| Chiptune | |
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 A musician's chiptune setup, involvingGame Boy consoles | |
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| Cultural origins | Late 1970s to early 1980s, Japan |
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Chiptune, also called8-bit music (although not all chiptune is 8-bit), is a style ofelectronic music, and its associated subculture,[18][19] made using theprogrammable sound generator (PSG)sound chips orsynthesizers in vintagearcade machines,computers andvideo game consoles.[20] The term is commonly used to refer totracker format music using extremely basic and smallsamples that an old computer or console could produce (this is the original meaning of the term), as well as music that combines PSG sounds with modern musical styles.[21][22][23] It has been described as "an interpretation of many genres". Any existing song can be arranged in a chiptune style. It can be defined by choice of instrument, bytimbre more than specific style elements.[24]
Awaveform generator is a fundamental module in a sound synthesis system. A waveform generator usually produces a basic geometrical waveform with a fixed or variabletimbre and variable pitch. Common waveform generator configurations usually included two or three simple waveforms and often a singlepseudo-random-noise generator (PRNG). Availablewaveforms often includedpulse wave (whosetimbre can be varied by modifying theduty cycle),square wave (a symmetrical pulse wave producing only odd overtones),triangle wave (which has a fixed timbre containing only oddharmonics but is softer than a square wave), andsawtooth wave (which has a bright raspy timbre and contains odd and even harmonics). Two notable examples of systems employing this technology were theGame Boy portable game console and theCommodore 64 personal computer. The Game Boy uses two pulse channels (switchable between 12.5%, 25%, 50% and 75% wave duty cycle), a channel for a 4-bit waveform generator, and a pseudo-random-noise generator. The Commodore 64 however used theMOS Technology SID chip which offered 3 channels, each switchable between pulse, saw-tooth, triangle, and noise. Unlike the Game Boy, the pulse channels on the Commodore 64 allowed full control over wave duty cycles. The SID was a very technically advanced chip, offering many other features including ring modulation and adjustable resonance filters.[25]
Due to the limited number of voices in early sound chips, one of the main challenges is to produce richpolyphonic music with them. The usual method to emulate it is via quickarpeggios, which is one of the most relevant features of chiptune music (along with its electronic timbres).[26]
Some older systems featured a simplebeeper as their only sound output, as the originalZX Spectrum andIBM PC; despite this, many skilled programmers were able to produce unexpectedly rich music with this bare hardware, where the sound is fully generated by the system'sCPU by direct control of the beeper.
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 Science International:What Will They Think Of Next?, YouTube video |
The earliest precursors to chip music can be found in the early history ofcomputer music. In 1951, the computersCSIRAC andFerranti Mark 1 were used to perform real-time synthesized digital music in public.[27]
One of the earliest commercial computer music albums came from the First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival, held August 25, 1978, as part of the Personal Computing '78 show. The First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival recordings were published by Creative Computing in 1979.[28] TheGlobal TV programScience International (1976–1979) credited aPDP-11/10 for the music.[29]
Chiptune music began to appear with thevideo game music produced during thegolden age of video arcade games. An early example was the opening tune inTomohiro Nishikado'sarcade gameGun Fight (1975). The first video game to use a continuous background soundtrack was Tomohiro Nishikado's 1978 releaseSpace Invaders, which had four simplechromatic descendingbass notes repeating ina loop, though it was dynamic and interacted with the player, increasing pace as the enemies descended on the player.[30]The first video game to feature continuous melodicbackground music wasRally-X, an arcade game released byNamco in 1980, featuring a simple tune that repeats continuously duringgameplay.[31]It was also one of the earliest games to use adigital-to-analog converter to producesampled sounds.[32]That same year, the first video game to featurespeech synthesis was also released,Sunsoft'sshoot 'em up arcade gameStratovox.[31]
In the late 1970s, the pioneeringsynth-pop/electronic dance music groupYellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) were using computers to produce synthesized music.[33]Some of their early music, including their 1978 self-titleddebut album, weresampling sounds from popular arcade games such asSpace Invaders[10] andGun Fight. In addition to incorporating sounds from contemporary video games into their music, the band would later have a major influence on much of the video game and chiptune music produced during the8-bit and16-bit eras.[34][35]Sega's 1982 arcade gameSuper Locomotive for example featured a chiptunecover version of YMO's "Rydeen" (1979);[36] several latercomputer games also covered the song, such asTrooper Truck (1983) byRabbit Software as well asDaley Thompson's Decathlon (1984) andStryker's Run (1986) arranged byMartin Galway.
By 1983,Konami's arcade gameGyruss utilized five sound chips along with a digital-to-analog converter, which were partly used to create an electronic rendition ofJ. S. Bach'sToccata and Fugue in D minor.[37]In 1984, former YMO memberHaruomi Hosono released an album produced entirely from Namco arcade game samples entitledVideo Game Music, an early example of a chiptune record[38]and the first video game music album.[39]The record featured the work of Namco's chiptune composers: Toshio Kai (Pac-Man in 1980), Nobuyuki Ohnogi (Galaga,New Rally-X andBosconian in 1981, andPole Position in 1982), and Yuriko Keino (Dig Dug andXevious in 1982).[40]
A major advance for chip music was the introduction offrequency modulation synthesis (FM synthesis), first commercially released byYamaha for theirdigital synthesizers and FMsound chips, which began appearing in arcade machines from the early 1980s.[41][42]Arcade game composers utilizing FM synthesis at the time included Konami'sMiki Higashino (Gradius,Yie-Ar Kung Fu,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) andSega'sHiroshi Kawaguchi (Space Harrier,Hang-On,Out Run).
By the early 1980s, significant improvements topersonal computer game music were made possible with the introduction ofdigital FM synthesis sound.Yamaha began manufacturing FMsynth boards for Japanese computers such as theNEC PC-8801 andPC-9801 in the early 1980s, and by the mid-1980s, the PC-8801 andFM-7 had built-in FM sound. This allowed computer game music to have greater complexity than the simplisticbeeps from internal speakers. These FM synth boards produced a "warm and pleasant sound" that musicians such asYuzo Koshiro andTakeshi Abo utilized to produce music that is still highly regarded within the chiptune community.[43]In the early 1980s, Japanesepersonal computers such as the NEC PC-88 and PC-98 featuredaudio programming languages such asMusic Macro Language (MML) andMIDI interfaces, which were most often used to produce video game music.[44]
Fujitsu also released theFM Sound Editor software for the FM-7 in 1985, providing users with a user-friendly interface to create and edit synthesized music.[45]
In 1987, FM synthesis became available for Western computers when Canadian companyAd Lib released the AdLib Music Synthesizer Card for theIBM Personal Computer,[46] while Singapore-basedCreative Labs incorporated the AdLib card's sound chip into itsSound Blaster card in 1989.[47] Both cards were widely supported byMS-DOS game developers in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The widespread adoption of FM synthesis by consoles would later be one of the major advances of the16-bit era, by which time 16-bit arcade machines were using multiple FM synthesis chips.[41] A major chiptune composer during this period wasYuzo Koshiro.[48]Despite later advances in audio technology, he would continue to use older PC-8801 hardware to produce chiptune soundtracks for series such asStreets of Rage (1991–1994) andEtrian Odyssey (2007–present).[43] His soundtrack toThe Revenge of Shinobi (1989) featuredhouse[49][50]andprogressivetechno compositions[48] that fusedelectronic dance music with traditionalJapanese music.[51]The soundtrack forStreets of Rage 2 (1992) is considered "revolutionary" and "ahead of its time" for its "blend of swaggering housesynths,dirtyelectro-funk andtrancey electronic textures that would feel as comfortable in anightclub as a video game."[52]For the soundtrack toStreets of Rage 3 (1994), Koshiro created a new composition method called the "Automated Composing System" to produce "fast-beat techno likejungle",[53]resulting in innovative andexperimental sounds generated automatically.[54]Koshiro also composed chiptune soundtracks for series such asDragon Slayer,Ys,Shinobi, andActRaiser. Another important FM synth composer was the lateRyu Umemoto, who composed chiptune soundtracks for variousvisual novel andshoot 'em up games.[55]
Later on, several demo groups moved to using their own music instead of ripped game music. In 1986, Jeroen "Red" Kimmel studiedRob Hubbard's player routine and used it for original demo songs[56]before writing a routine of his own in 1987. Hobbyists were also writing their own dedicated music editor software, such asChris Hülsbeck'sSoundmonitor which was released as a type-in listing in a 1986 issue of the German C-64 magazine64'er.[57]
The practice of SID music composition has continued seamlessly until this day in conjunction with theCommodore 64 demoscene.The High Voltage SID Collection, a comprehensive archive of SID music, contains over 55,000 pieces of SID music.[58]
The heyday of chiptune music was the 1980s.[59] The earliest commercial chiptune records produced entirely fromsamplingarcade game sounds have existed since the mid-1980s, an early example beingHaruomi Hosono'sVideo Game Music in 1984.[38] Though entirely chiptune records were uncommon at the time, many mainstream musicians in thepop rock,[60]hip hop[61] andelectronic music[62]genres were sampling arcade game sounds andbleeps during thegolden age of video arcade games (late 1970s to mid-1980s), as early asYellow Magic Orchestra's "Computer Game" in 1978.[10]Buckner & Garcia's "Pac-Man Fever" and thealbum of the same name were major hits in 1982.[60] Arcade game sounds were one of the foundational elements of theelectro music genre, which in turn inspired many otherelectronic dance music genres such astechno andhouse music, which were sometimes referred to as "bleep music".[10]Space Invaders inspiredPlayer One's "Space Invaders" (1979), which in turn provided thebassline forJesse Saunders' "On and On" (1984),[63][64]the firstChicago house track.[65]Warp's record "Testone" (1990) bySweet Exorcist sampled video game sounds from Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Computer Game" and defined Sheffield'sbleep techno scene in the early 1990s.[9]
After the 1980s, however, chiptune music began declining in popularity.[59] Since then, up until the 2000s, chip music was rarely performed live and the songs were nearly exclusively spread as executable programs and other computer file formats. Some of the earliest examples of record label releases of pure chip music can be found in the late 1990s.[66]Chiptune music began gaining popularity again towards the end of the 1990s. The firstelectroclash record,I-F's "Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass" (1997), has been described as "burbling electro in a vocodered homage toAtari-era hi-jinks".[67]
By the mid-2000s, 8-bit chip music began making a comeback in mainstream pop music, when it was used by acts such asBeck (for example, the 2005 song "Girl"),The Killers (for example, the 2004 song "On Top"),No Doubt with the song "Running", and particularlyThe Postal Service in many of their songs. The low-quality digitalPCM styling of early game music composers such as Hiroshi Kawaguchi also began gaining popularity.[68]In 2003, theJ-pop girl groupPerfume,[69][70]along with producerYasutaka Nakata, began producing music combining chiptunes withsynth-pop andelectro house;[70] their breakthrough came in 2007 withGame, which led to other Japanese female artists using a similar electronic style, includingAira Mitsuki,immi,Mizca,SAWA,Saori@destiny, andSweet Vacation.[71]Electro house producerDeadmau5 started his career in the late 1990s, with a chiptune and demoscene movements-influenced sound. Three self-released compilations,Project 56,deadmau5 Circa 1998–2002 andA Little Oblique, were finished in 2006.[72]
In 2007, the entirely chiptune album8-Bit Operators: The Music of Kraftwerk was released on major mainstream labelAstralwerks/EMI Records, which included several prominent and noted chipmusicians, including Nanoloop[73]creator Oliver Wittchow, and LittleSoundDJ[74]creator Johan Kotlinski who appears as the artistRole Model.Kraftwerk founding memberRalf Hütter personally selected the tracks.[75]A vinyl 12-inch single version was released on February 24, 2007 as a precursor to the full-length CD, and reached as high as number 17[76]on theBillboard magazine Hot Dance Singles Sales Chart. In March 2007, the CD release reached as high as number 1 on theCMJ RPM (North American college Electronic) charts.[77][78]Edinburgh-born electronic musicianUnicorn Kid has helped further popularize chiptune, especially with the song "True Love Fantasy" and other songs from the EP "Tidal Rave" being played on late night radio, including onBBC Radio 1, where he played live on the Festive Festival 2011. In Canada,Eightcubed andCrystal Castles helped the popularity further via the Toronto underground club scene and created a lasting impression with the music video "Heart Invaders" debuting onMuchMusic in 2008[79]and the single "Alice Practice" hitting 29th onNME "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".[80]
During the late 2000s, a new wave of chiptune culture took place, boosted by the release of software such as LittleSoundDJ for theGame Boy. This new culture has much more emphasis on live performances and record releases than the demoscene and tracker culture, of which the new artists are often only distantly aware.[81]In recent years, 8-bit chiptune sounds, or "video game beats", have been used by a number of mainstream pop artists. Examples include artists such asKesha[82](most notably in "Tik Tok",[83] thebest-selling single of 2010[84]),50 Cent with the hit single "Ayo Technology",Robyn,Snoop Dogg,[83]Eminem (for example, "Hellbound"),Nelly Furtado, andTimbaland(seeTimbaland plagiarism controversy). The influence of video game sounds can also be heard in contemporary Britishelectronica music by artists such asDizzee Rascal andKieran Hebden,[85]as well as inheavy metal bands such asDragonForce.Grime music in particular samples sawtooth wave sounds from video games which were popular inEast London.[11]Somedubstep producers have also been influenced by video game chiptunes, particularly the work ofYuzo Koshiro.[86][87][88]In 2010, aBBC News article stated that the "sights and sounds ofold-school games" (namingFrogger andDonkey Kong as examples) are "now becoming a part of mainstream music and culture."[59]Complextro pioneerPorter Robinson has also cited video game sounds, or chiptunes, as an influence on his style of music along with 1980sanalog synth music.[89] In 2022,trap music producer Popstar Benny cited video game sounds as one of the foundations for theplugg music genre.[13]
TheCommodore Amiga (1985) with its sample-based sound generation distanced the concept of microcomputer music away from plain chip-synthesized sounds. Amigatracker music software, beginning from Karsten Obarski'sUltimate Soundtracker (1987), inspired great numbers of computer enthusiasts to create computer music. As an offshoot of the burgeoning tracker music culture, a type of tracker music reminiscent of Commodore 64 SID music was born, that utilized simple waveforms instead of digitized samples. This type of music with small samples came to be called "chiptunes" referring to Amiga's chip memory where such samples would easily fit.
Earliest examples of tracker chiptunes date back to 1989 and are attributed to thedemoscene musicians4mat, Baroque,TDK, Turtle and Duz. Tracker chiptunes are based on very short looped waveforms which are modulated by tracker effects such asarpeggio,vibrato, andportamento. A very common loop length is 128 samples, which at an approximate sample rate of 17 kHz misses a C note by a fewcents.
There is at least one commercial game for the Amiga, Nebulus II, that used chiptune style music, although with some conventional sampled instrument sounds as well as speech. The game apparently was initially planned for release for the C64 but was canceled.
The small amount of sample data made tracker chiptunes far more space-efficient than most other types of tracker music, which made them appealing to size-limited demoscene demos andcrack intros. Tracker chiptunes have also been commonly used in otherwarez scene executables such askeygens.
Nowadays the term "chiptune" is also used to cover chip music using actual chip-based synthesis, but some sources such as the Amiga Music Preservation project still define a chiptune specifically as a smalltracker module.[90] Modern trackers used today include OpenMPT, Famitracker, Furnace and Goattracker.
The chipscene has become relevant thanks to "compos" being held, groups releasingmusic disks and with thecracktro/demo scene. Newtracker tools are used for making chip sounds available to less tech-savvy musicians. TheNES platform has the MidiNES, a cartridge that turns the system into a full blown hardware MIDI controlled synthesizer. Around 2007, the Mssiah was released for theCommodore 64, which is very similar to the MidiNES, but with greater parameter controls, sequencing, analog drum emulation, and limited sample playback. TheCommodore PET has theopen-sourcePetSynth software, which uses the PET's6522 chip for sound, allows the computer to be played like a piano keyboard, and features many effects. For MS-DOS,Fast Tracker is one of the most famous chiptune makers because of the ability to create hand-drawn samples with the mouse. Chiptune artistPixelh8 has also designed music software such as Music Tech[91]for the Game Boy and the Pro Performer[92]for theGame Boy Advance andNintendo DS which turn both machines into real time synthesizers.
There have been a number of television segments featuring chiptunes and chip music artists in the past few years. On April 11, 2005,8 Bit Weapon played their songs "Bombs Away" and "Gameboy Rocker" onG4'sAttack of the Show live broadcast Episode #5058.[93][94] In 2008, as a parody ofMasterpiece Theatre, the first four episodes ofBoing Boing Video'sSPAMasterpiece Theater opened with a chiptune remix ofJean-Joseph Mouret's "Rondeau: Fanfare" (1735) by Hamhocks Buttermilk Johnson.[95]Another chipmusic feature included little-scale, Dot.AY,Ten Thousand Free Men & Their Families and Jim Cuomo on the Australian television seriesGood Game in 2009.[96]
TheElectronic Frontier Foundation in December 2010 used a faux 8-bit game with an 8-bit sound track by crashfaster to demonstrate its notable legal achievements for that year.[97]
In March 2012, theSmithsonian American Art Museum's "The Art of Video Games" exhibit opened featuring a chipmusic soundtrack at the entrance by artists8 Bit Weapon andComputeHer. 8 Bit Weapon also created a track called "The art of Video Games Anthem" for the exhibit.[98] In September 2015, the first music compilation based onDomo (NHK), Domo Loves Chiptune, was released on iTunes, Amazon, and all major music streaming services.[99][100]The compilation features top artists in the Chiptune genre such asAnamanaguchi andDisasterpeace. Domo Loves Chiptune also features the first Chiptune remix of the Domo theme song by Mystery Mansion. The New York City chiptune scene was also the subject of a documentary calledReformat the Planet by2 Player Productions. This film was an official selection at the 2008South by Southwest.[101]
Chip music has returned to 21st-century gaming, either in full-chip music style or using chip samples in the music. Popular games that feature chiptune elements in their soundtracks includeShovel Knight[102] andUndertale.[103]
Events take place all around the world that focus around the celebration and recognition of chiptune music.
In the United States, duringSuper MAGFest—a yearly convention that hosts a variety of video game-related events—popular chiptune artists such asgoto80 andChipzel have previously performed on the Concert Hall mainstage. A chiptune-focused mainstage show (aptly named "Chip Rave") typically occurs on the third day of the convention within the concert hall and has featured countless prominent faces in the chiptune community.
Super MAGFest also holds a continuous venue called Chipspace, a place where participants in the chiptune community go on-stage and perform their music through an open mic system.[104] Originally started by Chiptunes=WIN[105] founder Brandon L. Hood and maintained by geekbeatradio,[106]Chipspace has evolved over the course of MAGFest's lifespan to bring chiptune fans closer together.[107]Among these daily performances are showcases, which are curated by chiptunenetlabels such as Chiptunes = WIN, geekbeatradio, and more.[108]
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The PC Music sound is an undeniable influence on hyperpop, but the style also pulls heavily from rap of the cloud, emo and lo-fi trap variety, as well as flamboyant electronic genres like trance, dubstep and chiptune.
Last year's slowalk finds them shifting into more reflective territory, combining Books-style sampling with an assortment of bells, 8-bit blurps, and more sounds straight from the playroom.
The chiptune culture of music made with SID and other computer sound chips is alive and well.
Chiptune's distinctive sound and the unique subculture surrounding it have created a lively and passionate scene.
Columbia/CBS Records' Pac-Man Fever ... was No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 last week.
A native of Chicago, where house was first popularized, Saunders is credited for producing and releasing the first house single, "On and On", on his own Jes Say Records label.
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