1

(23 replies, posted in General Discussion)

As an artist:

1) Do you see any inherent worth to releasing your music through a netlabel?
Netlabels typically have more visibility for newer artists and even established artists, and they help customers parse through the deluge of releases.

2) What are the three most important things you look for in a label?
I look at the quality of previous releases on the label, ask around for the label's track record in communication with artists pre-, during, and post-release, the quality of and amount of publicity gained by using said label, how much of a cut the label will take out of sales, and how well the label fits my musical style.

3) What are the top three labels on which you'd like to have your music and why?
Thebasebit Recordings: This is the style I'm leaning towards nowadays, and being released alongside artists like Trey, boa, and IAYD would certainly be pretty awesome. That said, I have no idea how anything behind the scenes works with this label, so I'd need to actually talk to them more thoroughly to get an idea of what they do for the artist.
Cheapbeats: Because Cheapbeats is really the biggest netlabel in the scene these days. Enough said.
8bitpeoples: Though this one's honestly a bit dead in the modern scene, it's pretty popular and one of the oldest netlabels still around. That's really it.

4) What is the percentage of the money you think should go to the label?
Like Glenn said, this really depends on what the label had to put into the production of the album to get it finished and out the door. If I get the album mastered, have artwork, track descriptions, savs, etc., then I'd be more willing to negotiate the percentage of sales (or the "fee" that needs to be paid off with sales) down a little bit.

5) What services should the label offer? (art, mastering, physical CDs etc etc)
Labels should have either an in-house masterer, or, more likely, a preferred third-party masterer ready for artists who come to them without a mastered album. Same goes for art. CDs and other merch should be handled by the label if possible, but that sort of organization wouldn't be too much to put on the artist, as long as the label communicates well with the artist so shipment of merch is timely.

6) Your feelings on exclusivity and copyrights?
Exclusivity longer than a year in the chip scene is really asking too much. Especially because most albums probably won't make what it cost to put into them, especially with the label taking a cut of the profits. The only ways an artist can make that money back is either being popular and making enough money by word of mouth/coverage, or by putting the album out on their page and eventually making enough money to break even or make a (small) profit.


As a customer

1) What, if any, influence does a label has on your purchasing habits?
Labels definitely act as taste-makers for me with the amount of releases in the scene. I do still look out for self-releases from big artists and some smaller ones, but it's mainly netlabels like cheapbeats, data airlines, ubiktune, etc. that I look to for good releases.

2) Do you prefer to buy directly from an artist, or through a label?
I prefer to buy directly from the artist, because I know 90% of that money will be going to the artist.

3) What are you top three favorite labels and why?
Cheapbeats, thebasebit, and Ubiktune, because of the quality of releases. I can't actually afford to buy more than 1 or 2 of the albums that come out every year from all three, but they put out some of the best music in the scene, currently.

4) What would you consider a appropriate price range for chiptune albums?
$0-10. Typically, I only listen to albums that are free more than once. Albums you have to pay more than 3 or 4 dollars for, I listen to one or two tracks part-way through, and never really listen to them again. So, a pay what you want/free or up to $5 dollars is what I actually buy/download most often.

5) Does the storefront (bandcamp, custom website, etc) influence your purchases?
Yes. I really only buy/download things from bandcamp, though free releases I'll download anywhere (hexawe, etc.)

6) Your opinion on physical copies? (cd, tape, vinyl, etc)
I'll only buy these in-person to avoid shipping. I never buy vinyl, tapes, etc. bc I don't have a record player nor do I actually enjoy the kitsch value of having a tape. I listen to chip CDs in the car pretty often, so whenever I can get some for free at shows or buy a couple, I will.

7) Your opinion on merch? (tshirts, stickers, garter belts, etc)
Again, I only buy these at shows to avoid shipping. Also, you can actually see what the shirts are made out of (will they shrink or not?) and how they look instead of looking at potentially lower-quality pictures online. Pins, stickers, and patches are neat, and I try to grab some at every show I go to and enjoy it when artists bundle them in with shirts or CD orders online/at shows.

My debut EP has just been released on Smoking Mirrors! The EP's concept is based on the scientific concepts surrounding the Big Bang and the hypotheses and theories that help construct our still somewhat limited view of the beginning of everything. It's got some dance, some prog, and some dance prog and is written with mainly 2xLSDJ (save for tracks 3 and 5). I've been working on this EP for the past eight months, and I'm really proud of how it turned out. If you download the album from the Smoking Mirrors bandcamp, you also get alternate album art, and LSDJ savs for every song on the album and kits for the vocal samples used in the title track. I hope you enjoy the EP. heart

01. Structure Formation
02. Everything's Beginning
03. Cosmic Background Radiation
04. 10^-15
05. A Single Point

Download the album and extras from Smoking Mirrors's bandcamp here!

It's time for Chiptune Timebomb, the tri-monthly unofficial timed Chiptunes=WIN challenge! Please read this entire post for all of the rules and details for this month's challenge:

YOU HAVE 24 HOURS DURING WHICH TO WRITE A SONG, STARTING NOW. YOU MAY ONLY SPEND 8 OF THOSE HOURS ON YOUR SONG. THIS IS AN 8-HOUR CHALLENGE. 8 hours seemed to work pretty well last time (for Nitro Pulse's original Timebomb challenge) for people who either didn't know about this challenge or were busy during it (thus the 24 hour period this challenge takes place during).

YOU MUST TURN IN YOUR TRACK BY 11:59 EST NOV. 23. If you cannot make this deadline, email me as soon as you read this.

This page shows how long the event is and what time you should submit the track in your time zone.

THIS MONTH'S THEME IS "OVERSTUFFED" or "OVERFULL". You can decide whatever those words mean to you, just as long as your song is awesome. ;3

There is no limit to what you may use to create this song. DAWs, LSDJ, other trackers, use what you want. You just have 8 hours to complete it.

This is not just a chiptune challenge. If you want to flex your guitar or DAW skills here as well, go for it. You must abide by all the same rules that apply to your medium of choice, though.

Songs must be at least 1 minute long, no exceptions.

I will be putting this compilation on bandcamp (for free) and collecting your soundcloud uploads into a playlist. I also want source files if you can upload them or have access to them. If you are using a DAW, then just disregard this rule. Just give me whatever tracker/sav file you have for your song within reason.

So, when you have finished your song (please ensure there's no clipping), please record and save it as a WAV file, upload it to Soundcloud with the tag ChiptuneTimebomb, and email the WAV/SAV/Tracker file(s) to me at chiptunetimebomb @ gmail . com . In the email body, use this template:

Song name:
Artist name:
Time spent making song:
Software used:
Cover/Original:
If cover, original artist/track name:

There is no curation process. If you submit a song, it will get put into this compo.

---

NOTICE! This is not just a musician's challenge. If you can and want to, you may submit art to be used in or for album art as well. You have 8 hours to create an image. If you are creating album art, make sure that you create a square image at least 1000x1000 in size or easily scaleable to that dimension or higher.

The theme is the same, but just make sure there is some sort of reference to Thanksgiving in the art.

Please email me a clean copy and a copy with a title on it (if you have a preferred font you want to use). That title should be "Chiptune Timebomb November 2014." Use this template the email body:

Artist name (or real name):
Time spent on art:
Software used:

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This challenge is also taking place over on the Chiptunes=WIN Facebook group HERE.

If you have any questions, please post them in this thread or email me at chiptunetimebomb @ gmail . com .

Live @ The BRKfest 2014 Day 1 Afterparty

This is a rerecording of my live set from the afterparty at this year's BRKfest. Two sets of 2xLSDJ and waaaaay too much echo to emulate dat live environment. Most of these tracks were written specifically for the afterparty in mind and/or in the three weeks leading up to BRK.

Can't spell chiptune without Ghibli-anime-references-also-Bourne-Auxcide-is-terrible-tune

Thanks again go to those that helped me get to BRK. I haven't posted on here in forever. heart u all

5

(162 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Invisible Robot Hands wrote:

American Lit major at an expensive and hipster-y college. Planning to become a professor of American Literature and Culture. I do chip shows whenever I'm not bogged down with work, or when I can get away with slacking off for a bit. I find that actually writing chipmusic somehow sneaks its way into my weekly routine alongside eating and sleeping. I finish the week with papers written, etc. and somehow in the tiny gaps where I haven't been working, I've apparently come out of the work week with a song that's (ideally) reasonably okay.

This is basically me sans the expensive hipster school and the fact that I haven't really written anything worth playing live. Still learning...

6

(104 replies, posted in Releases)

extreme zan-zan-zawa-veia wrote:

"don't make your website, make our website instead" is not good advice

But everyone was just telling him to change the banner and find more links (and being dicks when he didn't get that). I don't understand how that fundamentally changes his website in any way other than to not have a DBZ character in your banner and be better than a site that does what you're setting out to do.

7

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

walter b. gentle wrote:

with the current state of things if you want to seriously use a mobile platform for music you need an apple device.

Sorry to continue to derail your app's thread, but yeah, I've noticed that, and I find it kind of sad that that's the case that no devs want to work with Google or Microsoft to develop interesting and original (or even ported) apps for their devices. I'll probably just have to suck it up and buy an iPad/iPod Touch when I get the money, but I also kind of don't want to, because that just shows devs and Apple that they can continue with business as usual and continue to ignore Android and WP/Windows 8.

8

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

breakphase wrote:

Thanks walter!

Victory Road wrote:

please :>

Sorry no Android version. sad

I assume no Windows Phone 7/8 either, then?

9

(10 replies, posted in Releases)

Hot damn this is good. :3

10

(25 replies, posted in General Discussion)

HertzDevil's Chiptune rendition of Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 "Pathetique"

And, my favorite classical chip piece, Danimal Cannon's cover of "Moonlight Sonata" (though the song in the OP is pretty damn good).

basspuddle wrote:
Russellian wrote:

...it's when you indulge in it to often or too deeply that you start to become a narcissistic or insular community. That's pretty much where we are now.

this is why I try to focus more on making music, instead of arguing with y'all, or even discussing all that much

That's why I just lurk here and laugh at everyone squabbling amongst each other.

Also:

basspuddle wrote:

I've only been a part of the chip community for a little short of a year, and I think this community is great.

VCMG wrote:

To do some pure Gameboy ambient music you could try stuff like layering arpeggios over each other to get a nice pad. Only thing is that it'd probably take up all 3 channels and leave no room for anything else. Still, you could probably make some nice tracks just taking the pad and slowly changing and evolving it.

I want to get this same sort of sound and, though I did accidentally fall on this sort of sound, I forgot about it. Now, though I kinda wanna experiment with this sound. Could make some really interesting songs with evolving soundscapes and solos and things layered in gradually. :3

AndrewKilpatrick wrote:

I think the chipmusic community has nice people.
I think the chipmusic community has not nice people.
I think the chipmusic community has good music.
I think the chipmusic community has lots of bad music too.
I think the chipmusic community is like any other community: too diverse to contextualise.

These are my thoughts on the chipmusic community.

And just like every other community, it goes through periods of introspection. Apparently this one (and most periods of introspection for the chip community) is a really negative and depressing, nihilistic period of reflection. It's not like introspection is a terrible thing, it's when you indulge in it too often or too deeply that you start to become a narcissistic or insular community. That's pretty much where we are now.

14

(8 replies, posted in Collaborations)

Axel-havoc wrote:

I picture 90's Will Smith rapping to this and I love it

The words out of my mouth.

I like the tempo of it, and props to anyone you can find that can keep up with it or work around it and still make it sound good.

15

(12 replies, posted in Releases)

xylo wrote:

Kick, this needs more attention. :-)

Totally agree! This is great. smile

Listening now and definitely liking what I'm hearing. Great job!