Doctor Octoroc

$1k from the goal now! And I have some tricks up my sleeve for a mid-campaign bump...

Right on, we hit 75% in the first 48 hours and are well on our way to the goal and stretch goals after that!

Thanks for the kind words. The campaign just went live!!! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctoroctoroc/c-change-a-chiptune-tribute-to-beck

Here's a video of the first cut of the album playing on a turntable I made from a broken NES some years ago to promote my first album (and it's become sort of a tradition at this point). This is a one-off lathed copy but the full press is coming, with your help! Give it a listen and let me know what you think! What's your favorite track from the original album? Do you think I captured the sound and feel of it in this format?

In a week and a half, I'll be launching a Kickstarter to fund the press of my third album on vinyl - a recreation of the entirety of "Sea Change" by Beck using only a Nintendo and a Gameboy. Previously, I've done "In the Aeroplane Over The Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel and "The Soft Bulletin" by The Flaming Lips, so I'm excited to be doing it again with an album in my personal top 5 of all time. I also liked the challenge of recreating such somber music with heavy lyrics in a genre typically associated with cheery, upbeat tracks. If you're a Beck fan and at least curious about chip-tunes (I know, I know...it's not for everyone), check it out and hit that green 'notify me on launch' button so you'll know when it goes live. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctoroctoroc/c-change-a-chiptune-tribute-to-beck

Thank you!

Less than $1k to the goal!

Nice, got the featured project on the music page!

I appreciate the kind words! This one is definitely a step up from RP2A, arrangement-wise. Adding the Gameboy really fills the sound stage in a way that the NES can't do on it's own. It helps that the Gameboy can do stereo so I take full advantage of that for songs like "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" with the 'mouth drums' in the beginning. For the next project (I've already started laying down tracks) I'm adding a Commodore 64 which brings that much more to the table. I'll be doing "Sea Change" by Beck. But first thing's first, I need to get this one funded, pressed and sent out to backers!

A little over a year ago I launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the vinyl press of a chiptune cover album which recreates the entirety of "The Soft Bulletin" using only a Nintendo and a Gameboy. Unfortunately, COVID hit the world hard during the month the campaign was live and I had to cancel the project. I recently relaunched the campaign and we're currently at 71% funded with three weeks left! I know chiptunes isn't everyone's jam but I thought some people might enjoy it. I got in touch with Scott Booker (band manager) to approve the use of the band's likeness for various campaign-exclusive rewards and sent him the final cut which he shared with the band. Wayne Coyne said he dug the arrangements!

Once we hit the funding goal, I'll be adding another of these...just saying...

So I have a very exciting update on the project! As of a few days ago, I've officially partnered with Kindercore Vinyl in Athens, GA to press the album to vinyl record! One of the owners reached out to me after happening upon one of the FB ads I ran a few weeks ago and said they'd be honored to do it. Considering Kindercore has been a part of the music scene in Athens since the 90's and have worked with a lot of the artists in the E6 Collective, including key NMH members, I think this adds some significance to the album and I couldn't be happier about it. I'm planning to take a road trip down there to pick everything up once the press is done and hopefully meet some E6 people while I'm there. I'm going to leave a dozen albums with select people and cross my fingers that one of them ends up in Jeff Mangum's hands! I briefly spoke with Scott Spillane and reached out to Laura Carter as well in that effort. If anyone is interested in getting a copy of the vinyl or an album download (and other goodies), campaign link is below - only a week left!

Front page feature on Kickstarter.

God damn it. Now I'm going to have to grab a needle and thread and actually sew the word 'discord' into something.

This was my plan all along, to sew discord.

Haha, fair enough. Of course anything I say can be said to be a defense of the album, whether or not it is. Defending the album itself and defending my choice of pledge amounts for the campaign are two different things, in my mind. Not here to do the former but the latter is a matter of principle. When someone misrepresents me and/or my intentions (artistic integrity aside), I'll gladly engage them to learn more and either set the record (no pun intended) straight or hear them out and see where they're coming from.

^Someone who gets it! I'm not married but my girlfriend would certainly have some pointed questions for me if I lost a bunch of money to release an album on vinyl haha. As it stands, I break about even if I just hit the campaign goal, considering I'm throwing well over a grand at Merge Records just for the royalties on this thing. A lot of people don't think about that factor when it comes to cover albums done properly (legally). I agree, I'd rather release a quality album for those who can truly appreciate it and gain little, monetarily, then make big bank catering to the masses. This is a passion project and I've put a lot of time and effort into it. Anyone is welcome to dislike it but this mentality of trying to present demonstrable proof of the failure of a subjective work to live up to its arbitrary purpose is futile and I can only chuckle at some of the responses here.

Well, that $45 backer level also includes a download of the album plus digital downloads of two of my previous albums so it's not just the costs of a singular physical vinyl album's components plus shipping at play here. You may not care for the extra album downloads, which is fine, but for a lot of people who dig chiptunes, it's a great bundle. And honestly, this forum thread is the first time I've encountered anyone who's been so negative about the project - and that's totally fine. I don't expect everyone to like it but at least offer some constructive criticism to help me improve as an artist if you've been bothered to offer up any comment to begin with. To break it down in more detail: shipping is around $10 on average (shipping supplies - vinyl mailer, stiffeners, label, label sleeve - plus shipping costs themselves, per album - averaged for anywhere in the USA since I'm covering a pretty wide range) plus the going (quite reasonable) rate for two digital albums (46 tracks total) for a combined $21 - which takes $31 from the $45 pledge total and leaves $14 for the vinyl album (including download of the album) which, at a small 200 units run, works out to about $9 each to produce per album. A $5 markup is well below retail standard (stores tend to mark up products to 200% of what they pay for them so if they pay $10 for an album, they'll sell it for $20). So even if you calculate things in the opposite direction and say that a vinyl that includes a digital download shouldn't cost more than $20 and then take the $10 shipping costs from that, the digital downloads work out to $15 which is less than what they cost on their own and more than acceptable for two full album downloads with 46 tracks between them. Considering all of that I really don't think $45 is a lot to ask for a pledge for a vinyl album that includes the shipping and other extras on a Kickstarter project - the whole point of which is to fund an independent artist for a release on vinyl. But look, if you don't dig chiptunes as a genre, I understand not being interested in the project. No hard feelings! Thank you! I did have a lot of fun and I've been working on it since last summer. And you bring up an interesting point in mentioning the Garth Brooks vinyl. I personally don't like him or the genre so I wouldn't pay even $10 for that box set, let alone $100. Point is, it will always come down to personal subjective taste vs value. Clearly, many people think that I'm offering a great product at a good value while others (present company included) don't. And that's totally fine. Fact is, anyone who loves chiptunes and Neutral Milk Hotel will likely be into it - aside from the OP, of course. But even they didn't bother to give it a chance before passing judgement. 3 seconds of any album is not enough to go on so how they perceived that to be a sufficient sample to judge the entire content before doing so is beyond me. Having said that, they're welcome to dislike it and offer constructive criticism. I'll never raise and issue with someone who's willing to take the time to tell me why they don't like what I've done.

To the OP - I definitely don't consider it an 'improvement' on the original album, nor is it (or any cover for that matter) supposed to be. Some cover albums/songs are better than the original (pretty much every other version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", especially Jeff Buckley's, imo) but most aren't. A cover isn't supposed to transcend the original but pay tribute. Maybe try listening to more than 3 seconds of the album before deciding it's an atrocity to the world? Hell, I put the whole damn thing up on YT so people could hear it before making a decision. It may not be your cup of tea, that's totally fine, but a lot of people are digging it and the campaign is 50% funded after 5 days, not to mention it was the feature project on the music homepage for a few days so if nothing else, the Director of Music at Kickstarter loved it. But I'm not here to defend it or anything. It's all subjective so you can think and say whatever you want. I just wanted to throw in my bit for the peanut gallery! I get that. I had another guy mention this in a Reddit post and I responded to illustrate the costs that go into short run vinyl. I went into more detail in that post but the tl;dr is that the $45 level includes a digital download of the album, two previously released digital albums, extras that many standard vinyl don't include like poly bags and inserts - and shipping costs are included (I hate when KS campaigns add shipping after pledging so I didn't want to do that). What it breaks down to, cost-wise, is $15-$20 for the vinyl itself, all other things considered, so I don't think that's unfair!

Ouch, haha. It's cool, no hard feelings. Chiptunes isn't for everyone, for sure.