A huge Chiptune show was held at this year’s MAGFest. The show featured some of the hottest chiptune performers, including Danimal Cannon, Trey Frey, and Jake “Virt” Kaufman. Chiptune netlabel Chiptunes = WIN teamed up with the crew from Philadelphia’s Chiptune event 8Static to host a Chiptune concert on MAGFest’s main stage. MAGFest is The Music and Gaming Festival, a non-profit company that hosts video game music events across the United States.
MAGFest, for the uninitiated, is the best place on the planet. It’s an acronym for Music and Gaming Festival, held just outside of Washington, DC in Maryland. It’s the largest festival in the world that focuses on video game inspired bands and musicians.
This year was my fifth consecutive year attending MAGFest. The music directors offered me an incredible opportunity; to forego my usual hour-long DJ set to program up my own three hour electronic music event on the main stage. For months we bounced ideas back and forth, ultimately landing on a modern spin on a classic format, the DJ Battle.
The battle format is simple enough, each DJ sets up their equipment beforehand and creates a short set that exemplifies their style. While this format has existed in hiphop for decades, it’s rarely seen in Electronic Dance Music (EDM) and had never been attempted in the video game music community. With the help of my record label, GameChops, I combed through the MAGFest DJ applicants to create an ensemble lineup that would best represent the diversity of EDM / VGM performers.
Benjamin Briggs – Electro house producer with a tendency towards chiptunes. Streams video games on Twitch.tv and takes fan-requests for remixes. bLiNd – Video game trance remixer with pumping beats and exceptional mixes, bLiNd has been producing for sixteen years. Grimecraft – Futuristic trap and bass music producer and a video game developer for Square Enix Flexstyle – Overclocked Remixer who’s contributed to countless projects on OCRemix Totentanz – World-touring DJ of hardstyle with a classical video game influence. Dj CUTMAN – That’s me.
Video Game DJ Battle at MAGfest final poster design
So I had found the DJs, but preparation didn’t end there. I reached out to renown comic artist Thor Thorvaldson to create illustrated versions of each DJ in the style of a Mega Man character. I used Thor’s artwork to create a quick design like a fighting game’s Character Select screen. There was an incredible response to our artwork, so I adapted it into the poster design you see here. We printed a limited run and hung them up around MAGFest the day of the show.
Taking inspiration from the Chiptune community, which features live circuit-bent visuals, I reached out to Baltimore-based Pixel Seed to create live visuals for each DJ.
Pixel Seed’s live visual rig
I sent him Thor’s artwork, along with Soundcloud links for each performer. The day of the show, he came backstage with a suitcase. When he opened it up, I was in awe. Video mixers, a hacked nintendo, custom controllers and feedback monitors were meticulously arranged in this unsuspecting container. He threw up up on a table, plugged in his powercord and the entire rig illuminated.
As the DJ battle approached, my heart pounded through my chest. Thankfully, MAGFest has a brilliant stage-manager affectionally referred to as “Angel” and an on-point security team who kept everything running smoothly. With low-light and a restless crowd, we hooked up all six DJs.
Dj CUTMAN, bLiNd, Ben Briggs, Grimecraft, Totentanz and Flexstyle set up their rigs with help from the stage-hands.
Pixel Seed was hooked into the massive 31ft projector screen, testing his glittering visuals and super-imposing Thor’s artwork. We had only a few minutes to perform what I call the “DJ Soundcheck”, where everyone gets about ten seconds of sound while the crowd cheered and egged us on to begin. Once we were all sound-checked, Pixel Seed was in position, we all went back stage to get ready to roll.
Once the Video Game DJ Battle began, it was a flash. bLiNd performed with guest MC A_Rival, a talented rapper and veteran remixer from San Francisco. Grimecraft also brought some surprises, a character MC known as DJ Dr Wily, 50 inflatable dolphins, and an eight foot long Orca whale were unleashed on the crowd. The DJ battle was streamed live on Twitch.tv, but during the night the convention center’s network crashed and the stream was cut off. Thanks to Will Strouse and Robert Swackhamer of 8BitX Radio Network, we were able to recover nearly all the footage and upload it to YouTube.
The Video Game DJ Battle ended up being the highest attended event of MAGFest 2014, with 2,200 attendees at the concert and over 1,500 people streaming on Twitch.
Watch the entire Video Game DJ Battle from MAGFest 2014
Each DJ uploaded a clean “studio” version of their set onto Soundcloud for posterity.
MAGFest is a hive of positive energy, from their 24-hour a day free-play arcade, to the multitude of blogs and game studios covering the event, doing interviews, and producing content in and around MAGFest. I was happy to see my Philly friends from J1 Studios conducting interviews of some of the GameChops members and other radical personalities attending MAGFest.
One of the beautiful things about MAGFest is it straddles the line between all-out 4-day long party, and a serious reflective space for those who choose to dedicate their life to the things that they love. I had an opportunity to talk candidly with a young radio DJ by the name of Game Boy about my experiences running a label and putting together the DJ battle.
Lastly, I have an archived version of the four GameChops’ DJs battle sets recorded live, complete with the tremendous energy of the room.
Thanks for reading my recap, Let me know what you think in the comments!
The SNES definitely has its share of memorable tunes.
The SNES definitely has a lot of memorable tunes. Amazing compositions in games like Legend of Zelda, Secret of Mana, Donkey Kong Country, Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger and many others have left 16-bit tunes running through our heads for years. This is where video game music started to take a turn toward the epic orchestral sounds we’re so used to today. However, you might have noticed that a lot more people are making NES, Genesis and Gameboy chiptunes and not SNES tunes. Why?
Well, the overall quality of SNES music isn’t really that great. It’s all samples. Many people will say it’s hardly any better than your standard MIDI. It is true that it doesn’t have as much character as 8-bit synths. However, there is some charm to be found in these degraded 16-bit samples of strings, flutes and guitars. I mean, the amazing, lush songs on some of the SNES’ RPGs just couldnt happen on the NES or Gameboy. I really love the snappy compressed drums in Secret of Mana too. Today, we’ll look at how to get these samples loaded up in your DAWs and also emulate the SNES’ classic reverb with a basic tape delay controller.
YouTube user Smooth McGroove has been popping up on my facebook feed a lot lately, first with the epic rendition of Spark Mandrill from MegaMan X embedded below.
Smooth McGroove does an impressive job of performing the game music he selects, and his arrangements are as creative as they are entertaining. His cat usually shows up on one of the takes, which is a recipe for internet success. From a technical standpoint, his songs are cleanly produced, properly mixed, and an all around joy to listen to. He’s offered 22 tracks for $9 from Bandcamp, and with a deal like that it’s hard to pass up! Stream the whole album for free below and click the Buy link to purchase a download. If you can’t shell out a few bucks to support this guy, follow Smooth McGroove on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe on YouTube.
