Here's some video of it in action!
66 Feb 21, 2019 1:09 am
Re: NES Record Player (9 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)
Orgia Mode wrote:
Nice, how is the weight distribution? Might need to find some steel chunks to glue down to the inside to make it more bottom heavy.
It's pretty light overall since the NES guts are long gone and the original record player parts aren't very heavy-duty so it's not top heavy or anything. I cut out so much from the top of the NES shell in order to fit the platter and tone arm that the player bits on top don't add much more weight that the whole top shell used to be.
67 Feb 21, 2019 12:21 am
Re: NES Record Player (9 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)
Okay, all done! I haven't committed to the positioning of the internal speakers yet so they rattle around while playing and it sounds awful but they were crap speakers to begin with so line out it is for this one. Some progress pics as well.
I wired the board to the NES power LED for effect but since the on switch for the player is also the volume, I didn't see any feasible way to have the NES power button switch it on. But it can be pressed in as usual to appear as if it activates the player.
I'm also going to replace the flip top with one that doesn't have a chip broken off of it - that's going to bother me until I do haha.
68 Feb 20, 2019 5:09 am
Topic: NES Record Player (9 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)
This isn't exactly chiptune related but it is a NES mod involving music so I think some people here will like it. I'm actually surprised that I couldn't find anyone who had done something similar, probably because it's so ridiculous but, as I was thinking of ways to promote my upcoming chiptune album on vinyl, I had the idea to turn my NES into a record player. I had a Crosley Cruiser sitting around, barely being used, so I figured what the hell, it's a cheap player to begin with, if I destroy it, I'll just buy a much better record player - win/win!
It's a tight fit and the platter hangs off the edge but given that a 12" vinyl record on its own is larger than the system, there isn't much of a choice there. Thus far I've gutted the system and the player, carved the top of the NES to fit the main assembly (platter, tone arm, 45 adapter, and a few other switches), rewired the power LED from the NES to the board where the power LED of the player is located, and determined the eventual location of the other components.
The power/volume knob will be located on the front-right of the NES, right in the middle of the upper black section, with the headphone jack in the white area off to the right side (they're mounted on the same board so they need to be next to each other at a fixed distance - luckily, putting the knob where I want it puts the phones jack in a semi-convenient location). The aux in, L/R RCA audio outputs and power supply will be on the right side where the A/V out would be on the original system. The speakers were tricky to find a place for them but since I'm going to plug this into a sound system, it's not that important - they'll be on the bottom of the system, over the vents on the bottom of the NES, so sound will come out - and since the NES has four feet holding it a few mm higher than whatever surface it's on, the sound should be fine even with the crappy built in speakers from the player.
Hoping to be finished by tomorrow night! Now, pictures of some of my process thus far.
69 Feb 15, 2019 9:20 pm
Re: Reviving the Chiptune scene? (114 replies, posted in General Discussion)
I think it's like any other scene. It has it's time, it passes, then anyone who's still producing quality work will keep at it. I'd rather be recognized as an artist on my own merit (I'm a musician who happens to use particular hardware as my instruments) than just another part of a scene that people like cause it's current. Not to say I don't want more people to love chiptunes but there will always be an inherent 'filter' eventually that weeds out those that just jumped on the bandwagon or aren't passionate about it (there are exceptions, of course).
70 Feb 15, 2019 5:19 am
Re: In The RP2A Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel cover Album (Upcoming) (8 replies, posted in Releases)
I commissioned a lathe cut vinyl to 'preview' the album and they sent me a photo of the record in clear vinyl (I requested this because it's one of the campaign stretch goals, although I designed an alternate label in a darker color scheme which will look better) and I'm in love.
Quick note: the print job is amateur and nothing like the final product will be. This guy makes great sounding records but is not a graphics guy (by his own admission)!
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
71 Feb 14, 2019 10:50 pm
Re: [CB097] don'tblinkoryou'lldie - Battle Jazz Classics II (4 replies, posted in Releases)
Love the cover art! Rocking out to it right now and the beats and pitch bends are fantastic. First track is very "Hiroyuki Iwatsuki".
72 Feb 14, 2019 3:54 am
Re: In The RP2A Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel cover Album (Upcoming) (8 replies, posted in Releases)
Dark_Bit_ wrote:
Wow! Jusz listened to the track and I gotta say, I am deeply impressed. Good stuff!
Thanks! I've been working on the album since last summer, it better be at least half decent, haha!
73 Feb 13, 2019 10:46 pm
Re: In The RP2A Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel cover Album (Upcoming) (8 replies, posted in Releases)
Here's a mockup showing a better look at the vinyl:
74 Feb 11, 2019 6:39 pm
Re: In The RP2A Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel cover Album (Upcoming) (8 replies, posted in Releases)
Orgia Mode wrote:
Good stuff. Really wish it weren't instrumental tho.
There are few people in this world capable of capturing the quality of Jeff Mangum's voice - I am not one of them, haha. I did a lot of manual volume and pitch changes on the lead to capture the feel though!
75 Feb 11, 2019 5:45 pm
Topic: In The RP2A Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel cover Album (Upcoming) (8 replies, posted in Releases)
I just finished a chiptune album covering the entirety of Neutral Milk Hotel's "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" and am putting together a Kickstarter to launch at the end of February for the the release - I'll be pressing the album to vinyl and I've created a ton of cool artwork for it! Here's the title track along with some mockups of the vinyl package.
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (NES Arrangement)
This is the standard vinyl package (pending upgrades depending on stretch goals).
And this is the 'special edition' which will include the vinyl press, of course, plus an 18x24" poster, additional album downloads, a physical copy of my previously released "8-Bit Jesus" album and four pixel art prints based on the album theme!
They look better on a white background, but you get the idea...
76 Feb 11, 2019 5:20 pm
Re: My First Release (11 replies, posted in Constructive Criticism)
Nice, good to know! Maybe I'll venture out of my FL Studio bubble!
77 Feb 10, 2019 6:10 am
Re: My First Release (11 replies, posted in Constructive Criticism)
I haven't used Cakewalk since probably around '97. I bet a lot has changed, would be curious to check it out. But I'm a creature of habit - FL Studio does so much more than I need it to do but I'm used to the interface so I haven't ventured too far out. I tried getting into Ableton back when I wanted to DJ but that was a very short lived endeavor. Does the version of Cakewalk you use allow you to set up custom Midi controls? What is the event editor like (for manually adjusting volume, pitch, etc)?
78 Feb 9, 2019 5:29 pm
Re: My First Release (11 replies, posted in Constructive Criticism)
Nice, I used to be a in a blue/rock/reggae band! It was good times but I've always felt like more of a studio musician so chiptunes are perfect for me. I've been playing piano since I was a kid but have always preferred piano roll composition since the 90's. My mother was a musician and she got us a new family computer just to be able to compose Midi based tracks in Cakewalk and naturally, I took an interest. What's funny is, I would compose tracks in Cakewalk, post them online, and people would assume that I had played them on the piano live so I felt the need to learn them on piano as well and that actually helped me improve my piano playing.
79 Feb 8, 2019 6:55 pm
Re: My First Release (11 replies, posted in Constructive Criticism)
Awesome, looking forward to hearing it! I've only worked with the NES extensively and I love finding ways to work around the limitations but I've also used the sounds in more complex tracks. I used to compose a lot of techno-sounding tracks when I first got into using DAW's like FL Studio - mainly using samples from others along with FL plugins. I have a large library of poorly sampled but excellently composed tracks on my HD lol.
80 Feb 8, 2019 11:35 am
Re: My First Release (11 replies, posted in Constructive Criticism)
Definitely very techo! I don't know a whole lot of artists from the genre but I've listened to a lot of Crystal Method, Juno Reactor and Deadmau5 and this has a good bit of those wrapped up in the sound for using basic sound generation. Which consoles did you use for this? I've dabbled with NES, GB and have used SNES and Megadrive soundfonts a lot to accompany 16-it style animations.
As far as feedback, anything I would offer is a matter of personal preference. You have a very specific sound here that wouldn't warrant any glitching or crazy use of common chip features - I'm the same way in the sense that I'm more of a composer/arranger than a chip-artist. I use some creative techniques when the limited channels or lack of polyphony warrant it but overall, I focus on the notes and adding depth through pitch bends and volume changes.
I guess if I could offer anything it would be to do more fine tuning and 'grunt work' on those types of parameters but as techo is a repetitious genre by nature, I'm not sure the track would benefit at all. Honestly, if you didn't mention it, I wouldn't hear this and think "this is a chiptune" which is good if it's intended but, for the purists out there, may be too far from the core principles of chiptunes to appease them.
Good job on your first track! Looking forward to hearing more stuff. I would love to hear a Juno Reactor or Crystal Method cover from you that doesn't stray as far from the more blippy, bleepy and bloopy qualities but hey, keep doing what you want, that's the best part about being an artist!