🕹️ 8-bit music for kids

Old game consoles had a tiny sound chip that could only make a few sounds at once. So the music used a few simple ones: a buzzy square wave for the tune, a smooth triangle wave for the bass, and a hiss of noise for the drums.

With so few sounds, the composers got clever. To make a chord they played its notes one after another, very fast, so your ear hears them together. That fast run of notes is called an arpeggio, and it is the sound of chiptune.

The name comes from the computers of that time, which worked with numbers eight bits at a time.

Beep Boop Arcade uses the same kinds of sound: a pulse-wave tune, a square-wave arpeggio, a triangle bass and drums, at 128 to 150 beats a minute. Every tune is made up new, so you never hear the same one twice.

Dash Beats is faster electro: a kick drum on every beat, a clap, a bright arpeggio on top. It is like the music in rhythm-runner games, but it is Peabody's own. You can hear chip music in Peabody's games too, like Dino Dash and Snake.

The Beep Boop Studio has four lanes, like an old game console: two beepy tunes, a bass and drums. Tap the squares to light up notes, sixteen steps to a bar. The notes stay on a five-note scale, so nothing sounds wrong.