Having done a one hour workshop at Blip Festival years ago, and a 30 minute battle demonstration at 8static, I thought I already had this thing in the bag.  This workshop, however, differed in one major way – it was interactive; all participants had a machine and headphones to follow along.  Instead of doing a presentation I was going to be instructing.  Plus, there were two sessions at 3 hours a piece all starting at some time in the morning I’m not at all used to.  :D

So, I figured I’d make some kind of handout.  I put all the famitracker effects commands on there, and info about the different voices and their instrument settings.  I also included a “musical keyboard to computer keyboard” graphic like so -

I have a hard time believing that no one has made one of these online, but I couldn’t find one.  The way that the notes map to the keyboard tends to be a huge learning curve for seasoned musicians.  After a decade of tracking, it becomes second nature.  I can play on it better than a piano.  :D

I started the class with a 20 minute crash course in sound chip history. I talked about Atari’s TIA and Pokey chips, Commodore’s VIC and SID chips, Nintendo’s 2A03, how the Gameboy’s Motorolla CPU builds the sound, and a few examples of FM chips; playing back examples from Battle of the Bits as I went.  I did my best to describe their differences and advances, making special notes about which chips could attain correct pitches and which ones were dedicated solely for audio.  Really, I would have rather had everyone watch the following video -

…but the workshop wasn’t meant to be a history lesson on chip music.  Today is another day!  Let us create in the now!

I went into this whole thing thinking it would be cake.  My other workshops were cake. But this, as I stated previously, was an interactive workshop, not a lecture or demonstration.

So, after this workshop’s history lesson, we jumped into Famitracker.  I broke down the interface, we built instruments for each of the channels, I made a pattern, and then I set them loose, pacing around, ready to answer questions.  And many questions I answered.  Next, we made a second pattern, and I showed them how multiple patterns build together into a song.  Then I set them loose again for 40 minutes or so with more pacing on my part, answering questions as they came.

For the first of the two workshop sessions, I had library staff member, Matt, and one elementary student.  It felt kind of like a practice run.  There was good dialog, trivia swapping, we didn’t get too off track. …or maybe I just didn’t feel that much pressure.

The second group contained Matt, my girlfriend, two friends from the bar, and three younger folk.  During the final hour with this group, I realized my “let ‘em loose” strategy for leading the workshop was naive.  Of the three younger folk; one was paralyzed after playing with and deleting the patterns we made together, one made a bunch of wild noises and then logged into newgrounds, and one was already familiar with Milky Tracker and felt she wasted her time.  Everyone else seemed to have a good time and entertained themselves.

I used the last 30 minutes to show everyone how to convert their song to an .mp3 by exporting to .wav and using a free online conversion service.  Then I talked about various websites they could meet other chiptune artists and/or share their music.  I was pretty exhausted after that.  :D

Milky Tracker girl left the following track on her desktop -
Download audio file (whoareyou.mp3)

When I get to do this again I’ll be a little wiser about it.  Demonstration is key.  I didn’t talk about music theory, I didn’t talk about song structure, about hard and soft changes, about holding a solid groove and layering on top, about playing in the pocket, or anything that really had anything to do with the music itself.  I only demonstrated the software itself as if everyone was already a musician ready to compose for a five piece band.  Slight error or epic fail?  I’ll know for next time.

I’d like to thank Matt Dubay for setting this event up and inviting me.  I’d also like to thank Eli Neiburger for networking Matt and I together, and a thanks to Kip DeGraaf for setting an entire Mac lab to run Famitracker on VMware.

famitracker workshop handout PDF download

Hey, look, I’m playing this time.  Screw the Detroit Electronic Music Festival — everyone knows Ann Arbor is where the cool kids are at and they’re too cool to leave. ;D

Spam teh Facebook event page.

DJ and I looked on…  This is the underground working on love of a culture and not money.  Ultimately, we decided we wanted to, and could try, to build something similar back home in Ann Arbor, MI.  There are four main components necessary : the artists, a name or title, a venue, and a regular monthly slot.

8static is a chiptune event.  Ann Arbor and it’s vicinity has less chip artists than a luddite convention.  We obviously can’t do a monthly chiptune event.  So what do we want?  What are we?

Both of us perform as one-man-bands!  DJ’s project, Scared to Death, consists of himself, guitar, bass, circuit bent keyboard, and a drumset.  He uses loop pedals in an alchemical method to create an atmosphere and pulse that he then plays drums over.  I, myself, take the stage with chiptune and laptop compositions layered with my custom VIC20 chip instrument, ukulele and voice.

Essentially, we realized we didn’t want traditional bands which is still a pretty open invitation.  To try and quantify what’s acceptable I came up with a genre list : chiptune dubstep trip-hop synth-pop idm breakcore circuit-bent noise one-man-band ambient experimental.  LoBlast is a steady, public outlet for bedroom musicians.  …or something like that.

A couple weeks after our trip, and without much brainstorming, I came up with the event title “LOBLAST”.  LO is an abbreviation for LO-FI (opposite of HI-FI or “high fidelity”) and also for being “low” on the musical industry food chain.  BLAST is another good fit in all it’s connotations “I had a blast!” or “That boombox blasted me!”  So, one slow night at work I drafted some simple logo designs.

A few months roll by and I finally brave the adobe illustrator.  I still feel like a blind mule every time I try to use it, but practice makes perfect.  Huzzar!  Teh pen tool!  :P

…then you export something and import that thing-a-ma-jig into photoshop… and style the shit out of it! :D

I’m not happy with the ‘LO’ part, but that’s what I get for not following my own mockup examples!  I am happy with, however, the legibility of the logo.  I thought maybe the broken ‘A’ and the connected letters would throw people.  I’ve been assured it’s an easy read.  I suppose if people can read the 80′s NASA logo they can read LOBLAST.

For a venue, we’re lucky to have access to the 8ball Saloon hallway.  We both work for the Blind Pig, a local club, which is typically closed on Sundays.  The 8ball is in the basement, completing the complex with a cover-free bar, bathrooms and an alley entrance.

Last summer, a party got busted and the bands still wanted to play and the peeps still wanted to party.  With the owners permission, the party moved to the 8ball hallway.  This incident began an outlet for the Blind Pig staff, many being musicians, to host free shows and help sell $1 PBR’s.

Sometimes a touring act will get a show upstairs at the Blind Pig on a Sunday making the hallway that connects the two bars unavailable.  On very rare occasions these shows can drop on the calender a few weeks before.  So that’s a slight strike against us.  But, overall, we have a solid venue for ages 19+ on Sunday nights.

We decided to requisition the last Sunday of every month.  Our second loblast event  is already upon us!!  D:  Time is flying!!

DJ suggested a Missile Command theme for the flier.  I had a lot of fun making it …and… I think it works!  So come on down and enjoy cheap beer!  :D