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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / roboctopus's music / I had a bad, bad dream

I had a bad, bad dream

By roboctopus on February 15, 2026 11:05 pm

Whoa! This song is not what I would call finished! But it's in an okay state, and that is something haha.

I guess you could say making 4-bit samples the centerpiece of my current working mode is sort of experimental music. Sometimes things just don't work at super low bit rates. I try a lot of things before latching on to something that clicks, and this week started with me spinning my wheels. The first couple of days I spent fruitlessly trying to make samples of Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" work in a sort of 90s big-beat/The Prodigy/drum n bass thing. Except it was going to be on gameboy. In my head it sounded so cool. No matter what I tried, the samples just sounded like trash though, and I wasn't inspired by them. I went back to the drawing board and sat down at the piano and noodled for a day or so.

On Thursday this was some chords and a recording of me singing a few lines into my phone lol. But it came together and I got something working.

Today (Sunday) I took my son to a marathon 4-hour children's birthday pool party Sunday and had four hours to work on this and was able to finish. So here is a recording straight off the gameboy shortly after a kids birthday party haha. It's not what I'd call finished. Needs tweaking and detail work at the least. But here it is!

1xLSDJ

Lyrics:

I had a bad bad dream
I need a time machine
Reset my brain
Erase my shame
And rescue me from me

Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Share Alike (BY-SA)

Always happy to hear your music!

I see what you mean about it being unfinished (at least compared to the rest of your catalog), but it still has your trademark sense of charm.

I love it! Looking forward to hearing what else you do with it!

Always like your stuff but really loved this one. Fun melody and the samples really pops!

Your LSDJ work just keeps pushing the boundaries of perception of what a single gameboy can do. You leave me feeling so driven. Keep it up.

GregVK wrote:

Always happy to hear your music!

I see what you mean about it being unfinished (at least compared to the rest of your catalog), but it still has your trademark sense of charm.

I love it! Looking forward to hearing what else you do with it!

Thanks! Yeah, I generally spend a lot of time on detail work and really dialing in the levels on everything, and adding lots of little variations. Some of that is here, but not to the level I usually do. I like the general shape of it though. I just think it needs the edges smooth. I think it could hit harder too.



didiririkiki wrote:

Always like your stuff but really loved this one. Fun melody and the samples really pops!

Thanks! This one is growing on me. Wasn't sure if I was going to finish it but I think with some work it will be put on a real release.



ONE HIT KILL wrote:

Your LSDJ work just keeps pushing the boundaries of perception of what a single gameboy can do. You leave me feeling so driven. Keep it up.

thanks! let's all keep pushing the DMG! ^_^

Those stereo arps in the intro are divine!! Also I just organised my own birthday party and I'm now kicking myself I didn't choose 4 -hour marathon pool party!

Really enjoy the lyrics on this, and that triplet break bit before the lyrics came in was great!

I think the message came through just fine.

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