I composed this tune for the 20th anniversary's music disc of Samar Productions. Actually I had written the music some time before. It was meant to be a song, the third part of a sort of trilogy. I had even written some lyrics, but the melody sounded too "naive" to me, so I abandoned the project. When Samar asked for tunes for the anniversary disc I thought that that melody could have been right for a SID tune, and that's how "Mado kara" was born. The title has something to do with the theme of the original lyrics.

Mado kara

I started composing this tune around July 2012. I don't remember much about that time, but I'm sure the weather was hot, otherwise the tune would have had a different title... :D Back then I only wrote the slow intro part and the rhythm section. Then I abandoned the tune, having run out of ideas. Some days before Christmas Richard Bayliss wrote on Facebook's TND's page that he needed some music for Alf Yngve's latest game (Re-Alienator), to be released around Christmas. I replied saying that I had an almost complete tune, and I asked about the deadline: there were only 2 days left! I thought I would never make it in time, so I decided to compose the remaining part while going back to my town by train... And that's where I finished composing and arranging the tune!
Even if winter had just started, I decided to keep the title, because the intro part is the one I prefer...

Note: I recorded the song via GoatTracker, which is the tool I used to compose it, because the Commodore 64 emulators and "SidPlay" don't seem to play it correctly (one note is missing in the "riff" after the tom break, and the drums play weird)...

A Hell Of A Summer ("Re-Alienator"'s title track)

Do you remember the story behind "Verde notes"? Well, I've just found the source file and decided to fix the missing snare and to record it directly from "Goat Tracker", so that you can listen to it the way it was meant to be listened to! :)

First Contact ("Verde notes" fixed original version)

I think this is the last track I did for the game. I probably already knew that a selection screen tune wasn't needed, but I did it anyway, and eventually... it wasn't used! :D

Monstro Giganto (Original Game Soundtrack)

Extra 2 - Selection Screen - Version 2 (unused)

Monstro Giganto OST - 08 - Extra 2 - Selection Screen V2 (unused)

I started this tune more or less on January 9th 2021, as the fourth subtune of the intro tune.
Actually the first idea was to make just one tune for the character selection and one in-game tune.
Then I asked Antonio for more info and he told me there were 5 characters, one of which was a sort of giant Frankenstein dressed like Tony Manero, and he sent me his picture (and the pictures of the other characters as well). Well, the description was really faithful to the character! :D So I started his tune with that bassline that I think everyone can recognize... :D
I finished it on January 28th.

Bogie

Monstro Giganto OST - 07 - Bogie

This is the 3rd tune I did for Monstro Giganto, after the intro tune and the Bogie one. I started it on 9th January and I had clear in mind how it would sound! I had fun trying to make such exotic instruments! I think I drew some inspiration from a Sega MegaDrive game. Guess which one... :)
I finished the tune on January 28th.

Mojo

Monstro Giganto OST - 06 - Mojo

This is the last tune I wrote for the game. I started in on January 23rd. It's probably the most complex tune I made for the game and it's the one I prefer of the lot.
This was also fun to compose and to arrange!
I can't believe it took such a short time for me to write it... In fact I finished it on January 27th!

Gorgo

Monstro Giganto OST - 03 - Gorgo

I wrote this tune on 28th December 2020, and this was probably the first tune I completed for the game. At that time I didn't know how many and what tunes were needed yet, so the first thing I did was trying to enter the mood of a "kaijuu" battle. And what was better than a sort of military march?

After completing the title track I thought that this would fit the selection screen, but eventually Antonio said that the game didn't need a selection screen tune, so this one remained unused.

Extra 1 - Selection Screen - Version 1 (unused)

Monstro Giganto OST - 02 - Extra 1 - Selection Screen (unused)

This is the first tune I made for the game. I started making it on December 27th 2020. Initially I didn't have any idea of what kind of music would fit the game, so I watched some clips from the first Godzilla japanese movies. I decided to try to make some kind of march like the "Godzilla" one, composed by Akira Ifukube, but a faster one.
I came up with the main melody the day after, after 3 failed attempts (that's my average!) but I reworked to tune many many times!

I finished it on January 30th 2021, and actually I thought it took much longer...
Finally it became a sort of ouverture, embracing many "genres", and it gave me the opportunity to experiment, once again.
For example, I did the chords on two voices (one of them is the bass/drum one) and I used some 4 notes chords without fast arpeggios (in fact only 2 notes are played and the bass).
Notice that the intro is basically the ending of the tune... :) The intro was the last thing I did for this tune... :D

A little note: one of the subtunes was meant to be the character selection tune, but finally we didn't use it.

Title Screen

Monstro Giganto OST - 01 - Title Screen

This is the last tune I made for "Boxymoxy". We noticed that we still needed an intro tune, so on February 24th 2020 I set myself to write it.
In the beginning it was very different from what you hear now: the tune was similar to the first world's one. Probably I wanted to make a sort of medley - if not of the tunes - at least of their "sounds" and atmosphere (actually I tried to make all the tunes coherent with each other, as I always try to do with soundtracks).

The work on this version continued on 25th, when I wrote the bridge. On 27th I wanted to experiment with a different arrangement, using a more "military" bass and an arpeggio, and so I created a second subtune for this. Later I wrote something completely different again which sounds like the "verse" of the final version but with an arpeggio similar to the one of the current "chorus".

On 29th I developed the verse, adding two patterns which would have soon become the chorus; then I modified the verse and added the current arpeggio, and I started to compose the bridge.

About the bridge, something peculiar happens there: there are two (very "cheap") key changes: the first brings the tune 5 halftones up, and the second one adds further 5 halftones to the key, leading to a key which is 2 halftones lower than the original one. Later, when I needed to make the tune loop smoothly, I decided to add a third chorus 1 tone higher: a very cheap key change, again, but it works, at least to my ears... :P

I finalized the tune on 1st March 2020.
In the end it wasn't used... until Antonio and Lobo added another world and decided to use the unused intro tune for it!

Boxymoxy (Original Game Soundtrack)

Title Screen (World 4)

Boxymoxy OST - 1 - Title Screen (World 4)

I wrote this tune in about 5 days (from 10th to 14th February). I wanted to create a spooky tune: "Boxymoxy" is a cute game, but it's also a bit spooky (there's black magic, chatting skulls, cats with big eyes... :D)... Or at least this is the impression that it gave to me! So I decided to add some creepy sound effects (thunders, howlings, laughters...)!

World Selection

Boxymoxy OST - 2 - World Selection

This is the first tune I wrote for "Boxymoxy". I started writing it on 18th December 2019. I wanted to make something which sounded like the soundtrack of an old 8-bit japanese console game, having in mind "Parasol Stars" in particular, also because a few months earlier I had studied and converted the first world's tune.
That's why I used an "almost square" wave sound for the lead instruments and for the chords. The lead is often "doubled" (this can be noticed when sound effects play during the tune) to create a richer sound.
I also tried not to use those "fast arpeggios" that the japanese seem to hate, or at least that's what I read some years ago on a japanese chiptune fan's blog (who was also interested in Commodore 64 stuff)... :D

Using "7th" or "6th" chords or, in general, chords that are more complex than a triad, is difficult with fast arpeggios, but it's more difficult with just 3 oscillators that must play the lead instrument, the bass AND the chords, so it was a real challenge.
(Note: Actually I had taken this decision much before starting to make "Boxymoxy"'s tunes, as can be noticed by listening to some of previous works, and I'm trying to stick to it as much as I can, because I like the clean sound of the "non-multiplexed" waves.)

The first version of the tune had a very different melody, with a different harmony, but the arpeggio and the bassline were very similar to the final ones.
It took more than a month to finish the tune, which was completed on January 26th. I spent a lot of time perfecting it almost note by note... but I missed something!
I think noone noticed and noone will ever do... Anyway the "CD version" is a bit different than the game's one. Can you tell why? :D

Forest (World 1)

Boxymoxy OST - 3 - Forest (World 1)

This tune was a real challenge, although a fun one: for the village "stage" I wanted to make one of my dreams come true: converting some irish jigs for the SID chip! This was also a chance to learn to play some jigs with the tin-whistle, which I had bought some months earlier.

I decided to start with something that could be played with the Uilleann Pipes, since I've always wanted to emulate them! So I searched on YouTube and I finally stumbled upon "The Gander In The Pratie Hole". I studied various versions of it trying to understand the "effects" and techniques even slowing down the audio. Maybe this is the tune that took more time to be done. In order to make the counter-melody sound more realistic, I even learned to play it myself with the tin-whistle.

The second jig is called "The Hare In The Corn". I immediately loved it when I listened to it for the first time! The arrangement (the bass, the bodhran and the tin-whistle's counter melody) is mine.

The third jig is "Morrison's Jig".

The fourth and final jig is actually a slipjig, and it's called "Ryan's slipjig", though it's better known as "The Cock And The Hen" (there are a few tunes which go under the title "Ryan's slipjig"; that's why I prefer the other title).

It took about two weeks of work to finish the tune (I "finalized" it on January 25th 2020), but the work was really hard!

Village (World 2)

Boxymoxy OST - 4 - Village (World 2)

I worked on this tune from January 24th to February 9th. Actually I thought it took much more time, because it's maybe the most complex tune I did for the game...

I started with the intro, but then the tune sped up a bit, playing a completely different melody.
On January 27th I added another part between the intro and the fast part, and the following day I added a gloomy part, played with flutes: it was clear in my mind that this tune would have been kind of creepy because it would play during the most difficult levels of the game! I wanted to create a "desperate" atmosphere, driving the player almost crazy (as if the puzzles don't already do it themselves!)! Sorry, players! :P

Anyway, as always, I didn't know how to go on, and so on 31st I created another subtune which started with the same intro as the first one but went on like the final version (so I got rid of the two "intermediate" parts of the first subtune). The following day I added a fast heavy metal part that eventually played the chords of "La Follia" ("The Madness", which is a composition made on a particular chord progression), just to add more creepiness to the tune... :D
Soon I thought that "La Follia"'s chords' part should have been slower, and so I slowed it down...
In order to get some inspiration for the melody, I started to "cover" Vivaldi's version... and finally I had covered the whole first movement... :D

As with the "village" tune, it's been a tough work, refining the sound note by note, but I'm satisfied of the result (especially in the final part, the one with the triplets... :D).

But maybe the biggest challenge was to find a modulation to join "La Follia" with the first part (I didn't want to change the keys of both)... and here comes the "messy" part before "La Follia": I rushed it a bit, mainly because I had lost the inspiration and I didn't have much spare time because I had started to work (really hard) again...
Anyway the modulation works, more or less...

One final note: someone said that this tune is grating: well, as I wrote above, that was my purpose... :P This is one of my "conceptual tunes": the beginning is quite tense, because the "hero" faces a very dire situation, but occasionally (during the "bridges") it softens (when the "hero" gathers some confidence). Then there's a thriumphant part, when the "hero" catches a glimpse of his victory and gets quite optimistic, but when he thinks he has won... he realizes he hasn't, and he starts going mad (this is where "La Follia" creeps in)...
So that's it!

Castle (World 3)

Boxymoxy OST - 5 - Castle (World 3)

I wrote this tune from 14th to 23rd February 2020.
In the beginning this should have been the intro tune, but it was completely different!
Then on February 15th I created a new subtune with something which was very similar to the final version, but melody and arpeggio were different.
Two days later I added another subtune with something different that slowly turned into the final version's intro, but faster.
On February 20th I added the verse, initially different, with the final version's arpeggio.

When I finished the tune, we thought it was a bit too long, so I cut some repetitions and made the final version.
Some days later my brother told me that the verse's arpeggio was very similar to the verse of a Christmas song for children that I had never listened to before... :D
So I went to YouTube and... it was very similar indeed!!! :D Anyway I decided not to change my tune, first because in my tune that's an arpeggio, not the main melody; second because I think it was surely used somewhere else as well... and third because I should have changed the arpeggio of the "special" part too, because the phrasing was intentionally similar, and I liked it as it was.
Now the tune sounds a little weird to me, but it makes sense... :D

Ending

Boxymoxy OST - 6 - Ending

After watching a DVD about Deep Purple's "Machine Head" and hearing Jon Lord talking about Bach's influences on his music, I went to YouTube to look for some pieces of music by the famous german composer... and I stumbled upon this. I remembered it was featured in Tarkovskij's "Solaris", which is one of my favourite movies. Looking at how it was played on the organ, I noticed that the 3 oscillator of the SID chip would have been more than enough to play it... and so I decided to convert it!
I hope you enjoy it!

Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ - BWV 639 - Johann Sebastian Bach

I wrote this track as part of Planet Golf's soundtrack. I thought that it could play during the pause mode, but finally it wasn't needed, so I put it aside.
It's a cover of the "Toccata" from "Sonata n. 6 in A major" from "Le sonate di gravicembalo" by Pietro Domenico Paradisi, which when I was a kid was played during the TV breaks on the national TV channels.

For italians it's an iconic piece of music that brings back sweet memories, and it's associated with images of rural landscapes and sheeps that were on the pictures that were shown during those breaks.

I started arranging the tune on 29th December 2016 and I finished it on 10th January 2017.
Initially I wanted to add the other pieces that were played during the "Intervallo" (that is the name of those breaks ("Intervallo" means "break", more or less)) and I started to arrange Couperin's Sarabanda, but I couldn't find a score, so I decided to only keep Paradisi's Toccata.

Planet Golf Game Soundtrack Selection

Intervallo

I don't remember how things went with this work... :'( I will do some research and then update this note. Anyway it should have gone like this: a few days before Christmas 2014 Dr. Strange told me that Wanax needed some music for his upcoming Breakout-like game. I was more than happy to help and honoured to be chosen for the soundtrack of the game!
Initially the plans were for only one tune, that is the one you're listening to now.

The graphics of the preview that Wanax showed to me looked like "Krakout", so I wanted to give the tunes a "cute" touch. So I experimented with percussion sounds and ring modulation. But I always wanted to quote the most famous Breakout-like game: Arkanoid!!!

The last part of the tune is almost entirely dedicated to it: during the bass "solo" there's an instrument which sounds like Arkanoid's ball sound effect. As the tune goes on you realize that it's not an instrument, but it's an Arkanoid ball, and there's a bat somewhere, trying to prevent the ball from falling into oblivion! Sadly the ball's speed increases more and more, and the player isn't skilled enough to finish the level... So we hear a noise which resembles the sound of the explosion of the Arkanoid's bat, which means that it's... Game Over! And then a tune which sounds like a swingy version of Arkanoid's game over tune starts... But it ends in a very unexpected way... :D

The main tune is in G major, while the Arkanoid's ball effect plays B and F# notes. I thought it could fit the key, but when I started to write the last part of the tune I realized that I'd better change the key into B minor... I could have transposed the main tune from G major to D major, but it would sound different... So I decided to try to add a bridge in order to make a key shift from G to B minor. And this bridge happens during the last part of the solo.

There are just a few repetitions in the tune because I didn't want it to be boring. Actually after this tune I've always tried to avoid repetition, but now I think it's not the right path to follow... :D

Break 64 - Main Theme

I started composing this tune on 26th January, already knowing about the Nonstandard Time Signature Compo. The day before I went back to Rome for a week-long work assignment, and visiting the places where I had worked, walked and lived for more than 3 years made a big impression on me. A little arpeggio had started to surface in my mind on the 25th while I was walking down the Tuscolana street, and then it kept playing and developing continuously. On the 26th, as soon as I got back to my B&B room, I whistled it in my mobile phone recorder, and the following evening, while sitting on the bed, I started to turn it into a SID tune.
I kept working on it even on my way back home by train, so I can say I composed it across half Italy!

I wanted to make something between the early Mike Oldfield and Jean Michel Jarre, building a sort of crescendo. Unfortunately for the melodic part I had to cut out the chords because the SID has only 3 oscillators...
I planned that at the beginning of the tune the listeners wouldn't really understand what is going on, because the arpeggio stays the same for the first 3 bars; then the chords come in and everything is much clearer. The bass gives a sense of depth and prepares the listeners to the melodic part of the tune... For the final part I wanted to strengthen the arpeggio and give it a "direction" (the counter melody follows the chords).

I'm very happy for the positive acknowledgment the tune has had on csdb, and I thank all the people who left a comment and cast a vote for it!
A big "Thanks" goes to Dr. Science for making the player for the compo and to Dr. Strange for the coordination!

Odd Old Places - Recorded from a real Commodore 64 with an 8580 SID chip model

Around the end of february I ordered a book from an online bookstore. After some days I got an e-mail from that bookstore saying that I could pick up the book at the place of my choice, but when I went there I was sent from an employee to another one who said the exact opposite about the parcel, that in the end wasn't given to me!

On that same day I started composing this tune (aiming to the "Nonstandard Time Signature Compo"). The "verse" is supposed to be me, while the "chorus" should be the employees. At the end of the second chorus the employee tries to play in 12/8 - because he thought he was right! :D - but he fails!
Then there's a pause of reflection before the "charge" given by the solo. The tune ends with something like a victory fanfare, because the following day they gave me the parcel without adding a word!

So this tune, like some others I did, is a little bit "conceptual", and only I can "understand" every single bit of it, but that's one of the reason I compose music and songs. Of course I want to make something that people may enjoy, but there's also a layer of meaning that only I can get... :)

By the way, the title is a pun: the words in it, conveniently disguised, refer to the main "actors" (except me) of the "story"... The title of the sid file (which is the working title, with the "version" attached) may help identify one of the two "actors" (the first one is super easy to understand)... :P

Again, I thank all the people who commented and cast a vote on csdb. I hope you'll enjoy this tune! But the biggest "Thanks" go to Dr. Science, who made the player and sent the tune to csdb just in time for the compo!

The Amazing Past of Fish - Recorded from a real Commodore 64 with an 8580 SID chip model

I started this tune in november 2015 from an unusual chord progression born "by chance", while I was experimenting on the keyboard.
I wanted to create something "spaziale" (*), futuristic and epic, but a bit disturbing at the same time (that is the feeling I have when I think to "space").

In the beginning there were no drums at all, and no plans to introduce them. But when the tune was almost finished I thought that it wasn't epic enough. I tried to create a very powerful synthetic snare sound by using two voices, and I was satisfied with the result. Of course I had to change something in the bass and the chord patterns (and maybe I should have changed something in the melody one too).

I had almost finished the track around mid-february 2016, but I "finalized" it in the first days of june.
The odd "bass" at the end of the tune happened by pure chance. To the readers the task to understand how... :D

Soon after finishing the main theme tune I started working on the planet selection tune. But that's another story!

(*) "spaziale" is an adjective that means "related to space". In Italy it's common practice to use english words as "technical words" even when they can be easily translated into italian. Most people don't even know their meaning. I hate this. In the case of "spaziale", it could be translated into english, but I should have changed the whole sentence. It was easier to use one italian word, and that's what I did... :D

P.S.: On the 6581 SID model the bass sounds "flatter". It is due to the different implementation of filters, as you probably know. I had this "problem" in other tunes as well, as you'll see...

Planet Golf Main Theme

Planet Golf Main Theme (Recorded from a real C64 with a 8580 SID chip)

For this tune I used the same istruments of the "main theme". I took inspiration from the ship selection tune (a very epic march) of a popular arcade game of the late eighties. To the readers the task to identify it! :D
It took me 2 days (14th and 15th of June 2016) to compose it. I decided to make it so short to "imitate" that arcade game tune and also because I thought that the player would be busy thinking what planet to choose and would like to start playing as soon as possible...
As always, after the tune was "finalized", I thought I could make it a little longer...

Planet Selection

Planet Selection (Recorded from a real C64 with a 8580 SID chip)

I started this tune on December 1st 2015 and I worked on it until january 13th, when I got stuck!
I wrote the beginning of what should have been the 2nd part, but I couldn't go on... When Antonio decided to publish a preview of the game (Semptember 2016) I decided to use a short version of the tune containing just the first part. I just had to make some little changes to make the lead instrument audible for the 6581 SID models, but wait: the version you're listening to now (the same that is on the CD) is the original one, with the filters working correctly!

Towards the end of the production of the game we needed another tune. Since there wasn't much time, we decided to keep this tune as it was on the preview.
When I listen to this tune it seems too short and incomplete... If I had more time (and maybe more ideas) I would try harder to develop the second part and maybe add a third one, as I had initially planned to do...

P.S.: As for the other Planet Golf tunes, the title was decided by Antonio, whom I thank!

Red Dust

Red Dust (Recorded from a real C64 with a 8580 SID chip)

At some point of Planet Golf's development, around the end of January 2017, since there still was time to do some other "SID experiment" for the game, Antonio and I decided that we could put a different tune for every planet, instead of the same tune for all of them. I think this is where we involved my brother Gaetano!

This tune contains a few "conceptual" elements: it starts with someone or something that rises from the abyss attracted by a sound that gradually becomes louder (a sonar which indicated something?), and then the music actually starts (apparently mimicking the "sonar"). Towards the end he/it jumps into the seas and goes back to the abyss...

Some time after submitting the tune (I finished it on march 21st 2017, by the way), I thought I should add a "water noise" like the one in the beginning, which decreases in intensity the more he/it goes down, but I should have put the 3 voices "mess" into 2... Almost impossible to do in a smooth way...

I wish I had more time to develop the melodic parts better, and maybe to add one more part...
I'm never satisfied of my job! :D

P.S.: I had to make a 6581 version for this tune too because of the heavy use of filters, but... the version you're listening to now, the same that is on the CD, is the original one!

Shine On Us White Diamonds

Shine On Us White Diamonds (Recorded from a real C64 with a 8580 SID chip)

I started to write this tune on September 29th 2016 for the 25th years of Atlantis demo. On October 10th I stopped working on it after making the intro (with the main "riff"), the "verse" and a very small bit of the chorus, probably because the deadline was near and I was afraid I couldn't complete it in time. I've already written about the tune that was actually used for that demo, so how did this tune become part of Planet Golf's soundtrack?

I really liked it and wanted to complete it someday, so, while working at Planet Golf, after deciding to make a different tune for each planet I thought it was the right chance to start to work on it again. It was March 26th 2017. Since from the beginning I had in mind to do something "classic", in the vein of baroque music (as the main "riff" suggests), I  initially thought to the verywell known "Toccata and Fuga in D minor" by J.S. Bach, but my tune was in A minor. Of course I could transpose it (I would never transpose a Bach's work to adapt it to something made by me!), but it sounded really different and odd! So I needed something in A minor...

I listened to lots of classical works from various composers, and in the end I stumbled upon this... To the readers the task to guess the title and the author of the work I've used... :P (There are a few coincidences about it, but I will keep them secret in order not to spoil anything. Anyway these coincidences made me think I made the right choice!)

By the way, I finished the tune on April 20th 2017.
It seems like I was quite fast, but the tune required a lot of work. In the classical part almost every note has an "effect", because I wanted to make the SID play it like a human being would. I wanted to add some "feeling" to that part, in contrast with the "coldness" of the electronic instruments.

By the way, a few words about the "meaning" of the tune (another slightly "conceptual" one): I wanted to make a sort of crossover between classical music and electronic music (as you may have noticed... :P ). This is more evident towards the end of the classical part. In the original score there was a slightly different "chorus", in a major key. I cut that "chorus", added a bar and then put the main "riff" of my tune as the "new chorus", played by the harpsichord and the violins. That is the "climax" of the crossover, because it's were not only the SID chip plays (or tries to play) classical instruments and tunes, but classical instruments (even if played by SID) play an electronic "riff" while playing a classical work.

I'm sorry about the bad explanation... Anyway I'm sure you'll understand what I meant just by listening to the tune! I hope you'll enjoy it!

Another Home

Another Home (Recorded from a real C64 with a 8580 SID chip)

I started to write this tune on... wow! July 28th 2016! Just one year before Planet Golf's release date!
This track was meant for the hall of fame, so I thought I should do something in the vein of the high score tunes of games like "Commando", "Monty on the Run", "Hysteria", "1942", and so on: nostalgic and even a bit sad melodies with a very simple rhythmic pattern.

Actually I've always sensed also a bit of "love" in these high scores tunes, so I thought I should add some to mine too. I took as "references" (mainly for the structure) some old power ballad, like the ones from Scorpions ("Believe in Love", "Still Loving You", "Yellow Raven"...).

And so this tune was born.
This tune has a peculiarity that someone might have noticed: towards the end of the chorus there's an odd "modulation" which carries the tune into a different key. So every time the chorus is played the key of the tune changes. There are 5 key shifts (up or down), so it must be a real pain to play it live on real instruments... Does anyone want to try? :D

For the final part (I won't write for what: just listen to the whole tune! :P ) I took inspiration from a game that I consider the best J-RPG ever made...

I finished it around August 13th. Almost exactly one year ago! I hope you'll enjoy it!

Galactic Hall Of Fame

Galactic Hall Of Fame (Recorded from a real C64 with a 8580 SID chip)

I wrote this tune on February 15th and 17th 2016 after playing this little secret game (if you want to know more about it just buy Freeze64 issue no. 12. And Planet Golf, of course!). 
I composed the tune trying to transpose the gameplay mechanics into music. Did I succeed?

2K Run

2K Run (Recorded from a real C64 with a 8580 SID chip)

This is the only tune that I was originally meant to compose for the demo. I wanted to make a really rhythm-driven tune, so I added lots of toms and drums.

Maybe I used too much vibrato on the lead instruments, and maybe I should have worked some more on them... Maybe the tune should have been longer, but that solo put really the "end" word to the track (even if it goes on for some seconds more with the main riff played 1 octave higher on a sort of drum solo).

I started to compose the tune on July 11th, and I think I finished in on August 11th. Anyway the final version has the date of August 21st. I'm too lazy to check the differences, though... :P

By the way, "BEATS" was presented to "Datastorm 2017" in Sweden and ranked second!

Tom and Snarey (BEATS - credits)

BEATS (by Atlantis) - credits (Recorded from a real C64 with an 8580 SID model)

I started to write this tune on 3rd October 2017. I had read about a Crack Intro Music Competition on Atlantis' Skype group or an a Commodore 64 related group - the post was made by Mermaid. I don't remember which of the two came first. Anyway I thought it was interesting because the rules were very strict, as you can see here:

http://csdb.dk/event/?id=2636

My main concerns were the length of the tune (no more than 1'02" - originally no more than 1 minute) and the amount of memory used by it (less than 1k).

In the end my tune lasted just 1'02"!
In order to spare as much memory as I could, I decided to make the bass/drums and chords patterns loop for the entire tune. I mean: there's just one pattern for the bass/drums and one for the chords, and they loop forever).
I also recycled as many bits as I could. For example, the riff "pattern" is actually made of 2 "quarter" patterns. Why 2 and not 4? Because the first one loops 3 times!

Maybe I would have made it without those "tricks" as well, but, again, I wanted to save as much memory as possible. That was my main goal.

About the tune itself, the idea came to me while I was watching a movie. After the first chord of the soundtrack's main theme, a very particular chord was played. I think it's seldom used in pop music, but it's widely used in movies, because it soon reminded me of the soundtrack of another movie I had seen some days earlier.
So I had the first two chords of the tune, and the title: "Move me like a movie", because that chord progression, widely used in  movies, is meant to "move" the viewers/listeners.

I completed the chord progression in a quite standard way, and then I started with the melody.
The structure is very basic: there's a "verse", a "bridge" and a "solo". The solo gives some "harmonic twists" to the tune because it adds some fourths and other "odd" notes. If you feel something strange during it mind that it was made on purpose... :P

I composed it in about 6 days.
I don't care much about csdb votes (of course I thank all the people who kindly cast their vote), but I'm very pleased when someone makes some comments too, because I know that he/she listened to the tune carefully and believes that I can improve.
Most of the comments were about the drums, that are not particularly loud. That is because I don't use the "abused" pulse waveform for them. I use the triangle waveform instead, because it gives a more realistic sound, especially if you listen to the tune on a good hi-fi setup. But in the case of this tune the other instruments are really much louder...

Anyway I'm currently experimenting with pulse waveform, and I'm using it in my new tunes, so stay... "tuned"! :D

Move Me Like A Movie

Move Me Like A Movie (made for the Crack Intro Music Competition 2017 - Recorded from my C64)

Xcusemo - Track 5
(Recorded from my Commodore 64)

Download the demo: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=170933

Atlantis' Xcusemo (Original Demo Soundtrack)

Xcusemo - 05 - 6 Months to X2016 ~ Working Hard

Xcusemo - Track 5

This is the tune with which I joined the Flashback 2019's Oldschool music compo.
On May 8th I logged into csdb after a very long time, and I found a message from Jazzcat who asked me if I was still making C64 music.
Of course I was, even if not at that moment. Actually I was just looking for a motivation to compose something, and Jazzcat's message came like a sort of hand from above!

It wasn't hard to decide what to do: some weeks earlier I was tinkering with some PC Engine tunes, trying to do some covers. The tune I was examining had some interesting features: 1) It used only 5 voices; 2) One of the voices featured "drums", which were actually made of very grating noise-waveform sounds; 3) One of the voices was duplicated and delayed.

So, because the SID has only 3 voices, I decided to cut out the duplicated/delayed track and the drum track.
After I finished my work, the tune really sounded like the original one! And the original one was made very cleverly: although no fast arpeggio was used, the chords were easily recognizable! That amazed me!

Besides a comment I had read on YouTube or on a blog came to my mind: the author (a japanese video game player or just someone who loved japanese games) wrote that he didn't like western C64 composers because they always used those fast arpeggios that you seldom hear in japanese tunes.

So for Flashback 2019 I decided to try to make something that sounded like a japanese console/arcade game soundtrack without using fast arpeggios!
I thought that the game could be a shoot'em up, because shoot'em up tunes are always very energetic, so for the title I decided to use the name of a game I did with SEUCK when I was a kid. I imagined that the game ("Tetraider", heavily inspired by "Kyuukyoku Tiger", whose western version named "Twin Cobra" was one of my favourite arcade shoot'em up in that period) might have had a few (better) sequels, and this explains the "III".

Anyway I didn't start to work on the tune until May 31st because in the meantime I was involved in an event that will take place in Trani next week, for which I was asked to play some of my SID tunes: I decided to compose a few new ones, that I started on May 14th.

I wrote "Tetraider III" in about a week (I finished it on June 6th, and that's when I came up with the title!). After sending it to the compo, listening to it on my Commodore 64 plugged into a TV with very powerful speakers, I found out that the bass was too prominent...
That's because I composed the tune using headphones...
I was worried about how it would be heard during the compo, but this morning I found out that it sounded OK!!! Maybe my TV needs to be equalized a bit better... :D

So that's the story behind the tune!
I don't know the results of the compo yet, but what is important to me is the fact that I finally composed something new (and many many thanks go to Jazzcat for the chance he gave me!)!
Of course I hope people will enjoy it!

Trani, June 9th 2019

Tetraider III

This is the first tune I wrote exclusively for an event called "Armonia" ("Harmony" in english) that was held in Trani (the town where I live) from 15th to 23rd June and that was organized by the musical association "Ritmimisti" of which I'm a member.

I wrote 3 original tracks because I was asked to perform with my Commodore 64 in the evening of the 18th june in order to provide a soundtrack to the picture exhibition which was the thread that linked all the moments of the event (all of which had to do with "Harmony").

I started working on this 1st track on may 14th. I wanted to do something related to harmony in music, so I decided to play with the modes and with the chords and build an ambiguous melody.

The first "verse" starts with some C and G notes in the first 4 bars and a bass that plays a C on the first 2 bars and an Eb in the second 2 ones.
So when the tune starts, the listener doesn't know what chord is the first one (it can be either a C or a C minor, but since the 3rd is missing it's a C5).
When the bass goes to Eb the chord is a bit clearer: it's probably an Eb.

Then the bass goes to D and the melody plays some notes of the D major scale (including a F#), so it's clear that the chord is D.
With the fourth chord things get more messy: the bass plays an F, but the melody plays an F first... so with the echo of a D it may sound like a Dm/F (though again it's off key)... But then the melody plays a C#... So what chord that may be??? A Bbm/F? A C#/F? Or even an A aug/F? Actually the one that sounds better is the A aug/F, so maybe the right chord is that one.

The verse repeats, and then the chorus starts. Here we have a countermelody which adds some harmony (the bass is basically the same as the one in the verse). The countermelody plays an E, which later appears in the melody too, so the chord is clearly a C; when the bass goes to Eb, in the melody we hear a Bb, so the chord is clearly an Eb. When the bass shifts to D, in the melody there's an F... so the chord is a D minor; when the bass plays the F, in the melody an Ab appears, so the chord is surely an F minor!

In the second verse a countermelody accompanies the main melody and plays an Eb as the first note, so we clearly understand that the first chord is a C minor; the second chord is an Eb (we have all the three notes on the chords playing as the bar starts!); then there's a D (which was already clear)... but when the bass goes to F, playing also a C, the melody plays F and C#, and the countermelody plays some G#, the chord sounds like a C#7+/F...

As usual the verse repeats, and then the chorus starts, identical to the first one, but with the same bass as the one playing during the 2nd verse. The last chord is still an F minor, because the bass plays F and C, but it's different from the last chord of the verse!

In the 3rd verse the bass is the same as the bass of the 2nd verse, but the first chord turns to C, because the countermelody plays some E! The second chord is still an Eb. Then the melody changes: it plays F instead of F#, so the chord is now D minor! When the bass plays F (and one C), in the melody the C#s are replaced by Cs, so the chord is F!

The bass doesn't change in chorus 3, but in the melody the Es become Eb, so the first chord is Eb; then there's an Eb chord; then the Fs become F#s (while the bass plays D and occasionally A), so the chord turns into a D; the last chord is clearly an F minor.
Then things don't change for the first 3 chords, but as the 4th one starts, we hear an A in the countermelody, while the melody plays a C - and the bass an F... which make the chord an F! But then we hear some G#, first in the countermelody and then in the melody... so the chord turns into an F minor!

The tune then repats from verse 2...

I had a hard time selecting the chords, also because there are lots of key changes... I hope the tune sounds coherent anyway!
By the way, I finished the tune on May 15th.

Armonia

Armonia - Tune 01 - Armonia

I started to write this tune... on June 4th 2018. I didn't remember that, honestly, and it's really odd because today it's June 3rd 2020.
At that time Atlantis was planning to do a demo for the Datastorm 2018. I think we had already come up with the theme and (as far as I remember) I was asked to write a tune. I finished it on July 22nd. I don't remember much about the composing process, except that it was painfully hard because the tune is one of the longest I've ever written.

it's made up of 2 parts. The 2nd part is a sort of tribute to one of my favourite bands. In fact I wrote two solos that were meant to sound as if the soloists of the band had played them. Of course they would have played much better solos than the ones I wrote... :)

In the end the tune was not used for the demo and remained sealed in our vaults... Until recently, when Doc Science asked me if we could use it for the scroller he was coding for the "Most Unreadable Scrolltext Scroller Compo (Mibri Edition)". He showed me the scroller and it was really amazing! That's why I asked him if I could write a new tune. Actually I never liked my "Datastorm" tune very much, maybe because it was too dark and gloomy (it was made on purpose, though), so my new tune turned out to be a quite merry one... maybe more suitable for a shoot'em up game than for Doc's scroller... :D

So finally we decided (and I must thank Doc Science for that!) to keep the old tune, which fits much better!

You can download the scroller from the link below:
https://csdb.dk/release/?id=191398

I also absolutely have to mention SRT for his magnificent graphics, part of which you can admire in the thumbnail, and Mibri, who inspired and co-organized the compo (with Genesis Project's hedning), broadcasting all the entries during the live shows on his twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/mibric64)!

Unlayereadibility

Unlayereadibility (Most Unreadable Scrolltext Scroller Compo)

I'm a music and song composer who loves '60s-'70s rock music but also chip music, especially the one made for the SID chip of the Commodore 64, the home computer I grew old with.
I'm not a professional composer: I do it just because I like it!

AldoSid

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