Apathy

____________________________________________________________________ | / .-=""=-. | unmitigated -\ -|--, /---|--|- .\ / .'\__/ \_\ | irrelevant / \\ || / // \ || || |\\ / /__/ \__/ \__.oo | anti-news /___\\ ||_/ //___\|| ||__| \\/ ._/___\__/__\__(____/ | episodic / \\|| // \| || | V /__|/ \|__\ ` | orchard / V V / ______________________|_________/____________________________/ / what? / email / ascii links / +---+ _____________________________/ ]/ /[ 1011101b01010111blE1BlEEEEP / ]/ /[ 000101110T1110T01tIKt1ktik archives ordered by date / ]/ /[ 01001D0010001000D0dOoodoo lewis carroll / opinion / ]/ /[ 110001l0011o1OlaLalalALA asciigames / dead rock / +---+ voicemail / j.s. bach / eigen* ........other / ^^^ That's a chip. Representing / CHIP MUSIC _____________________/ ______________________________________________________ 01/23/2000 | Beep boop beep boop | blip | There's a whole wide world of underground | digital loops that lives underneath the normal | signal on the net. | tough | Crusty old ProTracker zealots who still clutch beanies | their Amigas and C64s for their pure music | capability will tell you that chip music is a very | precise thing; it is the Art of Four Channel. | the | I am not going to attempt to narrow it down quite goal | that far. Chip music, for the purposes of this | exploration, is defined as any music with simple | wave-based or extremely low-quality samples that | can be produced by simple audio chips. ______________________________________________________ | Modules | tracked | The vast majority of chip music can be played in samples | the MOD format. This is a type of music file | which stores samples (sounds) and instructions on | how to mix and match and toot them around, forming | a song. So, first let us nab a MOD player. | software | Recommended for Windows users: ModPlug | Recommended for *nix users: MikMod | Recommended for Mac users: MacMikMod | Recommended for Amiga users: Haha! | meepmaap | Chip-tune sites: | Chipmusic.nu - By artist | Chip Republic - Huge collection, zipped | Back2Roots - Extensive chip collection, ratings | I love it when they describe an entry as "well | known crack music." What? | for the | Non-specific MOD sites to explore: class | United Trackers on yr own | Trax in Space time | The IMM | Lycos, Open Directory, and Yahoo MOD directories ______________________________________________________ | Commodore 64 | tape | Of course, MOD files aren't the only sort of chip driven | music one can find on the net. The first | sound-chip based tunes I got addicted to were on | the good old C64. SID files are a specially | designed format that contain the music data from | those old Commodore programs. | nab it | SidPlay is the player of choice. | sites | Q-Link SID archives by category, with favorites | High Voltage SID collection | MP3 cover tunes by Elwood [crazy dance!] | MP3s of C64 song remixes [whee!] boogie! | C64audio.com actually sells CDs of remixes. ______________________________________________________ | Nintendo | home | The other system that still had a beeping sound entertain | processor that I spent too much time playing was ment | the original Nintendo. The strains of Zelda and | Dragon Warrior are permanently imbedded in my | neurons. Not sure if that's a good thing, but I | can etch them out further with NSF files, which do | for the NES what SIDs do for the Commodore. | durn | Unfortunately, I couldn't find a Mac or *nix | player for these files. The format is very well | documented, though, so if you feel the need it | shouldn't be that tough to hack. | rulehyrule | Vintage Gaming NSF site [players and NSFs] | Zophar NSF archive [large] ______________________________________________________ | My pick | the | Discounting the original Zelda song, my favorite cream | original chip music would have to be of | Minimum Velocity, by Purple Motion of the crop | once-lauded demo group Future Crew. Although some dust | of the aforementioned ProTracker weenies wouldn't | let this be tagged as "chip", it's two minutes of | music in under 64k, so it qualifies as good enough | in my book. | mind | Plus, he squeezed full percussion, bass, melody, bulging | and harmony bites into just 2 channels. That | means only two things are being played | simultaneously, but your ears won't believe it. ______________________________________________________ | Roll your own | to be | If you don't have an Amiga lying around, your best contd | bet these days might be the ModPlug Tracker. | I'll get back and update on this someday; it's got | tutorials, so I am going to attempt to horribly | munge my own tune. | | Later... | Oh man. Fulfilling expectations perfectly, the | tune I "produced" is torturous to listen to. | If you whip anything up, I'll trade. ___________________________________________________________________ !t y t | dd@f! k u | Eh? This is the log of a faceless entity. Me. usnngnll s | I wander around the web, and point out what are kr @gdqnvn | most likely completely useless things for you gx@dfwmd | to visit. It's where I have been, what I learned j zvhlx0lk | there, and what I plan to figure out in the b yqrccnh | future. All in the palm of your hand. pu @g ccgs | wjp jng | Technically speaking, this is a "weblog". There p t q0w gl | are many weblogs. You can probably find one that q r k | suits your tastes pretty closely, but if not you r !r 0q u | can use the pitas system to track v j p0 | yourself. x s | ____________|______________________________________________________ Dan Fitch dgfitch@yahoo.com / ICQ 363803 ___________________________________________________________________