new site design & CD in the works

The site is in the middle of an overhaul. My plans for the new design include a store, free songs for download, and information about game systems soundchips which you may or may not care about. Expect these updates very soon, and while you’re at it… go order one of my carts from the store. They were temporarily unavailable but any cart ordered now will be shipped during the week after Blip Festival 2007.

Also, some of you who ordered my carts asked me why I dont have a full length CD for sale. Well, now I have one in the works. My plan is for the CD, titled ‘9999′, to use soundchips from 9 different game systems. The length of the CD will be 70+ minutes. After a lot of thought, I decided the songs MUST be recorded from the real machines. This will probably push the release date back. Also, I intend to invest a lot of money into this CD and have it professionally pressed. This album will be the deciding factor on whether cartridge, or compact disc is a better format to sell chiptunes with. However, the results will not deter me from abandoning either method.

The main benefits of a CD over a cartridge are: length, multiple game systems, and a wider audience. I started the project at the beginning of September 2007, and expect to be done by mid to late 2008. 33% of the songs have been composed, but composing is only the first step. Next comes hardware hacking to make the music play back on real machines. The final steps are recording, and funding the CD pressing process. Please leave comments on my future posts. I will be posting progress reports and chiptune knowledge frequently.