Research Notes on "Endless loop: A brief history of chiptunes"

February 12 2016

Research Notes on "Endless loop: A brief history of chiptunes"

Source: http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/96/94

Importance: Absolutely essential

• Chiptunes- music composed for the microchip-based audio hardware of early home computers and gaming consoles
• Strictest definition, but has been changed over time
• Before the end of the 1970s, digital arcade games were the primary computing experience in public locations (bars, roller-skating rinks)
• Accompanied by a nearby DJ, radio, jukebox, etc.
• Early 1980s- Computer gaming introduced into homes,
• Most games featured only a short theme, sound effects, or no sound at all
• 1977- Apple II computer featured a built-in speaker that can be programmed to play short musical phrases/sound effects
• Music still rare due to storage limitations
• 1977- Atari VCS (Atari 2600) designed to attach to a TV, had a television interface adapter (TIA or Stella) that controls audio and video signals
• TIA could produce two voices simultaneously but was difficult to tune
• Composers used the second voice as controlled bursts of noise for percussion since adding harmonies would be unpredictable
• Tonal limitations made it difficult for composers to make interpretations of pre-existing songs
• Forced developers to adjust to the limitations
• Ex: Musician for Pressure Cooker game instructed to make a song using only tones the system could reliably produce
• Also used one voice for music while the other for sound effects
• Most games remained limited to primitive single-voice melodies
• 1981- Robert "Bob" Yannes began developing a new audio chip for computers called SID (Sound Interface Device)
• Intended to be useful in professional synthesizers as well as microcomputers
• Has diverse sounds that cost little resources in CPU by using synthesizer hardware features
• Capable of producing 4 different waveforms- square, triangle, sawtooth, and noise
• Had diverse pitch and lengths of sound
• Allowed for programmed audio filters to be applied
• 1981- Commodore decided to use SID in it's next microcomputer, Commodore 64
• Allowed greater flexibility in sound compared to Atari VCS
• Musicians had to work in code to write music though
• Loops of a song are split into subdivisions called microloops
• Microloops can be stretched, layered, and randomized to change the music
• Musicians inspired by electro, progressive rock. heavy metal, etc. to write their songs
• A distince timbre for each voice can emulate a rock band
• 1985- NES introduce had similar audio capabilities to C64
• Games stored in cartridges had more space than the medium for C64, allowed for games to include more in-game music
• NES didn't have as much success in Europe, Europeans preferred programmable computers for gaming such as the Atari St, Amiga, or IBM PCs
• 1987- Karsten Obarski built a tool called The Ultimate Soundtracker that gave a graphical interface for the four sound channels of the Atari A500
• Had a piano roll for each channel
• Allowed non-programmers to have access to the music tools in their home computers
• Tracker tools for Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS PCs all used digital samples rather than hardware synthesis
• Sample-based music no longer met requirement of chiptunes but many tracker composers continued using the synthesized sounds that characterized the SID tunes due to aesthetic preference
• Late 1980s- Computer games came with multiple forms of copy-protection, and there became a scene of reverse engineers working to crack the protection and redistribute copies of games, certain groups began implementing custom intros into the games with animations, scrolling text, and custom music
• Intros for cracked software gave amateur chiptune artists more opportunities
• Trackers were distributed free and fans used these to playback music, music file formats contained the samples/patterns used in the song and where editable
• Created a learning environment for people to create their own chiptunes
• 1990s- Online communication via internet allowed musicians/groups to release their own tracker music, independent of games, as albums
• 1997- Online tracker contest had over 300 entries, 1998's had over 500
• 1998- Momentum of tracking community mysteriously ended
• 1998- Chiptune netlabels started to appear online
• Micromusic.net encouraged users to upload their own works and interact with others
• By this point, chips like SID aren't the latest form of technology anymore, but many producers chose to use computers from the 1980s to make music
• Chiptune artists used gaming hardware for music to impact the listener's attachment to such devices
• Nintendo Game Boy particularly popular among chiptune artists
• Was a popular system (200 million sold) and was the most widely available system with a synthesizer in the 1990s
• Reverse engineering of Game Boy and their publishing online allowed custom applications to be made
• 1998- Nanoloop released, a synthesizer and sequencer application
• Little Sound DJ came shortly after, still used by chiptune artists today
• Gave access to the 4 channels of the Game Boy but also included digital sample playback and a visual piano roll
• Late 1990s- MIDI compatibility made for Game Boys that are modified
• Allowed non-programmers to make music for video game consoles and use it in existing studio practice
• Not done with tracker tools
• Today video gaming appears in popular music either through references, interpretations (remixes), or production methods similar to the audio technology at the time (synthesizers)
• 1982- American pop musicians Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia had success with the song "Pac-Man Fever", but only used recorded sounds from the game as non-musical accompaniment for the guitar song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-MONIvP6kI)
• 1992- Richard D. James created a song called "Pac-Man" that used sounds/samples from the game as essential musical elements (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjEDX-2M7Qk)
• End of 1990s- Bands began recording progressive rock interpretations of video game songs from the NES and C64
• Groups such as 8-bit weapon started combining the synthesizer sounds of the video game consoles with more conventional instruments such as drums or keyboards
• Songs interpreting/replicating chiptunes didn't just appeal to gamers,
• Zombie Nation's "Kernkraft 400" sampled a melody line from video game "Stardust" composed by David Whittaker, widespread popularity of it suggests that its appeal was from Whittaker's original chiptune rather than the song catering to gamers

The article was very informative for me since I never really looked at video game music this way. This article doesn't focus much on milestones or hardware, but explains how a new genre of music, chiptunes, was born as a result of the synthesizer chips in video games. The article explains how video game music evolved to grow outside the realm of video games, something which the other articles didn't mention. This makes it important since it explains how video game music went from being non-existant into being so beloved that it inspired songs based on them and a genre based on them. This article also has many sources to help maintain its credibility, so I know that the article isn't just baseless claims.