Red Max by David Whittaker

Flashpan · Post by **Flashpan** » 30/01/2006 - 20:32

Hey everyone-

Long time lurker here... I've been enjoying everyone's remixes for quite some time. I just felt like I'd finally chime in and give something back to you all for having been such a leech.

I play accordion in a group called Chromelodeon, and we've recently launched our VG arrangement sideproject, which we named Sprite Slowdown. I've been a huge Commodore fan, so when it came time for SS to do an album, I was absolutely adamant that we perform David Whittaker's brilliant "Red Max".

So anyway, the album is done, and you can find Red Max (along with 3 other tunes from the album) at our myspace page.... http://www.myspace.com/spriteslowdown

And for those interested, the instrumentation on the Red Max arrangement was as follows: 2 guitars, electric bass, drums, lots o' synths, accordion, and a gameboy sequenced with LSDJ.

I really hope you all enjoy this.... I am definitely pushing for more C64 on the next Sprite Slowdown release. Enjoy!

PARALAX · Post by **PARALAX** » 30/01/2006 - 23:57

My cousin confounded this guy with "Roger Whittaker" every time, a pop singer from UK but singing in german.

He asked me: Is this his brother???

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 31/01/2006 - 0:06

When David was asked about this in an article called "The Musician's Ball" in Zzap!64 he claimed that Roger Whittaker was his Uncle

Chris

Romeo Knight · Post by **Romeo Knight** » 31/01/2006 - 9:48

What a pity! I awaited a cool Red Max version in german volksmusik style but it almost sounds like sid+drums.
Doh!

(grooves a lot though)

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 31/01/2006 - 10:04

Romeo Knight wrote:What a pity! I awaited a cool Red Max version in german volksmusik style but it almost sounds like sid+drums.
Doh!
(grooves a lot though)

Maybe someone will oblige later in this style

Can I just make a point about an assumption that has ground its way into the scene, and for which I'm partly responsible?

There's nothing wrong with sid+drums if it grooves or is good: "SID + drums" should not be a term used to insult a remix. "Bad SID + Drums" or "Bad SID2MIDI" is a valid insult.

Otherwise you might as well criticise guitar music as "it's only bass + drums + guitar". Or Marcel's music as "it's synth + drums". I think it's insane that we seem to be in a chipmusic remix scene that discourages the use of the original sounds, or stuff that sounds like them. Without the sound of the SID, all we're doing is sounding exactly like other genres of music which are already well overpopulated with tunes.

Chris

Post by **LMan** » 31/01/2006 - 10:22

I strongly agree. SID + Drums can be very nice. (thinks of <a href="http://www.remix64.com/download.php/266 ... >"Shermann - Last Ninja 1 Wilderness.mp3"</b></a> - this *so* rocks. It didn't make it on RKO in 2002 for violating the RKO SID+Drums rule, but personally I love it.)

Romeo Knight · Post by **Romeo Knight** » 31/01/2006 - 11:24

You may be right with "sid+drums" can be very nice. But then I'd rather prefer the pure sid - that's just my personal taste. I even sometimes got problems with sid leads in remixes - I just think it sounds "less expensive" if you know what I mean, it often doesn't seem to fit to a most of all "real life arrangement". I like both worlds separated but that's just me. No offense to Flashpan.

Otherwise you might as well criticise guitar music as "it's only bass + drums + guitar".

I can comprehend that. There are lot of people who think that this sounds boring or something and wanna hear different sounds and timbres.

Btw, what's the reason then for this "no sid+drums" rule? I'm just curious.

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 31/01/2006 - 11:30

Romeo Knight wrote: Btw, what's the reason then for this "no sid+drums" rule? I'm just curious.

Pretty much that a lot of no-talent muppets think that beatmatching to combine a generic drum loop and a SID constitutes creativity, and those people needed discouraging from wasting Jan's resources (I'm not speaking for Jan here, but that's the impression I got).

These days, my personal opinion is that maybe that rule could be softened a little and the jury could deal with it on a case-by-case basis... although i've often heard things criticised for being "merely SID + drums" when they're both very clever and very subtle, which is the nearest the scene comes to elitism, IMHO.

You just never know when you let down a filter what the good/crap ratio will be

Chris

Jan Lund Thomsen · Post by **Jan Lund Thomsen** » 31/01/2006 - 21:45

Chris Abbott wrote: Pretty much that a lot of no-talent muppets think that beatmatching to combine a generic drum loop and a SID constitutes creativity, and those people needed discouraging from wasting Jan's resources (I'm not speaking for Jan here, but that's the impression I got).

These days, my personal opinion is that maybe that rule could be softened a little and the jury could deal with it on a case-by-case basis... although i've often heard things criticised for being "merely SID + drums" when they're both very clever and very subtle, which is the nearest the scene comes to elitism, IMHO.

That was indeed the reason the rule was introduced - back then a SID padded with loops was more often than not 'not very good' (to put it mildly). Methinks the problem is that over the years the "SID+Drums" label has slowly come to be associated with what should be more accurately be named "bad SID+Drums remixes".

It might very well be time to soften up the wording as well. Answers on a postcard, please. And don't suggest "Don't be a no-talent muppet!" as that might offend folks.

Especially if they happen to be a)Muppets and b) talented.

xo · Post by xo » 01/02/2006 - 10:05

I disagree - we'd still have some great tunes.

Not that I have any default disliking of SID+drums either.

Flashpan · Post by **Flashpan** » 02/02/2006 - 23:30

Hmm

Well, perhaps for a little clarification, I might add that there is no SID file involved... everything is live instrumentation (melodies, guitars, accordion, etc), with the exception of a Gameboy drum + bass line that was added underneath for texture (live drums play a completely different part than the Gameboy drums, and our bass player was mixed equally with the Gameboy bass). We singled out the Gameboy during the breakdown about midway through. Gameboy performing C64... perhaps a little blasphemous, but we do so love our Gameboys :-)

In any event, hopefully at least a few enjoy it.

Cheers,
Dave

Lagerfeldt · Post by **Lagerfeldt** » 08/02/2006 - 17:54

Chris Abbott wrote:When David was asked about this in an article called "The Musician's Ball" in Zzap!64 he claimed that Roger Whittaker was his Uncle

Chris

And he's not?? Got me good when I read that article, I really thought so. Now my world is shattered.