The Chipophone

July 22, 2010 4:00 PM

The Chipophone is a homemade 8-bit synthesizer. [SLYT] So this guy has taken an old organ and re-engineered it into an 8 bit synth to play live chip tune music.

Here is his website where he explains how he did it.

posted by marienbad (20 comments total)

i realise i am not selling this very well. But it blew me away

also, via b3ta.
posted by marienbad at 4:00 PM on July 22, 2010

Get this dude and his lovely cheesy contraption to a major league baseball stadium.
posted by Burhanistan at 4:10 PM on July 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

This is so fucking rad.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 4:15 PM on July 22, 2010

I would pay girlfriend-infuriating amounts of money for a microkorg-sized version of this.
posted by minifigs at 4:25 PM on July 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

I thought this was going to be about this dude, who was at Maker Faire NC this spring.
posted by yoga at 4:29 PM on July 22, 2010

Marienbad: you've sold it well. Besides, products should in theory sell themselves, and this does that.

Good stuff!
posted by JoeXIII007 at 4:37 PM on July 22, 2010

Underselling it is the way to go.

And it's really crazy how it gives the impression of being fake. I'm so used to 8 bit tunes being computer generated that obviously it's just overlaid on the video.
posted by DU at 4:57 PM on July 22, 2010

I like the way this is so much not Crystal Castles.
posted by bonobothegreat at 5:06 PM on July 22, 2010

OK, that is completely awesome! The best thing I've seen in a long time! Thanks!
posted by Ron Thanagar at 5:23 PM on July 22, 2010

I can't explain why but I love this.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 5:26 PM on July 22, 2010

as awesome as the instrument is, the best part is the composer credits. i also like the camera work and cuts.
posted by mexican at 5:36 PM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you have a VST host such as Ableton Live or Reaper, and this post filled you with glee, a quick Google reveals a thread you might find interesting. I've just installed Peach on a whim, and it's really rather good.
posted by ZsigE at 5:49 PM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

I would pay girlfriend-infuriating amounts of money for a microkorg-sized version of this.

You should be able to get some chiptune-like sounds out of a MicroKorg.


For a more authentic sound, load actual 8-bit samples into a MicroSampler.

The synth and sampling options of the OP1 are also promising.

Lots of chiptune people run synth/sequencer programs on their gameboy or DS. Obviously you don't get a keyboard, but a sequencer is really more important.

Finally, you could use an LPK25 to control any of your favorite chiptune synths on your laptop.
posted by b1tr0t at 6:17 PM on July 22, 2010

Holy hell. This is more important than the polio vaccine.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:00 PM on July 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

Nanoloop now has an iPhone version for those of you that don't want to get an old game boy and programmable ROM cartridge.

There's also Little Sound DJ or LSDJ.
posted by loquacious at 7:01 PM on July 22, 2010

This is awesome with awesome sauce, and an extra scoop of awesome on the side.
posted by eriko at 7:18 PM on July 22, 2010

I was hoping he would break into some Last Ninja beats. Awesome anyway.
posted by Esteemed Offendi at 8:07 PM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Very cool adaption of the hardware.

Reminds me of the 80s Baldwin Fun Machine, which is still available here and there for ... a song.

If you insist on 8-bit but don't have time for DIY, there may be a few SidStations floating around out there. There are also several 8-bit plugins to be used with sequencing software like Garageband, Logic, etc. Pick up an old iMac & cheap MIDI controller & you're off.
posted by Twang at 12:26 AM on July 23, 2010

Yeah this is really awesome. On just a hardware hacking level it's a neat project, but I think the best part is that he designed a pretty user-friendly system for playing authentic chiptune music live. Most chiptune musicians use an old-school tracker where the song is built note-by-note as one long sequence. He added a lot of neat tricks (auto-portamento up, auto-arpeggio, transposing a recordable step-sequenced phrase via pedals, attaching drum beats to notes, etc.) to do on the fly what most other chiptune musicians sequence note-by-note, all while still using an authentic 8-bit synth. You could set up something similar using a VST 8-bit synth in Ableton live or whatever and a MIDI keyboard, but I don't think anyone has.
posted by burnmp3s at 6:39 AM on July 23, 2010

This contraption is absolutely awesome.
posted by wierdo at 11:28 PM on July 23, 2010