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Related, a friend likes to say instruments that produce too pure sounds (too much like a sine wave) sound somewhat boring, because of their lack of timbre chara

Related, a friend likes to say instruments that produce too pure sounds (too much like a sine wave) sound somewhat boring, because of their lack of timbre characteristics. I think this is a somewhat general property; although in general art is more of a language. I think a pure sine can sound right in the right context (e.g. perhaps how we remember fondly, and still enjoy, chiptunes and retro music), and it can have a particular meaning within that context that makes sense.

WorldMaker 3y ago
It is indeed a common complaint of many of the chiptune genres that they can sound boring, especially for audiences too old or young to have as much nostalgia for the hardware whose constraints set the genre constraints. The basic NES "instruments" were simple wave generators that were about as pure as waveforms get, plus one simple white noise generator. I've met critics that even think that "pure" chiptune sub-genres such as the ones that stay within the bounds of physical NES hardware "can't" survive long-term. I think they are wrong both because I've heard some extraordinary things done within those constraints in my lifetime and for some of the reasons that "minimalism" will always be a viable subgenre of "Classical" (no matter how boring some people find that, too). But I understand where that idea comes from of how such a unique set of hardware constraints gave us some of the "purest" waveforms possible and why such pure waveforms are generally an anomaly in music.
- immibis 3y ago
  Ah yes, [simple and boring](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lScTUyEsA4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lScTUyEsA4). You get 3 voices or whatever's on your chip, but you can also re-adjust them up to hundreds of times a second any way you like. Of course if you just leave them fixed for long times they will sound a bit boring.

WorldMaker 3y ago

It is indeed a common complaint of many of the chiptune genres that they can sound boring, especially for audiences too old or young to have as much nostalgia for the hardware whose constraints set the genre constraints. The basic NES "instruments" were simple wave generators that were about as pure as waveforms get, plus one simple white noise generator. I've met critics that even think that "pure" chiptune sub-genres such as the ones that stay within the bounds of physical NES hardware "can't" survive long-term. I think they are wrong both because I've heard some extraordinary things done within those constraints in my lifetime and for some of the reasons that "minimalism" will always be a viable subgenre of "Classical" (no matter how boring some people find that, too). But I understand where that idea comes from of how such a unique set of hardware constraints gave us some of the "purest" waveforms possible and why such pure waveforms are generally an anomaly in music.

immibis 3y ago
Ah yes, [simple and boring](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lScTUyEsA4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lScTUyEsA4). You get 3 voices or whatever's on your chip, but you can also re-adjust them up to hundreds of times a second any way you like. Of course if you just leave them fixed for long times they will sound a bit boring.