They’ve gone about as fer as they can go …

Yes, just when you thought you’d seen every conceivable take on mods, customizations, clones, homages, robots, artistic reinterpretations, and other cultural artifacts inspired by Guitar Hero, there’s this — a Guitar Hero clone on Commodore 64.

There’s a lot of chatting at the beginning, but jump about five minutes in for the payoff: the Legend of Zelda Overworld theme with deliciously low-fi graphics. (All due respects to Harmonix and new Guitar Hero developers Activision, but I might point out the interface actually doesn’t need an Xbox 360.)

We’re mixing 8-bit systems here (Nintendo and Commodore), but clearly a full 8-bit collection is due. And there’s still further evidence that the Commodore 64 is the digital music platform that will outlive all the rest. Have to boot up my machine and do a C64 feature month or something one of these days.

Details, downloads at creator Toni Westbrook’s site. Toni’s no one-hit wonder, either — dig philosophical musings on adventure gaming and programming, SQL tricks (seriously), and a do-everything interface for PlayStation controllers that allows them to be used with a variety of classic hardware.

Thanks to Josh Randall (who works for some company called Harmonix — hey, when are you guys finally going to release a C64 version?) and Yarnivore for the tip.

basic64 is a free (donations accepted) VST plug-in for Windows. You can see the full specs on the developer site, but let’s skip straight to what sets this one apart:

• Oscillator sync
• Ring modulation
• Pitch envelopes
• Tempo-synced arpeggiator
• MIDI learn on everything

Pretty powerful for free. It’s not a full SID emulation, but then, I think an “inspired” version is better anyway. Now, enough blogging, I’m off to go play with this thing. And yes, lots of weird and wonderful plug-ins is one excellent reason to use Windows, even if just a justification for throwing XP Home on Boot Camp on a MacBook.

basic64 on de La Mancha
and lots of other free/donationware plugs from them

Via the good peoples of Sonic State

Hey, nerdsters! It’s CMJ Music Marathon time here in New York, which generally means lots of roadies, music biz people, crowds, and bands with guitars. Ewww. Guitars — with no software effects? No vocoding granulizer? No trio of laptops nearby? Not even so much as a keytar? What’s a computer music-loving nerdster to do? Happily, synths are back, and electro is making a strong showing this year. In fact, my problem is that all the bands I care about seem to be scheduled at exactly the same time, which I hear is a typical CMJ problem. But with fun music to look forward to, I’m in a terrific mood — so much so that I think it’s time to enjoy some nerdster-pride vids.

I Want My Nerdster TV

Having made my obligatory crack about generic college rock at CMJ, musical taste is something CDM generally likes to avoid. I believe technology can serve music of all kinds; the idea that computer tech has to be genre-specific was shattered long, long ago. But if you write a love song featuring Commodore 64s and floppy disks — well, come on, everybody’s got to appreciate a gimmick sometimes, especially with a catchy tune. Computer Camp Love comes to us from Datarock, who earn extra cred by collaborating with fellow Norwegian rockstar Annie, and generally being from Norway, which is one of CDM’s Favorite Countries. Sadly, I can’t go see them Thursday, because I’ll be too busy hanging out with Simian Mobile Disco.

Computers are love:

And I also believe electro is important: it takes a campaign to get America’s plain-vanilla taste in rock instrumentation (guitar, bass, drums again, eh?) out of the box in this decade. (That’s why it’s especially cool Thomas Dolby recently added live brass.)

But how to do it? I think you just have to do something funky, danceable, with the word electro repeated over and over again. The punky UK-based Tigerpicks demonstrate. Witness:

I like the alternative electro dimension they inhabit.

Update: Yes, I know they’re cheesy. Yes, I know this is the word electro, not the music. They intend nothing else. I had a friend in college who would spray Cheez Whiz into his mouth. It’s like that. (Wait … suddenly hungry.) Just play along. Now I’m going to work on a track that shouts “Trashcore Jazzadelic IDM Glitch Funk!” I’ll see you in 72 hours. End of line.

CMJ Notes

If you’ve got any hot band tips or you yourself are playing here, let me know. I’ll come say hi. The more obscure you are, the better. ;)

cnet’s Caroline McCarthy (a fellow “downtown Manhattanite”) has a terrific take on the digital music side of CMJ:
CMJ’s Music Marathon: What’s in store for digital music?

While on the subject of wonderful handmade musical instruments, Max (and Audrey) aka farnea have been posting some fantastic creations to Flickr over the past few months. They recently cropped up on the Create Digital Music Flickr Pool.

The Sound Destruction Unit:

DIY modular synth made putting together a lot of things I’ve built in the last times. There is a Weird Sound Generator, a Crackle Box, a random pattern generator, some filters (cutoff, square to sine), a gate controller, a Vactrol based controller, optical sensors and body contacts, mixing and power stuff.

Orange Commodore 64 Synth: A lovely, custom-painted “Modded C64 with SID2SID expansion and Prophet64 cartridge.”

The C64 also has a helpful discussion of paint. Music DIY extraordinaire Fibra advises:

Always apply at least one layer of plastic primer. Let it dries enough after each layer. Also apply at least 2-3 layers of paint. I also used spray canned paint (for cars) which is probably better than acrylic based.

Hmmm, I’ve got a few keyboards that could use a custom job. (”Pimp my Synth,” anyone?) Please don’t be shy about joining in on our Flickr group, by the way. It seems like it could be a great way not only to document impressive hardware DIY projects, but also custom software patches in Max/MSP and Reaktor, unusual clip configurations in Ableton Live, racks in Reason, musical scores, performances — all kinds of things.

Another nice example: choking sun’s very nice studio.

Now, some videos of the Sound Destruction Unit:

AHNE 2007 - Happy Syntho De Mayo

Every year synth die-hards migrate East for AHNE. It is an amazing gathering filled with vintage gear as you will see in the links that follow. This year’s event looks like it did not disappoint. Unfortunately I was not able to make it due to having to make a trip out East just before the event due to unforeseen circumstances, but one year I will make it! The following are links to photo sets and some video of the event.

Devotees of the SID sound chip in the Commodore 64 will love this. A new project called Shredz64 promises to create a working version of Guitar Hero with the C64’s vintage sounds, and will unlock the ability to use other PS2 controllers, as well. We’ve seen various hardware hacks to provide better I/O and simple onboard controls to make the C64 more fun as an instrument/synth; the next frontier seems to be adding more elaborate external hardware.

Being the C64, you get funny moments like this: “Some obstacles to be worked through include presentation of music given the 3 voice nature of the 6581 and 8580.” Indeed. The graphics are a bit more primitive, as well (ahem). But Guitar Hero with SID files? Priceless.

Just don’t let Timbaland anywhere near this.

Shredz64 Project
Via C64Music!, a superb source for round-the-clock updates on C64 music

(Good peoples of Harmonix, assuming Viacom still leaves you time to read this blog, curious what you think!)

8-bit music has definitely caught the attention of the mainstream. GameSpy has a good five-way interview with part of the group behind the new album of Kraftwerk covers, 8-bit Operators: The Music of Kraftwerk.

8-Bit Operators: It’s More Fun to Console

They miss my friend Kim Haeyoung (Bubblyfish), who made one of my favorite tracks on the album. (Hey, mainstream press, boys and girls can both play electronic music, 8-bit or 64-bit.) But it is a good read, and if you haven’t heard the album yet, it’s a lot of fun — partly for the broad range of interpretations on the album:

8-bit Operators

Kraftwerk goes nicely with Commodore 64’s, Game Boys, and NES systems, though it’s a tiny instrumental step rather than the leap that was Switched on Bach. Dig the shot of C64 homebrew music console Prophet64 in the Gamespy image.

In a week when we were pondering a new version of Logic Pro, it’s nice to know the Commodore 64 still lives. I mean, come on, which platform is the coolest here (stick it out for the end):

Quick: you’re building a massively parallel, powerful supercomputer cluster! What computer will you use as a node? Why, the hugely-powerful Commodore 64, of course, silly! And then you’ll write music for your sixteen Commodore machines:

The Vintage Computer Festival has selected Commodore 64 Orchestra to be the first to [sic] the historic Commodore 64 Parallel Super-Computer. The project is slated for completion for exhibition at VCF 6.0, where the 20th anniversary of the Commodore 64 will be celebrated. The first prototype will utilize 16 Commodore 64 machines in sync with a musical application that Commodore 64 Orchestra will program to write its Symphony No 1. series. Founder Nico of the Commodore 64 Orchestra states that “We are pleased to have been chosen to compose on the world’s first Commodore 64 Parallel Super-Computer and would like to thank The Vintage Computer Festival for their support and vision.” The Vintage Computer Festival is an international event that celebrates the history of computing. The mission of the Vintage Computer Festival is to promote the preservation of “obsolete” computers by offering people a chance to experience the technologies, people and stories that embody the remarkable tale of the computer revolution.

Commodore 64 Orchestra [MySpace Page]

My only question: 20th Anniversary of what? (The C64 was released 24 years ago, in 1982.) Update with answer: James from Retro Thing observes this is probably actually old (2003) news. Obviously, I’m familiar with the C64 Orchestra … not sure why they’re commenting on this now. But since 2003 is part of the Age Before CDM, feel free to go check out that MySpace page now and rock out to some happy 8-bit, while I wonder if between this and the pornographic 8-bit image I just posted accidentally, today was the day I got punked. ;)

It’s one thing to talk about the MIDIbox SID, a DIY project that turns the fat warmth of the Commodore 64’s synth chip into a powerful beatbox/bass synth. It’s another thing entirely to see it in action — Roland ain’t got nothin’ on this.

Also airing on YouTube: the C64 Orchestra renders classic music from the 1980s in full orchestral form. To be honest, I was hoping “C64 Orchestra” meant a room full of SID synth players, but perhaps that’ll come next. It’s especially worth watching to hear 80s C64 composers Rob Hubbard (Commando, Master of Magic, etc.) and Jereon Tel (Cybernoid II, Supremecy, etc.) talk about composing for the C64’s restrictions, all in assembly language code. There’s no question these restrictions — and the ingenuity employed by the composers to overcome them — give the music its iconic clarity.

There are MP3 audio files of the C64 Orchestra’s performances on their site. If you want to catch them live and happen to be near, erm, Apeldoorn (granted, not an enormous part of our demographic), they’ll be playing the Gigant September 22.

Via C64Music, the blog to watch for C64 info. Now, back to work on my Prophet64 setup.

Thanks to the release of the Prophet 64 music production cartridge for Commodore 64, a lot of C64 music makers have been hanging out on the Prophet 64 Yahoo Group. There are some really talented hackers and case modifiers building beautiful custom computers out of vintage Commodore machines. Last week, we got to see Traktor DJ controllers and knob mods; here are some more:

8GB has a gorgeous case mod for a C64 dubbed the M64. It has the onboard knobs we saw in the other modifications, plus a lovely black paint scheme, shown here. It’s also nice to see the C64 with the Prophet64 cart coexisting with more modern computers; this is truly an outboard hardware synthesizer for the computer age. (Once I get mine, I hope to do the same, though I kinda like the original Commodore beige. Good thing, too, because my building-and-painting skills leave a lot to be desired.)