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G.A.M.E. 4.0 - Chiptunes/Retro SEXPLOSION!!!

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M

Mar

Member
I hate to be one of those guys that say "list fails without..". But really, list fails without the all mighty C-64 SID.

Still, I'm all for chiptunes. Looking forward to hearing what comes out of this thing.
 
M

monchi-kun

Member
Mar_ said:
I hate to be one of those guys that say "list fails without..". But really, list fails without the all mighty C-64 SID.

Still, I'm all for chiptunes. Looking forward to hearing what comes out of this thing.
Click to expand...

that's what i';m using for my sounds...some nicely sampled SIDs :)

reFX has a SID plugin that's quite fun to use, not a free plug but worth the $60
 
L

LiveFromKyoto

Member
Mar_ said:
I hate to be one of those guys that say "list fails without..". But really, list fails without the all mighty C-64 SID.
Click to expand...

Link me up, I know nothing about it but if there's a C-64 sound emulator it does need to be up there.
 
J

JavaMava

Member
Know of any good free programs I can load vst's into?

I've never used this stuff. I can read notation and play piano and guitar.
 
L

lil smoke

Banned
JavaMava said:
Know of any good free programs I can load vst's into?

I've never used this stuff. I can read notation and play piano and guitar.
Click to expand...
Reaper isn't free anymore, but it's affordable and can compete with the big dogs.

Glad to see G.A.M.E. 4.0 is here! I can't do chiptunes, but I'm going to play around with some stuff.
 
B

BigFwoosh

Member
Count me in for this, been waiting for the thread! Now I have to find time to get back into the swing of things... the gaming backlog will have to wait.
 
M

megashock5

Member
I'd like to get in on this, but let me see what I can come up with. I use Reason and haven't tried to make anything in the 'chiptunes' vein yet.
 
B

btkadams

Member
Mar_ said:
Not exactly sure what you're asking. I don't make music myself, just listen to it. But:

Sidplay2 for windows.

Sidplay for MAC.

HVSC collection (pretty much all SIDs).

Some links to SID related stuff.

And my favourite example of what SID can do, when coupled with more than one, and a cool device.

And another.
Click to expand...
DLed the one for mac and it has been syncing random files for what seems like forever lol. it better be an actual program and not just eating my computer.

EDIT: ok so its just a player? yipee :/ lol i guess i should've known that. well it was a nice try anyways.
 
B

btkadams

Member
SpacLock said:
Hahaha I instantly detected the Daftpunk when it came in. I like it man. Keep it up!
Click to expand...
lol thanks! this is a rough version of a song i actually am making from that little sample i made. sorry no more daft! lol

and then i thought hm.... i wonder what this song would sound with vocals. so i recorded some quick vocals and put it in and they actually sound pretty good. the layout of the song needs to be changed a bit for them to work with the song but i thought that it could be really going somewhere. but if any of you guys think it should remain non-vocal, let me know. just need some outside ears to give me their opinion.

so heres the version of it with vocals.

obviously the vocals need to be rerecorded but anyways.. comments are greatly appreciated. maybe i should make two tracks along side each other one with the vocals and one without? heeeeelp lol

and sorry no soundcloud, i ran out of uploads for this month.
 
L

lil smoke

Banned
Can we get some CHIPTUNE tips n tricks going in this thread?

Like is there a difference between lo-fi and chiptune sounds? Does a chiptune sound start off as 8 bit, or is it something that you can mangle up a sound and bitcrush it? What tempo usualy works best, what beat structures?
 
B

btkadams

Member
lil smoke said:
Can we get some CHIPTUNE tips n tricks going in this thread?

Like is there a difference between lo-fi and chiptune sounds? Does a chiptune sound start off as 8 bit, or is it something that you can mangle up a sound and bitcrush it? What tempo usualy works best, what beat structures?
Click to expand...
calm down! to answer one question, all of my tracks are about 110-140 bpm but i took one im workign ona dn put it to 160 and it still sounded really great. it all depends on what kind of song your making. you could make an electro chiptune song or a drumnbass chiptune song and it would still fit. obviously those two genres have very different tempos.
 
M

monchi-kun

Member
i think lo-fi and chip sounds are technically different (to me at least).

lo-fi or "bitcrushing" downsamples the resolution of your waveforms while "chip" sounds already start out as a low resolution waveform. this tends to hold up better as a sound but at the end of the day it's about the final sound you create.

a chip sound to me is kind of like a note stab, very short, low sustain and low decay. it also has a very limited amount of oscillators to produce its sound. I think the SID chips had a maximum of 3 oscillators to produce sound. For a synth lead this is more than enough but when you need to write an entire song with nothing but 3 oscillators then it gets tricky.

one oscillator can be set as the drum track, one for bass, one for lead.
 
L

lil smoke

Banned
I see. We're talking pure basic waveforms and subtractive filtering.

Yeah this is a real challenge, but where is the fun in this sort of limitation?
 
M

Mar

Member
btkadams said:
DLed the one for mac and it has been syncing random files for what seems like forever lol. it better be an actual program and not just eating my computer.

EDIT: ok so its just a player? yipee :/ lol i guess i should've known that. well it was a nice try anyways.
Click to expand...

Never tried the MAC one. And yeah, I knew it didn't actually make the music. I'm not sure there is any emulated SID creating software out there. You really need the hardware. It's why C-64s still sell so well.

lil smoke said:
Yeah this is a real challenge, but where is the fun in this sort of limitation?
Click to expand...

Getting back to the very basics of music. Some have likened the chiptune movement to the punk movement of the 70s.
 
B

btkadams

Member
lil smoke said:
I see. We're talking pure basic waveforms and subtractive filtering.

Yeah this is a real challenge, but where is the fun in this sort of limitation?
Click to expand...
sometimes the simpler the song the more musical it really is.
 
P

pirahna1

Member
You don't have to make an entire song out of a single SID chip for this comp. Just incorporate a chip sound somewhere in the song.

I'm thinking of making the drums out of chip-ish sounds and leave the rest up to some old analogs. It should sound really great, going for a house vibe :)
 
L

lil smoke

Banned
Yeah this is true.

This would be a good exercise in making melodies rather than slopping effect after effect into a muddy wall of sound, that's for sure! Sometimes I forget about the music, and spend too much time fussing over everything but. This is like.. here, take 2 instruments and just make it work.
 
B

btkadams

Member
lil smoke said:
Yeah this is true.

This would be a good exercise in making melodies rather than slopping effect after effect into a muddy wall of sound, that's for sure! Sometimes I forget about the music, and spend too much time fussing over everything but. This is like.. here, take 2 instruments and just make it work.
Click to expand...
see thats what ive always been about. mainly because the technical limitations of garageband mean that i can only put on a certain range of effects. but i've always really loved layering simple melodies one on top of the other until it is it's own solid wall of sound (like you said but in a good way) with intermingling melodies. it even goes back to me making rock songs and layering on like 6 guitars all playing different lines. i realize i may be sort of ranting right now but i'm really bored in my econ class.
 
D

Dartastic

Member
This genuinely excites me. I just got a copy of lsdj and I've been teaching myself how to use it. Anyone have any good tutorials on how it works?
 
L

lil smoke

Banned
btkadams said:
see thats what ive always been about. mainly because the technical limitations of garageband mean that i can only put on a certain range of effects. but i've always really loved layering simple melodies one on top of the other until it is it's own solid wall of sound (like you said but in a good way) with intermingling melodies. it even goes back to me making rock songs and layering on like 6 guitars all playing different lines. i realize i may be sort of ranting right now but i'm really bored in my econ class.
Click to expand...
That's sort of my approach too. Layering real instruments into a wall of sound, sort of treating the computer like a live band. I think thats why I have a problem with getting an electronic musiky kind of sound, because i'm rooted in live music. When it comes to using 8 bit sounds, synths, automation, sidechaining and all that, I find it a real challenge.
 
L

LiveFromKyoto

Member
lil smoke said:
I see. We're talking pure basic waveforms and subtractive filtering.

Yeah this is a real challenge, but where is the fun in this sort of limitation?
Click to expand...

Depends. For some it's purely a nostalgia exercise, that's the only reason I can see for constructing a song bound by arbitrary limitations of old chipsets. For my part, the interest comes from the fact that you're not limited by the fact that even if an NES had four sound generators, you can use those sounds as if there were 20. Frankly, I'm going to use the full gamut of plugins and effects on them, as long as the original personality shines through.

Bitcrushing has to be used on a sound per sound basis; you'll figure this out the second you try it. Sometimes it'll sound right, sometimes it won't. The classic sound really stems from the oscillation - if you stick to a single oscillator pumping out one of the basic waveforms in mono, you're close to what they were working with at the time.

There are sound libraries you can get if you want to capture the feeling of a specific system. I'd like to collect as many of those as possible in the OP because I'm not part of the chiptune scene myself; I know about stuff like Amiga Modules & 8-bit VSTs, but that's pretty much the extent of it for me.
 
B

btkadams

Member
i love talking to you guys about making music. none of my friends are creative in music at all. the only person i can talk to about music is my brother but he generally thinks everything i make is trash. so thanks!
 
M

monchi-kun

Member
lil smoke said:
I see. We're talking pure basic waveforms and subtractive filtering.

Yeah this is a real challenge, but where is the fun in this sort of limitation?
Click to expand...


sometimes the limitations create an interesting gate effect in your sequence. some of the old school sound chip sets were only able to play 4 voices at a time, when you start to introduce more than one sequence into a voice channel it creates a really interesting effect with sounds ducking in and out between the melodies.

here's a couple of VST instruments that could also be helpful:

CHIP32 - http://www.geocities.jp/sam_kb/Chip32/

Magical 8-bit Plug (YMCK) - http://www.ymck.net/english/download/index.html
 
L

lil smoke

Banned
monchi-kun said:
sometimes the limitations create an interesting gate effect in your sequence. some of the old school sound chip sets were only able to play 4 voices at a time, when you start to introduce more than one sequence into a voice channel it creates a really interesting effect with sounds ducking in and out between the melodies
Click to expand...
:D Good point. Sort of voice cancelling or legato happy accidents. Just the other day, I had a bass guitar on legato and for whatever reason, I sprinkled some high notes over it, and got this weird note replacement effect.
 
Thaedolus

Thaedolus

Gold Member
Are there any mirrors for GAME 2? The links in the official thread seem to send me in circles

NM, Found the rapidshare link
 
B

btkadams

Member
clearly not too many of you have subscribed to this thread yet because i seem to keep bringing it to the front page lol. COME ON PEOPLE! post some stuff you're working on!
 
M

monchi-kun

Member
m0dus, should we try something fun with the liner art this time? maybe a game manual layout with fake videogame screen-caps and control layouts? i'd be willing to volunteer my (limited) artistic skills to this endeavor :)
 
M

monchi-kun

Member
submit away, the more contributors we have the better it is for the album as its going to be a mish-mash of how we interpret chiptune music
 
L

lil smoke

Banned
Irrelevant, but I just bought a tape saturation plug,VTAPE. I love it. Sounds nice and vintage on the 2 buss, however i don't plan to use it that way.

I want to try the Neve emulation channel strip 88RS on every channel, separate instrument groups into busses, and add the tape on each buss. So it's like going out of analog console channels, group to an aux send, then record onto tape :D
 
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