Days later I’m still thinking about the awesome panel on pinball music history by @stemage.bsky.social at @vgmcon.bsky.social. It was informative and hilarious and super insightful about a world I knew nothing about!
Check out more info at VGMCon.org, I think specifically the "Warp Stage" events at the con will be streamed on Twitch here: www.twitch.tv/vgmcon
It won't be streamed or recorded at the con. But I'm strongly considering making a separate recording where I run through the presentation and put that on YouTube after the event.
Panel discussion info blurb: "Making Chiptunes with No Musical Background" by SevenCastleForest. 3pm Saturday April 18 at VGMCon.
Holy heck VGMCon is coming up fast! I'll be doing a panel Saturday at 3pm Central about getting started making chiptunes as a total musical beginner. Come say hello!
Hey! 💜 Do you like charity work? Know someone impacted by Lupus? Want to help invisible illness warriors and join an incredible event?
If your answer is yes, join us for Game On! To End Lupus! All May long!
See below or DM me and I’ll get you all set up!
RTs appreciated!
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed this piece and I'm happy to have fans like you ❤️
The Genesis version of the song is SO DIFFERENT, I really needed to pick one version to analyze in this case. It's really interesting how it's the same song with the same nostalgia despite the huge differences.
Here's my NES + VRC6 chiptune arrangement of "Sutherland" from the PC Engine CD version of Valis III. It's an obscure piece to cover, but I fell in love with this tune and couldn't get it out of my head...
youtu.be/AmFkh1GkvYU
sometimes the classical background really comes out when you're asked for a castlevania-esque boss theme 🦇
coming to realize that if we looked at our music through an external lens and not our own self-critical ones, we'd probably be our favorite artists. imagine hearing someone's music that hits all the musical ideas you love
You are stronger than you believe you are.
Check out the latest episode of Absolutely the Best Podcast, featuring a bit of chiptune I made!
Here's my latest original Virtual Boy chiptune composition, "Scarlet Galaxy." I wanted to make a fun piece about perseverance, and not giving up. The Virtual Boy's audio chip is so wonderful! I hope you enjoy, and have a happy New Year!
youtu.be/A1_dAUaoYjI
Here's my Sega Genesis chiptune remix of the main menu theme from Metroid Prime, made in Furnace. This was a lot of fun to make, and I really wanted to showcase the sound of both different sound chips included in the Genesis. Hope you enjoy!
youtu.be/6E6E-imVtxA
Listen to awesome chiptunes and support human rights while you’re at it
Wednesday, December 3rd, after @sevencastleforest.bsky.social and @gamersweekpc.bsky.social streams, I have a goal to go live on Twitch. The content is to be determined and will hopefully include guests. December is my birthday month!!
We don’t want AI slop.
Stop sending us AI slop.
Stop wasting our time with AI slop.
It doesn’t sound good.
It’s antithetical to our core values.
You didn’t even make it.
Knock it off.
im gonna say this really loud this morning
i really need everyone who thinks theyre being annoying about the things they love to do it more. do it louder. your happiness is so special and wonderful to witness and i hope you learn to love the space you take up in this world like we all love it
I started this back in fall of 2023, then put it aside and picked it up again a few times, poking at it here and there in between other projects. With Silksong releasing, I circled back to finally finish it! Hope you enjoy my take on City of Tears from Hollow Knight:
youtu.be/XtIXbjrfhx4
New episode of Bee Hosting Drawesome Devs, where @diabeetes.bsky.social interviews the creator of upcoming point-and-click adventure Casebook 1899: The Leipzig Murders. (I wrote the little chiptune jingle during the “drawing” segments in these interviews)
youtu.be/Lq9YnlWtFdk?...
Here's my Sega Genesis/MegaDrive arrangement of "Urban Noise," the world map music from Parasite Eve, originally by Yoko Shimomura.
I wanted to honor Shimomura's awesome original piece while still exploring that particular Genesis sound. Hope you enjoy!
youtu.be/72eM6AA16Zo
I only just learned that Lalo Schifrin died a few days ago. Folks will remember him for the Mission Impossible theme but this was the tune I loved growing up: youtu.be/0uNR_4UdfxA?...
Really enjoying this little soundtrack for a game that will probably never be released. NES and GB chiptune by the super-talented Megan! diamondthorns.bandcamp.com/album/ribby-...
Here's my chiptune cover of the intro song "Fighting Through the Darkness" from Lunar: The Silver Star on Sega CD! Made in FamiTracker NES chiptune with the VRC6 expansion.
The original song is only in the Sega CD version of this great game. Hope you enjoy my take on it!
youtu.be/Yub5zab9sAM
Check out this awesome pixel art by @lakakalo.bsky.social created in support of Game On to End Lupus on Twitch! #GOTEL
Check out Bee's new gamedev interview! (This video features my chiptunes as well)
Here's the Stage 01 chiptune music for a nonexistent Game Boy brawler, written in Furnace. Picture something like Streets of Rage, but portable, and starring a female ninja who gains cybernetic power upgrades along the way! GB pixel art thumbnail by @lakakalo.bsky.social
youtu.be/k-r8cAMsqyY
Hmm. You DON'T get polyphonic output from a single pulse channel, that's not possible. Fast arpeggiation is a trick to squeeze a chord out of one channel but it makes a very distinctive rippled sound, often associated with C64 music. If you're talking about the warbling here, it's a vibrato effect.
But generally: the "main" voices of the melody are standard NES voices, while the faint backing chords (mostly represented as the thin little slender note lines scrolling downwards) are the expansion voices.
If you look at the waveforms at the very top, they're color-coded to correspond with the notes they're currently playing. The ones that say "2A03" above them are standard NES voices, while the "VRC6" ones are an expansion chip (same extra chip included in Japanese Castlevania 3).
Thanks! I'll do my best 👍
