Name: lower_brinstar by ftb_sinclair
Duration: 3 min 17 s
Description: a c64 attempt on kenji yamamoto's / minako hamano's metroid 3 / lower brinstar theme / goattracker / 8580

Gammal Gubbe by KillerMörders, Sid version

Into The Hole (Pretracker)

Commodore 64 version of the song "Profugos", original by Soda Stereo, 8-bit version by Uctumi of PVM.
Versión commodore 64 de la canción "Prófugos", original de Soda Stereo, versión 8-bit de Uctumi / PVM.

Prófugos

UCTUMI - Profugos C64 (Soda Stereo)

a c64 attempt on kenji yamamoto's / minako hamano's metroid 3 / lower brinstar theme / goattracker / 8580

lower_brinstar

Placed #2 at X'2018 (C64 scene party in Someren, Holland)
this tune: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=170965

All results: https://csdb.dk/event/?id=2602

Whiplash

My entry for Chiptunes=WIN "Spacetunes=WIN" compilation which I'm thrilled to be a part of! The order of magnitude of epic music on this comp is of interstellar gravitational force! Thank you Chiptunes=WIN team and fellow artists for this super cosmic album!!

I wanted to explore a track that had a drum & bass feel to it while giving a sense of outer space which is cold, sterile but wondrous and beautiful. I decided on the use of frequency modulation synthesis as a core part of the instrumentation for its somewhat cold, digital, metallic sound and tone that it's known for.

I achieved this by using software synths such as ALYJAMES LAB's wonderful FMDrive based on the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive YM2612 FM sound chip. I also utilized the emulation of this chip through Deflemask using the Sega Genesis engine to make samples. NES 2A03 chip pulse channel was used via Famitracker. I also used Native Instruments FM8 VST. I pulled some fat bass out of the QuadraSID VST emulating the Commodore 64's MOS Technology 6581 SID (Sound Interface Device)chip. FMDrives Shinobi patch was used for bass as well.

On the flip side of FM, I always like to bring some element of fusion into my tracks so I decided on adding some analog warmth since outer space is freezing cold but also full of extremely hot things like stars! For this, I chose Oberheim OB-X emulation via sonicprojects OP-X PRO-II virtual analog VST for the pad chords derived from the OB's "Drifting Strings" patch. 

On top of that I used my typical method for tracking leads with single cycle waveforms; in this case, PWM and square waves. Other melodic lines and effects via sine and sawtooth waves. The Drums were created using samples from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters and Street Fighter 2 as well as Stagg DH hi-hat samples. 

All of this was sequenced or "tracked" within Renoise V3.1.1 which is my tracker of choice these days when I'm not using Fami/Defle/Schism or other various trackers. Basically this all adds up to an 80s/90s feel with drum & bass and demoscene elements. Hopefully I achieved my goal of creating a outer space themed atmospheric / high-energy, exciting track!

A big thanks to all involved and to everybody that enjoys my song. I highly recommend hopping over to the Bandcamp page (Buy Link)and grabbing this album. It's a seriously great compilation that is a definite stand-out for me from all of Chiptunes=WIN's offerings and for that matter, any other chip compilation <3

Mastering and track ordering by Stemage
Art by FoxxDragon & TinyNeenja

album-get: https://www.chiptuneswin.bandcamp.com/album/spacetunes-win
full-review: https://chiptuneswin.com/blog/spacetunes-win-full-review/#more-25669
module-play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEdKOWOOKPM&feature=share

Spacetunes = WIN

Escape Velocity

Escape Velocity [Spacetunes = WIN]

Spotify

g r e e n

(7/8 colors || season 2)

almost done ya'll ! this one took forever, trying to make the color black was a lot harder than i thought, but happy with how it turned out!

white next ! and last !

b l a c k

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

ScOwlIng - c/w Tetraider III

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

This is the only tune of the 3 that has a proper title. The expression "Ayloch Nalem" is written in the ancient and mysterious Naissur language, which hasn't been fully deciphered yet. So I actually don't know what that expression means, but I liked it! I hope it hasn't a bad meaning!

The tune, that I started composing on June 5th (right after finishing "Tetraider III", which I started after writing the "Classic Ballad" tune for "Armonia"), picked up again on June 10th and then again on June 13th, and finished on June 14th, is a sort of "experiment", again, with harmony (of course!). This time I wanted to use something different to play (or, better, to suggest) the chords. One day I was listening to some songs from a singer who had joined the Eurovision Song Contest some years ago: she sang a song in english which I didn't like, but when, years later, I found out that same song sung in her language I instantly loved it, and I started listening to her other songs. One of those songs had a strange instrument which played with a nice effect. I tried to reproduced it on the SID with poor results, comparing it to the original one (which was "filtered", I think, but filtering it in my tune as well was really compicated), but since I didn't have much time I decided to leave it as it was, adding a nice reverb effect, and I built the tune around it!

I used some reverb on the melody too, and that's the reason why the bass and drums are so "simple" (or "poor", if you want).
I wish i had written a proper intro and a few more melody parts, but I had to perform it on June 18th and, again, I didn't have enough time...

lower_brinstar

ftb_sinclair

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