WIP Ocean Loader 3 Concept Remix

[AndyUK]

You know what, I'm glad you kept the old/new sound in there. The 64 gave the songs energy I think, Its soul came through in the sound of the SID something recognizable as a 64. That 'buzz' to its voice that the other machines lacked and having a tune that virtually every 64 user has heard fits the project. Its nice to hear. Have to say I wouldn't have envied you the task of following Martins loader tune back in the day. You had to have been asked this at one point but did any part of you think "Oh god oh god oh god" when they asked you to do it? heh

Like what you're doing to the chords at 2:08 too.. how's that achieved if you don't mind me asking? Will you be releasing this to Kwed when finished and mastered? Keep us updated mate, the project sounds cool.

....or in other words - The Tunes Live On although the machines may be dead! (A touch of the old 'energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it just moves to another form).

The Remix/Update uses Old and New sounds purposely - even the Lead voice, (I hope), sounds like SID but polished and modernised.

I'll be including my own favourites. So, Bombjack will be in there, probably Shadowfire and arcade-wise Nemesis/Gradius one of my all-time favourites. Probably some of my Amiga fave's too!

I suppose ultimately, the project will try to have just a simple message - 'This stuff hasn't died because history has judged some of it as worth keeping'.

[poke16384]

Just to clarify WHERE I'm up to with this 'Project'; WHY I uploaded the Remix in it's current form; HOW it was put together; WHEN it might be ready and WHAT I hoped to get in feedback.

Before I started writing my own music for C64 games, I played C64 games... I played LOTS of C64 games and I always loved the musical capability of my C64. At the time, there was
absolutely nothing to touch it. It battered the 'Speccy' & the Amstrad into oblivion for music and I loved most of the music. However, there were some games where I listened to the
music and thought 'I could do better than that'. At that time, I had never written on the 64 and had no clue what it took to come up with an original composition for a game. I had no
idea what went into it. So, I guess my feelings were a bit arrogant and certainly naive but it gave me the first push to start experimenting and composing.

Have to say I wouldn't have envied you the task of following Martins loader tune back in the day. You had to have been asked this at one point but did any part of you think
"Oh god oh god oh god" when they asked you to do it? heh

I wasn't actually asked to produce a new loader. At the time, at Ocean, If my memory is correct, Paulie Hughes was updating the tape-loader software yet again and OL2 seemed to be
playing constantly. The motivation for it was twofold. Firstly, the programmers were moaning about having to listen to OL2 all of the time, (any tune will do that to you on the 99th time).

Secondly, (and here's the old arrogant streak coming out again), I'd just about got my head around the 'Ocean Development System', (the hardware and software setup using a C128 source
machine sync'd to a C64 target machine), and I was getting better at 6510 assembly language and I actually dared to think, 'I can do better than this'.

You have to understand, I was in awe of Martin to some extent but, thinking back, it was the stuff of celebrity that was affecting me. I read ZZAP64 and others for ages before going to work
at ocean. Rob H, Martin G, Tony C, Ben D and others were gods of the C64 to me, at the time.

Anyway, not surprisingly, I just wrote it in my own time, at home. Took it into Ocean once I was totally happy with it and played it. People ooh'd! and wow'd! and it went on the next game...

...and the next game... ...and the next game... (just like ocean loader 2).

For Ocean, I'm sure the decision to replace OL2 with OL3 was 100% commercial and had nothing do with whether anyone liked it.
Luckily for me, it's stood the test of time and stands up alongside the other 4.

...and I bet you, when Jonathan Dunn was at Ocean after me and Paulie was, yet again, updating the tape-loader software yet again and OL3 seemed to be playing constantly....
(you know where I'm going with this)

I think that producing Ocean Loader 3 'in secret' meant there was no pressure or 'Oh My God!' factor. That helped!

So... Lot's of tunes that I am still very fond of, some that I love and 1 or 3 of my own will go into this project. I've got about 5 tunes which are definites and another 3 or 4 probables.

When watching my latest again late the following night I suddenly found I couldn't read the captions in time.

The remix which is currently up on YouTube IS NOT the finished article. The video part took about 45 minutes to do in 'Movie Maker'.

We can't upload anything else to RKO until 1st September so it was just a way of getting some feedback NOW! The Idea of the video is just to communicate the thoughts in my head to
you so that you can, (very kind of you and I appreciate ALL feedback, good, bad or indifferent), tell me whether you think my ambiance/music/sounds and atmosphere sort of match
the story so far.

I'm already juggling with either narration or something similar because I want to end up with an AUDIO project NOT video and if things go to plan, I hope to have it finished for early next year.

Like what you're doing to the chords at 2:08 too.. how's that achieved if you don't mind me asking? Will you be releasing this to Kwed when finished and mastered?

It's just a PWM type effect mainly, (Pulse Width Modulation).

BUT... 3 saw-tooth waves, (not pulse waves) slightly out of phase with each other and then swept slowly across their phase range. The 'Phase' knobs under 'OSC1' & 'OSC2' are programmed to
sweep automatically from 0-127-0-127 constantly to create the fat-thin effect. There's a little bit more than that going on but if you look at the differences between the 3 'Subtractors' in the
image, you should get it.

I did it in Reason but I guess you can reproduce it in any DAW or even with hardware. (image attached)

Yes, it will go up on KWED/RKO once it's a finished tune.

Please, keep commenting. I'm rethinking lots of stuff based on the feedback I'm receiving and I really do appreciate all of it!