Logic’s Environment, a modular layer in the program for creating custom configurations, isn’t well known to many Logic users. But if you can get used to its slightly unusual interface, it’s capable of some really powerful stuff. You know, important music stuff. Like connecting Logic to your Nintendo NES game system. Jonathan Flugel writes:

The MIDINES evironment was created based on this chart:
http://www.wayfar.net/0xf00000_midi_chart.php

The environment allows for control of the 5 channels of synth/audio that the NES [supports]

Here are the 5 parts:
1-2 - Pulse Synthesizer waves
3-4 - Triangle/Square waves
5- sample channel

Since this is also my primary template for a Logic session there are other goodies I left in there:

1. NYC compression bus channel
2. 3 bus channels that I got from Hybrid (electronic group) for simple drum processing
3. MPC groove templates taken from an MPC 60
4. Ableton Live and Reason ReWire objects

There you have it: Logic + NES + MPC + Live + Reason. If that’s not a digital dream studio, I don’t know what is.

In case you want to give this file a look:
MIDINES.zip
That’s the MIDINES, Logic 8 file (if anyone has a MIDINES but Logic 7, let us know and we can share the Logic 7 file.)

The sounds are lush and silky smooth, like a cello making love to an angel. The new, enhanced graphics are … breathtaking, in their spectacular range of colors and pixels. Yes, folks, it’s time for another multimedia extravaganza, as released on NES cartridge. This stuff is what we like to call “high fidelity.” It’s the medium of the future, man. Keep your new-fangled laserdiscs and enhanced multimedia CDs, and behold!

Alex Mauer tips us off with inside information on the work of … Alex Mauer.

Alex Mauer, creator of the first Nintendo cart music album, has already come out with his second cart. The new album features more songs (10) and larger graphics (full screen stills). Songs on the new album were composed by Alex Mauer and Phlogiston (a norweigan composer). The cost is $25 including shipping, and it can be ordered from his website - headlessbarbie.com. For a preview check out the youtube videoclips at his site.

ps - vegavox (first nintendo cartridge) is currently sold out! over 125 copies sold

Prediction: the music of Phlogiston will soon be heard in an upcoming Timbaland production of the newly washed-up Britney Spears. Samples, and “video” (okay, 8-bit stills):

headlessbarbie.com

Joystick has a quick report from a GDC lecture presented by Jason Page and Michael Kelly from Sony, discussing the future of ‘next-generation audio’ on the PS3. What’s interesting about their take is that they believe that use of highly customized sample sets and MIDI can provide a much more interactive and adaptive approach to dynamic game scoring than the increasingly popular use of fully-orchestrated soundtracks. The Interactive Audio Special Interest Group (IASIG) has been working towards the same conclusions for several years, as they move towards completion of their Interactive XMF format specification. No doubt this is a topic that will come up more as the technology to deliver both high-quality sample sets AND highly adaptive scoring systems becomes ever-more available to developers.

Renowned Nintendo composer Koji Kondo also presented at this year’s GDC, and we’re on the lookout for reports. If you’ve got any, please pass them along.

The best way to get 8-bit sounds is to employ a real NES system or Game Boy for fifteen bucks and go to town — nothing else sounds quite the same. But for the next best thing, and the ability to do evil things to those sounds within a serious host, this free plug-in from Japan that will do the job:

YCMK Magical 8bit Plug [ Official Site ]

Totally free, totally cross-platform (Windows VST, Mac AU). Via Adrian Anders and the CDM forums, where we’re trying to figure out why it’s crashing someone’s installation of Ableton Live. Not Universal: Note that this plug-in is not Intel-native (nor any of the other examples listed here, as far as I know), so you’ll need to go elsewhere for 8-bit sounds on an Intel Mac, ironically enough. Also, as several readers note over on TUAW, GarageBand has its own Atari Sings patch, though I don’t think it clips as realistically as this does for a true NES sound. (Makes sense that it doesn’t, since those patches are built with Logic’s synths.)

Anyway, here’s what it sounds like, emulating the compositional style of classical NES tunes of yore:

[audio:magical8bitPlugSample.mp3]

The authentic sound comes from the choice of 8-bit waveforms, limited to square, triangle, pulse, and noise waveforms, plus envelope shape. This version is simple, sounds just right, and does the job, and the price is certainly right. Here’s one beginner and one advanced example of how you might use this.

Matrixsynth and Music thing have continued their coverage of Japan’s hated new PSE law, set to go in effect April 1, which would ban sales and purchase of used equipment that fails strict electrical certification — read, all that vintage game and music gear you love so much. Trying to follow this story is more than a little tricky, between changing information from Japanese bureaucrats and translation issues. Thankfully, Jun and Aaron have been trying to help us out over in Music thing’s comments, including this lovely haiku from Aaron:

Electronics spring,
New law restricts used good sales,
Kirn’s question answered?

In short, the reason none of us knows what’s going on is no one in Japan, the lawmakers included, seem to know what’s going on. First, Japanese lawmakers passed a law which must have seemed sensible to them, tightening restrictions on purchasing and selling electrical devices based on certification — thinking nothing of how this law would affect Japan’s sizable number of used electronics resellers. Protests from customers and sellers alike pressured the government to create an exemption for certified vintage gear. Great, we’re done! Nope: apparently that new certification (certifying that the gear doesn’t need the other certification) doesn’t cover the very gear it was supposed to protect, because it wasn’t certified via the older certification. And as for the free testing equipment and testing procedures . . . oh, I don’t know.

In the meantime, let’s just enjoy the photos of the mass protest in Tokyo (courtesy Asobitsuchiya) that featured people marching with vintage recorders and synths (really), and even playing Nintendo Famicom (that’s NES to the rest of us) in the streets. Now that would have made protest marches I’ve been in so much more fun. (But, yipes, you won’t even be able to buy old Famicoms?)

Anyone in Japan want to set us straight on what’s going on?

Audio developer and blog personality Chris Randall at Analog Industries has acquired a Wayfar MidiNES cartridge. This gem is a genuine 8-bit NES cartridge that converts your Nintendo game system into a MIDI device so you can sequence it, control it with other devices (with some work), etc. Chris is blogging the results: he’s got initial impressions and a more detailed review with MP3 demo and even a Cubase/Nuendo device map you can download.

Reports keep coming in (along with several from readers): the next-generation Wi-Fi remake of the vintage Nintendo game system looks like a complete flop. Too bad: the idea itself, adding on features like wireless control, was appealing. But some of you are probably savvy enough to hack your own 2.4G wireless into the original.

Of course, all you really need is a vintage NES and a copy of Midines. Anyone out there got this setup? Send photos, music, reports, whatever. (I’m sticking to the more-portable Game Boy. Oh, yeah — and my Mac and PC, when I want some “vintage” 16-bit sound.)

It’s the Nintendo synth that never was: a music keyboard accessories for the NES built as part of a 1984 prototype called the Nintendo Advanced Video System (AVS). Best features: a space sound and rhumba button. The one and only model is here in NYC at Rockefeller Center’s Nintendo World Store, which features various one-of-a-kind Nintendo items; see NES Central’s extensive gallery for description and photos by someone who actually knows how to take pictures (read, not me, as you can see).

I’m not sure any of these controls were actually hooked up to anything software-wise, but you can dream. Anyone want to build a keyboard for your Game Boy music system? More pictures after the break. (PS, Happy 20th Birthday, Mario! Just 1 year before we can take you drinking.)

While we’re busy rack-mounting Mac Minis, how about a vintage Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)? If you analyze these photos closely enough (via Make), you should be able to do what this fellow did and cram your eBayed NES into a 1U rack mount. (It ought to go really nice next to your rack-mounted synths or effects or whatever.) Then, add MIDINES, a custom cartridge for MIDI output. Viola. Hook up sound, and you’re golden. Then you can keep from killing your bandmates on tour by getting out angst playing Mario on the tour bus, to boot.

Anyone who pulls this off, I will personally give you . . . oh, I don’t know, I’ll find some kind of prize. You can have my Nintendo DS or something.

See also: NES reborn as a musical instrument