MOS 6581 and 8580 Commodore 64 SID
chips
A
chiptune, or
chip music, is
music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized
in real time by a computer or
video
game console sound chip, instead of
using
sample-based synthesis.
The "
golden age" of chiptunes was the
mid-1980s to early 1990s, when such sound chips were the most
common method for creating music on computers. Chiptunes are
closely related to
video game
music, which often featured chiptunes out of necessity. The
term has also been recently applied to more recent compositions
that attempt to recreate the chiptune sound for purely aesthetic
reasons, albeit with more complex technology.
Early computer sound chips had only simple tone and noise
generators with few channels, imposing limitations on both the
complexity of the sounds they could produce and the number of notes
that could be played at once. In their desire to create a more
complex arrangement than what the medium apparently allowed,
composers developed creative approaches when developing their own
electronic sounds and
scores, employing a diversity of both methods of sound synthesis,
such as
pulse-width
modulation and
wavetable
synthesis, and compositional techniques, such as a liberal use
of
arpeggiation. The resultant chiptunes
sometimes seem harsh or squeaky to the unaccustomed listener.
History
Origins
The earliest precursors to chip music can be found in the early
history of
computer music. In 1951,
the computers
CSIRAC and
Ferranti Mark 1 were used to perform
real-time synthesized digital music in public.
In the late 1970s, video game consoles and microcomputers started
to have
integrated circuits with
dedicated sound logic. A notable early example is the
TIA chip of the
Atari VCS (1977) featuring two voices with
separate volume and waveform setting.
As several microcomputers were marketed with their music and sound
capabilities, commercial music software became available for many
models. An early example is the
Atari Music Composer
released in 1980 for the
Atari
400/800. These programs were typically simple and easy to use,
but very restricted in their capabilities. In order to really take
advantage of the sound chips, programming skills were
required.
SID music culture
Arguably the most influential piece of hardware in the development
of chip music has been the
MOS
Technology SID, the sound chip of the
Commodore 64 (1982).
By 1985, several Commodore 64 programmers, such as
Rob Hubbard,
David Whittaker and
Martin Galway, were exploring the
musical capabilities of the SID chip in order to produce varying
and interesting
video game music.
In the absence of sufficiently advanced music editor software,
machine code monitors were
typically used for the purpose.
At the same time, several computer hobbyists were taking efforts in
"ripping" this music out of the games. The ripped music was spread
among hobbyists as stand-alone executables containing one or more
pieces of game music, and it was also used as background music in
crack intros and
demos.
Later on, several
demo groups moved to
using their own music instead of ripped game music. In 1986,
Jeroen "Red" Kimmel studied Rob
Hubbard's player routine and used it for original demo songs before
writing a routine of his own in 1987. Hobbyists were also writing
their own dedicated music editor software, such as
Chris Hülsbeck's
Soundmonitor
which was released as a type-in listing in a 1986 issue of the
German C-64 magazine
64'er. The availability
of such software made it possible to a wider range of computer
users to compose advanced SID music. The 64'er magazine also hosted
the earliest known competition for Commodore 64 music in
1986.
These developments in the Commodore 64 culture were reflected by
similar developments on other popular microcomputer platforms of
the era.
The practice of SID music composition has continued seamlessly
until this day in conjunction with the
Commodore 64 demoscene.
The High Voltage SID
Collection, a comprehensive archive of SID music, contains over
36,000 pieces of SID music.
Tracker chiptunes
Commodore Amiga (1985), with its sample-based
sound synthesis, distanced the concept of microcomputer music away
from plain chip-synthesized sounds. Amiga
tracker music software, beginning
from
Karsten Obarski's
Ultimate Soundtracker (1987), inspired
great numbers of computer enthusiasts to create computer music. As
an offshoot of the burgeoning tracker music culture, a type of
tracker music reminiscent of Commodore 64 SID music was born. This
type of music came to be called "chiptunes" or "chip music".
Earliest examples of tracker chiptunes date back to 1989–1990 and
are attributed to the demoscene musicians 4-Mat, Baroque, Turtle
and Duz. Tracker chiptunes are based on very short looped waveforms
which are modulated by tracker effects such as arpeggio, vibrato
and portamento. The small amount of sample data made tracker
chiptunes far more space-efficient than most other types of tracker
music, which made them appealing to size-limited demoscene demos
and crack intros. Tracker chiptunes have also been commonly used in
other
warez scene executables such as
keygens.
Nowadays, the term "chiptune" is also used to cover chip music
using actual chip-based synthesis, but some sources, such as the
Amiga Music Preservation project, still define a chiptune
specifically as a small tracker module.
Steps toward the mainstream music world
Before the
2000s, chip music was
rarely performed live, and the songs were nearly exclusively spread
as executable programs and other computer file formats. The
earliest examples of record label releases of chip music can be
found in the late
1990s.
During the 2000s, a new wave of chiptune culture took place,
boosted by the release of software such as
LSDJ
for the
Game Boy. This new culture has much
more emphasis on live performances and record releases than the
demoscene and tracker culture the new artists are often only
distantly aware of.Yabsley, Alex. (2007)
The
Sound of Playing: A Study into the Music and Culture of
Chiptunes [Bachelors of Music Technology thesis]. South
Brisbane: Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University.
Technology
Historically, the
chips used were
sound chips such as:
For the
MSX several sound upgrades, such as the
Konami SCC, the
Yamaha YM2413 (MSX-MUSIC) and Yamaha Y8950
(MSX-AUDIO, predecessor of the
OPL3)
and the OPL4-based
Moonsound were released
as well, each having its own characteristic chiptune sound.
The
Game Boy, like the NES, does not have a
separate sound chip but both instead use digital logic integrated
on the main CPU.
Paula is known as the
sound chip on
Amiga, but is not really a sound
generating chip by itself. It is only responsible for DMAing
samples from RAM to the audio output, similar to the function of
modern day sound cards.
On the ZX Spectrum 128k models, Amstrad CPC, and Atari ST, chip
sounds are synthesised by simply dividing a clock
square wave to get a square wave of desired
frequency, and then using a
sawtooth/
triangle
wave from volume
LFO
or an (
ADSR) envelope to get some kind
of
ring modulation. LFOs are used to
control or influence a sound parameter such as pitch or filters in
a repeating cycle.
The technique of chiptunes with samples synthesized at
runtime continued to be popular even on
machines with full sample playback capability; because the
description of an instrument takes much less space than a raw
sample, these formats created very small files, and because the
parameters of synthesis could be varied over the course of a
composition, they could contain deeper musical expression than a
purely sample-based format. Also, even with purely sample-based
formats, such as the
MOD format,
chip sounds created by looping very small samples still could take
up much less space.
As newer computers stopped using dedicated synthesis chips and
began to primarily use sample-based synthesis, more realistic
timbres could be recreated, but often at the expense of file size
(as with
MOD) and potentially
without the personality imbued by the limitations of the older
sound chips.
The standard
MIDI file format, together with the
General MIDI instrument set, describes only
what notes are played on what instruments. General MIDI is not
considered chiptune as a MIDI file contains no information
describing the synthesis of the instruments.
Common file formats used to compose and play chiptunes are the
SID,
YM,
SNDH,
MOD,
XM, several Adlib based file formats and
numerous exotic
Amiga file formats.
Style
Generally chiptunes consist of basic waveforms, such as
sine waves,
square
waves and
sawtooth or
triangle waves, and basic
percussion, often generated from
white noise going through an
ADSR envelope–controlled
synthesizer.
For the above reasons the classic chiptune 8-bit sound can be
recognised from its synthesised square or pulse wave instruments,
simple white noise percussion and heavy use of ultra-fast
arpeggios to emulate
chord of three or four notes on a single
channel (due to hardware limitations, several notes must be placed
on the same channel).
Demoscene intros came to feature their own
particular style of chiptune music. Although
chiptune
could historically refer to any style of music, the term is mostly
used today to refer to the style of music used in these intros,
since other styles of music have moved on to more sophisticated
technology.
More recent "old school" or "demostyle"
MOD music, although sample-based,
continues the style of the chiptunes used in these intros; new
compositions in this style can still be regularly found at
www.chiptune.com (new
chiptunes from old computers/formats can be found here as
well).
Today
Modern computers can play a variety of chiptune formats through the
use of
emulators and platform-specific
plugins for
media player.
Depending on the nature of hardware being emulated, 100% accuracy
in software may not be available. The commonly used
MOS Technology SID chip, for example, has
a
multi-mode
filter including analog
circuits whose characteristics are only mathematically estimated in
emulation libraries.
The chip
scene is far from dead with
"
compo" being held, groups
releasing
music disks and with the
cracktro/
demo
scene. New
tracker tools
are making chip sounds available to less techy musicians. For
example,
Little Sound DJ for the
Game Boy has an interface designed for use in a
live environment and features
MIDI synchronization.
The
NES platform has
the MidiNES, a cartridge that turns the system into a full blown
hardware
MIDI
controlled
Synthesizer. Recently, for
the
Commodore 64, the Mssiah has been
released, which is very similar to the MidiNES, but with greater
parameter controls, sequencing, analog drum emulation, and limited
sample playback. On the
DOS platform,
Fast Tracker is one of the most famous
chiptune makers because of the ability to create hand-drawn samples
with the mouse. Chiptune artist
Pixelh8 has
also designed music software such as Music Tech for the
Game Boy and the Pro Performer for the
Game Boy Advance and
Nintendo DS which turn both machines into real
time synthesizers.
In the last couple of years, chip music has returned to modern
gaming, either in full chip music style or using chip samples in
the music. Games that do this in their soundtrack include
Mega Man Battle
Network,
Reset Generation,
Seiklus, and
Tetris
DS.
Film
The chiptune scene was recently the subject of a
documentary called
Blip Festival: Reformat the
Planet by
2 Player
Productions[12584].
This film was an official selection at the
2008 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas
.[12585] The premier took place on March 8, 2008 at the
Dobie
Center
.
TV
April 11 2005 was the 1st Chiptune performance on national
television.
8 Bit Weapon played their
songs "Bombs Away" & "Gameboy Rocker" on
G4's
Attack of the Show live broadcast
Episode #5058.
[12586][12587]
Representative artists and ensembles
Classic era
This era was characterized by the use of home computers and gaming
consoles, and songs were usually included in games, cracks, or
demos. Notable musicians of the time include
Rob Hubbard,
Ben
Daglish,
Chris Hülsbeck,
Tim Follin and
Martin Galway on the C64,
Jochen Hippel on the Atari ST,
Yūzō Koshiro on various FM
soundchips, including the
Yamaha
YM2612 of the
Mega Drive, and
Kōji Kondō,
Nobuo Uematsu,
Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka and
Yuukichan's Papa on the NES.
Modern incarnations
The modern era has brought a surge of diversity to the chiptune
scene. Modern electronic dance music, especially
dance-pop,
house music
and
techno is reflected in the music of
artists such as
Role Model,
Nullcreep and
Trash80.
Some, such as
YMCK,
Firebrand Boy,
PDF Format, and
Paza Rahm, frequently
include vocals, an element that was missing from many earlier
compositions. Artists such as
Sabrepulse
and
mcfiredrill make chipmusic that is more akin to
profanity techno. Many others,
including
Random,
4mat and
C-jeff draw
influence from demoscene music. Artists such as
Virt are inspired by and write music for video
game soundtracks. Some bands, like
Anamanaguchi,
Solemn Camel Crew and
8 Bit Weapon have incorporated chip music into
a live setting. A unique Canadian scene has managed to fuse
multiple genres, like IDM, indie rock, folk, trip hop, and power
pop, with 8bit music, in such acts as
Aliceffekt,
PDF
Format, and
XC3N.
Alex Mauer was a pioneer of releasing music on
actual NES cartridges, and is a prime example of a modern artist
who is influenced most heavily by vintage soundtracks. Many modern
chip musicians distribute their music freely in digital audio on
netlabels, such as
8bitpeoples,
8bitcollective.com micromusic.net,
Pause,
superbutton.net, and
mp3death.
See also
References
External links
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