Chiptune Instrument From NES

October 3, 2010 by Mike Szczys 12 Comments

[Jarek Lupinski] wanted an instrument that would let him play chiptunes live, without a need for pre-programming a cartridge for playback during a concert. His preferred hardware is an original Nintendo Entertainment System because of its familiar nostalgic sound. After picking up a lot of 5 broken NES units he set out to build a midi-compliant device.

The five NES units he bought had nothing wrong with them other than the 70-pin cartridge connector. He fixed them all, then de-populated the board on one and tried to build out a circuit on a breadboard. After much trial and error, forum searching, and conversations with others who were familiar with the hardware he got the circuit working. He’s posted a schematic and had a board fabricated which takes the transplanted chips and transforms them into an instrument. Check out the test notes being played by an Arduino Mega after the break.

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YM2149 Gets New Life

August 15, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 6 Comments

[MicroMinded] took us way back to our childhoods with his experiments and subsequent YMstream music player based on the Yamaha YM2149 sound generator used in old arcade systems, computers, and even phones (think chiptune). This reminds us of the Chipophone, only this time the sound is achieved from ICs used back in the day, rather than MCU waveforms.

There is still some work to be done to make the music player have a bit more functionality, but for now source is available if you want to make your own. Of course you might come across a small problem; finding an SSG is a tad bit more difficult than say, an Arduino. If a good resource is found, please share it in the comments!

[Thank you Andrew Kretschmer for sending in the chiptune mp3s]

Blip Festival: Reformat The Planet

August 18, 2008 by Eliot 7 Comments

Pitchfork.tv is showing the documentary Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet for one week only. The Blip Festival is an annual chiptune event in New York City featuring musicians who use video game consoles as part of their production. The documentary has a ton of artist interviews and music from all across the spectrum. Most of the initial featured artists are using the Game Boy LSDJ tracker cartridge. [Nullsleep] has put together a tutorial for the device. You’ll see a lot of other old hardware and hear discussions of coveted mods like adding backlights as well. [Mark Denardo] is shown using a PSP as part of his performance. Other people are using software like Fruity Loops to build tracks with Nintendo samples. Honestly, our favorite part was a clip of the loud objects doing a live soldering circuit bending performance on top of an overhead projector at the Bent Festival. Although not musical, Element Labs’ Versa TILE makes a fairly mesmerizing backdrop throughout the film too. You can find links to all the featured artists on last year’s festival page.

Blip Festival 2008 happens December 4-6 in Brooklyn, NY.

[via Waxy]

[photo: ziggy fresh]

Game Boy Foot Controller Demo

June 15, 2008 by Eliot 2 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQdqudTzyBs&hl=en&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999]
This is a video of [Joey Mariano] from animal style demoing his Game Boy pedal board. He added a D15 port to the back of the Game Boy, which is wired to each of the 8 buttons. The port is connected to a breakout box for 8 piano sustain pedals. The box also provides power to the Game Boy. The Game Boy is running the Nanoloop step sequencer. If you’re wondering about the guitar sound, he’s probably using an 8-Bit Fuzz pedal.

[via GetLoFi]