In this video, .mpegasus shares his take on the past, present and future of chiptune.
The discussion comes from Synthesized – an annual electronic music event held at The Centre for Computing History (UK) each year. The event celebrates synthesizers, drum machines, samplers, computer sound cards, home brew electronic music devices and the world of electronic music.
Video Summary:
From the dawn of video game music to the modern day resurgence, you’ll learn about the pioneers of the early days, their hardware which is still used today, the plagiarism controversies, the invasion of pop culture, the global chip music festivals and the new generation of artists for whom the past is their future.
I remember when I had stumbled upon chiptune around 2009/2010. Little did I know that it was going to be my introduction into synthesis. Now a days I find a lot of it over done, however I remember fondly listening to Nullsleep, She, Saberpulse, and a few others! I remember discovering 8bitpeoples back when it was the only out there! I enjoy “8 bit Christmas” during Christmas!
OH and if anyone is interested in an amazing tracker, check out Sunvox. It exists on just about every platform, and is incredibly powerful and flexible.
algar, spamtron too for me –
This other comment took me a bit to think about and re-research cause I haven’t thought about it in sometime.
When Chiptune got “big” there were basically two ROM’s that everyone was using on Gameboys: Nanoloop and LSDJ (He briefly mentions LSDJ). LSDJ was developed by a fellow by the name of Johan Kotlinksi, and it was a very powerful ROM that really expounded on the sound chip of the Gameboy. Around 2009/2010 Mr. Kotlinksi was brought onto the development team of this new company that had a very innovative idea for a portable synthesizer. This company was called Teenage Engineering and this portable synthesizer was called the Operator 1.
Fun factoid, and certainly one of the reason I picked mine up!
I remember trying to start a chiptune group (I don’t think it was called chiptune back then) in the late 90’s/early 2000’s NYC and it was almost 100% negative responses from my message board postings.
because back then not enough people had been told it was cool and they were supposed to like it….
these days, its different
Earliest use of chiptunes I know is in Yellow Magic Orchestra’s self titled album released in 1978.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy5XPdyhzfw