Hi guys! Not really an informative post, but I’d say a necessary one. I set up a Soundcloud presence for my chiptune originals which you can find right here: https://soundcloud.com/ap0c/ I’m trying to move in the direction of Soundcloud for a lot of the work I’ll be doing in the next couple months. I’ll set up a Bandcamp once I finish my EP. Yep, I’m working on an EP. Like, an actual collection of music and stuff. And not some kind of pretend EP. Serious stuff, folks. ZOUNDS!
Also, I created a Facebook group for my Ap0c stuff just in case you roll the Facebook way. You can find that here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ap0c/149780225198685 Hopefully I get some more “likes” so I can actually customize my name and not be known as a string of random numbers. That isn’t going to look good on my cards…
Thanks again for reading this blog. I just reached 100 likes today (total). Here’s hoping for 200 soon! I’m glad you guys are still out there, reading and caring about game music!
February’s 8static really got me inspired to assemble some originals to perform in the future. Naturally, as a newcomer to the chiptune scene, I need to see what the scene… well… is! I’ve been listening to everything and anything, trying to absorb every sound and style in the chiptune genre. There’s so much out there! I’m actually impressed with the overall quality I’m finding. Mostly, you can tell that people put an incredible amount of time and effort into each track. For a great example of quality and craftsmanship, I would check Chipocrite’s new album: 8bit Lebowski: 100% Electronic. And it’s not just this album- there’s tens of thousands of albums out there to explore. It’s really awesome.
Either way, performing as “Steve L” is only going to get me so far as it would appear that everyone has a stage name. I didn’t want to be presumptuous and assume it was okay to just make up a stage name, having very little experience and what not…. but I ended up doing so anyhow. I’ll be performing under “Ap0c” from here on out, as a homage to the Relic Scythe from Final Fantasy XI.
Nerdy inspiration for a name… but a bad-ass scythe.
For the past month, I’ve been working on pieces for Beta Test Music as well. We will be performing our very first NYC show this weekend, in fact. Details here. It will feature 2 works for the band+20a3/VRC6 that I’ve arranged. Our drummer is busy this weekend… so I just whipped up some NES audio to go with Pokemon to cover for him. I’m also tweaking my arrangement of music from Castlevania III because I’ve learned SOOO MUCH about sound creation since the original performance that I feel like the work was a bit amateurish and could easily be fixed to make a lot more sense.
Anyhow, “Last Minute Research Paper” is supposed to invoke that feeling of a race to the finish. I imagine sitting down at 9 PM, attemping to finish a paper that is due at 8 AM the next morning. The music goes through ups and downs, progress and lack of progress, and should have a push and pull kind of feel. Ultimately, the paper is finished but at what cost? Too dramatic? Too bad.
Below you’ll find the live performance of this piece at 8static 33:
One thing instantly noticeable is my snares are kind of out of control at times. On my headphones, it didn’t sound nearly as crashy and crazy. It’s really just at the beginning. It would appear I dropped an “F” in Famitracker for the noise channel and forgot to remove it. You can hear it activate at around :11. I think it stays up at the volume for a while before receiving another command not to be so loud. Most of my volume controls are built into the instruments so it probably took a long time before I put another command in. Oh well. I need to remember to just put in “analog” controls more often. It will also help when I have a full rig so I can mix stuff more on the fly.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed it! I have some other cool things I’m working on too so I’ll put them up here when they are complete. It’s my Spring Break (yep, a perk of being a college professor) so I’m going to try to aim to clean up some half-completed posts, including Virus, Part 2 of Dr. Mario, and some other interesting Research in Game Music topics. Happy Monday!
Hey guys! It’s Sunday and that means it’s time for another Sunday Game Soundtrack! Football is over… so we need SOMETHING to do, right? Anyhow, let’s listen to the original, legendary soundtrack to a game composed by a husband and wife duo- Rockman 3/Mega Man 3 for FC/NES.
This Sunday’s selection was inspired by Close to Good‘s Volume III, which features the complete soundtrack to Rockman 3/Mega Man 3, covered and awesome.. It’s free- you should go download it and take a listen!
Okay, so I know you guys know this but for the sake of just saying it: Mega Man is known as Rockman in Japan. The game’s official Japanese title is ロックマン3 Dr.ワイリーの最期!? or Rockman 3: The End of Dr. Wily? Much more dramatic! Anyhow, rather than saying Rockman 3/Mega Man 3 each time I refer to the game, I’m just going to call it MM3 from here on out. Simple. Clean. Easy.
MM3 was released by Capcom for the FC/NES on September 28th 1990 in Japan and in November 1990 for the US. (Sadly, it was not released in the EU until 1992… wow, way to drop the ball, Capcom). This game uses the MMC3 mapper. This mapper (to oversimplify a bit) basically allows Mega Man’s health bar to remain in a static position while you move. The music for the game was composed by Yasuaki Fujita, who is listed as “Bunbun” in the credits.
Bunbun wasn’t originally assigned to compose for the game, however. I’ll summarize one of my older posts really quick: Basically, Bunbun’s wife, Harumi Fujita, was assigned to write the music for the game. Unfortunately, she had to abandon the project… because she went into labor. She had been assigned the project while pregnant with her and Bunbun’s child (I’ll recycle this joke because I can: You might say she had a… BUNBUN in the oven). She took maternity leave and Bunbun, who was originally assigned to just do the sound programming, took over the project.
Harumi had already started the work so there’s always been a question as to which, if any, of the tracks were hers. Fortunately, Bunbun, on his blog, pointed out which tracks he composed. Apparently, Harumi had already finished Gemini Man, Needle Man, and part of the Staff Roll track. The rest was finished by Bunbun.
Anyhow, you’re not here for touching little stories! You’re here for MUSIC. So, let’s take a listen to Bunbun and Harumi Fujita’s Rockman 3/Mega Man 3 complete soundtrack, as posted on YouTube by Wiiguy309 (this guy has posted so many soundtrack- what the heck, man? CRAZY!) These tracks have been stereo enhanced so you’ll notice they sound a little more… reverb-y. It’s kind of nice. If you REALLY REALLY REALLY, REALLY want to listen to the un-enhanced version, you can click here.
Been a while since I posted one of these. Today, let’s look at Joy Mech Fight, a strange fighting game developed and published by Nintendo for Japanese release only and scored by one of Nintendo R&D1′s lesser-known composers. Let’s go!
Welcome to another edition of GAME MUSIC HELL! Today, bassist and chiptune master Paul Weinstein, AKA Chipocrite will discuss an Atari arcade port that falls short: 720° for NES.
A little about Chipocrite (from his website):
Paul Weinstein (former bassist of MJ Project, Philly’s favorite jamtronfusion monstergroup) started making music with Game Boys in early 2009. It was the sound he felt he was destined to create, a mix of old and new, a way to bridge the comforting video game tones he grew up with and the complex but catchy songs he was hearing in his head all those years later. It’s exciting, it’s pretty cool, and, above all, it’s some of the most fun he’s ever had making music.
What’s great about Paul is that he knows the inner workings of digital sound, especially when it comes to the old sound chips of our beloved consoles/handhelds:
So naturally, when he asked if he could write an article for GAME MUSIC HELL, I was more than happy to oblige.
You can find Chipocrite at www.chipocrite.com. His next show will be on 11/10/12 at the Anime USA Convention in Washington, DC. For details, check out animeusa.org. Now, without further delay, here’s Chipocrite’s analysis of Atari’s 720° for NES!
