1 Reply by uptick

(2 replies, posted in General Discussion)

the ABC syntax you mentioned in the other post, what's that syntax used in?
MML is the only music programming language I'm aware of, are there other languages used for programming music?

also, samples are not as commonly used in 2a03 compared to pc-98 right? since there's only 1 channel for it and the quality of sound for the sample is limited to only 1 bit, with pmd/pc-98 offering more channels, i'd imagine samples is probably used a lot more often ?

I've never actually played around with samples before, though i do know it's a very important part of the music making process (especially for amiga). How does it work exactly though?

Essentially with samples, it's just people creating different instrument sound or effects, storing them into a file, and people can manipulate and tweak it to their liking? Much like with mml/ppmck, when we set up different sounds via the various settings available, except, with samples, we get to store it into a file for future use, sharing, which allow us to gather and collect all kinds of template that people have built?

As someone new, would you recommend sticking with ppmck + 2a03 before venturing onto pmd + pc-98?

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2 Reply by uptick

(21 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Sonus Silver wrote:

xIk has some excellent NES tracks on 8bit peoples: http://www.8bitpeoples.com/artists/xik

Phlogiston's Mode 3 is also one of the best NES albums you'll ever hear: http://www.8bitpeoples.com/artists/phlogiston

Mr. Spastic does some amazing "urban" stuff on the NES as well: http://www.8bitpeoples.com/artists/mr-spastic and http://www.archive.org/download/m3d057- … pastic.zip and http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Mr_Sp … to_16_Bit/

Virt (i.e. Jake Kaufman) also released 4 albums of NES music:
https://archive.org/details/mtk060
https://archive.org/details/mtk086
http://www.8bitpeoples.com/products/520253-virt-fx3
https://virt.bandcamp.com/album/fx4

my god, virt's stuff are great!

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3 Topic by uptick

(2 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Hello,

Just wondering if anyone here is using MML (Music Micro Language) for creating their NES(nsf) music instead of using a tracker like famitracker or perhaps a modern daw?

As a programmer myself, the idea of being able to create music through codes while staying in the comfort of my favorite editor is something that's very enticing.

Aside from the obvious differences in workflow and the representation of music notes (which one can perhaps get used to overtime) what are some of the things that you liked or didn't like about MML compared to trackers? What would you say are the advantages(strength) and disadvantages(weakness) of MML? Which area does it excel in? or did it ends up being overly tedious and un-intuitive for you?
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I searched a bit online, but there doesn't seem to be an over abundance of material on MML comapred to its counter part: famitracker, which, of course has a strong following in the community and a few fantastic and detailed youtube tutorials. However, for MML, these two seems to be the only available sources right?

Learning Materials:
1. http://www.nullsleep.com/treasure/mck_guide/
2. http://woolyss.com/chipmusic/chipmusic- … _guide.php
* http://wikiwiki.jp/mck/?MML  (now this one is very well made and contains a wealth of information, but sadly it's in Japanese so it's a bit hard to utilize even with google translate)

Does anyone know of any other materials by any chance?
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Now, when it comes to setting up MML, the primary steps seems to be:

1. Obtaining VirtuaNSF、 NSFplay
2. Get ppmck. 09a being the latest pack I believe?
    -unzip and extra the files and use them to set up the enviornment

That's pretty much it right? (are there any utilities that are essentials when it comes to mml, ppmck? hoot?  syntax color scheme, analyzer? )
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*Lastly, all of these packages and software seems to be made for Windows, does anyone know if it's possible to set it all up in Linux? ^_^ If so, could someone perhaps show me how? Thanks in advance!*


By the way, I know a lot of the nes game's music were composed with MML in the past, but when it comes to modern chiptunes, what are some of the composers or musicians I can check out who use MML as their weapon of choice when it comes to music creation?

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4 Topic by uptick

(21 replies, posted in General Discussion)

just looking for some recommendations like the title stated.

who are some of the fami/nes artists that you follow?
or songs that you are particularly fond of?

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5 Topic by uptick

(0 replies, posted in General Discussion)

o7 Salutations everyone!

Whenever we talk about chiptunes, inarguably, the big three have always been C64/Amiga, NES, and Gameboy.

C64/Amiga, being a unique and powerful computer system loved by many of its days (and still to this day) have always had a strong following and a rich and deeply rooted history in cracktros and the demoscene. For many, the sound of Amiga is a reminiscence to those days when we ran our first warez, and for some, that sound lingered and remained in our mind and never exited.

NES, on the other hand is the gaming console that we grew up with and loved. To put it plainly, it's the iconic gaming symbol of our youth. A gaming console so beloved and prevalent that an entire generation was named after it - "The Nintendo Generation."

Gameboy, being the first popular and perhaps successful handheld gaming platform requires no further introduction - I'm sure most of us have held one or seen one at one time or another. ^_^ (tfw I just realized my introduction went a little out of hand....)

Anyways,  I started this thread because I wanted to get everyone's opinion on the sound characteristics of each of these systems; how they differ from each other, and most importantly, what do they sound like to you?

For me, Amiga's sound is very clear, and each note is very pronounced, which brings a special characteristic to it as everything contrasts more sharply in a way. NES, to me sounds extremely smooth, and i think for me this is somewhat of a double edged sword, as the smoothness somehow contradicts the genre of music that chiptune generally represents. Whereas, gameboy on the other hand provides a raw, chirppy, hoarseness type sounds that gave it its own unique flavor and authentic feel to it.

=====================================================================================================
In addition, what's  your reason for choosing one over the other?

As I'm just starting my journey, my observation could be wrong, but it seems both gameboy and amiga are heavily respresented - gameboy by the chiptune crowd and favored perhaps for its portability and the ability to faciliate live performance, and amiga by computer enthusiats and demoscene people who are still keeping the art alive.

but NES seems to be somewhat missing in the midst!?!

And, aside from the computer enthusiasts and demoscene crowd, how come Amiga/C64 isn't as popular of a choice for those who are purely music fans? Is it because having to collect samples adds another layer of difficulty? granted, when it comes to hardware, it's certainly not a portable system, but that goes for nes as well to a certain degree.

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6 Reply by uptick

(11 replies, posted in General Discussion)

no it's not harsh at all!
thanks for the clarification, i think i'll just keep it simple and start out with traditional trackers for now smile

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7 Reply by uptick

(11 replies, posted in General Discussion)

urbster1 wrote:

if you're looking for a tracker you can't do better than renoise. if you want some extra chip-related bells and whistles check out chipsounds and the other plogue products

renoise supports multiple sound engines right?
what chip sound does it actually support though? gameboy? NES? amiga? atari?

and is there a difference between using renoise vs one of those older traditional tracker that is dedicated to a particular format?

someone mentioned that some trackers have sound engine of a particular platform built into the system so that the sound you produce from so tracker will be authentic, while others uses synthesis to recreate that sound ? are the differences detectable at all? or it makes no differences at all? smile

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8 Reply by uptick

(11 replies, posted in General Discussion)

yoyz2k wrote:

and the other one which use multiple sound engine at the same time, but they are not chip related IMHO :
- sunvox, renoise, picoloop

why do you mean exactly when you say they are not chip related?
as in, they don't contain the chip engine that produces the authentic chip sound for that particular platform, but instead uses other means to recreate the sounds?

and thanks so much for the post, it really helps to know the difference between sample based and non-sample based trackers.

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9 Topic by uptick

(11 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Hello everyone,

As someone who grew up in the Nintendo, Super Nintendo and warez cracktro era, the sound of chiptunes is somewhat of a nostalgia for me.

I know that when it comes to creating chipmusic, there's many ways to do it; while using a gameboy handheld with LSDj might provide you the luxury to do live performances, on the other hand, using a tracker software can also prove to be very enjoyable as well as it provides a better interface and workflow.

Currently I'm thinking of starting out with a daw or a tracker in order to get my feet wet, and keeping the gameboy + LSDj option open for down the road; I'm a programmer as well and very interested in the demoscene, so doing everything via the computer is something I quite enjoy.

Now, about trackers, I know that some trackers are dedicated to certain chip correct? That there are trackers specifically for making the Amiga sound, the NES sound, the Gameboy sounds, c64 sounds, etc. But let's say if i'm not hung up on limiting my chip music to a specific chip or hardware, but instead want to be able to use all the sounds from various platforms while making my tunes.... are there any trackers that are able to utilize sounds from multiple chisets and platforms?

In addition, how does it actually work? Let's say we're talking about the Amiga chip, does the program assign a command or number to every permutation of sounds that the chip is capable of producing ? or are these sounds actually recorded into samples by people from games overtime and grew as a collection?

I guess my main question is, when using a tracker and producing chiptunes, are all the sounds at our disposal? or do we have to personally acquire and build up our collections of sounds from samples, etc? This is my primary concern. ^_^

I've always had a hoarder mentality whenever it comes to hobbies, so if this was the case, I would probably just ended up spending most of my time trying to collect as much sounds as possible instead of focusing on actually making music.  (surely i'm not the only one with this habit?) lol

Lastly, when it comes to trackers, what would you guys recommend? Is renoise a good choice? does it offer support for multiple chipsets and platforms? nes, amiga, atari, gameboy, etc? It seems like a modern daw/tracker that still stayed true to its roots and even allows the user full control via the keyboard which I thought was great.

I use Linux as well as Windows, so i'm quite open to all suggestions. ^_^

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