Retro sound
Retrosound is a compound word from retro (from lat. Retro backwards) and sound.
Electronically or digitally generated sounds, which are generated by means of an old, mostly popular and aged sound chip, are referred to as retro sounds. The typical retro sound used as a stylistic device in (minimal) electronic music (see " Minimal Electro ") comes from sound chips of the 8-bit era. The best-known computer with the model name C64 from the manufacturer Commodore contained a sound chip based on the MOS Technology SID . Furthermore, 8-bit sounds are also extracted from the sound chips of old game consoles .
Historical development to the retro sound
The generation from the 1970s has grown up. Many of you experienced the boom of the people's computer C64 and the video game console from Atari , Atari VCS (Video Cartridge System) and their successors Atari 2600 and 5200. Some owners of these computers and / or consoles already owned the predecessor VC 20 or the Sinclair ZX80 or the further developed and popular Sinclair ZX81 . The best-known video game from Atari is Pong , which was initially offered on the Atari Super Pong console with two controllers in the early 1970s. The Atari VCS video game system brought the arcade hits into the living room. Atari continued to develop its consoles, and so the consoles soon became the first computers. At the end of the 1980s, the first personal computer was finally offered to the market .
Commodore also continued to develop its "people's computer". The successor to the C64 was the C128 . Later the very popular Amiga was developed. A large number of programs were written for the C64, plug-in modules and extensions were available on the market. The datasette for the C64 was replaced by a floppy drive. In the music sector, a demo and tracker scene established itself over time , which was based on the possibilities of the MOS Technology SID or sound chip of the C64. The provider Steinberg Media Technologies brought out the first sequencer for the C64, the " MIDI Multitrack Sequencer", which later became the "Steinberg Pro 16". Also Emagic (Today Apple acquired), then known under the name "C-Lab", the first sequencer programs developed for the C64. Their names were "Scoretrack" and "Supertrack". In addition, a professional MIDI sequencer " Notator SL " and the notation program " Notator Logic " were later developed and sold.
In the mid-1980s, during the very successful period for the C64, Atari delivered the first computer of the ST series ( Atari ST ). With models of this series, systems with an improved graphic surface (window technology) and mouse operation as well as a fast processor and larger memory were offered. Detached from the limitations of the popular C64 and pattern-oriented working method, Steinberg further developed his sequencer software. Musicians could work with midi tracks and quantize notes . Many other program functions made the musicians and producers more comfortable to work with. The breakthrough in the early 1990s came with the Atari Falcon . This computer brought DSP ( Digital Signal Processing ) and hard disk recording with it.
In the further course of technical development and music production, the well-known Microsoft Windows PC and the Apple Macintosh , known today with the Mac OS X operating system, for example as the G5 hardware model, established themselves . Steinberg initially developed the software "Twenty Four" (Steinberg 24-track software) for the Atari ST for the Atari computer and later the program Cubase VST or today Cubase SX and Nuendo for the PC and Apple platforms . The Steinberg company has now been bought by the Yamaha Corporation . The German company Emagic , which developed the popular Logic sequencer for Windows PC and Apple Macintosh PC, was bought by Apple and today sells the sequencer under the name " Logic Pro ". From then on, Apple only developed Logic for the hardware it produced itself. Today there is an almost unmanageable range of virtual instruments and VST plug-in effects.
Retro sound today
In musical styles such as " Minimal Electro " or generally " Electronic dance music ", the sounds and noises of the sound chips from the 8-bit era are sometimes used deliberately.
Examples of this are the albums from Welle: Erdball and “Wermut” with the album “Hope” or compilations such as “Music for Jogger” from micromusicnet . With software emulators old C64 games can be played on today's PC hardware and pieces of music can be played back using the SID player - a program for playing SID files. Some people develop software that are modeled on the old sound or develop sound cards that are equipped with old sound chips from the C64. But also newer video game systems for on the go, such as the Game Boy Advance or Pokémon Mini , deliver this typical retro sound.
Retro software and hardware
Anyone who wants to produce the sound of the 8-bit generation today has a variety of options to get the sounds of that time. On the one hand, with a little luck, you can try to buy these old video game consoles and home computers at flea markets and bring them to life in order to then bring the sounds and noises into a PC format, or you can use VST effects such as the Bitcrusher , Propellerhead's Reason Scream from the corresponding effects rack. The company reFX offers with the VSTi plug-in quadraSID a software emulation of the sound chips of the C64. Another possibility is to use hardware with appropriate properties. HardSID Quattro PCI is, for example, a PCI card for the PC that can be equipped with old SID chips. The audio output of this PCI card then delivers a corresponding sound image like the C64. Also worth mentioning is the MIDIbox SID V2 , an open hardware synthesizer that can control up to 8 SIDs via MIDI.
With a suitable sampler (sound generator) of our day, sounds and sounds from any home computer and video game console can of course be recorded, processed further and then played back. Those who have mastered assembler programming can also elicit their own sounds from the Pokémon Mini from the manufacturer Nintendo in order to then digitize and process them. Another interesting development is Nanoloop . Nanoloop 2.0 is a synthesizer / sequencer for the Game Boy Advance, which can even be addressed and synchronized as a "midi slave" in a midi setup with a modified midi adapter cable. Another program for the Gameboy is Little Sound DJ (LSDJ), which can be purchased as ROM . Using a so-called transferer, this software can be transferred to a rewritable plug-in module and used on the Game Boy. Using a midi converter box (LSDJ-MC) from the German musician "firestARTer" (Thomas Margolf), MIDI clock data can be transmitted (e.g. from the computer to the Game Boy) and the Game Boy can be integrated into a MIDI setup . "Pocket Music" from Rage Software is another sequencer program for the Game Boy Color or the Game Boy Advance, which is supplied on a suitable plug-in module.
Thanks to the latest technologies such as the VST technology from Steinberg (or today Yamaha) and the advanced digitization of instrument sounds, retro sounds can be simulated with suitable VST plugins for host sequencer software. Often these are recorded sounds of today's synthesizers that are actually available on the market, which are enriched with special effects such as a bit crusher . But sounds of virtual instruments can also be enriched with such effect plug-ins, so that new noises or sounds that sound like retro sounds can be generated. The VST plug-in is switched behind the respective audio channel or in the audio sum signal.