i get what he's saying and can commend will for what i think is an attempt to encourage more artists to go beyond emulating their favorite artists, games & covering non-chip stuff and really explore the full depth of the software and/or hardware...i've had similar conversations a lot over the past year or so with some of the other people whove been doing this for years (like disassembler has been), i guess a lot people hoped that when the scene started expanding more in 2008-2009, the influx of new people would eventually lead to a much greater diversity in the types of music being made with chip, though it almost seems like there is actually LESS now (at least if you go based on a percentage of the whole scene), partially as earlier artists who pushed the boundaries move on to other things... feel like the increased ability to see other artists' live gigs (either in person or in video form) has also led to a greater percentage of new artists coming in with a MUCH more defined idea of what chip music is than was the case in those pre-8bc/O.G. ugly as hell nanoloop forum days, and i'm sure this factors in as well.. i remember hunting long and hard to find stuff to listen to when i started using nanoloop in 2003 and only having maybe 4-5 albums worth for years, and didn't see anyone else playing a live chip set until i was maybe 3 years in and had done a few gigs myself
I don't know... I am still kinda new to the scene (started looking at chiptune stuff a year ago), but I get fairly annoyed by people who make chiptunes to be cool. It is an art medium through which you can express emotion which you otherwise would not be able to communicate to someone else properly. The cool chippy sound that has defined the genre merely helps many people recapture some of their childhood and lets them drift off into nostalgic fantasies. I guess what I am saying is that, if you truly love and understand chiptunes, then you should at least feel that there is something more to it than just simple bleeps and bloops...
This.
In all seriousness, though, I'm even newer to the chipmusic scene, and already I've seen some extreme diversity within the "genre" chipmusic. Saying all chipmusic is the same is like saying all music that uses a synthesizer prominently is the same. To some it is, to some people, it all does sound the same, because they either don't care or are too set in their ways to really listen to it and hear the subtle differences that everyone has. And everyone will have a difference between their music and another person's, even if their just trying to emulate someone. It's the nature of the media with which we work.
It's how music works.
^ i'm very sorry if i failed to notice when they used a C#3 instead of B2
but what about even different genres? have you noticed what people say they listen to besides chip? chipmusic is capable of just about any type of music you can imagine, and im always surprised to find out guys are listening to melt-banana and mindflayer, then making filter house
funny. i ENJOY chipmusic because it's a genre whose artists are putting more feeling into their music than any other, regardless the limited ability of the hardware and the almost emotionless sounds/basic waveforms commonly used in chiptune (square,tri,saw waves, BRK, etc). i also enjoy it because of the many people in the chip scene that pioneer and innovate to create music - scratch that, a musical experience - instead of just turning knobs, sequencing notes and using the same ol' standard shit for their music. i suppose i understand where you're coming from, but really if you're sick of chipmusic because of the 'followers', then it's as everyone's saying: don't listen to it if you're sick of it.
Last edited by Aeros (Mar 25, 2012 2:33 pm)
We don't really have that much distance to look back and see how influential that last few years have been. I don't really listen to music I don't like so I can't comment on boring or dull stuff but the last 3 or 4 years have seen quite a few things which I have been really happy about community wise.
- This site.
- Blips in Tokyo and Australia.
- The rise of the Aussie chip scene.
- New regular shows like toy company, the 2 or 3 new UK ones, cheapbeats etc
- Metrodub,
- Ubik, 8bp and Pause have all been going strength to strength in the last 3 years.
- Kitten rock is still pumping out glorious weirdness.
- "New" artists like ???, 7bit hero, carls projects, cheapshot, minikomi, _ensnare_, Derris Kharlan and knife city doing awesome stuff
- Return of bleepstreet
- Lets not forget our VJs and graphic artist., people like m7kenji, party time hexallent, Enso, Ilkae and Batsly Adams are all fairly new.
- Software wise we have all baldwins stuff, Deflemask, VGM Maker, hugely expanded famitracker.
- Chip musicians regularly hitting top 5 in bandcamp in the last few weeks!
- Lots of interet
- Hardware wise all kinds of midi interfaces, new flash carts and stuff.
It might sounds bit nit picky and I do appreciate your point was about music but I have always felt "chipmusic" was a bit of an umbrella term for a much wider community that has done all kinds of super interesting stuff in the last few years!
Last edited by Lazerbeat (Mar 25, 2012 2:34 pm)
Remember when there were only four TV channels?
I'm sick of it because of all the complainers and whiners.
Lets get over it together.
i guess a lot people hoped that when the scene started expanding more in 2008-2009, the influx of new people would eventually lead to a much greater diversity in the types of music being made with chip, though it almost seems like there is actually LESS now (at least if you go based on a percentage of the whole scene)
Yeah, but there's much more stylistic diversity if you look instead at the range of styles rather than sheer numbers. When you have an art form as easy and cheap to get into as this one, you can't let the majority rule when you do calculations like this.
In discussions like this, it seems like artists really doing something different always get overlooked. Little-scale. Danimal Cannon. Jay Tholen. godinpants. Crashfaster. Awkward Terrible.
I think an easy solution to this problem could be said in two words: community involvement.
The chiptune community is kind of a bizarre entity because we constantly see people come and go. The reason being is most people will upload something similar to what is already being done and then no one says anything and they leave. What in fact we are doing to weeding out any kind of potential innovation. It takes awhile for people to come into their own for any type of genre or style of music. Look at anyone's first album then compare it to what they write now, it's almost always different or better (this isn't always the case, I listen to plenty of bands who have transitioned into a sound I don't care for.) If we had more people coming into the scene and sticking around we have a lot more input rather than having the same discussions with the same 15 people who are active here.
To get over this hump more discussion with new artists and even older artists needs to happen for innovation to take place. chipmusic.org is a great avenue for all of us to feed off of each other but it seems as though if you're not an already accomplished chip musician within the scene most people don't care. Take me for example. For a long time I was discouraged with writing chipmusic entirely because I would upload tracks and BEG for constructive criticism only to receive maybe a total of 5 comments (spanning 5-6 songs) for the past 2 years like "sounds good" or "a little repetitive, but not bad." Argh! Where is it repetitive?, What did you like particularly?, What can I do to make it better? I'm a perfectionist and I thrive on criticism, compliments are also a big boost to motivation, I prefer the harshest of criticism because that just gives me the drive to make it even better. Don't be afraid to criticize even the most accomplished among us. No one is above being criticized, people will always critique everything to themselves why not make it known? Voice an opinion and make it better. Bouncing ideas off of each other is crucial to innovation. Very few people ever innovate alone.
Take it a step further. If you listen to someone and think "this person has something going here" do a split album or write a song with them and feature them in it. This is not only great exposure for new artists but collaboration is a great way to write a track (probably easier as well, since there's two or more people working on it) and expand on an existing idea. Other artists are constantly featuring new people in their tracks, hip hop especially. Shit, Korn did a bunch of songs with Skrillex and in turn it expanded what they were already doing. Punk and hardcore bands have been doing splits with bands for decades, so why not us?
I'm aware that music or any art form is very egocentric. Almost all of us are much to wrapped up in what we have going on to do these things but if you have enough energy to complain, you have enough energy to fix it. You don't have to hold people's hands and constructively criticize every track you listen to but doing a little bit more than coming on here and circle jerking with the same people day in and day out is a start.
/mytwocents
Actually, a pertinent question, where are you looking for chipmusic? You know there are netlabels like 8bp. pause, hexawe, metrodub, ubiktune etc which have curated archived of great releases? Are you listening to noisechannel.org? have you looked at micromusic.net?
woweee ! thanks for the micromusic.net tip, there's some diamonds on there - listening to
"'DADA!!!!!" by future eater
right now, and that shit sure as hell is pushing some boundaries
on the topic of unoriginality and mediocrity in any musical scene, I always remind myself of this quote:
Use what talents you possess: The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
-Henry Van Dyke
If someone's at the very least attempting to make art, why should I condemn them?
What I can do is hope to see them progress 'what talents they possess' to create something greater.
Last edited by theghostservant (Mar 25, 2012 4:48 pm)
i get what he's saying and can commend will for what i think is an attempt to encourage more artists to go beyond emulating their favorite artists, games & covering non-chip stuff and really explore the full depth of the software and/or hardware...i've had similar conversations a lot over the past year or so with some of the other people whove been doing this for years (like disassembler has been), i guess a lot people hoped that when the scene started expanding more in 2008-2009, the influx of new people would eventually lead to a much greater diversity in the types of music being made with chip, though it almost seems like there is actually LESS now (at least if you go based on a percentage of the whole scene), partially as earlier artists who pushed the boundaries move on to other things... feel like the increased ability to see other artists' live gigs (either in person or in video form) has also led to a greater percentage of new artists coming in with a MUCH more defined idea of what chip music is than was the case in those pre-8bc/O.G. ugly as hell nanoloop forum days, and i'm sure this factors in as well.. i remember hunting long and hard to find stuff to listen to when i started using nanoloop in 2003 and only having maybe 4-5 albums worth for years, and didn't see anyone else playing a live chip set until i was maybe 3 years in and had done a few gigs myself
You get exactly what I'm saying, and a few others have made some great points as well. I would have hoped that site like lsdsng swap would do for others what it has done for me. Also, the lsdj patch book was a brilliant site. it was a shame to see it go. But I guess lsdsng swap could essentially serve the same purpose.
Chipmusic (or chiptune) is really great and I will always do/listen to it (well I hope 
) !
My advice is go check some demoscene stuffs if you are tired of a lot of these newcommers that is just SabreUnce...
Compared to a lot of these ex-myspace spammers, (YOOO YOU LIKE CHIPCHUUUNES, CHK MY PAGE AND LISTEN TO MY BAND BLIP BLIP BLOOP, ADD ME BITCH !!!) you can't go wrong with demosceners !!! 
come ON?????
i hate books because most of them are bad
i hate the internet because most of it is bad
don't think like that!