Chiptune Music
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This document discusses the history of chiptune music, which originated on 1970s/80s video game consoles with limited hardware. It describes the paradigms of early systems like the Atari 2600 with 2 channels and incomplete scales. The Commodore 64 allowed for subtractive synthesis with 3 channels and waveforms. Later PCs used basic soundchips or add-ons like SoundBlaster's FM synthesis. Chiptune used memory-efficient formats within hardware limitations like few channels and timbres. The document recommends tools like Bassoon Tracker, PICO-8, and VCV Rack for creating chiptune music.
![IBM PC, Renaissance of Module Music
Demoscene continues.
Jazz Jackrabbit (1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_5EOY8QaVQ
¡ñ FastTracker ][
¡ñ Impulse Tracker
¡ñ ...
Hands-on tip
Explore the structure of multichannel modules:
https://mod.haxor.fi/Falcon/sofa_surfin.xm](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/chiptunemusic-180511203211/85/Chiptune-Music-25-320.jpg)
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Chiptune Music
- 1. CHIPTUNE MUSIC Adam Sporka 05/11/18, Charles University @adam_sporka DCGI, CTU Prague ? Warhorse Studios ? welove.audio
- 2. My Hats welove.audio CTO Middleware for adaptive music for game developers Warhorse Studios Adaptive Music Designer Author of part of the music in Kingdom Come: Deliverance Czech Technical University Department of Computer Graphics and Interaction Associate Professor Research in audio-based human¨Ccomputer interaction
- 3. Outline Intro History and paradigms Let¡¯s tinker: ¡ñ VCV Rack ¡ñ PICO-8 ¡ñ Bassoon Tracker ¡ñ https://beepbox.co
- 4. Chiptune Music Late 1970s, 1980s hardware Real-time synthesis rather than playback Proprietary music playback routines Memory-efficient music formats
- 5. Limitations Slow computers Little RAM Fairly cheap hardware circuits (Later: Fairly low CPU footprint) ¡ñ Limited amount of channels ¡ñ Limited amount of available timbres ¡ñ Low temporal resolution ? discrete tempo, rigid(ish) beat ¡ñ Imprecise tuning
- 6. Features Strong melodies Arpeggios rather than harmonic pads Shared channels Limited amount of music material
- 8. ATARI 2600 Atari VCS (Video Computer System) 1977 2 channels Very incomplete scales :-) http://www.masswerk.at/rc2018/04/studio2600/ http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-music-and-soun d.html
- 9. ATARI 2600 CTRIX Live at Blip Fest 2011 https://youtu.be/S8e7g8kJIlo?t=1m9s Controlled by MIDI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgDyOSDUAx0 Hands-on tip Atari 2600 Music Kit 2.0 http://www.qotile.net/files/2600_music_guide.txt
- 10. viznut¡¯s Synthesizer Hands-on tip Playback of pseudo-chaotic sequences as PCM signal http://www.bemmu.com/music/index.html Sounds kinda similar, right?
- 11. ATARI 800XL... ¡ and some other Atari 8-bit machines POKEY chip ¡ñ Keyboard handler ¡ñ ADC sampler ¡ñ Audio synthesizer ¡ð 4 Channels ¡ð Simple waveform generators ¡ð 4-bit PCM
- 12. ATARI 800XL Source for the next 2 slides: Crawford et al. https://www.atariarchives.org/dere/ https://www.atariarchives.org/dere/chapt07.php
- 13. ATARI 800XL Square wave generator controlled by clock Frequency divider Main clock base 64 KHz or 15 KHz Output frequency = Clock / ¡°Frequency¡±
- 14. ATARI 800XL Noise generator Several modes of operation Some usable as bass sounds
- 15. ATARI 800XL Pitch tuning ¡ñ Frequency divider ¡ñ High notes could not be tuned well Volume control ¡ñ Silence + 15 discreet volume levels ¡ñ Audible jumps between the levels ¨C unable to fade-out
- 16. ATARI 800XL Hands-on tip Raster Music Tracker by Radek Sterba http://raster.infos.cz/atari/rmt/rmt.htm
- 17. Commodore 64 ~1982 SID = Sound Interface Device Subtractive synthesizer 3 channels Multiple waveforms Frequency filters From Commodore SID 6581 Datasheet
- 18. Commodore 64 From Commodore SID 6581 Datasheet ADSR envelopes!
- 19. Commodore 64 Chipophone by Linus ?kesson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1pchpDD5EU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j85kRucY8UI Hands-on tip SIDizer VST plugin http://www.hypersynth.com/sidizer.html Claims to accurately emulate the original hardware (Including the SID bug)
- 20. Commodore 64 Hands-on tip Emulator + collection of some games + some demos https://www.c64forever.com/
- 21. Nintendo Entertainment System Probably the most known subgenre of chiptunes out there. ¡°Sounds like Mario.¡± Fairly simple design. Voices with fixed wave forms: ¡ñ Pulse wave 1 ¡ñ Pulse wave 2 ¡ñ Triangle ¡ñ Noise ¡ñ PCM audio
- 22. Amiga 500 Music tracker ¡ñ Collection of PCM samples ¡ñ Pitch ? playback rate manipulation ¡ñ Matrix of note activations ¡ð Rows = points in time ¡ð Columns = channels ¡ð Cells = note X + sample Y (+ effect Zx) ¡ñ PCM-based synthesis sometimes not considered to be an element of the chiptune culture Hands-on tip MOD tracker simulated in browser: http://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/
- 23. IBM PC: PC Speaker ¡°PC Master Race¡± wasn¡¯t a thing back then: Single on-board square wave generator. Prehistoric https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbjZ6qY1YPU Star Goose https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjzzSqCxwG8 Stunts (arpeggios) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ3Qg3ora2I
- 24. IBM PC: Creative Labs¡¯ SoundBlaster Combination: ¡ñ PCM audio (sound effects) ¡ñ FM synthesis (music) ¡ð Yamaha OPL2 Prehistoric via (emulated) SoundBlaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEDlcsGd5Lo
- 25. IBM PC, Renaissance of Module Music Demoscene continues. Jazz Jackrabbit (1994) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_5EOY8QaVQ ¡ñ FastTracker ][ ¡ñ Impulse Tracker ¡ñ ... Hands-on tip Explore the structure of multichannel modules: https://mod.haxor.fi/Falcon/sofa_surfin.xm
- 26. Sounds like chiptune Using some elements of chiptune Often not ¡ ¡ produced on authentic hardware ¡ produced using a ¡°traditional¡± form ¡ played back on authentic hardware ¡ limited by the original HW constraints Chiptune purism Contemporary Chiptune Music
- 27. Rob Hubbard (Commando, Warhawk, ¡) Nicholas Scharim (Spy vs. Spy) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBJn3SHfDyY Kemal Ezcan (Cavehunt, ¡) http://asma.atari.org/asmadb/search.php?play=179 Jason Brooke (Feud) YMCK Musicians
- 28. TINKERING TIME!
- 29. Bassoon Tracker http://www.stef.be/bassoontracker An easy way to try the module music production
- 30. PICO-8 https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php ¡°Fantasy console.¡± Contains a fun simple tracker
- 31. VCV Rack https://vcvrack.com/ Get a feel for the signal path!
- 32. https://beepbox.co Your song is in the URL!
- 33. CHIPTUNE MUSIC Adam Sporka 05/11/18, Charles University @adam_sporka DCGI, CTU Prague ? Warhorse Studios ? welove.audio