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[[Image:Map of Gloucester County highlighting Glassboro.png|right|thumb|250px|Glassboro highlighted in Gloucester County. Inset map: Gloucester County highlighted in the State of New Jersey.]]
The term '''''chiptune''''' or '''''chip music''''' refers to music written in module formats where all the sounds are synthesized in realtime by a computer or [[video game console]] [[sound chip]], instead of using [[sample-based synthesis]]. The "golden age" of chiptunes was the mid [[1980s]] to early [[1990s]], when such sound chips were the only widely available means for creating music on computers. The medium gave composers great flexibility in creating their own "instrument" sounds, but because early computer sound chips had only simple tone generators and noise generators, it also imposed limitations on the complexity of the sound; chiptunes sometimes seem "harsh" or "squeaky" to the unaccustomed listener.
'''Glassboro''' is a borough located in [[Gloucester County, New Jersey]]. As of the [[2000]] census, the borough had a total population of 19,068.
During the [[Cold War]], U.S. President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] met with Soviet Premier [[Aleksei Kosygin]] from [[June 23]] to [[June 25]], [[1967]] in Glassboro for a three-day summit conference. They met at Glassboro State College, later renamed [[Rowan University]]. The ___location was chosen as a compromise. Kosygin, having agreed to address the [[United Nations]] in [[New York City]], wanted to meet in New York City. Johnson, wary of encountering protests against the [[Vietnam War]], preferred to meet in [[Washington, D.C.]] They agreed on Glassboro because it was equidistant between the two cities. The generally amicable atmosphere of the summit was referred to as the "Spirit of Glassboro," although the leaders failed to reach agreement on limiting [[anti-ballistic missile]] systems.
==Technology==
[[Betty Castor]] was born and grew up in Glassboro.
Historically, the "chips" used were audio [[co-processor]]s like the [[analog]]-[[digital]] hybrid [[MOS Technologies SID]] on the [[Commodore 64]], the [[Yamaha YM2149]] on the [[Atari ST]] and [[ZX Spectrum]], and the [[Yamaha YM3812]] on [[IBM PC compatible]]s.
== Geography ==
In those days, memory and storage space were limited and valuable, driving some composers to create very small modules. As little data as possible was used to create a sound; for example, repeatedly looping 64 bytes of data to produce a constant tone. These were mostly used in [[crack intro|crack intros]], which had to be squeezed into any spare space on the [[floppy disk|disk]] of the [[software cracking|cracked]] software.
Glassboro is located at 39°42'21" North, 75°6'60" West (39.705914, -75.116651)[[Geographic references|<sup>1</sup>]].
According to the [[United States Census Bureau]], the borough has a total area of 23.9 [[square kilometer|km²]] (9.2 [[square mile|mi²]]). 23.9 km² (9.2 mi²) of it is land and 0.11% is water.
The technique of chiptunes with samples synthesized at runtime continued to be popular even on machines with full sample playback capability; because the description of an instrument takes much less space than a raw sample, these formats created very small files, and because the parameters of synthesis could be varied over the course of a composition, they could contain deeper musical expression than a purely sample-based format.
Glassboro borders [[Elk Township, New Jersey|Elk Township]], [[Clayton, New Jersey|Clayton]], [[Monroe Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey|Monroe Township]], [[Washington Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey|Washington Township]], [[Pitman, New Jersey|Pitman]], [[Mantua Township, New Jersey|Mantua Township]], and [[Harrison Township, New Jersey|Harrison Township]].
As newer computers stopped using dedicated synthesis chips and began to primarily use sample-based synthesis, more realistic timbres could be recreated, but often at the expense of file size (as with [[MOD]]s) and potentially without the personality imbued by the limitations of the older sound chips.
== Demographics ==
The standard [[MIDI]] [[file format]], together with the [[General MIDI]] instrument set, describes only what notes are played on what instruments. Whether or not a MIDI file counts as a chiptune is debatable, but in any case MIDI is not generally used for "chiptune-style" music.
As of the [[census]] of [[2000]], there are 19,068 people, 6,225 households, and 4,046 families residing in the borough. The [[population density]] is 799.4/km² (2,071.3/mi²). There are 6,555 housing units at an average density of 274.8/km² (712.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the borough is 74.53% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 19.47% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 0.17% [[Native American (U.S. Census)|Native American]], 2.31% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], 0.09% [[Pacific Islander (U.S. Census)|Pacific Islander]], 1.48% from other races, and 1.95% from two or more races. 3.82% of the population are [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race.
There are 6,225 households out of which 32.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.3% are married couples living together, 14.6% have a female householder with no husband present, and 35.0% are non-families. 23.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 8.4% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.66 and the average family size is 3.17.
==Style==
In the borough the population is spread out with 22.1% under the age of 18, 25.6% from 18 to 24, 25.9% from 25 to 44, 16.6% from 45 to 64, and 9.8% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 27 years. For every 100 females there are 91.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 89.3 males.
[[Crack intro]]s and [[demo scene]] intros came to feature their own particular style of chiptune music. Although ''chiptune'' could historically refer to any style of music, the term is mostly used today to refer to the style of music used in these intros, since other styles of music have moved on to more sophisticated technology.
The median income for a household in the borough is $44,992, and the median income for a family is $55,246. Males have a median income of $40,139 versus $30,358 for females. The per capita income for the borough is $18,113. 15.2% of the population and 8.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 15.6% are under the age of 18 and 7.9% are 65 or older.
More recent "oldschool"/"oldsk00l" or "demostyle" [[MOD]] music, although sample-based, continues the style of the chiptunes used in these intros; new compositions in this style can still be regularly found in places such as the [http://www.modarchive.com/top10.shtml MOD Archive Top 10].
==Today==
Modern PCs running [[emulator]]s can now play the music written for old computer systems with a fair degree of accuracy; because chiptune files are so small, exhaustive compilations of old chiptune music are widely available on the Internet. Finally, some new artists continue to explore the challenges and possibilities of writing music within the old chiptune framework.
==Classic chiptune composers==
*[[Jean Sebastien Gerard]] (Jess)
*[[Jochen Hippel]]
*[[Martin Galway]]
*[[Rob Hubbard]]
==Modern chiptune groups==
*[[8bitpeoples]]
*[[1000 Needles]]
*[[beepdealers]]
*[[Bodenständig 2000]], although not all of their music can be called chiptunes
==External links==
*[http://www.chiptune.com/ Chiptune.com] - lots of chiptunes to download
*[http://www.chiptune.de/ Chiptune.de] - another archive of downloadable chiptunes
*[http://www.kohina.com/ Kohina] - 24/7 chiptune and video game music internet radio
*[http://www.vorc.org/ VORC] - chiptune news
*[http://redofromstart.com Trez & Brioche] - chiptune [[disc jockey|DJs]]
*[http://www.hvsc.c64.org/ High Voltage SID Collection] - a large compilation of Commodore 64 chiptunes
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[[Category:Electronica]]
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