C64 orchestra (very first rehearsal)

c64 orchestra (very first rehearsal)



Back in the day, I was a huge Commodore 64 fan. My dad bought one in about 1982/1983 after my parents split up and weekends were really great when we went to see him and got to play such classics as Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy, Mr Wimpy and other greats. Dad soon progressed (although I beg to differ) to Amstrads so he gave me the C64. This was right about the time it was massive as a games computer. Wizball, Monty, Commando, Paradroid, Uridium, Parallax and so many other tape loaded games took up so much of my spare time !!

But the one thing I saw potential in was it's musical capabilities. The famous SID chip gave you 3 channels of sound, 2 more than virtually every other computer out there. I got a copy of Electrosound....


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...and started my own compositions. That was it, I thought I was going to be a big star !! In the end, I ended up a failed muso, but the C64 and all it's tunes live on. The Elektron Sidstation has brought the chip into the 21st Century, as have countless C64 emulations. There is a real SID chip following out there and one of the biggest composers from back then was a guy called Rob Hubbard, who is acclaimed as probably the greatest video games music composer of his time.

Which brings me on to this video, discovered via me old mucker at MatrixSynth. It seems there is an orchestra dedicated to recreating the classic C64 game tunes with real instruments. It is a bit bizarre hearing these tunes played multi-timbraly and with real instruments, but it has certainly got me all moist around the gusset !!

This is fantastic stuff and makes me wish I had never sold my Commodore 128 (the C64's successor) at a car boot sale many moons ago.

Enjoy :o)