Chiptune is a melodic genre of
music founded in the
mid 1980's to early 1990's. It created using limited sound cards, usually from retro gaming machines such as the NES, Atari ST, and the original Game
boys. This creates the sort of sountracks found in games from these platforms. It generally uses basic waveforms such as
square, sine, sawtooth, pulse and triange waves. Drums are usualyy reoplicated from white noise running through an ADSR envelope.
Recently there has been an uprising in the popularity of chiptune. Modern artist usually use various emulators to recreate the sound of chiptune, but many people agree that hardware will always create a
better sound.
Live performers of the genre such as Sabrepulse, Bit Shifter and Saskrotch, often use gaming machines on stage. Game
Boys running synthesis and sequencing programs such as lsdj and nanoloop are very
popular.
The Rising popularity of chiptune has brought upon the well know
bit festival, a music festival showcasing the genres best in live performances. The popularity of
Bit Festival and chiptune in general has brought upon several sub genres such as chipbreak and chipcore mixing the sounds of chiptune with other genres. Almost any electronic genre can be composed as chiptune, and this has attracted the interest of
music critics and fans on a global scale.
