more fun stuff

I've posted about this before, I think. There are midi guitars out there that can do this as well, but props for being inventive!

8 Bit Weapon Puts Out Free Tron Album

Now, I'm a capitalist, so I would have tried licensing the music and selling this (it isn't that hard in most cases). But hey, its still cool to have free stuff out there, but don't forget that 8 Bit Weapon has commercial releases on CDBaby as well. (HT/ECM).

Modulate your Gameboy

From Mute City DMG's, here is a little mod for a Gameboy that acts as a pitch shifter (like on a keyboard). What it is actually doing is controlling the CPU speed, which alters the pitch as a consequence. It also affects tempo, since after all the CPU speed is what is actually being controlled. Pretty nifty mod for those that perform chiptunes live.

Eternal Father, Strong to Save posted on YouTube

Alrighty, got another (actually the last!) of the "freebies" from my chiptune album. "Eternal Father, Strong To Save" is probably most well known for being the hymn that the United States Navy uses. Actually, some lyrical treatments of the hymn include verses for all the armed services.

In any case, its a beautiful, gorgeous hymn, and what I like most about this is that the NES emulation actually sounds a lot like an organ when you add reverb to it.

New YouTube Sample: Johnny One Note

Here is another preview cut from "Pitch to Pixel," Johnny One Note.

Johnny One Note is inspired by Thelonious Monk, the great jazz composer and pianist. I had a conversation with a coworker in the design department at Vicious Cycle about Monk, and how this particular coworker couldn't really stand him. Well, don't worry, this track doesn't really posit the most challenging aspects of Monk's music. It is influenced much more by his playful side (I personally think all of this music is terrific, though!).

The title refers to the fact that for much of the melody, a one note motif is heard. This is most obvious in the bridge, where the melody hammers on one note, while the harmony underneath changes.

One nice thing about music with a jazz influence is that it works very well for video games. In fact, many Japanese video games have a big time jazz influence, from the ragtime of Koji Kondo's Mario Bros. music to the jazz rock fusion styling of something like Streets of Rage.

Enjoy!

It is finally here!!!

Pitch To Pixel Volume 1: A Collection of 8 Bit Video Game Inspired Music is finally out today on CDBaby! 

This is, of course, what this blog is about (well, that and my other music).


To celebrate, here is the full version of "Shooter," a track from my album, as provided by my youtube account. I'll have a few more of these to show you in the coming days! Hopefully they will inspire you to buy  the album or buy some tracks!