Blip Blop: Roland Cloud 5.3 update adds 8-bit chiptune synth
With the 5.3 update to Roland Cloud, the manufacturer pays homage to retro video games with a chiptune synth/rompler called Blip Blop. In shaping the sounds that come with it, Roland took inspiration from over four decades of video gaming – so chances are you will find some familiar noises in the preset library.
Blip Blop is fairly simple to use. There are two ADSR envelopes – one for the amplitude and another for the filter. The filter is switchable between lowpass, bandpass, and highpass modes. It has 12db and 24db slopes as well as Cutoff, Resonance, and Envelope controls. On the right side is an LFO with adjustable waveforms that’s able to modulate filter cutoff, pitch, amplitude, and pan.
Roland included a reverb as well, which has its separate set of presets. Another interesting addition is a one-button limiter which has no threshold settings – it’s a switch on and forget type of tool that may be useful to prevent clipping.
Overall, Blip Blop is a perfectly good chiptune synth that’s obviously a labor of love. You can install it right away from the Roland Cloud Manager and get busy resurrecting GameBoy sounds. For more video game sounds, check out the recently released Genetix which brings the synthesis chip of the Sega Genesis back to life.
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