Back in 1950-60s in USSR, behind the iron curtain, there were DIY bootleg recordings of foreign artists (Presley etc) and forbidden local ones called 'music on bones'. The recordings were made on used X-Ray film (with pictures, hence the name) and hand made electro recorders like this one. Designs of such recorders were published in DIY electronics magazines at the time. It was illegal, sound quality was low, the recordings didn't last for long, but it was doable and affordable. I guess, with all the fancy modern electronics and tools (CNC of all kinds), a dedicated person with some skills could make something similar, but with better quality and cheap enough.
17 Aug 25, 2012 10:47 pm
Re: Inexpensive Low Quality Vinyl Pressing? (97 replies, posted in General Discussion)
18 Aug 15, 2012 6:09 am
Re: How do you feel when you listen to your own music? (76 replies, posted in General Discussion)
Listening to my own old works, I often wonder how I managed to compose that.
19 Aug 9, 2012 12:13 am
Re: Hardware vs. Software (18 replies, posted in General Discussion)
I use software all the way, because I'm cheap.
The real hardware, however, could bring inspiration by itself, along with some difficulties in use, of course.
20 Aug 8, 2012 6:50 pm
Re: Pixel perfect youtube/vimeo/whatever video dimensions (5 replies, posted in General Discussion)
Press Ctrl+Numpad Plus and Ctrl+Numpad Minus, and you'll see it is quite hopeless to get pixel perfect anything in a browser these days.
21 Jul 27, 2012 12:16 pm
Re: VGM rip (YM2151) to OPM? (9 replies, posted in Sega)
VGM2OPM is updated, test it.
22 Jul 26, 2012 5:51 pm
Re: Why does the NES have a Tri wave rather than saw wave (48 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)
Here is a list of known NES-related patents. As you can see, they all are from later period than Famicom development stage. The 'Electronic sound synthesizer' is for FDS, I can't recognize what is the 'Digital sound source apparatus and external memory cartridge used therefor' for - not for 2A03 certainly.
There could be other patents, though. Maybe they are Ricohs rather than Nintendo.
23 Jul 26, 2012 5:23 pm
Re: Why does the NES have a Tri wave rather than saw wave (48 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)
'Nintendo' is a very abstract person to ask, the company by itself didn't actually designed the hardware, so they don't know the answer. A few japanese engineer guys did it like 30 years ago, that's who should be asked, if it is even possible to even find them now.
24 Jul 26, 2012 4:59 pm
Re: Why does the NES have a Tri wave rather than saw wave (48 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)
I'm sure sound effects were the main concern of designers of 2A03. As for music, they maybe were expecting to do short jingles and simple background loops, but certainly not something that Konami or Sunsoft brought much later.
25 Jul 24, 2012 5:56 pm
Re: Is it 8bit or electronic music? (22 replies, posted in Constructive Criticism)
Chiptune is music played on a chip. It is a much of a genre, as guitar music, piano music etc.
26 Jul 22, 2012 3:41 pm
Re: Dendy Chronicles - a NES-related web series (50 replies, posted in General Discussion)
Actually I thought to translate this video if someone could help and deal up with adding the subtitles to the video, through reupload or something, as I'm not sure how and who to contact with about this (the video has been uploaded by many people).
Meanwhile, Dendy Memories #4.
27 Jul 19, 2012 11:09 pm
Re: Would love some feedback! (15 replies, posted in Constructive Criticism)
The problem is that music theory, advanced especially, is certainly difficult to explain, so there is no a single definitive book on this. Try a few random books and find one that is written in words that are easier to understand for you personally.
28 Jul 19, 2012 9:24 pm
Re: Would love some feedback! (15 replies, posted in Constructive Criticism)
I don't like it because it is slow and I don't feel neither the drive nor any certain direction there. The chip tech there is pretty basic too, although this could be an artistic choice.
29 Jul 18, 2012 9:31 am
Re: bite size tunes (24 replies, posted in General Discussion)
1 minute was a typical duration of a song in NES games, and it wasn't much longer for Genesis and SNES games either. As they had to loop over and over again for hours, there was not much repetition within that minute.
30 Jul 13, 2012 10:44 pm
Re: Casio SK-1 (16 replies, posted in Other Hardware)
12ianma wrote:
From the 20 minutes I've messed with it it seems really useful
Same story here. Too bad it is difficult to get one here.
31 Jul 9, 2012 2:49 am
Re: How to get started on the NES (12 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)
If you really want to make music on the NES itself, you should check this.
32 Jul 5, 2012 4:58 pm
Re: Why does the NES have a Tri wave rather than saw wave (48 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)
I doubt that any composers were involved in 2A03 sound hardware design, because at the time (before 1983) games had almost no music. Nothing anywere close to that has been done in late 1980s and early 1990s.
However, Hidenori Maezawa mentioned in an interview that he was involved in VRC6 design. It was designed at the time when music in games became more serious, so to say - circa 1989.