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Photon Jive

By Disposable Planet on January 17, 2026 9:04 pm

I returned from MAGFest 2026 this past monday and, simply put, I was inspired by all the amazing talent I saw on display at Chipspace and during the Chiprave.  There were some excellent artists on stage, especially during Open Mic at Chipspace.  So I decided to get back into an LSDJ workflow and make some happy chiptunes as part of a new music project I'm undertaking.

You would expect by the name "Photon Jive" that it might be funky but this one is a pretty happy and chippy song.   The lead is pretty straightforward - just a pulse wave with a 50% duty cycle and some table shenanigans going on to give it a plucky sound as well as some proper vibrato and L and P commands in phrase to give it some character.   For the middle section which is in a minor key I used three different bass instrument patches which I am switching between rather rapidly for that spazz bass AFX-y effect.   There are some fairly standard stereo-panned arps and harmonic intervals as well as some staccato intervals for the middle part.   The lead was composed by just jamming out in my head over the progression and I think it came out pretty catchy.

As for the title...  it's an inside joke between my best friend, Charlie, and I.   Back in high school there was this one kid who used to hang out with our group of friends.  One night he took entirely too much acid and became convinced he was a photon intersecting our plane of existence.  He even started yelling about his newfound photonic nature.   We jokingly refer to this as the "Photon Jive".

Feels good to be back in the LSDJ state of mind.   Thanks for listening!

Audio works licensed by author under:
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Good mix of old and new vibes. Reminds me of bitshifter

this is great! also love the handheld feel in the video. everything moving around and feeling playful. definite favourite!

Very good gameboy music, nice work big_smile

heart great work!

grazcore wrote:

Good mix of old and new vibes. Reminds me of bitshifter

Thanks, yeah it does that happy old bitshifter quality to it.

Apticx wrote:

this is great! also love the handheld feel in the video. everything moving around and feeling playful. definite favourite!

Thank you!  Yeah that's become a running joke in my videos.  I just need to get a tripod is what's really going on hahaha

Janky Jams wrote:

Very good gameboy music, nice work big_smile

Thanks so much!

dreat wrote:

heart great work!

Thank you!

To start with, the sound design is tasty. I love the snappy percussion and the tasty arps especially. Great wav channel work after the drop. The song itself is really energetic and nice. I feel like I could listen to this a dozen times and still find new things to love.

Cool video setup too, oscilloscope is a nice touch.

Damn takes me back to 2005/2006 when I was just discovering chiptune and being blown away that the gameboy could produce this kinda sound.

Classic chiptune! Great use of the arms. And I love how the slippy lead gives way to rhythmic section around 1:40ish.

So undeniably a disposable planet track - great job!

.exe wrote:

To start with, the sound design is tasty. I love the snappy percussion and the tasty arps especially. Great wav channel work after the drop. The song itself is really energetic and nice. I feel like I could listen to this a dozen times and still find new things to love.

Cool video setup too, oscilloscope is a nice touch.

Thanks!  The oscilloscope is pretty fun - it's a kit that Korg makes.   You build it yourself and it supports two stereo signals.

rayjkayj wrote:

Damn takes me back to 2005/2006 when I was just discovering chiptune and being blown away that the gameboy could produce this kinda sound.

I like to harken back to the old school chiptune sound with a lot of my LSDJ tracks.   My sound design is completely different when I use the M8 though so go figure

deeckzeven wrote:

Classic chiptune! Great use of the arms. And I love how the slippy lead gives way to rhythmic section around 1:40ish.

Thanks!  I do like to make my bass breakdowns rather spazzy.

dadboy wrote:

So undeniably a disposable planet track - great job!

Thanks so much!

Beautiful work, man!

Also love the title and story behind it.

01:38 is fucking insane! 🤣
Too good!

Awesome! Such great energy. Love the stuttery staccato texture around the ~1:38 mark. heart

I had forgotten how cool the ol DMG can sound when it's pushed hard! That middle section is awesome

Oh heck, chiptune goodness.
So good.
- Spider

ooh the variation in the drum patterns is really nice in this. Also love how the melody feels so expressive and conversational heart

Absolute banger holy cow. Instant favorite. Amazing chiptune

Hecking awesome.
Def. reminds me of some of the greats out there!
So yea, you belong among them!

Chiptune music like I love, Rich progression and melody, I espacially like stereo effects in the mix, so good !
Bravo!

hell yais lovin the crunchy chiptune vibes throughout.  Oh damn that filllll at 1:38 \m/ the beat kicks ace in this.  What a ride!

This is great and very inspiring! Others have already mentioned it, but the section that starts at ~1:38 is just perfect smile It's interesting to read details about how you made the track as well, thanks for that!

Oh my goodness there's so much richness in here, from the sound design to the transitions to the different song sections & crazy expressive lead and how everything comes together...I can't fathom how to even begin. Music making magic.

Hell yeah! Top shelf LSDJ right here. I really dig the breakdown when it shifts into choppy territory. Love it.

EXCELLENT

GregVK wrote:

Beautiful work, man!

Also love the title and story behind it.

01:38 is fucking insane! 🤣
Too good!

Thanks so much - yeah it's a wild story.   Don't take too much acid kids or you'll end up as a boson with integer spin.

levelcapybara wrote:

Awesome! Such great energy. Love the stuttery staccato texture around the ~1:38 mark. heart

That's my favorite part too

Water_Feature wrote:

I had forgotten how cool the ol DMG can sound when it's pushed hard! That middle section is awesome

Recorded this on an Analogue Pocket with the budude2 FPGA core which fixes the distortion issue the WAV channel was experiencing on the previous core.

DESLRV wrote:

Oh heck, chiptune goodness.
So good.
- Spider

Thanks, Spider!

muhamor wrote:

ooh the variation in the drum patterns is really nice in this. Also love how the melody feels so expressive and conversational heart

I want to host a workshop at this year's Wood Chip Fest on M8 Tracker and LSDJ Melody Creation for Chiptunes.  Thanks!

BarristerPlong wrote:

Absolute banger holy cow. Instant favorite. Amazing chiptune

Thank you for listening and favoriting!

As_Yoesual wrote:

Hecking awesome.
Def. reminds me of some of the greats out there!
So yea, you belong among them!

Aww, thank you for the kind words!

NicoLHR wrote:

Chiptune music like I love, Rich progression and melody, I espacially like stereo effects in the mix, so good !
Bravo!

Simple stereo effects for the arps and snare.   For the arts just a table that alternates between right and left every half step or two ticks or something like that.   The snare I have hit right and then left for a tick each before settling on the center for the rest of the sound.

Tone Matrix wrote:

hell yais lovin the crunchy chiptune vibes throughout.  Oh damn that filllll at 1:38 \m/ the beat kicks ace in this.  What a ride!

Thanks so much!

cortx wrote:

This is great and very inspiring! Others have already mentioned it, but the section that starts at ~1:38 is just perfect smile It's interesting to read details about how you made the track as well, thanks for that!

No problem!

MRDRCAT wrote:

Oh my goodness there's so much richness in here, from the sound design to the transitions to the different song sections & crazy expressive lead and how everything comes together...I can't fathom how to even begin. Music making magic.

Thanks Mister Doctor!

roboctopus wrote:

Hell yeah! Top shelf LSDJ right here. I really dig the breakdown when it shifts into choppy territory. Love it.

Thank you!  Coming from you that means a lot!

monstret wrote:

Thanks for listening

jwh wrote:

EXCELLENT

Cheers!

wait, I dont understand why my comment was blank. I was writing how much I love it I think. generic but want to make sure it's not an empty post!

monstret wrote:

wait, I dont understand why my comment was blank. I was writing how much I love it I think. generic but want to make sure it's not an empty post!

No worries! Thank you!

Oldskool LSDJ Chiptune Fun. This reminds me of the parties of yesteryear!

This is fantastic! I did a chip tune this week as well and thought briefly about placing the instruments in a room. But then I thought "This is a chip tune. No one ever did that on a C64." and thought that could be my continued justification for messing with stereo, reverb, delay or anything else. And now the very same week, you demonstrated how awesome it can be when you do pay attention to those things, even in a chip tune. Thank you for raising the bar and forcing me to think about chip tunes differently!

Oh snap, this song is yours?! Amazing, dude! I heard it randomly earlier today when cleaning the house and wasn't able to go to my phone to see whose this was. Fantastic work, man. I'm a huge fan of that transition and secion at around 2:10. So, so fun.

This track is so fleshed-out and well made, amazing job!

Wisefire wrote:

Oldskool LSDJ Chiptune Fun. This reminds me of the parties of yesteryear!

Thanks that's high praise!

gunnbr wrote:

This is fantastic! I did a chip tune this week as well and thought briefly about placing the instruments in a room. But then I thought "This is a chip tune. No one ever did that on a C64." and thought that could be my continued justification for messing with stereo, reverb, delay or anything else. And now the very same week, you demonstrated how awesome it can be when you do pay attention to those things, even in a chip tune. Thank you for raising the bar and forcing me to think about chip tunes differently!

aw thanks!  glad you liked it!

jegasus wrote:

Oh snap, this song is yours?! Amazing, dude! I heard it randomly earlier today when cleaning the house and wasn't able to go to my phone to see whose this was. Fantastic work, man. I'm a huge fan of that transition and secion at around 2:10. So, so fun.

yeah i'm happy with the bass section

emily wrote:

expect elementary particles to become a running theme these next few weeks for me!  thanks for listening!

Sodabelly wrote:

This track is so fleshed-out and well made, amazing job!

thanks so much!

RajaTheResidentAlien wrote:

hell yeah!

cool video!

@1:40 yeaaa lfg!!!

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