Blip Festival 2009 > Tickets & Schedule

• Date: Friday, Dec 18th, 1pm-3pm
• Location: Main Room, The Bell House
• Price: $5 at the door

'Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet' is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as ChipTunes, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using old video game hardware. Familiar devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System are pushed in new directions with startling results. Using New York as a microcosm for a larger global movement, 'Reformat the Planet' maps out the genesis of the first annual Blip Festival, a four day celebration of over 30 international artists exploring the untapped potential of low-bit video game consoles. With floor-stomping rhythms and fist-waving melodies, trailblazers of the ChipTune idiom descend upon Manhattan to pen a new chapter in the history of electronic music.

• Date: Friday, Dec 18th, 2pm-5pm
• Location: Front Lounge, The Bell House
• Price: $65 (includes materials & necessary tools)

Buy Tickets Here Workshop participants will build and learn to program their own version of Christoph Haberer's open-source Atmel based C64 SID chip emulator. This is a very good emulation of the MOS 6581 with the difference of very simple serial control from your laptop, computer or microcontroller.

The first hour will be spent learning about basic electronics communication and building the kit.

The second hour will be spent learning basic programming methods and simple ways to start.

The third hour will be an indepth look at the underbelly of the MOS 6581 chip, how it is controlled by the C64 and other computers, and how music can be made by directly addressing the chip.

This is a “beginner's” electronics and programming workshop. There will be no soldering, and no understanding of electronics or programming is necessary. A basic understanding of music is helpful. A laptop and 1/8" headphones are required.

Participants will leave the workshop with a working usb controllable breadboard A_SID Synth, and the knowledge to begin using it.

• Date: Saturday, Dec 19th, 1pm
• Location: Main Room, The Bell House
• Price: Free

Shot by 2 Player Productions, the same crew behind the Blip Festival DVDs, the 40-minute Reformat the Planet 1.5 covers New York City's Pulsewave concerts, "the growth of the chip music scene in Philadelphia, and the arrival of the next generation of chip musicians to the 8-bit scene." The 2 Player Production crew will be on hand for the screening and will be showing many of the videos they have shot and edited over the years at chiptune shows. 

• Date: Saturday, Dec 19th, 2pm
• Location: Front Lounge, The Bell House
• Price: Free

We will be covering hardware analysis of sound generating IC's of the late 70's and early 80's in terms of spectra, pitch/amplitude ranges and precision. Also looking at the development of a common synthesis model to accurately revive them for use in the context of today's Digital Audio Workstations. see http://www.plogue.com for examples of our work.

• Date: Saturday, Dec 19th, 3pm
• Location: Front Lounge, The Bell House
• Price: Free

In this hour long workshop Don Miller (NO CARRIER) will lead participants through different open source software solutions for creating live visuals using the Nintendo Entertainment System. Using glitchNES, galleryNES, and two new programs to be released exclusively during this workshop, Miller will show just how versatile the NES can be as a tool for live visual performance. In addition to software, hardware mixing and presentation will be discussed. Although not required, attendees are encouraged to bring a PC computer to participate.