Łukasz Sychowicz (X-Ray) - "Zizibum" -- Chiptune Visualization / Atari SAP

** PLEASE, WATCH IN HIGH QUALITY FOR PROPER AUDIO! **
So, I decided to take a look at all the separate channels of some chiptune music at once. Thought it might look cool, since those waveforms are usually so pretty. I quickly put together a script to create this and other videos. I had this one lying around for a while, so I decided to upload it too.
This video has a lame naive timbre-capture algorithm: it just finds the first zero-crossing and locks it to the left side of the screen. This way you see waveforms aligned to eachother - at least most of the time. A decent algorithm is trickier than I thought. Until then, have another one. KZbin needs more chiptune anyway.
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The Grayscale Project is an awesome Atari 8-bit music collaboration from Poland. Members are:
Grzegorz Kwiatek (Greg), Łukasz Sychowicz (X-Ray) and Bartek Wąsiel (BeWu).
grayscale.scene...
You can find their work, along with tons of other great Atari music, on the Atari SAP Music Archive (ASMA) at:
asma.atari.org/

[@zejulius58]

It's crazy that even years after listening to this song for the first time... I always come back to it. It is just... Amazing.

[@radioactium]

same man

[@Catoma]

I have no idea where I first heard this, it must be absolutely ages ago... But it all came back to me.

[@Aaaalfaroeo]

Przybywszy od Historii Memów, wskrzeszamy stary chiptune!

[@edgarjacksby1402]

This truly is the most awesome 4-bit song ever.

[@LavaCreeperPeople]

Funnily enough, the original atari only has 2 channels for limited sound, lol

[@vidjenko8349]

@@LavaCreeperPeople This song uses two Atari Pokey chips panned in stereo. They were used on their arcade boards and in their 8-bit computer line. The chip also handles potentiometer and keyboard inputs, hence it's called the PO/KEY chip.

[@DE7ChainedDoor]

This is progressive rock in 8-bit analog glory.

[@LavaCreeperPeople]

Nice

[@MetroidChild]

lisening to this programing gives me +60 in coding skills

[@pumpkoi5935]

Stack overload

[@telecorpse1957]

*Integer overload

[@ChemiCalChems]

Overflow*

[@ancientapparition1638]

for(;;) cout

[@przemekkobel4874]

You're all wrong. It's 0 with C flag set.

[@shzindenPL]

Geniusz, świetne wyczucie rytmu. Bardzo mi się podobają te przeciągania w całym utworze, to rozpierdala jego dynamikę i przez to chce się go słuchać cały czas :D

[@Protomanbeawsome]

I get a strange CyberPunk feeling from this ,and it's awsome

[@relajante]

This is just too awesome... I finally fell in love with chip music.

[@1ucasvb]

They use programs called trackers that run on the Atari computers. In this particular case, I believe they used Theta Music Composer. You can download an Atari XL/XE emulator, download the tracker and load it up and give it a shot. There are modern ways to simulate some of these sounds (like using VSTs), but those are pretty bad.

[@LavaCreeperPeople]

Reminds me of the most awesome 8 bit song ever, lol

[@ancientapparition1638]

Polish and finnish people have unholy programming and rally driving skills for some reason

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

lol

[@ookamiwarrior]

This brings back so many memories, it makes me shiver.

[@distocoreaudiotools851]

Lovely chiptune track with great visualization, thanks for posting this :)

[@airstrikehowitzer6126]

5:09 got me the real chills

[@mypkamax]

Streets of Rage?

[@woooohooooayo]

This is seriously awesome.

[@Train115]

Imagine a heart monitor looking like one of these

[@Miss_Phoenix_56]

This song needs more views.

[@tharkthax3960]

top respect to all you atari geniuses, numen is STUNNING demo

[@XYZB0RG]

4:42 ohhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhh

[@XYZB0RG]

this made me clench my fist in awesomeness

[@superjchamma]

still come back to this after almost a decade :)

[@bruisermachina13]

That drum and bass part just hits man

[@LoppinLazy]

Personally, I think that Unreal Superhero ain't got shit on this. Best chip music ever.

[@Boxoffire59]

I accidentally heard the first minute and a half of this on SD, when I put HQ on, my speakers blew up from the awesomeness

[@gegi207]

This is the same guy who made Po twojej pysznej zupie, btw

[@pauljs75]

This song actually has over 1,750,000 views, but under another video titled "Most awesome 8-bit song ever". No animated visualizations on that one though. Then again, maybe it's awesome enough to warrant even more views than that. ;)

[@allenholloway5109]

Still glad I found this, though. This has better audio.

[@David_Franco]

as of now... It's been taken down.

[@edgarjacksby1402]

funny considering since it’s an Atari soundfont, it would actually be the most awesome “4-bit” song ever

[@1vite]

CHIPTUNE ALL THE WAY!

[@nekomasteryoutube3232]

Makes me think of an epic mid-boss, perhaps on that you have to figure out their weak spot to defeat them :)

[@douro20]

Being able to get good music out of this chip was a real chore- it took up a lot of CPU time since there was no way to do modulation or envelopes except in software. Pitch accuracy is also affected if more than one channel is used at a time.

[@SendyTheEndless]

Digging the envelopes in this one. Very punchy.

[@Monkey8954]

Incredible

[@bash-man2360]

This music is gorgeous.

[@facekick459]

This would be an amazing theme for a final boss..

[@XYZB0RG]

this would be an amazing theme for anything

[@Pastelicious404]

I wonder if someone can transcribe and adapt this to piano or AN ENTIRE ORCHESTRA

[@IvanKovalevkiyothebarbarian]

On it

[@1ucasvb]

My current project is to orchestrate chiptunes. Zizibum is in the list (right now, for Atari POKEY: Draconus, An Anthem for Winterchip, Misunderstanding, Zizibum). (Check my channel and you'll see Global War) I've written a program to convert SAP files to MIDI files (since such a thing didn't exist before), so that could be helpful to transcribing. I gotta find the source code to recompile, though.

[@Pastelicious404]

Yess!

[@cordobesa89]

Would you mind if I adapt it? I really love this tune and would love to practise a bit my music skills. Of course I will credit you properly.

[@Anteaterman23]

Yas!

[@strikerk]

@1ucasvb I hate it when people think in their heads that 8-bit meant poor audio quality and that 240p is the best way to listen to it. It's like they never played an 8bit game in their lives. When I played C64 or NES, the audio was nice and crisp~ sharp with lots of pops, snaps and claps. Maybe I just have a better memory than most, but it always infuriates me when people think old chip effects sounded muffled somehow. X3

[@ancientapparition1638]

People from my generation haven't had a lot of experience with older soundchips. At best you're looking at the GBA - which definitely wasn't crisp by any stretch of the imagination. But yeah hearing SID playback is fucking great. What a fantastic chip.

[@Karsburg]

5:05 épico!!!!

[@DTM-Books]

Epic! I've been craving some longer, more jazz-like POKEY songs. Thanks a lot for the terrific music. Now where do I send the money to support the scene?

[@1ucasvb]

@Orion4442 Not really accurate. 8-bit doesn't mean poor quality. It doesn't work here either, since the POKEY is an analog chip, and it's digital mode is actually 4-bit. The only thing 8-bit about it are the registers, but even so, the POKEY has a 16-bit mode.

[@PianoNBS]

* *SpeedRun 4 Nostalgia* *

[@XYZB0RG]

this was in speedrun 4? I don't remember that

[@xxxfalidoxxx6714]

Is the ost in stage 10

[@Flaminglog]

It shouldn't be possible to make the pokey sound this nice

[@lolpl0000]

ah, another awsome retro song.

[@xXreikomuXx]

Subbed. This is beautiful.

[@pch5237]

I love this !

[@L34D3Ralexey]

Still love this !

[@1ucasvb]

Yeah, but the audio quality in that one is horrible, and doesn't make the track justice. Also, the title makes no reference to the author or the title of the actual song, so that's annoying too. (the video description contains the information, though, but that doesn't help much) I'd rather if people put more effort in giving credit where its due.

[@isaacirasubiza7749]

1ucasvb this song is in speed run 4 the city world

[@Garthinium]

The entertained me, thank you Astromiau.

[@asinineSkeptic]

theres some game i heard this in, i think it was on newgrounds or some sort of mobile song. i can't remember what it was for the life of me. i think it was commander pixman for android?

[@strikerk]

I reuploaded this song before I realized you had it up here. I saw the song posted by someone else as "Greatest 8bit song ever" but it quality was so poor I didn't find it acceptable. I still think my upload is a little better than this one even at 720p, check it out if you'd like. I encoded it at a little higher than 320 even though I know KZbin holds it back down, but it came out really good. If you want me to take it down, that's fine. :3

[@filipsworks]

4:42 miód na uszy.

[@twmjlm]

from 5:05 up is the most epic part. makes me jizz frogs, shit legos, and breath fire. I need doctor.

[@SendyTheEndless]

Plogue Chipsounds is pretty good. Sure, it has it's problems, but it's a good way to explore these sounds in a modern DAW.

[@Justanormalishguy]

@Justanormalishguy and the tecno/cyber pokemon doesn't have to be in gen V, im talking future gens

[@master3000gt]

Polak potrafi. gra z ta muzyka bylaby hitem poprzedniej epoki.

[@loechae4328]

4:45 rocks man!

[@guitarskills2]

@Paradox506 It has almost 500,000 in the video on the right. But, still, More!

[@CanadianSuperCool]

You need to make an album!

[@danke157]

I just wanna sing on this

[@FukiMakai]

If Tim Follin would work on Atari Games prior to Marble Madness...

[@ImmSpiderman2428]

Sounds like mega man, metropolis man, ha

[@kamiz0]

Szacun!

[@TzumiMP34844]

This sounds like a boss battle for my made-up game!

[@CrazyKirlia]

Look up "the best 8-bit song ever" here. Same song and it has over a million views. Still, never hurts to have more.

[@DonBurtango]

The intro scares me, I don't know why.

[@darksidegirl]

cool!! thanks a lot

[@sirhankysur]

@AudioAstronaut5000 Its Polish. Does anyone read the youtube video descriptions before they post comments?

[@lolpl0000]

awesome*

[@Protomanbeawsome]

My Jaw ,It is On The Floor!!!

[@RyszardPoster27]

Dobre chiptune tworzysz :D

[@tekra8971]

You should give us all the song. I like the beginning. I like dissecting people's songs.

[@XxdubsxX]

@Paradox506 sure does!

[@AdamFknWest]

@1ucasvb PROVE YOUR INTELLIGENCE ON THE INTERNETS.

[@cristiankosiello3986]

Se puede reproducir este tema en una Atari 800 XL real?

[@nasty_niff]

Yes

[@Rikey]

zajebiste !! awesome :3

[@donstevenson3884]

I wonder what it would be like if someone made a non-chiptune (idk what else to call it) version of this.

[@donstevenson3884]

Also, am I the only one that got the shit scared out of me at the end?

[@marykelp341]

+Andrew Stevenson you're not the only one

[@Destess]

haha, gave me ptsd from when I was 6 y/o playing some boss and the MC death scenes always scared the hell out of me

[@darksidegirl]

How do you guys create this music with this sounds?. Is there any small program or plugin to create this sounds and try them? It´s so awesome. I would like to play with it. Anybody knows?

[@markenangel1813]

i don't know of any program or plugin, but i use beepbox.co to essentially the same effect.

[@Albergarri788]

Search "Raster Music Tracker" in Google. Is a Atari POKEY tracker

[@sirhankysur]

@AudioAstronaut5000 does anyone read the description to videos? Its Polish.

[@chedruid]

I LOVE UUUUUUUUUUUUU

[@Yugochaz]

Can i use some of ur tunes? with due respect and much appreciation. \\m// total bad ass!

[@DonBurtango]

The intro scares me a little, don't know why.

[@christiancarter9103]

Here from Speed Run 4

[@MelodiiMilmshake]

@konate Speed Run 4 is a game on Roblox where you go through several levels trying to jump from one platform to another, kinda like extreme parkour.

[@AlmightyArceus]

@Paradox506 It has more actually, under "Most Awesome 8 Bit Song Ever"

[@1ucasvb]

@AudioAstronaut5000 Again, KZbin doesn't care if it's an L or an Ł. Try it yourself, you get the exact same results if you search for it. So I'd rather have the actual character for the sake of accuracy.

[@antekbogdanski5744]

*pov:jesteś tu od BadzmyPowazni*

[@UnrealDanio]

so is this running on 8 channels or is it dividen into left and right audio output?

[@1ucasvb]

Daniel Klein Both. Two POKEY chips are used for stereo on Atari computers.

[@ShredDanielGuitar]

I wonder how this would sound on 8 floppy drives!

[@ancientapparition1638]

fucking awesome

[@hamstricke]

You could get FL Studio and use square waves

[@mypkamax]

Sounds like MSX SCC, WonderSwan or even PC Engine HuC6280 music...

[@Bertold07]

Kto przybył od Bądźmy Poważni?

[@cam-man1326]

@AdamFknWest Didn't need that image sir. xD

[@Xbawkslaggo]

FINAL BOSS Internet VS SOPA

[@XxdubsxX]

i, too, am shitting legos

[@smougalusicproductions8018]

2:27

[@CakeAssGerry]

Whoever DOESN'T feel like playing Atari, NES, or SNES after listening to this, then...idk, you might be Justin Beiber or something...whatever kids on youtube say these days

[@LikeSenpai1776]

How can 2 people dislike this? Where they born in 2004?

[@richi3500]

2019- Still 2 dislikes

[@segaking5846]

And the problem with that is?

[@Justanormalishguy]

*pokemon nurdyness actavaited* OMG THEY SHOULD MAKE THIS A BATTLE MUSIC FOR a) GENESECT OR b) A TECNO/CYBER THEMEDPOKEMON!!!!

[@yetanothertubeuser]

Artillery by Geir Tjelta and Sine Ride by zabutom beat them all.

[@RikouHiyama]

excuse me is this ALL squares

[@Justanormalishguy]

@Justanormalishguy 8-bit and all >:)

[@WindowsDrawer]

Jestem prostym człowiekiem. Widzę polskie imię to klikam

[@JackTheGamer3]

Speedrun 4 anyone?