Discover bytebeat. A new genre of algorithmic music has been developed by demoscene coder viznut, a.k.a. PwP. Sharing genes with chiptunes and facilitated by bitwise operators, bytebeats are decidedly non-traditional music created by short, programmatic formulas. Read about computationally minimal art, the aesthetic that spawned bytebeat. Try your hand at composing (some helpful examples). Read an explanation of how the formulas work. A few more pieces.
posted by I've wasted my life on Jan 23, 2012 - 47 comments

When Iñigo Quílez isn't hard at work at Pixar, he's active in the demoscene, creating 4KB programs that render incredible procedurally generated scenes. He also writes tutorials on both video and audio synthesis, but arguably the coolest section of his site features live-coding videos of him improvising both audio and video rendering code that will make any experienced programmer feel wholly inadequate.
posted by spiderskull on Jan 8, 2012 - 32 comments

Nectarine Demoscene Radio streams Amiga demoscene music ("modules") 24-7. Registered users can queue up songs, comment and chat to each other with the "infamous oneliner". That's it.
posted by KMH on Sep 8, 2010 - 12 comments

A Mac Classic shows bullies what's for in "3½ inches is enough" by Unreal Voodoo. This demo (actually written to run on a Mac Classic) was presented at ASSEMBLY, Finland's largest computer festival. More highlights from ASSEMBLY are available at GameSetWatch. The demos are mostly trippy and impressive hand-coded animations as one might expect, but there's also a live action short featuring a Rube Goldberg machine.
posted by ignignokt on Sep 4, 2009 - 17 comments

Let's hear it for SID.
The MOS 6581 SID was the voice box of the famed Commodore 64, and an inimitable speck of silicon that to this day sparks musical imagination and techno tinkering (YouTube). Reborn as a commercial synth, and remade in software (PC|MAC), the original SID chip is still employed by musicians for its 8-bit crunch, and a retro warmth that may charm you back into childhood.
Have an old Commodore in the basement? Know how to solder? As a project for 2K7, why not DIY a SID box with MIDI?
posted by kid ichorous on Dec 17, 2006 - 29 comments

The Demoscene is still going strong. It's been awhile since we last discussed the scene, and it's still cranking out tons of great stuff. The new home of the scene has categories and ratings, which sure beats the old standard. There's a bit of everything, from legos to disco, from 256 bytes to 64k to fairly large, and from Amiga to Mac to C64. All of the videos that require weird or new hardware have videos on the site, so everyone can enjoy the incredible programming, art, and kinda cheesy music.
posted by JZig on Feb 24, 2005 - 18 comments

The 'demoscene': Have you got the latest UltraforceTitanium10000-equipped desktop computer? The latest PDA? The latest Java Virtual Machine and the latest browser? Or have you got an 18 year old ZX Spectrum? Or a Commodore Amiga? Don't worry, there's always some way to show how powerful you machine of choice is. Demos have been around since the dawn of home computing and the best of them might someday be mistaken for video art.
posted by edsousa on Sep 5, 2002 - 12 comments