Inverse Phase

Chip Music, Events, Game Music, Indie Music

MAGStock Guest Lineup Announced

June 8, 2015 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on MAGStock Guest Lineup Announced Share this MAGStock Guest Lineup Announced

The music guests for this year’s MAGStock have been revealed. Performers for the event will include Professor Shyguy, Materia, Eight Bit Disaster, and Inverse Phase. MAGStock 5 is being held at Small Country Campground in Louisa, Virginia on the weekend of June 19-21.

If you’re wondering what on earth MAGStock is, it’s a music and gaming event, run by MAGFest, that takes place in the summer. Think of it as a smaller version of MAGFest in the great outdoors. This year’s music guest list is as follows:

Professor Shyguy
Inverse Phase
Materia
Aries
Steel Samurai
Trev Wignall
Square Therapy
D&D Sluggers
Eight Bit Disaster
Auxide
Solarbear

If you didn’t get your fill of music and games at MAGFest earlier this year or if you’re just looking for a fun weekend of games and music, be sure to check out MAGStock 5. You can find out more information for registering and attending MAGStock 5 at the MAGStock website.
Chip Music, Game Music, Indie Music

Inverse Phase Reimagines The Binding of Isaac Soundtrack as a Chiptune Album

November 24, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Inverse Phase Reimagines The Binding of Isaac Soundtrack as a Chiptune Album Share this

Ever wondered what The Binding of Isaac would sound like if it were an NES game? Chiptune artist Inverse Phase’s newest album The Chipping of Isaac explores that very concept. Covering the music of Danny Baranowsky’s original The Binding of Isaac OST, this album features NES interpretations of every track from the original game. This includes the title screen, boss fights, and even the shop theme.

According to the album home page, Inverse Phase plans to add tracks from the Wrath of the Lamb expansion and loopable tracks at a later date. So if you’re a fan of The Binding of Isaac OST and enjoy the chiptune sounds of the NES, this may be an album you’ll want to check out. The Chipping of Isaac is currently available on Inverse Phase’s Bandcamp page.
Chip Music, Game Music, Reviews

Up-Beats in a Beatdown – Treachery in Beatdown City Ep.1 OST (Review)

January 25, 2014 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Up-Beats in a Beatdown – Treachery in Beatdown City Ep.1 OST (Review) Share this

You know life’s pretty awesome when you get more Inverse Phase popping up in the video game music and chip music scene, and it’s fantastic when it’s right during the start of the new year. Why slug through a cold winter, right after grand events like MAGFest, and be jonesing for new tunes to keep spirits high?

Case-in-point here is Treachery in Beatdown City: Episode 1, which pays tribute to all the sidescrolling beat ’em ups of the 8 and 16-bit era that most of us ’90s kids grew up on, such as Double Dragon and Bad Dudes with some RPG aspects thrown in for good measure. There’s nothing like a good beat ’em up game, and this particular one allows us gentle listeners a delightful cadre of chip music courtesy of Mr. Brendan “Inverse Phase” Becker.

(more…)
Chip Music, Game Music, Indie Music

MAGFest 12: Recap

January 15, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | 1 Comment Share this MAGFest 12: Recap

A new year has begun and with it another MAGFest down in National Harbor, Maryland. This was my second year attending the annual Music and Game Festival. There’s always a ton of things to do, from attending panels to rocking out at the concerts. Now that I’ve had a chance to recover from the trip and gather my thoughts, it’s time for a recap of some of what I experienced at MAGFest 12.

Most of the panels I attended were focused on music. The first of these was the “Write Your Own Nintendo Music,” hosted by Brendan “Inverse Phase” Becker. His talk focused on the tools that he uses for creating 8-bit/chiptune tracks for his music projects. He explained the methods in which music on the Gameboy and Nintendo Entertainment System was generated and what the musical and technological limitations for each were. Since this year’s MAGFest was Zelda themed, he included a demonstration of 8-bit music writing by reconstructing the “Dungeon Theme” from The Legend of Zelda.

Brenden “Inverse Phase” Becker

Two of the other music panels that I attended were hosted by game composer Tommy Tallarico. He’s probably best known for his soundtracks for Earthworm Jim and his work as the head of Video Games Live. The first panel “Video Games Live: Behind the Scenes” focused on his work with the orchestra program that he tours with around the world. Tallarico spent a majority of the time telling the audience stories about his experiences performing videogame music and revealed some of his upcoming arrangements for the orchestra. (more…)
Chip Music, Music Production

Inverse Phase’s Music from Old Sound Chips

August 23, 2013 | Haroon Piracha | 3 Comments Share this

With an interest in chip tune music must come a certain desire to figure out the best reproduction of those chip tune sounds. Having a synthesizer myself, I always thought creating a chip tune piece was as simple as using a square wave coming out of my analog SH-201. Everyone has a different method, but this was my approach. Despite different approaches, there is a tremendous difference in the sounds produced from any sound chip, let alone those in video game consoles and handheld devices.

For instance, the timbre of a C64 square wave sounds way different than an NES square wave. They are both square waves, yet the aesthetics that make up the sound drastically differs for each system. If you were going to create an NES based chip tune, it wouldn’t help to emulate chip sounds from a C64, or in my case, my analog SH-201. How can someone spot the difference? Inverse Phase, Mr. MAGFest, as some call him, often teaches people the differences, so they could be armed with an applicable sound palette before creating their own chip tunes. Today, I’ll go over some of these differences thanks to a lecture by Inverse Phase titled Music from Old Sound Chips.

(more…)
Chip Music

POKEY Pimp – Inverse Phase Does 8-Bit Pimp

October 2, 2012 | Patrick Gann | Comments Off on POKEY Pimp – Inverse Phase Does 8-Bit Pimp Share this

<a href="http://inversephase.bandcamp.com/track/pokey-pimp">POKEY Pimp by Inverse Phase</a>

Yeah, he “does” him. I am the king of not-so-subtle innuendo!!

I just wanted to share this. Released perhaps as a birthday gift to Luke Esquivel, the 8-Bit Pimp himself, Inverse Phase did a fully-chipped mix of the chip-hop artist’s theme song. “8 Bit Playas and Pimps, Throw Your Hands Up High!!” Check it out!
Game Music

Original SoundCAST: Episode #012 (Bundle-Mania)

March 8, 2012 | Patrick Gann | 1 Comment Share this

Wow, did this ever turn into a mammoth project.

For episode 12, we reached out and interviewed *almost* every artist who appeared on the Indie Game Music Bundle 2. You know, that big awesome one that netted you a bunch of great music? Yeah. We decided to keep interest in the movement alive by talking to all of these guys about their current projects. Interesting note: with the exception of Africa (and technically Antarctica), these interviews have us reaching to every continent on earth. Countries represented include Chile, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, and (of course) the USA. Of course, most of them are probably at GDC right now.

First, though, I have some apologies to make:

1) We wanted to have a special segment with Jake Kaufman in this episode. Due to scheduling, and the fact that this episode is already absurdly long, we’ve decided instead to make that its own episode. So, no Jake interview here, but it will happen, and Jayson will be a part of it.
2) I (Patrick) talk waaaay too much. The saddest thing of all is that this 3+ hour episode would have been nearly 4 hours if I hadn’t made edits to my own rambling. But even with the edits, you’ll notice. And for that, I apologize.
3) During the interview with Module, you will occasionally hear my voice echoing. It’s a feedback loop problem; partially my fault, and partially the fault of our international Skype call.

Right-click and “Save As…” to download the episode. Below the link, you’ll find show notes. We didn’t name every individual song used throughout this super-duper megasode; just know that when you hear music below the talking, it’s either by the artist being interviewed or is being referenced by that artist, and music after each interview is always by the artist being interviewed.

Download: Original SoundCAST Episode #012

[0:00:00] Intro: music from Jake “virt” Kaufman (Mighty Switch Force, “Whoa I’m In Space Cuba!”)
[0:00:45] Josh Whelchel re: Game Music Bundle 2, Sharing Is Caring EP, current/upcoming projects
[0:27:15] Francisco Cerda re: Jamestown
[0:40:15] Jim Guthrie re: Sword & Sworcery, Children of the Clone
[0:50:00] Alec Holowka re: Aquaria, Alone In Dreams, other projects
[1:00:50] Kan Gao re: To The Moon
[1:13:43] Intermission re: our inability to schedule time with Tomas “Floex” Dvorak and Jake “virt” Kaufman; also, Pat reads answers from flashygoodness
[1:20:30] Module re: Shatter, Imagineering
[1:36:50] disasterpeace re: Cat Astro Phi, Passcode, Rise of the Obsidian, FEZ, tons of stuff
[1:52:00] David Saulesco re: Eternal Daughter and its 10th anniversary
[2:05:00] A_Rival re: 8-bit Pimp, TMNT EP, plans for 2012
[2:17:00] Inverse Phase re: Shuttle Scuttle, past/current/upcoming projects
[2:37:00] C-jeff re: Preschtale
[2:45:30] Romain Gauthier re: SQUIDS, Edge, life in Japan, and how to pronounce his name (hint: it’s like this Gotye)
[3:02:05] Octopus Project re: Thunderbeam
[3:13:37] Outro: a message from us