An Encore for Pete

After Barry (Leitch) got the work-files from Rowena (bless her!), we had a discussion on what (and how) to finish the track. I said I would do it, so it became an obsession for me. I toyed around with some ideas on the Hi-score and started on that one. Barry already said he would do the Underground track. So far, so good!

The original plan was to have Pete's start (beginning) since it has an amazing intro, then we go to the Underground track before ending it with the Hi-score. It sounds pretty easy, but it was a nightmare to mix because of Pete's style and choice of instruments. I tried many times to find a proper transition from the abrupt Pete-stop to the underground track, but I didn't feel it was good at all. I then started composing a more quiet part with a piano, like an honouring Pete theme and thought of a funeral, church bells, Bubble Bobble, and I used that 1 minute to guide the track towards the Underground theme. Voila, it sounded quite good.

In the meantime, Barry had already finished the Underground track with the static/robotic, non-humanized bass (like the original btw!) and even got Romeo Knight to make some cool guitar stems for the part. When I glued it together and sent it to Eike (RK), he didn't like the arrangement at all, and pointed towards the bass most of all. I then started creating my own Underground part with a bass that suited Eike's guitar stems, (inspired by Pink Floyd) and found a way to make the riffs shine AND keep the spirit of Giana at the same time.

We spoke a lot (Barry and me) around this time and I shared my changes and thoughts. He liked it and a bit later on he just laughed and pointed out that almost everything he did was scrapped. I replied with I used your snare! …and there are other things in there I kept as well. We just had a laugh and agreed on the part in the end. I just had a strong feel about the part and felt it was the right thing to do. Barry has been forthcoming (as usual), and I'm really grateful for that.

When I finished with the mixing, I thought I was finally done, so I contacted Danko for the mastering. Sadly he had no time to do it due to personal reasons, so now I had to master it as well. Of course, I'm not Danko, but I got some pointers and have also learned a bit about mastering over the years. I did my best, and after (probably) 40 renderings later, it's hopefully good enough!

I feel quite satisfied with my Rings of Medusa take. It's a very haunting melodic theme that goes through the whole tune. I never played the game personally, but as soon as we got the Deliplayer and I heard it there, it stuck with me. It's not a secret that I am a huge Hippel fan, so as with Amberstar, I wanted to do my own take on this track as well. I ended up adding drums to this one and I am glad I did. The original has no drums and the bass is quite monotonous, so I really wanted to give the tune a lift with some variations on multiple parts. Maybe I did some brave choices with the overall arrangement in the end, but I feel it worked out quite well.

I ended up opting for Goto80's Underscore track. I heard it in the Welcome animation of an independently financed distribution of a popular game. It caught my ear due to the chaotic nature of it, and it just felt like when it was written, someone was having a lot of fun doing it. I loved the energy, and thought that perhaps I could clean it up a bit, and put some lipstick on it and see if I could capture that raw energy it had. I took all the Encore tracks on a test listen while driving back from Detroit airport in the middle of a warm summer's night, and when listening to this track, I glanced down at my speedometer and realized I was doing over 100mph, so I think I managed to pull it off! It's a great little MOD file, and all credit goes to Goto80 for being a magnificent self indulgent bastard. ❤️

Wow, it's been nearly a year since I wrote my thoughts on my track choices, or choice as it was at the time, but I had always intended to cover the magnificent LED Storm title music. I started with a sound test, aware that this remix would live or die on the arpeggios alone, maybe the greatest arpeggios of all time. After a few weeks I had exactly what I needed and this track became a labor of love over the coming summer months. I had an idea to bring in the music from the second level as a sort of race complete song, the kind you often find on a racing game as your car drives a victory lap while the results display on screen. It took a lot of trial and error to find the right groove but when I did, part of the game start music fell out of my fingers as I messed around during a session. Also, the end is a little nod to the outrun highscore music with the waves and chilled vibes. I'm super happy with the end result.

Trex Warrior was one of those games where the presentation blew me away. A killer intro sequence, a badass soundtrack, fast 3D gameplay - it just had attitude. I wanted to do a remix like forever, so I decided to finally show the music some love and create a faithful studio adaption with some added guitar lead.

The original leans on a Betty Boo drum sample, but I rebuilt everything from scratch - no original samples used. I also kept the mix deliberately rough to preserve that raw energy.

Well, that did not pan out as I thought 🤣😅. What can I say 🙈. From one track to another and to infinity and beyond! I’m a guy who works with what I’m feeling. So without being too full of myself, because I’m not, I just felt that Rastaman was written in the stars. So many have said that they love the track. What pushed me was that I saw the movie about Bob Marley’s life. His music hasn’t been a big part of my life, but none the less, it was present.

There is a special person who I met at Revision, Ozan Corak. He especially mentioned Rastaman as his favourite track. I don't know how this version will be received. It’s not a 1 to 1 remake, it’s a visualisation of mine. I know it may not be received well by many, since it is a step away from the original. I just wanted to make what, in my opinion, is the best version and to push myself forward or back to the time I was working with vocalists writing and producing music. This is what I want to do more in the future.

Rastaman is about the life of Bob Marley and his struggles. It’s a modern take on Reggae and only some elements are used from the original song. This was a fun project. I play most of it - except the singing, because my Jamaican accent isn’t very good 🤣. (So I) hired a singer from Fiverr to sing. I wanted a singer with a Jamaican accent. Here’s where Shane from the States stepped in. A truly friendly guy who actually was born the same year I wrote Rastaman on the Amiga. He loved the demo I sent him and he agreed to sing on it. For me that was truly a blessing, since he provided the feel and glow to the track.

(And even though my singing is not good), my bass playing is even worse. So, I also had a bass player, Reinaldo from Argentina playing the bass. The bass was almost the same as the original. I wanted him to play what I sent him. but he insisted to give me his take on it and I’m grateful for that. I did combine his take and the bass he played as I wanted it so it's a win-win I think.

I used AI on the melody of the saxophone in the beginning and at the end, guided by a melody I played. Also the small sax ad-libs were placed tastefully and corrected with Melodyne to fit my needs.

It has been a big pleasure for me to revisit this old track and to enhance it, since I’m more mature now and have more experience in both life and music. My goals are always to challenge myself and to make something better than before. I really hope that this version will give others pleasure listening to it as I it does to me. This is my vision. I learned a lot from making this and made me grow. Hope you will enjoy it!

Picking songs to remix always takes forever. For me, it has to be games that really made an impact on me or had songs that I still catch myself whistling while doing the dishes.

The music from Marble Madness has exactly that kind of song. I remember playing it for the first time and it just lodged itself in my brain instantly. And now here I am, remixing it almost 40 years later. 🤓

The intro to Another World totally caught me off guard back then, with its amazing visuals and super atmospheric music. Listening to it again before starting this remix, I could really hear how Jean-François Freitas was inspired by John Carpenter’s score for Escape from New York.

And then you’ve got Tron: Legacy whose soundtrack was done by Daft Punk, also clearly inspired by John Carpenter.

So my remix takes inspiration from both John Carpenter and Daft Punk 🙏

For me the choice was just a question of time before it would have been done one way the other. Seeing is believing / Anarchy, has to be one of, if not the best Amiga demos ever made. The soundtrack has always been one of Nuke's finest, too. So when I was asked to join this journey, the track was already set in my mind! But I'd never do a 1:1 copy of the song. If I would remix this excellent Amiga MOD, it had to be done in the most personal way possible.

When I first heard the Turrican II Title tune, it immediately made it to my bucket list, so I was very excited to start (on it). Then I quickly realized how much pressure it means to do real justice to it, since I resonate with it so much that I genuinely think it is one of the best pieces ever made on Amiga. So, touching this piece literally felt both heaven and hell to me! 😄

Shocked and stunned. Pete's passing really left a massive hole in the group, I don't think anyone really realized how he was the glue holding us all together. He was all our friend, and we all miss him dearly. We all grieve for him in our own ways. Many of us talked at length about it, and many of us found it very difficult to continue on without him. It took a long time for many of us to even feel like putting mouse to desktop, some never even made it that far. What has stunned me, though, is that the spirit of the team is still there - this was Pete's vision of collaboration and teaching.

When I first joined I commented that I couldn't think of a more intimidating bunch of people to have to submit a tune to! You have over 200 years of compositional, arrangement and production expertise in one group! Pete wanted us all there to learn from each other, to be able to just ask each other hey how can I mix this better? or any chance you could lay down some guitar for my track?, but it's gone so much further than that, we've had several virtual and in person meet-ups all around the globe and true friendships have been made as a result of one man - and his desire to win all the awards. 🙂

Another thing that has stunned me has been the quality and continued improvements to each and every person on the team's work. I'm not going to single out individuals who have not just improved technically but actually raised the bar for the entire community.

I'm so happy that we managed to get the album done in the end. It has been quite a rollercoaster journey, especially after Pete's passing and the following couple of months.

I am so happy and proud we managed to get this album done! The support we have had along the road is something words can't tell. You just have to live the story to know what it is.

Also the support from everybody has meant the world to us! Just a simple thing as, you're never alone."

I just know we all did our greatest!

Thank you for the music!

Last year when Pete has passed, I kinda got a block that lasted for quite some time… I really, really wanted to do it for him but I just could not get myself to sit down and focus on this. I had a hard time keeping myself together even when we did the memorial show and still to this day I have difficulties with the grief. What he left behind is hard to describe with words - an incredible professional, yet, super humble and supportive group of friends who bonded around their passion and then, so much more…

Also, I perceived my track choice to be the most challenging ever, since it is one of the classic Amiga game tunes with pure genius melodies and flow by Chris Hülsbeck - so the song itself is sacred to me. When Jogeir & Rapture came out with their version, that was my final inspiration - this is why my track starts where theirs ends, sending a nod to them!

I knew what kind of treatment I wanted to give it, but I really hated when I could not get a part right the way I imagined and just kept struggling with the instrumentation. And because of this, I have had many failed evenings when I wanted to sit down to carry on with it, but I just felt like I couldn't.

Then somehow I started to push through and managed to add more and more parts that lined up with how I imagined it. Jogeir was extremely patient and nudged gently towards the end goal from time to time.

And when most of the song started to make sense to me during the final days before the deadline, I definitely got the last motivation boost to finish. Mattias Brian gave it the finishing treatment with mixing and mastering and I am very happy with the result!

The track of course is dedicated to Pete. He just smiled when I mentioned this plan, joking that I will most certainly take this soundscape to the highway with my high-energy obsession - so I did.

Thank you so much for everything! I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of this journey with all of you!

Almost a year went procrastinating. Nearly all the time had gone to make Unreal happen. It was so challenging to improve the song, to pay sufficient respect to the original song since I felt very nostalgic (towards it). I had great regret for my choice. I realized I won't make it in time, pulled myself together a week before the deadline and managed to complete Lotus from scratch!

However, the deadline was extended a couple of times, and I still couldn't meet those deadlines with Unreal. I felt completely lost, almost giving up and leaving it to be released much later. Until suddenly, I had the entire length covered. Just needed to touch all the parts up hundreds of times!

Luckily I got valuable, even harsh but honest feedback from the other artists to improve after my ears had become too numb. Since I left everything until the last minute I had no longer the guts to ask any other people to play any parts, not even Romeo Knight for the guitar. That made me feel super nervous about the guitar sounds but I was surprised to be mocked for my snare sound instead!

It was unusual on my behalf to release a remix with no Theremin on the key melodies at all, only a few lines here and there. In the end the remix was completely different than what I had in my mind. Lotus was the complete opposite, since I knew how it should sound like from a dream I had more than a decade ago. Just wasted a year to come up with the lyrics!

Of course I'm relieved the duty is done and that we got quite a lot of songs in total. I felt that I had improved a lot since the last album. And I had great help for mastering from a certain Swedish gentleman. But I feel we are still recovering from the loss. Not only the friend and father figure we lost, but we will never hear what Pete's remix would have been if he finished it himself. And he won't hear what we released, apart from the few that got their songs ready in advance. And I'm not sure if or when there will be another Encore in the future. Only time will tell.