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ChipMusic.org / Forums / Posts by bryface
the vast majority of my tunes are thematic in nature - i try to capture the essence of the subject matter as much as i can.
in other words, if the subject matter described in the title had a short film made about it, the music would most certainly be its musical score.
if my music paints an image in the listener's mind, i have succeeded.
I came to this thread fully expecting full-blown Chipmusic University(TM). I am disappoint.
CHPM 103: Elements of Chipmusic
CHPM 217: Intermediate Circuit Bending
CHPM 314: Stage Dancing Fundamentals
CHPM 317: Promotional Techniques
CHPM 412: Ethics of Chipmusic
glad the purple motion train is in full force. couple of my favourites from him:
Minimum Velocity
2-channel S3M module! great example of interleaving basslines, percussion and leads.
Module link: http://modarchive.org/data/downloads.ph … INIMUM.S3M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl … REI#t=978s
Soul-O-Matic
4 channel MOD. Listen for:
- overall groove, particularly the basslines
- funk samples that were totally unique for their time.
- varied snare samples
Module link: http://modarchive.org/data/downloads.ph … -matic.mod
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl … EI#t=1121s
Also glad the Pinball Fantasies musak was mentioned. come to think of it, some of the best non-scene mods i've heard are ones from pinball games:
Pinball Dreams 2 Intro - a.n. putson
this one has some of the best chords / orch hits / progressive 90's chord progressions i've ever heard. major unsung hero here, it doesn't seem like that many people know about this.
Module link: http://www.4shared.com/file/xIrqVkAL/Pi … INTRO.html
Epic Pinball - Intro music - Robert Allen and Joshua Jensen
this one is in a proprietary Protracker Studio .PSM module format. You can use XMP (command-line or plugin) to play these types.
Module link: http://krum.ethz.ch/ftp.modland.com/Epi … 0title.psm
in case anyone is still wondering, rouwe made a "Great Module Tunes & Tracker History" thread where tracking n00bs can be enlightened on MOD/XM/IT recommendations, and the nuances of the tracker scene. go there and post your top picks and knowledge:
http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/4777/ … d-history/
thx rouwe
Now I'm totally interested in Hunz sound, but I will only be able to listen to the modules when I get home.
I'm really interested in recording and sampling vocal into the songs I write, this will be a great lesson to me.
one of the cool things you'll find when poking at the modules is that the vocal samples are recorded pretty dry, but are given depth through channel echos and other tracker effects.
I been trying to look them up on YouTube but the tunes are not there. A lot of what I like has not appeared on any demo productions.
any direct module links? we can collectively try and google-fu for titles.
in the late 90's the MOD-on-crack formats like .XM and .IT expanded the 4-channel canvas to 32 or even 64(!) channels. now that composers didn't have to deal with channel economy, music in this era started to balloon into compositions of insane complexity.
it was normal for a lead melody to take up 3 channels: 1 main channel and two echo channels. Chords would take up 4-5 channels, one for each note. Actually, the number of chord channels could easily double if the composer wanted to fade chords in and out between each other. phasing effects were more common (take a channel, duplicate it, and detune the copy). Drums and other percussion would take 4-8 channels, some of them being solely dedicated to long drum loops.
here are a couple of picks of such artists and some of their works: (I HIGHLY RECOMMENDED YOU TO PLAY IN FASTRACKER OR SCHISM TRACKER AND WATCH THE NOTES FLOW, FOR MAXIMUM ENJOYMENT)
Necros
one of the tracking scene greats before the advent of softsynths. known for:
- strong song structures and sense of harmony
- gold-standard tracking technique
- versatility in a huge range of styles
- distinctive electronica style that aims for realism (i.e. doesn't sound like it was tracked)
- other trademarks: superb leadwanking abilities, bright synth stabs, ethereal pads
Wired96 report
http://modarchive.org/data/downloads.ph … red96r.s3m
infinity (w/ khyron)
http://modarchive.org/data/downloads.ph … finity.s3m
Orchard Street
ftp://ftp.scene.org/mirrors/hornet/musi … m-orch.zip
Mindspring
http://modarchive.org/data/downloads.ph … dspring.it
Hunz
you guys probably know him from his latest chipmusic work, but in the 90's he was a super-prolific tracker musician. he was known for:
- whimsical, devil-may-care approach to songwriting and structure - not afraid to throw conventional compositional rules out of the window for more experimental elements
- strong emphasis on intricate rhythms
- super-high quality samples; some songs were released as versions with fully 16-bit samples in a time when it was still considered a luxury
- some of the cleanest mixing i've ever heard - all parts are heard clearly and placed neatly in the stereo spectrum without any muddling of frequencies
- one of the very few musicians to record his own vocals and lyrics. also happens to have hands down the best singing voice of any tracker musician.
On Me - awesome synthpop song and one of the best examples of original lyrics/vocals in tracked music.
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/fm/fm-om16b.zip
Clone it - fantastic acid jazz with vocals and chipstyle leads
ftp://ftp.scene.org/mirrors/hornet/musi … -clone.zip
Send Me Drift'n - great melodies and yet more vocals in the module
ftp://ftp.scene.org/mirrors/hornet/musi … fm-smd.zip
Scotch and Sand - chiptune
http://modarchive.org/data/downloads.ph … nd_sand.xm
EDIT: added source module links to all songs
DS10FORUM.COM compilation #3: The Haunted Mansion
HTTP://DS10FORUM.BANDCAMP.COM
23 tracks of creepy soundscapes, terrifying noises, and innovative high-concept work from some of the best and brightest DS-10 artists around the world!
This album really shattered my expectations of what can be done sonically on the DS-10; hopefully you'll agree after checking it out.
Besides the efforts of the contributing artists, credit goes to DS-10 Dominator for organizing the album, AudioArtist for mastering, and Tommy Creep for designing the album art.
Here's the tracklist:
1. HarleyLikesMusic - The Front Yard
2. Anthony Seeha - The Entrance Hall
3. AudioArtist - The Living Room
4. CardiacTrance - The Kitchen
5. itchidan - The Laundry Room
6. Syscrusher - The Ballroom
7. WarpToken - The Stairway
8. mchl nrvs - The Bedroom
9. WMRhapsodies - The Music Room
10. DJ Hollow Life - The Office
11. daiteng - The Sewing Room
12. Radixxs - The Bathroom
13. robowist - The Library
14. SBK - The Solarium
15. kloudygirl - The Exercise Room
16. T.M.HECTOR - The Elevator
17. bryface - The Garage
18. Tommy Creep - The Lab
19. The Industrialism - The Machine Room
20. alexusual - The Secret Control Room
21. Uncle Bibby - The Courtyard
22. Sinqlogue - The Cemetary
23. DS-10 Dominator - The Back Yard
(This will probably be released on archive.org and other locations in case the bandcamp page reaches its monthly download limit)
Has anyone taken on the corrolary of "how do we get more people into tracking?"
if people were made more aware of the 20+-year backcatalogue of mindblowing module tunes on a regular basis i think there would be more interest. not just that, but being able to sift out the best of the best - being shown the work of tracking legends, demoparty multichannel compo winners and the like.
another thing i think would help is to encourage people to play the music in their intended tracker programs, or at least in players that show the note data during playback. that was the original draw for me - music that had the note data in plain view so that you can mute stuff, or poke around in the song, to see how the artist achieved a particular result.
when you listen to an mp3 version of such tunes, the appreciation for those details gets lost.
then you probably have a girlfriend and a life
uh....
u... uhh
In the final Episode VI of this space-opera saga comes the return of the Jeri, from the Kolos star system (located within the galaxy's Mid Rim)
'e woks & wolls with a wevenge of the chipth , digitizing a classic, and all ends too happily with a bunch of dancing muppets. http://bit.ly/jkcos-6
i didn't get any of that
1) chip people follow "chiptune circle"
2) "chiptune circle" follows back
3) chip people look at the "chiptune circle" follow list to find other chip people / add entire "chiptune circle" follow listand then
4) google actually adds legit social networking functions ('Sparks?' wtf); "chiptune circle" becomes immediately irrelevant
yeah, that's what i thought...
...
still waiting for step 2 cough cough 
oh yeah, thats what its come to. join the circle so that other chip peeps can find you. if you like that sort of thing:
of course, by "joining the circle", you just mean _add_ the circle right? that doesn't automatically imply membership in said circle, does it? #foreveralone
Answering the OP question, I think if I was starting now and learned about XM/MOD I would consider it a road that was already trodden, it is only a matter of time until the LSDJ community is viewed in the same way.
in a few years history will repeat itself and LSDJ will be seen as awkward and passe to the up-and-coming quantum computing subatomic particle music scene
You can do, but I think it's more fun to press start and select than to press enter and let it scroll.
Also, I know you can change patterns on the fly, I know about those possibilities, I just don't like them. And I see why people prefer LSDJ live style, is easier to see and mess with.
i would say the interface for jamming these patterns into place makes the difference too. most oldschool trackers only have a single column order list, so visually it's hard to work with the arrangement of a song in realtime (though it is technically possible).
the nice thing about LSDJ/famitracker is that orders are per column/channel, so it's more intuitive to visually recognize parts of a song and to think about muting or rearranging a song in a part-wise fashion.
the newer trackers of course (buzztracker and i think renoise's pattern matrix among others) are taking a more piece-wise approach to song arrangement, which is nice. smart usage of buzztracker's begin/end sequence markers makes live playback of buzz songs a lot more feasible.
But it would seem the number of people new to the scene (by new I mean within the last few years or so), at least in our neck of the woods, who choose MOD/XM to compose / perform live seems vanishingly small.
Anyone have any thoughts as to why? The only thing I can think of is there aren't THAT many exciting options of things to do live with mods.
I started composing in module formats (.S3M/.IT) and while i still love the artform, one of my major gripes has always been that i don't have full control over the sound. whether it's making my own samples, or ripping good samples from other mods, there's no easy way to tweak and shape towards the sound that you want.
The trackers that do let you hand-draw samples aren't that intuitive either, unless you have an intimate understanding of how to draw the waveform for a sound that you want. LSDJ on the other hand, for example, gives you at least some measure of shaping the sound, at least to the point where you feel you've done all you can do to get the sound that you want because of the limited synthesis options.
plus i'm sure that whatever is considered the "mod" sound is something that is more stylistic/compositional rather than technical - the fact that MODs can sound like anything actually detracts from its uniqueness. the only thing you can say about what gives a MOD its sonic character is the sound artifacts you get when you play samples at different pitches.. but that's not something that's immediately recognizable and appreciated except to people who have composed in module formats.
also, playing mods in live setting is frankly kinda boring to watch - you hit Play and try to dance. BUT i think playing modules in a live setting would be a lot more exciting, if the software was adapted to accommodate live manipulation, like queueing up chains of patterns and more intelligent launching/muting of parts, instead of just clumsily soloing/muting channels during playback. that kind of live tweaking is what the other chip artists have the benefit of through their software.
ChipMusic.org / Forums / Posts by bryface
