Ed.: It’s more than nostalgia that drives the dedicated chip musician with their modified Nintendo instruments. As guest writer Vijith Assar learned while interviewing Anamanaguchi, some more elemental love of digital synthesis leads these artists to deal with esoteric hardware and crashing homebrewed software. Vijith covered Anamanaguchi for New York’s Village Voice, but this trio had far more geeking than could fit in the free weekly’s pages. The band’s front man and songwriter, flanked by talented NES hacker bandmates, muses on the technology and artistic process – and on why, yes, the act did have to start with blowing on the cartridges. (Surprised?) -PK

I recently had a chance to chat with Anamanaguchi, who would probably be the boy-band teen idols of the chiptune world if the scene were to tolerate such things. Lead songwriter Pete Berkman opened up about his creative process and the digital speed bumps he hits along the way, and guitarist Ary Warnaar is on another planet when it comes to working with Game Boy synths like LSDJ and Nanoloop, but the most freakish technical bits came from bassist James DeVito. He wrote later to describe in detail the customized hardware he’s cobbling together for use on tour, which so far has involved modding the Nintendo for multiple outputs, each with a bolted-on 1/4″ jack and volume knob, and integrating a tiny high-res screen lifted from a PlayStation. He’s even considering a built-in controller for the next version.

The stock NES has five channels of sound — two square waves (lead), triangle (usually for bass), noise, and DPCM sample channel. Normally, these are all mixed down to one mono output, but by tapping directly into pins 1 and 2 of the CPU, we are able to separate them into two outputs. Pin 1 on the NES CPU (2A03) contains the two square channels, and pin 2 contains the triangle, sample and noise channel. A third output is gained from a proprietary audio expansion, containing two extra square channels and a sawtooth channel. This particular one, VRC6, was designed by Konami and featured only on Japanese Famicom games. However, with development carts we are able to get the expansion audio on our NES. The extra audio chip is in the cartridge itself, and outputted directly through a pin on the cartridge. This pin is tied directly to pin 9 on the expansion port, which is where we tap in to get our third output. Directly off those pins I connected 1µf capacitors @ 50V (negative leg goes to CPU pin, positive goes to output) to protect the chips from any short circuits or power surges when plugging a cable in. From there it’s relatively simple, putting them in line with 50K pots and outputting directly to the 1/4 inch jacks out the back. The screen is all wired internally. 5V power is taken from the regulator within the screen and fed into the NES. In order to avoid problems, I cut out the 7805 regulator in the NES and applied the 5V where it needed to be. Audio and video were soldered directly to where the RCA jacks are attached to provide signal to the screen.

And what then? Well, let’s ask Pete.

Vijith: How do you do write these sequences?

Pete: It’s a [DOS] program called Nerdtracker 2 that apparently writes music in the language that the NES can understand. It’s a really home-brewed program. It was made in 1998 by a bunch of Swedish dudes, and it never got out of beta, and it’s prone to crashing, and it has all these terrible bugs in it, half the features don’t work.

And the decision to mix it with guitars?

Pete: I started messing around with it and sending songs back and forth with a friend of mine, and in the beginning, the music I wrote kind of sounded “videogamey,” but as I continued writing, my actual musical influence kind of started to get in there. And at that point, it made a lot of sense to put it as an instrument in a full live band setting, with guitars and drums and that sort of thing. Right before going to NYU, literally NYU move-in day, I released the Power Supply EP through 8bitpeoples, which I had recorded totally by myself at my house except for one track which we recorded with James. All I had was a shitty mic and a shitty guitar and a shitty amp and just recorded what I knew, without any kind of formal training.

It was made in 1998 by a bunch of Swedish dudes, and it never got out of beta, and it’s prone to crashing, and it has all these terrible bugs in it, half the features don’t work.

Do you write using a guitar or a Nintendo?

Pete: It’s a mixture of both. Certain songs, I’ll get the idea as a melody in my head. The music is pretty melodic, so it’s pretty transferable from instrument to instrument. Anything I write on guitar I can put on the Nintendo, and anything I write on the Nintendo I can usually play on guitar – unless it’s way too fast, which it usually is.

Recently, I’ve been getting more into making sounds on the Nintendo that can’t be reproduced by instruments, doing stuff that only the sound chip can do. But more or less I like to create a skeleton of the song on the NES. Ary, on the Game Boy, makes some absolutely ridiculous stuff that’s really fucking weird, like, really just straight-up the weirdest music I’ve ever heard. And the way he does it is not so much thinking musically, but technically. When I came into the 8-bit world, I was definitely the opposite. Any time there’s electronic music, you have people who are thinking technically, and usually that’s music that I’m not very interested in, because it’s kind of cold, usually. I came into the 8 bit world with a very musical background, being in bands growing up and stuff, as opposed to a programming background. But recently I’ve been getting really into making strange sounds on the Nintendo that, like, “Whoa, I didn’t know you could do that with that sound chip.” At the same time, I’m mixing that with that simple pop sensibility.

What I usually like to do is to harmonize everything. Why not? You have two square channels. What else are they going to do but harmonize each other?

James: You don’t have the option of chords, so you might as well harmonize.

Pete: I tend to get bored very easily, which kind of finds its way into the music too. Like, “Oh, here’s an idea. Oh, wait, no, it’s gone now. Now it’s totally different.” In high school, I guess I was diagnosed with ADD — whether that’s bullshit or not, which I think it is, but I’m very capricious, and I tend to jump from thing to thing, in life and in music. But yeah, basically, hyperactivity is something I do.

Basically, hyperactivity is something I do.

How does it actually work? All this time I thought it was a MidiNES, but I recently read a YouTube comment where you said that wasn’t the case.

Pete: Two years ago, I was really upset by the claim that it was MIDI, because it was such a ridiculous process that we don’t do anymore. Back then, you would make the song in Nerdtracker 2, and if you typed in a wrong filename and hit Enter, the program would just crash, and you’d lose everything you had worked on. From there, you’d have to hit Enter to create, like, four different files — temp.ihd, temp.dat, temp.dmc, and temp-dot-some-other-shit. And you’d take all those files and compile them in an NES compiler. That would give you a Nintendo Sound File. And you’d have to do this specifically in Windows 98, because the assembler for XP was fucked up, and it would give you the wrong shit, the wrong hex to burn onto a chip. What you would do from that point is turn it into a binary file, .nsf. The only command is “Play this song at this location in the EPROM’s memory.” And so what you would do from there is you would take that binary file and burn it to a special 28-pin EPROM chip that you would have to order in bulk from some electronics company in New Jersey. And then if you’re lucky, the burning worked. And then if you’re even luckier, all 28 pins are in place in the socket that you soldered into an NES cartridge. And then if you’re even luckier, the NES is willing to play the song in the cartridge — instead of having to blow on it — and then it plays. And that’s the process that we did live, with one chip for each different song, having to flip it out with a guitar pick and replace it with my shaky hands.

James: And the chips aren’t even labeled. So it was this long, complicated process.

Wait, isn’t that last problem your fault?

Pete: Yeah.

James: We’ve come a long way since then.

Pete: Yeah, we have come a long way. That’s why I was… not upset, but adamant about saying what it was. But we’ve got this new system that’s the happiest…

James [unzips case]

Pete: Yeah, we have it here. Instead of burning stuff to a chip, you just take the NSF and put it on a CompactFlash card, and put that in a cartridge that will straight-up just play the song, and has a menu. It’s a 2-gig Flash card, so you can put every song on there, and there’s an on-cartridge browser. And we have a screen hooked up to it, too.

James: The card is usually meant for development, but it also plays the Nintendo sound files that Pete exports, so we can actually just go through it and the file browser has all of our songs listed. (And every game we downloaded from a torrent.)

Ary: He’s currently working on a new Nintendo. They’re going to replace literally every electrical component.

James: Well, not everything. But just make it sound better, like improve the output.

You mean just gutting it and rebuilding it with better parts?

James: It’s more like rebuilding the audio output aspect of it, and certain things like the power supply that adds noise to the signal. It’ll have newer parts, so it’s less likely to explode on stage. With our old setup, if major vibrations were happening to it, it would actually just restart the song.

Pete: Tons of aberrations live.

Ary: And major vibrations happen a lot on stage…

Check out the band for yourself; they’re on tour now.

Vijith Assar is a musician, writer, and computer geek based in New York City. His musical projects have tended toward scores for film, television, and
advertising, and his writing has appeared in the Village Voice, the New York Post, Tape Op, Electronic Musician, and PopMatters, among others. He plays the Chapman Stick and might be going bald because of Reaktor.

Game Boy superstar Pixelh8 is releasing his fantastic 8-bit music software into the wild. And it’s even being picked up in music education. From True Chip Till Death:

Pixelh8 sez:

After lengthy consideration, I decided I would rather have my Game Boy / Game Boy Advance music software be used by everyone it can be used by, instead of just the few.

All of my software Music Tech V2.0, Pro Performer and more are all free for download at http://pixelh8.co.uk/software/ Enjoy! Please read the FAQ before emailing me questions about it, it’s pretty straight forward. I am doing a lot of work in music and music education, the software is now even being used in some UK schools for students to do their GCSE music composition on.

There are also new videos in his archives for your viewing pleasure. (Check out the BBC Radio 1 appearance on the Pixel8 site. And yes, that’s Radio One.)

What happens when you put all the digital and electronic tools you love together into one groove session? I expect it probably looks something like this video. Welcome to the new digital music age: DIY electronics, vintage digital tech (Game Boys), and modern computer tech (Monome as Arduinome clone, Max/MSP, and shiny MacBook) all coexist. And a fair bit of what you see if a modern hybrid of old and new paradigms, like the thoroughly modernized Tracker Renoise. Thomas Margolf says “Greetings from Rotterdam” and writes,

We made a first Jam using the new GorF step-sequencer, Arduinome, max msp patch ‘Soyuz’, a Gameboy running LittleSoundDJ, LSDJMC2 Gameboy Midi-Interface, Renoise, Ableton Live and a Nord Micro-Modular. It’s the first session with a fresh soldered GorF.

Lovely stuff. Keep on soldering and jammin’, folks. Okay, tagging this story is going to take … a lot of tags.

PSP lgpt port [fundable]

You’ll need to hack your PSP, of course, until Sony sees the light and allows arcane music downloads via its official store. But hacking isn’t so bad. We’ll keep you posted!

"Atomic" cover by Glomag f. stealthopera @ Blip Festival 2008 in NYC from 2 Player Productions on Vimeo.

Glomag, here’s an idea for your next set: I stand nonchalantly at your side, edging ever closer until you punch me in the face with one of your air fists. Slapstick gold.

And here’s our friend / CDM drinking buddy Joel Johnson interviewing our other friend 8-bit artist Bubblyfish, for Boing Boing and Offworld.

For more video goodness, Peter Swimm has a whole Blip album up on Vimeo:

Blip Festival 08

Assuming you happen to hate chip music (it’s been known to happen), there’s still plenty to learn from this crew. Sure, you could argue they came up with a gimmick – although I think the essence of marketing is figuring out if there’s a sellable hook in something you already love. But having watched Blip and 8-bit music take off, there are a lot of other, underrated factors:

• They worked together. The 8-bit community in general has done a fantastic job of cross-promotion, supporting each other as fans, going out to get gigs, and advocating the work they do, even before you look at collectives like the awesome 8-bit collective. (That, incidentally, is a great place to start looking at this scene.)
• They have fun. People can bring friends to a Blip gig and be sure their friends will have a good time, whether they’re hard-core fans or not. Now, maybe your music is less “accessible,” but part of what makes this work is that the 8-bit folks do throw good parties, and they share infectious positive energy in what they’re doing, which could be applicable to anything.
• They’re on-message. The 8-bit folks really do have something to say about how technology is used musically, and they say it, via all sorts of different press outlets and the lie. That’s helped add to their longevity, because people believe it’s worth following this music over time. Replace those sentences with something you care about, find some other people who feel the same way, and this is something that can be replicated.
• They’re global. I love New York, which has been a epicenter for this kind of music, but New York can’t begin to sustain these artists on its own. A whole lot of this crew tours, and there’s strong coordination worldwide. Even in New York, it’s a niche genre, which means it needs that international reach to thrive.
• They found parallel fields to connect. Cross the streams! Art, gaming, tech – it turned out that the stuff from the 8-bit crowd mattered to people outside the music world. Result: get out of your own personal bubble.

All of these points sound like a recipe to help unusual music genres do better around the world. I have no doubt that we could have more screaming crowds of people in laptop music, for instance, and that even the world’s hot spots (hello, London, New York, Berlin, Melbourne, and company) would like their scenes to improve. Obviously, the 8-bit scene benefits from timing and their unique field. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them and fight for your own Indietronica Augmented Microtonal Banjo movement.

Retro hardware? Vintage game machines? Old computers? New mobile devices? Whatever it is, we’ll make music and motion on it.

The Blip Festival, the legendary international festival of vintage music and visual tech, invades New York today (Thursday) through Sunday. There’s an unbelievable lineup, with fantastic musicians and live visualists playing every single night Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, from music from m-.-n to Bubblyfish and visuals from Paris Treantafales to Meneo (and many other friends). In fact, every single musician has their own live visuals, so your eyes and ears are guaranteed to be (over)stimulated at all times.

Saturday afternoon is a lineup of workshops, including making your own visual electronics with VBLANK and putting music on NES albums with NO CARRIER.

Sunday is the debut of Reformat the Planet, the documentary film.

2008 Blip Festival

And before the Friday night Blip festival starts, get your 32-bit / mobile gaming + music device / happy hour mixer on:

Mobile Music: 32-Bit Blip Drinkup/Meetup with CDM + Boing Boing [Facebook]

Friday 32-bit BB/CDM Meetup @ Bell House Bar

Blip has a strictly 8-bit and/or retro focus. The stated mission is to:

showcase emerging creative niches involving the use of legacy video game & home computer hardware as modern artistic instrumentation. Devices such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Nintendo Game Boy and others are repurposed into the service of original, low-res, high-impact electronic music and visuals…

Now, I love retro tech, but being the subversive character I am, I have to say, cough, “low resolution”? “8-bit”?

And so, with Joel Johnson (Boing Boing / Offworld / Boing Boing Gadgets), we’re hosting a very informal meetup to celebrate all things mobile and 32-bit with the Boing Boing and CDM communities. If you’ve got one, bring your PSP, your Nintendo DS, and your GamePark (or even mobile phone / PDA), and prepare to share. I’m especially hopeful we’ll get some wireless action with multiples of the DS, Korg DS-10, and homebrew. We may be able to unlock your PSP for homebrew (contact us first – likewise, give us a holler if you’re good with a Pandora’s Battery and Magic Memory Stick). If you’ve found a way to hook your 8-bit Game Boy into your new DS DIY MIDI interface, all numbers of bits will be accommodated.  I’ll be bringing my PSP with the incredible PSPSEQ onboard – which sounds utterly beautiful and is really inspiring to use. I’ll have DS homebrew, too.

If you just want to meet me and Joel and folks and see what’s possible and nerd out and have a few drinks, that goes, too!

We’re meeting at the bar at the Bell House, which also happens to be where Blip is happening. So you can come, get some drinks and snacks, and get your mobile music/visual geek on. Bonus: it’s two-for-one happy hour, so bring a friend / significant other and we’ll make them feel at home!

Bell House Food & Drink Menu

RSVP on Facebook

When: Friday, December 5, 6-8p

Where: 149 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215 [Map | Directions]

See you there!

Again, very important rest of the planet, I’ll try to stream live if WiFi cooperates in the bar! Watch http://twitter.com/cdmblogs for updates.

Marc “Nostromo” Resibois, aka “m.-.n,” lives the digital life of computers. The Belgian musician and hacker [@MySpace] is renowned as a Game Boy musician, as the inventor of legendary Nintendo tracker LittleGPTracker, and even has a day job as a programmer for VJ software maker Arkaos. But lately, his thoughts have turned to more traditional synthesis hardware – hardware that acts as tiny computers. Nothing is going to shake me from my love of computers, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in having what he describes sitting next to mine. Here’s what he imagines – and it’s a variation on a theme I think we’ll see a lot in the coming weeks and months here on CDM. And without giving away the punchline, that Nintendo DS is going to make another appearance.

I’ve always loved small, self-contained units. Because I’m a software guy, I’ve been developing music software on handheld consoles for years. I love these little guys. They are tiny, fairly powerful, and their physical interface gives you a good amount of control, leading to a growing stack of interesting applications.

However, recently, a couple of interesting projects started to emerge from the hardware side of things. That makes it possible to start dreaming about building your own little synth, even for people like me who can’t even deal with sticky tape.

My first hands-on with hardware was when I started fiddling with the Arduino piano. You might argue that once it’s built, it’s still software platform, but I really enjoy working on this bit of kit. The interaction is even more straightforward than game consoles: press a button, turn a knob, and get sound. Although it might seem limited compared to software synths, it also has dimensions that a lot of virtual instruments lack. I’ll call these qualities depth and exclusivity.

Depth: When you turn a pot on this hardware, you’re really in control. You may argue there’s a lot of controllers out there, but compared to the 1024-level resolution of the Arduino, standard MIDI Control Changes turn out to be bogus for smoothly controlling parameters. Just playing with the default FM patch of the Arduino piano makes it obvious. [Ed.: Of course, I will add there are ways around this – higher-resolution MIDI control messages, plug-in automation, OpenSoundControl, and audio-rate / audio-stream control, to mention a few, not to mention even simple interpolation of lower-resolution MIDI controll messages. But then, we’re talking a very, very cheap piece of hardware on the Arduino, so there’s a big point here. –PK]

Exclusivity: When you play with hardware like the Arduino piano, it’s the only thing you do. You can’t fire Google or start reading your mail, and I think it’s really valuable. Every music "tool" should be able to immerse you enough so that the rest of the world doesn’t exist. All computer-based synths have failed to do that for me.

Of course, the greatest thing of all is that this domain is only at its very beginning. It’s a small spore in your hands waiting to morph to the next level. You decide its fate. And that’s where it gets exciting. Playing with the Arduino piano and looking at it as a synth development platform, I started to think about what I could dream of making with it. What would make it "timeless" for me, using existing available technology?

Here’s what I ended up with:

1. The core: At this point, it doesn’t really matter if we’re talking Arduino, Propeller or any other chip. The point is that there are programmable chips out there that will support development of your very own personal synth. They might run at very low sample rate, they might have the tiniest memory for programs, but they have soul. In the 80s, when digital synths hit the mainstream market, they were likewise limited in resources. Still, they were powerful enough to be admired and loved.

2. The engine: Ideally, the processor should be fast enough to allow a fairly configurable synth engine — something that would allow switching between ‘presets’. You don’t want to have to flash the chip every time you want a new sound. It doesn’t take a major CPU to be able to do something decent. For proof of that, look at Korg’s DS-10 running 6 parameterized synths on a lowly Nintendo DS. Maybe the Arduino is too limited to be a good enough candidate for this, but there are plenty of other possible platforms.

3. Controllers: As I already mentioned, direct hardware control is a joy that can’t be overstated. Having high-resolution pots connected directly to the chip provides an easy and cheap way to tweak your sounds in real-time, in ways you’ve probably forgotten (assuming you haven’t recently used analog hardware and the like). Let’s call them generic controllers: we want them to act in the most expressive way depending on the ‘presets’ that were built for the synth engine.

4. The keyboard: It doesn’t take long playing with the Arduino piano to realize the keyboard is not going to take you very far. Not being a keyboard player myself, my idea is to ditch it and keep a few switches for direct action like switching patches, transposing, etc. I’m pretty sure there should be a way to integrate a decent keyboard in this setup, but how to do that is beyond my reach. One could trigger the sound with just a button. A few pots and a “push me” button – sound familiar? Ed.: See the Dave Smith Mopho, though generally people are hooking MIDI keyboards to it so they can easily input pitch. But then, why use a keyboard at all? Quite a few synth lovers regret the addition of keyboards to synths, because they don’t allow for expression between notes, as on instruments like violins or the human voice. I’m not sure a single button is an improvement, but then, you could create the architecture of the synth to easily allow analog input, thus enabling anything you want. -PK

5. The deep end: This is where it gets fun. So far, we’ve got something fairly basic — running a synth on a chip, triggering sound, and having patch-based control on expression parameters. What could make this synth totally self-contained would to some means for editing sounds from the unit itself. There was a recent post on Analog Industries wondering whether people preferred a simple interface or access to all parameters. In my view, an ideal synth should provide both: when editing a patch, you should get access to all the parameters. When playing it, you should get access to only those parameters that make sense for the sound. The first example I remember of this is the Nord Modular: it provides modes geared for a sound designer or a performer. That’s true with the wonderful morphing effect rack in Ableton Live or the generic parameters of the aforementioned Mopho. But how to do this in a small, self-contained unit? The pots give us a performance mode, but the challenge is how to navigate the deeper possibilities of editing a synth engine? I just don’t want to have to use a computer. I’d be checking Facebook or uploading moods to Twitter instead of making noise.

There happens to be a mobile, compact unit that could be perfect for the job, however: the Nintendo DS. It’s got a small form factor, a few additional hardware controlers, a very playable touchscreen, and a serial interface that could enable bi-directional communication with the synth engine. By throwing the NDS in the picture, we could gain:

• A user interface to edit the synth’s parameters (why not implement a touchscreen based VCS3 type matrix, for example?)
• The possibility of running a small sequencer
• Some additional performance capabilities, a la Kaoss Pad, to control the synth.

So in the end, we have a hardware/software hybrid that’s very powerful, yet fits in a very small form factor, and whose cost (beside the blood, sweat, and tears of building the whole thing) wouldn’t go past the USD 300 mark.

Anyone with too much time on their hands? I’d like one, please :)

Ed.: Some really interesting ideas here. I’m not sure I’m so crazy about the Nintendo DS as a closed platform, though. Reimagine this more broadly as hardware DSP / embedded microcontroller synth engine plus some sort of small mobile computer, and you’ve got lots and lots of possibilities. I’m not tossing my computer – I can close the Internet and focus on music for a while even on a computer – but even as a lover of sound design on a computer, I find all of this very tantalizing. I also know we have some other folks working in similar directions and on other mobile ideas, so stay tuned. -PK

Lovers of the sound of the original Nintendo Game Boy, the Minimoog of game systems with its distinctive, rich 8-bit sound, this may be the best solution for integrating it with other music gear.

Our friend trash80, aka Timothy, has completed a project with open-source code for the affordable, easily-programmable Arduino electronics platform. To make it work, he’s built his own custom cartridge, adding standard MIDI communication with other devices. An 1/8” minijack plugs into your Game Boy cart, but you get standard MIDI DIN on the other end for connecting to keyboards, computers, and the like. With all the code available, you should not only be able to build your own MIDI Game Boy, but apply some of trash80’s techniques to other MIDI hardware projects, as well.

Full documentation:

Flickr set

Code, project detail, and docs at Google Code

That’s the full Arduinoboy shield below:

Updated: As Smithers notes in comments, this is similar to the Pushpin project. Pushpin is actually quite a lot more compact, using only a MIDI cable. The downside: Pushpin requires a Game Boy Color, while this project works with the other Game Boy models. Also, the Arduino aspect may make this project a bit more accessible. Worth looking at both, of course.

This site has always been about making music with computers and digital technology. Today, we increasingly have access to powerful computers in mobile form factors. But, despite the simple fact that all of these are ultimately computers, I’ve quickly learned that mobile music production is a divisive issue. Some of you are as passionate about hating mobile tech as others of you are about loving it, perhaps propelled by a strong uptick of iPhone hype and accompanying resentment. Don’t worry — I won’t be swayed too much by either group; I’m committed to computers in all forms, tiny and large, and accompanying digital synths. And analog synths. And, really, anything that makes sound.

That said, the survey results we did on mobile tech are very interesting. Story topics for CDM aren’t a popularity contest, but your responses do reveal a lot. (The best reading turns out to be the write-in portion.)

First up, here’s a look at what mobile platforms people own. I expect the survey is somewhat self-selecting (some of you in the “none of the above” category likely didn’t respond), but note how the game platforms dominate.

That’s platforms you already own. But which are you interested in reading about? The margin on each device increases significantly. (Sony’s PSP doubles; Linux triples.) So that demonstrates that people are interested in learning about the larger landscape, and may be basing future purchase decisions on what’s available for music creation. (It also appeared that stronger support for PSP and Linux came from Europe than North America, possibly in part due to painfully-inflated costs for iPod touch and iPhone in that market.)

Zany Write-In Response

Okay, enough demographics. The best part of doing the poll was getting your write-in responses.
Google’s Android platform unsurprisingly got a number of write-in votes; GP2X got fewer, but I expect people just (rightfully) answered “Linux.” We did get some interesting responses, though:

Mobile device suggestions:

• Boss Micro BR
• Buddha Machine
• Graphing calculators (careful; with the readers here, you might get your wish
• Korg Kaossilator
• MPC 500
• Psion organizers
• “steam powered”
• Yamaha QY100
• Speak and Spell
• PlayStation 1 (that’s mobile?)
• Nokia N-gage (but now I know you’re joking)

And then there was the hater/lover argument:
“PLEASE GIVE THE IPHONE A REST! BORING YUPPIE TOY. soz for capitals.”
“Not all of us have tiny little girlie fingers!!!” (ouch!)
“The above statement should be “I really couldn’t care less.” As it happens, I am interested in all of them, so I really could care less.”
“mobile audio coverage is getting ridiculous”
“Just keep it to a minimum, guys =)” (Well, it is by definition miniature, right?)
“more iphone!!!! screw the haters”
“Everything. If there’s something new and interesting done with a C64, it could be worth going out to buy a setup.”
“every – f***ing – thing !”

At least someone said “whatever, it’s all good.” Sir, you may be alone in your calm attitude, but the editorial staff appreciates it. Meanwhile, I’ll be exercising my tiny girlie fingers over a variety of devices. (They give me uncanny accuracy in touch apps. So there.)

BeatMaker Update and Workflow

A new BeatMaker video (below)

One of the biggest objections — and a fair one — boils down to “but how do you use this in real life?” The “it’s a toy” argument is a legitimate one if it means you have software you play around with, but that you can’t use as an instrument effectively or work into your own music. (By that token, for instance, my toy piano is actually a valuable instrument.)

So it’s big news that, as many people had hoped, Intua’s BeatMaker has added MIDI export. That means you can assemble ideas and patterns on BeatMaker and bring them into your desktop music software of choice. I’m already hearing from people using this with Ableton Live. This isn’t a new feature — Windows Mobile and Palm apps have offered the same thing — but it’s a big part of the draw of these devices. BeatMaker also has an improved manual, more videos, and Bonjour support:

intua.net

Intua’s Mathieu also tells us “We’re working on the new BeatMaker killer-update now. Should be interesting !” Indeed.

For the record, that means some of the interesting workflow possibilities now available include the likes of:

• Building MIDI patterns and audio loops for use elsewhere (PSP Rhythm, PSP; BeatMaker, iPhone/iPod; many others)
• Building complete tracks using unusual synths (PSPSEQ, PSP)
• Working on drum patterns, with samples, in a round-trip with desktop software (iDrum, iPhone/iPod)
• Using your mobile device as a touch/stylus controller, etc. (DSMI, DS; various tools, iPhone/iPod)

All good stuff. Of course, by the same token, there are clear disadvantages of mobile devices — cramped screen space and controls, limited processing power, a lack of full-sized and full-fidelity audio I/O, and the like. But that’s why I’ve always felt conventional form factor computers aren’t really going anywhere. They work really well; these augment what they can do.

The appeal of newer music apps for phones, current-generation mobile game systems, and PDAs is portability first. But for the Game Boy music scene, it’s as much about a distinctive sound, and acquiring Game Boys as a kind of unique synthesizer. Our friend and mobile game musician Peter Swimm points us to the new documentary Reformat the Planet. It’s available for a week free on pitchfork.tv, with screenings to follow. It’s a pretty nice survey of the New York corner of the scene, at least. I’m personally getting increasingly interested in tools like PSPSEQ, which have a distinctive sound all their own — think string modeling rather than vintage game glitches — but that puts this in additional perspective.

Reformat the Planet [available this week only, pitchfork.tv]

Cinematographer Asid Siddiky writes:

My partners and I have spent the last few years documenting the Chip Music scene in New York. It is a predominantly underground, but vibrant community in which musicians utilize video game hardware (Game Boy, Nintendo, Commodore 64, etc) to create songs of their own. This footage eventually became the feature-length film, “Reformat The Planet.”

While the movie isn’t being officially distributed yet, it has enjoyed some well-received screenings around the world…premiering at the South By Southwest Film Festival earlier this year…playing overseas at the Melbourne International Film Festival…and over the next few months, it will screen at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle and the International Amsterdam Film Festival.

Paul, Paul, and I are honored to have been selected by such prestigious groups and are pleased to announce that Pitchfork, an online publication devoted to the criticism and coverage of independent music that is hated and revered in equal (i think?) measure, has decided to stream Reformat The Planet, for free, for one week. To date, this represents our most widespread and accessible presentation of the film.

The film will be available for viewing from now until the end of the day next Thursday, August 21.