| Bit Music | |
| Cultural origins | Late 1970s, Japan, US |
|---|---|
| Typical instruments | Sound Chips, Tracker Software |
| Derivative forms | Skweee |
| Subgenres | |
| 16-Bit, Chiptune, Fakebit, FM Synthesis, Tracker Music | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Bitpop, Chipcore, Chip Rock, Chipstep | |
Bit music is music made by sound chips, sound cards, and sequencers found in video game consoles. It is also heavily connected to early computer-based music, especially music made from the Commodore Amiga and tracker software. Finally, it also incorporates music that seeks to emulate this sound. Often, producers use this sound to emulate other styles of electronic music, too. Put simply, it is early video game music before CD-quality audio was possible.
History[]
To understand bit music you need to understand the history of video game sound synthesis and the history of personal home computer software that produced music on tracker software. Video game music and sound started with the sound chip. Many chips were produced but the most notable are the Atari POKEY (found in early Atari game consoles, arcade games and the 400 and 800 microcomputers) and the sound interface device or SID (found in the Commodore 64 home computer). These chips used analog synthesis methods, which were programmed by the game's processor and software. In the absolute earliest days of video game sound, arcades were the first to show people how video game sound would be synthesized. In 1971, Atari's 'Computer Space' was the first to do this, and 'Pong' came out a year later. While no music was produced from these arcade cabinets, they are important to note nonetheless. 'Gun Fight' by Taito was the first music that was created and was a simple jingle to signify you died in the game. It was a recreation of Chopin's 'Funeral March. By the early 80s, arcades had games like Rally-X by Namco, which had music continuous in the background, or Donkey Kong by Nintendo. Later in the mid to late 80, you had home consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System NES and the Sega Master System as well as the Commodore 64, producing 8-bit music (the bit count just means the processing power of the device). The most famous song from these consoles is the overworld theme from Super Mario Bros. This whole era can be summed up in the genre chiptune. As chiptune is seen as music made purely from these 80s and 70s chips. The next generation of consoles would push the sound to greater heights as technology improved.
During the mid-1980s, a new wave of chips hit arcades that fundamentally changed the sound. FM or frequency modulation synthesis found its way into these new chips. FM synthesis added the ability to oscillate the sound,d creating more metallic, bassier, and dynamic sounds. 1984's Marble Madness, an arcade game by Atari, was the first to use an FM synthesis chip (the Yamaha YM2151). It would be with the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive that the sound took off with some of Sega's biggest games using FM synthesis to great effect. The Neo Geo by SNK was another famous home console that used FM synthesis music, and IBM home computers also used this sound.
Meanwhile, other manufacturers had different ideas about the future of bit music. Sound processors had advanced enough to include basic tiny samplers in personal computers and game consoles. With the Commodore Amiga, a computer, in 1985 being the first. Importantly, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System or SNES also used samples in its music, but the samples were so tiny the composer could usually only fit a single cycle of a wave for each instrument. This power to make any kind of waveform or sample any kind of audio meant that composers now had much more freedom, but the limited space and constraints on these samples still lent it to interesting sounds that still fit with its predecessor chiptune. A major key difference between chiptune and FM synthesis versus this sample-based music is the samples could be anything and could be called out at any time. Chiptune had to have all its sounds embedded into the chip, and FM synthesis relied on modulation and oscillation to make its diverse sounds.
By 1995, CD-quality music could be more or less integrated into video games. MIDI had also standardized how files could call out sounds. This, sadly, killed bit music in video games. Besides the occasional throwback title or indie game, you don't hear this music in video games much. However, the music still lives on with artists making their own tracks in the style.
Demoscene and Independent Bit Music Artists[]
Software called trackers were used to sequence the music found on Amiga and its contemporaries, but like MIDI or the processor in a NES, it did not produce any sound on its own, just calling out the sounds at appropriate times. This software's key importance is that it gives the average user easy access to create their own music for the first time. The trackers were even able to emulate older chiptune. While artists did create bit music in the 70s and 80s, they were typically made on analog hardware to sound like the music from video game consoles or arcades. It would be with the tracker that a whole new scene in electronic music would be born. Beginning with cracks or hacks of games that included unique videos at the beginning to show the crack's credits, a subculture of users came together to make videos and music that could be rendered to show what early computing could do. These demos, as they are called, began online, and the movement quickly spread. Organizers would throw together demo parties to see demo teams try and compete to make or show off their demos. The music of this scene came to be known as keygen, tracker music, or demoscene music.
It would be here in the demoscene where artists would also push the limitations of early hardware aside for creative expression. Some find this practice disingenuous and against the music found with chiptune, FM synthesis, and Amiga/SNES music. A new genre was made to distinguish the ones who upheld old-school hardware limitations and those who didn't: fakebit. Fakebit is any bit music that adds channels, uses unique effects not found on old hardware, or simply uses too much processing power or even space that a real video game console or arcade could not handle.
The demoscene would also see many artists using bit music to emulate other electronic styles like hardcore, rock, disco, trance, and many other genres.
Resources[]
- RYM listing https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/bit-music/