Composing Small, for release on 3 1/4 floppy

My friend had an idea that he wanted to do a split 'album' on 3 1/4 floppy disc. I thought the idea was good, working with a limitation and trying to be creative with space concerns is fun.

My "side" is probably going to be .mid files. The trouble I'm finding is that there's either a lack of good .mid editors/creators, or the good ones are bundled in with expensive software that I won't use otherwise (even pirating such things seems like more work than it's worth).

The program I've settled on is basically a piano roll, but with no snap-to and very limited functionality in general. I can't tie notes together longer than two bars, and I have to manually set each repetition of drums myself by clicking and dragging. General MIDI instruments are also really tough to insert into the program, by default it only has one. I had to import a MIDI version of Haddaway's "What is Love" to get any sort of workable 'synth' sounds. Needless to say, it takes a long time to make any track that sounds decent.

So is there another editor that comes to mind?

Another idea was to write Sega Genesis or Turbografx 16 music (love both those chips) and release the output files, but I haven't found an intuitive editor for videogame music. If there's one of those floating about, It'd be nice to have that, too.

Cheers

PS Decided to share my noodling, sorry I had to zip an 8kb file... Song's a bit annoying, so good luck

JJSee - Unfinished MID1.zipUnavailable

Why not use a tracker?

Not sure what that is.

3 1/4 inch disk - what crazy hybrid format is that !

  On 7/14/2012 at 1:44 PM, mcbpete said:

3 1/4 inch disk - what crazy hybrid format is that !

  On 7/14/2012 at 1:28 PM, azatoth said:

http://en.wikipedia....music_software)

Thanks, found Delek, which seems to be the answer to the .vgm need. It's cross platform too, which makes it easier.

  On 7/14/2012 at 1:59 PM, JJSee said:

  On 7/14/2012 at 1:44 PM, mcbpete said:

3 1/4 inch disk - what crazy hybrid format is that !

 

That looks distinctly like a 3½'' disk to me

Yeah tracking would probably be the best route to go to doing your intended release.

stupid idea. don't fucking bother.

or if you absolutely have to do this thing coz like floppy disks are so retro and cool and you can get yellow ones, just slap a sticker on the floppy and call it a day - no need to put any music on the thing as nobody will be able to fucking listen to it anyway.

stupid fucking hipsters.

last post.

why not just put them out on cd or digital?

Here's a better idea

  On 7/14/2012 at 2:14 PM, BCM said:

stupid idea. don't fucking bother.

 

or if you absolutely have to do this thing coz like floppy disks are so retro and cool and you can get yellow ones, just slap a sticker on the floppy and call it a day - no need to put any music on the thing as nobody will be able to fucking listen to it anyway.

 

stupid fucking hipsters.

 

last post.

Fuck this forum, I'm out. You guys are major shitheads, I don't get it. Anonymity so you can be really fucking dickish, but it just makes you wallow in your own shitty community. Sorry I didn't join pre-2009 or some shit.

How do you survive as a community? Not my problem.

lol

I released my 2011 album on floppy

kinda

i couldn't actually get the music on there because i couldn't find a working drive but that's what the album art is painted on

Actually though this makes me wonder if there'd be interesting paths to find in making music with as small a file size as possible. What sort of noises would have to be utilized etc

  On 7/14/2012 at 2:55 PM, Cryptowen said:

I released my 2011 album on floppy

kinda

i couldn't actually get the music on there

fucking gangsta. bitches & money & floppys. fuck.

"All hell breaks loose on WATMM forums: FORMAT WARS!"

Floppies? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

what would the point of putting music on a floppy disc in 2012 be? i just cant see it man

Yeah, I haven't had a working floppy drive for probably at least 5 years. There might be one down in my basment in an old Pentium 2 machine that has no RAM in it....

Do what you want, but I wouldn't expect anyone to actually hear the music.

Time for an analog floppy disc format.

hahahahahahahahahah

FLOPPY DISK RELEASE

it was only a matter of time

what's next, betamax gatefold 80s faux leopard skin romance novel trax

+ you don't even know what a tracker is, fucking el oh el

  On 7/14/2012 at 5:35 PM, sergeantk said:

what would the point of putting music on a floppy disc in 2012 be? i just cant see it man

im guessing the point is that it's a fun project

jjsee: do it duder, i've got some old noise floppies (lol) by slicing grandpa and some other seattle groups, it's weird, and they usually packaged the disks with other stuff. i suggest you learn how to code a small game, fit it on your disk, and only allow the listener to hear the full .mid song if they beat a level. REALLY make them work for the music. if no one ever hears it as long as it exists, that's cool too. you could even make a series.

  On 7/14/2012 at 5:35 PM, sergeantk said:

what would the point of putting music on a floppy disc in 2012 be? i just cant see it man

Space constraints are fun to work around, making weird noises and actual music from .mid files is fun and challenging, inciting curiosity in the people who will recieve them, it's cheap to do and it's a physical medium.

  On 7/14/2012 at 6:08 PM, hautlle said:

Yeah, I haven't had a working floppy drive for probably at least 5 years. There might be one down in my basment in an old Pentium 2 machine that has no RAM in it....

 

Do what you want, but I wouldn't expect anyone to actually hear the music.

Why do people release music on tapes?

Tape players fucking suck and tapes suck. Yet somehow that's acceptable.

  On 7/14/2012 at 6:16 PM, noise said:

hahahahahahahahahah

FLOPPY DISK RELEASE

it was only a matter of time

what's next, betamax gatefold 80s faux leopard skin romance novel trax

 

+ you don't even know what a tracker is, fucking el oh el

Says the guy on the forum that was created in order to idolize music made in the 80s and 90s on synthesizers made in the 80s or 70s... Yest till somehow tries to make me feel bad for not giving a shit until now about "lazy producing"... Oh, whoops, I meant "laptop producing".

Get real, WATMM is "We are the music Makers", a sample used by Aphex Twin on SAW1, which might be his first tracks (made in the 80s, possibly) sampling a move that came out 41 years ago. Piss on him, if you want, we all like old things.

  On 7/14/2012 at 6:17 PM, luke viia said:

im guessing the point is that it's a fun project

 

jjsee: do it duder, i've got some old noise floppies (lol) by slicing grandpa and some other seattle groups, it's weird, and they usually packaged the disks with other stuff. i suggest you learn how to code a small game, fit it on your disk, and only allow the listener to hear the full .mid song if they beat a level. REALLY make them work for the music. if no one ever hears it as long as it exists, that's cool too. you could even make a series.

The idea was that my friend would throw them in with the tape orders on his label. Some people won't listen, for sure, but others will be curious enough to listen. It's just a fun project, which apparently people are pissed about.

I like the idea of a game, but to be honest I'd much rather spend that effort making real music. The less time I spend next to a computer while creating something the better... I have 3 tracks for this mini-EP already and it's driving me crazy having to click and drag.