Chip Tunes

45 Min of chiptunes (Krelez, 2013)

This genre of music came about soon after the advent of synthezizers and better electronics in the late 70's where the first game to incorporate digitized music that continuously looped was Space Invaders.

Chip tunes utilize a range of sounds created through synthesizers. The basic tone of a syntheziser consist of a four major type of sound waves a pure tone Sine, Square, Triangle and Saw waves. For this blog we will be focusing on the use of technologies that came about after the 1970's and this involved the development of FM synthesis , Subtractive synthesis,to create tones that mimic acoustic instruments or their equivalent such as snares, hi hats, toms, flutes etc.

History

The beginning of the Chip Tunes can be traced all the way back to when pinball machines were developed.

"Pinball and other electromechanical arcade games included sound in the machines very early on. At first, this was bells and buzzers; later, mechanical ball-bearing chimes created simple musical tones, such as those in 1976’s Bally Freedom. 4 It was not until the late 1970s that pinball machines used electronic sound components. Some electromechanical arcade games (pinball, gambling race games, shooting games, etc.) had four-track and later eight-track tape player units incorporated into them to play music and sound effects. One archivist describes the tapes:"

(Wolf, 2012)

This is the show that the start of chip tunes draws its history to video game development and more directly when music and sounds were to be incorporated into pinball machines to attract players and give audible feedback. Later the real hey day of chiptunes came during the 80's when FM synthesizers became widely available game music composers created themes and in game music which will later embed themselves into the minds and hearts of Chiptune fans in the future.

Ninja Gaiden Shadow (Gameboy Version) (TECMO, 2015)

Chip Tunes in modern culture

Chip tunes now moving beyond the 8-bit tunes where composers are now looking at the audience who are now in their late 30's to early 40's who reminisce their childhood games. A demand for new renditions of the old chip tunes in better quality orchestration and fidelity has become an open market and opportunity for new and upcoming artists to instantly gain a following.

"When Nintendo looked to bring the music of The Legend of Zelda to the orchestral floor to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2011, Noone was first on the list. Bringing the fondly remembered NES chiptunes to life inspired Noone to create Dublin’s IDIG Video Game Music Festival with husband, Craig Stuart Garfinkle. She then created a Celtic fusion with the Zelda series soundtracks in the soon-to-be-released ‘Songs of Zelda: The Celtic Link’, recorded with DIT’s own Irish Traditional Music Ensemble."

("Video game music - a brief history with some shameless nostalgia", 2019)

Here is an example of Guiles theme from Street Fighter 2

Guiles Theme for band arrangement (Athayde, 2016)

There is a large untapped audience of game enthusiasts who reminisce about their childhood games, enough so that even Red Bull Musical Festival Stream recently hosted a concert for Yuzo Koshiro who composed for titles such as Streets of Rage and the Midnight Wangan series of arcade games.

Streets Of Rage Live 2018 (Yuzo Koshiro & Motohiro Kawashima) - Red Bull Music Festival Stream

(Koshiro, 2018)

Chip tunes will still be a great source of inspiration for new and old artists alike and will continue to be help inspire a new generation of music composers and musicians.

---

References:

Krelez. (2013). 45 Minute Chiptune Compilation Mix 1 [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsBrmSNBH5g

TECMO. (2015). Ninja Gaiden Shadow (GB Music - 1991) [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeUizMFeYZg

Wolf, M. (2012). Before the crash. Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press.

Video game music - a brief history with some shameless nostalgia. (2019). Retrieved 20 August 2019, from https://www.independent.ie/au/entertainment/players/video-game-music-a-brief-history-with-some-shameless-nostalgia-36252190.html

Athayde, K. (2016). Street Fighter 2 - Guile's Theme [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.independent.ie/au/entertainment/players/video-game-music-a-brief-history-with-some-shameless-nostalgia-36252190.html