Sending to Sendy (8bit)

[ntom]

https://soundcloud.com/ntommusic/sendin ... dy-i-guess

I don't know. I was bored. Wanted to do some 8bit stuff. But it's not. It wasn't done with any tracker.
I know Sendy likes chiptune, but I don't know if this is up to snuff for her tastes.

Done entirely with Tweakbench's "Peach" for lead sounds, and "Triforce" for drums.

I also slapped this together in about an hour, so it may not exactly be the pinnacle of excitement or creativity - especially if you look at it's name! sorry Sendy for using your name, hahaha

[Frantz]

Not bad but this track needs more work.

[Sendy]

It's pretty good for an hour's work, and it has it's moments, but yes, it needs more TLC. If you don't want to work on it any more, I'd at least pare it down to between 1:30 and 2:30.

[vurt]

so thats what coldplay would sound like on a nintendo, who knew?

[ntom]

so thats what coldplay would sound like on a nintendo, who knew?

yes, indeed. The Coldplay influence in me might be showing. I should zip that back up. how embarrassing.

It's pretty good for an hour's work, and it has it's moments, but yes, it needs more TLC. If you don't want to work on it any more, I'd at least pare it down to between 1:30 and 2:30.

yeah it's probably not something I would return to, but, any recommendations in the TLC department? 8-Bit isn't my kind of thing normally. Any time in the past it was normally a cover of a song, so I guess the song was already written for me, I just used chiptune-esque sounds.

[picture]

not accepted? I guess I didn't pay enough in shipping fees. It IS going to the UK so I shipping is pretty high.

[Sendy]

yeah it's probably not something I would return to, but, any recommendations in the TLC department? 8-Bit isn't my kind of thing normally. Any time in the past it was normally a cover of a song, so I guess the song was already written for me, I just used chiptune-esque sounds.

I personally wouldn't use Peach unless you want that "sampled chip" sound, it has a lot of sampling artifacts and you can't really do any of the technical stuff that chiptunes benefit from, such as waveform switching, having pure antialiased/bandlimited waveforms, etc.

Beyond that, not really sure... Depends if you're going for a pure 8-bit sound or just building something else from it.

The transition at 0:30 threw me off the first time I listened.

[ntom]

I personally wouldn't use Peach unless you want that "sampled chip" sound, it has a lot of sampling artifacts and you can't really do any of the technical stuff that chiptunes benefit from, such as waveform switching, having pure antialiased/bandlimited waveforms, etc.

Beyond that, not really sure... Depends if you're going for a pure 8-bit sound or just building something else from it.

The transition at 0:30 threw me off the first time I listened.

Between Triforce and Peach - the only 2 "truly" chiptune synths I have (I mean, I can make some fairly convincing chiptune-esque sounds in Synth1) Peach seemed to have the most character for leads. Triforce is nice, but I primarily found it's duller-oscillators to be good for the drums, which is what I did here. Triforce on drums, Peach on leads.
I guess it was meant to be a purely chiptune/8bit track, though I am thinking the reverb I added to the sounds broke the song from being truly chiptune.

And, yeah, giving it a second listen, the transition was kind of sudden. Meh what can you do? I didn't put a lot of effort into it. In fact really this kind of was just a 30-second (ish) track from just the "chorus" (I guess is what you would call it - at 0:45) which I really enjoyed, decided to make it a little bit longer of a song.

[Sendy]

I'd cut out the waiting around parts.

Regarding chiptune synths, I find myself using Diva and ACE more and more for them. Often I'm more interested in combining chiptune sound design techniques with more modern possibilities, generalizing and/or expanding on them in the wider universe of sound we have these days. Semi-modular synths are great for that, provided you know what little quirks go into tricking the ears into getting that chiptune vibe. I've studied the sound patches of Rob Hubbard extensively because he often had that burbley, almost acidic, psychedelic sound that I enjoy a lot.

I believe Basic 65 and Dirty Harry by De La Mancha are free these days (I may be wrong), these are great for classic sounds.

Personally I'm all for adding reverb. It's no different from taking an NES and recording it playing inside a giant cave, or running it through a DSP box, or whatever I don't get too caught up on authenticity - I'll leave that to the guys who are dedicated to that.

[Sendy]

Here's a nice example of reverb on chiptune sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y5szNZehps

[nix808]

Hey peeps,
I wanted to post my bit-crusher here.
You can use any sound source,
and make it 8-bit->
http://www.phonicsaudio.com/ effects->d1g1t
It's ugly, but it works fine. I built it from scratch.

Personally I wouldn't use reverb on a chip tune.

[ntom]

Oh...lol....Fez....
The reverb with a lush room just adds this organic undertone to the very-digital sound which creates this weird contrast that almost harmonizes together between the difference of organic and digital. So, yeah, the reverb will stay.
I also have a bit crusher that can crush bits into tiny chunks, or leave them fairly in tact - typically it's what I will layer ontop of my Chiptune-esque sounds that I create in Synth1, or if I am having troubles making a good hat sound, I'll just run a sampled hat through a bit crusher. Works well enough for me, but definitely not authentic-sounding.

It JUST occurred to me, I forgot I installed one of the "Basic" synths - I think it's 65, but it might be 64. God, I had completely forgotten about that. It had SUCH a beautiful tone to it, far better than Peach and Triforce. I almost feel stupid for forgetting those.
I think I'll abandon this track, but I'll take a second whack at chiptune on a whole new song. See what I can do. Or maybe I'll just remix one of my own songs into chiptune