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Great video. Thanks for the heads up!

Shit, that Bomb Boy track is soooo good.

You're right there. But limitation isn't a concept when you aren't limiting yourself within the boundaries of your chosen medium. I would say that the example of the single-channel track is a good example of limitation as a concept since you are creating limitations within a medium. However, simply using a limited platform doesn't assume you are embracing limitations in the conceptual sense. When I write something in LSDJ, I rarely place limits on how I write. The choice of platform and it's limitations inform the way I write however the concept of limitation is almost never present (or if it is, it's buried deep in my subconscious or some shit.) And I'll leave that conversation there.

This is something you only have partial control over. If an artist makes the conscious decision to tell you that "thiz dope track iz singul chanl, yall" then they are essentially forcing you to recalibrate your critique with regards to technicality - but your creative critique should be no different.

Yeah, this is a touchy subject. I don't usually immediately tell people I make music using gameboys precisely because of the reaction I know it'll elicit. Instead I just invite them to a show I'm going to or something along those lines and let them figure it out on their own. This comes back to the last thing we were talking about. If you tell people from the get go that you made a single-channel track, they adjust their thinking immediately. In my experience, if you tell people you make music on gameboys from the start, you get a certain kind of response - not usually the one I'm going for since I'm not necessarily all about CHIP-IZ-PUNK-IN-YOR-FACE. But answering the question differently often leads to an actual conversation.

I don't know if this has been brought up before now, but another aspect of chip music that has always been a big winner (and it is, in a way, tied to limitation) for me is the complete control I feel over the writing process - especially in terms of organization. I know where everything is when I write in LSDJ or Adlib or MaxYMiser or whatever and it's all very quickly and easily accessible. The setup is practically nonexistent as is the take-down. This hyper-control over my musical environment is huge. And I don't feel it when I use Ableton. Having made a lot of music with many different instruments (electronic and acoustic), I can tell you that the interaction I have from sitting down and booting up LSDJ to powering down and walking away is a million times better and more organized than many other experiences I've had. (That being said, I haven't been very lucky in terms of UIs - DX7s can suckit.) I would guess that much of this user experience is tied to design choices made and influenced by limitations put in place by the hardware (I don't actually know about that one since I don't know C or how Johan went about making the choices he did in terms of UI).

Oh and everything Zen Albatross said.

Again, limitation is not a concept. It is, in some amount, part of every single thing that has every been designed (bold, I know). The fact that it's more prominent in things like chip music does not require it to be "proven" any further.

Expecting the same outcome from three less channels would be silly but I would expect the same creative output - i.e. reworking a track to take advantage of it occupying a single channel. Again, that's kind of the heart of the whole thing. Limitations require you to redesign - but the creative input and output should remain the same.

It depends on if you explicitly tell me that "the track is done on one channel". If that's the case, I would, of course, judge it based on the fact that you're telling me it's a one-channel track. That's beyond my control. But my critique would definitely not be "more lenient" because of it. Nobodies should.

I've got two 32M EMS carts, one bleepbloop USB and one 64M EMS USB. The blue 32M EMS carts are a pain in the ass to back up but they are solid as rocks imo. I've been running those two for around 4 years and have never (knock on wood) had data loss or a battery death. (Just don't treat them like shit and you'll be fine). The bleepbloop USB is a solid cart. It's fully compatible with OS X through GBCFLSH and has been really stable in my experience but yeah, it's expensive and the code is stolen. But seriously, it's a great cart.

I have to say that of all of those, the 64M EMS is by FAR the largest piece of shit. I will never again trust it to hold a save because I've lost way too much data because of it. Not to mention it doesn't play nice with OS X. The two banks are just stupid and, most importantly, you never know when it'll just, no explanation, erases all of your data. FUN!

If you can get a hold of a smartboy - go for it - otherwise I would say be prepared to pay a good bit for a reliable cart or potentially lose your saves with a piece of shit.

Nice! Post finals awesomeness.

But seriously, ever since I moved blocks from the Bell House a year ago I've been like "YES. BLIP WILL BE NEXT DOOR". And, of course, it gets moved. But Eyebeam is dope. LET THE PREGAMING BEGIN.