Flow on

... going on with the flow, and the flow feels strong. After previous post (which was just some days ago) I have three more new chiptune bases completed. One got done yesterday, while two newbies were born tonight. And more is to come, certainly. To sum the vibes ... it feels good!

3rd times anticharm

So, it seems that I have started something that will turn out ot be the third Chipfusion release at some point. I've been crafting some other music stuff too, but recently I got very creative with chiptune crafting - and as a result I have 2 song bases at hand.

Hard to say yet, will it be different from past releases - probably not very different, but it will be quite rhytmic experiment, so it seems at this point. Things can always change though, when it's about going with the flow & intuition, and that's how I work when it's about crafting music.

I already have a vision how I'll develop the chiptunes, there will be at least 2 or 3 different working stages, out of which the 1st stage will be 100 % flow / intuition based thing. Second stage might be bit more planned, but still flow sets the rules so to speak. Third stage is the least flow based stage, if the third stage happens. Might not be needed.

Not just that, but I also already know the album title. It will be at the same time logical continuation but with a language twist. I also have idea for the cover artwork as well as word play with the song titles. We'll see if it goes according to vision at this stage, or not.

I can't say for sure when this third release will be ready, but I have a feeling it might well happen during this year 2019. Chiptune inspiration is intensive when it comes. :)

'Toinen' has been released today

The release date is here. 2nd february; second day of second month. Album's title "toinen" means "second" (or "other", as well) in english. And it's literally second album, too. It's already available through streaming services like Spotify, too. Enjoy!

Full album stream at youtube:

URL for full album stream at youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a8deTCp6II

Cover artwork + release date set

Check out the front & back covers below (and click 'em to see em in bigger size). 

The release date is set for 2nd February at this point, and if nothing weird happens, it will be out then.

Tracklist

The hard work has been continued throughout the weekend and it's more than paying off ... didn't think few days ago I'd be saying this, but it looks like the album will be released within a week or so. I've still been listening to the current master version, and so far I haven't noticed anything I'd like to go and tweak. Wow. It sounds very close to what I wanted.

I have the final song lengths now, too - and also the final song titles. And I've created the cover artwork today, from scratch. Came out great. The album title will be 'Toinen'. Here's the tracklist and the overall length is going to be about 43 minutes.

Trailer

Have worked really hard on the package and ... it's getting actually near completion. I will have to listen the material in coming days, to see and feel if it's acceptable to me. It is acceptable enough for crafting a trailer and that's exactly what I did few hours ago. Freshly squeezed, check it out below.

URL for the trailer is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOpjWtTXwP0

Mixing & mastering

While I was writing about starting initial mastering processes, ... putting final touches to mixing comes first. In this case it's less of a deal than usually, as I have far less sources of sounds (or simply just tracks) to be mixed. Actually I've been doing the mixing already when I was recording the guitars - there are the chiptunes as one track, and then there are the guitars, varying from one to two tracks. That's it. So it is pretty simple, straightforward task and I'm doing the final adjustments to mixing.

I could have done this in much more complicated way, by separating each channel in chiptune tracks while exporting them into wav files. Chiptunes have separate channels varying from 8 into 12. Drums take 3-4 channels, bass 2 channels and the rest is for them chirpy soundbytes. But there would be no reason to make it channel by channel - I have done initial mixing already when I was composing & programming (tracking, tracker music) the chiptunes. Tracking a song, you need to know what you are after - and you reach the overall sound you want, based on your tracking knowledge and experience. Having started tracking with Amiga 500 back in 1989, I think I have enough experience, heh heh ... but seriously, it is easy, smooth and flowing operation with me - I reach the vision I have in my mind easily. So it's one chiptune track which gets exported ... and then it's just working with DAW (Reaper in my case nowadays), recording extra elements - in this case just guitarworks and mix the two according the vision.

I managed to get serious mastering work done yesterday for 10 songs - half of the album, yeah. Excellent evening in that sense, massive progress. I don't know if the rest 10 songs go as smoothly from mastering point of view, that remains to be seen. In best possible scenario, and if I have enough free time after dayjob, I might get the music finalized already during January (!) ... dunno yet how it goes, but that's not all there is. I have to craft the artwork too, and name the songs properly. February release feels quite likely, in any case. :)

I can also state something; while first Chipfusion release ("Yksi") was enjoyable in its' own way, it wasn't sort of primarily done for Chipfusion itself. It was chiptunes crafted for Scumfusion, grindcore, and of course Scumfusion came first. Chipfusion was born in the process. So that first album is different in that sense ... this second album though ... this is done 100% for Chipfusion itself, chiptunes first, expanding (fusion) the soundscapes with guitars this time somewhat. Musically speaking it is a big difference, and it means many things.