Another “high concept” comp from the gents at 8BC, this time focusing on non4/4 time signatures. More info:
Took 2 days and 1.5 hours longer than I wanted, but it’s here! A big thanks to everyone who participated!!
All of these tracks are either in time signatures that are not commonly used or use commonly used time signatures layered with others. An interesting thing to do when most trackers try to force you into straight 4/4. ^_^
Lots of cool artists on this, so worth a checkout.
A new ep of pokey atari 8bit based music from Little-Scale is out
Download here.
He writes ” The audio has been recorded directly from an Atari POKEY chip. The audio has not been compressed, equalised or mastered in any way, though it has been normalised. “
CC, eat my ass out:
http://little-scale.blogspot.com/2009/01/chiptuning-atari-pokey.html
The POKEY has a variety of ways that you can tune the chip, including using 8 bit or 16 bit data for the pitch, as well as choosing a direct division of the master clock, a division of 28 (which the eight bit data below is based on) and a division of 120.
http://little-scale.blogspot.com/2009/01/go-go-atari-dualpokey-midi.html
I have started working on a Multi POKEY MIDI setup. This Atari chip is one of my favourites and has some nice distortion type noises on it, as well as some other interesting things.
Current features include:
• Control up to all 16 channels of up to 4 POKEY chips via MIDI
• POKEY 1 appears on channels 1 to 4
• POKEY 2 appears on channels 5 to 8
• POKEY 3 appears on channels 9 to 12
• POKEY 4 appears on channels 13 to 16
• Select the distortion / noise for each voice (set via MIDI CC)
• For each chip, clock it using 15.3 Khz instead of 65.8 Khz (set via MIDI CC)
• For each chip, use ch 2 as a high pass filter, clocked by ch 4 (set via MIDI CC)
• For each chip, use ch 1 as a high pass filter, clocked by ch 3 (set via MIDI CC)
• For each chip, use channels 3 and 4 together in 16-bit mode (set via MIDI CC)
• For each chip, use channels 1 and 2 together in 16-bit mode (set via MIDI CC)
• The 16-bit mode increases the frequency resolution and range of the ganged channels of the chip.
• For each chip, clock channel 3 using 1.8432MHz instead of 65.8 Khz (set via MIDI CC)
• For each chip, clock channel 1 using 1.8432MHz instead of 65.8 Khz (set via MIDI CC)
• For each chip, use 9 bit poly for noise instead of 17 bit poly (set via MIDI CC)
The majority of the chip community are able to do what they do by standing on the shoulders of giants. These tech wizards design hardware modifications that allow integration with modern equipment, allow them to play their compositions on actual hardware, and make the arcane and some times obtuse world of technology more immediate and useful.
Your nominees are:
Powerpak – Retrozones little cart that could is quickly becoming the lifeblood of NES/Famicom development. With support for various mappers, and now the ability to easily play NSF music files and support various expansion chips, many artists can now record songs off real hardware that but a few months ago where merely dreams. If 2009 finds a flood of NES related output, it will surely be in no small thanks to the Powerpak.
arduinoboy/MGB – By building a better mouse trap, Trash80 has created a great piece of hardware that is easy for the novice to build, yet provides a great way to interface your gameboy into a modern studio. Furthermore, mGB gives another option for the midi studio nerds who are looking to capture the true chip sound.
MSSIAH – Similarly to the MGB, MSSIAH improves over existing software and makes it easier out of the box to integrate the awesome power of the SID chip with modern equipment. Tightly integrated with its software, and easily interchangeable with various models of c64 hardware, this is an elegant solution to a complicated need for getting your SID sounds into your existing work flow.
Little-Scale – Perhaps more so than any hardware developer, Australia’s Little-Scale has been consistently blowing away the community with his projects for Atari, Sega, Nintendo and more. His thirst for innovation is often matched by his clean, detailed documentation process and his ability to explain things in a simple yet evocative manner belies the complexities of his achievements.
Hardsid4U – If you must fake it, nothing beats using the actual chip, and no solution gives you more options to do so than the Hardsid4u. You are equally able to compose in a midi sequencer using the VST, in a windows program like Goattracker, in a traditional tracker using a Hardsid4u enabled Emulator, or simply enjoy SID files using a copy of Winamp. Along with its slightly more future proof usb interface, this is Perhaps the greatest combination of power, usability, and sound quality in its field, Hardsid4u is made with high standards and its developers provide top notch support.
At this point, there are enough chiptune Christmas songs out there to reclassify this as a sub-genre. Santacore? Jes-mo?
All jokes aside, Pixelmod Records has released an excellent little package to put you in the holiday spirit. 17 glorious songs from the likes of Goto80, 8BitWeapon, little-scale and more! The artwork is cuter than a puppy wrapped in a box under the tree and there’s even an interactive HTML Advent Calendar!
Get the goodies here!