8bit/bitpop
 

this genre fucking rules, i just discovered anamanaguchi and nullsleep yesterday and i love them both; anyone else like this here? what would you reccomend?

also, what the hell can i use to get these sounds, i don't have a nintendo or a keyboard so i can get the sounds out of the nintendo onto the keyboard, now, can i use some program on the comp? link?

there are emulatotrs available on the net to make 8 bit sounds.

or you can just buy and old cell phone.
ha!

you can also listen to dan deacon

Horse the band was pretty neato when I saw them live some time ago.

There are a lot of people in my immediate area that do this stuff on circuit-bent Gameboys and the like.
Interesting enough in concept, but I can't say I truly enjoy this stuff on any level.

Try out Crystal Castles. Not as 8bit, but still pretty amazing.

Go buy a midi-keyboard, they're not that expensive, like this one.
And download/buy (haaha yeah right) Cubase or Reason. I did. It's not that hard or expensive.

Horse the Band are awful and not bitpop. They're retarded hardcore with occassional video game keyboards.

Almost every high end keyboard can make 8-bit-ish sounds. Fuck, even a shitty Casio has "synth lead 3" setting, which sounds exactly like an NES. If you want to do it on your computer, there's many choices.. bit boy, ymsynth, for example; peach, toad, and triforce from www.tweakbench.com also work (if that website works still -- it probably does; if not, try searching www.kvraudio.com for vst plugins). If you want to make it 4-bit, for your Gameboy, you should get NANOLOOP. There is an excellent compilation of established artists making Nanoloop compositions (called "nanoloop vol. 1", i'm sure it's on soulseek..), one which is by Merzbow. Guess how his sounds. (If you guessed "like a Game Boy farting static", you're correct!)

The most essential "bitpop" band is YMCK. Japanese 8-bit pop. Amazing stuff. I discovered 'em a while back, because I really love J-Pop. In fact, lots of really good J-Pop acts use video game keyboards a lot (I'm look at Perfume, Motocompo, Mac Donald Duck Eclair, etc) so if you want actual POPPY stuff, look into that. Not the J-Pop shit that your little sister likes, I'm talking about the picopop J-Pop genre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picopop). I'd also reccomend DAT Politics if you want some of that stuff in a cutesy, glitchy form. And Sabrepulse if you want straight-up 8-bit breakcore stuff... his nickname is "Venetian Snes" if that tells you anything. I've heard many groups like this, and it's usually VERY boring after a few songs, but ... hmm. It's okay, I guess. I prefer the "micromusic" genre, which is similiar but less annoying. I used to make music in this style, did a Dillinger Escape Plan cover, a Radiohead cover, and it translated to some music by my band... also, my friend Hara Kari Kitty did music in this style. My good friend Bubblegum Octopus kinda does music like this but he's started to incorporate other, non-video game elements in there too... It's very easy to get bored/sick of. You just can't take it very far. Also, if you don't feel like using plugins, when I did music like this (years ago) I wasn't aware of the plugins yet, so what I did was record video game music and cut out snippets of the synth and then edit it in the piano roll function of Fruity Loops. Hmm.. I'm trying to find it but I can't.. there's a youtube video of someone extracting every element of the music to Journey to Silius (my favorite NES game, also with the best music) in Fruity Loops with some plugin, leaving just the synth line, and then mutating it into a new song. Uh.. honestly, I'm not looking to deeply, you can probably find all kinds of shit on youtube, videos of people "making" video game music.

I'm sure you're aware of this:
http://www.8bitpeoples.com/discography_gfx.php
Like a hundred or so free albums of nothing but music in this style.

There's a bitpop song on my myspace page. "Make Friends With Squares", but I just used a tone generator to imitate chip tunes. Then I converted the result to mono and 8bit sound quality.

thanks!

I used to collect this stuff, for a while, but then I got tired of listening to it. I still really like Puss, though.

There's also some version of reggae made with nintendo; Better read about than listened to. Every now and then something interesting comes out.

Buzzo, check out this site: http://micromusic.net/

It's one of the best ones that I've found for this sort of music.

Right, I heard some guy about 5 years ago who re-did all the "greatest hits" of DMX with video game sounds instead of beats.. with robot vocals. Uh... yeah.

Better left to the imagination..

Have you ever heard this record? It's on Aphex Twin's label (Rephlex). I've found it some years ago for 50p. I wouldn't know what to think of it. It sounds like it was made in the 80's.

haha the fuck?

Anamanaguchi + Bubblegum Octopus rule so hard.

Yeah, BgO is a cool dude, the SS/BgO split should be out any day on Kiddieriot!! There'll be some collab songs on it, too... he actually did a really awesome remix of spread ebola 3000, I'll upload it here in a sec.

Matt has some better projects, I really like his c@ stuff... he said listening to you're all slime plus a bottle of tussin is what got him into doing BgO. Couldn't be more flattered -- spread the robo love.

*edit*: Here's bgo - spread ebola 3000 [ss cover] [previously unreleased!]: http://www.sendspace.com/file/pmg8aj

Pretty insane.


Anywho, me and matt (and derek) are both pretty big on mosaic.wav which fits this thread perfectly.

I honestly haven't listened to Bubblegum Octopus in a very long time, but You're A Bad Cat Man is fucking legendary around these parts.

yeah, you really need to hear the stuff on the ss split, it's his best songs as bgo.

If you like bgo, you really should check out ranger raccoon - the great american race trade, it was kind of a primitive version of bgo, and was an influence on m@ too. http://www.last.fm/music/Ranger+Raccoon

I really miss that scene.. gigantic brain, libido airbag, khr.. there used to be this very hardcore, insolated group of people trading mp3s and shirts and pins and secrets back and forth, and it all kind of broke apart a few years back. Brokecore Records' dissolving pretty much ended the comeradery.

Bubblegum Octopus was one of the first bands I added when I got myspace years ago.

8-Bit - MBV - Only Shallow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhP_Usc9LKs

I cried so hard. I shat.

I somehow couldnt turn it off.

Ditto. It's outstanding. I wish there were more 8-bit shoegaze tracks.

That 8bit version really illustrates just how boring the drums are on that album.

I can't believe no one mentioned 8bit shoegazers The Depreciation Guild.

^ I'll look into 'em. Thanks a lot.

This label has a record by Team Brick which is quite good and a bit 8-bitty. Sample. He's also doing more of the same under the names Gnar Hest and Klad Hest. Some of y'all might like it.

I just discovered the band have split up! :(

^ STELLAR