1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,840 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:08,920 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 3 00:00:09,039 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone, 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:20,480 Speaker 1: welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Pellette and 5 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:22,800 Speaker 1: I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 6 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:25,639 Speaker 1: Sitting across from me is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. The 7 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 1: rhythm is going to get you, you know when you 8 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:35,880 Speaker 1: say it like that, as as white as I possibly can. Yes, okay, 9 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:38,400 Speaker 1: I may I may be without the soul for getting down. 10 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:41,320 Speaker 1: And you know what that means that Jeremiah was a 11 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:45,320 Speaker 1: bullfrog um, a good friend of mine. So we want 12 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:47,320 Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about music. We we actually 13 00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:51,280 Speaker 1: did a podcast not re recorded it a while ago, 14 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:53,400 Speaker 1: but it hasn't published as the time of the recording 15 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:57,560 Speaker 1: of this about music in video games. But it turns 16 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:01,680 Speaker 1: out that the video games and music, it goes beyond 17 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:04,480 Speaker 1: just the stuff that you find in games. As it 18 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:07,720 Speaker 1: turns out, people have used the same sort of equipment 19 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:11,680 Speaker 1: that was originally intended to allow music to play in 20 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:15,400 Speaker 1: video games to create new music. Yeah, it's it's funny 21 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:20,040 Speaker 1: because if you think about it, we as we were developing, 22 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:24,319 Speaker 1: we as in like people were developing video games, we 23 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:27,679 Speaker 1: wanted musical inspiration. One of the things we talked about 24 00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:33,039 Speaker 1: in that episode was musical environments, creating the right mood 25 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,320 Speaker 1: with music and sound effects to make the game more 26 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:40,520 Speaker 1: uh enriching, and it makes it more of a rewarding 27 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:43,880 Speaker 1: experience to play much more immersive that way, right, That's 28 00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:45,480 Speaker 1: the word I was looking for, but I was trying 29 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:50,120 Speaker 1: to cover. Thank you for saving me. Um. The thing is, though, 30 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:53,240 Speaker 1: and you wouldn't you wouldn't necessarily think about this, especially 31 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:56,320 Speaker 1: if you didn't grow up with with the older video 32 00:01:56,360 --> 00:02:01,560 Speaker 1: game style that too bit, four bit, eight bit, a dollar. Um. 33 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:03,880 Speaker 1: You you might be as a haircut in there somewhere. 34 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,360 Speaker 1: It's funny because you might you might think, well, you know, 35 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:10,080 Speaker 1: that was so cruddy. I mean that the music wasn't 36 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:14,120 Speaker 1: very high quality, and you know who cares. But as 37 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:16,799 Speaker 1: it turns out, people developed sort of an affection for 38 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:21,320 Speaker 1: that kind of a sound. Yeah, you can never disqualify nostalgia. 39 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:27,320 Speaker 1: The nostalgia factor conquers all. And then you have hackers. 40 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 1: And we're not talking about the associated press definition of hackers, 41 00:02:30,919 --> 00:02:34,359 Speaker 1: people who like to bust into computers to do damage. Um, 42 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:37,079 Speaker 1: we're talking about the classic sense of the word hacker, 43 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:40,119 Speaker 1: people who like to learn how things work and then 44 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:43,160 Speaker 1: play with them. Yeah, take it apart, see what it does, 45 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:45,519 Speaker 1: put it back together in a different form, and see 46 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:47,880 Speaker 1: if you can break it and fix it again. Yeah, 47 00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:51,120 Speaker 1: there's been some really cool hacks when that comes to this. 48 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 1: So let's kind of boil down what we're focusing on today. Now, 49 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:57,440 Speaker 1: if we were just talking about music and the music 50 00:02:57,480 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: you can create through video games, that would be in 51 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:02,639 Speaker 1: a north miss topic. And even even so we are. 52 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:04,880 Speaker 1: The topic we've chosen to focus on is still a 53 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: pretty big one, and it's called chip tunes. Yeah, this 54 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:10,760 Speaker 1: is this is the merger of hacking and the love 55 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:14,000 Speaker 1: for the eight bit sound. Right, So we're talking about 56 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 1: the kinds of sounds you would get from classic video 57 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:20,800 Speaker 1: game systems and computer systems, things like the Atari, the 58 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:25,760 Speaker 1: original in nes, UH, the Commodore sixty four, and even 59 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:28,839 Speaker 1: some of the older like ib M s and things 60 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:32,400 Speaker 1: of that nature. We're talking about systems that had a 61 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 1: dedicated processor that was meant to generate sound, a dedicated 62 00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:42,400 Speaker 1: chip and uh, the chip was able to create a 63 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:45,600 Speaker 1: certain range of frequencies and a certain range of tones, 64 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:49,480 Speaker 1: and that was it. It wasn't like a true synthesizer, right, 65 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:54,800 Speaker 1: It couldn't. It couldn't recreate the sound of, say, a violin. 66 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:58,200 Speaker 1: It could just create kind of a a weird sort 67 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:03,240 Speaker 1: of simulation of a violin that no person who had 68 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:06,720 Speaker 1: at least at least decent hearing would ever mistake for 69 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:10,320 Speaker 1: a violin. But you could, you know, you could evoked 70 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:14,760 Speaker 1: the same sort of feeling, right right, Um, yeah, it's 71 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:18,000 Speaker 1: it's uh. I also wanted to clarify too, before we 72 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:19,560 Speaker 1: go too much for the one I said eight bit 73 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:22,480 Speaker 1: a minute ago that that seems to be uh the 74 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 1: slang term now for old video game Uh. So, don't 75 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: take that literally because some of the things we're gonna 76 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:32,760 Speaker 1: be talking about, our our even more rudimentary than eight 77 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:38,279 Speaker 1: bit uh sounds. In our History of Video Game Music podcast, 78 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:41,920 Speaker 1: we talked about how on the earliest systems, the chip, 79 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:46,000 Speaker 1: a lot of the system sounds on games like the 80 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:49,440 Speaker 1: the early Palm consoles and the Atari, those were hardwired 81 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:52,480 Speaker 1: into that, so programmers had to take advantage of whatever 82 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:55,120 Speaker 1: was available to them on that chip. They didn't have 83 00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:59,000 Speaker 1: a lot of flexibility in that regard, and it wasn't 84 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:02,360 Speaker 1: until several years into the video game home video game 85 00:05:02,440 --> 00:05:07,040 Speaker 1: craze that UH developers were able to create their own 86 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:09,320 Speaker 1: sounds and put it embedded in the software and the 87 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:12,360 Speaker 1: machine would play it back. That way, it would give 88 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:16,040 Speaker 1: them more ability in that regard. So a lot of 89 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:19,839 Speaker 1: people who make chip tunes are are taking apart consoles 90 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:24,279 Speaker 1: like UH Jonathan mentioned and the the game Boy too 91 00:05:24,279 --> 00:05:28,400 Speaker 1: because they're portable. Um And the first person I ever 92 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:30,120 Speaker 1: heard about I wrote a blog post about it a 93 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:33,720 Speaker 1: while ago, was a guy named pixel Hate. He's a 94 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 1: probably or easily one of the most famous chip tune makers. UM. 95 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:40,280 Speaker 1: He actually I've actually seen him busting. There's a video 96 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:43,600 Speaker 1: of him on YouTube. His name's Matthew Applegate. He's lives 97 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:46,680 Speaker 1: in the United Kingdom and UH, I actually seen him 98 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:50,880 Speaker 1: with a modified UH game Boy out with a namp 99 00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:53,880 Speaker 1: on the corner, and there's a video of him playing. 100 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:57,200 Speaker 1: And it looks like he's standing there playing a video game, 101 00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:00,840 Speaker 1: because that's he's essentially taking it apart and doing this, 102 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:03,160 Speaker 1: but he's ah, it looks like he's just standing there 103 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:06,160 Speaker 1: playing a video game, but he's actually playing music on 104 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:08,800 Speaker 1: the device. Now, the question is, how do you make 105 00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:12,800 Speaker 1: that happen. Well. Part of the challenges that you actually 106 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:18,280 Speaker 1: have to create software that will allow you to sequence music, 107 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:22,800 Speaker 1: loop music to create those different uh frequencies that the 108 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:25,039 Speaker 1: device is capable of. Now you gotta remember that you 109 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:28,400 Speaker 1: are you are confined to the the sounds of that 110 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:31,760 Speaker 1: chip is capable of creating, right, It's not like you 111 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:35,479 Speaker 1: can create any sound. Um. But there are quite a 112 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:40,480 Speaker 1: few of these programs specifically for the game Boy. Um 113 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:43,760 Speaker 1: let's see. I know that pixel Hate actually had come 114 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:48,680 Speaker 1: out with some of those himself and has since retracted them. 115 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:52,320 Speaker 1: It does not offer them anymore. Um, there's one because 116 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:55,040 Speaker 1: he he said that he thinks it's um it wasn't 117 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:57,400 Speaker 1: right for him to do that anymore, so he's not 118 00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:00,520 Speaker 1: making that available. But uh, yeah, he he was one 119 00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:03,360 Speaker 1: of a number of people who. Um, it requires some 120 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:06,279 Speaker 1: some hardware modification because you have to you have to 121 00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:09,960 Speaker 1: wire the buttons up to take advantage of the sound 122 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:12,640 Speaker 1: chip to some degree. And it depends, I think on 123 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:17,080 Speaker 1: the console if if I've read correctly. Um, but yes, 124 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:20,040 Speaker 1: it does require some some software engineering as well in 125 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:23,680 Speaker 1: order to make it work. Yeah, there's uh there was 126 00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:27,000 Speaker 1: one cartridge specifically for the game Boy that would let 127 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:29,160 Speaker 1: you do a lot of this, which you know, that 128 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 1: was great because the cartridge did the work for you. 129 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:36,520 Speaker 1: Um and it was called Little Sound DJ or l 130 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:40,800 Speaker 1: S D j UH and again it had a sequencer 131 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:44,360 Speaker 1: built into it. It could produce the different four bit 132 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:47,880 Speaker 1: sounds that the game Boy could create. UM and it 133 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:51,480 Speaker 1: had four channels for that, So you could create four 134 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:54,000 Speaker 1: channels of music with this thing. And you could actually 135 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:57,280 Speaker 1: create music live just like Chris was talking about. You 136 00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:00,360 Speaker 1: could using using the control pad and the elect and 137 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:03,560 Speaker 1: start buttons and the A and B buttons, you could 138 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:07,680 Speaker 1: create loops and insert different sounds and actually sort of 139 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:12,640 Speaker 1: be a in this case, a four bit dj UM. 140 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:15,000 Speaker 1: And that's pretty cool, that's uh, you know. And and 141 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:18,680 Speaker 1: that's actually taking direct advantage of the the chip in 142 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:22,560 Speaker 1: the game Boy. It's taking advantage of that chip's capabilities. 143 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:25,720 Speaker 1: As it turns out, not all chip tunes makers are 144 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:29,119 Speaker 1: using actual chips. But let's I want to talk about 145 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:31,840 Speaker 1: one other chip that was really important as far as 146 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:33,679 Speaker 1: chip tunes are concerned. It was one of those that 147 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:39,280 Speaker 1: kind of inspired a lot of the early music makers 148 00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:44,240 Speaker 1: in in computer music and uh, and that was the 149 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:47,920 Speaker 1: MS technology S I D Sound Interface device, which was 150 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:51,080 Speaker 1: for the Common or sixty four. And this was one 151 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:54,559 Speaker 1: of those devices that, like I said, was really instrumental. 152 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:57,640 Speaker 1: If you will, it's a little bit of a fun uh. 153 00:08:57,679 --> 00:09:03,160 Speaker 1: And in launching this US craze about the eight bit music. 154 00:09:03,320 --> 00:09:06,400 Speaker 1: Another interesting thing just off off is kind of a 155 00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:10,120 Speaker 1: tangent is that you know you mentioned that, uh is 156 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:12,480 Speaker 1: it pixel hates that? What you said? Yeah, pixel hate that. 157 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:15,480 Speaker 1: He was from the UK. I've noticed that a lot 158 00:09:15,679 --> 00:09:20,679 Speaker 1: of the musicians who use the chip tunes method are 159 00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:23,760 Speaker 1: from Europe, or if if you're from the UK and 160 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:26,280 Speaker 1: you don't like being lumped in with the Europeans from 161 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:30,400 Speaker 1: the UK or from Europe. Ah, it's interesting. It was 162 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 1: just interesting to me because I also saw a guy 163 00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:37,439 Speaker 1: who had created a chip tunes synthesizer. He had converted 164 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:41,800 Speaker 1: an old oregan uh into a chip tunes player. He 165 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:44,800 Speaker 1: called it the chip a phone. What kind of organ 166 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:49,840 Speaker 1: was this? Um? It was this old like electronic organ, 167 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:52,760 Speaker 1: like not not like a bellows organ or anything like that, 168 00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:56,160 Speaker 1: but yeah, it's like an electric organ. And he had 169 00:09:56,200 --> 00:09:59,160 Speaker 1: converted it so that the various switches that would usually 170 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:02,880 Speaker 1: change the tone actually would do the different waves because 171 00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:07,600 Speaker 1: chip tunes could play sound waves in various formations. You 172 00:10:07,640 --> 00:10:11,840 Speaker 1: have like triangle waves, saw tooth waves, pulse waves, and 173 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:14,199 Speaker 1: each of these waves have have sort of a distinctive 174 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:17,440 Speaker 1: sound to them, right, So you know, you think of 175 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:20,360 Speaker 1: the think of the different video games songs from the 176 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:24,000 Speaker 1: classic era, things like Legend of Zelda or Super Mario 177 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:27,960 Speaker 1: Brothers and the various bleeps, bloops and ants, and you 178 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:30,960 Speaker 1: know that those are all coming from the different shapes 179 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:34,960 Speaker 1: of sound waves. And uh and actually the fellow who 180 00:10:35,040 --> 00:10:40,520 Speaker 1: made the chip a phone uh lenis Akisson probably totally 181 00:10:40,559 --> 00:10:43,600 Speaker 1: mispronounced his name. Um. He has a website where he 182 00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:46,760 Speaker 1: talks about exactly what he did to create it, in 183 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:50,040 Speaker 1: including like the wiring that he did in order to 184 00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:54,000 Speaker 1: make uh this this um this organ that would let 185 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:57,920 Speaker 1: him play chip tunes live. Because usually with chip tunes, 186 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:01,400 Speaker 1: what you're doing is you're either pro gramming something directly 187 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:05,840 Speaker 1: and so that it will play automatically on a chip. 188 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:09,360 Speaker 1: So you know, you're not live, you're not performing it live. 189 00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:14,679 Speaker 1: You you you actually program it, or you're doing a 190 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:17,920 Speaker 1: program with an emulator. And we'll talk about the emulators 191 00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:21,240 Speaker 1: in a little bit, But that that Commodore sixty four chip, 192 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:25,720 Speaker 1: like I said, was a big um, a big inspiration 193 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:28,880 Speaker 1: for a lot of different musicians, not just musicians, but 194 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:33,360 Speaker 1: also engineers who are working on similar chips because the uh, 195 00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:38,160 Speaker 1: the Commodore sixty four chip was the project started back 196 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:43,959 Speaker 1: in one and can you guess where it premiered. It 197 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:45,560 Speaker 1: was let me let me put it to you this way, 198 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:53,880 Speaker 1: biggest consumer electronics conference in the world CS two c 199 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:58,199 Speaker 1: E S the Commodore sixty four Music Sound Interface Device 200 00:11:58,320 --> 00:12:02,840 Speaker 1: chip premiered. The engineer who designed the chip was Robert 201 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:07,280 Speaker 1: Bob Yannis, and uh he actually later went on to 202 00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:11,800 Speaker 1: be a founder of a synthesizer company, so that makes sense. 203 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:15,480 Speaker 1: But his original plan was actually much more grand than 204 00:12:15,559 --> 00:12:18,080 Speaker 1: what came out, and part of the reason was just 205 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:22,360 Speaker 1: that it was a time crunch. But the originally this 206 00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:25,840 Speaker 1: chip was supposed to have thirty two independent voices, which 207 00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:30,520 Speaker 1: is yeah, yeah, and you know, it just it was 208 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:34,960 Speaker 1: it was too ambitious a plan, and it turned out 209 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:38,480 Speaker 1: that that was just not gonna happen. He claims that 210 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:44,480 Speaker 1: about seventy of the things he had planned to incorporate 211 00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:48,079 Speaker 1: in the chip made it into production, which I mean, 212 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:49,920 Speaker 1: when you think about how ambitious it was, I guess 213 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:53,240 Speaker 1: that's not too bad, but uh, yeah it was. It 214 00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:57,480 Speaker 1: was this this sort of interesting mix of noises and 215 00:12:57,559 --> 00:13:01,319 Speaker 1: music that really got a lot of people interested. Um. 216 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:04,520 Speaker 1: And a lot of that stuff did carry over into 217 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:07,520 Speaker 1: the various chips that you found in other devices, not 218 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:10,600 Speaker 1: not all you know, the Commverse six before had that one. Uh. 219 00:13:10,640 --> 00:13:15,040 Speaker 1: The other devices like the Atari had a chip that 220 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:18,800 Speaker 1: they called Pokey. I remember Pokey. Yeah. Actually was going 221 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:20,840 Speaker 1: to mention that in the history podcast, and it looked 222 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:22,600 Speaker 1: like we were going to take a long time, so 223 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:25,080 Speaker 1: I just skipped over Pokey. Yeah. We we actually lived 224 00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:27,080 Speaker 1: through most that history, which is why we were ready 225 00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:30,319 Speaker 1: to talk about it at length. Uh. The Nintendo Entertainment 226 00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:35,040 Speaker 1: Systems chip is the RICO to a O three, which 227 00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:37,560 Speaker 1: is you know, just rolls off the tongue. Uh. And 228 00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:40,720 Speaker 1: then you had other chips made by Yamaha and other 229 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:44,360 Speaker 1: companies that um that were found in other devices like 230 00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:49,360 Speaker 1: IBM s and the Sega Genesis things like that. So 231 00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:53,960 Speaker 1: the the people who make chip tunes either have found 232 00:13:53,960 --> 00:13:59,640 Speaker 1: ways to to create software to write music and then 233 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:04,320 Speaker 1: play them using these chips, or they found ways to 234 00:14:04,440 --> 00:14:09,320 Speaker 1: emulate the sounds generated by these chips in software format 235 00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:12,920 Speaker 1: and then they write the music for that. So, um, 236 00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:15,440 Speaker 1: you've probably heard us talk about emulators before. In case 237 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:18,560 Speaker 1: you haven't and you're not familiar with the term, an 238 00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:24,120 Speaker 1: emulator is some sort of hardware or software that recreates 239 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:29,600 Speaker 1: or emulates the effects of another kind of software or hardware. 240 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:32,680 Speaker 1: You hear about it a lot with video games because 241 00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:37,200 Speaker 1: the old arcade games all had dedicated chips that were 242 00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:41,520 Speaker 1: specifically designed to allow those video games to play. So 243 00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:44,360 Speaker 1: everything from the graphics to the sound, all of that 244 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:47,840 Speaker 1: had dedicated hardware. So in order for you to play 245 00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:51,560 Speaker 1: the arcade game on a computer, you have to create 246 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:55,720 Speaker 1: software that can sort of fool the the the program 247 00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:59,120 Speaker 1: into thinking that your computer is that hardware. It has 248 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:02,360 Speaker 1: to recreate that. And that's why if you've ever played 249 00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:06,160 Speaker 1: an emulated video game on a computer, sometimes depending on 250 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:08,720 Speaker 1: how good the emulator is or how appropriate it is 251 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:11,760 Speaker 1: for the RAM that you're playing, the RAM is essentially 252 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:17,200 Speaker 1: the game, the game may end up being very sluggish. 253 00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:18,880 Speaker 1: I remember I had a friend of mine who had 254 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:23,520 Speaker 1: emulator that played most games really well, but there were 255 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:25,760 Speaker 1: a couple of titles that if you were to try it, 256 00:15:25,760 --> 00:15:30,040 Speaker 1: it felt like the game was running on a quarter speed, 257 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:33,640 Speaker 1: which made the game incredibly frustrating to play because you 258 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:35,680 Speaker 1: pressed jump and then you'd have to leave the room, 259 00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:38,440 Speaker 1: get a sandwich, drink a drake, come back, and then 260 00:15:38,440 --> 00:15:42,000 Speaker 1: you see that your guys finally off the ground. Um. 261 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:44,520 Speaker 1: So yeah, emulators come with their own set of problems. 262 00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:47,600 Speaker 1: Not you know, not all emulators are created equal, but 263 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:50,440 Speaker 1: that's your basic set of tools if you want to 264 00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:55,240 Speaker 1: be a chip tunes musician. Right. Yeah, it's funny because 265 00:15:55,720 --> 00:15:58,680 Speaker 1: I wanted to make the distinction earlier and then just 266 00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:01,800 Speaker 1: completely forgot to get into it. Um. The difference in 267 00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:06,680 Speaker 1: chip tunes is uh and and another technology. UM. Chip 268 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:09,360 Speaker 1: tunes is generally the programming side of it, when you're 269 00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:13,840 Speaker 1: programming an old machine to make music, whereas circuit bending. 270 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:17,200 Speaker 1: Have you hearn that term circuit bending is actually is 271 00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:21,400 Speaker 1: actually creating short circuits in an electronic device in order 272 00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:25,240 Speaker 1: to have it make music. Um. And there are believe 273 00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:28,560 Speaker 1: it or not, festivals dedicated to both of these. So 274 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:31,320 Speaker 1: circuit bending would that be like the kind of stuff 275 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:33,440 Speaker 1: that people would do where they make hard drive spin 276 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:37,680 Speaker 1: at certain speeds in order to generate music. I I 277 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:42,120 Speaker 1: that's my understanding of postics. Um and and actually one 278 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:45,800 Speaker 1: of the projects. When I first found out about Matthew 279 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:49,520 Speaker 1: Applegates work. UM, the very first thing that I saw 280 00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:53,360 Speaker 1: called chip tunes wasn't actually by that by the definitions 281 00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:56,840 Speaker 1: I just mentioned a chip tune. UM. His album Obsolete 282 00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: was a recording of devices. Is that. Uh. He had 283 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:06,359 Speaker 1: to work with the National muse Museum of Computing in 284 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:11,000 Speaker 1: the UK to get access to Do you remember this? 285 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:14,479 Speaker 1: This is this is new to me, okay. Uh. They 286 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:18,880 Speaker 1: gave him access to the machines at Bletchley Park. Yeah. 287 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:22,520 Speaker 1: Bletchley Park for those of you who are not familiar. UH, 288 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:25,359 Speaker 1: is a computing center in the United Kingdom. It was 289 00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:29,840 Speaker 1: instrumental in again no fun intended in um helping break 290 00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:33,080 Speaker 1: the German code system that they were using in World 291 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:36,879 Speaker 1: War Two. Um. This goes back to h r UM 292 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:40,399 Speaker 1: podcast on Alan Touring. He's one of the people that 293 00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:42,879 Speaker 1: worked at Bletchley Park. UM. And now it is the 294 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:46,960 Speaker 1: side of the National Computing Museum. Uh. And they gave 295 00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:49,280 Speaker 1: him access to some of the computing equipment that they 296 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:50,840 Speaker 1: had there, and of course he had to promise he 297 00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:55,040 Speaker 1: wasn't going to break it, because creating chip tunes sometimes 298 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:59,800 Speaker 1: involves hacking to the point where stuff just doesn't work anymore. 299 00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:02,080 Speaker 1: So he had to promise he was just going to 300 00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:04,760 Speaker 1: uh to record it. And what he recorded he was 301 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:09,639 Speaker 1: able to manipulate with uh you know, sound editing software 302 00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:13,520 Speaker 1: and basically used the electric relays, not you know, the 303 00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:17,879 Speaker 1: the uh little electric switches that they used for computing. 304 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:22,000 Speaker 1: And uh it's very staccato and percussive. But that's the 305 00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:24,359 Speaker 1: very first chip tune I ever heard. Really, I guess 306 00:18:24,359 --> 00:18:30,280 Speaker 1: technically wasn't a chip tune, yes, but yeah, using the 307 00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:33,639 Speaker 1: mechanical devices or you know, I guess you could call 308 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:37,720 Speaker 1: him electro mechanical because they are electronics, but they are 309 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:41,679 Speaker 1: also mechanical like a hard drive. UM, so yeah, you 310 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:45,919 Speaker 1: have you have the difference there. Um. But the festivals 311 00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:50,800 Speaker 1: I was mentioning earlier, let's see, Uh there is um 312 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:56,080 Speaker 1: the Blip Festival, which is a chip tune festival, and 313 00:18:56,280 --> 00:18:58,800 Speaker 1: uh there there is a series in New York called 314 00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:04,000 Speaker 1: Pulse Wave UM that is dedicated to this um. And 315 00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:08,520 Speaker 1: the Bent Festival is for circuit benders um, people who 316 00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:13,560 Speaker 1: use things like the speak and spell nice to create music. Well, 317 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:16,600 Speaker 1: and it just shows that that these little simple bleeps 318 00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:20,359 Speaker 1: and bloops can really inspire people to do some pretty 319 00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:23,520 Speaker 1: cool stuff. And I mean like, for example, uh, you 320 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:28,600 Speaker 1: know I talked about video games live the orchestra uh 321 00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:32,040 Speaker 1: presentation of video game music. What's funny to me is 322 00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:34,159 Speaker 1: that now you've come to the point where you have 323 00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:38,600 Speaker 1: full orchestras, yes, playing and in some cases emulating in 324 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:42,120 Speaker 1: the sense that they're trying to get these very sophisticated 325 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:45,440 Speaker 1: instruments to sound like the bleeps and bloops that came 326 00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:48,600 Speaker 1: from the old video games. You've gone full circle because 327 00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:50,960 Speaker 1: the video game bleeps and bloops were meant to kind 328 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:55,639 Speaker 1: of get us close to what we consider your classic music. 329 00:19:56,920 --> 00:19:59,760 Speaker 1: You want them to sound like violins and and and trumpets, 330 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:04,080 Speaker 1: and now they're using trumpets to sound like leaps and bloops. 331 00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:09,800 Speaker 1: It's a madness. Well, um, if you want to join in, 332 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:13,440 Speaker 1: there is a chip Tune Marching band. And if you 333 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:17,320 Speaker 1: go to the chip Tune Marching Band website um, which 334 00:20:17,359 --> 00:20:21,360 Speaker 1: I thoughtfully didn't include the address to in my notes. Um, 335 00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:22,919 Speaker 1: I can look it up in a second, or you 336 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:25,080 Speaker 1: can if you want to. They will give you instructions 337 00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:29,360 Speaker 1: their instructions online and what you need to to create 338 00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:32,440 Speaker 1: your own chip tune instruments so that you can participate. 339 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,280 Speaker 1: That website is chip Tune Marching Band dot com. I 340 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:38,760 Speaker 1: didn't know if it was something more difficult than that 341 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:41,280 Speaker 1: I could know, but that that there you what is 342 00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:42,919 Speaker 1: up with me and my notes that I wasn't very 343 00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:45,080 Speaker 1: good today? I don't know. I'm I'm guessing it's because 344 00:20:45,119 --> 00:20:50,080 Speaker 1: you're using an um a tablet computer, which you know, 345 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:54,439 Speaker 1: I'm using a computer computer. And okay, enough of my 346 00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:59,080 Speaker 1: anti tablet bias. That's okay, the keyboard on your computer 347 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:03,119 Speaker 1: computer doesn't work, This is true. But yes, the the 348 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:05,880 Speaker 1: chip tune Marching Man, and I've also seen I've also 349 00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:07,880 Speaker 1: seen on YouTube. If you go to YouTube, there are 350 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:12,080 Speaker 1: of course dozens and dozens of chip tunes videos, and 351 00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:14,280 Speaker 1: some of the videos like they include the videos of 352 00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:15,840 Speaker 1: the guy with the chip a phone where you can 353 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:19,440 Speaker 1: watch him play on this this Oregon. You can watch 354 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,280 Speaker 1: him play live all the tunes that came from old 355 00:21:22,359 --> 00:21:26,040 Speaker 1: video games, and he can get really close to the 356 00:21:26,119 --> 00:21:29,520 Speaker 1: sound of those tunes, like to the point where, uh, 357 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:31,399 Speaker 1: you know, if you close your eyes you can almost 358 00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:34,000 Speaker 1: imagine that this is the video game. Um, it's not 359 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:37,280 Speaker 1: quite the same, because, of course, when you program a 360 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:41,360 Speaker 1: song for a computer, it's always gonna play it at 361 00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:43,800 Speaker 1: that speed, you know, the tempo and everything. None of 362 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:45,920 Speaker 1: that's gonna change there. It's never gonna make a mistake, 363 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:49,919 Speaker 1: right Whereas we're humans and we occasionally do like you 364 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:53,080 Speaker 1: hit a wrong note or you lose the tempo a 365 00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:55,920 Speaker 1: little bit, specially if you're a drummer, and uh say, 366 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:58,280 Speaker 1: I almost never hit a wrong note, right, you just 367 00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:02,760 Speaker 1: hit the wrong beat. But yeah, the the you can 368 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 1: watch that. And there's also I saw a guy who 369 00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:07,399 Speaker 1: had what he called the chip tunes. He called it 370 00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:10,000 Speaker 1: a chip tune guitar or an eight big guitar, and 371 00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:11,760 Speaker 1: maybe he called an eight big guitar. Yeah. It was 372 00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:14,160 Speaker 1: actually a really cool project. He had designed it for 373 00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:16,840 Speaker 1: a college project or high school project. I think it 374 00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:20,119 Speaker 1: was college, but it was. It looked like a guitar body, 375 00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:24,280 Speaker 1: but instead of strings, it had six arcade buttons on it, 376 00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:30,560 Speaker 1: and then the fret had actually strips of of of 377 00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:35,000 Speaker 1: capacit type material so that it could detect when he 378 00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:37,720 Speaker 1: was touching it, and by pressing a button he would 379 00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:40,400 Speaker 1: generate a certain tone, and then by moving his hand 380 00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:42,800 Speaker 1: up and down the fret, it would actually change the 381 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,040 Speaker 1: pitch and he could play it like a guitar, and 382 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:49,360 Speaker 1: he could create loops. He would play a certain series 383 00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:51,639 Speaker 1: of notes that would become a loop, and then he 384 00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:54,439 Speaker 1: could switch to a different button and play other notes 385 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:59,240 Speaker 1: and mix a song live using this guitar like device 386 00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:03,760 Speaker 1: that used of the chip tunes mentality, it seems to 387 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:05,919 Speaker 1: me that it would be pretty easy to uh. And 388 00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:08,160 Speaker 1: I'm sure someone has done it. I just hadn't thought 389 00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:11,800 Speaker 1: of thought to look it up before you just said that. Um, 390 00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:15,560 Speaker 1: you know, to use the guitar hero style controllers. You know, 391 00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:18,960 Speaker 1: with some of those the buttons already wired up, you 392 00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,800 Speaker 1: probably wouldn't require a whole lot of modification to make 393 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,040 Speaker 1: an instrument like that. And I you know, we could 394 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:28,200 Speaker 1: look it up now, but it's kind of late. But yeah, 395 00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:31,840 Speaker 1: you know, it's already wired to some degree and has 396 00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:35,159 Speaker 1: the switches in place so that it wouldn't require too 397 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:37,840 Speaker 1: much change. And you can think of chip tunes also 398 00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:41,720 Speaker 1: being sort of the predecessor for um, for true synthesizers, 399 00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:46,400 Speaker 1: you know, uh synthesizers and are a little more sophisticated 400 00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:49,879 Speaker 1: than the old chip tunes chips. But uh, and of 401 00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:53,320 Speaker 1: course there were synthesizers that came out before the chips 402 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:55,720 Speaker 1: meant for the computers, but you know, they didn't really 403 00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:58,240 Speaker 1: get sophisticated until you got to the point where you 404 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:01,399 Speaker 1: could hit the boss of Nova button and get that. 405 00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:10,960 Speaker 1: I had a Cassio keyboard, you better believe it. Yeah. 406 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:13,800 Speaker 1: And and despite the fact that I don't ever remember 407 00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:16,399 Speaker 1: hearing the song before I got the Cassio keyboard, I 408 00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:19,560 Speaker 1: did learn how to play hert and soul. Yes, it 409 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:23,040 Speaker 1: does appear that just in a quick search on Google, 410 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:26,399 Speaker 1: I'm finding that they are all sorts of chip tunes 411 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:30,840 Speaker 1: and guitar hero controller links. So I I certainly was 412 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:36,840 Speaker 1: the third person to think of that today. Yeah. Um, 413 00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:39,240 Speaker 1: so it's it's already been done, so I should. I 414 00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:41,679 Speaker 1: think everyone should probably check that out and see what 415 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:44,439 Speaker 1: people are doing with it. So people are using these 416 00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:48,880 Speaker 1: these devices and these these programs to create new music, um, 417 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:53,800 Speaker 1: but they're also using them to to uh cover songs 418 00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:58,000 Speaker 1: or to convert songs into eight bit format. We actually 419 00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:03,600 Speaker 1: listened to a couple of funny uh examples this this morning. Uh. 420 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:06,840 Speaker 1: If you went to see the film Scott Pilgrim Versus 421 00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:08,800 Speaker 1: the World, and you were there at the very beginning 422 00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:12,400 Speaker 1: of the movie, it opens with an eight bit graphic 423 00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:17,560 Speaker 1: version of the Universal Pictures logo, and it also has 424 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:21,000 Speaker 1: a Chip Tunes version of their their theme, which is 425 00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:23,159 Speaker 1: very clever. And it got a big laugh when I 426 00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:25,760 Speaker 1: saw it because I saw it in a pre screening 427 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:28,160 Speaker 1: and we were it was so it's a theater packed 428 00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:32,119 Speaker 1: with nerds, right, you know, myself included. So here we 429 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,360 Speaker 1: are a bunch of nerds watching this, and as soon 430 00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,040 Speaker 1: as the Universal logo popped up in that that format, 431 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:38,840 Speaker 1: we all started laughing. And then when the music played, 432 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:43,480 Speaker 1: it was that game over. Really, I mean, Edgar right 433 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:45,520 Speaker 1: had us in the palm of his hand. But I 434 00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:49,000 Speaker 1: also found, Uh, if you aren't familiar with the wonderful 435 00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:52,320 Speaker 1: meme of Trolo lol, which at this time has died 436 00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:54,840 Speaker 1: down right, we've gotten into the point where the peak 437 00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:58,040 Speaker 1: of that popularity is way past us now. It's not 438 00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:00,320 Speaker 1: one of those memes that's really stuck around, but trolla 439 00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:05,639 Speaker 1: lull being the Uh is he Russian? Yes? And I 440 00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:09,200 Speaker 1: know that from he was from the Soviet era, That's 441 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:11,840 Speaker 1: what the clips from. Yeah, I do, I do believe 442 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:14,639 Speaker 1: he is. He is actually Russian. And the recording, however, 443 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,840 Speaker 1: was from a I believe Swedish TV show, and it's 444 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:20,760 Speaker 1: a fellow singing. Of course, he's not singing any words 445 00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:24,080 Speaker 1: because the words were considered to be a little too 446 00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:27,760 Speaker 1: uh inflammatory by the Soviets at the time, so he 447 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:30,720 Speaker 1: replaced it all with just vocalizations yeah, they call it 448 00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:34,440 Speaker 1: vocalize yeah, and the or the style. Apparently it inspired 449 00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:37,000 Speaker 1: the whole There was a whole movement back then around 450 00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,920 Speaker 1: that we kind of like this, not terribly different from 451 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:44,119 Speaker 1: movements like uh like scat singing. So but anyway, the 452 00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:46,920 Speaker 1: trolla Lull tune got a lot of play on YouTube, 453 00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:50,080 Speaker 1: and then I found a chip tune version of trolla Lull, 454 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:53,399 Speaker 1: which amused us greatly. But but what's also cool is 455 00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:56,320 Speaker 1: that people have used this kind of music to to 456 00:26:56,480 --> 00:27:01,879 Speaker 1: create other forms of art that are to me really 457 00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 1: creative and entertaining. Like we talked about in our web 458 00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:09,000 Speaker 1: success stories, we talked about Dr Horrible and Dr Horrible 459 00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:12,560 Speaker 1: sing Along Blog. Well, there was a guy who created 460 00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:16,919 Speaker 1: a Doctor Horrible sing Along blog eight bit video game video. 461 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,919 Speaker 1: He did the the whole story, which is done in 462 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:24,080 Speaker 1: three parts, and he also did his version in three 463 00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:27,679 Speaker 1: parts as a video game. But that dated back to 464 00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:31,720 Speaker 1: the Ninteno Entertainment system era, so it's all done in 465 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,040 Speaker 1: that style. The graphics were in that style, and the 466 00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:36,480 Speaker 1: music was in that style. He took the music from 467 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:42,320 Speaker 1: the web series and converted it into chip Tunes versions 468 00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:45,560 Speaker 1: of those songs, so if you knew the show, if 469 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,639 Speaker 1: you knew the web series, you could actually you know, 470 00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:52,520 Speaker 1: humm along, you're you're singing my freezerrae will stop the world, 471 00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:54,520 Speaker 1: and you're just you know, here in the chip tunes 472 00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:57,240 Speaker 1: version of it. I was very clever, and I've seen 473 00:27:57,280 --> 00:27:59,639 Speaker 1: other versions of that as well, where you know, people 474 00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:03,560 Speaker 1: have to again popular movies or television shows or musicals 475 00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:06,440 Speaker 1: even and converted it into an eight bit version using 476 00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:08,720 Speaker 1: chip tunes to create the music, and it does give 477 00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:12,760 Speaker 1: it that weird retro uh feel to it. That's it's 478 00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:15,240 Speaker 1: kind of geeky but kind of cool at the same time. 479 00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:20,479 Speaker 1: So that's really interesting. Wow, you're ready to wrap up 480 00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:22,840 Speaker 1: and I don't have anything else. It's it's funny though 481 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:25,680 Speaker 1: I know I've said that a lot, but it's kind 482 00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:30,159 Speaker 1: of interesting that so much has been done with this. Yeah, 483 00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:32,600 Speaker 1: it's the kind of thing that maybe you know somebody 484 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:34,720 Speaker 1: who does it and you think, well, you know, it's 485 00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:37,840 Speaker 1: just my my friend who's really into uh RD we know, 486 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:40,800 Speaker 1: boards and taking things apart. But there's it's a whole 487 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:43,680 Speaker 1: movement and it's been around for a long long time now, 488 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,640 Speaker 1: you know, thirty years. Yeah, and you see you see 489 00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,920 Speaker 1: some I mean, we've seen a lot of people create 490 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:54,360 Speaker 1: weird ways to create you know, music, live music and 491 00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:57,240 Speaker 1: uh and chip tunes. That's just one version. I mean, 492 00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,600 Speaker 1: we could talk about, like architect whether you use tesla 493 00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:03,880 Speaker 1: coils to create music, uh, same sort of thing, and 494 00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:06,520 Speaker 1: the idea that you know, you're taking something that's very 495 00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:10,000 Speaker 1: technical and geeky and then you're adding the creative side 496 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:12,480 Speaker 1: to it, the artistic creative side. And a lot of 497 00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:15,000 Speaker 1: people think that those two worlds kind of exist apart 498 00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:17,640 Speaker 1: from each other, and the truth is that they overlap 499 00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:20,120 Speaker 1: a lot. You know, a lot of the a lot 500 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:23,800 Speaker 1: of the engineers who created the video games, especially the 501 00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:26,320 Speaker 1: early ones, were also the ones who created all the music, right, 502 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:29,280 Speaker 1: they weren't. It wasn't like, you know, you had you 503 00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:31,240 Speaker 1: had the guys in the white lab coats in one 504 00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:33,200 Speaker 1: part of the building and all the musicians and the 505 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:35,440 Speaker 1: messy part of the building. That's just not how it worked. 506 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:38,560 Speaker 1: They were all in the messy part of the building anyway. 507 00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:40,720 Speaker 1: So that's kind of our discussion on ship tunes. When 508 00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:43,160 Speaker 1: I upload. When I went I write the blog post 509 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,800 Speaker 1: for this podcast, I will include some videos of chip 510 00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:50,200 Speaker 1: tunes from YouTube because I think it's important, including I 511 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:51,880 Speaker 1: think the troll a Lil One, because I don't think 512 00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:54,000 Speaker 1: I can get away from that. So as long as 513 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:55,840 Speaker 1: I can find the troll a Lil One on YouTube, 514 00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:58,280 Speaker 1: then I will include that, because the side I found 515 00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,400 Speaker 1: it on was not YouTube. Um and then I think 516 00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:04,000 Speaker 1: it's there. Yeah, I think it is. Actually, I see, 517 00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:06,840 Speaker 1: I see it now, so I will include that as well. 518 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:09,440 Speaker 1: The eight bit inspired chip tune cover of the famous 519 00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:13,520 Speaker 1: meme Mr trolla Lull, So I will include that because 520 00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:16,520 Speaker 1: it's priceless. So if you guys want to actually hear 521 00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:18,280 Speaker 1: some of the stuff, go to YouTube check it out, 522 00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:20,840 Speaker 1: go to the blogs once I get the blog post up, 523 00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:24,000 Speaker 1: once this podcast goes live, and check it out. And 524 00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:27,160 Speaker 1: uh and and if you're interested in really do some research, 525 00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:29,640 Speaker 1: you might be able to find either an emulator or 526 00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:32,760 Speaker 1: maybe even an old chip set up where you can 527 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:37,200 Speaker 1: actually program stuff directly so that it plays on the hardware. 528 00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:39,800 Speaker 1: There are setups like that I've seen a few kind 529 00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:43,200 Speaker 1: of hack together things that are really really cool and uh, 530 00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:46,520 Speaker 1: and really you're just limited by your own creativity. Yeah, 531 00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:49,680 Speaker 1: and definitely if this is something that you've already been doing, 532 00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:52,719 Speaker 1: we'd love to hear what you've what you've got, so 533 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:56,000 Speaker 1: certainly share that with us. Yeah, because I mean, I 534 00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:59,880 Speaker 1: like to rock out at work. He does. It's true, 535 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:01,640 Speaker 1: it's a little disturbing to the rest of it. Yeah, 536 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,000 Speaker 1: if you've done any chip Tunes versions of the Ramons, 537 00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:07,760 Speaker 1: totally send them to me. All Right, we're gonna wrap 538 00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:10,640 Speaker 1: this up. If you guys would like to interact with us, 539 00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:14,320 Speaker 1: you can do that on Twitter and Facebook are handled. 540 00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:17,600 Speaker 1: There is text stuff h s W or you can 541 00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:20,800 Speaker 1: shoot us an email. That email addresses tech stuff at 542 00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,160 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Chris and I will talk 543 00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:27,720 Speaker 1: to you again really soon. For more on this and 544 00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:30,480 Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. 545 00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:33,360 Speaker 1: So learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast 546 00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:37,080 Speaker 1: icon in the upper right corner of our homepage. The 547 00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:40,160 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today 548 00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:47,640 Speaker 1: on iTunes. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand 549 00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:49,800 Speaker 1: twelve camera. It's ready, Are you