Author: Peter Swimm

  • Bondage Fairies – Cheap Italian Wine

    bondageI cannot believe I spaced out on this, but the new Bondage Faires has been out for over a month.  You can grab it on emusic, or via their myspace. A must have!

    Bondage Fairies

  • Odds and Ends from Twitter HOLIDAY EDITION2009-07-03

  • The Sound of Playing on CHIPFLIP

    Thought provoking (but old) paper on the makeup of chiptune artists, carefully dissected by goto80. Great read!

    In 2007 Alex Yabsley (dot.ay) made an ethnographic study of the chiptune community, which is available online: The Sound of Playing. This may be very old news, but since it is 39 pages I wanted to give it some attention and mention some of the parts I liked in particular. I hope you don’t mind that I bring out your old university work, Alex! : )

    He made interviews or questionnaires for 7 participants from the UK, Sweden, and USA, and also did participatory studies of 8bitcollective and micromusic.net. Statistically speaking, seven people is not representative for a large subculture, but that is usually not the point with a qualitative study anyway. I think Alex rightly generalizes some of the results.

    * Chip music composers usually talk about limitations when they motivate why they make chip music, and secondly about timbre. Newcomers seem instead to talk about this culture being “fresh and new”, what Alex describes as cultural reasoning rather than musical creative reason. No one really talks about videogames. Far from everyone has a background with making alternative electronic music.

    via The Sound of Playing: « CHIPFLIP.

  • Night Radio – Back to the Sources

    20090701-btts-prg-400x400Night Radio, the creator of SunVox, has created an album showcasing the power of this modualr tracker synth hybrid.

    Malobit writes: (Google Translate.)

    The general format of the music is difficult to describe in few words – the album came out quite versatile. I think everyone will find something interesting for yourself:) Nevertheless, I tried to sort the tracks in mood and sound: in the early songs were written in a simple (basic), synthesizers, and towards the end – a «serious» and complex to build . All the tracks created in SunVox (who was also the author of I:). SunVox due to its mobility allowed the music absolutely anywhere: sitting at home or in the studio – we use a stationary computer, ride the bus, relax in nature – a smartphone; leave, flying to another country – yuzaem netbuk. Other words: nothing guarantees that your idea anywhere, and never lost. And this album – just to confirm:) Happy listening:) As usual, any comments and suggestions are welcome.

    02-solim(1)


  • New USB Flash Carts for the Game Boy coming?

    Jose Torres writes about his upcoming line of software-less gb flash carts.

    So, I am working on an upgrade to the USB Gameboy Cartridges and Programmers. I want to go a completely different route and just make them drag and drop and show up as a USB drive.

    I am selling the rest of the my stock of gameboy cartridges to raise funds for this project.

    There will be 50 cartridges available for $50 starting July 1st.

    Programmers will be $40. Non-usb carts are still $30. The programmers will be upgraded to Drag and Drop as well. Same deal on upgrades in the future. $10 for trade-in, good condition.

    Current USB cart holders may purchase an additional cart and not worry about losing out on the opportunity to get the upgraded cart. When this time comes you may trade in your cartridge if in like-new condition plus a fee of $10 each.

    International customers must pay $12 for insured mail.

    Anyone in the US shipping is $5.

    Also, many of you might not know that I recently moved to a new office. 8bitcollective has a headquarters, but I am back at school. Funds of this sale will go towards rent and server fees.

    As always, you may donate and have that donation credited to your purchase in the future.

    Please email Jose.Torres AT 8bc ORG for any questions that you would like to send to me in private.

    via Forums | 8bc.org – Online Chiptune Media Sharing.