Today I updated the timeline with records from the early 1990s, specifically with the Dutch hip hoppers Osdorp Posse. In 1992 they released a CD with beats made in Protracker on Amiga. It doesn’t sound like chip music at all, but it’s tracked music with 8-bit samples played by the internal sound chip. (ie, this is media-relevant but not form-relevant) They added a Sound Canvas to their setup in 1995 and switched software to OctaMED.
So currently 1992 is the first year with a record release using chip music technology (not counting the art/science records of the 60s and 70s). But there must be plenty of stuff missing, so if you have any ideas let me know. At the moment I am obsessed by finding 8-bit music in disguise – house, jungle, rave, hiphop, gabber, and other non-bleep-arpeggio-pop-chip-music. Now let’s hear it for Osdorp Posse’s Moordenaar from 1992! Rap not suitable for mutherfuckers under 16 years of age.
UPDATE: read the lyrics below, as translated by the queen of the dutch ebonyx noise glitches, Rosa Menkman!
“next stop: osdorp.” i was in tram 5 and i had a boner, and next to me was a sexy chick. i wanted to go and then there was an old woman. she said you should get up for me, and then i said – “shut up you with your wrinkled pussy, def p is sitting here and he has no money. so give me your money or i will use violence”. then the ticket inspectors came running, telling me “be quiet and give me your ticket”. and i said “dear, did you really think the rapper def p had a ticket?”. then the tram driver came and he closed the door and said with his big pussy “i am sorry but you are out of luck the police is coming.” “listen man, i am from the streets you fucking don’t know who you’re talking to.” i gave him a push and took my shooting gun and did pow pow pow. every body was running but couldn’t get out so then a freak jumped through the window. everybody freaked out and i just kept shooting at the lot. the inspectors, the driver and the old lady were lying on the ground with led in their bodies. the whole tram was soaked in blood, the sexy chick started to feel sick. just as i went to rape her, i heard four screaming tires. that was the motherfucking police with their motherfucking justice. but they were out of luck because i already left. can yu imagine def p in a cell? you think i might be crazy, but i am just a murderer. murderer. murderer. murderer.
CHIPFLIP 
January 14, 2009 at 7:01 pm |
Uh how about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susumu_Hirasawa
Hirasawa uses Amiga computers extensively in his work, using applications such as Scala, Bars and Pipes, and OctaMED in the production of his music. One of the factors that set him apart from other Japanese electronic artists is ever-changing production techniques. For 2001’s Solar Ray album, his recording studio was powered completely by solar energy.
January 14, 2009 at 9:36 pm |
Never expected to see them here (-:
Do you know what they are saying? its super funny! ..but probably only if you speak dutch..
January 15, 2009 at 1:12 pm |
thanks for that one peter! i’m guessing he mainly uses external sounds with MIDI, which is definitely worth noting, but do you know if he uses any internal amiga sound?
@gijs: yes, i actually know what they’re saying, rosa hypertranslated it for me. i will put it in the post now! YO!
January 15, 2009 at 2:26 pm |
I dunno, i never found a source for the wikipedia claim. But lots of sounds from the error sound like tracked sample based music.. super glitchy and hyper sequenced.
January 15, 2009 at 8:33 pm |
Isn’t it really a bit of a stretch to say that the Amiga has a sound chip? Paula doesn’t generate sounds, it just does DMA transfer from RAM to audio out.
January 15, 2009 at 10:08 pm |
@johan: ouch! yeah, you’re right. saying it generates sounds is just wrong. i guess the reasons for calling it a sound chip is
1) it is a physical chip that handles almost all of the audio features
2) it limits what can be achieved through software. or, maybe i am wrong here? could any amount of any waveforms be played through the paula with enough clever programming?
3) it characterizes the sounds played by for example hardware mixing (atleast to me amiga mods actually sound better on an amiga, but maybe this is just about me)
4) it enables us to call osdorp posse chip music! : )
what do u think?
January 15, 2009 at 10:24 pm |
1) It is responsible for transfering sample data from RAM to sound output, but not for generating the actual wave forms, it’s done by software or by preparing samples
2) You are right that it only supports 4 DMA:s at once but that doesn’t make it a sound chip. If you want to compare Paula to e.g. the C64 system, it’s more comparable to the CIA than the SID
3) The DMA indeed makes things sound good since there is no jitter
4) Yes
Actually I reacted to this partly because I remember early 90s Amiga BBS discussions about how stupid it is to call mod’s “chip music,” they are not played back by an actual sound chip. As I’m sure you know originally it was a nostalgic term, about trying to emulate the sounds from the C64 using samples
January 15, 2009 at 10:28 pm |
Related to this topic, just came to think it’s funny that one of the popular “chip” platforms doesn’t have a dedicated sound chip either. The Game Boy!
January 16, 2009 at 1:53 am |
1) the paula is actually a chip, and in the gameboy the sound is part of the CPU. but the gameboy sound is rather distinct (yawn) whereas paula is a universe of possibilities! here’s a boring use of an impressive amiga softsynth btw: http://www.demoscene.tv/prod.php?id_prod=13222
2) what makes a sound chip to you? if paula is not a (PCM) soundchip, then what is it?
3) jitter, me no comprendo. but where is the jitter when you listen to an amiga song in windows? is it not emulatable?
5) yeah, chip music was a nostalgic music genre from the start! it’s a social thing. that’s still the most relevant thing, in practice (form!). but theoretically, the technological stuff is interesting although it’s difficult for me to understand all the details. lately i’ve been trying to instead of only focusing on hardware, describe chip media as hardware+software. soundchip+tracker, emulator+tracker, soundchip+keyboard. it feels more useable in many ways. but the quest goes on!
(du kommer väl till det heta datamötet på lördag va?)
January 16, 2009 at 1:58 am |
+ still trying to get some authoritative answers on when people started talking about chip music anyway, and what they meant by it. it seems that it first refered to ‘synthetical’ amiga music to separate it from the MODs, and it wasn’t until much later that the music that was actually generated by a chip, was called chip music. well, soon time to bring out the surveys… hardcore!
January 16, 2009 at 4:21 am |
I see Paula as a transfer & communications chip
handled:
RAM audio out
floppy data serial port
it’s cool that it existed because it made sample-playing free, compare that to the atari ST
about jitter: the difference is that pc sound cards run locked to 48,000hz
but amiga had each channel running at the frequency the sample was going to be played back at, no downsampling or upsampling needed = cool
not seeing you soon, please represent in hbg
also check out the new durex assembler:
: code create latest @ >cfa here ! ;
: ;code 4c c, next @ , ; # jmp next
: op, ‘ lit , , ‘ c, , ;
: 1mi create jsr-docol,
op,
‘ exit ,
;
: 2mi
create jsr-docol,
op,
‘ c, , # arg
‘ exit ,
;
: 3mi
create jsr-docol,
op,
‘ , , # arg
‘ exit ,
;
: 3mi-p dup ff00 and ; # not zp?
: 23mi
create jsr-docol,
‘ 3mi-p ,
‘ 0branch , 000e , # if
op,
‘ , , # arg
‘ branch , 000a , # else
op,
‘ c, , # arg
‘ exit , # then
;
January 16, 2009 at 7:52 am |
Excellent! I was never aware of Osdorp using the Amiga. Props to these guys for doing an authentic Dutch interpretation of Rap music, instead of copying the mainsteam US gangster culture.
But this fact makes it even better :)
January 19, 2009 at 5:53 pm |
I don’t know when the term “chipmusic” started to appear, as I am always of “the Church of Chipmusic”, I like to separate it from Chiptune, which is the typical “use small waveforms to emulate music made with a chip”, nostalgic sort of thing.
These lyrics will be not funny to many people west of the meridian :D
I just imagine that situation happening anywhere in Holland, and it makes me laugh. It ain’t São Paulo, bitches! xD
March 2, 2010 at 4:12 pm |
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