Chiptune workshops & gig

a96e

Hi folks.

Hope this isn't out of place here (mods feel free to move), but I know there's been a bit of interest in chiptunes from people on here.

On Thursday 21st from midday in Exchange Dublin, Gamepak presents a day of participatory show-and-tell chipmusicmaking workshops.

All workshops are free, but spaces may be limited - if you'd like to take part, please contact us in advance, especially if you have any gameboys or other consoles you'd like to make music on, so the nuts and bolts can be sorted out in advance. Just contact gamepakdublin[at]gmail.com

Then, to follow our day of Opensource Audio Workshops in Exchange, Gamepak invites you up the road to the Thomas House from 8pm for a night of the finest chiptune styled electronic music, with guest DJs and VJs, DonkeyKong competition, cheap pizzas & pitchers - not to mention a STOMPin' afterparty in a not-so-secret South William street basement location. Check out the Facebuck event page here for more info.

Workshop details are as follows:

12:00 TRUE CHIP TIL DEATH
True Chip / Gameboy Music workshop with Ant Creator
Kicking things off we've Gamepak's venerable co-founder showing the ropes of composition & performance with Nintendo Gameboys, including the basics of tracker music software, and modding up gameboys for music usage.

13:00 FAKEBIT ALL THE WAY
Using 8-bit Sounds in Computer Music with Aidan Shatterfreak
Forget about your favourite old computergaming consoles for an hour, then, and see how to squeeze those self-same sounds, and more, from samples, VSTs and emulators in the context of widely-used software like FruityLoops Studio and Ableton Live.

14:00 Breaktime! We chill, maybe eat some 8-bit allsorts for luncheon...

15:00 8BIT EYECANDIES
8-bit VJing and Visuals with Phil LastKnight
Making 8-bit visuals, pixel animation and live VJing workshop. Prepare for an epileptic onslaught of bright colours and moving shapes!

4:00 FINAL STAGE: SONGCRAFTING
Song Composition with Rob Monster!Monster!
Putting it all together; making actual tunes from beginning to end, the finer and cruder points of song composition when working with console chip sound sources and 8-bit audio.

o1s1n

I'd be interested in that Gameboy chiptune workshop. Still haven't really done anything with my own modded GB. Cheers for the heads up!

ghostchant

Still waiting for my modded GBs, but have been playing a bit with LSDJ on another GB and wouldn't mind some pointers. Will drop an email, will have to make sure I can be free then first!

Tallon

Oh dear jaysus I would love to go to this.

I'll take the day off work

a96e

Thanks for the interest people! Hopefully the event being on a Thursday isn't too awkward for anyone, and we'll see y'all on the 21st.

Any queries, or to book a place, just drop a line to the email address mentioned above.

johnny_ultimate

If I'm off work, I'm there.

I'm on an Anamanaguchi binge at the moment so am considering a modded Gameboy synth of my own

o1s1n

Anamanaguchi are great! As far as I know they use a modded NES for all those bleeps and bloops.

johnny_ultimate

o1s1n wrote: »

Anamanaguchi are great! As far as I know they use a modded NES for all those bleeps and bloops.

I discovered them through the Scott Pilgrim game OST, and have picked up much of their other stuff since. The free singles on their website at the moment are great, especially My Skateboard Will Go On

o1s1n

The album Power Supply is brilliant. It's a lot better than their newer one. I absolutely love the track Fast Turtle.

Ever hear of Usk? You should check out Picopicodisco. It's 100% chiptune though, no guitars or anything like Anamanaguchi.

a96e

If you're into artists like Anamanaguchi, that fuse "live band" instrumentation, guitars etc, with chiptune sounds, then you might wanna check out Chromelodeon, and of course The J. Arthur Keenes Band. And maybe Desert Planet too, though they veer towards the cheesier end of things...

Jack burton

I'd love to go to this

I have thursday off so I might just head up and bring a sega megadrive

anyone else here going to this?

o1s1n

Coincidentally I have the same week off work. Was planning on going to London or Glasgow, but the way things are going I think I'll be staying home.

Anyway I've had that chiptune modded gameboy packed away too long. It needs to come back out again.

So yeah, if you're up for going I'd love someone to head along with. If anyone else wants to too, we can get a few.

Jack burton

Well I'm 100% going to this so anyone who needs a buddy for the day let me know.

Wont be able to go to the after party though, work at 8 on friday morning

cedomination

o1s1n wrote: »

Fast Turtle.

Best song.

Would love to go to this but I've got college v:(v

ghostchant

Anamanaguchi use Gameboys as well as the NES afaik. Favourite chiptune artist at the moment by miles is IAYD. His albums are free to download and sound amazingly heavy considering he exclusively uses LSDJ (I think).

Anamanaguchi put a new single (Mess) up on their site yesterday, one of the best of the free ones.

And finally: my two modded gameboys are shipping this week!

o1s1n

I broke out my modded gameboy last night to make sure everything was still working. The backlight kept dimming and switching off. But the machine was still running. Oh o!

Plugged it into the wall and it worked grand. Seems I need to get some new batteries. Phew!

Jack burton

I was looking for ways to mod my MD for this, pretty cool stuff.

Thats means another megadrive must be gotten. and i need 1 more to paint.

So 2 megadrives for jack burton please someone!

o1s1n

I thought about that myself. The Nomad would be great as it's a handheld, so you could use it similarly to the Gameboy. Plus you'd have all those unique mad metallicy Megadrive sounds.

However, Gameboy chiptunes are made with tracker programs like LSDJ. There's nothing like that for the Megadrive (how I wish there was!).If you want to make music with that, you'd have to circuit bend it. It would be more like an instrument rather that a mini sound studio if you get me. You'd need to rig some recording device up to it.

Jack burton

Oh yeah its not easy at all do it! I must really take a good look to see what people have done with MDs.

I'll prob get a modded gameboy aswell soon enough

o1s1n

You don't even need a modded gameboy to play about with LSDJ. You can get a gameboy flash card and put LSDJ on it. You can even use it on a DS via an r4 card. The mod just gives you a good backlight, pro sound out and other fancy bits that make it into a studio quality device.

As for the MD, there really hasn't been much done with them other than a few circuit bends. I scoured the internet looking. Thought someone might even have ported LSDJ over to it to use with a tototek flash cart or something. Nothing though

Jack burton

Ah ****e.

Thanks for the info on the gameboy because I have an DS with R4 so i can work away on that for a bit and play around!

johnny_ultimate

So shall be attending this tomorrow! Anyone else definitely coming along, should be a lark!

Jack burton

Yeah I'll be there, Where exaclty is the place in temple bar?

o1s1n

Why did I think this was next week? I'm working tomorrow

johnny_ultimate

Jack burton wrote: »

Yeah I'll be there, Where exaclty is the place in temple bar?

It's way up near the end. If you keep walking up Essex Street, it's on the corner of Exchange Street. It's a fair bit up, past the Porterhouse etc... so just keep walking. If you're coming via the main square in temple bar, it will be on a corner to your left.

o1s1n, what time you working til? There's always the post event pub stuff!

jimi_t2

I'm doing some video-editing stuff around there till about 6.30/7pm; anyone going to be around?

johnny_ultimate

Arses, didn't realise you had to reserve a spot

Sent an email now, hopefully there'll still be places!

o1s1n

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

o1s1n, what time you working til? There's always the post event pub stuff!

I'll be finished work at quarter to five. Be in town for about twenty passed.
Post event pub stuff does interesting! I'd be up for that.

johnny_ultimate

Will be there for the day

Hopefully see some of you around!

Jack burton

Had to work until 12 this morning Only found out last night

Since the bus takes 3 hours to get to dublin I had to sit this one out

johnny_ultimate

Here now, it's good stuff!

Probably won't be at the gig later though, pretty wrecked. Glad to get a bit of a crash course on the scene though!