written 12/20/23 for BotB Advent Calendar 2023, Commodore 64 format https://battleofthebits.com/arena/Entry/christmastime+is+here+again/64283/

artwork by @blower5 https://blower.neocities.org/

buy/dl on bandcamp

christmastime is here again [SID 8580]

@retropetet
Edirol Hyper Canvas

I wanted to write a piece for the EDIROL PC-80, the clunky MIDI keyboard with speakers that occupied the better part of my childhood.  But it's locked away in storage at my parents' house, or maybe we donated it to charity, and the bundled software doesn't even run on anything newer than Windows XP.  I'm pretty sure that Hyper Canvas uses the same soundset, but if you're able to play back the MIDI file on a PC-80 and pour out a drink at the same time, do that and be sure to let me know about it--it would make my day!

STAFFcirc vol. 9 - MIDI MODULE FANATIX

🎵 whats this 🎵

petet - we were here once before

@jacob-greenmount
Alesis Quadrasynth

I had a great time writing this track as I've never used an Alesis Quadrasynth before. This track was inspired by the countless amazing demo tracks written for arranger workstations and home keyboards.

Jacob Greenmount - Coming Back From There

@tenbysounds
Roland XV-5080

5080AD - Somewhere out in the badlands a group of nomad travellers traverse the wastes. Scaling daunting cliffs and rocky crevasses. Harvesting succulents for sustenance. The deep purple sky hanging over them like a hood, they move unseen from boulder to boulder searching for pieces of history. There, under a dry rock, a usb stick with a .midi file and a .txt document reading, “I made this on an XV5080. The idea came from playing around with pitch bending the drums, I noticed it sounded a little like a processed breakbeat sample in a drum and bass track and the rest of the song just sort of evolved from that idea :)”.

tenby - Badlands

@chimeratio + @janglerr
Yamaha PSR-225

Our track was written for the Yamaha PSR-225, this is one of the first musical instruments I owned as a kid in the 90s. While there was some appeal in pushing something usually seen as more of a cheap beginner's instrument to make strange sounds, it was actually chosen over other Yamaha MU series stuff with the same sounds for a practical reason. While it's incredibly cut down compared to the MU series it's based off of, it actually recognizes things like rapid changes in volume/panning/etc very tightly compared to these alternatives. This allowed for us to make a very textural MIDI doing types of sound design we wouldn't have been able to approach on something more "advanced" as cleanly.

It was made using jangler's wonderful tracker-style MIDI sequencer called "Faunatone", which is designed around accommodating microtonality in this format. There were actually a number of idiosyncrasies that popped up relating to both the PSR itself, and chaoticness of the stuff we wrote, which required jangler to update it with new features even! Quite a bit of time was spent troubleshooting until it played exactly how we had intended. I'd be a fool to not mention what a profound contribution they did by making the entire piece of software we used to write this in the first place---even updating it just for this track. Thank you jangler!!!!

While this track isn't actually dominantly microtonal, the fact that Faunatone is built around making that easy certainly made it natural for us to use odd tuning in many parts. The non-12edo stuff is mostly either 48edo or just arbitrary detuning.

 -- Chimeratio

Chimeratio & jangler - tunnel7_r35b

@cryptovolans
Roland SC-88 Pro

Written at the end of 2022. It was born from the desire to use an “in your face” Insertion Effect (EFX) that drastically changes the timbre instead of the more subtle EFX I usually go with. I went with a lo-fi insertion effect, and the song evolved as I randomly shopped for new patches underneath the effect. I stumbled into an inspirational timbral space previously explored by Yasuyuki Suzuki.

Cryptovolans - DATA - DREAM - DESIRE

Cover of https://soundcloud.com/iiiypad/02-undines-salamanders by @damifortune for maj7 Cover Ring IV.

Spirit Resort

AMPLIFICATION! LET'S GET LOUD!

GET THE NEW "FUZZ!" MOMENT PACK BY @GALENTIPTON ON SPLICE: https://splice.com/sounds/packs/moment/fuzz-a-galen-tipton-moment/samples/create

Marshall4 - Stranger

using earthbound flute and sim city, marimba, piano, and synth bass while referencing nikolai kapustin’s prelude 23 (op 53) and mvmt 1 of trio for flute, cello, and piano (op 86)

quintet for piano, snow clam, sapling knight, treel, and bass

12.28.24B 130

11.11.11.11 BUPROPION 2

⚡glitch composer & experimentalist - vgm, chiptune, digital fusion
🌱 open for work! portfolio + contact: https://samplemance.rs

christmastime is here again [SID 8580]

Hunter Van Brocklin

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