Mac13 8-Bit Contest Discussion

[BrokenDeck]

This is the discussion thread for the Monthly Audio Contest 2013 - March 8-bit / Chiptune / Videogame theme.
All discussion, questions, and WIPs concerning the contest go in this thread.

Please submit your official contest entries in the main contest thread.

[stunkel]

This will be fun! Starting on it tonight!

[Knoxius]

These themes don't exactly provide room for innovation, and they seem very oriented towards what most audio forum members are already producing. Where's the diversity? I mean shit, an orchestral themed MAC was already put on last year, why did it come back again?

I don't mean to be a dick cause I know you all prefer composing orchestral pieces and chiptunes...but that just sort of proves my point. I thought these contests were about challenging users to go beyond their limit? Maybe I've been interpreting it wrong.

Regardless of my feelings on the matter, it's very honorable of Brokendec,k and whoever else runs these contests, to provide such an opportunity for everybody. I love contests; they're good fun and are an excellent source of motivation to create music. Good luck to all those who decide to participate.

[BPremo]

The beautiful part of this contest is the collaboration, that's one of the greatest aspects of Newgrounds. The genre of music was decided on because it was the most accessible, I'd love to see a lot of people try their best in a comfortable medium.

The challenge comes from making a solid composition that would inspire a very visual-heavy story. Whoever wins is going to get one hell of a cool music video. Definitely go for something that inspires or compliments a story progression. From my animation perspective a strong rhythm or beat sets up the whole timing and pacing of how the characters walk or move. Think about how a story starts, builds up, climaxes and resolves.

Good Luck (skill) Everyone (victims of subjectivism) :D

[midimachine]

At 3/3/13 01:56 AM, Knoxius wrote: I thought these contests were about challenging users to go beyond their limit? Maybe I've been interpreting it wrong.

weeeeeeellllll... i think half of the point of making chiptunes is to push the hardware/software limitations to the limit. although i do forsee a lot of these contest entries consisting of bitcrushed squarewaves or like normal electro with a couple of PWM leads haha

then again, pretty much every contest is going to be well within at least one person's comfort zone. but one orchestral music contest a year* is enough though haha

*two if you count the NGADM... HEYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[midimachine]

OH and i just saw that Jeroen Tel is one of the judges

this is kind of a big deal!

[Step]

At 3/3/13 04:01 AM, midimachine wrote:

*two if you count the NGADM... HEYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Now wait one second there! It's not my fault orchestral artists often beat the crap out of people in that contest. You electronic guys should STEP IT UP.

Also, this is a really awesome MAC, I love how the winner gets his song used in a flash. And this seems right up your alley midimachine.

Good luck to everyone who takes part!

[midimachine]

At 3/3/13 04:05 AM, Step wrote: Now wait one second there! It's not my fault orchestral artists often beat the crap out of people in that contest. You electronic guys should STEP IT UP.

haha it's all good bud.

And this seems right up your alley midimachine.

Definitely! I'll see if I can whip something up before semester gets too hectic

[Buoy]

This sounds like a really fun one. I hope I'll get to make something for this.

[Elitistinen]

Now this is the contest for everyone to try! 8-bit here I come!

[SineRider]

inb4 midimachine wins this one

In all seriousness, I look forward to making something for this! Time to jump back into famitracker

[deadlyfishes]

At 3/3/13 01:56 AM, Knoxius wrote: These themes don't exactly provide room for innovation, and they seem very oriented towards what most audio forum members are already producing. Where's the diversity? I mean shit, an orchestral themed MAC was already put on last year, why did it come back again?

I don't mean to be a dick cause I know you all prefer composing orchestral pieces and chiptunes...but that just sort of proves my point. I thought these contests were about challenging users to go beyond their limit? Maybe I've been interpreting it wrong.

Regardless of my feelings on the matter, it's very honorable of Brokendec,k and whoever else runs these contests, to provide such an opportunity for everybody. I love contests; they're good fun and are an excellent source of motivation to create music. Good luck to all those who decide to participate.

I believe that's why they had the NAC contests, which had more of a challenging genre, it went on for about two years I think, and then they decided to call it quits after Dec 2012. I agree with you though on the first part.

[SourJovis]

At 3/3/13 01:56 AM, Knoxius wrote: These themes don't exactly provide room for innovation, and they seem very oriented towards what most audio forum members are already producing. Where's the diversity? I mean shit, an orchestral themed MAC was already put on last year, why did it come back again?

There also are genreless contests like Bosa's Dreams of Splendor contest a while ago. Even then you get complaints like "The songs are too hard to compare this way." and "Judging is too subjective.". ThatâEUTMs why most other contests have more rules.
Contests always need rules, else they aren't contests. A completely themeless contest doesn't exist in my opinion. If you don't want to be limited by the rules of a contest you shouldn't partake and just submit to the portal. Plenty room for innovation there. With all the votes, comments and rankings it's kind of a contest anyway.

Regardless of my feelings on the matter, it's very honorable of Brokendec,k and whoever else runs these contests

It is. Nice of you to acknowledge that. Btw you can always organize your own contests if you notice any things that could be improved upon and show us how it's done.

I think I will partake. Been meaning to make more 8-bit music for a long time.

[stratkat]

At 3/3/13 12:23 AM, BrokenDeck wrote: This is the discussion thread for the Monthly Audio Contest 2013 - March 8-bit / Chiptune / Videogame theme.
All discussion, questions, and WIPs concerning the contest go in this thread.

Please submit your official contest entries in the main contest thread.

All man I'm pumped, my songs fade between 8 and 16 bit, but like the rules said, I just gotta keep that chippy feel.
I can't help but using modern effects when I'm in a daw, but I think I'm gonna keep it to a minimum.

I'm hoping I can start tomorrow, I'm way too tired today.

[Elitistinen]

Oh my fucking GOD, you manage to get Maniacs of Noise to be the judge (I should've read the other page first), I was about to pull a WAVE styled Cybernoid chiptune!

This is epic!

[stunkel]

Hey, random question and I may not even need it. But would anyone know of any good 8-bit software instruments that work with mac/logic pro 9?

[Corbetto]

This contest sounds pretty awesome! :D
Never tried chiptune before but we'll see what i end up creating with the all-mighty 3xosc :P

[SourJovis]

The mindset is a little narrow on this topic.

When we say 8-bit music, we automatically think about music produced by an 8-bit video game console (because that's what's meant most of the time). There are however other 8-bit musical instruments not intended for video games. You could call music made with those instruments also 8-bit music.

Btw, did you know that even though the snes was a 16-bit console, the audio cpu had an 8-bit core? So you could call snes music 8-bit as well.

Not trying to make it overly complicated. I think it's relatively clear what's allowed in this competiton. Just saying.

Ps, I'm working on some songs right now of which I want to use one for the competition. But I'm not sure if they qualify. Some remind of 8-bit songs, and are in a sense 8-bit. Others are made with 8-bit synths but don't sound like "gameboy music".

[midimachine]

Yeah, I'd like to hear some Amiga or AtariST tracker stuff, or even someone messing about with milky or something haha. But I'll probably use LSDJ just because it's what I'm good at :v

[Elitistinen]

Question: Do Atari chip consider as 8bit?

[midimachine]

At 3/4/13 06:22 PM, Elitistinen wrote: Question: Do Atari chip consider as 8bit?

probably, if not they're defiitely considered an important part of chip music. the STE models playback 8-bit PCM audio

the old 2600/5200/7800 consoles are as "8-bit" as it gets. check it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8e7g8kJIlo

[SineRider]

At 3/4/13 06:29 PM, midimachine wrote: the old 2600/5200/7800 consoles are as "8-bit" as it gets. check it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8e7g8kJIlo

Sweet! I've been looking for that video for awhile. The part at 2:02 is insane

[stratkat]

Would it break the rules if my track resembles an old track here, the chord progression is the same, and one melody is only slightly different. The melody makes it really seem like a ripoff, but I'ma try to get it to stray from sounding the same as I continue, I just wanted to make sure I wouldn't be totally disqualified because of the similarity. Or if i'd have points deducted. If so I guess I'll start from scratch.

[SourJovis]

At 3/4/13 06:55 PM, stratkat wrote: Would it break the rules if my track resembles an old track here, the chord progression is the same, and one melody is only slightly different. The melody makes it really seem like a ripoff, but I'ma try to get it to stray from sounding the same as I continue, I just wanted to make sure I wouldn't be totally disqualified because of the similarity. Or if i'd have points deducted. If so I guess I'll start from scratch.

Hard to say if we can't hear the song. Every song sounds at least somewhat like another. Though some are blatant rip-offs. Be sure yours is more like the former. I don't think it matters if the chord progression is the same. Every good chord scheme has been used already (I think), so you can't get around that. You have to make the melody different. In any case it mustn't be the same, and if possible it should not remind (others) of the "original" melody. Can be difficult to make a different melody that's just as good, especially when the other sticks in your head, but there should be many different melodies possible with one chord progression. Try to make the rhythm or at least the instrumentation different (or settings in case of 8-bit). Probably you shouldn't have mentioned your song sounded like an older one. Now people are going to pay more attention.
I once made a song for a retro platform game based on a Sonic the Hedgehog song. It ended up a different song, but I was still afraid people would say I copied Sonic. In the end nobody mentioned Sonic. They all thought I copied Megaman...

[stratkat]

At 3/4/13 08:15 PM, SourJovis wrote:

At 3/4/13 06:55 PM, stratkat wrote: Would it break the rules if my track resembles an old track here, the chord progression is the same, and one melody is only slightly different. The melody makes it really seem like a ripoff, but I'ma try to get it to stray from sounding the same as I continue, I just wanted to make sure I wouldn't be totally disqualified because of the similarity. Or if i'd have points deducted. If so I guess I'll start from scratch.

Hard to say if we can't hear the song. Every song sounds at least somewhat like another. Though some are blatant rip-offs. Be sure yours is more like the former. I don't think it matters if the chord progression is the same. Every good chord scheme has been used already (I think), so you can't get around that. You have to make the melody different. In any case it mustn't be the same, and if possible it should not remind (others) of the "original" melody. Can be difficult to make a different melody that's just as good, especially when the other sticks in your head, but there should be many different melodies possible with one chord progression. Try to make the rhythm or at least the instrumentation different (or settings in case of 8-bit). Probably you shouldn't have mentioned your song sounded like an older one. Now people are going to pay more attention.
I once made a song for a retro platform game based on a Sonic the Hedgehog song. It ended up a different song, but I was still afraid people would say I copied Sonic. In the end nobody mentioned Sonic. They all thought I copied Megaman...

I should've specified copy right is no issue, it's a song I wrote that my chiptune sounds like. I think i'll just start over.
Sound I was ripping off:

• 
  Cloud Kicker (mastered) by stratkat

  New Album!!!!!

  Score

  4.69 / 5.00

  Type

  Song

  Genre

  Techno

  Popularity

  1,033 Views

• Loading...

Chiptune:
https://soundcloud.com/daydreamanatomy/cloud-kid

[BrokenDeck]

At 3/4/13 08:32 PM, stratkat wrote: Would it break the rules...

I think that a track that sounds completely new would have a better chance. But that's just my opinion.

[PeterSatera]

In regards to the 8-bit, console specific then it doesn't need to be.

At 3/3/13 12:23 AM, BrokenDeck wrote: Monthly Audio Contest 2013 - March 8-bit / Chiptune / Videogame theme.

As long as it resembles a video game chip tune theme then it's acceptable i'd imagine. So I take it that even a 16bit console would work.

[Elitistinen]

Anyone knows how to record C64 samples without losing sound quality?

[Genclops]

Pretty stoked on this contest

[SourJovis]

At 3/5/13 11:51 AM, Elitistinen wrote: Anyone knows how to record C64 samples without losing sound quality?

No I don't. I think when you record sound, or convert it from analog to digital, you always lose quality. But don't wory about that. Since when is chiptune about audio quality? I assume you're using a hardware C64. I'd say plug a DIN to tulip cable from the DIN output of the C64 to the audio input of an audio interface/recording device. You won't lose sound quality that way, but it's pretty much how you would normally hear a C64 when you connect it to an audio instalation. Note I don't actually own a C64, so I may be talking crap here, but this is what I could find.

Here's a discussion about the topic, but I don't think they come to a conclusion:
http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/3275/c64-audio-out-put-opt ions/page/2/

Perhaps a solution is anywhere in the discussion.
If not, I hope someone else can help you.

ps I know it's cheating, but with a C64 emulator you don't have these problems (just saying)