Tanuki refers to a wild Japanese dog that looks like a raccoon or badger.  They do definitely look less like a dog.   Which may be why they are thought of as mischievous, cunning, shape-shifting anthropomorphs in mythological lore.

Tanooki is a Nintendo of America translation first utilized in Super Mario Bros. 3, being a full-body extension to the more standard, simpler raccoon tail.  Where the raccoon tail can get Mario propelling forward through the air, the tanooki suit also allows Mario to transform into a statue which can be passed by enemies unharmed.

Simple enough.  It would be easy to conclude N of A changed the spelling for accessible pronunciation.  Though, reading it as standard translated text, it sounds tah-no-oh-key rather than tah-new-key.

And so, while that might be interesting to some, others could wonder why I’d bother nerding out like this.  There’s a simple explanation :

Somewhen in Japanese history their culture decided that this –

… a raccoon dog out on your wet porch is the equivalent of this –

A public phone kiosk with ginormous testicles between it’s feet for happy foreigners to molest.  It’s quite a scene!  The sake is for good luck.

Monstropedia says :

In Japanese folklore the Tanuki has great physical strength and supernatural powers. Like the kitsune (fox), it is a master of shapeshifting and disguise and is a mischievous creature taking all sorts of disguises to deceive or annoy travellers. It will perform various tricks to get such things as saké, food, or women to the point of turning itself into inanimate objects, such as the tea-kettle in the famous story of the Bunbukuchagama.

Is the scrotum pushing the tanuki up in the air or is this more like a flying sumoplex?

“Just another rainy day, walking along with the gang.  Oh!  Look out!  That bear is trying to eat our brief cases!”   “That’s not a bear, that’s a space station.”

Perfectly acceptable in public.  This is what Mario and Luigi were up to?  They dress up like furries, get smashed on sake, and then crush passerby’s with their inflatable testicles?  Fun for the whole family!

So I pooped open Renoise and went to work with eight marching snare samples I discovered in my archive.  I used a lot of track DSP’s to get a thick, rich movie sound.  March, BBQ zombie soldiers, march!

Download audio file (marching-snare-drums.mp3)

b-knox weekly beat 03 120bpm.zip
6.4mb :: contains .wav .mp3 and renoise source

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.

Every once and a while I search ‘knoxburry’ in soulseek to see how accessible I am in that network.  I was pleasantly surprised to see my track from this compilation show up!  It meant that it was finally released!!

The official release page is here.  But I found spam on forums first when googling for the damn thing.  We’ve got some reviews on WATMM and xltronic and overall they are positive.  I’ve known for a long time that IDM/breakcore enthusiasts often don’t enjoy chipmusic even though there are many artists who jump back and forth between these mediums.

My track is ‘alberto balsalm’ and I am not totally satisfied with my effort.  There is a section of the song I just could not get the chords right no matter what I tried.  But that’s ok, I suppose.  I did my best to catch the essence of the song and the rhythm is spot on.  I substituted the wooden chair squeak with the Legend of Zelda’s “the dungeon boss is in the next room” sound.

Download audio file (Baron-Knoxburry-Alberto-Balsalm.mp3)

Here are a couple things said at WATMM —

Yeah, somebody said they didn’t like the Alberto Basalm but that’s one of my favorites because it’s so fucked up and authentic. I hate how most 8-Bit is “simulated” and then what’s the point? You’re not fooling anyone because you’re doing things that exceed the capacities of a SID chip. You have to admit that the percussion breakdown is the tits because it’s so metapharstic. But that huge, blat of a minor chord does not belong at all lol–makes it sound like Castlevania

I disagree. Doesn’t matter if it exceeds the capacity of an SID chip. Its all about the sound that it produces. I have no interest in what hardware/software they’re using. Its all about that squarewave sound :spiteful:

And, so, you can see that these Aphex Twin fans don’t know the difference between the Commodore 64 SID chip and an NES with a VRC6 expansion (what I used). Of course you can’t expect people who are :spiteful: against simple square waves to know the difference. Comments on chiptune forums like chipmusic.org and 8bitcollective.com don’t even touch what systems or methods were used.  What I don’t get is why Aphex Twin lovers won’t allow themselves to enjoy such a tribute with his early history of frankenstein hardware.  How is programming antique hardware that different?

Much respect to Emar for organizing and hosting this compilation!

Download 126mb .ZIP here

So, this time around I’m going to include something I have been working with – SoundManager 2, a javascript library. Namely, the MPC demo.  Basically, SoundManager hides a Flash movie that dynamically integrates with javascript to load and trigger MP3 files.

Yeah, mash that keyboard.  I’m not a huge fan of the kit they use but I’m even less a fan of how coordinated my fingers are.  Hopefully this is my worst loop ever because it’s not even loopable!  :D

Download audio file (b-knox-weekly-beat-02-free-tempo.mp3)

This week I resolved to get this done as quickly as possible and still keep it interesting.  Oh whatever should I do? I whipped open my Renoise and the included 808 drumkit. 

I decided to do something with a lot of bounce. Shuffle, skip and swing are all adjectives used to describe this type of rhythm. It’s applied in all sorts of genres including jazz and psychobilly.

Pictured at right is the beginning of my pattern data.  In the Master column you see an alternating effect command.  F2xx sets the Ticks Per Beat.  Now the pattern rhythmically swings.  I wrote 8 quick measures and applied a little distortion for teh funs.  \:D/

Download audio file (b-knox-weekly-beat-01-120bpm.mp3)

b-knox-weekly-beat-01-120bpm.zip
zip includes .wav .mp3 and Renoise source

So, for this, the first installment, I did what I will probably do every time, what came naturally.  Au, so naturale!  I busted out famitracker and did a slightly downtempo/hip-hop beat at 90bpm.  If you open the .ftm source file you’ll see I worked at 180bpm.  When using a tracker, doubling your tempo is the difference between 16th notes and 32nds.  You thus get twice the rhythmic detail to work with.  Quadruple your tempo and your work resolves around 64ths.  You get the idea…

I’ve been doubling my snares with a clap lately and this loop is no exception.  I used only the NES’s noise and dpcm channels.  I made a pitch swishy noise snare and put a 909 clap along it’s side.  Maybe next time I’ll try to create a clap sound with noise… the possibilities are endless!!  This is chiptune, galldurnit!!

Download audio file (b-knox-weekly-beat-00-90bpm.mp3)

download b-knox weekly beat #00 – 90bpm
includes .ftm .nsf .mp3 .wav files

count with javascript

This was the first type of solution I found.  Actually, I haven’t even tried it.  I knew right off the bat there has to be a built in jQuery function so I kept digging…

.size()

Yes! After scouring the API documentation for 20 minutes I finally stumbled upon what I was looking for — .size() It returns a count of elements inside a jQuery object. If there are no elements in the object it returns zero.

But what’s this?!?! The comments on the entry say it’s a stupid function that should be deprecated. The page suggests something better…

.length

.length works in a different way to get a similar answer.  It seems to be “faster, and more consistent to JavaScript in general”.  I hope this is helpful to someone in a similar situation!  :D

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

• an attention getter
• state your purpose
• expand your idea
• break it down
• keep them interested
• revelation
• end with a ‘thanx’
• Q + A

This, indubitably, is in abstract reference to the music itself which, thus, includes all countenance and hither to any such ambiguous proclamations such that antithesis rides again in a squandary of adhesive codas.  Pack your bags, it’s time for a vacation.  And nary the very inquiry that brought us here in the first place.  :D/