An Interview with Instant Remedy

Galway, Hubbard and Ben Daglish were the top composers, almost anything the made were good. I'm extremely impressed by Hubbards combined programming/musical skills although I think he maybe made too much wierd stuff. There are also many others that made some very nice SIDs but didn't really keep that same high quality overall.
I remember Matt Gray always having very cool drums and basslines.

Absolute favourites: Last Ninja 1 level 1 ingame and Comic Bakery.

A friend of mine downloaded HVSIDs and played some tunes I was stuck in nostalgia.
I wanted to make something great greater. To enhance the good melodies with better (?) conditions (more voices, better percussion). The worst thing about the SID is the drum part, (if you don't like the wierdness or something).
Back then they were cool, but today they sound extremely… C64.
Basically I wanted to make the SIDs sound good with a regular home-stereo, with more bass, contemporary sound, so that you could listen to it without everybody go: Shut down that blip-blop crap off.
Make it sound less geeky and more cool, more commercial (maybe I'm tripping on someones toes now). The SID itself is able to produce very modern and non-geeky sounds.

Outrun or Comic Bakery. They both have a nice sound and they are great originals.

This will be concentrated on the non-C64-fans part. Might work or might not.
Anyway, I will probably make 2 versions for some of the SIDs, one for the C64-fans and one commercialized version with proper modifications to fit the club-scene better. I'm not sure what the hardcore sceners think of this, but I really want to make the SIDs heard to more than the enthusiasts. I suppose most SID-fans would appreciate having their favorite SIDs exposed to the public too. At least I was very happy when I found out Kraftwerk 400 by Zombie Nation actually was a Lazy Jones subtune (which I never heard before).

• Flimbos Quest (part 3)
• Warriors
• International Karate
• IK
• Arkanoid
• Ghosts'n Goblins
• Last Ninja (Wastelands)
• West Bank

seems to be clear. Also a new Comic Bakery will be made.
I will fill the CD, so there will be more, they are just not decided yet. 4 tunes are ready as I write.

To hear any of the tunes being played in one of the local clubs and to see people really enjoy them. I know some of my mixes are being played in clubs here in Sweden already. To make the SID-scene be discovered by others rather than just enthusiasts. And of course that the many SID-fans will like it.

As I like the genre, and many of my favourite SIDs were 4 on the floor-SIDs it felt natural. I have to admit, it may be easier to make dance-remixes. I haven't made any real complex remixes yet. Remixing Turrican 2 title(Amiga) or one of the Ocean Loaders accurately would be more difficult. But my remixes are seldom accurate, I try to catch the good parts and skip the not-so-good parts.

1. Take away boring/cheezy/bad sounding sounds and add new. KEEP charachteristic (for the tune) arpeggio-chords and blend with string chords, often works well for me.
2. Make a suitable beat, enhance melody with string/pad chords.
3. Try to keep the analog feel, not sythesizer/MIDI-sound. There are so many others that do this a lot better, the BIT series for example.
4. How will I make it sound good to a non-c64-fan? is a question I ask myself. Try to choose SIDs which are suitable for danceversions.
5. Try to make them sound fat as I think that was a great advantage with the SID, it was able to produce fat, analog sounds. I think this is what many remixes lack, the fatness and the gritty sound of the originals, but of course taste differs. For example Ninja by Hubbard. The beauty of this tune is when the fat pulse-bass sound starts after the thin-sounding intro. Excellent! The covers I've heard so far doesn't really make this justice. Many of Galways tunes sounded real fat. Galway is God makes the fatness better justice.

Dislikes: I totally agree with Ferrara: cheap danceremixes. Dancemusic, house, trance etc are my favourites and there's nothing wrong in doing C64 covers and remixes in those genres. However I feel there are too many dance and techno remixes out there where the arranger has taken a too simple and easy approach to making the music.
Hopefully I don't fit in that category myself…

Likes: Nostalgy. You discover from time to time new SIDs through listening to new remixes.

A great thing I was never able to experience… It was probably a big boost for the community, nice so many SID composers were attending.

When I opened up the christmas present and found the tape-unit. Then I knew I was going to find the C64 in another box… Best present I ever got - and ever will have.

I like Scooter, Darude which are dance/club but also Jarre and Mike Oldfield. Laserdance and Koto with their Italy-disco sound. This reflects, the influences can possibly be heard or recognized.

I think The Dead Guys are real cool and wierd and they add very much to the remixing scene, although the genre is not really my cup of tea. Soundwavers makes some HQ stuff . Trace makes some cool mixes with unusual SIDs which is nice. There are more occational hits, but it also depends if you like the original SID itself. It seems like there are popping up more remixes now than ever. It's getting easier every day to make a decent remix with better software coming up all the time.

No doubt Chris Abbott at C64audio. He has been around for several years and doesn't seem to have any plans for retirement the next couple of years… He has done endless amounts of remakes and other things for the community as well. And the guy(s) behind remix.kwed.org for hosting tons of remixes and Remix64. Reading inteviews is real cool.

Yes. I've recieved many mails with good feedback (thanks eveyone). I still get feedback for remixes I made 3 years ago!
I was also VERY pleased and honoured when I read the interview with Martin Galway - he was actually impressed by my remix of his Comic Bakery! Could never had dreamed of something like that back then…

Lazy Jones. There are over 20 subtunes for one game, each tune almost a complete song. Most tunes are real good and catchy too. I would have been very proud to have come up with so many good melodies for one game. 99 Luftballongs (or something) is borrowed I think.

Old (MP3s on the net): Software: FT2, Analogic and AXS - no hardware synths, since I was studying at the time. New (for the CD): Synths: Roland JD800, Access Virus B, Generator (modular softsynth) actually got a licence 😊 Software: MadTracker and a computer of course

Chris Abbot contacted me (we had been in touch earlier) and asked me to make a IK remix for BIT3 (it didn't fit the theme later on though). I said yes and after some thinking I thought I might make an entire CD with my remixes. I believed it might have commercial potential and Chris agreed. He is doing the licensing, selling, printing etc. and I'll deliver the mixes. I think it would be hard to make regular labels interested in this kind of music. And Chris got a good hand with the scene and the original composers, he's not like the bloodsuckers at other labels, he cares.
I've always wanted to make an album for public release (most musicians probably do) and since I feel remixing C64 music is fun I decided to give it a go.

Keep on remixing everybody, there is always room for another interpretation. And respect to those who host services and take their time to support the community!