This might sound wacky, but draw a picture of how you want your music to sound, or how you want an individual song to sound. That simple little thing helped me get out of a massive creative rut (as well as stopping my use of LSDJ, which I felt was holding me back). If this is an issue that's really bothering you to a point where it's creating real distress in your life, go to a therapist if you have health care. This helps a ton too, and it doesn't mean you're crazy. It will often put into perspective the reasons why you make music in the first place.

Also, instead of just sitting down in front of a tracker every time you brainstorm a new song, sit down in front of a pencil and paper. I noticed that the ideas really started to flow once I got back into school, not just because I was more mentally stimulated overall, but because I needed something to occupy my mind with while sitting through boring lectures. This also helps if you have a general idea for a track, and not enough time or mental bandwidth to implement it all at once.

Don't stress about it. The moment I stopped enjoying making music was the moment when I stopped writing worthwhile music. If that means you're done for a while, then so be it.

178

(6 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

LSDJ Changelog wrote:

2000-11-25: v0.8

* little sound dj now works with original gameboys!
* renamed TILE screen to the more trendy sounding PHRASE screen.
* renamed ARP screen to the more trendy sounding TABLE screen.

179

(9 replies, posted in Other Hardware)

I hate sequencers, but if that's what works for you then I would recommend Reason.

Humankind has tapped maybe 1% of that program's potential.

180

(55 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Digital:

- A few gameboy artists' SAV archives
- Close to a gig of XMs/ITs/MODs/SIDs/NSFs/FTMs/MIDs/GBSes/etc.
- Scans of flyers and press releases
- Chat logs
- Pictures of Nordloef chilling out on a couch next to a kid who would later almost die of a drug overdose
- Pictures of Sievert getting iced by I, Cactus
- Pictures of IAYD sticking his tongue through a hole he cut in a John Lennon poster

Physical:

- Blip passes, metro cards, business cards, buttons, stickers, DVDs, CDs, The Plot

181

(24 replies, posted in Releases)

facundo wrote:

i'm actually thinking of making this available in cassette format and spraying each copy with facundo sweat

AWWWW YEAH

I'll rub my copy on the floor of Dakota's van for extra effect.

4mat wrote:

tbh it's not that people are jerks to each other, it's more that if you disagree with the chipscene majority or dislike some track you're automatically put in the jerk pile.  hence threads like this appear where the same 10 guys congratulate each other and everything stays boring and cosy.

This is a much more accurate assessment of the state of things. Chipmusic is definitely littered with sycophants.

Apricorn wrote:

I suck with pixel art stuff but I know Grafx2 has a crosshatch fx thing that lets you fill and draw with crosshatch.

Grafx2 FUCK YEAH

I experience this when I use a volume level below 3 with my samples.

185

(24 replies, posted in Releases)

I hope I can grab a scratch-n-sniff copy of this somewhere down the line.

I don't see a real reason for this thread to exist. Things have been relatively civil on this site since its inception, and even if that weren't the case a thread like this certainly wouldn't help. This is the internet, where it's much more difficult to convey sarcasm and much easier to read things out of context. It's getting tiring having to read people questioning the moral character of the chipscene... self-satisfying comments about gamer culture and accusations of chipmusic as a gimmick would be refreshing at this point.

tl;dr big whoop, wanna fight about it?

187

(16 replies, posted in General Discussion)








188

(58 replies, posted in General Discussion)

herr_prof wrote:

Your mommas so fat, screen door on a submarine.

Your mommas so ugly, chocolate teapot.

189

(100 replies, posted in General Discussion)

On September 2nd, 2009 I opened for Anamanaguchi at Ground Kontrol in Portland, Oregon. I did a split set with a friend.

It was a disaster... I wasn't ready to play live, and the monitors blew out during my set.

190

(49 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Yo! Thanks for the unexpected love/compliments, you guys are too kind. Glad to see that this thread really resonated with some people. I also think that part of this has to do with the apprehension and doubt involved with packaging and sending out demos to commercial labels, which is something that I think is unique to only me (when compared with the rest of the people in this thread).

I do have a massive vault of sketches and riffs, and some little-used trackers to try them out in.

191

(49 replies, posted in General Discussion)

It's kind of surprising that nobody has posted this thread before, so I'm going for it, I suppose.
Lately I've been having an extremely hard time writing music I feel personally satisfied with, and in many ways I've felt like I've hit a creative dead end. Maybe it's due to an entire summer of writing music all day every single day, or perhaps it is due to some sort of existential crunch, or my standards are too high... Regardless, I'm a bit tired of not having new ideas or motivation to continue on musical projects, some of which have been going for years. I've tried everything from taking a break to working on other projects to working with other people, but to no avail.

Basically what I'm asking is:

1. Am I the only one here who has experienced this?
2. If not, how did you overcome it?

192

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

This thread is now about poetry.

"That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come."