"New Wave electronica" and low tech gear

KBD_TRACKER · Post by **KBD_TRACKER** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 5:03 pm

While synth makers produce ever more sophisticated gear (zillion oscillators, massive mod matrix, midi implementation up the sky, etc... ) there are those guys tweaking, reprogramming Nintendo GameBoys and other CHEAP low tech sound producing thingies.... The Blip Festival is such an example of this chiptune scene. Sure there has been other similar trends (casio tone, circuit bending, modding the ...EX800

etc..) but i can't help thinking this exciting, and possibly shaking up our little too formatted synth world for the better...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/arts/ ... ref=slogin

and so i wonder if this is the future, ie homemade "deviated" gear, producing tailored sounds....
Seems to me a promising continuation of the DIY movement.

JSRockit · Post by **JSRockit** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 5:12 pm

I wouldn't consider this a new thing at all...it's been going on for many years. It is a niche, and will likely remain a niche IMHO...though I do like it.

Sir Ruff · Post by **Sir Ruff** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:31 pm

Is progress using old things in a new way? I guess that's kind of what techno was about...

But I can't see this ever leaving its niche market as JS said. Unfortunately, chip tunes always sound like..... chip tunes. To appreciate it, you really have to like that sound!

I love using LSDJ and synthcart on the atari-I could eventually even incorporate some of the LSDJ stuff into my songs. But there is no way that sound is going to replace the tried and true synths + sampling methodology that has pretty much dominated most electronic music in the last 20 years.

sequence · Post by **sequence** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:33 am

Sir Ruff wrote:Is progress using old things in a new way? I guess that's kind of what techno was about...

Ask Stereolab. They seemed pretty good at mixing Minimoogs w/lo-fi

Post by **Stab Frenzy** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:04 am

It's punk rock all over again. Again.

crow · Post by **crow** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:14 am

Stab Frenzy wrote:It's punk rock all over again. Again.

Naw. its just f**k nosie for weans.
Punk rock, even through the 80% shite, still had a purpose or even just enthusiasm for actually being able to play.

these f**k things just remind me of old days when it was raining and i couldn't get outside to feel girls tits.
f**k depressio.

Sir Ruff · Post by **Sir Ruff** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:46 am

crow wrote:
Stab Frenzy wrote:It's punk rock all over again. Again.
Naw. its just f**k nosie for weans.
Punk rock, even through the 80% shite, still had a purpose or even just enthusiasm for actually being able to play.

these f**k things just remind me of old days when it was raining and i couldn't get outside to feel girls tits.
f**k depressio.

haha... unfortuntately I kind of agree with you-it's basically trainspotting to the nth degree. But each to his own!

JSRockit · Post by **JSRockit** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:49 am

sequence wrote:
Sir Ruff wrote:Is progress using old things in a new way? I guess that's kind of what techno was about...
Ask Stereolab. They seemed pretty good at mixing Minimoogs w/lo-fi

Yeah, but they were never lo-fi really...they went from being a Neu rip-off to making some very good music of their own...and those later recordings are very hi-fi IMHO.

Post by **wiss** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 4:17 am

JSRockit wrote:
sequence wrote:
Sir Ruff wrote:Is progress using old things in a new way? I guess that's kind of what techno was about...
Ask Stereolab. They seemed pretty good at mixing Minimoogs w/lo-fi
Yeah, but they were never lo-fi really...they went from being a Neu rip-off to making some very good music of their own...and those later recordings are very hi-fi IMHO.

dont forget the CAN and FAUST songs they redid and called thier own. I am not sure if Tim ever had mini-moog on the earliest records. opus, rouge, prodigy is what I recall from interviews and bootleg videos I have from 90 to 94. Those early records were more about the Farfisa and Vox's than synths.

Automatic Gainsay · Post by **Automatic Gainsay** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 5:57 am

Sir Ruff wrote:Is progress using old things in a new way?

The way people are carrying on, you'd think it was.
Just like those crazy kids who started using military oscillators as musical sources. After WWII.

Come on, people. This chip-based music is interesting and valid, but it's not a revolution.

Techno's usage of various instruments might have been outside of the context of the instrument's previous usage, but it wasn't like the devices weren't made to do what they did.

GeneralBigbag · Post by **GeneralBigbag** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:03 am

No-one really thinks chip-tunes are somehow new or revolutionary, do they?

Automatic Gainsay · Post by **Automatic Gainsay** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:22 am

Interesting article, though. While they very pleasingly describe the micro-genrification of electronic music, they describe a lightshow as being "lo-fi."
Ugh. I am baffled as to how so many got so confused about the definition of "lo-fi."

Post by **Mixolydian** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 8:31 am

Circuit benders are having fun, but one still has to make music that someone else wants to listen to.

Cheap-fi works too. I mean you can pick up an MT-32 or an FB01 for $30 or $40 and make decent music with it.

JUGEL · Post by **JUGEL** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:34 pm

I just hear most of the music from chip-tunes .. and it just sounds like a bunch of computer nerds that don't really even like video game music... it all sounds like bad gameboy bonus levels filled with coins.

I say just because all my band really is ... is original videogame music with a live band .. in my eyes.. I hate authenticity

Post by **Solderman** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 5:08 pm

I can certainly appreciate the aspect of working with limited voices and a specific palette of sounds, but beyond that it doesn't impress me much. There are certain Commodore 64 and Amiga tunes I absolutely adore, but I did so just as much when they were new in the mid 80's and weren't edgy at all, just part of the atmosphere of gaming at the time.
ie. Chiptunes can only be nostalgia for me, and thinking of them as edgy is just silly.