Blip 2009
Blip Festival 2009
With this year’s event a scant month away, NYC chip collective 8bitpeoples and non-profit arts and cultural organization The Tank have at last announced a (partial) lineup for the 2009 Blip Festival. Now entering its fourth year, Blip Festival is a lo-fi digital extravaganza boasting daytime workshops, visual art installations, film screenings and, of course, three nights of amazing live chip music. Running Thursday, December 17th through Saturday, December 19th at the Bell House in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn, this year’s performers include:
Bit Shifter
Chromix
Disasterpeace
Failotron
Fighter X
The Hunters
I, Cactus
The J. Arthur Keenes Band
Je Deviens DJ En Trois Jours
Leeni
Little-Scale
Nullsleep
Rainbowdragoneyes
Also confirmed is a stellar selection of digital visualists who’ll be projecting their work live:
Enso
JYK
Outpt
Paris
Vblank
Whether you’re a fan of the uncomplicated design aesthetics of the Commodore 64, the pixilated elegance of NES-era graphics or a lover of Game Boy music, Blip Festival 2009 is for you. The world’s longest running event of its kind, this year’s fest once again promises to be easily accessible to hardcore fans and novices alike, not to mention a friendly, all-ages experience that GeekDads can share with their brood.
Festival passes and single-night tickets are currently available, and interested parties are also advised to visit the event’s Kickstarter campaign page to help bridge the funding gap. Exclusive rewards are up for grabs to eligible supporters, so don’t delay!
New 8bit synth for iPhone
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzlWaY8hh_Y&feature=player_embedded]
8Bitone is Synthesizer and Sequencer application to simulate sounds for 8bit Personal Computer and Console Game Generator from the 80`s.
PSG and SSG vintage voices are revived here and their nostalgic electric sounds are able to be simulated with iPhone/iPodTouch. The Sequencer part uses general Piano Roll Screen.
It has been adjusted for Multi-Touch function of iPhone/iPodTouch to compose songs with fingertip easily.
★ Synthesizer
Monophonic
1 oscillator or LowBitNoise.
LFO
Envelope
HiSpeed Arpeggiator
★ Sequencer Edit
With Truck manager on Sequencer screen, Composing is easy with Piano Roll format.
In addition, Voice Change is equipped to produce different Voices in the song.
4 trucks are the maximum limit.
★ Voice Edit
The nostalgic sounds can be created here by turing knobs and operating sliders on Synthesizer screen.
In 8Bitone, a group of values which are set on the Synthesizer screen is called “VOICE”.
Each one song can contains up to 128 Voices.
In addition, playing with keyboard on the bottom of the screen can be enjoyable too.
Move the wheel to control the Pitch.
Don't miss out on the SOASC project = C64 heaven
The SOASC= project is a non-profit and a private project.
The SOASC= project is an automated recording technique invented by me (Stone Oakvalley) in order to mass record music from the legendary Commodore 64 and its SID sound chips (6581 and 8580) including one variation chip.
The purpose is to preserve Commodore 64 music in todays most common music format, namely the MP3.
The original SID music files are today played by millions of people around the world on software players that emulate the real hardware SID chips. The emulated audio material can vary a great deal compared to the authentic sound of a real Commodore 64, and from my point of view, why have something emulated when you can have the real deal instead? We give you the authentic Commodore 64 music as it sounds on the real machine. Commodore 64 is a legend in computer history and in many ways influenced in todays culture (known as 8-bit music or chip music). It deserves much more than just emulating that raw & unique gritty sound! It made many people happy “back then”, and we are here to offer that feeling again!
To put in it words we all can understand: WE LOVE C64!
The entire HVSC SID collection will be recorded as played from REAL Commodore 64’s (both old and new) as per the latest collection available. With PSID64 as the REAL C64 player and 64HDD as fileserver, it all connects to multiple PC’s with own tailored software, crude PAR: port control system/C64 keyboard interface and database structure tools written in PureBasic. Yes, its actually working.
Also, a strong point to consider in this project is that ALL SIDs are recorded on both Commodore SID chip models
regardless of what HVSC or the author of the SID had recommended. Remember: There are people out there
that probably NEVER heard the elite sound of the 6581 and its sample/filter defects, but only the sound of 8580
and visa versa. For those people, they ONLY rembember the tune as played by their model. And this is a strong point
of the SOASC= project: PRESERVATION for ALL!
If it crackles and pops….well..it’s the true and authentic sound of a real Commodore 64!
This is what we had in the past, and now the past will be the present for all Commodore 64 fans out there.
It is called AUTHENTIC because the process will NOT attempt to enhance any of the recordings, it is recorded
straight plain out from the mono Commodore 64 Audio/Video connector. No stereo, no funny mixes, no compression,
no filtering, no remix, no software noise reduction, no crazy SID hacks or other unatural Commodore 64 elements.
If there is a poppy click in the recording its supposed to be there. The SID chip is unique as should be treated as so as well.
I’ve adjusted DC BIAS to 0 and executed Volume Maximizer with no clipping using NORMALIZE.EXE and SOX.EXE.
Noise Reduction was done by improving the physical grounding inside Commodore 64. Thats it!
The final MP3 (224kbps, mono, 44100Hz) will contain all information from the SID itself, sorted in respect of the
directory structure as defined by HVSC. Filenaming, title, author, copyright etc.
Forget PlaySID/SIDPlay2w….and all the others
Forget HardSID
Forget ParSID
Forget ReSID
Forget MMC64 (It has an intergrated SID player, for those who wonder)
Forget them ALL!
Just listen to the real deal instead with the help of the SOASC= project!
New release of Chipmusic from Kittenrock – free download
Good sounding chipmusic/video game music from Kittenrock
Btw this is good site for finding more of the same >>
Free downloads (Radiowaves is btw my favorite :-))
SILent REQuiem – Pokket Nastie
(zip file – right click save target as or whatever for mac users)
This month SILent REQuiem brings us 9 tracks of some of the most terrifying Game Boy techno out there.
Get ready to be scared!
Originally released January 2008
RADIO WAVES GOODBYE – LASER BEAM
(zip file – right click save target as or whatever for mac users)
Radio Waves Goodbye blasts us out with a heavy slice of Hi-NRG Game Boy techno.
Originally released December 2007
8bitpoeple :-)
Came across this tremedous 8bit site the other day. Here you will find a veriety of new fresh bitpop tunes. This how the 8bitpeople describe themselves and their mission:
The 8bitpeoples first came together in 1999 as a collective of artists sharing a common love for classic videogames and an approach to music which reflected this obsession. Our primary interests were to provide quality music for free and most importantly to have fun. In the years since, we have grown in rank and expanded our goals.
We continue to provide the vast majority of all our releases for free, including printable covers and inserts so that anyone with the desire to can “manufacture” physical copies of our albums. Furthermore, limited runs of most of our releases are available, offering superior sound quality to the mp3 releases and occasionally bonus tunes.
In addition to our continuing devotion to music, we now have a research & development division dedicated to the creation of software, construction of hardware, and dissemination of documentation related to our cause. Our love for the audio/visual aesthetics of early videogame consoles and homecomputers continues to provide us with the drive to push the medium to its very limits, and then see just how much further we can go after that … you know, just for fun. Homepage >>
Mr Spastic:
Nullsleep:
Rushjet:
Tuesday afternoon with a Nintendo Chip Reason Refill
Nintendo NES Wave Pack Demo Refill – 12MB zipped. An extremely limited but free version of the refill in our store.
My suggestion – downlaod the demo and find out for yourself if its useful 
This is what the manufacturers saying about it;
Do you want to make chip tunes? Or integrate the sound of the Nintendo NES into your music? You do not have to buy the NES or mess around old gear and software that doesnt quite emulate that natural sound 8 bit sound. These are profesionally recorded samples at 24 bit 96khz bit rate directly from the NES output on the back of the machine. People will actually think you have an NES with midi. This CD Includes all wave files of every type of synthesis that the NES is capable of! Every Square wave, Sine, Noise, and even 8-bit percussive samples. Already pre-packed for use as reason refills, these raw uncompressed, unedited samples will give you the power of NES inside your computer x infinity.
These are right out of the back of the NES and professionally mastered. Song templates are for Reason 3.0. The chip collection philosophy is to give you the highest sample rate, and to limit the amount of digital artifacts in your final product. All WAVE files are exposed and editable! Can be imported into other samplers.
Commodore 64 – VST – a little beauty
basic64 is inspired by the 8 bit sounds of the classic Commodore 64.
It’s not a straight emulation, but is based around the SID chip with some extras for that 8-bit retro game sound, lofi gritty noises or just plain oddness
features
– 16, 8 or 6 bit sound quality
– 3 oscs, each with their own ADSR envelope
– oscillators can be sync’d and ring modulated by each other
– pitch envelope modulation
– pitch wobble option, for subtle instability
– 2 tempo-sync LFO’s to modulate pitch, cut-off and pulse width
– LFO’s have attack/release curves
– tempo-sync arpegiator
– flexible routing to state variable filter (LP, HP & BP)
– envelopes can be reset or continuous at retrigger
– monophonic or polyphonic option
– midi learn / midi CC support
– 128 presets by sinkmusic & WhiskeyPriest
Nintendo Museum and YMCK 8Bit
Rumors has it that japanese chiptune popstars YMCK will unleash some new blippy efforts this month and they are on a European tour. YMCK is the 8bit pop unit formed by 3 persons.The most prominent feature of the band is the 8bit sound that reminds people old game consoles, which attracts the enthusiastic support from wide range of generations.
The 1st album “Family music” released in 2004 made a big hit and made their popularity unassailable.
Their unique style of live performances using 8bit pixel animation is also highly acclaimed.
Their activities are not limited in Japan but also made successes in performing at international music festivals around the world: in Sweden, New York, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea, and CDs are released in United States, Thailand, and South Korea. Besides those things above, YMCK does a wide range of activities, such as remix works, video game sound tracks, DJ performances, development of 8bit sound plug-in software etc.
Listen to samples of YMCK’s brand of 8-bit, sugarsweet vocal music here while waiting patiently for a reputable importer to carry the dot-pin set.
And while you are in Japan why not take a tour at the Nintendo Museum, good fun:
C=iao
Commodore 64 Audio
Fancy some good old C64 look-a-likes, well be inspired at:
Became especially fond of this guy, OK not all of it, but some of it was really nice and blippy
C=iao
Thermostatic – easy listening towards the end of a busy day @ work
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN_tTzUfBXk]
DATAMASKIN
