Join Me On Route 111

Aside from taking part in the Westword Scoring Contest in June, I have not released any original music since October 2019 (to celebrate Halloween). So, it's definitely been a while. This release is another step in a style I have been developing for myself since the creation of 'Press Start' (2018), and later, 'A Long Road' (2019). The style is driven by two things: my nostalgia for playing Pokémon games on the Gameboy Advance in the early 2000s and my overall appreciation for chiptune and 8bit music.

So, this brings me on to 'Join Me On Route 111' (2020), though, first some context. Arguably, the provenance of modern gaming started in the late 1970s with the advancement of personal computers, gaming consoles and, by extension, arcades. Whilst electronic music had been developing for decades prior, the late 70s to early 80s in Japan was the genesis era for chiptune and 8bit music. Named for the way the sounds were produced - sound 'chips' and bitrates, respectively, gaming systems of the 80s & 90s (Sega Megadrive, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation etc.) had limited processing space so samples used had to be space-efficient. This meant that they would often be a very short one-shot sample with looping used to increase the length of a sample. Generally speaking, older console/system = less space = lower bitrates and crunchier playback. Though, this is part of the charm that I and many other composers now find for this sound. My appreciation for one-shot samples is their often crunchy/dirty nature when they are played back higher or lower than the original recorded pitch because of the way they were stored. Characteristics such as looping would become instantly recognisable with higher notes looping a lot faster than lower ones and the sample beginning to break up as it was played lower.

'Join Me On Route 111' can be purchased on Bandcamp here.

The other component of sound generation was the use of simple waveforms (+ a noise channel) often comprising of varying percentages of pulse/square (100%, 50%, 25% and 15% would've been a common set), triangle and sine waves. Though the waveforms available would vary depending on the gaming system with pulse and triangle waves being the most recognisable to me personally. The distinction, for me, in comparison to modern waveforms, is choice/variability since, as previously mentioned, composers practically had only three types of waveforms to use compared to the create-your-own approach with the likes of waveform and wavetable synthesis. Mind you, I didn't have to deal with the technological and compositional constraints that game composers of the 80s and 90s had to deal with as they didn't have the powerhouse DAWs and fancy GUIs that we now have access to today. The restraints are interesting to replicate, though. I've started to compose with the philosophy that 'limitation breeds inspiration'. A phrase that I've heard in various forms over the past few years but it's something that anyone can apply to a creative endeavour. Whilst it's not instantly obvious that I limit myself compositionally it's a useful tool for when you're creatively stunted from having too much choice. An example of this I applied in 'Join Me On Route 111' was using one-shot samples and simple waveforms in the sections between the drops. Furthermore, to emulate the sound of 80s/90s game music I used EQs, bit crushers (to keep the sample truly 8-bit) and slapback echos (to emulate the simple spatial qualities that some games consoles could produce - Nintendo 64, Gameboy Color/Advance) to the instruments used.

Whilst producing chiptune music is fun for me other influences take hold during in composing process, often in an experimental way. Notably, the sound design element of my work is something I like to explore the most in my personal ventures as I mainly use presets as a way of thickening the sounds I've already created, such as when I am building chord stacks for a drop. Another example is the creation of bass sounds for an electro or dubstep-tinged drop where I might use anything from a heavily-effected sample to a NI Massive or IL Harmor patch routed through an equalised, distorted and compressed FX chain. Using presets, in general, isn't a bad practice in my opinion as sometimes when inspiration strikes you need something quick to get the idea down!

Anyways, that's enough rambling from me today. For those who are interested in learning a bit more, a more in-depth read on the development of game music can be found here.

Stay happy and keep smiling,

Chi~

#composition #chiptune #8bit #games #sounddesign #music