C64 Remix awareness

hyperhack · Post by **hyperhack** » 02/10/2004 - 23:03

I've found an annoying problem, and i'm not sure if any of you other people have experienced it. Basically been speaking to some friends about BITLIVE and the remix scene and they take the P*SS! They have the idea that its a bunch of saddo geeks sitting round some old C64's listening to original SID tunes live!

Surprising how when I explained it was old C64 tunes remixed with present day synths and live band equipment they still thought it was sad, play them a couple of tunes from remix.kwed.org and it was a different story!

"oh yeah I remember this! wow! That does sound good!"

I wonder how many 100's if not 1000's of people out there are seeing the stuff for BITLIVE and thinking the same? It might help to strengthen the scene if they were re-educated, although baseball bats are a bit extreme at this point!

madfiddler · Post by **madfiddler** » 02/10/2004 - 23:09

If attitudes were to change... BITLive would be a worldwide commercial success.. How many C64s were sold? 27 million or something....

I think there was a certain amount of geekyness at the first BITLive, but as it gone on, it's become more of a social gathering and a hell of a lot of fun...

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 03/10/2004 - 8:19

It's just difficult to overcome that many prejudices at once

And it's not helped by the coverage of the 8-bit chipmusic scene, of course, which just extends this prejudice.

Chris

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » 03/10/2004 - 9:28

If they dont do what we say, we will MAKE them understand......
Anakin Skywalker - Ep 2

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 03/10/2004 - 9:36

> we will MAKE them understand......
Takes money, takes energy, takes rejection.

Oh well, perhaps the ringtones will convert a few people

Chris

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » 03/10/2004 - 9:50

I do hope so.... Ive decided to pimp your service on my new smartphone mag which starts in Jan 05

**Fingers Crossed**

hyperhack · Post by **hyperhack** » 03/10/2004 - 20:22

Hey matrix, perhaps we can put a quote on the next bitlive graphics/poster?

Something along the lines of, ahem.....

BITLIVE Copenhagen 2006

Block Rockin' Beatz from the C64 masters of SID!

This aint no 8 bit beep blip convention baby! This is the real deal!

Geniune contemporary remixed tracks based on the old C64 greats!

Really has to be heard to be believed!

ok, me done now. If I was a 'non-believer' that would definitely work on me!

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 03/10/2004 - 20:23

People don't respond to words, really.

Actually, the best weapon is Slay Radio. Listen to that for a while, and people become addicted.

Chris

hyperhack · Post by **hyperhack** » 03/10/2004 - 20:28

Wow Mr Abbott that was a quick reply!

I was hoping that you wouldnt take me too literally with my words of encouragement! lol! I was only offering an unbiased suggestion on the matter. I see the point with slay radio though, we will have to find ways to push this onto people a bit more!

What about some Slay Radio car stickers? Or some crap like that? Surely they are inexpensive. Okay perhaps I should get my license now and get a car so I can sport one as well

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » 04/10/2004 - 0:47

Theres 1 other thing to consider too HH, i may not BE making the next poster - its out of Chris's hands now so the new organiser may want to go in another direction and style - nothing is finalised yet and im not likly to know anyway till around 4 months before the event itself.

Some good phrases there too, but i think some1 has (C) on "Block Rockin' Beats" lol

Cheetor · Post by **Cheetor** » 04/10/2004 - 9:42

I've tried a few things in my own small way too. I've got a few streaming tracks on one of my ewb sites from some of the BIT CDs (by arrangement with Chris, of course!) and I'm releasing a DVD-ROM next year that's going to have some licenced tracks again with tracks embedded into files which will see royalty payments going to Chris with the disc targetted at a non-scene audience.

I've got some other projects in mind targetting a sci-fi audience that could see C64 mixes hitting a global sci-fi market that could see me needing a massive amount of tracks but it could need a lot of licence work and sorting out royalties and payments to Chris (to cover artist payments) and to the arrangers would be a pain, but I could end up getting these remixes to an audience of thousands!

I couldn't promise much per track per use (they'd be embedded into software that I'd be distributing electronically that I'd be selling on at a stupidly cheap price) but if anyone's interested, send me a message!

The selling price for these is going to be about Ã‚Â£1.25 for the finished product and I'm looking at about 15 minutes of music each which would be embedded MP3s at about 96kbps. I'd be charging via PayPal and mainly selling them to raise funds for an event so at the most I'd only have about 25p per sale for royalties to split between Chris/Composers/Arrangers.

Chris - can you message me to let me know what percentage of this 25p you'd need so I know what I've got left to offer arrangers? Cheers!! (This is separate to the arrangement we've already sorted for the DVD/CD!)

AnimaL · Post by **AnimaL** » 04/10/2004 - 10:38

hi!

just my opinion...

why do you want to make this all that commercially?? i do understand thats a big effort and costs a lot of money (BITLive).

but in the past we experienced much scene related stuff which ended up in a hype and finally gets blown off and destroyed... (excuse my bad english-i hope u understand what iÃ‚Â´m trying to say...

)

i just think that u have to be very carefully with that nice c64 remix scene and it shouldnÃ‚Â´t be a worldwide sellout... lately there was that incident with that Ã‚Â§#!$? guy named "SCOOTER" who dared to bring out a song which contained the TURRICAN C64 melody!!! i think it shouldnÃ‚Â´t come that far...
well like i said its just my opinion...

animal/defect

Cheetor · Post by **Cheetor** » 04/10/2004 - 10:57

From my point of view, I'm funrdaising for an annual non-profit making sci-fi event to try and bring some actors over to the UK but that takes money (several thousand pounds each... and that's with them coming over for expenses only).

We're trying to raise money for charity as well and we decided that, after our admission cost (which covers our basic running costs), that anything left over will go to our two charities. By producing small pieces of software (which have gone down well in the past using MIDI files that Bjorn Lynne has let us use) we thought it would work even better with C64 mixes and make a small charge and put something back into the scene at the same time.

It helps us fund our actors costs, hopefully raises more for the charities if we get anything left over, makes a bit for the remixers, maybe makes a bit towards BIT Live and raises awareness of the remix scene - certainly I won't be making anything from it myself... if you saw how much money I was out of pocket from this year's event you'd see what I mean!!

All I want to make sure is that if money changes hands and mixes are involved is that at least something goes back to the people involved in creating them in the first place which is the right thing to do.

hyperhack · Post by **hyperhack** » 04/10/2004 - 11:55

Thats a good point with Scooter! I heard that track and wondered if he got permission for that! I had a vision of Chris Huelsbeck getting really annoyed and smashing up loads of Scooter albums! Bizarre I know but thats just my imagination!

Okay heres an interesting point though, but what if you could get permission from the original authors of some C64 audio tracks to make a ministry of sound (like) dance album? A bit of mixing here and there, maybe ask one of the top Dj's if they would help out and put some proceeds to the remix fund and some to charity.

If we stress its for charity surely they will do their christian duty!

This would be just the thing the scene needed to get awareness all over the world! I know someones gonna slate me for this and tell me i'm dreaming but, if a C64 remixed tune was to get into the pop/dance charts that would really give the scene the respect it deserves!

I'm sure madfiddler would be up for another top of the pops appearance!

Okay, i'm going now

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » 04/10/2004 - 12:53

Good luck with that, i hope its more successful than the custom cartoons idea...