Famitron in the studio - Lower Your Audio Before Playing

YouTube via Kaseo | January 20, 2011 |

"Bent Famicom keytar

!!! CAUTION !!! Lower your volume, video is loud"

Daniel Olsén on Marching with the ilomilos

Daniel Olsén on Marching with the ilomilos from Jeriaska on Vimeo.

FamiTracker after 3 minute mark.
"Videogame Music in Context on Kickstarter
tinyurl.com/​vgm-context

Q&A on IndieGames.com

Southend Interactive is an independently financed game studio based in Malmö, Sweden. According to manager Fredrik Erlandsson, the company has refrained from entering their products in the Independent Games Festival because they see it more as a forum for less experienced devs. However the design methodologies underlying Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Live Arcade puzzler ilomilo have embodied an independent spirit.

"Someone comes up with an idea and presents it to the team," says composer Daniel Olsén. "If people like it, we’ll start working on a pitch to show to publishers. We also have something called “hippie day” when we sit down in small groups and try to come up with ideas for pitches. Usually, whoever comes up with the idea is the one who stays in charge of the project later on. That’s pretty much it."

Close to one hour (not all of it is used for the mobile version) of music has been written for the game, which is out now for the Windows mobile device and will see an official release on XBLA in early January. A full-length remix album is also in the works, care of art director Simon Flesser. We caught up with the game's composer to hear about his music score, which in its endearing use of eclectic instrumentation and imprecise harmony lends a childlike quality to the overall game design."

8BIT GUITAR - PULSEWIDTH SEQUENCING

YouTube via 4NIM4L57YL3 | June 28, 2010



Thanks to Vblank and Batsly Adams for their help. Vblank gave me some programming lessons and Batsly helped me choose the correct components to use.

Thanks to Bucky from for being my camera man on this one.

Thanks to Part Time (my cat) for trying to get into every video i post. ...gives me chiptune street cred yo.

This a CV sequencer i built (with an arduino microcontroller). It Sequences the pulse width of my guitar. I got the idea from tracking (composing) in famitracker, LSDJ and Goattracker. When you compose for the NES or the Gameboy, there are tons of effects you can choose from to make square waves more complex and interesting sounding. So, once i saw that the Pulsemonger pedal had a CV input for the pulsewidth i had to buy it. There are a couple reasons i built this with an arduino: I wanted to make it expandable. In the future, I may add some tap tempo functionality or i thought maybe it might be fun to actually hook the sequencer up to my Gameboy (through the linker port) so the sequencing would happen in relation to the tempo of the song i'm playing."

MOON8 - Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Chiptune Style

MOON8 4 of 6 - Money
video upload by Sakanakao

Full album below.

"http://rainwarrior.thenoos.net/music/... [mp3s]

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon arranged for NES by Brad Smith. Created using Famitracker, sound rendered with NSFplug."

Playlist:

via Retro Thing

Update via cw8cka in the comments: "Pink Floyd’s quintessential 1973 album, Dark Side of the Moon, has been a perpetual presence on record sales charts even since its release. A recent chiptune album, created by software programmer Brad Smith, takes a fresh look at the classic and capitalizes on its huge popularity, while succeeding in bringing something new to the table.

Chiptune, for those not familiar with the genre, is a form of electronic music in which music is created in a way emulating the production of music on early 8-bit video game systems such as the Nintendo NES. Composers are limited to the use of a square sound wave and only three oscillators. Despite these limitations, many chiptune albums have shown, especially Smith’s Moon8.

Smith spent nearly two years working on Moon8 in his spare time using the popular chiptune software, FamiTracker. He originally undertook the project for the amusement of a friend, and presented it at a small party. He then uploaded the work to Youtube, with no video other than a still frame depicting the original Dark Side of the Moon cover re-imagined in an 8-bit art style. Despite the lack of visual interest or marketing, the videos are on their way to viral success. In one short month, most of the Youtube videos already boast over a third of a million views.

Moon8 is a loving recreation of its source material, very rarely deviating from the original. The guitar voices, dynamic shaping, echoing vocal lines, and sliding pitch shifts present in the original songs are all executed with near perfection. Unlike many chiptune works, the album is completely listenable. I had no trouble sitting down for 45 minutes with my headphones on and playing the duration of the album. There were no headaches, and no uncontrollable urges to tear out and eat my own hair. Many chiptune composers could learn a lot from Smith’s style.

The moments in which it seems most impossible for Smith to recreate Pink Floyd’s work are the moments in which his work shines the most. Two of the most popular songs on the original album feature the heavy use of sound effects: Time, and Money. Certain effects in the sound collages that open these tracks are obviously impossible to render on the NES, but Smith reacts brilliantly. A sonically detailed effect of coins jangling together is represented instead by its comically simplified Super Mario equivalent. This nod to the video game background of the chiptune genre is cute and entirely appropriate. The cacophony of acoustic sounds from antique clocks that opens Time would also impossible to recreate on the NES. The listener is instead greeted with an equivalent cacophony of sounds resembling the alarm functions digital watches, cheap digital alarm clocks, and cellphones.

Moon8 is available for free download in a variety of formats on Smith’s website, http://rainwarrior.thenoos.net/music/moon8.html. The mp3 version consists of only two files, one corresponding to each side of the album’s original vinyl release, a move the speaks greatly to Smith’s great respect for the work he has made his own. Moon8 stands as a tremendous tribute to Pink Floyd, rather than the satirical mockery we can easily imagine it as."

The Blip Festival 2008

pictured: IAYD

"About the Show:

Archaic game and home computer hardware is recast into the unlikely role of musical instrument and motion graphics workstation in the BLIP FESTIVAL 2008, a four-day event showcasing nearly 40 musicians and visual artists occupying the international low-res cutting edge. The Blip Festival takes place DECEMBER 4—7, 2008 at The Bell House, and is presented by Manhattan art organization THE TANK and NYC artist collective 8BITPEOPLES.

***We are pleased to announce that there will be 2 for 1 drink specials from 7-8pm NIGHTLY during the festival! Also, the complete schedule is now officially ANNOUNCED!***

Of particular note, we are extremely excited about the international performers set to play this year, particularly those making their US DEBUT:

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