Aavegotchi 8-bit Music Task Force

Ideas
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Aavegotchi Music Task Force

I’ve seen a little bit of music-related discussion here and there, and wanted to create a framework here to facilitate discussion about Gotchi music in general. If you are attracted to Aavegotchi for the same reasons that I am, then I suspect that the music of classic video games holds a special place in many of your childhood memories. We have a unique opportunity to enjoy 8-bit music in the Gotchiverse in the same way that we already enjoy its pixel artwork.

Guidelines: We haven’t yet received explicit guidance from the team, but I’ll take a stab at some preliminary guidelines that should be fairly uncontroversial. It seems a given to me (@coderdan has implied as much) that any music or sound effects should be 8-bit chiptune, mostly inspired by NES and Gameboy sound chips. There are already some examples of this on the website. There is room for interpretation about what might be appropriate here, but my opinion is that we should generally try to approximate the feel of music from classic video game franchises (Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Megaman, Pokemon, Castlevania, etc). I suggest that anyone interested should “study” their favorite 8-bit music pieces for the feelings they convey and the functions they serve. The majority of these pieces would be short (0:30-2:00) and designed to loop seamlessly.

Here are a few places we might have need for music:

  • The Website: This has been discussed in a couple of DAO discussions. I think a jukebox/radio would be a fun idea, maybe a little boom box or tama egg with play/pause/skip functionality (there’s actually a live proposal on Snapshot similar to this, though I don’t know whose proposal it is). Alternatively, we could designate a different music theme for each main section of the website (like a shopping theme, main menu theme, raffle theme, etc). We’ve also discussed “dark mode” music along with the idea of implementing a dark mode on the website to protect our sensitive eyes.

  • Minigames: This might include both the official Aavegotchi minigame, as well as any third-party games in which developers might wish to incorporate music that fits with the general Aavegotchi aesthetic.

  • The Realm: This is what I’m most excited about. It would probably include at least a main “overworld” theme, but could go much deeper, depending on the full extent of the realm (leak us some alpha, devs!). We could implement a standard theme for any shops in the realm, as well as music for towns and inside homes. To take things even further: Imagine an island theme for the beach area, where the Rasta Gotchis are known to frequent, or a mysterious forest theme to accompany the dionysian frolics of the Gotchi Elves and Meta-Foxes, or a regal theme to set the tone for your long journey to the Citadel to cast your vote for the latest proposal….or a dungeon theme for…you know…the dungeon…for the bad Gotchis…who made off with all those lil pump wearables…

8-bit music production (and music production in general) has been a particular interest of mine for many years, and I am very interested in being involved in the creation and curation of Aavegotchi music as much as possible. I’d like to share some of the chiptunes I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks with this project in mind (some are more “finished” than others). Please have a listen and share your thoughts (and if you’ve also been working on Gotchi music, let me encourage you to share your progress as well)!

Finally, for anyone who’s interested and musically inclined, I’m happy to share some of the tools and resources that I’ve found helpful. I intend to keep creating chiptunes and exploring different game styles to imitate. If you have specific styles you think appropriate for this project, let us know!

Regardless of whether you’d like to directly participate, share your opinions and ideas for the kind of music you envision for Aavegotchi! If the community and team deem it appropriate, we could consider this grounds to propose the establishment of the “Aavegotchi 8-bit Music Task Force” (feel free to suggest a catchier name/acronym)!

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Great post! Community-created music if done right could be very cool!

My suggestion for a server role name is the “Baards”, what do you think? :smiley:

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I like Baards! I can’t think of anything else with a nice ring, so Baards has my vote!

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Unleashed a new job
GotchiBards

So D&D​:lizard::dragon_face::dragon:

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Jammy tune…very nostalgic sounding, well done…songs keeps going; you have a whole library of tunes!

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excellent track, community is what is going to make this project sing. lets get people involved.

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Sound very cool!!! Looking forward to hear some new 8 bits tunes! :+1:t3:

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What tools/resources have you found most helpful?

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There are a few different ways to go about making chiptune, so it’s somewhat flexible based on your interests and comfort level. For anyone using a DAW that supports the VST plugin format (Logic, Ableton, Garageband, FL Studio, Reaper, many others), there are plenty of free plugins to use which emulate the NES hardware sound chips, like Famisynth II, Magical 8bit, and even more options if you’re on a Windows OS (I’m a Mac user). In addition, standalone programs like Audio Overload will play the music files from NES and Gameboy games (and other consoles) while allowing you to solo each audio channel and export as a .wav file, which you can then use as a sample in your DAW. I’ve used this to extract certain sounds I like from NES games, particularly percussion sounds. You can find these game audio files all over the internet, but zophar.net is a good place to start.

For those who like the challenge of working with the original hardware limitations (or don’t want to deal with DAWs and plugins), there are free tracker programs like Famitracker (Windows) and Milkytracker (Mac), as well as paid programs with more features. I am less familiar with this approach, but am planning to dive into it soon.

Then for the real hardcore folks, you can pay a few hundred dollars for a NES cartridge that you can insert into your original console and send it MIDI data to output and record the real deal! I have not done this, but it sounds fun. There are also similar products for Gameboy.

For someone who is new to all of these terms, it’s probably a bit overhwelming, but there are many chiptune/8bit tutorials on YouTube if you search for them, and depending on interest, perhaps I’ll find time to put some tutorials together myself. The information is out there for anyone who’s curious though.

Once we get set up with a dedicated Discord channel for the Baards, I think it will be easier to share resources!

EDIT: apparently I was mistaken, Logic Pro and Garageband don’t support VSTs.

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this is the way.

perhaps someone will own a club to present songs?

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Im developing a mini game and I need help with finding a retro 8bit soundtrack #gotchigang

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yeah great id, i have the gotchi tune as my ringtone for a while now still loving it

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Did you listen to Jujy’s library? it is not just one song…you may be able to find the right tune…

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Hey frens just created a #game-tunes channel in the main chat! Also created a @Baard role, just send a msg in that channel if you’d like to get it!

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How did you get Famisynth to work in Logic Pro? Been wanting to mess around with some tunes but it won’t work. Added it into Components but it doesn’t show up as an option.

Upon further investigation it seems it’s failing AU validation.

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Hmm, I guess Logic Pro can’t use VSTs? I didn’t realize that. I no longer have Logic on my Mac. I’ve been using Ableton Intro for a little while now, and that’s worked well for Famisynth.

I just did a quick google and didn’t watch this video, but maybe this would work to get it validated? Forcing the validation of Audio Unit Plugins in Logic in OS X 10.10 to 10.15 - YouTube

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Thanks, it seems like this will work, however I am not comfortable running a random file linked in sendpace after disabling system wide protection haha. Will find other ways to do 8bit style in logic.

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If I come across any cool free plugins that look like they might work better in Logic, I’ll give you a shout! Another you could try out is Magical 8 bit (https://ymck.net/app/magical-8bit-plug), or if you don’t mind spending a little money, AudioThing’s minibit is a lot of fun and has a lot of features (https://www.audiothing.net/instruments/minibit/). Also on sale at the moment.

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I absolutely love using FL Studios! They have easily integrated any plugins I’ve purchased.
The first 8bit plugin I bought the other day is MiniBit and I made sure to get AudioThing’s MiniVerb as well. I like them a lot so far.

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I’ll have to try out a demo sometime soon, you seem to really like FL Studio! Have you tried any other DAWs? Although I’ve been using Ableton lately, I’m still getting used to the workflow. I’ve had the longest history with Pro Tools (but that’s not a great option for this kind of stuff)

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