![]() For example, many old computers can load and save data from/to tape. Utz: There are different ways to go about, though commonly we look for something like an data port. NB: That’s a huge difference! How do you make sound without sound hardware? Machines used for 1-bit music generally don’t have that. The machines commonly used by chiptune musicians generally have a sound chip, a dedicated piece of hardware that produces sound. There are also differences regarding technology. As a matter of fact, there are hardly any “pure” 1-bit musicians. Furthermore, there is quite a bit of overlap in terms of people active in the chiptune and 1-bit scene. The sounds can also be quite similar, though they can also be radically different. In 1-bit, we often use machines from the same era. Generally, it’s a culture revolving around music made with old home computers and gaming consoles, or music that sounds like it would come from one of these machines. “Chiptune” is probably the hardest one to define. Utz: I’d somewhat argue with that statement, actually, but yes, there’s definitely a strong connection with these scenes. Can you give a kind of a first working definition for each of them? ![]() It exists within the specific culture of chiptune artists, the demoscene and the retrocomputing scene. We’ll return again to this definition to discuss it in more technical terms, but let’s now take a look around this musical practice. NB: We’re only talking about electronically produced sounds, right? Basically, 1-bit music is music made using this principle of sound generation. ![]() These two states can be expressed by a number containing a single binary digit (bit). All these sounds share a common principle in that they are produced by repeatedly switching the current that goes to the built-in speaker on and off, or in other words, they are produced by toggling a signal between two states. Or, a more annoying example: the alarm in smoke detectors. Another common example that many people may be familiar with are those birthday greeting cards that play a simple melody when you open them. For example, if you’re a bit older you may remember that when switching on a PC, it makes a “beep”. The subject sounds quite esoteric, but actually 1-bit sounds are more common than one might think. Can you give a first, non-technical explanation of what it is? NB: You are, as a musician and as a programmer, actively working in the genre of 1-bit music. On November 20, 2018, the musicologist and media theorist Nikita Braguinski and the musician, programmer and historian of computer sound working under the assumed name of ‘utz’ convened in an IRC chat channel to discuss a musically and technically intriguing question: What is 1-bit-music? ![]()
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