8-bit returns!

[Santaman]

In some ways I agree, modern tech machines have the tendency to be "distant" they indeed have their idiot rules and limitations but they also have their upsides, I've had fun playig old games on old hardware, I own several vintage machines just to be able to have "that" feeling again but I also have a good time playing around with the modern day machine, for example playing Unreal Tournament, we've got a server and Murmur server/Mumble client and I've got my brother and some friends logging on and playing the game and talking on the headset while we all are in our homes, can't do that with my Atari 65 XE

 

[Jadzia]

In some ways I agree, modern tech machines have the tendency to be "distant".

What do you think might need to happen to make modern tech feel less "distant"? I know that's a hard question as I'm not sure how I would answer it.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

In some ways I agree, modern tech machines have the tendency to be "distant".

What do you think might need to happen to make modern tech feel less "distant"? I know that's a hard question as I'm not sure how I would answer it.

Get an Arduino?

 

[ITL]

If any of you have a Nintendo DS, try the Korg DS-10 program. It has a very 8-bit sound. Here is a song I made with it. It's a lot of fun!

Cool!



I downloaded a Tracker style editor with VSTi support, as I'd found an excellent C64-esque VSTi - so much good, free stuff out there!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Which tracker?

Jeskola Buzz is a good (if buggy) music program, with many good synth emulators (plus VSTi support.)

 

[ITL]

Which tracker?

Jeskola Buzz is a good (if buggy) music program, with many good synth emulators (plus VSTi support.)

MadTracker 2

 

[Santaman]

In some ways I agree, modern tech machines have the tendency to be "distant".

What do you think might need to happen to make modern tech feel less "distant"? I know that's a hard question as I'm not sure how I would answer it.

The hardware isn't a problem, its the OS with its many nanny contraptions, especially Windows shields everything from you, there are things you simply can't get at, Linux is far better at it but to really get at the root of things you need to have a lot of knowledge.
And then there is software bloat.. I hate that, a browser needs to be a browser and thats it, if I need a mail client I will find one, same with IRC, IM and all that, I want seperate specialised and optimized programs for that.
Simplicity and programs that do what I tell them to do without nagging..
The modern OS is like an enormous pluche and comfortable chair, one you can barely climb out of...

Is that bad? for a techhead like me, yes, I've build 11.000 computers in my carreer so far, I've got the whole tree of X86 chips, 8088 up to Conroe, Cyrix's and AMD's , I've ran/run/am still running everything between DOS 3.1 and Win7, Linux, OS/2 etc so I can take care of myself.. however 99% of the people using computers don't care, don't know, don't want to know about what that box is doing, for them its great.
And "they" are the problem and cause that modern tech is distant..

 

[Jadzia]

I downloaded a Tracker style editor with VSTi support, as I'd found an excellent C64-esque VSTi - so much good, free stuff out there!

I've tried making things with tracker software before now, but I have no idea how to make chip music.

I'm looking forward to hearing some of your musical creations.

 

[ITL]

Might take me a while -I'm still getting used to the software and getting the neatest sounds out of SID chip takes some tweaking!

 

[LitmusDragon]

One thing I recall from 8-bit was that games seemed a lot more individualized. I mean the gameplay on a lot of them was terrible- it hadn't been reduced to a science yet!- but when you booted up Forbidden Forest it was a totally different feeling than Ultima III or M.U.L.E. or Mr. Robot. Back then about the only "fixed" genre was the platformer, even RPGs all had vastly different takes on the way to do things. Nowadays it seems like games tends more towards being clones of each other. Diablo clones, WoW clones, Call of Duty clones, etc. There was kind of a whacky mayhem to gaming that seems missing now (or if it's still out there, I'm not in touch with it).

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I think video game music was a lot more creative back when you had to massage interesting sounds out of very limited hardware.

Stuff like this:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToP2O8Sc_qo[/yt]

 

[Jadzia]

The theme of Crazy Comets is one of my favourites.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbQoQFLM_1s[/yt]

The Phantom of the Asteroids music is also worthy of mention. This is a complex composition for 3 channels.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYx92zAF-IE[/yt]

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Anything by Rob Hubbard is a win.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpsN14TFy90[/yt]

 

[Jadzia]

Might take me a while -I'm still getting used to the software and getting the neatest sounds out of SID chip takes some tweaking!

I've had a go at making one.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS8UofxmRyY[/yt]

 

[ITL]

^ Cool!

So what did you use?

 

[Jadzia]

I used modplug tracker classic.

It's not strictly a chip tune, because it's made with four samples: a square wave sample, a saw wave sample, and the kick and hihat from a tr808.

I couldn't get the VSTi things to produce much of anything in madtracker.

 

[ITL]

Which VSTi did you use? I've been getting some nice sounds out of the basic_64 VSTi - and a nice feature of MadTracker is that you can automate the controls for nice filter sweeps and the like. I'm collecting WAV samples of 8-bit drums, as well. I might even make some basslines with the VSTi and convert them to samples for ease of use. After all, that's what trackers are best at!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I used modplug tracker classic.

It's not strictly a chip tune, because it's made with four samples: a square wave sample, a saw wave sample, and the kick and hihat from a tr808.

I couldn't get the VSTi things to produce much of anything in madtracker.

Modplug Tracker is a good choice. I had a lot of fun making music with that in the late '90s!

 

[Jadzia]

Modplug Tracker is a good choice. I had a lot of fun making music with that in the late '90s!

I've used it myself for a few years as well, but not so much recently. Here's a tune I made with it a couple of years ago, using only square waves and percussion :

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcGfN1CT5LY[/yt]

 

[Jadzia]

Which VSTi did you use? I've been getting some nice sounds out of the basic_64 VSTi

I selected "Synth1 VSTI". I'll admit this is my first exposure to VSTi things. I'm not 100% sure how they work yet. I'll see if I can find the one you mentioned.

ITL, are you familiar with the kwed website?

Basically, people take one of the original SID tunes, and remix/remake it with modern tracker software (or even a live recording) and save it as an mp3. Anyone can submit a tune, but a work has to get enough thumbs up from the community to become part of the collection.

There are 3000 tunes in the collection so far, as it's been on the go for the past 10 years.