Micro music: Jam Without the Band

by Eric Caoili { Mar 19th 2008 at 10:30PM }

Lacking the friends needed to put together an Electroplankton/iPhone band? Too impatient for Korg's DS-10 release this summer? Don't let those trivial obstacles discourage you! You don't need a too-live crew to compose a rumpshaker, nor do you need expensive software applications. In fact, having a Nintendo DS isn't imperative either. As many chiptune musicians can attest, you don't need the latest handheld technology to lay down a boss track.

Take this artist in the video above, for example -- he's using Nanoloop, a homebrew synthesizer/sequencer available for both Game Boy and Game Boy Advance systems. You can download the program on the developer's official site for free! Of course, there are a few additional items required for the complete setup:

A mess of cables - $50+
Korg Kaossilator Dynamic Phrase Synthesizer - $200
Korg KP3 Kaoss Pad Dynamic Effect/Sampler - $400

Expensive? Sure, but listen to that music! These are the lush songs your android grandchildren will make babies to after watching the sun set on an alien world.

[Via Nicovideo]

Tags: game-boy-micro, kaossilator, kaosspad, keyboard, korg, music, nanoloop, synthesizer

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

gunhaver @ Mar 20th 2008 1:27AM

where do you download the program for free?? I went to the site and it only sells gameboy cartridges which are sold out now by the way. Also very expensive (65 Euros = 102 dollars).

James @ Mar 20th 2008 3:08PM

I'm not going to post a specific link, but look around on torrent web sites and you'll find it (after some digging).

brownkidd @ Mar 20th 2008 3:23PM

Jeeze, with all that equipment you'd think they woulda made something a bit more intense, but then again I've never used nanoloop so I don't know how limited it is. Probably the best program for chiptunes is LSDJ which can do some crazy stuff in the right hands (not mine). For some awesome chiptunage you should go to 8bitpeoples.com and download the entire album by She. All the chiptunes are free to download. If you're looking into getting into chiptunes, check out 8bitcollective.org. It's a great community where you can upload your songs for critique and ask for help in the message boards.

GregG @ Mar 20th 2008 5:34PM

Speaking of chiptunes, a pretty cool documentary just played at SXSW called Blip Festival: Reformat The Planet, about the first Blip Festival in New York. Some of the musicians in the doc came out and played live at the screening and answered questions during the Q&A. It was pretty sweet. Watch for it.