Author Archives: metalcrush

Submit Your Work for the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Music Tribute

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Chun-Li’s killer thighs. Finally performing your first super combo. Quarter-circle forward, punch. Whether you’re a fan of Street Fighter or not, there’s no denying how influential this series has been in all of our lives.  To kick off the commemoration of one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, Capcom is opening up submissions to showcase fan music all year long:

One of the most timeless elements of the Street Fighter series has always been the music. Whether it was the first time you heard Akuma’s theme in a Super Street Fighter II Turbo arcade, or when you realized that Guile’s theme went with everything, the music has inspired people around the world. Now, you have an opportunity to be a part of that musical history! We want to hear music that you’ve come up with. Whether you’re a first time mixer, or have a full orchestra at your disposal, your music is welcome! Throughout the year, we’ll be highlighting our favorite pieces, and some of them may even be utilized in our 25th Anniversary celebration activities. It’s a great opportunity to have your work become a part of history!

There are no limitations to the genre or style of music, as original songs inspired by the Street Fighter series and remixes sampled from existing themes are currently being accepted. However, keep in mind that anything that you submit must be your own work and no hateful or obscene lyrics will be accepted. Also, be sure upload your music to a location where it can easily be streamed, such as YouTube. The deadline to submit is Friday, May 4, 2012 at 11:59 PM PST.

If you are interested in this unique opportunity to showcase your work with a broad audience, you can fill out submission details and submit your work to Capcom here. Any artists present? Check out the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Art Tribute as well.

Blip Festival 2012 in New York City Presented by 8bitpeoples

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With the event website now up, we’ve just received word about Blip Festival 2012, taking place in NYC on Friday, May 25th to Sunday, May 27th:

Thrift-store electronics collide with dancefloor sensibilities as Blip Festival makes its long-awaited return to New York City. Produced by 8bitpeoples in association with The Tank and Live Nation, the Blip Festival 2012 finds Manhattan once again at the center of the chipmusic universe. From May 25-27, musicians and visualists from all corners of the globe assemble at the Gramercy Theatre to perform astonishing music & motion graphics, produced on and inspired by early-generation home computers and gaming consoles.

Presented by leading chiptune label 8bitpeoples, the sixth annual Blip Festival promises yet another explosive round-up of the world’s chipmusic talent, with top-notch performances by Burnkit2600, Danimal Cannon, CHiKA, Graffiti Monsters, Pulselooper, Wizwars, and waaaay too many more rad artists to list with more to be announced soon.  Single-night and three-day passes are both available in limited quantities, so buying a ticket immediately is strongly encouraged. So, what are you waiting for? Don’t let one of the most exciting nights for chip music pass you by and be sure to take billions of pictures and videos for us!

GDC Vault Adds Free GDC 2012 Videos Online

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Following this year’s Game Developers Conference, GDC Vault, a service that hosts a variety of audio, video, and PowerPoint presentations of previous Game Developers Conferences, has just added free video content from GDC 2012 that just happened last month:

Following the debut of numerous GDC 2012 videos earlier this month, the GDC Vault service has debuted a trio of free video lectures from last March’s show, featuring talks from the legendary Civilization creator Sid Meier, iWin VP Laralyn McWilliams on the importance of metrics, and White House analyst Constance Steinkuehler Squire.

These free videos join a host of other free and notable lectures already available on GDC Vault, including the recent release of classic game postmortems (Gauntlet, Harvest Moon and more) and track keynotes (from Blizzard, Plants Vs. Zombies creator George Fan, and more) from GDC 2012.

The following lectures provide a varied sample of the show’s informative and inspiring content, covering in-depth design philosophies, tricks for data analysis, and even how the government is impacting games as a medium.

While members-only content is available with an All-Access Pass purchase or a Studio Subscription, everyone has access to the Vault Free section, which you can get to by clicking here.

Attend T-MODE, Acquire Skills from Inverse Phase & Dj CUTMAN

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Calling itself a “hybrid event that fuses together the powerful appeal of anime with the high energy entertainment of video games”, T-MODE, also known as Tournament Mode, is a anime and gaming convention in the Washington, DC metro area that celebrates the fusion of anime, gaming, music, cosplay, and all things otaku. This year, T-MODE will commence this weekend, Friday, April 20th until Sunday, April 22nd.

Yes. Yes, we know. We’re actually writing about a gaming and anime convention. However, what sets T-MODE apart from other gaming and anime conventions are the panels dedicated to chiptune and DJing by none other chiptune wunderkind Inverse Phase and video game DJ mastermind Dj CUTMAN. From learning how to spot fake chiptunes to being educated on the art of laptop DJing, these dudes have you covered. You can even learn how to write your own Nintendo music!

While the pre-registration deadline for T-MODE has already passed, those in the Rockville, MD area can still register and buy tickets at the door — 1-Day and 3-Day memberships are available for $35 and $55, respectively. Don’t miss out on this cool opportunity to learn how to make and mix music from some of the pros.

Pre-order Disasterpeace’s Original Soundtrack FEZ Now

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San Francisco composer Disasterpeace, also known as Rich Vreeland, really knows how to spend his time creating something absolutely delightful. And by ‘time’, we mean every progressive second that we have listened to with his most recent work like Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar wholeheartedly changes up the conventions of chip music, giving room for something reminiscent between progressive rock and 8-bit ambience,  along with a few intriguing twists in style.

Along with the exciting release of the multiple award-winning indie platformer FEZ just this week alone, Disasterpeace’s original soundtrack of the same name is also scheduled to be available this Friday, April 20th. From what we’ve heard of the available free tracks, the FEZ soundtrack is astonishingly awe-inspiring. “Home” sets an interesting, lo-fi quality that seems to be explored throughout select songs while  “Puzzle” reveals a evocative change of pace and marks Disasterpeace’s ability to easily transcend a set style in favor of establishing mood and tone throughout the  actual game itself.  “Compass” is another favorite of ours that is simply stimulating and beautiful, which we feel speaks loudly (or rather, softly) about Disasterpeace’s power to create contemplative spaciousness.

You can pre-order your copy now of the original FEZ soundtrack on Disasterpeace’s Bandcamp, available for $5.

KNGI Introduces the VGM Radio Calendar

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Our friends over at KNGI Video Game Podcast Network, a premier online destination for video game music-related radio shows and web content, has just implemented a brand spankin’ new VGM Radio Calendar for all your video game music radio show needs:

As you might know, there are dozens of web-based radio shows dedicated to video game music and VGM-inspired fare. To help you keep track of them and learn about shows you may not be aware of, KNGI presents the VGM Radio Calendar! From here, you can learn of the many radio shows around the internet dedicated to video game music and easily add them to your own Google calendar. KNGI/Arecibo Radio shows are included, as well as shows from the 8bitX Radio Network, SLAYRadio, RadioSEGA, Radio Nintendo and other networks, as well as a number of independent shows. If you host or know of another VGM-related radio show not on the calendar, just let us know and we’ll be happy to add it!

Just to reiterate, you can add this schedule to your Google calendar. YoucanaddthistoyourGooglecalendar. Gone are the days when we miss an anticipated radio show due to forgetfulness! Huge thanks to KNGI for making the time to produce such an extensive list for the public.

Sound Bytes: Joshua Morse’s “Subwoofer Lullaby”

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Here at ThaSauce, we’ve been fans of creating and destroying decadent pixellated block worlds since 2009. But we’re even bigger fans of the aural pleasures that Joshua Morse tends to induce on us lowly humans who are only capable of discerning what good VGM music is while tirelessly mining for ore and crafting cool new blocks that make our castles that much better. If you are confused about which Minecraft Servers to play on, you can check out here to choose your favorite server from the variety of Minecraft categories.

To celebrate Joshua Morse’s latest album Waveform 3, to be released on April 24th, we have included a lovely arrangement from the indie sandbox phenomenon Minecraft that has sweeped the world by storm one block at a time. Morse’s take on C418’s original”Subwoofer Lullaby” tends to inspire a more upbeat mood of relaxation and tranquility, yet maintains further dramatic interpretation at 1:33 of the serenity that C418 tends to stick with throughout. Overall, very much an enjoyable adaptation of one of Minecraft‘s more sought-after tracks.

Quick Look: The Protomen On-Stage @ PAX EAST 2012

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Chip Music Chronicle has tickled our senses recently by recording and posting tons of live performances on YouTube for those who missed this year’s PAX EAST. Along with their fastidious documentation of chip music sets shot on location from all over the East Coast, Chip Music Chronicle seems dedicated to bring us great audio and video quality of the shows that we simply cannot attend. For that, we express gratitude towards founder and  curator Emily K. Feder for making these viewings possible!

This week’s Quick Look highlights Protomen’s “The Hounds” from Act II, featuring the established “guerilla-style” recording that CMC has specifically chosen to echo an exclusive, in-person performance. With this being said, The Protomen absolutely kill it with their staggering on-stage presence, allowing for a exhilarating view at each band member while the audience excitedly rages on. Peep and click the video above to be directed to an entire Protomen playlist, live from PAX EAST 2012. Oh, and be sure to check out and like Chip Music Chronicle’s Facebook page for more action-packed performances of your favorite chip music artists.

Jeremy Soule and Nobuo Uematsu on Classic FM’s 2012 Hall of Fame

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Classic FM, the UK’s most popular commercial radio station, and savings bank NS&I have partnered together to host Classic FM’s 2012 Hall of Fame, touted as “the ultimate chart in classical works” that ranges from 300 of the best sonatas, symphonies, concertos and choral works of the year by public vote.

One may ask, “Why is ThaSauce writing about some random classical charts in the UK?”. Well, this year marks avid success for the video game vote-campaign, as Jeremy Soule’s work on TESV: Skyrim has reached number 238 with “Dragonborn” being highlighted as Soule’s most prolific work., while Nobuo Uematsu has reached a whopping number 16  on this year’s Hall of Fame with “Aerith’s Theme” as the second highest new entry within the charts.

Congratulations to both composers and a big ‘hoo-ha!” to the VGM community, which definitely shows that with enough persistence, video game music truly has a chance to shine as individual musical pieces of beauty and grace just as much as a Beethoven or Chopin work.

Joshua Morse’s Waveform 3 To Be Released

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There’s no wonder that Nashville-based sound designer Joshua Morse‘s progressive tune creations are some of the best in the VGM scene right now. With amazing recent releases like Onslaught! OST and  Waveform 2 that emphatically display such a loaded, eargasmic arsenal within the the electronic-jazz fusion genre, Morse’s talents as a composer are fully realized.

On April 24th, Joshua Morse will be releasing his third album in what may be considered a series of FM-based music, which he began in 2007 with the first Waveform‘s blend of Yamaha TX81Z, MDA DX10, and various sampled FM percussion, followed by the 2011 release of Waveform 2 with a coalescence of SNES music styled by Morse himself.

Especially with what we’ve heard of so far, we’re absolutely STOKED for Waveform 3 to be released within the next two weeks. For fans, Morse is also offering a special incentive for ‘liking’ his Facebook page. If the page reaches over 700 likes, Morse will be releasing the album for free. If not, the album is scheduled at retail value for $5. Free > five dollars = please support Mr. Morse and like his Facebook page right now!