TRUE CHIP TILL DEATH • January 2009

Pixelh8 to compose on WWII Era Chips?

By Peter Swimm, on January 23rd, 2009

Say what you want about how he positions his role and importance in the growth of the current scene, the following project from his mailing list DOES sound interesting. The email:

“I am very excited.
Recently I Pixelh8 have had the good fortune, with the help of The National Museum of Computing and the Performing Rights Society Foundation, to have a huge music project of mine funded. The project is to write a piece of music composed from sounds from some of the rarest and earliest computers and computing devices in the world to be performed at the World War II code breaking centre Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes on March 20th and 21st 2009.

The project entitled “Obsolete?” will make use of machines such as Colossus Mark 2 world’s first programmable, digital, electronic, computing device used for code breaking in World War II and probably one of, if not the most significant computer in the world. Another computer to be used is Elliot 803 from 1960, a giant machine that has only 4k!!! ithink it’s one of only three left in the world and I love it!

The blogs leading up to it have now also been declassified and can be accessed by going here http://pixelh8.co.uk/category/obsolete/

On the flipside the piece will also feature several other commonplace computing devices that have either been discarded or branded as “Obsolete?” as time moved on, so yes I will be using the ubiquitous BBC Micro too.

This will be chip tune music but unlike any other you have ever heard.

These machines have been restored to working order and in some cases completely reconstructed by volunteers and researchers at TNMOC, and I am honoured to be associated with these hard working men and women and the unique history of Bletchley Park.

This is to be one of many computer music related projects I am hoping to bring to the museum and I am very, very excited. I strongly recommend you go and visit The National Museum of Computing in the meantime, but you won’t get any more information about “Obsolete?” just yet, as it is classified information.

Pixelh8

via matrixsynth

Chipmusic • In the News

Grg Vs. Timbaland legal update

By Peter Swimm, on January 23rd, 2009

CHIPFLIP writes:

GRG and his crew were making three claims: sampling, performance rights, producer rights. The court did however only consider one of these: the performance rights. According to them GRG’s cover was not unique enough to grant him any kind of authorship rights, so the case was basically lost. This meant that they didn’t have to consider whether the song was sampled or not.

Hopefully they can work out some kind of compensation from the douche who exclaimed “it’s a video game, jerk”.

resources • software

TinySIOPM MML appeared

By Peter Swimm, on January 22nd, 2009

gamingjustin explains:

The site is designed to let people post and edit other people’s flash applications; neat idea. What’s even more neat is someone wrote an MML Editor and whipped up a song for demonstration. Anyone can write a song on-the-fly in a browser using MML.

Check it out

Click in the right window and hit shifter+enter to start/stop the songs playback.

Chipmusic

The Stupendous Return of 8BC TRACKS OF THE WEEK 09 DX

By Peter Swimm, on January 22nd, 2009

Hey Guys, sorry for the extended delay post blip, but here are some of the neat tracks I found in the last week or so on TEH H8BITCOLLECTION.

For the week of 1/13-1/22

failotron – Quater Of A Century – 3 hour hardstyle challenge

A kind of football hooligan/ Handel’s messiah concoction with soaring buildups and devestating breakdowns.

wedanced – The last symphony of December 21 2012 and 22 seconds after 48 hour challenge.

The ending is brilliant. Why do concept tracks seem to bring out the best in 8BC?

MattWilson – How To Kill a Man From Outer Space

A little retro, a little modern, manages to capture the Konami sound without being stale.

benanderson89 – Take The Money

I have to agree with Randoms comments, old school but tasty.

solo karier – darah muda

Catchy cat signing a nice doowop melodies caught my ear pretty quickly. I wonder if its a cover like their other songs seem to be? If not I hope they continue working on this direction.

BSK – Beijing Moon

What more needs to be say, other than BSK!! BSK!!! forever…

486 –8ECK-Gamma Ray

Beck and I have had our problems in the past, but this catchy remix of a great song is very well executed.

In the News • Retro Gods

1UP Profiles Konami Composer Hidenori Maezawa

By Peter Swimm, on January 22nd, 2009

1UP has a interesting interview with Hidenori Maezawa.

1UP ‘Hidenori Maezawa Contra Music’ interview

There are some intersting bits, like his ambivelence regarding his fame and those who cover his tunes, and this intersting tidbit about how he helped designed the vrc6 chip:

1UP: Gradius II for Famicom was one of those games that never came to the U.S. because it had a special chip that improved the graphics and sound. Did you find it easier to work with those chips, like the VRC6?

HM: (in English) I made!

1UP: You made the VRC6?

HM: (begins drawing diagrams) These are the waves for the sound. With Famicom, there were three types of waves — square, triangle, and sawtooth — and you were able to use one for each of the three channels. But with the VRC6, you could add an additional three channels for a total of six notes, six channels.

I was actually the one who developed the chip. Of course, there were other technical people who put the parts together, but I was involved in its design. A chip is small, but the prototype is huge! I think the chip was first used in Akumajou Densetsu, which was Castlevania III in America.

More on the 1UP site, or via these direct links

An interview with Konami’s Hidenori Maezawa, pt. 3

An interview with Konami’s Hidenori Maezawa, pt. 2

An interview with Konami’s Hidenori Maezawa, pt. 1

Maezawa’s Greatest Hits: Castlevania III

Maezawa’s Greatest Hits: Bayou Billy

Maezawa’s Greatest Hits: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Thx Bud for the tip!

Pixelh8 to compose on WWII Era Chips?

Grg Vs. Timbaland legal update

TinySIOPM MML appeared

The Stupendous Return of 8BC TRACKS OF THE WEEK 09 DX

1UP Profiles Konami Composer Hidenori Maezawa

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