Downmixing modern music!

[Aephion]

Some of you gamers out there have undoubtedly seen the Hare Hare Yukai 8-bit remix alá Megaman / Rockman.

Well, inspired by this, I made "Something About Us" by Daft Punk in this fashion ^_^ (attached)
Just for fun, really.
Ever tried mangling a song into 8-Bit yourself?

Cheers, Aephion

[chckn8r]

Originally Posted by Aephion

Ever tried mangling a song into 8-Bit yourself?

Cheers, Aephion

Mmmmm... bit crushing... {drool}

[stevel]

Originally Posted by Aephion

Some of you gamers out there have undoubtedly seen the Hare Hare Yukai 8-bit remix alá Megaman / Rockman.

Well, inspired by this, I made "Something About Us" by Daft Punk in this fashion ^_^ (attached)
Just for fun, really.
Ever tried mangling a song into 8-Bit yourself?

Cheers, Aephion

Aephion,

Being of the Atari and Commodore 64 generation myself, can you explain what all this means?

I assume "bit crushing" takes something that was CD Audio at 16 bit and reduces it to 8 bit - is this what gives the music that "buzzy" feel (which not to sound silly, but is almost like a warm fuzzy blanket). I'd like to hear your original, and the bit-crushed version for comparison.

Any other information you can provide would be appreciated as well.

Thanks,
Steve

[chckn8r]

Originally Posted by stevel

Being of the Atari and Commodore 64 generation myself, can you explain what all this means?

Ooo - that brings back memories - trying to program with "sprites", using that 3-voice ADSR synth and playing Jumpman!

Originally Posted by stevel

I assume "bit crushing" takes something that was CD Audio at 16 bit and reduces it to 8 bit - is this what gives the music that "buzzy" feel

That's essentially it Steve, you're taking something that is at a higher bit-depth and squeezing it into something with a lower bit-depth. Thereby introducing quantization distortion in the amplitude aspect of the sample.

So, taking a sample recorded at a 16 bit sample depth which has 65,536 discrete steps of dynamics and squishing it into an 8 bit sample depth which has only 256 discrete steps of dynamics, you're going to get some distortion artifacts and clipping that introduces the "fuzziness" or digital distortion that you're referring to.

It's an effect that's been used in the last few years by the electronica, mash-up and dance music scene to give their sounds a gritty retro sound. Nine Inch Nails uses this effect a lot.

Cheers, D

[stevel]

Originally Posted by chckn8r

Ooo - that brings back memories - trying to program with "sprites", using that 3-voice ADSR synth and playing Jumpman!



That's essentially it Steve, you're taking something that is at a higher bit-depth and squeezing it into something with a lower bit-depth. Thereby introducing quantization distortion in the amplitude aspect of the sample.

So, taking a sample recorded at a 16 bit sample depth which has 65,536 discrete steps of dynamics and squishing it into an 8 bit sample depth which has only 256 discrete steps of dynamics, you're going to get some distortion artifacts and clipping that introduces the "fuzziness" or digital distortion that you're referring to.

It's an effect that's been used in the last few years by the electronica, mash-up and dance music scene to give their sounds a gritty retro sound. Nine Inch Nails uses this effect a lot.

Cheers, D

Thanks Dave!

Steve