(705 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

btw, got my drag'n'derp in the mail!  i've been playing around with it all day, works pretty flawlessly.  the cart itself is a beauty too, with its dark translucent case. mmmm.   thanks abrasive + kitsch!

some observations/feedback/questions:

1) apparently the cart is smart enough to recognize the newer incoming .SAV and use that one, without having to rename any of the incoming files.  moreover, if you copy a new SAV into that folder, it won't overwrite the CURRENT.SAV which is showing in that folder.   this means you don't have to worry about the particular order in which you overwrite/backup the cart (unless all your .SAV files have the same filename).  is this correct?  are there any more nuances/gotchas concerning the filesystem that we should be aware of?

2) regardless, i think it'd be helpful for the heaps.txt to explain the filesystem in more detail, by going through the various use cases like the ones mentioned above.  i'm guessing you could provide more elaborate instructions by including it in a firmware update?

3) the cart sticker looks amazing and everything, but i'm just wondering, were there any discussions on having a half-size drag'n'derp sticker and leaving some extra space for another sticker of the user's choice?

4) any consideration for other cart colours in the future?

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381 Reply by bryface

(705 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

nitro2k01 wrote:

To anyone who might be wondering, the version of LittleFM that is publicly available does not work with derp. It's all working, but I need to finish the script for patching an LSDj ROM before I feel comfortable releasing it.

if that's the case, why does it say here on derpcart.com that LittleFM is in fact supported?  is that remark actually false?  just wanted some clarification.

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382 Topic by bryface

(3 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

so, there's a part of a tune i'm that just absolutely CHUGS when i play it on my DMG (as opposed to my GBA).  yes, i'm aware of the DMG's slower CPU and that you shouldn't do things that are too crazy on.  but from what i've googled, there doesn't seem to be all that much documentation on the specifics of what not to do. 

i'm wondering if anyone has run into anything similar to what i've been dealing with, and i'd appreciate any insights on what you guys have about lightening the CPU load.

Here are the symptoms:
- when the pattern starts playing, the song doesn't noticeably slow down yet, but any button presses are delayed by about half a second.

- halfway through the chain, the song playback slows down to like 2/3 of its original speed.  at this point, the buttons stop receiving input altogether; it seems as if the button presses get buffered

- after the pattern starts playing, the CPU and the input start doing things REALLY fast, almost as if to catch up from before.  any key presses that were buffered when the CPU was chugging now take effect, all at once.

- also, after the slow part, the cursor becomes hypersensitive for the next pattern - any press of the directional arrows seems to move the cursor by 3 or 4 spaces, instead of just one

- eventually the DMG returns to normal playback speed and the buttons receive their input normally once again.

- i tried isolating that set of chains temporarily to loop that slow section of the song continuously, but as expected, the slowdown compounds upon itself and sure enough, i get a "TOO BUSY!" error in LSDJ that prevents me from stopping playback, leaving me no choice but to turn the game boy off.

here's a table i'm using that might be the culprit, it's basically a pulse wave arpeggio with some hop (H) commands interleaved to space out the modulating of pitch (TSP) and the pulse width (Wxx commands):

VOL      TSP    CMD    CMD
00       00     00     W00
00       00     H20    HD0
00       02     00     W01
00       02     H22    HD2
00       04     00     W02
00       04     H24    HD4
00       07     00     W03
00       07     H26    HD6
00       0C     00     W03
00       0C     H28    HD8
00       00     H00    W02
00       00     00     HDA
00       00     00     W01
00       00     00     HDC
00       00     00     W01
00       00     00     HDE

the thing is, i don't think i'm doing anything overly taxing in that table compared to the other parts of my song.  you'd think the overabundance of H commands might be excessive, but i've actually done this in other songs (with more stuff going on in the other channels at that), and they seem to work fine in my DMG.

I have a complex swing groove too, which i thought meant more tricky stuff being thrown at the CPU, but getting rid of the groove didn't reduce the slowdown.

Could the slowdown possibly have anything to do with a corrupt LSDSNG?

anyway, i know -- lots of disjointed theories that i barfed onto this thread, but it'd help to have any thoughts from those who have had more experience dealing with slowdown.

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383 Reply by bryface

(134 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

if i have need for more instrumentation to convey my musical idea, then another LSDJ would be warranted.  but so far, a solo LSDJ cart has worked out just fine for me so far.  if i "run out of channels", more often than not it _actually_ means that i could stand to revise how i express and imply the melodies/harmonies i'm trying to write.

i hear people wanting to do 2xLSDJ as if it'll help them write better music, but i wonder sometimes if they're actually unknowingly lampshading more fundamental issues with their songwriting, or lack of expertise in their sound design.  there are some 2xLSDJ tracks that i feel have too much stuff going on because more notes are fighting for the listener's attention.

on a similar note, the best 2xLSDJ stuff i've heard is music that is totally doable on 1x too, it's just that the artist wisely uses the 2nd cart to enrich the 1st cart's harmonic content without muddling up the frequency spectrum.

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384 Reply by bryface

(42 replies, posted in Releases)

no worries! k, uploaded my track - shoved it right in the middle cause whatever.

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