Composing Small, for release on 3 1/4 floppy

I put all of my music in a time capsule. On a laserdick. And gave it to a homeless person under Waterloo bridge. Because it was fun. WATMM, you've lost your sense of fun. Come on guys, putting music that no one wants to listen to on a format that no one can listen to is fun. FUN. FUN you pricks. FUN. I'M HAVING FUN. I'M GOING TO FUN YOUR WIFE.

Also, noticed that people do this already, but it's more 'singles' of songs than anything esle.

http://www.floppeerecordings.blogspot.com/

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

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

You mean like chiptunes? There were compilations back in the amiga days where the aim was to make the smallest 4ch .mod files possible. I think 8kb is the smallest i've seen. Fucking ridiculous.

As for the floppy disk release, it is something that i've thought about, but i realised that i can't even remember the last time i saw a floppy disk drive.

Making music as small as possible is a great idea, but putting it on a floppy disk is the equivalent of starting a BBS that people will have to connect to with a dialup modem in order to access your music. Most people just don't have that old technology lying around anymore. Comparing a release like this to IDM producers using 80s synths isn't really a valid argument either, sorry.

  On 7/15/2012 at 12:04 AM, modey said:

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

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

You mean like chiptunes? There were compilations back in the amiga days where the aim was to make the smallest 4ch .mod files possible. I think 8kb is the smallest i've seen. Fucking ridiculous.

 

As for the floppy disk release, it is something that i've thought about, but i realised that i can't even remember the last time i saw a floppy disk drive.

Making music as small as possible is a great idea, but putting it on a floppy disk is the equivalent of starting a BBS that people will have to connect to with a dialup modem in order to access your music. Most people just don't have that old technology lying around anymore. Comparing a release like this to IDM producers using 80s synths isn't really a valid argument either, sorry.

You don't have to aplologize, I was making fun of noise:

  Quote

what's next' date=' betamax gatefold 80s faux leopard skin romance novel trax [/quote']

 

As if we weren't all here because we like old stuff.

 

Also, making small music doesn't mean anything if the container you're using is huge. Really, the internet is huge, I could release a 20gb album if I wanted to and just shove it into the cloud. Unless the container itself is small, it's even more pointless than using a dead format to ditribute on. Expecting someone who is handed a mystery floppy disk with their order of weird electronic experimental music to be curious enough to try and find out what's on it makes more sense than spitting up a zip file onto the internet and hoping people will care.

 

Yeah, the thing is, people seem to be thinking I'm saying I'm going to get rich doing this, or that everyone will love it, or everyone's gonna hear it, or it's the next big thing, or whatnot. Well, it's not. I know this, I sure as fuck still wanna do it (even if its a side project), and think it's a lot more interesting than releasing mp3s for download on the internet, talk about a flooded market of bedroom producers who copypaste a lot of junk with fruity loops.

  On 7/15/2012 at 1:54 AM, JJSee said:

it's a lot more interesting than releasing mp3s for download on the internet, talk about a flooded market of bedroom producers who copypaste a lot of junk with fruity loops.

this

  On 7/15/2012 at 12:04 AM, modey said:

You mean like chiptunes? There were compilations back in the amiga days where the aim was to make the smallest 4ch .mod files possible. I think 8kb is the smallest i've seen. Fucking ridiculous.

I knew I'd find another excuse to post this again. The below video is captured from a 4k demo, so that's 4079 bytes for both the sound and visuals. Now that's efficient coding !

[vimeo]15982655[/vimeo]

Watch in HD and full screen for the best effect. Or if your computer is good enough (mine almost is, though the audio and video gets a bit jittery at times) download and run the 4kb .exe here - http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=55758

I haven't seen a computer with a floppy disk compartment in years.

Why are you trying to be so cute? why make it harder for people to listen to your music?

Make like a hundred custom USBs if you have to release music in a physical format.

  On 7/14/2012 at 10:24 PM, kakapo said:

I put all of my music in a time capsule. On a laserdick. And gave it to a homeless person under Waterloo bridge. Because it was fun. WATMM, you've lost your sense of fun. Come on guys, putting music that no one wants to listen to on a format that no one can listen to is fun. FUN. FUN you pricks. FUN. I'M HAVING FUN. I'M GOING TO FUN YOUR WIFE.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

It wasn't a laserdisk. It was a pair of lilac chinos.

 

FUN SUCKS

  On 7/15/2012 at 3:29 AM, mcbpete said:

  On 7/15/2012 at 12:04 AM, modey said:

You mean like chiptunes? There were compilations back in the amiga days where the aim was to make the smallest 4ch .mod files possible. I think 8kb is the smallest i've seen. Fucking ridiculous.

I knew I'd find another excuse to post this again. The below video is captured from a 4k demo, so that's 4079 bytes for both the sound and visuals. Now that's efficient coding !

 

[vimeo]15982655[/vimeo]

 

Watch in HD and full screen for the best effect. Or if your computer is good enough (mine almost is, though the audio and video gets a bit jittery at times) download and run the 4kb .exe here - http://www.pouet.net...php?which=55758

If I wasn't able to see the file I would totally not believe you.... This is absolutely stunning. I can't believe this. My .mid files are like 30 times bigger than this!

  On 7/15/2012 at 3:48 AM, YO303 said:

I haven't seen a computer with a floppy disk compartment in years.

 

Why are you trying to be so cute? why make it harder for people to listen to your music?

 

Make like a hundred custom USBs if you have to release music in a physical format.

Because I can. I don't see how I have to justify this to people. It's obviously not something I'm putting a ton of effort into (in fact I've spent more time arguing with people here about floppy disks than actually making one) so I don't see why this is confusing.

Okay everyone!

Reasons to do it:

• Because I can
  
• Because it's fun
  
• Because it takes a tiny bit of effort
  
• Because it's interesting
  
• Because it's challenging
  
• Because I need a distraction currently
  
• Because it's cheap
  
• Because it's physical
  
• Because making music on a computer is new to me
  

Reasons not to that I don't care about:

• "No one has floppy drives anymore" - Don't buy it then. Or buy a usb floppy drive. They're pocket change.
  
• "You're a tool" - Don't buy it then. You won't like it anyway, and I'm not asking you to.
  
• "There are flash drives" - Don't care. They're more expensive, less charming or "cute". And that doesn't interest me.
  
• "Dude, there's the internet... I mean, you know you're on it right now, right?" Yeah, another don't care, as I'm sure nobody else will if I release a 1.4mb zip file somewhere in the aether.
  
• "Noone will buy it" - Don't care either, I wasn't going to sell it to anyone.
  

Now that that's all covered...

holy fucking smokes, that Cdak track/video is indeed mind-blowing! downloading the file and running it is the way to go.

  On 7/14/2012 at 9:53 PM, JJSee said:

  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.

I think he's sort of addressing the whole hipster de joure 80s revival 1.0.trix VHShead old format fetishism that's going on rather than the mere sampling of old media. It -is- a bit prominent at the moment which is unfortunate if you're trying to do something with it because it looks like you're jumping on a bandwagon

which you might be

anyway, shit man, yeah, trackers are what you need here. go look up ModTracker, dump some squarewaves and white noise into that

EDIT: FUCK THERE WAS A SECOND PAGE

Jjsee, please stop making fun of noise. Why would you do that? Noise is great.

  On 7/15/2012 at 5:30 AM, solarion said:

I think he's sort of addressing the whole hipster de joure 80s revival 1.0.trix VHShead old format fetishism that's going on rather than the mere sampling of old media. It -is- a bit prominent at the moment which is unfortunate if you're trying to do something with it because it looks like you're jumping on a bandwagon

 

which you might be

 

anyway, shit man, yeah, trackers are what you need here. go look up ModTracker, dump some squarewaves and white noise into that

Basically, if nostalgia is something hipsters invented, and by being nostalgic, or using old technologies to create things, then by that definition Aphex is nostalgic, and so is everyone who made electronic music with analog synths in the 90s after digital synths became popular in the 80s. Honestly, they wanted the "analog feel", and back then analog stuff was cheaper, which sounds a lot like the reason I'm doing anything with floppies. Moreover, braindance is pretty much done for, and by that ticket everyone here is a hipster. Comeon, there's a thread entirely devoted to creating Acid tracks in less than 30 minutes. Acid is 80s, just like VCRs, just like floppy drives, just like a C64 or an NES.

I think you guys who are getting hung up on this format are picking and choosing what is acceptable nostalgia and what's not. If being a hipster is playing with old tech, everyone we adore collectively on this forum is a hipster, and so are you for liking their older shit, or having an old ass drum machine. I mean, comeon. How many people have 808 samples loaded onto their computer? Where do Andy Jenkinson's sweaters come into this?

Thanks for ModTracker, but I can't seem to find it... I think I've settled on .mid files, there seem to be more tools available because it has some sort of purpose these days (sequencing and whatnot). I also dig the idea of someone being curious and loading the songs into their hardware. Might be fun and interesting.

  On 7/14/2012 at 10:19 AM, JJSee said:

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

So how does this work? I loaded the .mid in Renoise and see 50 'empty' instruments, you have to assign vsti or hardware yourself to each track. This is rather tedious and a lot of work for the user, no? Or how does this work in other daws, maybe it is easy? Just assign a gm midi kit globally across all midi instruments?

I see you are not using all instruments in the actual song, so rather then filling up all instruments with sound, I should look into each track which are actually being used and only fill those. I think I'll pass .

Put up the music, how it could sound, on bandcamp and distribute the disc through its merchandise option. Good luck with your project.

  On 7/15/2012 at 3:03 AM, auxien said:

  On 7/15/2012 at 1:54 AM, JJSee said:

it's a lot more interesting than releasing mp3s for download on the internet, talk about a flooded market of bedroom producers who copypaste a lot of junk with fruity loops.

 

this

so if the very same people put it on a fucking floppy disc, that would be better? what a load of shit.

  On 7/15/2012 at 6:08 AM, JJSee said:

then by that definition Aphex is nostalgic, and so is everyone who made electronic music with analog synths in the 90s after digital synths became popular in the 80s. Honestly, they wanted the "analog feel", and back then analog stuff was cheaper, which sounds a lot like the reason I'm doing anything with floppies.

I think they used the synths they used either because they were simply better (which you really can't say about floppy disks) or because they were the only/cheapest things at their disposal (which doesn't hold for floppy disks either).

  On 7/15/2012 at 2:38 PM, Bewarethefriendlyfoil said:

  On 7/15/2012 at 3:03 AM, auxien said:

  On 7/15/2012 at 1:54 AM, JJSee said:

it's a lot more interesting than releasing mp3s for download on the internet, talk about a flooded market of bedroom producers who copypaste a lot of junk with fruity loops.

 

this

so if the very same people put it on a fucking floppy disc, that would be better? what a load of shit.

methinks you're putting words into mouths; no one said it would be better... 'more interesting' does not equal better. it seems your comprehension skills are a load of shit.

Then I misunderstood his post. Still, what he said was retarded and the idea of releasing music on floppy disc is a load of shit. bye.

  On 7/15/2012 at 1:35 PM, Djeroek said:

  On 7/14/2012 at 10:19 AM, JJSee said:

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

 

So how does this work? I loaded the .mid in Renoise....

That is not how it works.

But you're "passing", so who cares how it does, right?

As far as the fact that there are empty instruments, again, if it was being used correctly (I guess I didn't finish the readme) it would make more sense. Also, it's a work in progress.

  On 7/15/2012 at 4:04 PM, th555 said:

  On 7/15/2012 at 6:08 AM, JJSee said:

then by that definition Aphex is nostalgic, and so is everyone who made electronic music with analog synths in the 90s after digital synths became popular in the 80s. Honestly, they wanted the "analog feel", and back then analog stuff was cheaper, which sounds a lot like the reason I'm doing anything with floppies.

I think they used the synths they used either because they were simply better (which you really can't say about floppy disks) or because they were the only/cheapest things at their disposal (which doesn't hold for floppy disks either).

Read the post carefully, I was addressing the idea that I was a hipster for releasing music on outdated technology, not that shomehow an analog synth is the same thing as a floppy disc.

  On 7/15/2012 at 6:18 PM, Bewarethefriendlyfoil said:

Then I misunderstood his post. Still, what he said was retarded and the idea of releasing music on floppy disc is a load of shit. bye.

See the bullet list, as this falls into the "I don't care" bullet near the bottom. I should add another bullet, for clarity, I suppose:

• "Format? AAAAAAAAAGH! You're a Shit somehow!" - Get over it, I'm not making it for you.
  

Also, the whole getting mad because someone can be more creative than pirating sample arrangers and ripping off The Tuss and then throwing it up on the internet as if I should care for a slight second thing is kind of hilarious. You're in a seething throng of people not to care about, I will never stumble upon your music. I wouldn't even know how to search for it if I wanted to find it, "Yeah, dude, google search 'lazy producers soundcloud' and I'm on the 3,054th page. I know, it's a big deal." People are telling me this is better than a diy project intended for a few people, wherein the task is half the fun, and I challenge that criticism, because it just honestly doesn't make any sense.

"Bye", dude. I disrespect you, completely.

The amount of anger in this thread is kind of funny. I think it's a fun idea, who cares if no one listens to it? Almost no one listens to easily downloaded mp3s from unknown bedroom producers either. Seems like a chance to make an interesting statement rather than squirting more inert wank into an ocean of it.

Although I wouldn't do MIDI files. That just doesn't seem very interesting. I was going to mention tracker/mod files since those are fun and challenging to make. But that's all been done.

I was also going to mention cdak as well. I read something on pouet about its apparent use of a sound engine created for making music for 4k demos. That might be a more interesting way to do this. Or some supercollider scripts, etc.

Basically I don't have a problem with floppies and it seems like a fun challenge, but I think you can do better than MIDI files. If someone goes to the effort of getting at what's on that floppy, it would be better to reward them with something really cool. Otherwise you're just cynically sneering at them for wasting their time and effort on pointless shit. Most noise releases do already - Just look at some of the stuff on 20kbps. zzzzz...

Yes! Something constructive!

I agree that .mid files are pretty lackluster, although somehow I got that one I uploaded to make 'non-.mid' sounding sounds, if that makes sense. Generally, .mid music is really boring, usually in the form of a cover of some Spice Girls (or Haddaway, which was the only way I could import more instruments into the project). The track is reminiscent of some glitch artists, super highs and super lows are where .mid decoding shines for strange stuff. The problem is that everything in the middle sounds like it came out of a toy synth from 92. Which is not as appealing as actually using a toy synth from 92...

I would love to do the cDak thing, but unless there's a simple way to do this other than figuring out how to program a sound engine (maybe if they released a source I could noodle around) then I'd rather go the easy route. If that changes to be something other than .mid files, I'd love to know how... of course with the caviat that it's easy and intuitive.

  On 7/15/2012 at 6:44 PM, JJSee said:

  On 7/15/2012 at 4:04 PM, th555 said:

  On 7/15/2012 at 6:08 AM, JJSee said:

then by that definition Aphex is nostalgic, and so is everyone who made electronic music with analog synths in the 90s after digital synths became popular in the 80s. Honestly, they wanted the "analog feel", and back then analog stuff was cheaper, which sounds a lot like the reason I'm doing anything with floppies.

I think they used the synths they used either because they were simply better (which you really can't say about floppy disks) or because they were the only/cheapest things at their disposal (which doesn't hold for floppy disks either).

 

Read the post carefully, I was addressing the idea that I was a hipster for releasing music on outdated technology, not that shomehow an analog synth is the same thing as a floppy disc.

Well you were addressing that incorrectly. Afx was being "nostalgic" for reasons of aural superiority (and maybe money :P), and you're being nostalgic for reasons I still don't understand. I'm sure though that it's not because floppy's are better or cheaper or more practical.

And you were comparing analog synths with floppy disks, by saying that they're both equally non-hipster, but I think there are quite a few good reasons to use analog synths.

I also think you're the one who should read carefully, especially your own posts. The sentence I quoted isn't even a proper sentence.

Anyway, if it still seems like a good idea to you, go ahead and have some fun with it. If there's good music on that floppy I'd like to hear it. If you enable me to haha.

  On 7/15/2012 at 6:44 PM, JJSee said:

  On 7/15/2012 at 6:18 PM, Bewarethefriendlyfoil said:

Then I misunderstood his post. Still, what he said was retarded and the idea of releasing music on floppy disc is a load of shit. bye.

 

See the bullet list, as this falls into the "I don't care" bullet near the bottom. I should add another bullet, for clarity, I suppose:

• "Format? AAAAAAAAAGH! You're a Shit somehow!" - Get over it, I'm not making it for you.
  

<butthurt rant>

 

"Bye", dude. I disrespect you, completely.

I disrespect you and your silly ideas very much too. throwing a hissy fit because people doesn't appreciate the genius of your amazing idea, like you did on the first page, is pathetic.

bye again.

  On 7/15/2012 at 6:59 PM, sweepstakes said:

Although I wouldn't do MIDI files. That just doesn't seem very interesting. I was going to mention tracker/mod files since those are fun and challenging to make. But that's all been done.

 

I was also going to mention cdak as well. I read something on pouet about its apparent use of a sound engine created for making music for 4k demos. That might be a more interesting way to do this. Or some supercollider scripts, etc.

Basically this, it actually seems like a really fun little idea to do something like along these lines.