I ran a panel at UK PonyCon 2024 · 3:31pm Oct 19th, 2024
Hey look it's me I'm a purple blur (I was cosplaying Hipstershy for the con). It was rather bizarre to go on Derpibooru when I got home and see literally myself, as the first posted image from the con.
UK PonyCon was a couple of weeks ago! I got totally con crudded after the con, which I think means it was good.
Anyway this con was different for me because, for the first time ever, I ran a panel! At Ghost Mike's gentle ghostly urging, I'll write up a bit about my experience.
The seeds of an idea
This isn't actually Maz's GI 2023 panel. I just like presenting this photo out of context.
I had been thinking about doing a panel since last year, mainly inspired by a panel that had been run by Maz at Griffish Isles 2023. Maz is the UK PonyCon chair, but he also likes British road transportation infrastructure and it had been comically hinted that Griffish Isles was the perfect place to talk about boring hobbies in front of a captive audience.
It was a joke, of course, but I found myself inspired by the idea nonetheless. I'm a firm believer that good presentation can enliven even the most dull subjects (this is the premise of the BBC radio series The Boring Talks, which I enjoyed), and I like to think I'm pretty good at explaining things, being a person who is often frustrated by the lack of clarity in communication.
And as it happened, there was a subject I knew something about, and which even had connections to the pony fandom - chiptunes, aka "8-bit music". I've long been a fan of this kind of music, and I felt like I might be the right person to bring this topic to an audience. See, I'm not an audio person. I love listening to music, and I dabble in composing it, but when it comes to music production and theory, I often find myself lost. People who know music stuff seem to assume everyone else knows it too, and their explanations often assume knowledge I don't have, which is frustrating.
I therefore felt like I could be a bridge between the audience and this topic, as I could try to help them avoid the frustrations I had had.
I admit that a few years ago, I probably wouldn't have dreamed of even trying to do a panel at a con. I'm an introvert and talking to lots of people doesn't come easily to me. However, a few things made the path clearer for me. Firstly, a number of my pony friends had done panels as well, and had survived the experience unscathed. Secondly, I'd been to plenty of panels at UKPC before that hadn't gone so well, and identified aspects where I was pretty sure I could do better.
I also know the kinds of people who attend UKPC and they're lovely and very accommodating, so even if things did go wrong, I felt confident that I wouldn't be hounded out of the convention hall by a crowd of torch-wielding cosplayers.
And finally, probably the bigger reason is that I wanted to push myself. I think I've mentioned before that putting myself in uncomfortable situations is good therapy for my OCD, and this felt sufficiently uncomfortable - yet also rewarding if I could pull it off.
Putting together the panel
I settled on the title pretty early: The Magic of Chiptunes. I wanted it to be clear what the panel was about, but also adding an air of inspiration and mystery.
I started by embarking on lots of research: reading articles, listening to chiptunes, studying various sound chips and their abilities. I tend to be very reductive when it comes to understanding things, diving down to the lowest level I can and trying to piece it together from the bottom up - I think this approach works well for chiptunes, whose sound-making capabilities often sit very close to the hardware.
I was working under the assumption that my audience would have a range of ages, from people who grew up with the early 8-bit systems to people in the modern sampled sound era. I wanted to accommodate them all, so the main framing of my panel was to contrast the music technology of today with that of the early 1980s, as the chiptune sound is very much a product of the technical limitations of its time. This allowed me to make lots of jokes at the expense of the 1980s, which is okay because I was born then so I'm allowed. I had a few different themes which I wanted to get across in my panel:
- The proposal that chiptunes are a great beginners playground for people getting into music
- The fact that you don't need any expensive equipment to make chiptunes
- That chiptunes provide a fun creative challenge of producing music using limited resources
And of course, tying it to the pony fandom where I could.
The panel went through a number of evolutions before reaching its final state - I found I'd made it a bit too dense, so I cut out some of the advanced stuff like multi-voice effects, and simplified some of the explanations, which I think worked out well.
Pre-pony panel preparations
I applied for a panel as soon as UKPC opened submissions, and to my surprise, they accepted. I'd actually been rather sure they'd pass on me due to my admitted lack of experience, but nope, they gave me a slot. (It eventually turned out I'd be competing with 3 other panels in the same timeslot, oh dear).
Now that I was committed to doing it, I figured I should try to prepare. The presentation was coming along pretty well, but I actually needed to, you know, present it, which is the challenging part.
I have done presentations and talks before, for school projects and work colleagues, but I never really like doing it. Still, that experience gave me a little idea of how to prepare. I know that one problem I have is talking too fast when I'm nervous, which is bad for presentations as it makes one less easy to understand - plus I also have to account for non-native English speakers, so clarity is important. I tried filming myself and doing some streaming on Twitch to try to refine my speaking skills a bit, and to try and curb my bad speaking habits.
I did some run-throughs of my panel too - I found that quite painful because I kept making mistakes, and every mistake increased my trepidation that the panel wouldn't go well - but at the same time, it's necessary and helpful to go through this process, as it helps you to catch problems ahead of time instead of making them on the day.
One thing I really wanted to avoid was putting myself into a situation where I would start trying to wing it - this inevitably results in me trailing off into unintelligibility without really making a coherent point, and I didn't want that. To try to eliminate that possibility, I ended up making a document containing the key points of each of my slides which I put onto an e-reader, just in case I completely blanked during the presentation. As it happened, I ended up not needing it anyway.
Presenting the panel
On the day of the panel, I luckily managed to catch UK PonyCon chair Maz before my panel, and asked him some questions that I'd failed to ask prior: when should I turn up for my panel? How do I plug my thing into the thing? When do I finish? Maz answered my questions and optimistically theorized that the audio setup would just work, all I needed to do was plug the HDMI cable into my laptop.
Thus, I duly arrived early in my assigned room and started plugging things in. And of course, it didn't work. I knew it wouldn't. I've seen so many panels where the screen interface just never works. It's never as simple as just plugging it in.
This led to an annoying - but predicted - first ten minutes of the panel where I was fiddling with settings trying to make things work. Since I had predicted the audio wouldn't work, I had presciently brought a Bluetooth speaker with me, and played sound through that instead. One of the UK PonyCon staff tried to help and eventually figured that the audio was playing through the room's speakers, it was just too quiet to hear, so we fiddled with some more settings and hurrah we sort of got sound.
While all those shenanigans were going on, I presented the "Starting soon" screen I'd made for the panel:
I was very happy I got to include this. I don't know how well known Teletext is outside of the UK - it was a method of encoding data in television signals and was a popular form of electronic content in the 1980s and 1990s. The limitations of the data medium and technology of the time meant that you could only use text and blocky semigraphics with a limited color palette, which gave it a very distinct style. I got the idea after listening to a cover of a 16-bit chiptune, "Guitar Slinger" by Jogeir Liljedahl, and it sounded to me exactly like the music that used to play over Ceefax transmissions in the 1990s.
I also knew it was likely that Entei-rah, a fan of the Teletext medium, would be attending my panel, and he'd probably appreciate it. Naturally, he immediately spotted a hideous error that I'd made in my Ceefax mockup, namely getting the color ordering of the four bottom links wrong. It should be red, green, yellow, blue. I feel like such an amateur.
Anyway, we finally got started, and I launched into the panel. You can see my slides here if you want: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13xCjLG0Lbxy36kxGUr-2xBNESa96T2nrHibk24SLIpQ
One thing I was keen to avoid with my panel was putting too much text on slides, as this inevitably leads to just reading the slide, and I don't think that's fun for the audience. They can already see what's on the slide, they don't need me to read it. Instead, I wanted the slides to either summarize what I was saying, or prepare the audience for what's coming, or just entertain them while I'm talking. This brevity meant that I had 53 slides, which is probably way too many. I did a lot of balancing and cutting down while I was putting it together, taking into account that some slides are just quick jokes or segues.
Sourcing all the pony images for my slides was lots of fun and something I have plenty of practice in doing, as I often post pony GIFs during weekly music meets with the Worcester ponies. I know how to find images :) I included a lot of humorous images and jokes, which I was happy to hear landing with the audience.
For part of the presentation, I demonstrated the fundamental sounds and modulation possibilities of 1980s sound chips by using LMMS, a free digital audio workstation. I had originally planned to go into a lot more detail on LMMS with a live demo, but in the end I decided to cut that out - partly for time reasons, but also because I didn't want to tie the audience down to any one program. Part of my thesis is that you can - and should - make chiptunes with pretty much anything.
The audio demos didn't work so well due to latency between my laptop and the speakers, which made it difficult to play live. But hopefully the audience got enough of it. I spent a little time noodling around with LMMS to show how a drumbeat could be constructed, as I felt it was important to show that chiptunes aren't all bleeps and bloops - the percussive side is just as important.
I also showed off Furnace Tracker (a free chiptune tracker which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to play around with chip sounds), with a little demo version of "You'll Play Your Part" to show how arpeggiation can be used to conserve voices in a chiptune while still providing important harmonies.
One recurring joke in the slides is allusions to the ZX Spectrum's terrible sound capabilities - this is because I also suspected fellow Worcester pony Dodj would be in the audience, and I knew they were a fan of the system. Happily, they told me afterward they loved the panel.
I also got to talk about 1-bit music, which is awesome as I don't think many people are aware of this minimalist subgenre of chiptune music and I think it's amazing. I would have delved into the ZX Spectrum 1-bit scene, but I just didn't have time.
I wrapped up the panel by bringing it back to ponies, because there is an intersection between chiptunes and pony music and part of my motivation for the panel was to widen it, and hopefully inspire others to contribute to the pony music scene with their own chiptunes. Thus, for the final three minutes of the panel, I had arranged a showcase of pony chiptunes that I had hoovered up from various corners of the internet. I tried to assemble a nice balanced collection of different systems and styles to show the range of stuff that's out there. I also didn't tell Loganberry that I would be including one of his tunes in the showcase, whoops :)
And with that, the panel was a wrap! Despite my fears of low turnout, a decent number of folks showed up, and some even talked to me after the panel like I was a real panellist or something. (One person recommended I listen to "beeper torture", a 1-bit PC speaker tune that comes with Furnace Tracker's demo pack, which is great because I didn't even know Furnace Tracker had a demo pack).
So yeah, all in all it went great. I got to enjoy the sweet relief after it was over, knowing I had done a thing what I hadn't thought I could do before. With any luck, maybe I even inspired a few people.
Sounds very entertaining, and I love the pony images you selected for your slides.
Also, now you're sorta-kinda-famous!
Those young punks can get off my lawn.
You can stay on my lawn, though. I like you.
Also, I'm reminded of a YouTube video I've seen of a musician who took a classic Atari VCS/2600 and -- despite the limited repertoire of built-in sounds available to it -- turned it into a musical instrument he called a gAtari. I can dig up the link if you're interested.
It was great fun, and really entertaining. You did an excellent job with the panel! Well, apart from that bit where you didn't tell me what you were up to.
I really should get back to this kind of thing at some point. It's been too long. Plus with a BBC Micro I could actually do a Ceefax image natively in
MODE 7. Hmm, I'm having ideas again. This is scary...If only you'd let us know, we could have done something about that! Though obviously the flashlight kind of torch would have had to suffice.
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Sounds similar to the Commodordion, an accordion made out of two Commodore 64s :) Getting music out of the Atari 2600 is more impressive than it seems at first, since the system wasn't actually designed to produce musical frequencies :)
If blurred enough that we wouldn't notice you if we didn't know what to look for.
Assuming you mean the pic headlining this blog, and not another one altogether. Though given my quick browse of the UK PonyCon tag there didn't turn up anything else with you, I doubt it.
[Mudbriar voice] Technically, that would be my gentle phantasmal urging. Saying ghostly would be like me describing your urging as lapine.
That's three times now you've taken the plunge on something (partially) due to my encouragement. Perhaps I'm good to have around to bring out the best in my friends…
And a bridge you were. As I said later that day and have repeated ever since, you took your obsession, and for the time of the panel, made it ours too. That's the most noblest of tasks these sorts of panels can aspire to. Doubly so in the wake of how talking coherently in front of a crowd like that ain't easy for you. Take pride in that, bud!
The bits on how the panel changed was interesting. I wouldn't have guessed there was a lot of cut content, but I'm glad to hear there was; it means what we did get was higher quality, and broken up systematically with Pony joke panels along the way to boot. And the failsafes in case your lost your prepared route, hey always good to know one's weaknesses. It makes sense you didn't need them in the end, mind – knowing they were there would have raised your confidence.
Naturally!
Honestly, as I work purely from desktops, this is one of the main reasons I haven't ever considered applying to do a panel myself; I wouldn't trust being able to use their computers to connect online to access any prepared slides. Unsurprised to see you came prepared.
Honestly, I don't remember any difficulties.
It ended up being the best kind of inside joke – one where I (and others, presumably) didn't get it at first, it made us curious, and the reveal of why ended up being all the better.
Anyway, you really did do a fine job, in topic, construction and presentation. It wasn't a flashy or showy panel, and possibly my "one of the con's highlights" status is tinted somewhat by my proximity to the author/host, but that doesn't invalidate that take. Because to get to that, it has to be pretty good to begin with.
Whatever's next on the agenda for you – Anon fics takedown, more Fimfic stats analysis, another fic – I'm sure the same enthusiasm will carry you through the bundle-of-nerves that come in gestation to just as warm a result as this.
Your panel was sooooo goooood! I learnt so much and it was really entertaining. Definitely one of the high points of the con.
You've got me thinking again about that idea I had years ago for Lego Ponies panel. Maybe it's still not too late?
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Introduce people to the mysteries and wonder of Danish block assemblage
Yessssss do eet
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I mocked mine up in GIMP. It almost worked
I hadn't even twigged that the digs at the Spectrum were for my benefit in particular, that's brilliant!
I'd assumed it was just a brilliantly hilarious (and, I'll admit; not undeserved... the Blue Danube intro to Manic Miner comes quite literally screeching to mind) broadside at the system's audio (in)capabilities.
Even then your panel gave me some fascinating insights into the intricacies of how they managed what they did with the ones that weren't an assault on the eardrums.
I mentioned elsewhere but since then I've enjoyed listening to the soundtracks to a lot of the games I used to play way back when and actually seeing them learning and utilising the tricks and methods you talked about in the panel for squeezing more out of limited capabilities. It was great now seeing them go from said Blue Danube of Manic Miner that must've had poor Johann Strauss II rolling in his grave very early in the system's life to the bouncy and still rather fantastic (alright, subjective opinion alert
) music of Spellbound Dizzy much later on.
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I only watched a brief portion of the "Performance" section of that video, but I really enjoyed it! Best of all, I now know that Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" is the music that was used in the obscure (and probably largely forgotten) arcade game Domino Man. (Released 1983 per Wikipedia.) I've been wondering for decades.
You're absolutely right that the Atari 2600 is in no way hardware meant for music -- so some people might be put off by the sounds of the gAtari. I like it, though.
Congratulations! Paneling is fun but definitely hair raising!
That's awesome. I wish I could go to a Euro Con.
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There have actually been recent-ish advances that use a software pitch driver to "correct" the Atari 2600's pitch, by blending nearby frequencies together. You can play around with it in Furnace Tracker, it has this gritty sound that I think is pretty cool :)