Editorial: May 2003

Its been a fun week or two for me at remix64 (if your into stress sadism). The new CD to come from the remix64 stable is in a musically the last phase of development. The team of people who are involved in the CD's creation now reaches to over 20 people and by the end of this the team could well be over 30. So keeping everything on an even keel and organsing such a large team can be confusing and very difficult. The CD has become a massive project and for one i didn't expect when i started this that it'd go this far, but i'm happy it has done.



When i started this CD i expected it to be better than volume 1, but to go as far as it has is certainly something i could only have thought possible with a massive budget. But it goes to show you, if you find the right people and be as open with them as you possibly can then the sky is the limit.



Remix64 volume 2 has alot of unique features and quite a few unprecidented ideals. While remixing has known real instruments before it's not that common and to the capacity we have used them is unknown. But it's not just ahout real instruments, sometime a more synthetic instrument is better, it's about blend and careful use. There's still tracks on the CD that are soley based on the synth only. Thomas Detert's Shades is an example. But Markus Holler's remix of parallax sub4 uses 3 different guitars and a violin to acomplish the right feel.


The lineup of real instruments for remix64 are as follows…(at point of writing)



DRUMS,GUITARS (VARIOUS),VIOLIN,FLUTES (VARIOUS), RECORDER, AND THREE VOCALISTS.



At the end of the day tho, it's music that matters, and we'll only know that when you hear it and tell us what you think. But i'm personally optermistic.



Neil Carr


Wizball: Gustav speaks…

I reciently reviewed a piece of music which got minumum marks across the board at remix64 reviewing database. The remix, Wizball by Gustav Taxen which i called a 3 minuite sound effect" got some reaction. Some agreed with me, and some strongly didn't. I have to admit personally i just didn't understand it musically and still don't to be honest.

here in gustav's onw words he goes to explain the ideas and concepts behind the piece…

First of all, I'm not really an electro-acoustic musician. However, there is currently a strong musical movement that combines electro-acoustic aspects with traditional beats and harmonies. The Wizball remix should be seen as an amateur's first foray into that
style.

Personally I think of RKO as a forum for providing *novel* interpretations of C64 tunes. When I listen to the tunes in the database, a majority of them seem to me to be simple reorchestrations. (Parenthesis: in some of my previous remixes, improvisation and reharmonization has been my approach towards achieving novelty.) Especially Wizball, I think, has been susceptible to the take the .SID and add drums and some 303 bass approach. When I chose to work with Wizball, I instead tried to provide something that was reminiscent of the sound effects used in the game (not mere samples of them) and combine them with the basic harmony from the main title theme. From a musical point of view, the first part of Galway's tune (that I targeted for the remix in question) is very minimalistic: it is built from just two chords (Cm and Gm7 IIRCC), and this minimalism is also something I wanted to get across in the remix.


Back In Time Live Germany – what’s going on?

BIT Live Germany - June 2003 Hamburg
Hohoho – hmmm, wrong introduction, what I mean is: Wow, wow, wow!

Less than 2 (two) month left till BIT Live for the 1st time hits another country than England!

First off, congratulations fly out to 2Klang, the winner of the Theme-Competition. The song is very nice, and we have something special to be revealed at BIT Live, be prepared. The other entries will be posted one after another at the Forum, so watch out!

This month has had some registrations from well-known people like Markus Siebold (Turrican), Jan Morgenstern (remix64 vol. 2), Thomas Heinrich and Max Levin, to pick just some names…

I’m more than sure that it will be a fantastic gathering, so many nice guys to speak to, nice tunes and lovely drinks. Take this chance to meet your favourite remixer.

For all the German fans out there, Thomas Braum has created a german mirror of the homepage, you can access it by the link in the left bottom or via http://www.unsterblich.de/bit. Check it out, some nice features there, thanks Thomas!

Get detailed information and upcoming news on the official hompage
www.backintimelive.de and the official forum
www.remix64.com/board/viewforum.php?f=15

Have a noisy May…

Dr. Future