pouët.net

Hi sceners!

I going through the existing demo scene radio stations, to get a feel for this part of the scene. I hope for some help to add stations and also need you to add insights or correct my mistakes. Any help is greatly appreciated.

https://erik.zalitis.se/radio/what-i-know-about-the-chiptune-radio-scene/

I hope you would use the word "chiptune" in a correct sense (which is: music using or mimicking (faithfully or superficially) the sound of 80s PSG soundchips). It would be regrettable if we distort its meaning.

For instance SceneSat radio mostly doesn't play chiptunes (outside of their C64 music shows) and on Nectarine chiptunes are in minority (though very strongly represented). SLAY radio plays mostly non-chiptune remixes of chiptunes ("C64 remix scene"). Kohina might actually mostly play chiptunes though not exclusively.

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About your question.... Radio Paralax at least is a strongly demoscene related netradio you didn't mention.
https://www.radio-paralax.de/

CVGM which was born out of Nectarine project but includes both game music and democene music as equal categories is another relevant one
https://radio.cvgm.net/demovibes/

Here's a list I made some years ago:
https://www.pouet.net/topic.php?which=12306

^
Nice list. Is any of those radios not already mentioned on stripecat's page or by me active? A quick glance seems to suggest no.

https://keygen-fm.ru/ is also a strong contender

Hello

First off, thanks for your help and comments. This helps. I will try to sort this out during the weekend.

@la_mettrie:
> It would be regrettable if we distort its meaning.

Agreed, but I think it's too late already. When I look at common directrries and services, I can see the damage has already been done. I see that the distinction between different kind of retro computing styles is totally and irrevocably gone by now. Tracker music, remixes, video game music, sindtunes and so forth... All now seem to sort under the genre called "Chiptune". This is how words change meaning and their once diverse connotations become blanket terms meaning everything, yet nothing. I have therefore decided to follow suit and in my blogpost, "Chiptune" is to be interrpreted as "anythingthing remotely blippety-blopetty".

Btw, la_mettrie. Here is a tune you made and that think is awesome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opd0bX-wCeU&t=999s

Wait, so you’re saying Amiga MOD is a “chiptune”?!

> Wait, so you’re saying Amiga MOD is a “chiptune”?!

Well it isn't (necessarely)... But I do exactly that. It's not my choice. I try to see this as a SEO (Search engine optimization) problem. I.e. WHAT do people search for when they want to listen to a radio station playing tracker music? When I started my own station I didn't see "chiptune" as anything else than a very specific type of tracker music. I didn't even consider the term that important. But I always wondered why the term tracker music/tracked music ended up leading nowhere. Noone outside the camaraderie of us sceners seemed to even know what it was. Later on I understood that people (incorrectly, mind you) see all computerish music as "chiptune". This is not what I wanted, but that was what the world obviosuly looked like.

IIRC there is (or was) this whole chiptune scene, centered mainly around modded Gameboys and LSDJ. They are (were) not into old computers, even less into demoscene, but they understand perfectly what a chiptune is. I wasn’t at all aware that people started to “see all computerish music as chiptune", that’s why I asked. So “chiptune” is now defined by style, not by technology.

Because, if we defined it by technology, Paula is a sampler. If Amiga mod is a chiptune, then the Impulse or Scream tracker is a chiptune too, then fruityloops song is a chiptune too, then everything except live accoustic music is chiptune too.

But if we accept the “style, not technology” definition, then it gets settled.

But the demoscene music especially in the newschool department is usually not even remotely bleepy because it's not distinguishable from the mainstream (or EDM underground) styles (and is often made with the same programs). Thus it still seems problematic to apply the word "chiptune" to demoscene radios even if the word is redefined for some wider use.

In any case, I'm personally ready to fight for the right use of terms (eg. Jogeir Liljedahl's "Guitar Slinger" is not a chiptune, SNES music is not (usually) chiptune etc.) no matter where we now stand and I encourage others to follow. Also the meaning of "techno" was already badly distorted in the 1990s yet the real meaning is also still well alive for those who care.



Thanks.

I don't think there is an accurate term that covers "all music that sounds computery", and the general public certainly doesn't care about minute taxonomy details, as your techno example illustrates.

I'm not sure what do you mean by "computery" and what's your point here.

Chiptune or chipmusic is a handy term to cover all the music that refers to PSG sounds of the 1980s at least. Demoscene music refers to any music that is published in the context of the demoscene.



Is Aqua vs. Jeff Mills "a minute detail"? The real meaning of techno has survived not only because some purists care about it but also because it's truly useful and needed. Yet some people still want to distort even this kind of obviously useful terms.

oh god those fakebit days in the late 00s/early 10s when "8bit party" meant a 17 yr old guy pushing buttons on a lsdj moddes gameboy to a very non-chip-tune-prerecorded-techno-track.
bring it back, plz!
(or not)

Very insightful comments the lot of you. I agree with the general idea that Chiptune should be seen as a specific term for a specific type of music. And yes, Guitarr slinger is not a chiptune at all. I just recently understood that people generally are not versed in the field of knowing the exact style they're searching for. Any style of music has an enormous risk of being lumped together as a style. And that seems to be the

When I don't listen so much to "blippety-blop" music (let's call it that until we know what to actaully cvall it, ok?) I love the 60s. Beatles, Rolling stones, Animals etc... Great! But is 60s music pop, rock, psychadelic or something else? Good question, ask that to your typical oldies radio station DJ. He/She won't have the answer either. And neither can I. My observation has to be ... and that's the final answer from me for this particular entry... Chiptune today is seen as the term for ... you know... very blippety and bloppety music. And that IS a sad state of affairs, but the reality we live in...

TTFN...

I think that for many outside people the sound of chiptune = rapid arpeggios of simple synthetic sounds (and perhaps some other techniques). So, a combination of a certain technology and a certain technique/style.

On a side note, I'd say that chiptune on Amiga is technically no more "genuine" than chiptune on a modern computer. Or an emulator.

but but ahx!