Gruber

Composing with Filters (Part 5) - Pico-8 Music Tutorial #70

This is the LAST tutorial in the series exploring Pico-8’s filters!

There’s an underbelly of sounds to explore when you loop different sounds at extremely fast speeds.  Warning: Some of these sounds might make some people uncomfortable.

As I demonstrate in the tutorial, the best place to start is by looping two rows at SPD 1.  When the second row is different from the first row, you get a new family of sounds that I’ve been calling “buzzing.” I...

Composing with Filters (Part 4) – Pico-8 Music Tutorial #69

More composing using Pico-8’s new filters!

Here you can watch me design some nasty, grungy bass sounds.  As well as using the filters, there are two workflows that are important to note here.

The first is using layering to explore the timbre of sounds. At first, this is as easy as copying and pasting notes from one SFX to another, and playing them simultaneously. As you explore this, you’ll hear that different instruments, volumes and effects can change t...

Parisian Thoroughfare (Bud Powell) - Solo Jazz Piano

Parisian Thoroughfare by Bud Powell

• Chris Donnelly, piano
• Produced by Chris Donnelly (Gruber)
• Mastered by Taylor Kernohan
• Artwork by ndop

Recorded at The Metropole, Toronto Canada, November 2020

Thanks to Taylor for his mixing guidance!

April 2021 Gruber Update!

Hey ya’ll!

Tl:dr - Lots of stuff coming:

• 1)  More pics of Levi
• 2)  Pico-8 Tutorials (composing with filters)
• 3)  Slipways soundtrack
• 4)  More jazz piano music
• 5)  Jazz piano articles & transcriptions
• 6)  New Pico-8 album!?

More pics of Levi

Tor...

Quasimodo (Charlie Parker) - Solo Jazz Piano

Quasimodo by Charlie Parker

• Chris Donnelly, piano
• Produced by Chris Donnelly (Gruber)
• Mastered by Taylor Kernohan
• Artwork by ndop

Recorded at The Metropole, Toronto Canada, October 2020

Thanks to Taylor for his mixing guidance!

Composing with Filters (Part 3) – Pico-8 Music Tutorial #68

Hello!

Continuing with filters, in this tutorial, I explore the Reverb filter.

Up to this point, I’ve used the reverb filter just as I use most of the other filters. It changes the sound in an interesting way, and so it can be used as part of a sound design toolset.

The idea with anything called “reverb” though, will be to create space.  As in, sound played in a small room versus a church.  So, in this tutorial, I use the reverb filter only as part of an echo...

Visa (Charlie Parker) - Solo Jazz Piano

Visa by Charlie Parker

• Chris Donnelly, piano
• Produced by Chris Donnelly (Gruber)
• Mastered by Taylor Kernohan
• Artwork by ndop

Recorded at The Metropole, Toronto Canada, October 2020

Thanks to Taylor for his mixing guidance!

Composing with Filters (Part 2) – Pico-8 Music Tutorial #67

In this tutorial, I continue exploring open/ambient music and using the filters to give more depth.

I wasn’t totally happy with the direction the previous tutorial took, and I wanted to try again. So, in THIS tutorial, I go a bit deeper into designing the custom instruments. One approach I like to take when composing ambient music is creating parts that interact in unpredictable ways. Using various SPDs and loop points helps with this.

These two tutorials are meant to show proce...

Un Poco Loco (Bud Powell) - Solo Jazz Piano

Un Poco Loco by Bud Powell

• Chris Donnelly, piano
• Produced by Chris Donnelly (Gruber)
• Mastered by Taylor Kernohan
• Artwork by ndop

Recorded at The Metropole, Toronto Canada, October 2020

Thanks to Taylor for his mixing guidance!

Composing with Filters (Part 1) – Pico-8 Music Tutorial #66

With the release of Pico-8 0.2.2, we now have “filters” to play with when composing.

The most interesting of these filters is DETUNE using instrument 0, which plays a 2nd note, either a perfect 5th above or a perfect 4th below the written note.  This opens up many possibilities for more harmonic expression.

I had some ideas of how I wanted to explore this in the context of ambient music. In the next few tutorials, I’ll be composing music with a combination of filters an...

Donna Lee (Parker/Davis) - Solo Jazz Piano

Donna Lee by Charlie Parker and Miles Davis

• Chris Donnelly, piano
• Produced by Chris Donnelly (Gruber)
• Mastered by Taylor Kernohan
• Artwork by ndop

Recorded at The Metropole, Toronto Canada, October 2020

Thanks to Taylor for his mixing guidance!

Monty on the Run Theme (Pico-8 Cover)

The theme from Monty on the Run, classic game from the C64, composed by Ron Hubbard -  the perfect song for Pico-8's new filters!  A lot more buzzing possibilities, and that new NOIZ filter is a big expressive addition.

This arrangement takes up three carts. It may have been possible to get this down to two carts, but my goal was to make it sound as close to the original as possible. So I ended up using many more custom instruments. 

Attached are:

• 3 Pico...
  2021-02-15 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Chi-Chi (Charlie Parker) - Solo Jazz Piano

Chi-Chi by Charlie Parker

• Chris Donnelly, piano
• Produced by Chris Donnelly (Gruber)
• Mastered by Taylor Kernohan
• Artwork by ndop

Recorded at The Metropole, Toronto Canada, October 2020

Thanks to Taylor for his mixing guidance!

New Features in 0.2.2 - Pico-8 Music Tutorial #65

Pico-8 will be getting a new update soon! This tutorial is a rundown of the two new music/sound features.

First is the new LEN trigger.  When the 2nd number is zero, the first number activates LEN, and represents the length of the SFX. Odd time-signatures and triplets and now MUCH easier!

Second is the new FILTER panel.  In the tutorial I go thr...

New Piano Music! - The Fruit (Bud Powell)

tl;dr - I’m starting to release self produced piano music every couple weeks

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Hey everyone!

I’ve been promising new piano music for months - I’m excited to finally be able to share it with you

Every couple weeks, I’ll be releasing a video with some jazz improvisations and compositions.  I’m still unsure the best way to release this for patrons, but for now,

• ALL patrons will have early access to the YouTube videos
• +5$ patr...
  2021-01-27 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Feedback Series #7 - Pico-8 Music Tutorial #64

The start of a composition can begin with spontaneous play, but that’s when the hard work begins. Most of composing is spent in the trenches, refining and developing things step-by-step.

I think it might be common for beginner composers to write down some basic ideas, put them together, but not know how to further refine and polish them. In this feedback tutorial, I isolate a few of the parts and explore some ways to make them sound more interesting and more “deliberate.”

Le...

Feedback Series #6 - Pico-8 Music Tutorial #63

A new Feedback tutorial!

This is from a cute campfire cart by jroo (thanks for letting me do this!)

The music is a cover of I’ll Be Around by Yo La Tengo

Lots of topics covered including ways to differentiate between melody/accompaniment, foreground & background.

Hope it helpful, happy to answer ques...

Golden Axe Warrior Title Music (Pico-8 Cover)

Starting the new year with a request from Jonah Landis on YouTube!

This is the Title Music from Golden Axe Warrior (composed by Jeroen Tel). There are many ports of this game (I played the SMS, role-playing version as a kid).

This Pico-8 arrangement was inspired by the C64 version, so there’s more ‘buzzing’ and classic use of chiptune arps. Check out the original here.

As usual, attached is the sheet ...

December 2020 Gruber Update!

Hey everyone!

Just a quick update before the end of the year. Things have been incredibly busy and to avoid burn out, I decided to delay some Patreon plans to 2021. This will be my last post of the year.

Some things that are happening:

First of all, Levi’s the best:

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Slipways is in Alpha, and we launched a 2020-12-16 14:41:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Pico-8 Music Tutorial #62 – Copying SFX Between Carts

Hey everyone!

A quick tutorial on copying SFX between carts.

There are four ways I do this:

• 1)  Using a text editor
• 2)  Moving Individual/Groups of SFX
• 3)  Moving individual/Groups of music patterns
• 4)  Using Renoiser

Depending on what you’re copying, you may use one way or another.

I highly recommend Renoiser, made by Run...

Studiopolis from Sonic Mania (Pico-8 Cover)

Listen to my Pico-8 arrangement of Studiopolis from Sonic Mania! (composed by Tee Lopes).

Thanks to Niko The Hippo on YouTube for the suggestion.

This took me extra long to arrange first because of the triplet swing. And second because there are SO many layers in the original. It was very difficult to parse through it all and figure out how...

Hollow Knight (Pico-8 Cover)

In the video above, you can here my arrangement of Hollow Knight, from Hollow Knight, in Pico-8 . Composed by Christopher Larkin.  Listen to the original here.

Thanks to Retrisma for the suggestion!

Attached are:

• Pico-8 cart
• Sheet music
• Mp3

Thanks for listening, happy to answer any questions as always.

Pico-8 Music Tutorial #61 – Feedback and Workflow

Hey everyone!

This tutorial has been on my mind for a long time.  It’s a complex topic, I’m still working on the language, so your ideas are welcome!

This is all part of a larger theory that music composition is a process guided by feedback loops. Whatever the style, whatever the tool, composers use feedback loops to interact with the music they’re making. Generally, the process is:

• start with sound
• listen <----> edit
2020-11-09 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post

New Pico-8 Tunes!

July 26/21 update - Added a whole new cart of tunes, called CozyTunes. More information below!

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Attached to this post are carts filled with music and other interesting bits.  These are for you to use, remix, learn, etc. They may eventually make it into the public forums, but for now, these are for $5+ Patrons only.

Currently, there are THREE carts (more descriptions below).  You can preview all the songs in the video above – timing cue...

Two-Handed Jazz Voicings - A Practice Guide

June 9, 2021 – Article complete!! 1500-word