Elements of Chip Music

This is my chip music seminar from Revision 2011.

Abstract:
When working with a soundchip such as the SID or the 2A03, the artist faces a number of technical constraints that limit, guide and inspire the creative process. The seminar will highlight and briefly explain some of these constraints, with particular emphasis on how they influenced artists during the golden age of chip music to give rise to some of the clichés that now define the genre. We will also see (and hear) how variations of the same constraints have emerged in other genres and ages, and how composers such as Bach have tackled them in similar or different ways.

http://www.linusakesson.net/music/elements/index.php
http://www.revision-party.net/

Category:

Music

Tags:

• elements
• chip
• music
• lft
• linus
• akesson
• chipmusic
• chiptune
• 8bit
• seminar
• revision
• talk
• presentation
• demo
• scene
• demoscene
• party
• musical instruments

[Abrimaal]

There was nothing about chipmusic without a soundchip - just a CPU and a speaker, like in ZX Spectrum 48 and the first models of PC. Using specialized software a musician was(is) able to create interesting music, but is it safe to call it "chipmusic"? Is the CPU in this case a soundchip?

[lftkryo]

@Abrimaal This is a quite interesting point, and bordering on the philosophical. I would still call it chipmusic, because the composer faces very similar technical constraints, and the resulting music has a characteristic "chipmusic sound" as a result of them.

[KevinAckeral]

you really start to hear the timbre around the 100000hz range :S

[lftkryo]

@KevinAckeral No, pitch and timbre share the same segment of the graph. It doesn't really go up to 100 kHz for humans, but the graph axis is very coarse. The way timbre works, is that any frequency we hear that is an integer multiple of another audible frequency (i.e. an overtone) won't be heard as a separate note; it will modify the timbre of the base note.

[JAhU00]

The part about channel sharing reminds me of a DOS game title "The Cycles". The game had an intro music which sounded quite good despite the fact that it was played on PC speaker. Another example of well made PC speaker music which utilized this technique was "Secret of Monkey Island".

[lftkryo]

@JAhU00 Yes, good examples!

[TekLok]

This is incredibly thorough and valuable information regarding chiptune music production and history. Everyone interested in exploring the genre should watch this first!

[AngusT07171]

I never realized that most chip tune is in 150BPM

[figaro589]

wow! I watched this all of the way through. I found this very interesting! :D

[figaro589]

@figaro589

also to be more specific with what I had just said. Sonic 1 wasn't written in 150bpm. the music is faster in NTSC than PAL. the rest are 150bpm. :)

[figaro589]

@AngusT07171

yeah. Sonic The Hedgehog music is a good example. listen to Sonic 1 music first in PAL, then listen to the same song in NTSC. then Sonic 2, 3, &K, 3D and Spinball are all at 150bpm.

[sgtunix]

Great presentation.. Inspirational!

[ms3bani]

will someone shut up the freaking whiny kid... stupid parents

[TheDekalibrierer]

24:07 That sounds really cool... Can you extract single channels? I'd be interested :D

[candygameengine]

Wow. Great talk. I am creating a retro game engine and one of the things I would like to add to it is an 8-bit style audio system. This talk did a great job of explaining the different constraints of the audio devices and how they shaped the music developed. Come check out my channel if you are interested in seeing my progress.

[artemonstrick]

kill this annoying whining child in background. uggh. parenting fail.