How to make your own 8 bit music
The Engadget podcast uses 8 bit music for their intro (different each time) and wanting more I went in search for some on Youtube etc. Eventually I stumbled across an old program that makes it for you, and it works great!
For the less geeky out there, 8 bit music is music that sounds like it’s coming from an old Nintento 8-bit console (NES). It might be geeky to some but I quite like the sound of it, maybe because I prefer music without any lyrics in it to begin with.
The program is called GXSCC and is really old, with the latest version dating back to 2002. It’s currently hosted only on Geocities which has been closed down, so expecting that the sites will be taken down shortly as well I uploaded the archieve here for sake of not letting it die with Geocities. Download it by right clicking here and selecting “save target as”. The app doesn’t require installation.
Please note that it will NOT convert music files, only MIDI. MIDI files are files that basically contain the notes and instruments used for a song, and the device that plays it back then does all the music “creation”. MIDI files are often used for karaoke, cell phone ring tones (known as “polyphonic ringtones”) and synthesizers etc. The way MIDI files work with not having the actual music recording (like MP3 files do) is the reason why GXSCC can make it into 8 bit, as it just switches out the instruments that are supposed to be used by similar sounding 8 bit alternatives. Simply drag a MIDI file (which can easily be found on Google as it’s not the same copyright shit as normal music is) and it plays as 8 bit. GXSCC will also allow you to save the 8 bit track as a WAV file which can then be converted to MP3 for playback on a portable player.
Below are some songs I converted using MIDI files I found on the net. Click on them to play them using the Shadowbox music player (switch songs by using the next/previous arrow in the lower right corner) or right click and select “save as” to download them.
Culture Club – “Karma Chamaleon”
