Thursday, August 31, 2006
It's winter!
I decided today that it was winter. It's actually about 34 degrees outside. It's overcast as far as you can see. Maybe it's drizzling a little. A day to sit inside, watch a DVD, and eat some spicy ramen noodles. Except, you have to keep the blinds closed to keep up the illusion, otherwise you see how bright and hot it is out there. I can dream...
I'm still playing with the gameboy and the ring modulator. Here's my second gameboy song:
In Space No One Can Hear You Disco
This one is just gameboy and ring modulator. I panned my bass and drums to one side and my lead to the other and split the signal with a cable, so the lead could run into the ring mod, letting me tweak my lead in real time. Only, to then have stereo sound, you have to have a new set of non-panned instruments, and you have to twist the knobs on the mixing board real fast to pan the tracks to the right position for stereo. It's fun.
Oh, Andrew asked for links to the programs used for video game music making. You can use an emulator and do it on the computer. Sometimes it's a little glitchy, but it gets the job done.
The program I'm using is Little Sound DJ. If you go to the site you can download a free demo version. The page also has links to gameboy emulators. You might want to download the manual too, and check it out, there is a learning curve. There's also a link down at the bottom to the LSDJ wiki, which has some good info.
Also, Nullsleep has a good tutorial to get you started fast. It's under the "Documentation and Tutorials" section.
I'm still playing with the gameboy and the ring modulator. Here's my second gameboy song:
In Space No One Can Hear You Disco
This one is just gameboy and ring modulator. I panned my bass and drums to one side and my lead to the other and split the signal with a cable, so the lead could run into the ring mod, letting me tweak my lead in real time. Only, to then have stereo sound, you have to have a new set of non-panned instruments, and you have to twist the knobs on the mixing board real fast to pan the tracks to the right position for stereo. It's fun.
Oh, Andrew asked for links to the programs used for video game music making. You can use an emulator and do it on the computer. Sometimes it's a little glitchy, but it gets the job done.
The program I'm using is Little Sound DJ. If you go to the site you can download a free demo version. The page also has links to gameboy emulators. You might want to download the manual too, and check it out, there is a learning curve. There's also a link down at the bottom to the LSDJ wiki, which has some good info.
Also, Nullsleep has a good tutorial to get you started fast. It's under the "Documentation and Tutorials" section.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Haven't I modulated you somewhere before?
Whoa. As sort of a birthday present to myself (because I ordered it on my birthday) I got a moog ring modulator (moogerfooger mf-102). What is a ring modulator you ask? Well, let me answer not with words, but with this picture, which will tell you nothing:
See? The Gameboy is there for size reference and added sexiness. I guess if you need more info, you can get it from the sluts at wikipedia. They're giving information away left and right.
So, what does it all do? Well, it does this to my voice. Wicked. Now, you may wonder what use could that be, really, other than messin' shit up. Well, you could use it to process a disco beat made on those fantastic sounding 4-bit gameboy drums. Which is probably exactly what you were thinking.
The ring modulator has a soft side, too. It makes fantastically expressive tremelo. This would be good for your bleeding-heart types that perhaps want to make sissy music and not awful noise or 4-bit disco.
In classic analog synths ring mod was generally used to synthesize bell or gong-like sounds. Here is a square wave pattern run through it. It bongs a bit. It would bong in a nicer way if I wasn't spastically twisting knobs on it the whole time. Geez.
The unit, like modular synths, has a bunch of jacks on the back, so you can reroute its functions with cables. For instance, you could route the LFO out to another synth, or route the carrier oscilator directly into the audio input to get a sine wave. Or you can route a separate audio source in to the carrier oscillator to modulate two different audio sources. I tried modulated my guitar against the above square wave pattern, and got this. Being able to do these things makes this by far the most versatile effect I've ever got. I could modulate my voice with a synth or vice versa, etc, etc. Sweet!
Now I need to save up and buy some more of these units, a low-pass filter perhaps, and a control processor, so I can interconnect them and make crazy effects.
Also, I finished my Gameboy tune, or it's pretty much finished. I ran it through the ring mod, and it worked well. Let me know what you thing, I'm open to criticism since I'm trying new things here.
I Fall Asleep and Wake up in the Underground Forest (version 2.1)
Ummm...
See? The Gameboy is there for size reference and added sexiness. I guess if you need more info, you can get it from the sluts at wikipedia. They're giving information away left and right.
So, what does it all do? Well, it does this to my voice. Wicked. Now, you may wonder what use could that be, really, other than messin' shit up. Well, you could use it to process a disco beat made on those fantastic sounding 4-bit gameboy drums. Which is probably exactly what you were thinking.
The ring modulator has a soft side, too. It makes fantastically expressive tremelo. This would be good for your bleeding-heart types that perhaps want to make sissy music and not awful noise or 4-bit disco.
In classic analog synths ring mod was generally used to synthesize bell or gong-like sounds. Here is a square wave pattern run through it. It bongs a bit. It would bong in a nicer way if I wasn't spastically twisting knobs on it the whole time. Geez.
The unit, like modular synths, has a bunch of jacks on the back, so you can reroute its functions with cables. For instance, you could route the LFO out to another synth, or route the carrier oscilator directly into the audio input to get a sine wave. Or you can route a separate audio source in to the carrier oscillator to modulate two different audio sources. I tried modulated my guitar against the above square wave pattern, and got this. Being able to do these things makes this by far the most versatile effect I've ever got. I could modulate my voice with a synth or vice versa, etc, etc. Sweet!
Now I need to save up and buy some more of these units, a low-pass filter perhaps, and a control processor, so I can interconnect them and make crazy effects.
Also, I finished my Gameboy tune, or it's pretty much finished. I ran it through the ring mod, and it worked well. Let me know what you thing, I'm open to criticism since I'm trying new things here.
I Fall Asleep and Wake up in the Underground Forest (version 2.1)
Ummm...
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Birthday.
Well, yesterday was my birthday. I'm 27 now. That seems like a lot. It was a pretty good birthday, though. Maggie got me a new distortion pedal (mine has been dead for years), a jaw harp (which scares me a little), and a gameboy. The gameboy is one of the old, big, gray, brick-like gameboys from waaaay back in 1989. It looks like this:
Why would any sane, modern gamer want one of these? The dot-matrix screen is hard to see. It's big and clunky. Newer gameboys can play the games that this one does, but this one can't play any newer games. Also, I have a DS. But this old gameboy has the best bass, and a warmer sound tone over all. You know, it's got that sweet 4-bit sound with that wicked 11 khz (or something like that) sample playback. Why did we even go on to make fancier sound chips? To this day, no one knows.
We went and spent more money on sushi than we've ever spent. It was wicked-sweet. I wish I was still eating sushi, 28 hours later. Sure, I'd be bloated or vomiting or passing out by now, but it would totally be worth it. Then some cool cats came over and we played games and drank into the wee hours of the morn. I am pleased.
I haven't posted in a while, I realize. I've just been working and reading, etc. I haven't recorded much music. But I'm kind of working towards and new musical dream. That is, to combine my bedroom toy orchestra/lame-ass indie rock with the sweet sounds of lo-fi video game music. And any time you're working toward something new I guess there's a pause while you learn and figure stuff out. But now I've got my gameboy and I've got a demo to show. This isn't a finished thing, but it's a good start, and I think it's beginning to come together.
I Fall Asleep and Wake up in the Underground Forest. (this song has been removed. Listen to the finished version on the Aug 19th post.)
I'm still figuring out how to compose on the gameboy, and how to get everything on there, but you'll get the idea. The gameboy puts out stereo sound, which I use, so headphones might be pleasing. I meant to put up some demos with my melodica and the glockenspiel, but never did. So you can hear them on here in the later half of the song (it's not done so it fades out.) Composing on the gameboy is like using old midisoft. That is, it's all one note at a time. And the interface is weird, on that tiny olive-colored screen. But for authentic video game sound, you really have to do it with a video game system. Because damnit, you're a nerd and you deserve the nerdiest.
Why would any sane, modern gamer want one of these? The dot-matrix screen is hard to see. It's big and clunky. Newer gameboys can play the games that this one does, but this one can't play any newer games. Also, I have a DS. But this old gameboy has the best bass, and a warmer sound tone over all. You know, it's got that sweet 4-bit sound with that wicked 11 khz (or something like that) sample playback. Why did we even go on to make fancier sound chips? To this day, no one knows.
We went and spent more money on sushi than we've ever spent. It was wicked-sweet. I wish I was still eating sushi, 28 hours later. Sure, I'd be bloated or vomiting or passing out by now, but it would totally be worth it. Then some cool cats came over and we played games and drank into the wee hours of the morn. I am pleased.
I haven't posted in a while, I realize. I've just been working and reading, etc. I haven't recorded much music. But I'm kind of working towards and new musical dream. That is, to combine my bedroom toy orchestra/lame-ass indie rock with the sweet sounds of lo-fi video game music. And any time you're working toward something new I guess there's a pause while you learn and figure stuff out. But now I've got my gameboy and I've got a demo to show. This isn't a finished thing, but it's a good start, and I think it's beginning to come together.
I Fall Asleep and Wake up in the Underground Forest. (this song has been removed. Listen to the finished version on the Aug 19th post.)
I'm still figuring out how to compose on the gameboy, and how to get everything on there, but you'll get the idea. The gameboy puts out stereo sound, which I use, so headphones might be pleasing. I meant to put up some demos with my melodica and the glockenspiel, but never did. So you can hear them on here in the later half of the song (it's not done so it fades out.) Composing on the gameboy is like using old midisoft. That is, it's all one note at a time. And the interface is weird, on that tiny olive-colored screen. But for authentic video game sound, you really have to do it with a video game system. Because damnit, you're a nerd and you deserve the nerdiest.
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