Chiptune

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MOS 6581 and 8580 Commodore 64 SID chips
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MOS 6581 and 8580 Commodore 64 SID chips

Chiptune, or chip music, or micromusic is music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized in realtime 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 only widely available means for creating music on computers. The medium gave composers great flexibility in creating their own "instrument" sounds, but because early computer sound chips had only simple tone generators and noise generators, it also imposed limitations on the complexity of the sound; chiptunes sometimes seem "harsh" or "squeaky" to the unaccustomed listener. Chiptunes are closely related to video game music. The term is nowadays also used to denote music that uses these distinct-sounding synthesizer instruments for their artistic value rather than due to hardware limitations.

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[edit] Technology

Historically, the "chips" used were sound chips like the analog-digital hybrid Atari POKEY on the Atari 400/800, the MOS Technology SID on the Commodore 64, The PAPU in the Nintendo Game Boy, the Yamaha YM2149 on the Atari ST, AY-3-8910 or 8912 on Amstrad CPC, MSX and ZX Spectrum, the Yamaha YM3812 on IBM PC compatibles, and the Ricoh 2A03 on the Nintendo Entertainment System or Famicom. 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 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 MODs) 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.

Many common file formats used to compose and play chiptunes are the SID, SNDH, MOD, XM, several Adlib based file formats and numerous exotic Amiga file formats.

[edit] Style

Generally chip tunes 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.

You can immediatly recognize the "classic" chiptune style when the music use ultra-fast arpeggio to recreate a chord of 3~4 notes on a single channel (due to hardware limitation, you have to put several notes on the same channel).

Demo scene 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 "oldschool"/"oldsk00l" 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 in places such as www.chiptune.com (new chiptunes from old computers/formats can be found as well, like in the High Voltage SID Collection for Commodore 64).

[edit] Today

Modern computers can play a variety of chiptune formats through the use of emulators and platform-specific plugins for media players. 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.[1]

The chip scene is far from dead with "Compos" being held, groups releasing Music disks and of course with the cracktro/demo scene. New tracker tools are making chip sounds available to less techy musicians. For example, Little Sound DJ for the Nintendo Game Boy has an interface designed for user in a live environment and features MIDI synchronization. On IBM PC platform, Fast Tracker is famous for all chiptune makers because of the ability to create "hand-drawn" samples with the mouse.

Contemporary interest in chipping has also led to numerous web sites dedicated to the history of music groups, artists, and antique platforms.

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, Seiklus, Nik & Kit, and Tetris DS.

[edit] Representative artists and ensembles

[edit] Classic chiptune composers

[edit] Modern chiptune artists and groups

[edit] Media

[edit] External links

[edit] News

[edit] Meta archives

  • chiptune.com - lots of chiptunes in various file formats.
  • chip-on - chiptune archive.
  • Chiptune Upload Server - Free upload and sharing site for chiptuners.
  • Modland - Public FTP archive of tracked music, including chiptunes.
  • Plopbox - an archive and jukebox playing the most popular formats.

[edit] Platform specific archives

[edit] Players

  • Deliplayer - A multi format (250!), free audio player for Windows
  • Chipamp - A bundle of existing plugins for Winamp
  • Oldsk00l Replayer System - Winamp plugin for MOD, Jochen Hippel, Maniacs of Noise, Delta Music 2.0, SidMon 1, David Whittaker, Music Assembler, Fred Monitor, Mark II and DeliTracker modules
  • WinJam - Windows based player for Atari ST music files in SNDH format, and others
  • Open Cubic Player - Linux port of the legendary Open Cubic Player

[edit] Hardware synthesizer

  • SIDstation - Professionnal synthesizer with a built-in SID chip
  • HardSID - A PCI card for modern computers that features from 1 to 4 actual SID chips

[edit] Hardware recordings

[edit] Remix archives

[edit] Radio stations

[edit] Labels

  • 8BitPeoples - Founded by Nullsleep and Bit Shifter, one of the most powerful labels in Chiptunes. Home to many artists. All songs produced on the label are available for download from the website.
  • Give Daddy The Knife Founded by DJ Saskrotch.
  • Hidden Youth Records UK Home of Pixelh8 & Hidden Fortress.
  • micromusic.net - net label/community for chiptune/8-bit style music - lots to download
  • mp3death - net label with artists like Commodore 64 Orchestra, Overthruster, DMG Plantlife, Gijs Gieskes, Firebrand boy, Hipster, Random, Nitro2k01, Neotericz, Starpause, 8 Cylinder, The Hardliner, jonkie
  • gainlad - net label for chiptune /lo-fi/ 8-bit music
  • The X-Dump - Label, netlabel and collective founded by Psilodump, featuring Anode, Dorothy's Magic bag, Lithis, Matophonia, himself and his brother Paza Rahm.

[edit] Documentation

[edit] Crossplatform music editors

  • Goattracker - crossplatform C64 music editor. Supports HardSID soundcard, CatWeasel MK3 or emulation via reSID
  • Raster Music Tracker - crossplatform atari xe/xl music editor
  • Vortex Tracker - crossplatform Spectrum music editor


Electronica
Big beat • Bitpop • Chip • Downtempo • Folktronica • Glitch • Indietronica • IDM • Leftfield • Nu jazz • Post-rock • Trip hop • Uptempo
Other electronic music genres
Ambient | Breakbeat | Dance | Drum and bass | Electronica | Electronic art music | Hard dance | Hardcore | House | Industrial | Synthpop | Techno | Trance
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