Memorial Day was eleven days ago. The dead military people of America inspire us to think of battle as we attack and devour both the goods and spoils of BBQ’s everywhere. And what do zombie soldiers like more than anything else? That’s right! Marching snare drums.
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!
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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.
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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!
I’m only 4 days late here — H00RAYZ!! My head is spinning.
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
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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/
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Alright, I’m gonna try sumptin’ out here, alright? Inspired by drummist Ryan Gruss’s blog, I will do my utter mostest to get a drumloop posted on every Monday from now until epic miserable fail. That’s a promise! :D/
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!!
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Officially released in it’s physical form at Ann Arbor’s Blind Pig on December 16th 2009. This album was a result of the 30 Songs in 30 Days challenge. While some tracks feel like doodles, there are quite a few gems in here. Check them out. If you like them then support!
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OH! What do ya know? It’s time for da B-Knox to join the bloggosphere! It’s just another WordPress installation against the world. Still ironing out the kinks of the layout, dress to impress! :o
Wordpress is new and so is my account at SoundCloud and so a merry “Hello World!” to you all. :D
A week is too short! ^__^;