17 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(38 replies, posted in General Discussion)

NES music was my first exposure to music. Not just music, but genres and styles of music.

For a lot of those NES composers, they had to interpret real life music through the NES limitations as a necessity. Whether it be classical, or rock and metal, or jazz, or anything else. They had to take what they knew about music, and cram it in to a set of limitations that had never been imposed before. It took them a while, but eventually they started to learn how to maximize what can be achieved sonically, and they were able to obtain richer and richer sounds. Those techniques became tools you could use to better interpret real life music through the NES.

This is what makes chiptunes such a special thing. There is both an instrument and a genre aspect to them. The sounds themselves can inform the music that is written, or the sounds themselves can be a way to interpret other types of music. But in the end, it all stems from the presence of limitations.

Those limitations are dramatically absent in modern music. Where you can load up a synth and have 100 detuned saw waves for the biggest super saw ever. There is no care or craft or texture required any more now that it can be automated. This is not necessarily a problem for a composer, because by and large, the sounds can still inform and inspire. But chiptune as a genre is something that is much harder to understand if you do not appreciate why those limitations created the nostalgic sounds in the first place.

So, the art in chiptune, from my experience, has been in understanding what made that original gear special, and being able to interpret my ideas through a self imposed protocol to imagine new sounds in old ways, or old sounds in new ways.

Similar to attempting to make a painting with one colour, you will have to make concessions and interpretations for how something that needs more then one colour would look if you only had one. That pursuit more than anything else is the art, or is the reason why I enjoy chiptunes. It doesn't need to be limitations either. it just needs to be imagining something through something else. The abstraction shows everything you need to know about the artist.

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18 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(5 replies, posted in Releases)

Thanks irrlichtproject! That was down right decent of you! And by the way, your blog actually looks fantastic, and has been bookmarked. Version check is a great idea! Huzzah!

And thanks again for your support, 2PLAYER! Especially your comments on the videos smile

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19 Topic by Norrin_Radd

(5 replies, posted in Releases)

https://mattcreameraudio.bandcamp.com/album/venture-kid


Venture Kid is finally released, and the soundtrack up on bandcamp as 'name your price'. If I had to describe the sound of this soundtrack, I would say it is what would happen if a Nintendo era Konami employee who was told to sound more "Capcom". Still using DPCM drums, but pulling off some Capcom techniques. Feel free to tell me what it sounds like to you. Even if you think it sounds like poo. How else will I learn!? Seriously though, any feedback is appreciated.


I am awful at self promotion, so if any of you dig this project, feel free to pass it along to any of your friends. Even if you just share the files with them.


*BONUS* I've also included a .it file that contains all of the tracks I went over on my NES Composition Methods video series on youtube. This is a great way to learn how to make chiptunes in a tracker format, regardless of whether or not you use FamiTracker or ModPlug. Those videos can be seen here:


Episode 01 - Fundamentals of 8bit: https://youtu.be/EQn3sTnf32g
Episode 02 - Title Screen: https://youtu.be/hGizkHRY0js
Episode 03 - Intro Video: https://youtu.be/fw2KulEJmO0
Episode 04 - Stage 01 Forest: https://youtu.be/gAJWQJBnpGs
Episode 05 - Stage 02 City: https://youtu.be/C9RFIxutMWQ
Episode 06 - Stage 07 Factory: https://youtu.be/6yAkQsyZSAg
Episode 07 - Stage 08 Castle: https://youtu.be/sOw-UVZmmeU
Episode 08 - Final Boss: https://youtu.be/pRuFXiw-mgk


Discussion for these videos can be found, here:


http://chipmusic.org/forums/post/237717/#p237717

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20 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(8 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Bump, just to share that episode 05 and 06 are out. Video 05 in particular goes over 8bit song structure in great length, and how to keep your listener from getting bored or lost. Or at least my interpretation of how to do that, that is. Video 06 goes in to some detail about how to come up with a motif for your style of level. Is it a fire level, an ice level, a city level, or in this case, a Factory level.

Be sure to check out the annotations, since there are tons of links to stuff I talk about.

Also, the reason this series of videos started was to hype up the release of the Venture Kid soundtrack, which is apparently in 3 days...? WHAAAA?! I might have one more video up before then, but thanks for checking out this stuff all the same everyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM6R7unOABU

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21 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(8 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Episode 04 is out, and goes over the first level song from Venture Kid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAJWQJBnpGs

On this forum, in particular, I feel like I can dive in to a bit of a description about some of the topics covered in the video. I go over using the triangle channel as a kick drum technically, but also from a song writing perspective, and some reasons as to you would want to do that. I also go over tone portamento being used to simulate hammer on pull off sounds on a guitar. And finally I go over some concepts of gluing each pattern of your song together with the next. I believe these are all concepts that can benefit Modplug users and FamiTracker users alike. But also, song writers in general may enjoy the breakdowns.

Also, I am trying to promote this series in the most responsible and least annoying way, but I have no idea where it is appropriate, and wont come off as soliciting. If any of you have suggestions for similar communities, or websites I should investigate, please let me know.

2PLAYER wrote:

Just checked out your first video and started your second one last night. I wanted to chime in and echo how enjoyable they are but from a different standpoint. I use a DAW with MIDI (midines/arduinoboy/etc) but I enjoyed learning about your creative process. It has been funny to see analogies to things I do during my writing process like copying patterns and ending up with bizarro hidden pseudo-songs in a file or keeping and relistening to older tracks.
However, the best part about your whole series IMO is when you pick out the subtle NES composition elements of old soundtracks. I spend a lot of time listening to and digesting old NES soundtracks for ideas and hearing someone provide a new angle on them has been intriguing. Keep up the great work.

Thanks 2PLAYER! That is some fantastic feedback. I am really happy to hear that DAW users are able to enjoy aspects of this series, or at the very least, relate to the creative process. that is almost my main goal for this series is to just translate what I am doing to others, rather than actually make a tutorial on chiptunes. And it also puts a smile on my face knowing that others just keep sliding the bizarro alternate sections to the back of their tracks, haha smile

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22 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(8 replies, posted in General Discussion)

gotoandplay wrote:

Nice tutorial. There should be more of this kind of stuff out there. There's plenty that exist for famitracker but the more esoteric the tracker is, the less likely there is going to be video tutorials like this. Well done!

This is relieving to hear! I was very curious how a ModPlug tutorial\walkthrough would be received in this day and age, now that FamiTracker effectively does everything an NES musician could ever want. Hopefully the spirit of the composition process is fairly universal, and yes, the specifics of ModPlug in particular are very close to being lost in time. Though, oddly enough, even as a heavy ModPlug user, my methods are bizarre, and probably not normal to begin with. I have basically been using the application in isolation for 14 years, trying to create one specific type of extremely niche music. That's weirder, the more that I think about it...

bitpusher2600 wrote:

I just want to say hello, and that I'm enjoying your videos.

I've been wanting to tinker with some NES beats myself, but he'll I struggle doing anything really decent with Little Sound DJ, let alone something as big as a NES tracker. That said, I only knew of FamiTracker, never really heard of ModPlug. If I can ask, why (for you) is this preferable to FamiTracker? Just curious. The tunes you are making sound like proper NES to me.

Great question! One that unfortunately has a long winded answer, I apologize. ModPlug is definitely not better for creating authentic NES music than FamiTracker, but it is more preferable for me mostly due to the fact that it is not built to be authentic. Since it does not adhere rigidly to the NES guidelines, it allows for a lot of bending the rules which make the composition process infinitely more smooth. Though rest assured, the more authentic you want to sound in ModPlug, the more time and effort on your part will have to be spent on achieving that sound. Samples that sound good are just one solution to the problem. There are many other pitfalls that present themselves when you are left without a compiler as a definitive guard rail. But, when you know what they are, you can begin to incorporate them and envision your ideas through them just as if you yourself are the compiler. This can also lead to having a somewhat peculiar sound, for better or worse.

I do find that using LSDJ or FamiTracker have their caveats. They are the most authentic sound, and allow all creative endeavors to remain compilable. For people that are interested in pushing the limits of the soundchips, these are the only true solution. But they often times do not allow you to bend the rules for the sake of speeding up the composition process. And it is the composition process that I like to push, if that makes sense (in other words, I mainly want to hear my ideas through this self imposed protocol). That's where I found I had a lot of trouble using FamiTracker rather than ModPlug. Dealing with pattern structure and memory and limited numbers of columns has often been a bottleneck for my own personal creative process. I think of it almost like encumbrance in a Bethesda game. I want to carry more carrots so that I can eventually do this really dumb thing I have in mind, let's say, but as a result I am often times having to dungeon crawl in my underwear just so I can carry all the carrots back to my house. While adhering to these limitations of the soundchip (or game engine in the case of a Bethesda game) are another aspect to the appeal of making chiptunes, it is not necessarily where my interest are. But I do also really like sounding as close to the original as possible, don't get me wrong.

The more you know about NES sound construction, the more you can manipulate ModPlug in to simulating a reasonable facsimile for the NES sound. This series of videos is kind of meant to illustrate how I went about doing that. Only real h-core NES heads will be able to pick your sound out of a lineup and call it "fakebit". But, for me, even when they do this is a term of endearment for me because I know how much effort I put into creating what is at this stage, a fairly uncommon method for achieving a common sound.

What is art, even, anymore, eh?

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23 Topic by Norrin_Radd

(8 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Episode 01 - Fundamentals of 8bit: https://youtu.be/EQn3sTnf32g
Episode 02 - Title Screen: https://youtu.be/hGizkHRY0js
Episode 03 - Intro Video: https://youtu.be/fw2KulEJmO0
Episode 04 - Stage 01 Forest: https://youtu.be/gAJWQJBnpGs
Episode 05 - Stage 02 City: https://youtu.be/C9RFIxutMWQ
Episode 06 - Stage 07 Factory: https://youtu.be/6yAkQsyZSAg
Episode 07 - Stage 08 Castle: https://youtu.be/sOw-UVZmmeU
Episode 08 - Final Boss: https://youtu.be/pRuFXiw-mgk

For those of you who don't know me, I am kind of an old timer in the NES music community. So old that I have been and still am using ModPlug to create my NES music, while trying to be as faithful as I can. Of course, using ModPlug presents a lot of problems in achieving anything resembling a familiar sound. I know FamiTracker is a far superior application for the creation of NES music, but just in case you were curious about what it looked like to be fiddling around with this stuff in the early 2000s, here's a breakdown of my methods with some goofy picture in picture live commentary going over my most recent tracks.

This may be entertaining even just to see how haggard my approach has been.

Sorry if this is a spammy thing to do, but hopefully this series is juuuuuust interesting enough to be worth a thread.

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24 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(3 replies, posted in Releases)

This is one of those albums that is so good it makes me jealous that I didn't write it first. I seriously can't wait to dive back in to some Genesis sounds. Especially after this. You just lit a fuse under me, again, Gwarth! Another triumph!

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25 Topic by Norrin_Radd

(5 replies, posted in Releases)

Soundtrack: https://mattcreameraudio.bandcamp.com/a … soundtrack

It's been a while since I posted here. After the fall of 8bc, I am really glad to see that this forum and community is strong and thriving! Anyway, I noticed recently that there was a Releases section on this forum, and that was finally the right venue for me to hock my latest projects without feeling like a slime bag. I've got a new soundtrack on Bandcamp, but like with all my projects, it should be considered free. Just enter a 0 in the field and you'll see a download link. If you like it, grab it and share it with anyone you want.

Perhaps quite surprisingly, it is my first attempt at "authentic" SNES music, professional or otherwise. I did not use the SNES soundfonts you can find around the net, but rather, I ripped a huge huge mountain of samples using SPCTool, and did all of the composition using Kontakt and Cubase (a far cry from my Modplug roots, I know). Wile this is still not something I can call authentic in the truest sense, it does at least sound genuine which is a happy trade off. In exchange for something I can call authentic, being able to apply aftertouch vibrato to SNES guitars is really the only way to fly, now. The sheer joy is jamming the NBA Jam synth using an actual pitch bend wheel is indescribable.

As a treat for all you SNES maniacs, here is the huge archive of custom SNES samples I ripped. I know vsts like C700 do the same thing, but if some of you prefer to use Kontakt for the additional functionality, or just want to use the SNES samples in some drum kits or other samplers, having this collection will probably get you some millage. Feel free to share this archive as well.

SNES Samples V1.00: http://mattcreameraudio.com/SNES%20Samples%20V1.00.zip

Oh, and if you are in to mobile gaming at all, the developer is a rad guy, and if anyone, he is the one you should float some money toward if you feel so inclined.

AppStore link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/swap-he … 83712?mt=8

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26 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(121 replies, posted in Software & Plug-ins)

Man, that's a seal of approval right there. You should put that on your front page! I've been toying around with this all night, and I am absolutely in love. This VST is the kind of thing I would dream about, and resign to the fact that it would simply never be created. You sir, are a hero!

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27 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(31 replies, posted in Releases)

Holy shit! You are making that sound chip WORK! Dude, loved the classy use of 7/4 on Heights! Great drumming and melody! But I think Satellites is my favourite track. The mellow vibe is simply unbeatable! It definitely conjures images of a lone satellite, aimlessly propelling through the solar system. Sort of sounds like the Intro to Mass Effect 2, but totally FM. Great release man, well played.

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28 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(29 replies, posted in Releases)

Oh my god. Almost missed this. Bucky posted it on theshizz and thank goodness he did! Dude, this is some of the absolute finest use of the YM2612 I've ever heard. I have this stuff playing sooo loud on my speakers right now hahaha!

Going to have to claim Cyboshellfish as my fav track. Love those warm/dull sustained bells in the background. This track has such a great mood. I love it!

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29 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(55 replies, posted in Releases)

xwd wrote:

Reminder for everyone who doesn't like the vocals: the source .it files do not have the vocals. You can play those, even convert them to .mp3, if you don't want any of the vocals.

And this, this release is amazing and entirely worth the wait.

Ah, good call xwd! I am all for people doing this, especially if it is just the vocals they don't enjoy.

I was thinking of releasing an instrumental version of Anomaly alongside the vocal version, but I thought it would show a lack of balls in backing the style and the concept. That's one of the reasons I was happy to include the .it files, for anyone who was vehemently opposed to the vocals. Unfortunately, the .it files are pre production, so they tend to sound a lot muddier than the finished tracks.

egr wrote:
egr wrote:

Downloaded this last nite and it's definitely got my attention!  Can't wait for the drive home from work so I can really blast it out.

Verdict = excellent.  Thank god this album is as long as it is... a tiny taste is not nearly enough!

Glad you liked it, man! Out of curiosity, how did it sound in your car? I tried to mix it to be a little car friendly. At least in my car. I tried to listen to each early mix of the album in my car before making any iterative changes. I kept at it until I didn't have to boost or cut any treble or bass in my car. That's how I knew I got it where I wanted it haha. But yeah, my car stereo is total garbage, so I am definitely curios to hear how it goes in other people's cars.

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30 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(55 replies, posted in Releases)

Holy crap! Well if that isn't a damn fine promotion, then I don't know what is! Maybe I can set up a stand outside and play for the people lining up to get in for this guy's awesome show!

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31 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(55 replies, posted in Releases)

Can thrash/punk beats be considered a weird type of four on the floor, maybe? That's the only thing I can think of haha. Cause there are definitely an over abundance of those on this album (Though there are some 11/8 punk beats which can't really count.). But no Andrew WK Party beats.... Sadly. Who doesn't like partying 'till they puke?

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32 Reply by Norrin_Radd

(55 replies, posted in Releases)

Rainbowdragoneyes wrote:
Norrin_Radd wrote:

I would love to hear what they think, from a metal head point of view.

Its fucking legit dude, you've nothing to worry about. More than anything it reminds me very much of my buddy: www.myspace.com/aloathingrequiem

Yall two should tour so I can play drums for both

Holy shit! That is one of the best one man bands I've ever heard, since the first Necrophagist album! I can't get enough. And the artwork is perfect! Thanks for the comparison, dude. It's an honour.

There is absolutely no way I could keep up with that guy live haha. I'd get the boot.

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