There are no "incorrect" opinions. They're opinions. They can be spawned from a different ideology or a different set of moral or intellectual priorities, they can be tainted by incomplete or outdated information or malformed assumptions. But they themselves can't be "incorrect" per se: they're subjective.

There are also no incorrect points of view. They're points of view. They depend on the perception of their owner, who has a different way of seeing things, different experiences, and different impressions depending on the individual.

For them to be incorrect, there need to be "correct" opinions or points of view; and to claim there are correct and incorrect opinions and points of view is invalidating freedom of speech and freedom of thought.

If anything, people may make a mistake and express it through their opinion, or let it taint their point of view. But in things so subjective like the quality of mainstream vs non-mainstream music, especially considering the multiple factors that are involved in the experience of enjoying a piece of music, there's no wrong or right. No one is wrong for enjoying that dumb "all about the bass" song (for example), and no one is "in the right" for saying music is worse now because people hear that instead of, say, Mussorgski's Cum Mortuis In Lingua Morta.

And it's much healthier for us, chipmusic enthusiasts, to think this way; especially because in terms of musical elitism, it can be applied back to us. "In my time people played real instruments, they didn't try to play music with toys*."

* An opinion that would be formed through incomplete information: see Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony.

Not to mention: No one's gonna judge you if you take a long break or don't release stuff often.

There's nothing wrong with letting a sketch or a whole song stew for a while, as a matter of fact it's good to do so: come back to them with fresh ears and ideas will start flowing back in.

Those songs you love, that leave you in awe? Instead of being intimidated and comparing yourself, say "this is cool, how's it done?" and take notes on it. Investigate, if possible listen to all the channels or tracks of the piece separately, and if you can get your hands on the source files then open them up and see how it's done directly in the software. All of those techniques are yours to use, to refine, and to spice up with your own take on the design and the sound you want to make.

Also: The long break can be as long as you want it. I took a 17 year break from music until I found chip music, and I'm taking it very very slow. It doesn't matter. Often other musicians, writers, visual artists and other creatives might say "treat it like a job"... That's not true for everyone.

35

(27 replies, posted in General Discussion)

arlen wrote:

The freestyle category seems interesting. The only rule seems to be to incorporate the 2a03 into whatever you want and submit an mp3.

IIRC it involves that the majority of the song is 2A03, and that it plays from start to finish.

36

(16 replies, posted in General Discussion)

The Bandcamp applet on his Facebook site works perfectly, even for purchasing. Though purchasing through Facebook itself... I dunno, maybe I'm paranoid, lol

though I tried the Congratulations free download link, and it works.

Alpine wrote:

when aren't we as a subclture having a melodromatic existential crisis?

At least we're not being overly dramatic over Vocaloids like music enthusiasts after Miku showed up on David Letterman.

Good lord the animation in this video is better than I expected it to be when people told me about it. But trying to watch it in anything that isn't 1080p only makes you realize how inadequate Youtube's compression is for stuff like this.

this is where ctrix and ferris's tracker would come in handy, IMO

40

(8 replies, posted in Releases)

This is weird and cool and I definitely wanted some weird and cool

I'll purchase whenever I get a hold of spare cash, 'cause I sure look forward for more

and damn, maybe I should experiment with vocals too

41

(617 replies, posted in Releases)

the guinea pig is part of the creative community that is aanax4

and no small part, either

the pig was even allowed to touch the ride for the picture

42

(21 replies, posted in Commodore Computers)

soon we'll have C64 orchestras

SIDphonic chiptune

egr wrote:



goto80 wrote:

bicep beat part1.mod
out2.mod
skreax4-to-mix.mod

how to access?  i am at loss?

I'll give you a hint: some types ignore everything in front of them, and only care about themselves.

44

(6 replies, posted in Releases)

Friendly reminder that this exists, it's pay-what-you-want, and every cent helps. Even the ones Bandcamp keeps as a fee.

45

(6 replies, posted in Releases)

http://ehii.bandcamp.com/album/slow-learner
My best 2 songs so far, in a "single" for your enjoyment.

Your support, as usual, helps me maintain my equipment and keep me making music.

46

(22 replies, posted in General Discussion)

nitro2k01 wrote:

First of all, there's already http://iiichan.net/boards/music/

Yeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhh... no. The place looks unmoderated and abandoned. Dare to take a peek if you want to see what I mean, especially in older pages.

This looks like a good thing to have around, slugs, I'll definitely bookmark and visit.

47

(98 replies, posted in General Discussion)

But chiptune has never been a genre - it's a type of instrumentation. Just because, like some people complain around here, the more common chiptune releases are EDM or similar, doesn't mean that's all there is or that that's all there can be. I mean, if we take LSDJ for example, we have people making serious rock (see: Danimal Cannon, The J. Arthur Keenes Band, et al), and Kulor's first song using that software was funk. So it's not like there's no way to break the mold - we've known for a while that there's no mold to break, even.

To consider chiptune a "genre" isn't just labeling it harshly, it's closing a lot of doors to experimentation and diversity. Soon people will wonder "how to write chiptune" and start asking for rules and guidelines ("what tempo", "what loops does it use", "is it bad if I don't want to use 4/4", "am I wrong for not using the BRK sample"...), just like people wanting to compose doom metal, or dirty south, or baroque counterpoint, or any other genre. But there are no rules in chiptune - only limits of your chosen hardware (the octave ranges, the amount of audio channels and their type of sound, the processing limits, etcetera). Which is a similar thing that musicians experience when writing for piano, or accordion, or hang drum, or any other instrument.

48

(98 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I don't think I'll ever stop doing chip, even if I'm slow and pretty much the opposite of prolific, hahahahahaha

I do hope to be able to learn how to properly play a lot of instruments (though I need my schedule to free up a little from "stuff you can't get out of doing", which is to say, graduate from University) and I also hope to make projects outside of the chiptune bubble, but I'm not the kind of guy to abandon things I like just because.

And as for "chiptune is getting locked into one genre" or "now people are becoming unoriginal"... naaaaaaaaaaaah

I'm in constant contact (thanks, IRC) with a lot of people doing very unique things (some unique enough to be borderline bizarre), the only thing they need is to release formally and get themselves known (kfaraday has the bitpuritans label, but so far there's only 1 thing released...?)