Comments on: Robot Rock

Robot Rock

empath — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:45:16 -0800

By: griphus

griphus — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:50:41 -0800

I can't listen to music at work; was this stuff made with VSTs or (emulated) hardware? Not that hardware-authenticity makes for inherently better chiptune, but I've always felt that working within the constraints of outdated/difficult-to-program-for hardware is somehow more impressive. Also, there was a chiptune version of Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster in D-Pad hero.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:52:13 -0800

How much better could this be?

By: hellojed

hellojed — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:52:49 -0800

Previously ALSO: Daft Punk is teaming up with Nile Rodgers! Are you excited?! I am!

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:53:13 -0800

It does sound like it's emulated hardware, or really, really careful use of VSTs.

By: jquinby

jquinby — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:53:36 -0800

How much better could this be? None. None much better.

By: empath

empath — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:54:22 -0800

(just fyi, the previously was about the first album of 8-bit remixes, this is the second).

By: helicomatic

helicomatic — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:55:15 -0800

From the Artist page on the Da Chip website, looks like it's mostly done via proper hardware. Not sure about the XM files, but the Gameboy and NES stuff is from real systems. I can tell from the filters and from hearing quite a few tunes in my time.

By: griphus

griphus — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:01:53 -0800

Ah, sweet, I am more excited about this! Not that it doesn't take plenty of skill to make good use of VSTs, but it's the rough equivalent of putting an electronic keyboard in "pipe organ" mode and actually playing a pipe organ.

By: askmehow

askmehow — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:03:12 -0800

it's linked from the article page, but the theme to Tron played by floppy drives is pretty awesome.

By: phong3d

phong3d — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:21:50 -0800

Veridis Quo already sounded like it was straight out of a Final Fantasy game, this just cements that for me. This is fantastic - thanks.

By: Bovine Love

Bovine Love — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:24:53 -0800

This is awesome.

By: helicomatic

helicomatic — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:37:03 -0800

Burnin' captures the goofiness of the original really well. I remember buying Homework at the Strawberries with the $20 plastic gift coin my uncle gave me for Christmas in 1997. My brother and I couldn't stop listening to it, because it was from the future. Chiptune versions of songs I loved as a kid give me an awesome feeling of nostalgia with a retro-futurism bent, since electronic music of any kind was such a novelty for me back then. When I was in elementary school I had tapes I made of songs from Gameboy games, holding a "portable" tape recorder up to the single speaker because that's all I had to work with. The Link's Awakening overworld theme had a couple of sword swipes in it because I accidentally hit A while recording. Listening to anything composed on a Gameboy today brings back very strong sensory memories, and I'm really glad that Gameboy chiptunes have taken off the way they have.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:45:36 -0800

Here's the actual site for the albums. The version of "Around the World" by The Listrix sounds more 16 bit, SNES era, although enough tracks overlaid I doubt the whole song is running on an actual emulator.

By: empyrean

empyrean — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:50:07 -0800

Looking at the artist page I was hoping (Mefi's own) virt/jake would be involved but it looks like he isn't. This is still great.

By: MrFTBN

MrFTBN — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:50:50 -0800

Cool, didn't know about this. I know rushjet1 writes .nsf files (not modules with VSTs), which is basically code and data that runs on an NES's 2A03 (plus expansion chips.) Not sure if these tracks were recorded using real hardware, but I wouldn't doubt it. I will ask...

By: darksong

darksong — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:51:12 -0800

This was one of the highlights of my week. When my friend sent it to me Wednesday night (we were already avid listeners of the first one), I immediately put it on Facebook and several of us stayed up much too late listening to it. After the first one came out, I was in a small, independent book store and the guy behind the counter was listening to some 8-bit music and so a brief conversation about 8-bit covers began and I just casually mentioned, oh, hey, have you heard the 8-bit Daft Punk album? The guy paused and stared at me liked I'd just revealed the secret of the universe to him. I don't know if he was really wrong for feeling that way. There is something about these 8-bit Daft Punk albums that feel like this is the way Daft Punk is meant to be heard.

By: mkb

mkb — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:54:43 -0800

odinsdream: "How much better could this be?" I think some of the tracks fall a bit flat. (or 8 bits flat yuk yuk yuk) The cover of Teachers has different names (I think). Does anyone recognize any of them? I couldn't.

By: seanmpuckett

seanmpuckett — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:56:14 -0800

Thanks, empath. Enjoying it right now!

By: needled

needled — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:57:15 -0800

Loving this, especially "Around the World".

By: helicomatic

helicomatic — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:01:54 -0800

Teachers lists chiptune artists, those that have come along pretty recently, like David Sugar, and legendary composers from the "scene", like Ron Hubbard. Here's the Lyrics

By: helicomatic

helicomatic — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:04:41 -0800

That should be Rob Hubbard, of course. It's wrong in the lyrics on that page as well.

By: mysterpigg

mysterpigg — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:20:37 -0800

For some reason, the embedded Soundcloud players on the site linked in the FPP didn't work for me, and the download options on the Da Chip website are blocked here at work. But I am able to listen to them by going directly to the Soundcloud page for Da Chip, in case anyone else has the same problems.

By: haunted by Leonard Cohen

haunted by Leonard Cohen — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:28:25 -0800

Oh this is the perfect post for a Friday. Office door closed and dance party commencing NOW!

By: East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:29:06 -0800

This is really great. There's very little that is "8-bit" about this though. "Chiptune" works.

By: SharkParty

SharkParty — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:36:50 -0800

Back when I first discovered the Nosefart plugin that lets you play NSF files on winamp, it made my workday so much better because it was like I was just constantly leveling up rather than staring at Illustrator for 8 hours. Over a decade before Fitocracy I was already videogamizing my life.

By: zombieflanders

zombieflanders — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 09:09:08 -0800

This is awesome! The most minor of quibbles, though: People really need to get rid of the various files/folders that are created by Macs when they put stuff on the internet. The OCD in me must go through and remove all of the MACOSX and DS.Store cruft or else I fret about something getting messed up. People do this a lot with files designed to be flashed on rooted Android devices too, and I always worry that it's going to brick my stuff.

By: compartment

compartment — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:54:37 -0800

This is nicely reworked, but I'm partial to genius beatboxer extraordinaire Reggie Watts' version of Digital Love and Around the World. He also does a spot-on interpretation of latter-day Radiohead, although it requires more patience. I am pretty much completely convinced that if we could somehow send Reggie Watts and his associated musical technology back in time -- like, to the beginning of the Renaissance -- the modern world would be either seriously awesome or completely terrifying or both.

By: PROD_TPSL

PROD_TPSL — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:21:39 -0800

Ahhh... a perfect way to celebrate and enjoy a well earned day off from work... Thanks for the HEADUP, empath. Though... why the hell am I still logged into remote virtual servers??? Le sigh...

By: Twang

Twang — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:52:26 -0800

These are fine instrumentals, synthesis is a good thing, don't get me wrong. But I was hoping that, for once, I'd hear real 8-bit vocal samples on Around the World for example. If that's blasphemy, forgive, I've fallen behind on the aesthetic.