ringtones vs. chip music

Posted 2003-06-08 03:07:18 by Jim Crawford Whenever I hear a cell phone playing a barely recognizable, off-rhythm cover of the “Inspector Gadget” theme song, I can't help but think that a demoscener could've done the job so much better. Sceners always do a better job than regular people within imposed limits. Sceners did a better job with early PC music, they did a better job with previous-generation console game music, and they're doing a better job with GBA music as we speak. The reason is that they (maybe I should say we, because in this sense I'm still a scener) actually write the music with the playback device in mind, specifying whatever details and using whatever production tricks are available, rather than expecting a performer to bring the notes to life later on. If that level of apathy had cast its pall over the Commodore 64 game development arena, I would probably not be making music today. Conflating composition and production is arguably not a good thing from an artistic standpoint, but when you're working within strict polyphony and timbrality limitations, it's the best way I know to make the end result sound good. What pisses me off most about all this, though, is that pretty soon I expect cell phones will universally be able to play MP3 files or what have you, and the next-gen portable console will probably have something similar. And then I'll have a hell of a time finding a pretext to complain about this sort of thing. [link to this] [See more on “music”]

comments

MP3 ringtones

Posted by Anonymous (Craig Timpany) on 2003-06-17 03:52:12 Oh come on. Arbitrary ringing noises wouldn't be so bad. Think of the anti-social possibilities... Doorbell samples. Other people's names. ("Mike? MIKE? MIIIKE?")

re: MP3 ringtones

Posted by Jim Crawford on 2003-06-20 09:37:44   "Mike? MIKE? MIIIKE?" You're absolutely right, arbitrary ringtones do provide a lot of potential fun. Hell, if it comes down to that, I could even record SID music, or the music of any other chip I desire, as MP3. I'm just sayin', is all.

RE: MP3 ringtones

Posted by Anonymous (sugigrl) on 2003-12-09 17:22:46 that is hilarious, I don't know how I missed this this summer *giggle*

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