Posts Tagged ‘composing’

Paul’s Tech Talk – LSDJ 5.1.0, Civil War Part 1: “Linear” Pitch

Posted by PainPerdu

Hello beautiful people and thank you for reading Paul’s Tech Talk on The ChipWIN Blog!

Today we’re going to tackle one, if not THE most groundbreaking update that happened to LSDJ in the midst of all its crazy transformations. With 5.1.0, Johan Kotlinski decided to rewrite the entire pitch behaviour in LSDJ from scratch. For the sake of this article I’m going to try and keep an unbiased point of view. Even though I am pretty partial to the newer versions, I still use the older ones as well. But it’s safe to say that this update was probably the most controversial of all, and it ruffled a few feathers in the community.

In music in general, but more particularly from a software perspective in LSDJ, Pitch is a solid foundation on which a lot of elements are built. And even though LSDJ is a shining example of software ergonomics and accessible design, its complexity still gives it a bit of a learning curve. The 5.1.0 update shook things up so much that artists would either have to relearn a lot of tried-and-true techniques that would now work just as well but very differently, or refrain from upgrading altogether, deliberately missing out on later updates and bug fixes.

Long story short, for a lot of people, upgrading to 5.1.0 and above would break songs from older versions and render quite a few staple sound design techniques obsolete. Let’s take a quick look at what has changed and get a better grasp of the situation.

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Paul’s Tech Talk – LSDJ 4.9.5, Transposition and Optimization

Posted by PainPerdu

Hello everyone and welcome to the 1st article in the all-new ChipWIN Blog column: Paul’s Tech Talk! I’m Paul from the French Gameboy duo Pain Perdu. This column aims to follow-up and complement our Youtube tutorial video series on LSDJ. With LDSJ ver 4.9.5, Superhero Dev Johan K kickstarted a wave of very significant updates, which would later constitute a pretty comprehensive overhaul of the program.

Mimicking a feature that was present in other trackers such as Famitracker; 4.9.5 introduced a new instrument setting: TRANSP ON/OFF. Why is this important, you might ask? The answer to this question can be summarized into one word that in my opinion is a staple of Demoscene, Chiptune, and Tracker culture: “OPTIMIZATION”, or as Max and I like to call it, “cramming as much stuff into as little space as possible”.

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The Unicorn Princess Royally Reviews ‘Music Workbench’ by Ben Prunty

Posted by The Unicorn Princess

Happy April, folks!

This month, I came across a release by Ben Prunty called ‘Music Workbench’ – a series of improvisations performed by Prunty weekly – is featured live on Twitch every Saturday at 2PM Pacific Time. Taking advantage of a live streaming platform not only gives the opportunity for real-time performances, but it also creates a platform for viewers to inquire about technology and creativity in real time.

Artwork by Amora Bettany, of Studio Miniboss (studiominiboss.com).

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Hoodie Highlights… James Primate!

Posted by President Hoodie

Sup y’all? =) Following up last month’s fantastic conversation with stig, I’ve another thoroughly engaging read for you good folk with yet another silly talented friend of mine (how do I find myself surrounded by these amazing people anyways, geez….).

If you’ve been in or around the chiprealm for a good few years now, you’re very likely familiar with Boston chip duo BR1GHT PR1MATE. Then again, if you’ve just gotten into it all in the last year or so, maybe not so much. This is largely because the talented team of James and Lydia Primate have both been deeply involved in the creation and development of a very unique indie game called ‘Rain World‘, which just released via Steam and Playstation. Today’s interview features an in-depth convo with James about his work on such. Really good stuff once again. Read on below.

James Primate with the perfect iPhone case.

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Hoodie Highlights… Stephen Patterson aka stig!

Posted by President Hoodie

Sup y’all? =) After taking February off on the blog, I return with an absolutely fantastic interview with an extraordinarily talented friend of mine who’s also a part of our mental health collective in ‘It’s Still You‘ (info on that here). Without further ado, enjoy this lovely, very frank discussion with Stephen Patterson aka stig!


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What’s On Tap – Pete Ellison

Posted by Joseph Eidson

This month’s edition of ‘What’s on Tap?’ combines three of my favorite things into one deliciously awesome cornucopia: video games, breakfast, and beer. VGM veteran Pete Ellison returns to the soundtrack world with #Breakforcist, a breakfast-themed brick breaking collaboration with Kevin John at Lucid Sheep Games. Demonic waffles fall from the sky and your task is to destroy them by any means necessary, augmenting your ball with bacon lasers and pancakes. #Breakforcist is currently available on iOS devices, with an Android port coming in the near future. In addition to the soundtrack, Pete did the artwork for the game and you can unlock iMessage stickers by progressing through the levels. Play this game for ten minutes and the only person more enthusiastic about breakfast than you is Leslie Knope:

Musically, #Breakforcist sits squarely in an uncanny valley between retro gaming and contemporary music production. Soundfonts resembling the SNES and Dreamcast-era classics mix freely with Absynth-like patches and filters, wrapped up in a tight and clean package. Although designed for handheld devices, the #Breakforcist soundtrack plays well through laptops, headphones, and normal speaker setups – a testament to Pete’s solid production skills. The soundtrack has a common theme of uptempo, danceable grooves to keep the player’s energy high, but there are a surprisingly wide variety of sounds from beginning to end. The more ambient tracks function well as both background music and standalone pieces, with several standout melodies and funky basslines to keep the listener engaged. Perhaps the most unique portion of the soundtrack are Pete’s tracks that utilize the sexy vocaloid known here as Cyber Diva. If you are having trouble envisioning this sound, imagine Laurie Anderson’s ‘O Superman’ with a thumping backbeat and lyrics about waffles instead of nuclear war.

Now, let’s bust out the maple syrup and dig into some of these sweet tunes, shall we?

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