nexxyz – Gameboy chiptunes and general weirdness

1. Growing Obsession
We notice something is wrong
We become more and more obsessed

2. The Chase
We flee
We’re being chased
We hide and despair

3. Resolution
We finally decide to act
We fight
We’re free

Initially written for a planned video clip and with its story in mind.

Electronic: atmospheric, breakbeat, dub step.

Purely using Renoise for Arrangement, with sounds from my mostly free sample collection, Tyrell N6 and Triangle (I and II) VST instruments, as well as Spicy Guitar.

The precursor to this was A Fresh Start.

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Everything’s fine…
…until we realize that it isn’t.
We decide to do something…
…until it is.

Originally written for a video with its story in mind.

A bit of a precursor to Confronting Our Sins which is the “official” and definitve interpretation of that video concept.

It is much more reminiscent of my late 90’s/early 00’s work in its selection of samples, atmosphere and general approach.

It is a totally different track with a bit of another approach to deal with the same subject.

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Watching a video posted on Kotaku, I thought that the chiptune version of the Game of Thrones Theme (originally composed by Ramin Djawadi) that was playing in the background was pretty cool. So I decided to build my own one…and expand on it a little. This is the result of a night of little sleep and an early morning’s work – so updates/fixes/improvements might follow.

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A first second third draft render of a little song that I actually built in a few hours to try out basic song structure (ABABCB).

Only pseudo-realistic sounding classical instruments (see below), I was going for a symphonic sound. To my ears, it sounds as if it belongs in a movie or a game.

Purely using Renoise for Arrangement (no effects, no nothing yet), using the free Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra with the free sfz for playing the SoundFonts.

I might polish this, maybe even make some cool remixes of it – but there it is for now.

Edit: Now with oboe, less mechanic piano and a few other tweaks.

Edit 2: Changed the internal structure to use Renoise track groups, and made a few improvements on the way.

Also added a bit of reverb using the free SIR1 and a “Vienna Hall” teamplate from Samplicity’s free Bricasti M7 Impulse Response Collection.

Normalizing and light compression (and encoding, of course) using the free Audacity.

Edit 3: Small fix. String chords were missing at the beginning, for some reason.

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Again, a little experimentation with Renoise.

This time influenced by a bit of Dubstep, it is another of those tracks that might or might not get a little bit of polishing 😉 I did not know what to do with the hook, so I just decided to spell n.e.x.x.y.z. using a free Necromare VSTi.

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A little tune I wrote for a wonderful wedding.

All the best, with apologies to Mr. Mendelssohn Bartholdy!

Since I currently have quite a nasty cold I was a bit bored. But then I thought “Hey, you bought Renoise a while ago, so you might as well have a go.” Yeah. I talk to myself a lot when I’m bored. Don’t ask.

I only worked on this track a bit more than 6 hours in all, so don’t expect too much, its a bit bland – but it is dreamy and relaxing and a bit weird…I might fine-tune it a bit in the future, but don’t count on it – once I upload things I tend to never touch them again. 😉 I’m not sure whether the snare is charming, annoying or too old-skool, but I think it kind of fits.

Since my equipment is packed and ready to go to our new home as soon as we get the key (end of January), this was done entirely using free samples, free VST’s and Renoise.

Renoise is pretty impressive – the first things I tried out were, of course, the omnipresent bass-ducking and compression in combination with weird add-ins like Drum Processor, which led to all kind of ugly, filthy noise experiments. The tool seems quite flexible and, being a long-time Fast Tracker II, Buzz and LSDJ user, made me feel right at home. The only thing I’m missing right now is a decent “real” polyphonic & melodic step sequencer that is Monome-compatible and single-track-Patterns (for sequencing and muting patterns like you do in Buzz). Another nice-to-have would be a per-Track spectrum scope.

A weird, little, very retro tune. Single gray old Nintendo Gameboy Classic, as always. This tune was played first live at the Pratersauna. Naive retro melody, retro beats, retro bass, retro equipment.

It’s been a while, but for completeness’ sake 😉

It was a very fun gig in a remarkable and varied location – I especially enjoyed the black/white Flash Gordon movies in the background of the pool!

Played a new tune, called “Retro to the Fourth” which I will upload shortly.

…hope this works.

Edit: No it didn’t. But thanks to the support at one.com it does work now – although they’re the ones who broke it in the first place. What do they think – upgrading php just like that 😉