game girl advance: PSOne on the Billboard Charts

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May 01, 2003

PSOne on the Billboard Charts

"Kids, don't let your parents tell you that video games will get you nowhere in life." - Kellin Manning, musician, in the liner notes to Boomkatalog One, a new album by Boomkat.

Amusing NYTimes article chronicles the rise of Boomkat with an emphasis on the role of the Codemasters' "MTV Music Generator" for the PSOne. "I had been struggling with my traditional four track," Kellin is quoted as saying. "And I was sort of anticomputer. I thought you had to make music the old-school way. This game was a revelation. It totally opened my mind to sequencing and editing."

My favorite part, proving yet again that sequels are not always better: Kellin doesn't like the PS2 version. The original software let you record samples from any source, burn them onto CD, and then manipulate the samples. The newer one requires the use of an optional "Sampler Kit." But Kellin said even so, he doesn't like the sound of the samples.

As a gamer and a musician, I of course find this fascinating. We've tried a lot of different recording techniques in my band, and most of them required weird patches and complicated (and very expensive) software. Sometimes we like the crappy gritty sound of cheap 6-tracks; sometimes we need something warmer and more sophisticated. But most of all we need a fast way to sketch out a song as part of our composition process - just to be able to see how all the parts fit together, and then an easy way to do quick edits before we spend the time and money in recording the master. A videogame interface sounds like a brilliant solution. Why didn't I ever get this before?

Posted by jane at May 01, 2003 10:39 AM | TrackBack

Comments

I'll have to check this game out for myself now.

Jane, if you're not already using Acid (Sonic Foundry's Editing Ap) I highly recommend it. Not that I'm making a lot of music, but when I *do* want to throw some songs together (mostly techno), Acid is the only way to go (even for rock music). *Very* easy user interface.

Posted by: Bowler on May 1, 2003 11:56 AM

Mainly useful for regularly metered songs (e.g. techno) trackers are very good for quickly sequencing songs together (so long as you have some samples on hand), but that may just be MHO.

Posted by: twifkak on May 1, 2003 10:16 PM

I've used Acid for techno and rock, but since I usually only use software like that for sketching a rough outline of a song I just use SoundForge.

I never was much interested in the idea of a music video game, but it definitely works as an introductory tool at the very least. I have friends that started learning multiple instruments and getting involved in making music from being exposed to Music Generator.

...on a somewhat off topic note, I wonder how many gamers are musicians.

Posted by: Draigon on May 2, 2003 12:46 AM

hm, interesting wondering, Draigon. informal poll might be in order.

Posted by: jane on May 2, 2003 11:22 AM

I've made some great songs on this little application. It's been fun learning to master the art of sequencing differently composed riffs together. Funny thing is though...how do you burn all these songs unto a CD? I have it for the PSone so it's a bit more limited and tricky to manage between memory conserving and song size. If anyone knows how to do this please e-mail me, I'd be in debt to you.

Posted by: Joshua on May 13, 2003 11:52 AM

Think simple. Learn different. Macinstruct.net

Posted by: Dionisius on July 6, 2004 07:39 AM

Think simple. Learn different. Macinstruct.net

Posted by: Dionisius on July 6, 2004 07:40 AM

Posted by: kuwang

on September 19, 2006 12:30 AM