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Back in the mid 80’s, The Commodore64 computer was the dream item
on every pre-pubescent boys Christmas list. Once unwrapped and firmly
planted in front of the family TV, this little beige box was the tool responsible
for sparking the imaginations of ten year olds the world over.
Now it was
possible to see Samantha Fox’s bits in glorious 8-bit colour, be an ancient
Ninja Warrior, fly a World War II bomber, as well as an enormous amount of
other scenarios – all from this revolutionary little machine. Another aspect of this
blossoming quantity of C64 games, was the striking and original quality of the
accompanying sound effects and music. Although quite crude initially, gradually
the quality of in-game sound effects and music improved, and composers such as Rob
Hubbard, Martin Galway, David Galway and Ben Daglish began to push the
boundaries of what was possible with the sound hardware. The MOS6581 SID-chip,
a three-voice subtractive synthesizer with proper filters and variable amplitude, was
the chip responsible for the distinctive C64 music that was, and still is, loved by so
many. By scouring numerous fan web-sites of this revolutionary home computer,
it becomes quite obvious that the majority of its users remember most vividly how
moved and effected they were at the time by the captivating game soundtracks –
since up until that point, the most that could be squeezed out of home computers
and game machines were singular blips and simple melodies.
Recently the group Zombie Nation has had a massive hit with a track that
Utilizes the main melody from a tune of David Whittaker’s from the C64 game
Lazy Jones, and labels such as Beige Records, Erkrankung Durch Musique,
Enduro Disks, and Monotonik (net-label), have all released product which
hopes to both expose the sounds from the C64’s past, as well as presenting
them in a manner which is relevant to the electronic scene as it stands currently. (Refer to links at conclusion of article).
Similarly, Elektron Industries’ SidStation is a completely new Synthesizer that
uses the actual MOS6581 SID chip, but have repackaged it within a midi-enabled
drum-machine styled case, complete with real-time control functions. Other hardware
projects based around the SID chip include Hard Software’s Hard SID card for PC
computers, and the SIDsyn, which is similar in nature to the SidStation.
Audio software developers reFX have also recently released the QuadraSID 6581 VST
instrument, which enables Cubase / Logic users (as well as other sequencer / softsynth
products) to incorporate the sounds of the 6581 chip into their music.
I decided to ask a few questions of people active in today’s electronic music
scene who still hold the sensibilities and the memory of the old 6581SID sounds
close to their hearts, and who still attempt to incorporate some of these sounds
into their work, as well as some of the key people involved in the various hardware /
software projects that are hoping to bring the essence of the SID chip to a new
generation of sound artists.
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1. What was it about the C64s music that made it so special?
2. Do you think the sounds of the C64s SID chip are still relevant today?
3. What was your favourite C64 game tune?
4. How much of an inspiration was the old game music from C64 days?
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Gianluigi Di Costanzo has recorded as Bochum Welt for various
different labels including: Rephlex, Hymen, Sony Music Japan, Darla, and is also working
for Thomas Dolby’s Beatnik Inc.
1. What was it about the C64s music that made it so special?
Sometimes I still use an Emulator 2 sampler which is a fascinating machine even if it’s a 12 bit
one. Vintage C64 music was warm and had a unique avant garde charm.
2. Do you think the sounds of the C64s SID chip are still relevant today?
I think we are really directing the music production on software products and computers are
absolutely having a primary role, so the C64 is still relevant!
3. What was your favourite C64 game tune?
To be honest I’m not listening to C64 tunes even if sometimes I’m really impressed by some recent videogames soundtracks.
4. How much of an inspiration was the old game music from C64 days?
I have always been fascinated by science and computers, so my music takes inspiration by the
the vintage synthesizers and computers aurea! I try to merge them with romantic and deep
compositions!
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Sami records as 8 Bit Rockers and has had a 12″ released on Bunker Records.
1. What was it about the C64s music that made it so special?
The unforgettable melodies pop to my mind first. It’s amazing
how the composers got those sounds and melodies from that
machine when the music programs & programming languages
weren’t that intuitive back then. It was a lot of hard work &
tears…
2. Do you think the sounds of the C64s SID chip are still relevant today??
Well, we have seen how Zombie Nation made a hit with
an old c64 riff lifted from the game Lazy Jones”. So I guess
it’s quite hip to have all those c64 bleeps and blops in contemporary
popular music. People tend often to think that this is a new
innovation and they don’t know anything about the roots… That makes me sad sometimes. But yes, they are indeed relevant, sid is a really powerful chip.
3. What was your favourite C64 game tune?
It’s really hard to choose only one favourite game tune.
But here’s a short list (in no particular order):
… and a lot more
4. How much of an inspiration was the old game music from C64 days?
I can’t deny its influence on my music. C64 music & the
atmosphere of those tunes is influencing popular music today
more and more. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing,
I guess it’s logical progression. As I said before, I hope
that people would also respect the roots of c64 music…
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Keith Baylis records as Vim!, and has had numerous releases
on net-label Monotonik as well as recently releasing an album on
Australian label Surgery Records.
1. What was it about the C64s music that made it so special?
For me it was the unique sound. No other computer at the time could
touch it, it was just so flexible. Phat basses, that nice swishy sound
I now know to be phase-shifting, ooo the lot.
2. Do you think the sounds of the C64s SID chip are still relevant today?
Well, perhaps for a small group of people who have fond memories of the
system, and perhaps in a retro-ironic way, but no, not in the context of the
Commodore 64.
3.What aspect of the Sid chip’s sound do you think makes people want to
come back and use it (either via hard-sid or sidstation) in
conjunction with more sophisticated sound technology these days?
Definitely the sound is redolent of the 80s. For a generation of mainly
men, that sound just brings it all back, the evenings on The Last Ninja etc.
So I suppose it’s the unique sound, but one with the C64 label.
I’m surprised more people haven’t used the SID to make non-C64-
sounding tunes.
4.What was your favourite C64 game tune?
Basically anything by Tim Follin. He just sounded like no-one else, and
his use of chords just blew me away, and when I’d recovered, I felt
inspired to try it myself.
5. How much of an inspiration was the old game music from c64 days?
Huge! I sometimes fire up SIDplay and go through some tunes, just to get
a spot of inspiration. Okay, so not all SID music is any good, far from it,
but when it’s good, it’s superb. And the limitations the
programmers/composers had to work with, you have to take your hat
off to them. Young people today have it so easy etc.
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The 8-Bit Construction Set has recently had a 12″ released on Beige Records, and forthcoming is the Bodenstandig in America 10″
(BEG-005) featuring both the 8 Bit Construction Set and also Bodenstandig 2000.
I caught up with DJ Cougar Shuttle (technics 1200’s) and Rick Stryker (atari 800xl).
1. What was it about the C64s music that made it so special?
DJCS: The sound of the SID chip, the way that it’s controlled and the
fact that millions of people had high-quality synthesizers in their homes.
RS:Yeah, the implementation of a dedicated sound chip in a home computer
system was rare at that time.
2. Do you think the sounds of the C64s SID chip are still relevant today?
RS: What’s still relevant today is the process of creating music on a
c64, i.e. assembly language/tracking/low level control and communication
with the machine. Now everything is hidden behind Flash 5 timelines and
VST plug-ins and whatnot, and people fail to understand the aesthetics of the
very medium within which they work. They are controlled by corporate
software, and the DIY spirit of investigation and learning about computers
that existed so much within the early home-computer scene is all but gone.
DJCS: Ask the 2000+ people who bought the record – yes. And it will become more relevant.
3. What was your favourite C64 game tune?
DJCS: Aztec Challenge, followed by the Mystery demo on Music Maker.
RS: Hard to pick. I’m a Rob Hubbard fan (of course) and particularly
like Crazy Comets and International Karate. The tunes for Last Ninja 2
(Matt Gray) are also awesome…some tunes that never get mentioned
which I really like are Legacy of the Ancients and Epyx Super Cycle (classic
Epyx sound – I don’t know the authors).
4. How much of an inspiration was the old game music from C64 days?
DJCS: Some of the old game music is pretty bad. Some of it’s great.
What’s inspiring is the way that the programmer/musician has to understand
the machine – the 6502 – the SID – to write the music. The features and
limitations created a unique style of composition impossible in other media.
RS: Yes, the imagination I think of the good game composers who were
forced to be as creative as possible within the constraints of their technology
is an obvious influence, but what was more inspiring for this record were the
machines themselves and the way in which they were asked to be used. You have
to remember that the first thing a person ever saw when they booted up their
c64 or atari 800xl was the BASIC command line. If you take a step back and
think that the built-in interface to the machine was an actual programming
language, it’s so much more conceptually attractive and computationally efficient than
today’s Windows crap…asking the user to use and understand the computer instead
of being used by the interface or suckered into clicking on sign up for AOL icons.
There are a number of records out now that are trying to capitalize on
the sound of the SID or the nostalgia of that period without really
understanding what they’re doing…like there’s some big c64 record that uses SIDStations
and other 8-bit style records that are just samples and people messing about
in Pro Tools or something. To us, these records are very fake and only deal
with the surface of the time and are not very interesting. The 8-Bit Construction
Set record doesn’t care about surface for its own sake, it just cares about being
true to yourself and your machines.
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The label Erkrankung Durch Musique recently released the compilation SID Musique – an electro homage to the sounds of the C64. Label head Emanuel Günther answered a few of my questions:
1. What was it about the C64s music that made it so special?
Well, the sounds this chip produces is very rough and
“cheap”-sounding, which co-relates with the 8-bit sound quality of the
chip, but there´s a lot of frequencies that just go crazy, because the
chip produces so much power with sinewaves, or other frequencies, it´s
totally banging! You could never find any other sound like this in the
universe. It has its own very special quality of sound, that you can
recognize immediately.
2. Do you think the sounds of the C64s SID chip are still relevant today?
Every sound in this universe is relevant. You see, there’s been so
many other releases now since the Sid-Musique compilation that use
SID-sounds, that are all influenced by it. And of course there’s been
lots of releases before as well! I think, although the sounds are so
cheap, people consider it as high-tech at the moment, it´s totally
hyped.
3. What aspect of the Sid chip’s sound do you think makes people want to
come back and use it (either via hard-sid or sidstation) in
conjunction with more sophisticated sound technology these days?
As I said before, there are frequencies that are so big, so rich in
sound, something, people are always looking for when doing producing. A
few years ago, people used Moogs or Theremins, to get big, fat bass
sounds, now they use SID-sounds. And it sounds very computer-y, very
digital in a way, not as warm as a Moog, or anything. It´s definitely a
sound that is new, and fresh, musicians always look for new sounds,
so…
4. What was your favourite C64 game tune?
Oh, there is a few…Lazy Jones, of course, but also way of the Exploding Fist, Chip Wars, Demons First and Dexion Ranking.
5. How much of an inspiration was the old game music from c64 days?
Very big. You know, a friend of mine, Bassdroid, played a tape with
C-64 sounds just recorded while playing a game to me, that was years ago.
All my friends went crazy about it, then another friend of ours brought a
CD-rom with all the 25.000 tracks from the net, with the proper emulator.
Splank (the other part of Zombie Nation) and me got through the CD for a
whole week, it went to a point, where we were about to be nuts. We loved
the sounds, and sampled a lot of stuff, the song Kernkraft 400 is the most
famous one, though.
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Dragan Espenschied is one half of Bodenstandig 2000, who’s LP
Maxi German Rave Blast Hits 3 was previously released on Rephlex.
1. What was it about the C64s music that made it so special?
It was a fine fully developed music style. Also there was no MTV
or whatever back then (in Europe, without cable) and video games
or coder demos offered full sensory experience or immersive
effects. Until present day video artists get inspiration from
coder demos.
2. Do you think the sounds of the C64’s SID chip are still relevant today?
How can any sound lose relevance? Hapsichord and Rattles are
also still relevant, or bird tweets :)
I only do not like this nostalgia context home computer music is
presented in nowadays. People like to think of home computer
music as something that reminds them to the great days of
geeking out when they were young. That’s only coz this musical
style is not present in today’s games or computer thingies
anymore. You have game soundtracks now that sound just like usual
electronic music or rock or movie soundtracks or whatever.
To me, the whole concept of home computer music is that you have
control over a quite small and clearly arranged system. Very
much like playing an instrument. Not like today’s WindowsME or
Macintosh or whatever that hides everything behind icons or
simulated wheels or interfaces that try to resemble “natural”
synthesizers or multitrack tapes. This is not computer music, it
is graphical user interface music. You do not get to see the
computer below. The computer is only used to emulate things but
not to present its own character. — And don’t ask me about
granular synthesis or other stuff that is as useful for music as
playing a waterfall..
3.What aspect of the Sid chip’s sound do you think makes
people want to come back and use it (either via hard-sid or
sidstation) in conjunction with more sophisticated sound
technology these days>
Because they threw away their C64 and are too lazy to get a new one
and learn how to make it play and like Cubase.
Also you can learn a lot of the chip tunes if you like minimal
music. If you only have three channels you have to trick around
and these tricks can be used in other styles too. — Recent
crossovers like Micromusic.net, Mikron64, Lektrogirl or my
humble band Bodenstandig 2000 show that minimal and home
computer music and home recording and songwriting can be very
fruitful and moving forward — not like the nostalgia movement
that is mostly carried by hardcore people from the coding scene.
4.What was your favourite C64 game tune?
There are many good tunes. Lightforce is great, Bionic Commando,
LED storm, R-Type title track etc etc etc … Other systems hat
hot tunes too, you should not forget ATARI, AMIGA, video game
consoles by eg SEGA, Gameboy, PC Adlib sounds …
Speaking of SEGA, they have a distinguishable style of music that
developed from classical video game sound. Their general midi
metal tunes are just mad. Nintendo was keeping their bleepy
Donkey Kong style up to the day of N64, let’s see what they will
do with their new Cube.
5. How much of an inspiration was the old game music from c64 days?
To me home computer music has the same level as Electro, Acid
House, German New Wave, Dancehall, any style of music. It just
was not popular a long time and people felt embarrassed coz this
was the sound of geek boys that would buy a computer rather than
a motorbike and type “listing of the month” from puter magazines
all night instead of dating girls.
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Elektron is an electronic synthesizer developer established
in Gothenburg in 1998, and they manufactured the SidStation
synthesizer which presents the original C64 sound chip in a new
midi capable box with tweakable controls and a powerful operating
system. Daniel from Elektron speaks:
1. Do you still consider the SID chip to be relevant today, and if so – why?
The SID-chip is by all means very relevant today. The techniques used to
design and produce the SID is unique. This combined with the methods for
programming it, originating from years of development in the C64 hacker
scene, makes it one of few truly original musical instruments. There are
few sound sources that has their undoubtedly unique sounds. The SID-chip
in the SidStation is one of them.
2. What has the general response to the Sidstation been ?
The response has turned from initial surprise, amusement and skepticism to
respect and devotion.
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Téli Sándor (Hard Software) has recently released a hardware card for
PC computers called the HardSID :
1. What was it about the C64’s music that made it so special?
I think that the SID chip has its own personality. I can’t tell you anything
that sounds exactly like it. I don’t know anyone who one heard the SID
and has no emotions about its sound. You can hate it or love it, there’s
no middle way.
2. Do you think the sounds of the C64’s SID chip are still relevant today?
It has very serious capabilities even if you compare the SID to a modern
analog synthesizer. If you use it together with other instruments (using
HardSID MIDI) you’ll hear the power of it.
I recommend the 8580 for MIDI purposes. It has a lot better sound quality.
Anyway, both SID versions are wonderful.
3. I imagine that the Hard-Sid project has been a great success?
Well, it was a big success, because people were interested in it pretty
much, but it’s not a financial success, since we’re not a big company with lots
of money to spend on advertisement and mass production.
4. What aspect of the Sid chip’s sound do you think makes people want to
come back and use it (either via hard-sid or sidstation) in conjunction
with more sophisticated sound technology these days?
It’s simple: The unique SID sound.
Even if today’s sound technology is more professional, the SID sound
can be still used together with it.
I don’t want to compare the HardSID (Quattro) to the SIDStation on
public forums, I think they’re great guys. If anyone is interested in the
differences and features, they can be compared by downloading their
documentations.
5. What was your favourite C64 game tune?
Uh.. I had lots of favourite C64 tunes. I was mainly listening to demo
tunes, so it’s easier to select from game tunes I was listening to.
For example: Turrican II (title tune), Last Ninja 2, Logo, Tube Madness,
etc……maybe it’s not as easy to select even from game tunes..
6. How much of an inspiration was the old game music from c64 days?
The good old C64 game music was the only inspiration.
That was why we wanted to make the HardSID.
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