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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperAudioExamples of _bad_ chiptune music?
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SolarLune
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« Reply #20 on: November 18, 2011, 09:18:15 AM »

Arpeggios: The first sign of bad chiptunes.
Due to hardware limitations the arpeggio was used for blending two notes or more for chords. It gives quite a nice effect when not overused.

I agree with you both, Brother Android and keoni29. Arpeggios were definitely used back in the days of retro consoles like the NES, and they continue to be used today for a good reason - when you're restricting yourself to six channels and you need to hit a chord, an arpeggio can work well. That's not saying that they're infinitely useful, but like any tool (distortion, compression, panning, etc), they have their purposes.
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Brother Android
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« Reply #21 on: November 18, 2011, 04:21:06 PM »

Just my opinion of course, but i think that even in the absence of channel limitations (as someone who sequences on a computer, i don't have those unless they are self-imposed), they have a distinctive sound which is nice in some contexts. They are a significant element of the 8-bit sound and i think that criticizing them makes no sense, unless you're going to criticize tremolo picking in metal, or finger picking in folk, or ride cymbal triplets in jazz, or... whatever comparison makes you happy. Don't hate the tool, hate the abuse.

i agree that there are some awful uses of it, but i think they all tend to happen in the context of very stereotypical blip-blop type music. In which case the problem is the music and not the arpeggios.

Also, i'm gonna defend the technically clever use of chips and the wanky guitar solo, just to be different. Wanky guitar solos are not interesting to the casual listener, but they are interesting to guitarists - just as clever use of a chip is (i imagine, anyway) probably interesting as a sort of proof of concept for people who might go on to use the technical ideas in ways that are perhaps more artistically valuable.
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noah!
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« Reply #22 on: November 18, 2011, 07:52:55 PM »

Every day I listen to college radio, and every other day I am admonished by somebody for doing so. But I don't care. It has opened my eyes to the diversity of music, and also to the diversity of stammering.

Today my commute was accompanied by the soothing sounds of the scheduled hiphop DJ. I have a fair amount of respect for this DJ, because unlike the others, he's fun and charismatic and usually has good taste in music. Usually.

The last track finishes up. It's now 20 after and, well, we're gonna throw on a little Sonic the Hedgehog here...I think you guys will like this one.

What.

So this song...it's pretty much the stuff creepypastas are made of. It was a remix of Green Hill Zone, but only used the middle eight measures. And the instruments were all pulsewaves. And every so often the song would try to break into a dubstep beat, but none of the dubstep instruments would show up and the whole track would just kind of putter around before going back to the main theme.

Worst of all, the song liberally used sound effects from Super Mario Bros. The coin sound. The jump sound.

HOW DO YOU EVEN MAKE THAT MISTAKE.

Suffice it to say, this song perfectly embodies everything that is wrong with chiptune. And dubstep. And fan remixes, and geek culture, and you could probably blame most of the world's problems on this one song if you try hard enough. I know I have.

After a few minutes of searching, I found the song online. I'm not going to post it. I don't want to be responsible for somebody's suicide.
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SolarLune
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« Reply #23 on: November 18, 2011, 11:42:31 PM »

LOL
That's too bad. Well, people get better, so I hope better things come from that particular artist (whoever it is). I think a good chip tune stands as a good song on its own, not just as a chip tune. "It's pretty good for a chip tune," shouldn't really be what you're aiming for, I think. You should be aiming for, "That song was sick," even though it WAS a chip tune.
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keoni29
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« Reply #24 on: November 19, 2011, 04:33:44 AM »

I make music for my TI84+ calculator. I have just one channel to work with so I use a lot of arpeggio's to blend the lead notes with the bassline and the drums. It sounds like this:
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/456796
Credits to brother android for the original Wink
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Brother Android
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« Reply #25 on: November 19, 2011, 11:03:36 AM »

That's pretty awesome. I didn't know TI84s could even make sound.
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keoni29
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« Reply #26 on: November 19, 2011, 11:07:44 AM »

That's pretty awesome. I didn't know TI84s could even make sound.
Now you know Tongue There is an I/O port (2,5 mm plug) You can stick nokia earphones in it. With some code you can produce 1 bit music. Is it okay if I use your music for the TI84+ version of HeroCore?
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Brother Android
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« Reply #27 on: November 19, 2011, 12:30:04 PM »

yeah, that's perfectly fine. I don't know if you were planning on adapting any other tracks, but the module files are here if you want to look at them.
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keoni29
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« Reply #28 on: November 19, 2011, 12:54:44 PM »

Thanks! Now back to the bad chiptunes Wink
Those 8-bit remakes bother me. How to make one:
1.Download midi file
2.Load in any tracker
3.You are awesome and get a lot of subscribers
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Chuteleach
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« Reply #29 on: November 23, 2011, 11:40:16 AM »

I'm not even sure that "chip tunes" is a genre.  It sounds like all other music except the composer uses low bit waves.  A genre of music is characterized by the beat, scales, and chord progressions used.  Not the tones.
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keoni29
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« Reply #30 on: November 25, 2011, 07:23:39 AM »

Chiptunes are indeed the product of the hardware limitations back then. Chipmusic stands for music produced by a piece of hardware with certain limitations such as limited memory.
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Triplefox
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« Reply #31 on: November 26, 2011, 05:25:41 PM »

I find chipmusic similar to acoustic, and particularly orchestral arrangements. The similarity derives from the fact that you're trying to blend relatively thin instruments into a big sound.

In most modern production, there are some unwritten rules that are nearly universal. You can assume the "fattest" timbre by default, and then mix each part up or down as needed. Bass, lead, percussion, pads. One part each, and then a few extra layers for your "hook sounds". If vocals are there they automatically get mixed to the front. It's very cut-and-dried, and the assumptions hold across a huge number of genres. But if you're working honestly with acoustic or chip sounds, you can't do that. You can't, as a friend tried not so long ago, simply mix a piano to come out front of a triple-forte string section and have it come off believably.

The single-cycle waveforms, like acoustics, each have their roles and relative weight, and manufacturing big sounds is expensive because they usually require multiple channels and some effect like detuning or PWM. Incoporating expressive techniques(whether it be pitch shifts, volume changes, fake delay or similar..) is of high importance, because the raw sound won't carry the piece by itself, and dumping more layers and timbres on isn't an option on most hardware(less true of the FM and sample-based chipsounds).

So when people used to doing dance, rock, or hip-hop arrangements come in and try to sketch out a chiptune it usually comes out badly because too much of it is forced, the "go-to" techniques don't work the same, etc. Similarly, going the other way and trying to add more boom-tschh in a remix of a chiptune often flattens the expression of the original and leaves it sounding dead.
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