Opening up my catalogue...

[Chris Abbott]

Thanks to a new Soundcloud Pro subscription, I'm now fulfilling a promise I made to the scene last Christmas: to sort out my archive and to release stems of some of my remixes for general education and re-remix use. The first one up were some tracks for Arkanoid High-Score, and the second one up is Wizball from Karma 64 (which has some gorgeous tracks).

For Wizball, all the tracks are the same length (I presume that's normal for stems), so that they're easily superimposed. I intend to go through all of my source files and release everything that's releasable. There's some really gorgeous individual tracks here and there (both from me and other people) and I'd really love to hear what others do with them.

I'm also starting a new Charity auction set of items for Danceaway, where the lots will include the actual Cakewalk Sonar project (and associated WAVs) which were behind the DVD mix of Rob Hubbard's BIT Live performance in 2003. There will be other rare CDRs sent to me over the years. We're trying to raise more money for Danceaway (now Sidman 64) for accommodation and travel for Harley's physiotherapy next year that we raised the money for in the last charity auction.

Chris

[Commie_User]

Sounds good. So what's the procedure?

[Chris Abbott]

Go to https://soundcloud.com/chrisabbott/sets, start downloading WAVs, shove them in a sequencer...

[Commie_User]

Hmmm. Should be a nice way to pass a Sunday afternoon.

Thanks Chris.

Though perhaps more importantly, do you have the MIDIs for these?

[Chris Abbott]

I'm not entirely sure how important that is (though I do have CWP files from Sonar, but Soundcloud doesn't allow you to up that, does it?). If you stick all of the WAVS together on Wizball you get a complete set of WAVs to mix down. The problem with distributing project files is that they have loads of dependencies on plugins and other stuff. The idea is that people take these and use them to build something else...

[Commie_User]

Well I was thinking about taking the MIDIs and piping them through other things. Otherwise all I'll be doing is ending up with an alternate balance of your own sounds. (And they only take a toenail clipping of your entire webspace to upload.)

S'pose I could always use conversion software but they may be less exacting.

[Chris Abbott]

Well, I'm not averse to the idea, but I imagined people being more creative with the samples, using them in isolation or to create new stuff. If you pipe the MIDI through other stuff you still get basically the same tune but with different instruments. However, I already released a ZIP of C64 MIDI ringtones (http://www.c64audio.com/ringtones). That ought to keep you busy for a while!

[Commie_User]

Va-va-va-voom! I'm sure I'll enjoy those; great stuff. Thanks Chris. I'll see what I can drum up.


But I always thought you couldn't do too much with ready-comped stems. To me it's kind of like dissecting a layer cake - you can take it to bits to enjoy the cream and fruit alone but it's not like you can get the eggs back.

Though I'm not ungrateful, it's a brilliant idea. And very selfless of you to share with us Chris, a gesture most appreciated.


Mind, other people seem to work wonders with the stuff, which is probably why Magix do so well with their Music Maker kits. Or the folks at Ejay.

[Analog-X64]

Audacity (FREE) will allow you bring all the stems in and work with them as a multi track.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

[Chris Abbott]

Audacity, that kind of thing, yes

[Chris Abbott]

Va-va-va-voom! I'm sure I'll enjoy those; great stuff. Thanks Chris. I'll see what I can drum up.


But I always thought you couldn't do too much with ready-comped stems. To me it's kind of like dissecting a layer cake - you can take it to bits to enjoy the cream and fruit alone but it's not like you can get the eggs back.

Though I'm not ungrateful, it's a brilliant idea. And very selfless of you to share with us Chris, a gesture most appreciated.


Mind, other people seem to work wonders with the stuff, which is probably why Magix do so well with their Music Maker kits. Or the folks at Ejay.

It's about structure, too. Let's say you just take the Wizball lead and arps and then put your own stuff underneath, or perhaps use the Wizball chords and write a song.... it's all about having something spark your imagination: and if there's one thing that bits of C64 tunes have always done for me, it's spark my imagination.

There will be a lot more put up with all styles. I'm hoping that it's kind of the final resting place for my work to be enjoyed and possibly reused for the next 10 years. In many ways it's going right back to the old C64Audio site setup which was a pile of MIDIs in a list!

[Commie_User]

Well here's my premature birth to christen this new pile.


This is Action Biker in a rush bedtime tester. Nice for a bunch of magazine samples plus other odds and ends.

And I sampled the NES for the bass.

Even doodling around in the sequencer gives me a new appreciation for men like Hubbard as composers. That alone must help, along with any inspiration it gives. I've certainly been inspired by old master composer LPs and there's plenty more inspired stuff in the Commie archives.

And what about their ability to cram stuff like that into one measly little computer synth, one with only three monophonic voices and a noise channel?






This harp sounds rather Japanese and I like the way its own sampling comes out here.

...Though it's fair to say the others will have to push the boat really really out to even compete with Vadrum...



I certainly couldn't.