Nova was a ‘commercial’ side-band for the synthesizer-band Peru. This song (Aurora) was a nr.2 hit in Holland in 1983. They don’t get any simpler than this. The melody is just one phrase over 2 chords, repeated twice . The only thing that happens is that it shifts through a few keys.

Why is this music not being made anymore? Agreed writing an annoying melody like this AND record it without shooting yourself halfway the process isn’t that easy. I must say, the tunes I wrote in this style are all in the thrash. Being this shameless is something I can only bow my head in respect for.

One of the band members in Nova was Rob Papen, a now pretty famous sound-designer and writer of popular synth plugins for Mac and PC. The other band he was in -Peru- had a minor hit with ‘Africa‘. That song is a bit more experimental, but equally mind-numbing

What is Christmas without a SuperNES, a Stylophone, a Wurlitzer and an all girls 60s choir? Nothing, I tell you!
Since I’m breaking a few laws with this one I am not telling who are the singers nanana.
Also it is unclear where the sampling stops and where the true schnauzer-sauce is starting. I’m just telling you can leave out the ladies and still a full track is playing for your little bear-dance. (If I’m ever planning to release this legally I would have to, don’t you just love copyright law?)
This track is sort of a new years resolution. The resolution is: A whole lot more like this to come!

Anyhow, wishing you all a Happy Christmas!

(do with this track as you please. Blog about it, remix it, give it away to your worst enemies, or just do a little nerdy dance to it.)

Winter Wonderland – Schnauzer Radio Orchestra vs ??? – 3:05

download 2.8 mb

Completely downloadable for free! A bunch of chiptune lovers and musicians got together to make a Daft Punk tribute album called “Da Chip”.  Being critical over something so free is a bit sour, but let me say that this compilation has it’s ups and downs.  ”Around the World’ really isn’t grooving as hard as it’s original, the song ‘Voyager’ on the other hand is getting somewhere and proves that it can be done on 8bit equipment. The whole album is up for download on the Lemur blog

(thanks Padraig – P-dragon)

And then there was ‘Kind of Bloop’

Andy Baio initiated on Kickstarter.com almost the total opposite . Kickstarter is a site dedicated to raise money for projects. In this case money was needed to pay royalties, for use of the material, downloads, and even pay the chiptune artists. People donating money are called ‘backers’ and would receive a physical CD on the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’ “kind of blue’ album.  The goal was 2000 dollar. Withing the first 2 hours 800 dollars were raised. At the deadline $8.648 was in the can, payed by a total of 411 people. Meaning 411 are pressed.
You can’t ever buy this cd anymore. The only thing what’s left is a website with audioclips kindofbloop.com/ , and a download, but only after paying $5.= on August 20 at 12 ‘o clock PST…. (check the website).

From what I could tell by listening to the clips this really swings HARD! Every piano accompaniment , drumfill , and solo lines are meticulously recreated by 8bit squeare- and triangle waves. Recommended!

Did a quick rendition on my Fender Rhodes of the Dr.Who theme. I always wanted to do something with this, it might end up in a normal big project, who knows. I Fed the Rhodes straight into a Roland re201 Space Echo. No processing was done afterwards.

Nothing beats tape, NOTHING! *insert frantic laughter*

I started ripping samples from other songs, and collect them on 3½-inch floppy discs. My songs got better and better, I did some covers and some originals, but those discs are either broken, or not in my possession anymore. The finished song saved on floppydiscs as mod-files. Up to this date the tracker program is being used , mostly for programming dance/electro tunes, but as always, there are exceptions.

Flashforward 18 years.

I’ve read a blogpost yesterday about a mod-player for the iPhone which connected to the Modland library, a huge collection of tracker mods. Here comes the ego-surf: I could only remember one title from the things I made back then so I googled for ‘Pindakaas.mod’

Boom! That file was almost everywhere, downloaded the file, installed cocomodx (a free modplayer for osx) and presto I got sucked back 18 years.

Back in 1991 the demoscene was all over the place. If I remember correctly the demoscene was all about testing the limits of the platforms they where programming for. With huge bouncing logo’s and ultra cool music they where showing off to each other. (or perhaps still do).

I was about 17 years old, couldn’t program a single line on the amiga and couldn’t draw. The only thing I did was pumping out weird mod’s (I remember doing a pretty realistic tiroler track, but I don’t think I ever finished it.)

Me and some amiga-buddies organized a 24-hour party. We ordered ourselves to eat pizza and come up with something creative within the next 24 hours. We copied a few games, ate a lot of crisps and listened to MTV screaming through the room. I don’t remember what city it was, I only remember a few friends who where there, but I remember one guy producing a realistic drawing on his amiga and me sitting in the corner with my headphones making a track.

I brought some cd’s, and one of them was from ‘Rubberen Robbie’, a novelty record with funny fake adds. On that CD where a few tracks about peanutbutter (pindakaas).I sampled some vocals from that CD, produced a little beat, grabbed a bas-sample from my disc-library, and finished it of with a male chorus singing ‘Pindakaas!’. When I turned up the volume on my little TV, the room was shaking from laughter.

Within the next hours my goal was to make a few friends smile every now and then, when I made a few more choruses to the song. I chose to use the ‘Opa’-sample (that means ‘grandpa) to play dutch songs I could think of from the top of my head, so we could sing along.

I don’t recall ever copying this disc or the song appearing on any demo, yet a few months later I heard a rumour that my track had been played as a demo on a computer-fare. Also I heard it appeared on a music compilation disc, but I never saw that. Also I ran into a forum from a few months ago where someone was asking: “Who the Hell made this track?”

Back in the day my computer-nickname was ‘Graveyard’ (don’t ask), my amiga-group just made a few demo’s as I recall (the lost boys) but I think even that name was ripped out of the track, so you guys must take my word for it

Here are the original mod-files:
Pindakaas.mod (originally called ‘pindakaa.mod’ since the ol’amiga could only handle 8 digit files)
tlb.oriental.mod

For you ‘normal’ people without a tracker player:
The following tracks end abruptly, but that is due to the nature of mods; they repeat over and over and over again.

Pindakaas – 3:04

download

TLB-Oriental – 1:16

download

Only now I am praying for a ludwig drum controler and a lefthanded Hofner bass (is that too much to ask?), and bonus points if you have the right hairstyle…

Audioboo.com is an audio-blogging tool which integrates perfectly with the iPhone…. Gone is all the studio-equipment . just one single microphone embedded in an apple phone can make you world famous! More strangeness coming to the schnauzerstudios.

Oh, yes: who this singer is…. that is too obvious, I won’t say.