Video game music scores 'upgraded'

[Commie_User]

We all know how computer game music composers were never taken seriously back in the '80s, despite the fact that they were part of a real industry and moulding a new art form with each new release.

But when I hear old game music like Outrun performed as a piano solo, electric guitar rocker or by a full band you know that real talent created the pieces, though back in the day we all were pretty indifferent to them at best.

It's as if it's the first time these scores have been raised from the buzzy and bleepy home micros we're used to hearing them through. Played with real instruments now, not just better synths? The music's so fresh, so real, so much as if it was written for a real group of musicians in the first place.

(Mind you, the arcade machines had superior synths in them, but so few of us heard those over and over)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2DLod6ylkw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNaSzqkfjDg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEjikCjF ... re=related

[Chris Abbott]

No, some of us treasured them at the time and knew they were special: our brains already heard them that way.

Chris

[Vosla]

I knew a lot of people recording the game tracks to tape back in 1985. I especially remember later on tracks like Game Over, Arkanoid and the lot with or without samples. Maybe we were freaks then...

[Analog-X64]

I had my C64 connected to an amplifier, and would blast Commando, Rambo and all the other greats at full Volume.

I remember, we had a plumber doing some work in our kitchen and the poor guy had enough and asked if I could turn down that god awful noise.

[Commie_User]

Perhaps not freaks so much as people who knew what they had and were dead chuffed. I do know that many Spectrum users wish they had something like the SID in their computers, their wishes partially fulfilled with the Spectrum Plus units.

I also know that in around 1985 (?) an audio cassette was issued by one or other of the magazines containg Rob Hubbard game music.

But I'm talking about people like me who, as children, just saw these exciting coloured sprites hopping about with any music being purely incidental. And I have to admit that, at the time, much game music just sounded like a buzzy racket to me anyway, as synthesisers in general were for me. But I've appreciated it over the years, same as I've appreciated a lot of classical music.

[Analog-X64]

Hearing Impossible Missions sampled sounds and Rambo First Blood Part II, and things like Roland Rat Race were all special sounding too me, they never sounded like bleeps and blops, or low quality audio. I know they didnt sound like a Jarre Composition at the time, but they were unique and soulful sounding, moody is another word I would use to describe.

[Infamous]

Ya the c64 always had a uniquely aggressive sound, The 1st soundtrack I ever heard coming out of a c64 was parallax during the walking sections and I was a cpc464/speccy owner at the time it was off the back of that simple bit of music that I bugged the crap out of my parents to let me spend all my savings on a c64. I would spend just as much time listening to the music as playing the game in some cases id just load the game up for the tune (lightforce and the last v8 in particular.. the latter more because i couldnt play the game for buttons).

Thanks to the sid sound appearing all over the commercial media though the once "what the hell is that fucking noise?!?" comments have now changed too.. oh that sounds like "insert band here" which has lead to alot more people who knew very little about the c64 going off to have a listen in their own time and more fans of the chip (i hope).

There was a little section kenz had/has (not sure if its there anymore) where rob put up the original compositions for a few of the tunes he did and to be honest despite the fact that they are running on proper synths I prefer the sid versions it loses something in translation but then I have always been a strong believer here in this community that if you want to hear the original sid then go listen to that not the remix/1:1 remake of it they'll never sound "perfect" next to each other.. unless reyn and the other sid gods touch it but thats rare and few and far between.

I like the music from back then, far more effort was put into it imo .. sure millions of dollars/pounds/euro's are spent now on hiring out orchestra's and having huge massive bloody scores written by hollywood luddites and that is both time consuming and an art in itself and lets face it when we hear a fantastic soundtrack like the one in ico we appreciate it but its not what we were brought up with as a generation, i guess what im trying to say is that the sid chip the ay/ym chip in the speccy and the amstrad, whatever it was that sat inside the atari2600, paula in the amiga... and any other "retro" sound you can think of is our sound, some of us had frankie, others listened to the cure... I listened to the sid.

[Commie_User]

I'll go with aggressive. One reason I like my 3 active Comodores for recording is because they add a special edge when used with the smoother sounding synths.

For example, the Roland JD800 or JX3 were proper professional musicians' synths, but sometimes in a recording they needed to be blended with the SID sound to make a track more rock-n-roll, for a bit more grit. And even on the smoother sounds, the SID can sound a bit weightier. Especially today, synths can sometimes sound a bit too fluffy for their own good.

They, the 64s, blend well with the sounds from those electronic keyboards too. But on its own or mixed with other generators, the SID sound has an earthy quality all its own. And thanks to it being inside a computer, if you've got the software to make it do all sorts of tricks, what more could you need?