Seeing as some of the Southeastern states of the US (Alabama, Georgia, most of Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana) still have no idea of what chip music is, there is lots of ground to tread. The Bible Belt culture that is so popular lends itself more towards rock, country, ratchet, and pop. It is rare that I play a DJ set and play dubstep (including Skrillex).

I've managed to get a regular thing going, playing a chip DJ set and playing my own material. Mostly house parties. However, I'm fortunate to be living near a huge college campus with decent musical exposure. I think that chip will not catch on so long as the South remains the South (except in college towns). For a hundred years the people here have idolized sung words, guitar playing, and (mis)translated words written in red. The reception to electronic music in general is poor due to religious undertones ("electronic music = rave = drugs = ticket to hell" sort of ideology) so the only artists we have seen in Alabama are Bassnectar and Pretty Lights. Currently I am breaking into the local jazz scene, booking some gigs and stuff. That's how I have been incorporating my chip stuff for the public, and so far it is well received amongst the scene regulars.

I think that Lexington and Atlanta would be good hubs for chip in the South, seeing as they are bigger cities, one being accessible, the other having Solarbear and his amazing BRKfest-rearing festival organization skills. Colleges are near/in both towns, and have healthy bar scenes (unlike Birmingham, where police are everywhere due to murders). Other than those two cities I don't see chip thriving very much at all around here.

466

(43 replies, posted in Past Events)

If Solarbear's set does not take place on the toilet I will be disappoint. :'(

Grymmtymm wrote:
electricloverecords wrote:

to create more complex melodies and harmonics you can use a scale, which is a set of notes that go together.  a scale might be D, F, G, G#, A, C, C#, and then back to D.  if you're song is the D scale i just wrote, you can play around with those notes and it will mostly go together.

you have the right idea of scales but thats not quite accurate. you can't "write" your own scales. it is what it is. scales have already been defined by all our predecessors.

Im trying to think of what scale that might be, but none came to mind. you missed the E.

every scales hits every note on the musical alphabet ( A B C D E F G)

There are scales that are very different and do not hit every note in the musical alphabet. Wholetone scales, and certain atonal "scales" come to mind. The scale electricloverecords is referring to is a D blues scales with a sharp seventh that can be used to build tension. It's a very common thing to see in jazz songs, and swing tunes (for example: Saint James Infirmary is traditionally played in D minor with a sometimes-sharp 7). The scale could also be interpreted as a D minor pentatonic scale with some extra notes that can be used as tension building notes in suspensions. Keep in mind that many dubstep basslines are based off the pentatonic minor scale.

You can write your own scales. Not everything has to be 12-tone, major, minor, pentatonic, or modal. Alter things, make it your own. Whatever. Dubstep hasn't been around long enough to be studied like swing, classical music, or rock. It's still new, still being defined. Go define it however you wish.

@Grymmtymm - Don't go around preaching about scales if you don't know everything about them. Saying every scale hits every note A-G is bullshit. Pentatonic scales use 5 notes, whole tone scales use 6. Hopefully in the future you'll learn more about scales and what defines a scale, and use it in your own methodology.

468

(617 replies, posted in Releases)

My next release, "Epic Elevator Music" should be out sometime in October. It's my last LSDJ-only release for what will be a long while. Forging a path between jazz and dubstep, it's going down.

Here's the preview:
http://soundcloud.com/maxd-2/epic-eleva … ic-preview

469

(1,206 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

RyuX wrote:

ok.. news from me... the mega man dmg is now fully working and finished.

Dude, seriously though, using a single 1/8" jack for a more basic Midi connection is genius. Simplistic, and fantastic. Definitely going to do this for my next DMG.

Here is my issue: what if the license the chip choonz were released under aren't DJ friendly, considering you are playing other people's music to make money? Given, lots of music is under licenses that are friendly. And if I were to play anything, I would totally work into a few house tunes and throw in some MisfitChris. I've gotten away with dropping Sabrepulse's cover of Daft Punk's "Digital Love" and people lost their shit. Honestly, it is hard to get across some of the sound aesthetics between top 40 and chip, so if you can bridge the gap and keep the dance floor full, great. If not, earn your living!

For reference, DJ'ing is how I make any of my income 9 months out of the year. Frat parties pay.

Kitsch never "refuses" to answer emails, he simply has a long list of emails he still needs to reply to.

Hold F8 to boot, choose "disable driver signature enforcement" or whatever it is, and you are golden to boot the exe and run the software, Ponyboy.

Also - modified drivers are somewhere out there, but I don't use them, and cannot speak for their useability.

472

(1,485 replies, posted in Trading Post)

herr_prof wrote:

Any plans to ever offer gbas with backlight and shoulders mapped to start select mods?

I have slowly been aggregating parts for such a mod. PM me, maybe? I am working on making three GBA's with chiptune-friendly enhancements, but I could see what I can do for you. Currently planning for frontlight, prosound, button remappings, and maybe LEDs.

473

(102 replies, posted in General Discussion)

an0va wrote:

I want a straight up fast bebop charlie parker style tuba solo to make me crack up doe

http://bonerama.bandcamp.com/track/chemical-assistance it starts around 1:15, not quite Charlie Parker, but it's pretty hip. And it's followed by an equally stunning bass trombone solo.

474

(102 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Jellica wrote:

ive struggled jamming with musicians who learnt music by sight reading.

not because they are bad musicians or anything but because it seemed like they could not really play anything unless it is note for note written out for them, or you tell them exactly what to play.

you cant just say ok this goes G# Fm and then there is a bit of Bm7 after a couple of bars and get them to jam along.

Being a good "on-the-page" musician has no real correlation to sucking at improvisation. I know tuba players who have a huge vocabulary for soloing in jazz, but most of them never get to jam because most jazz ensembles don't use tubas (unless it is a super-oldschool group) so the dudes just stick to classical literature. With improvisation it's a matter of knowing your instrument so well that you can make your own roads, not just follow the roads of others. It has very little to do with reading music. EDIT: Given, these guys may be creatively lacking, which is all too common right now with the musicians I am around hmm

This is an extremely interesting thread. I learned how to read music (sort of) thanks to Mario Paint, combined with piano lessons later.

475

(102 replies, posted in General Discussion)

I've been reading forever, and currently I am having to sightread in bass and treble for jazz combo at school. I feel like sheet music is good for learning music quickly, and for one-time playing, but honestly it's just another tool in the box. Some people get by with one tool, others can use anything else.

476

(1,206 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Now I am extremely curious about how to make that logo thing myself... xD

Super stoked for seeing footage of you guys with horns, something that needs to (and will be) happening more in chiptune! I hope all goes well!

478

(53 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

You just need 4 Gameboys, a sync box, 4 carts, 3 link cables, a mixer, and 4 line in cables (and maybe one for line out of the mixer). Have each cart use the same save, be loaded onto the same song (duh), one master and three slaves. Mute three channels on each GB so each one plays one channel of a song. Have all 4 lines going into a mixer. Totally easier than using envelopes. Totally, guys.

479

(56 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

squidtantrum wrote:
thebitman wrote:

Other things you can do is making your "volume" levels for your WAV instruments seem lower (frostbyte know more about this than  do).

Also - you might want to look at adding some sort of tubes for extra warmth or adding some different capacitors.

How would I add tubes to the DMG?? Or do you meant he amp.... I'm very interested.

I am not sure how or where they are installed, but I know that one user who may or may not have posted in this thread has some installed in their DMG wink

I smell a Mario Paint port coming.