So yesterday I went on a roadtrip…
But first, take a look at my first proper Bandcamp album, a collection of five tunes, four of which I'm absolutely positive you've never heard before!
Whew, now that I've got that out of my system…
Three days ago my boss asked if I wanted to attend a seminar on customer service and such; I naturally accepted, because it was the right thing to do.
Nevertheless, that's how I found myself on the road with four people I hardly knew, in a double-cab pickup truck, driving the full 140km from my town to Stellenbosch, with an Afrikaans speaking GPS annoying us along the way.
Needless to say, I found that entire day far more tiring than any of the days I've had at work.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. I had to wake up at 4AM yesterday morning, and was picked up at 6AM. From there on we were treated to the soothing sounds of the GPS telling us the obvious things we already knew, like "Turn Right", or "Turn Left", just in Afrikaans (Draai Lings, Draai Regs), and only really being helpful by telling us that there were speed-traps up ahead.
The owner of the store had configured the GPS prior to us leaving, and… well, the name of the place we had to go (Rosenview Guest House), had been entered incorrectly (Rosenview Guest Farm). So we wound up in the middle of the city instead.
Eventually we arrived at our destination (Late by half an hour), and were pleased to discover that we were the second group to arrive, and everybody else was late too :P
Anyway, the whole seminar was about dealing with the customer, and telling us that 'The customer is
always right'. And about positive thinking, positive attitude, etc, etc. Ad nauseum, ad infinitum. I picked up the basics.
After that, it was a quick stop at the local McDonalds for a refuel, and then another cramped ride in the back of the cab back home.
Well, back to work. Would you believe that I was able to use my programming skills already in this job? I made a report processor that takes our reports, and tells us exactly how many 25L refills we've made, or how many 500ml bottles we've sold, so it makes inventory control a lot easier.
there are artists that make Stereo chiptune music but it just doesn't sound as retro. sounds more like produced electronic music - the kinda stuff you get from big labels and shit. not that it's bad but it's just not common practice in 8bit music for a reason.
Also i don't think stereo helps this kinda music much at all. sure you can split up the two square tracks but that's about it. there isn't much more that stereo can do for true NES music.i agree with death, i think it sounds way more authentic this way. new chiptune styles are cool and all, but if you can replicate the classic style this well i wouldn't try changing it.
personally whenever i *really* finish a song i find it very difficult to go back and change it later, since you're rearranging the whole aura of the original."Doomsday" reminds me of the boss music in one of the new retro Megamen (9? 10?).
I'm trying to find good alternatives to VSTs without disembarking too far from my current composing style.
It's a pain to say the least, because you can't beat that classic style.CAUTION: I might say something that may or may not derail this blog. If you feel like commenting on my statements, keep in mind the derailment can only get worse.
Afrikaans sounds like a really cool language.
Also why would you need to go to a seminar on customer service? Isn't that shit like, common sense? At least it was something to do, eh?Also also this music is fucking awesome. It's like chip tune punk rock. (I like the first one the best so far.) I'd totally buy this if I wasn't broke.Interesting arguments.
Let me answer.SirXemic, on the original NES hardware, a mono delay is quite possible, and if I export the tracks individually, I can then reuse them in another tracker and add some stereo delay (Which I tried, and the result was interesting, to say the least).With this album, I wanted it to be 'pure', but that's not to say that I won't do my next set in FastTracker, for instance. I also believe that for some music, stereo is necessary, but usually when I'm working in a less limited format (ALA: XM/IT/S3M/ETC). Either way, a good deal of the tracks I'm working on at the moment play with the stereo a lot, and I've even got a few that I made originally in Famitracker, then exported by-track, and messed around with them in MadTracker. Interesting fact: My 'tracking' folder, which contains my music projects, now contains over 300 files in the working folder, and many more in the 'trashed' folder. @Charlie Carlo: Yeah, it was, and apparently it counted as a work day, with long hours, so I get Monday afternoon off :PAnd thanks for the complement.En Afrikaans is een van die makligste tale in die wereld, en klink a bitjie soos Deutschen. And I probably got that wrong; moving between provinces in South Africa gave me very little time to focus on languages (Besides C/C++ of course. =P).Anyway, thanks for the complements guys, and thanks for the interesting read, SirXemic.