Datapop 3.0 Austin
If you weren’t able to make it for the Datapop 3.0 festival in Austin, March 16-17, here’s some video clips of the action:
Datapop 3.0 – Je Deviens DJ en 3 Jours from BLT / IDM on Vimeo.
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.
Happy new bitpop year everyone :-)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaWky0LWkdA]
Generative arts in music
Demo of dj64, a DJ environment for the Monome interface written in Max/MSP.
This patch is still under development, but will be available from monome.org soon.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A0BkOkK3rA]
“When one thinks about it, music and the visual arts are really languages that have their own grammars. We find that certain types of sequences and juxtapostions of components create effective communications. The message is whatever the artist creates or programmer allows in the system. There are certain types of systems that use a small set of rules with various permutations. Other systems use a loose set of rules with a large vocabulary. In some cases, there are many algorithms that have little or no permutation within, but the communication is made by the permutations of sequencing and juxtaposition of the algorithms into a grammar and a language.
In some cases, a formal scientific approach is taken, and the images reflect this in their pure mathematical rigor. The reliance on the formula may limit the range of expression. In other cases, a free-form artistic approach is taken, and the ad-hoc, organic nature and human hand is revealed., and the idiosyncrasies of the person come through. A close friend of mine would say that the scientific approach is the result of a fear of intimacy. Perhaps the free-form approach has its own fear of responsibility.
It’s interesting that generative art is related to grammar, the vehicle of meaning. Are we looking for meaning in art without injecting it with ourselves? Have we lost the connection with our own meaning or purpose? Is generative art the reliance on computers and technology for the solutions to our problems, even in the search for beauty or meaning?”
Dj emulation for the 40h / 64. Using 64 buttons, the user controls 2 decks, a virtual mixer, and several effects.
Created by Bitbasic
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!
Nintendo DS Homebrew Music Making
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOmxEuSwFjc]
Glitch DS is a stuttering sample player
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAvvl1U9K5E]
And DSMCU is a Midi Controller app. Check that remote automated fader action!
New album from Thermostatic
After the debut album Joy-Toy the brandnew CD Humanizer is the 2nd album of the swedisch band Thermostatic.
Thermostatic celebrates the 80s home computer sound (Sidstation at work) and combines it with the charismatic voice of singer “Vox”, along with Kraftwerk-like vocoder harmonics and those amazingly catchy melodies – Thermostatic is playful synthpop in sweetest perfection.
Listen to the song The Box and watch the preview video in an endless loop, you’ll either get hooked or get headaches :o)
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=aN_tTzUfBXk]
Super Mario goes techno :-)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIRCzbBB99E]
Found this little crazy video the other day and I must say it is facinating how well the sync goes with the game. I am not sure it is possible to do this kind of automation on NES, but if it does I am sure it will open up doors for many nice chip tunes in the Nintendo world going forward. Enjoy – it is totally whacko and it goes on and on and on
Cheers
Pixel mania
Many of you know that I am agreat fan of manga, anime, tokidoki and similar art stuff and pixel art is no exception. Pixel art gives the same type of pleasure as C64/bitpop music and therefore I just wanted to share one of my favorite pixel sites – which in principal is just one big f-cking image – printed it would certainly cover a very large painting – a smal snap shot from it is pasted below, but be sure to click the image to see the actual one and make sure to surf around in the pixel world.
DATAMASKIN
