193

(5 replies, posted in Releases)

Free download available here:
http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Eawolfe/a500tapes.htm

No details on the page as to exactly what this is or when it was recorded (am downloading the zip at the moment which may yield more information) but Legowelt's often spoken about how he still uses Octamed on Amigas, such as here:
http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Eawolfe/studioamiga.htm

He also appears to be using a C64 with a MSSIAH cart according to his studio page.

His Amiga Railroad Adventures CD from last year is bloody amazing. He's also doing a free show in London this Saturday!

194

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

Thanks for the advice guys. In the end I used this utility - it's free for under 500k file sizes, but I bought a license anyway. There's a Windows version as well. Does the job quickly, simply and (as far as I can tell!) well.
http://dekorte.com/projects/shareware/SoundConverter/

195

(35 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Oh my god, I've just had a listen and it's GORGEOUS. You could make a whole career's worth of beautiful synth albums just with this one instrument. I've never been so tempted to spring for a $160 (!!) sample set before...

Hello all,

Does anyone know of a free/cheap easy-to-use batch converter for audio files that I can use in OSX? A lot of stuff in my sample library is higher than 16-bit which means I need to resample before I can use in Piggy tracker, and the thought of doing each sample manually in Quicktime makes me feel slightly faint. Any tips for how I can automate this would be much appreciated!

Matt

197

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

little-scale wrote:

All samples from Pocket Music (GB Version): http://little-scale.blogspot.com/2010/0 … k-rom.html

Extracted from the ROM.

Seb, these are cheesy as hell but I'm going to have so much fun with these in Piggy tracker. Huge thanks!

Also thanks for the tip re KB6 - never heard of that site before, but I've donated them some cash and I look forward to drowning in drum machine samples.

198

(5 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

Thanks for the tips, guys, very helpful!

199

(5 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

Basically, I know nothing about using guitar pedals at all, however I'm interested in getting a few cheap ones for some Piggy tracker experiments I'm doing.

My question is this - can you use them connected to a (post-fade) aux send on a mixer and get good results, or are they really only designed for direct connection to an instrument? I'm basically interested in stacking up a few reverbs and delays and then tweaking the send levels and effects parameters in real time.

This may be the noobiest question ever asked, but I thought it worth asking anyway!

200

(15 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

ecb_pspseq wrote:

That said, I do know I'm way too close to the design to know what's easy or hard or unintuitive.  Feel free to post here with your thoughts or PM, whatever you're comfortable with.  Glad you're digging the synths at least!  smile

Hey Ethan,

Good to see you on here and glad to hear that PSPSeq is still under development. I didn't mean to sound so down on it, the program is a fantastic achievement and the synths are *wonderful*, I just think some of the input methods could use a little refinement so that those of us weaned on other mobile tools such as LSDJ/LGPT and Nanoloop can get creating tunes quickly.

I haven't used the app in a while, I must confess, so I'll sit down with it in the next few days and post up my thoughts in more detail. From memory, it's the basic note/pitch entry that I'd fix primarily - even with the sensitivity controls, that analog stick is a really hopeless way to plug in notes. I'd suggest using the D-pad for this, a la LSDJ - so you press a button to enter a new note, then hold the button and use the D-pad to edit a pitch (e.g. left and right for semitones, up and down for octaves).

As I said above, my workflow general involves whacking in some notes and then refining, and general button+Dpad entry has to me proved the quickest way of doing this, so that would be my suggestion.

In any case, will report back when I've had another play with it!

201

(6 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

I built one a while back.

The lousy quality of my soldering means that my unit is incredibly unreliable, but that's entirely due to my DIY cluelessness.

The MIDI clock it generates is absolutely rock solid. I had an Electribe, LSDJ and Nanoloop all going in perfect harmony. Very highly recommended.

I believe KiGB is for classic GB roms only, not advance?

Anyway, Visual Boy Advance works, but it's a massive resource hog on OSX.

Also there's this: http://bannister.org/software/ba.htm

203

(6 replies, posted in Releases)

Will give this a proper listen later, but that Nordloef track was probably my favourite thing that ever got uploaded to 8BC.

204

(15 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

Lazerbeat wrote:

To be honest, I think PSPseq and Piggy tracker are the best trackers/sequencers for the PSP, nothing else really comes close. PSPseq is a bit of software where has a very steep learning curve but its extremely powerful although hard to use. I don't think anyone has really come close to mastering it yet,.

PSPSeq frustrates me. The synth engine is deliriously brilliant (I mean, really astonishing), but I find the sequencing endless frustrating. It seems to me that what should be the easiest functions (entering notes, mainly) require quite unintuitive key combos or fiddling around with that horrid analog button.

Maybe it's just me, but my workflow is that I like to bash in a few notes, then tweak the sounds and fine-tune accordingly. My fantasy version of PSPSeq 4.0 would keep the (amazing) synth engine but really refine the sequencer input until it reachs LGPT / LSDJ (or even Nanoloop!) levels of simplicity. At the moment it feels back-to-front - it's very easy indeed to create an awesome, inspiring synth sound, but frustratingly tough to actually make something nice with it.

I_CACTUS wrote:

I'm beginning to think that I've made a mistake getting a Macbook, sadly.

I used to think that, and thought about getting a Windows netbook for a while, but to be honest the only tool that I was interested in that wouldn't run on a Mac natively was Famitracker, and when I tried it I didn't really get on with it anyway.

My current apps of choice are Renoise, LGPT and a little bit of Sunvox, all of which run natively on the Mac.

206

(43 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Am I right in thinking that this is only designed for hardware playback of SID files, rather than as a MIDI synth/module? Seems a little... limited.

207

(54 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Stevens wrote:

This is the best music in the world.

That Juan Atkins 20 years compilation is the nuts. In fact, I'm going to put it on now, very loudly.

I'd like to see more Chicago/Detroit influences in chipmusic, it seems they'd be natural bedfellows but I can't think of many examples of it being done (well). Impakt / Smohm's Chicago Meltdown on Hexawe is ace though.

208

(54 replies, posted in General Discussion)

BitPop wrote:

I had this on an album called Flux Trax 02The first one seems to have some decent techno on there too smile

Amazing! Just ordered both of those off Amazon marketplace for six quid all in. Thanks for the heads up!