Reformat the Planet – the history of chip music
Reformat the Planet (RTP) is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as chip music, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using obsolete video game hardware. Familiar devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System are pushed in new directions with startling results.
This version of Reformat the Planet is tailored specifically for Youtube with all new annotations. If you have never watched the film before you may want to turn them off for the first viewing.
Reformat the Planet is available to purchase on DVD from 2 Player Productions at-
http://shop.indieblitz.com/2player
This all new 2 disc set features remastered picture and audio as well as tons of bonus features.
DISC 1: REFORMAT THE PLANET:
All new Director’s Cut of Reformat the Planet
Commentary track with the Filmmakers
Additional Interviews
Deleted Scenes
Trailers
DISC 2: REFORMAT THE PLANET 1.5:
All new documentary short RTP 1.5
Commentary track with the Filmmakers
Music videos
Conversations feat. Johan Kotlinkski, Peter Swimm, and David Sugar
Chip music tutorials feat. Glomag and Bit Shifter
Plus a full color 16-page collector’s booklet featuring photos and all new essays from critics and noted members of the chip community.
Chip music: Beat The Elite in the Demoscene
Casual talk I gave at the CoDaMe ART & TECH party in San Francisco. I’m embarrassed that I glossed over so many details, especially with an original member of Future Crew in the audience, but I hope that I sparked some fingers to get into (or back at) being creative using code as their crayons!
Also want to mention that Sit Up Straight Kids (music for the Binary Alchemy production) was a musical collab with my :|kREW mate Albert who released a great catalog of his stuff as mp3s/wax at bbpwc.com/tgnp020/
More exciting coverage of the after-the-talks party is up on vimeo too! vimeo.com/23732051
0h, and the tech difficulties that were solved last minute … a big hum would occur if both the audio and projector were plugged into any of the computers we were using for presentation. Not surprising since the projector cable was as long as the room and crossing over a bunch of cables and hung from the ceiling etc, impossible to fix. The solution I saw was to stream either the video or audio to another device, breaking the physical connection. I chose audio since it’s lower bandwidth and installed RemoteHD on my iPhone and the presentation computer. No more hum! However, the audio was behind the video since it was streaming. This was compensated for in VLC by setting the audio delay to -2500 milliseconds. I was able to play both Binary Alchemy by Northern Dragons and Elevated by RGBA & TBC in perfect sync on the big screen =)
Chipslapper for Reaktor
Chipslapper is a new instrument for Reaktor, here’s what the maker has to say about it:
Sure, the world probably doesn’t need another simplistic, single-osc Reaktor synth, but I made this specifically to mimic the behaviour of so-called ‘chipsamples’ in ProTracker, FastTracker2 and similar trackers.
Traditionally, since the late ’80s, tracked chipmusic has been created by looping short (~32byte) samples which the tracker automatically uses as pitched instruments. Effects are applied using hex commands and more advanced trackers had extended instrument options which emulated the behaviour of basic synths.
Anyway, purely for my own work, I wanted to have a straightforward, cross-platform means of composing using my old tracker styles/technique in newer DAWs like Ableton Live. If it’s useful to any other afficionados, great – but most people will just find it to be a very dull synth that looks like a Reaktor beginner’s project 😉
Features etc:
- Drop the polyphony in Reaktor if you want to emulate XM channel-count limitations, or switch to mono and use the severely restricted delay controls to mimic pattern-delay.
- Vibdepth (pitchmod vibrato) behaves in the FT2 way, with sweep delaying the effect and phase allowing you to turn the triangle waveshape into FT2’s two optional sawtooth shapes.
- Pan has a Random Range control which, when twiddled, means each successive noteon event will be given a random pan position within that range. This is the closest I can be bothered to get to FT2’s pan envelope, as it wasn’t synced with the song anyway…if you want proper panning envelopes for phrases of notes, do them in your DAW!
- One thing which definitely doesn’t appear in FT2 or PT is the pulsewidth modulation. However, I often use a bank of around 8 squarewave samples with varying pulsewidths and then cycle through them over the course of a melody line: the pulsewidth mod emulates *that* trick, which in turn was always supposed to emulate pulsewidth mod 😉
- Chip Waveform – draw it yourself. This is a bit flakey and doesn’t seem to save the shape if you switch waveforms to something else and then back again.
- Chip Sample – I’ve included a single small looping sample which *hopefully* gets included with the .Ens (if not, I need to figure out how), but the idea is just to load in a short sample and then play it like an instrument. Because Reaktor isn’t as limited as PT/FT2, it’s slightly less fun to use…but you can experiment with longer samples too and play around. ‘Select’ chooses between samples in the sample map, so I guess you could load in a tonne of samples and then automate the Select knob in your DAW to get a wavetable thing going on…
- Arpeggiator – There isn’t one. Real musicians write their own arpeggiations; proper oldschool chipmusicians, even more so 😉 But if you’re really keen on abdicating compositional responsibility, your DAW probably has an arpeggiator built in as a MIDI effect. Go nuts!
Download it here.
Chip music time again – Toy Tone
Fresh out of the oven! A new production by Patric Catani, completely made in LGPT running on a GP2X.
The first officially released tracks of the Toytone project come as bassy as they wanna be. Varying between Club, Booty Bounce and an exaggerated approach of speed acid dub, you will notice that this collection was not done overnight.
Enjoy this full package of passionated Piggy tracking –
Download the full album and get two Bonus songs!
Tracklist:
1. Piggy Bounce 04:14
2. Traintrak1 03:30
3. Frogmind 03:06
4. Gpd2 Panic Picnic 03:12
5. All Toys in the House! 06:11
6. Almost too Analog 04:23
7. Was Jetzt? 02:49
8. Fosuru 09:11 download
9. Taste in Acid 08:18
10. BrmBrm 06:40
Download and listen to it from his Bandcamp page
desktop orchestra
Weekend blip treat: ‘she was captain dark down weird’, a two minute, energetic chiptune anthem by montreal artist battle lava sets the sound for an illuminated lab of thirty 24″ imacs. with a mere game boy, battle lava creates novel sounds with the analog waves of yesteryear. the visuals, composed in a single flash document are split for each screen and assigned when desktop orchestra is launched. each display is controlled by a flash applet served by php and can be started and stopped on demand.
desktop orchestra is a personal project made over the course of a year while i studied graphic design in college. it involved composing a synchronized animation of lights for 30 displays, programming in multiple unfamiliar languages, setting up a server, months of trial and error and recording/editing a video. every aspect of this project involves computers and an intimate relationship with their glowing fluorescents and fiery colours. may their waves radiate strong.
internetveterans.org/orchestra
battlelava.bandcamp.com
recorded at dawson college in montreal, 2011
Video from the 2011 Chip festival, enjoy
So here is what you missed out on Day 1 of the festival.
Chipzel on stage
For SID fans: M.S.S.I.A.H
http://youtu.be/ajDsJ54yHTw
In this video:
A new awesome computer has entered my house to help me with project MSSIAH. A big thank’s again to Mark (UKretrogames) for this wonderful mahine ! Truely very grateful. The MSSIAH is a midi interface/sequencer that allows the SID sounds to be triggered / controlled via a midi controller keyboard.
Mark UKretrogames channel : Has lots of cool videos of computer history and interviews www.youtube.com/ukretrogames
Kevins Channel: Not computer related, but very cool self made movie shorts:
www.youtube.com/jamaicanpenguin
Worlds first studio production drum machine dedicated to chip music
DCM8 Patterns
“Worlds first studio production drum machine dedicated to chip music sounds.
Two channel roughly equivalent to two emulated SID chips, with multiple oscillators, numerous waveforms and modulation options, several noise types, digital filter, lo-fi bit reduction, DAC masking and clipping.
Easy to use pattern step sequencer editing and live control modes, hundreds of synthesised preset sounds with adjustable pitch and decay parameters, and a highly versatile user instrument editor for creation of custom chip sounds. Wide range of drum sounds with ranging from traditional electro analog emulations, through a diverse range of chip sounds collected from many platforms, to new experimental interpretations.
Steel case with a brushed anodised surface and hardwood end panels.
Launching June 2011, Vic C.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vxxy/ [slide show below]
http://www.youtube.com/user/vxxynet
http://vxxy.net“
Blipfestival in NYC this week !
Blip Festival 2011 by BlipFestival
8bitpeoples & The Tank team up for the fifth anniversary edition of Blip Festival NYC, taking place May 19-21 at Manhattan art & technology center Eyebeam. Featuring 30 musicians and visualists from around the world, Blip Festival promises three nights of pulse-pounding chipmusic, showcasing the full array of the movement’s astonishing stylistic breadth.
This year’s lineup includes:
Anamanaguchi · Beastmode · Bit Shifter · Bubblyfish · Chipzel · cTrix · enso · exileFaker · 4mat · Henry Homesweet · knife city · minusbaby · M7Kenji · NNNNNNNNNN · NO CARRIER · Noisewaves · Nullsleep · Party Time! Hexcellent! · Tristan Perich · Ralp · Stagediver · Starscream · Peter Swimm · Talk To Animals · Ten Thousand Free Men & Their Families · Ultrasyd vade · visualicious · Wet Mango · Zen Albatross
…with additional daytime presentations & workshops, official afterparties, and satellite events all over the damn place. Bookmark http://www.blipfestival.org for the full run-down.
Chip guys – 8GB – Live in Tokyo 2010
Official statement:
In his first time in Japan (and Asia), 8GB delivers a mighty blow to an unsuspecting Tokyo crowd at the fantastic first installment of Blip Festival Tokyo in Koenji High, Tokyo, Japan, September 5th 2010.
Free download at Bandcamp:
DATAMASKIN
