8 Bit Weapon @ 8bitsf

8 Bit Weapon @ 8bitsf from Jeriaska on Vimeo.

"8 Bit Weapon is Seth & Michelle (AKA ComputeHer). The group has performed their chip music across two continents with their arsenal of retro game consoles: Commodore 64 and 128, Apple II, couple Nintendo Gameboy classics, Nintendo N.E.S., Amiga 1200, Intellivision synthesizer, Atari 2600, Speak n Spell & Speak n Music, some hybrid lo-fi acoustic-electric drums, and an assortment of other vintage and toy synthesizers.

Inspired by classic videogame soundtracks and electronic music from the 70s and 80s, 8 Bit Weapon delivers a sound that is as unique as it is original. Clever melodies, nostalgic atmosphere, and energetic beats create a decidedly modern sound while maintaining a fun, lo-tech aesthetic.

8bitweapon.com"

BLIP FESTIVAL 2009

BLIP FESTIVAL 2009 from 2 Player Productions on Vimeo.

"Music: Random - 'Sitges Savepoint'"

"/// About the Blip Festival
Trash-bin symphonies and ray-chasing pixel pushers herald the explosive return of Blip Festival New York City, 2009. The three-day music and arts festival returns to Brooklyn's Bell House December 17th, 18th, and 19th and is presented by Manhattan arts organization The Tank, in partnership with NYC artist collective 8bitpeoples.

Entering its fourth year of celebrating the best and brightest from the realm of chipmusic and its related disciplines, the festival showcases the use of the former heavyweights of computing such as the Commodore 64 and Amiga, the Atari ST and 2600, and the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy to create arresting music and visual art.

The festival, now one of the worlds largest and longest running events of its kind, continues to evolve with a greater breadth of international artists, a growing sophistication of styles and creative vocabulary, and a forward-thinking enthusiasm driven home by over two dozen of the worlds best musicians and visualists.

If there's one thing festival-goers can expect, it's to have their expectations blown away. And the high-energy, low-res live experience is also supplemented by daytime workshops, film screenings, and open mic events -- all in an open, friendly, all-ages atmosphere, accessible to the hardcore fan and the chipmusic neophyte alike.

///Blip Your own Adventure Video Contest!
In partnership with Plogue, we are hosting a Fan Video Contest where filmmakers, videographers, ytmnders, animators and interested amateurs are invited to take their own crack at capturing the Blip Festival in a funny, awe-inspiring, insanity inducing viral bliplet! You can read more details and rules at:
http://blipfestival.org/2009/blog/11/20/blip-your-own-adventure-fan-video-contest/
http://www.plogue.com/

///And that's not all!
We are planning more special events, workshops and screenings. Stay tuned.

As always find us at these cheery places:
http://www.blipfestival.org
http://www.twitter.com/blipfestival
http://www.myspace.com/blipfestival
http://blipfestival.bandcamp.com"

Amiga Music - Jon Tracker - Amiga Album - Cyber Techno

YouTube via bazartist
"Jon Tracker's track made on the Amiga 1200 titled Cyber Techno and promotional video to assist.

This track and the Amiga Album will be available on iTunes soon.

www.JonTracker.com"

Replacing the Floppy Drive an an AKAI S900

"This is the experience of a guy that succefully fitted an Amiga 600 floppy drive on an AKAI S900."

You can find the post on the AKAI S900 blog.

4 vids on triggering synths live with drumkits

via Stuff Linear/Amsterdam

"I have found some nice examples of the incorporation of synths and drumming.
In all the videos the drums trigger envelopes and/or drive the clock.
Mostly i notice people using the very versatile Nord Modulars for this kind of stuff.

This one is all analogue with Juno and Doepfer, by Analogueeak (he has several vids up, check m out)

analog modular with bass drum trigger and juno 082508

YouTube via analogueak. [You might remember this one from this post.]

This one is starring Andre Duracell playing the BubbleBobble Theme. He allso has several vids up. I chose this one because you see a bit of gear.
He uses the Nord G2 Engine and a laptop.

Duracell plays Bubble Bobble tune

[Duracell plays Bubble Bobble tune live @ San Giustino, Italy 24-04-2007]

The Amiga SpaceHarrier theme by the same Mister Duracell;

André Duracell - Space Harrier

YouTube via HormonaRictus
[André Duracell performs Space Harrier
Palais de Tokyo - Paris # 02.11.06]

This one stars Sebastian Arnold using the Nord Modular G2 (keys) and lots of other gear.

trigger drums synthesizer song

YouTube via batzberlin [also see this performance]
[Acoustic drumset attached via MIDI-triggers to a Clavia Nord Modular G2 playing a jazz-funky song.]

My own little tryout with 2 Nord Micro Modulars.

test with diy trigger and mixer stuff into clavia microoos

YouTube via ikmijzelf"

[Note you might remember Duracell from these two videos as well: one, two.

9999

"From the guy that brought you the first music album on a NES cartridge, Alex Mauer's "9999" features 42 songs using 9 different game system's soundchips. The list includes: NES, Commodore 64, Gameboy, Atari XL computer, MSX computer, IBM PC/DOS, Commodore Amiga, Game Gear, and Sega Genesis. CD available for purchase starting June 1st 2008 at http://headlessbarbie.com ; Released on the II (pause) label. *: The first music album on NES cartridge is titled "Vegavox" and has been covered by many blogs and magazines."

I actually put up a couple of posts on Vegavox here.

909 and Amiga Sounds in Flash and Flash Based Music Production

CDM has a great post up on Flash based music environments. Do check it out.

One of my favorite Flash based sites is Audio Playground's Virtual Drum Machine page, a virtual collection of vintage drum machines you can play online. If you haven't done so already, just check it out. It's pretty amazing.

On a separate note, CDM is having a bit of a fund raiser at the moment. The site unlike Matrixsynth runs on it's own servers and thus costs a bit of money to keep running. When I had Matrixsynth on my own servers I ran into this problem quickly so I know the pain. CDM is a great resource and Peter Kirn, the man behind the site, is a great guy. Peter and CDM has supported Matrixsynth in a number of ways including promoting me on CDM, and helping me privately via email when I ran into site issues myself. Peter had enough faith in Matrixsynth to ask me to write CDM's This Week in Synths column which was kind of a best of for the week on Matrixsynth. I unfortunately had to give it up due to the problem many of us have - lack of time. For me it's the blog, day job and family. We run the sites on our own free time and for the love of the subject matter. That said, if you want to help me out, help CDM out. Peter is also author of the book Real World Digital Audio, you can find my review of it here. If you donate the list price of the book to CDM, Peter will send you a copy. I couldn't think of a better time to get the book.

So, why aren't I asking for support? Matrixsynth runs on Blogger which is 100% free. How can you support Matrixsynth? Don't be afraid of the ads. If want to buy something through Amazon, Ebay or other, click on the links to them here and buy. It doesn't cost you more and it helps support the site. You also don't have to buy what's listed here. If you buy anything at one of the sponsored sites, after clicking through here, a small amount goes to Matixsynth. Treat yourself to something and know you are supporting the site while doing so.

Mark Salud on Yourself Presents

YouTube via peahix. Sent my way via Pea Hicks.
"amiga desktop mod techno, performed live on san diego public access tv show 'yourself presents!'"

=Silent Shrapnel=

Title link takes you to =Silent Shrapnel= on MySpace. When you get there scroll down to just below the embedded Thomas Dolby vid. You will see a "Sounds Like" label and to the right of that an embedded audio player. The track is untitled. It features and Akai AX80 for bass and the other synths listed below. I ran into dave of =Silent Shrapnel= in the comments of this post. He actually won the AX80 posted and used it for the bass in this track. Obviously check the rest of his music as well. There are a couple more gear shots in the pics section of his space.

Akai AX80 - bass
roland JV880 - strings
ensoniq VFX - echo plucked sound
ensoiniq SQ2 - blues guitar sounding lead part.
yamaha sy77 - fairlightish sounding bits
emu pro/cussion - all drums
digitech tsr6 - reverbs on jv880 and sy77
all fed into 2 motu mixer 7s
with their outputs going ito a alesis 3630
compressor.

About =Silent Shrapnel=
I'm =DÂV€=, A Visalia Calif. based Electronic Musician. Started Playing with Computer sequenced music back in the Late 80's using an Amiga 500 connected to a Roland D5 synthesizer. The sequencing software I used back then was called Music-X. I'm self taught, no formal music training. I love analog and metallic noises. Over the years I have aquired Most of the Music gear I've always wanted. My favorite will always be my beloved VFX because of its Matrix-like modulation routings and wealth of Patch parameter programming.

Producer Timbaland rips song from finnish musician?

YouTube via timbalandrips. Sent my way via JM.

"In 2000 the Finnish demoscene musician Janne Suni (also known as 'Tempest') won the Oldskool Music Competition at the Assembly demoparty with his four-channel Amiga .MOD entitled 'Acid Jazzed Evening.' A Commodore 64 musician called 'grg' remade the song on the C64 (using the infamous SID soundchip); it is this that was stolen."

Synth content: C64 in the original track. Title link takes you to non synth details.
There's more detail in the description of the YouTube video.
Here's the TinyUrl referenced at the end of the video.

Legowelt... Ah, gear lust...

Legowelt sums up gear lust perfectly. Click here for more pictures. Crazy cat, Legowelt is... I love his writing sytle.

From the site:
"The studio is where its at'..the place where the music is made.A sanctuary, a gearfreak's fatherland or whatever. A dangerous place also...You might spend days here forgetting there is a world outside. The machines are no machines anymore: you treat them with respect, they have personalities...some of them love, others don't give a fuck...but they are alive...and might even be considered close family.

Its difficult to describe to a stranger what it is like to be a 'gearfreak' (i.e. having a keen interest in electronic music instruments, especially old analog ones). Bob Moog ( a famous inventor of synthesizers) once said: "its halfway between being a musician and hot-rodding your car" and thats pretty much right...its nerdy but macho at the same time, and for fellow gearfreaks there is nothing quite like the exhiliration of the 'gearlist'...where the people tell what gear they use and have.

That is the point of this part of the Legowelt site, to see what gear is used in the Legowelt studio. For a non-gearfreak this might be complete nonsense, but for those who dig it....here it is (with the additional pictures!)..and also remember there is some fancy shit here, but also lot of tracks are actually made ghetto style in the living room or on the road on cheap ass equipment such as Amiga computers, boss drummachines and borrowed portable grooveboxes, just to be mixed in this studio on the mixing desk...and fuck yeah sometimes that don't even happen. "