free music

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Nathan Meunier

Just a quick note. A few demo recordings of a new instrumental indie-rock-esque chiptune project I’ve been working on are now up on 8bc under the Foecrusher stuff. Though this is a separate project that will eventually be available in an album form, I wanted to get the first few tracks up to get feedback and share the tunes. This first batch of tracks were made with Nanoloop 2.3 running on a Game Boy Micro and added guitars that were all dubbed on an digital 8-track. The second wave of tunes after I’ve done a few more with Nanoloop will use LSDJ as the base chiptunage. There are three songs available, unironically titled Song1 … Song2 … and Song3 respectively. Feel free to stream or download them and leave comments. I’m really happy with the way the audio quality came out. I’ll post more on this here as the project continues to develop.

7 Handheld Games for Making Music on the Go

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Nathan Meunier

“Virtual band games are everywhere nowadays — even on handhelds — but what if you want to make your own music instead? Thanks to the efforts of DIY programmers, people have been creating original music using handheld video game hardware since the glory days of the original Game Boy. As handheld gaming technology progresses, the diversity and accessibility among available music creation programs continues to flourish — and even some larger game publishers are getting involved. We’ve pulled together a handful of the best programs available for busting out everything from retro blips and beats to more polished recordings using your favorite handhelds. Whether you’re a novice or master, here’s a little something for everybody.”

Check out the full story here.

Feature: 8-Bit Empire

Posted on November 20, 2007 by Nathan Meunier

“From the full-on screeching audio assault of his former electronic noise-punk group, Atari Teenage Riot, to the varied arrangements of his solo work, German musician Alec Empire is well versed in the power of utilizing the sounds and aesthetic of videogames in his music. For close to two decades, his music and politics have been hard-edged, unforgiving and nothing short of revolutionary. One of the revolutions he inspired fits in the palm of your hand. Empire was among the earlier artists to adopt what has now become the audio weapon of choice in the digital underground: a Nintendo Game Boy.”