Kind of Bloop: An 8-bit Tribute to Miles Davis

[Kwesi]

I LOVE jazz and I LOVE videogames but I've only just recently gotten into chiptune music (pretty much any video game music until the N64) and this has been an excellent introduction. A couple of musicians did their own renditions of the songs from Miles Davis' Kind of Blue with chiptunes and it sounds fantastic!

Here's So What:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSCObIXDCJc

and here's the entire album:

http://kindofbloop.com/

[fu22ba55]

I loves me some bleeps and bloops.

This particular clip (the So What clip) sounds more like some of it was generated with higher-bit-rate devices/synths, then just downsampled (you can hear tons of artifacting) rather than actually being created by low-bit devices.

I'd be more into it if it was done with a speak n spell and a door buzzer. This just sounds like someone squashed the bits out of a cheezy midi performance.

I think it would sound better if they kept adding bits 'til they got to 8, rather than starting with 128 and subtracting them.

Still a fun listen on a thurs AM, so thanks for posting.

[Kwesi]

Originally Posted by fu22ba55

I loves me some bleeps and bloops.

This particular clip (the So What clip) sounds more like some of it was generated with higher-bit-rate devices/synths, then just downsampled (you can hear tons of artifacting) rather than actually being created by low-bit devices.

I'd be more into it if it was done with a speak n spell and a door buzzer. This just sounds like someone squashed the bits out of a cheezy midi performance.

I think it would sound better if they kept adding bits 'til they got to 8, rather than starting with 128 and subtracting them.

Still a fun listen on a thurs AM, so thanks for posting.

I guess I'm lucky I can't really tell the difference, then again I only actually started liking chiptunes after getting the Scott Pilgrim game soundtrack (done by Anamanaguchi!) .

Glad you dug it though!

[Super Dwarf]

this is pretty cool

[RedLeg]

Win!

[Wild_Cat]

@fu22ba55: Actually, I own that album and I'm pretty certain they wrote it on actual chiptune sequencers rather than downsampling.

All Blues is even documented by its cover artist (Shnabubula, who is an awesome pianist in his own right, with some really crazy ideas like this absolute masterpiece): it was written for an emulated Konami VRC6. That's the soundchip they put in the japanese version of Castlevania 3 (and only the japanese version -- the US one had butchered music as a result), which added two pulse channels and a saw wave channel to the NES's hardware (built-in: two pulse channels, one triangle wave channel, one noise channel, one 1-bit DPCM channel).

You can see it in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1bDN...eature=related . I don't know about you, but a version of All Blues that manages to quote the Super Mario Bros underworld theme? Epic.


Also, an important thing to note is that Kind of Bloop isn't just a note-for-note chiptune transcription of Kind of Blue -- that would be pointless, not to mention all kinds of boring. Each song is reinterpreted by the musician. Solos are rewritten, sections shift to crazy meters, surprising stuff happens. In other words, it's chiptune jazz, but it's still jazz at its core.

A brilliant album, to which I listen almost as often as the original Kind of Blue.

[Kwesi]

Originally Posted by Wild_Cat

@fu22ba55: Actually, I own that album and I'm pretty certain they wrote it on actual chiptune sequencers rather than downsampling.

All Blues is even documented by its cover artist (Shnabubula, who is an awesome pianist in his own right, with some really crazy ideas like this absolute masterpiece): it was written for an emulated Konami VRC6. That's the soundchip they put in the japanese version of Castlevania 3 (and only the japanese version -- the US one had butchered music as a result), which added two pulse channels and a saw wave channel to the NES's hardware (built-in: two pulse channels, one triangle wave channel, one noise channel, one 1-bit DPCM channel).

You can see it in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1bDN...eature=related . I don't know about you, but a version of All Blues that manages to quote the Super Mario Bros underworld theme? Epic.


Also, an important thing to note is that Kind of Bloop isn't just a note-for-note chiptune transcription of Kind of Blue -- that would be pointless, not to mention all kinds of boring. Each song is reinterpreted by the musician. Solos are rewritten, sections shift to crazy meters, surprising stuff happens. In other words, it's chiptune jazz, but it's still jazz at its core.

A brilliant album, to which I listen almost as often as the original Kind of Blue.

I know next to nothing about the creation of chiptunes and whatnot but a huge +1 to everything else said here. I bought the album for All Blues and ended up loving every track . I'd love to hear some of this stuff done by a full band, however unlikely that may be. This is easily one of the most creative works I've bought.

[baba]

That was great!

[St Drogo]

omg this is mindmeltingley cool. Thank you for posting this!

Btw, you say you're into chiptunes. Have you heard of the chipophone? you might like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1pchpDD5EU

[dmusic148]

Wow, really cool! A heck of a transcription job too. I love how partway through 'So What' the 'bass' sound morphs into something like a tuba.

[jefwho]

This thread just made my day... thanks Kwesi!

[dmusic148]

Somebody else did Dark Side Of The Moon. Check it out- very cool and different.

[Deluge Of Sound]

Originally Posted by dmusic148

Somebody else did Dark Side Of The Moon. Check it out- very cool and different.

Link? DSOTM is more up my alley than Kind of Blue.

[pygmygrizzly]

I did a drum and bass version of solar, but yours is way coooler
http://www.myspace.com/pygmygrizzly

[giacomini]

I just went thru some 8-bit renders in youtube...

Man, that Dark Side of the Moon in 8 bits is AMAZING!

Takes me back to my SNES years...





EDIT: the scariest thing about DSOTM in 8 bits: notice how "On the run" sounds... not too far from the original!

[St Drogo]

Originally Posted by giacomini

EDIT: the scariest thing about DSOTM in 8 bits: notice how "On the run" sounds... not too far from the original!

I see you are the same age as me. Let me tell you, that is not scary, that means super metroid and a link to the past were the best education we could hope to have

[ric3xrt]

Originally Posted by St Drogo

I see you are the same age as me. Let me tell you, that is not scary, that means super metroid and a link to the past were the best education we could hope to have

LOL




Love it, and Darkside of the moon was just too cool