tag: Chiptune

µChip comes to Birmingham for a 3-day event celebrating Chiptune music, digital art, hacking, modified hardware and unconventional approaches to making music and visual art. µChip 3 will feature hands-on hacking workshops and demos alongside an exhibition of vintage computers, digital art, video screenings, and performances from a range of local, national and international Chiptune musicians. The ambition is to inspire and empower participants of all ages to engage with creative media in new and unconventional ways.

I’ve been helping run a night at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath called 8Bit Lounge. To explain what it is imagine the coming together of beer, Game Boy music/chiptunes and old consoles!

There’s been two nights so far, the most recent being Tuesday 6th October, which you can read about over at fizzPOP.org.uk. We’re somewhat lacking in 8Bit consoles (the lowest bit number was a 32bit Sega Saturn with 10-player Bomberman) but that’s something I hope to remedy when I get my Commodore 64 down from the attic

Project planning can get really tiresome and boring, so I spent the bulk of my evening learning how to use LSDJ better, with help from a tutorial on 8BitCollective. Here are the results:

[audio:Dolphins.mp3]

I’m having a few problems with the volume at the mo. You can probably hear a very quiet noise in the background, and I have no idea how to turn it up… yet.

More to come

It’s surprising how hard it is to win a Game Boy from ebay. Nearly everyone wants one and because they’re usually sold in a bundle with other games and accessories it usually goes for about £30. Luckily I managed to get one from the Indoor Market for £5 and the Game Boy Camera for another £5. Schweet!

Like everyone else and their mother I’m hoping to get my groove on and make some music using programs such as LSDJ. I’m gonna get a Game Boy Pocket to make the actual music on, due to it’s bigger screen and better display, but according to some surveys the DMG has the best sound. So I’ll export it all using this one.