AldoSid

I started to write this tune on 3rd October 2017. I had read about a Crack Intro Music Competition on Atlantis' Skype group or an a Commodore 64 related group - the post was made by Mermaid. I don't remember which of the two came first. Anyway I thought it was interesting because the rules were very strict, as you can see here: http://csdb.dk/event/?id=2636 My main concerns were the length of the tune (no more than 1'02" - originally no more than 1 minute) and the amount of memory used by it (less than 1k). In the end my tune lasted just 1'02"! In order to spare as much memory as I could, I decided to make the bass/drums and chords patterns loop for the entire tune. I mean: there's just one pattern for the bass/drums and one for the chords, and they loop forever). I also recycled as many bits as I could. For example, the riff "pattern" is actually made of 2 "quarter" patterns. Why 2 and not 4? Because the first one loops 3 times! Maybe I would have made it without those "tricks" as well, but, again, I wanted to save as much memory as possible. That was my main goal. About the tune itself, the idea came to me while I was watching a movie. After the first chord of the soundtrack's main theme, a very particular chord was played. I think it's seldom used in pop music, but it's widely used in movies, because it soon reminded me of the soundtrack of another movie I had seen some days earlier. So I had the first two chords of the tune, and the title: "Move me like a movie", because that chord progression, widely used in movies, is meant to "move" the viewers/listeners. I completed the chord progression in a quite standard way, and then I started with the melody. The structure is very basic: there's a "verse", a "bridge" and a "solo". The solo gives some "harmonic twists" to the tune because it adds some fourths and other "odd" notes. If you feel something strange during it mind that it was made on purpose... :P I composed it in about 6 days. I don't care much about csdb votes (of course I thank all the people who kindly cast their vote), but I'm very pleased when someone makes some comments too, because I know that he/she listened to the tune carefully and believes that I can improve. Most of the comments were about the drums, that are not particularly loud. That is because I don't use the "abused" pulse waveform for them. I use the triangle waveform instead, because it gives a more realistic sound, especially if you listen to the tune on a good hi-fi setup. But in the case of this tune the other instruments are really much louder... Anyway I'm currently experimenting with pulse waveform, and I'm using it in my new tunes, so stay... "tuned"! :D

This is the only tune that I was originally meant to compose for the demo. I wanted to make a really rhythm-driven tune, so I added lots of toms and drums. Maybe I used too much vibrato on the lead instruments, and maybe I should have worked some more on them... Maybe the tune should have been longer, but that solo put really the "end" word to the track (even if it goes on for some seconds more with the main riff played 1 octave higher on a sort of drum solo). I started to compose the tune on July 11th, and I think I finished in on August 11th. Anyway the final version has the date of August 21st. I'm too lazy to check the differences, though... :P By the way, "BEATS" was presented to "Datastorm 2017" in Sweden and ranked second!

I started to write this tune in the end of August, after submitting the "credits" tune. I was following the group chat on Skype and someone said that there would be a further part. The deadline was very near and if this hypothetical further part had surfaced there would have been no time for making a fitting SID tune. Besides, I wanted to experiment more on the "BEATS" topic. So I started to compose this tune. I will skip the details. Less than a day before the deadline... we were in need of a tune! I had a complete tune, originally meant from an external demo, that had never been used, but it didn't fit the topic. So I spoke about this tune that I had started, and we agree that I would finish it on that night. My fellow musicians Divertig0 and Snabel gave me ideas and help, especially with the funktempo, that I had decided to use (for the first time in my SID "career") to add a funky spray to the tune. I had conceived it as a sort of SID adaptation of the "italo disco" subgenre, which was very popular in the discos of a few decades ago, but then, with the funktempo, the path became wider. The explosion which marks the end of the first part of the tune was intended to be in time with the disco ball, but it has also another meaning. That Vth grade minor chord at the end of the chord progression, which I had put to strengthen the "minor" feeling of the track, real upset me after a while, so I decided to blow it away and change it with a VIIth grade chord, that I felt more appropriate! The arpeggio in the end is the same as the initial one, apart from the last chord, obviously. I wanted to end the tune with a loop of that to underline the change and to say: "no more Vth minor chord in the end of a minor chord progression!". (Of course I will change my mind if I feel like it... :) ) I did the last "Save" at 5:08 of September 2nd, and from 9:30 to 10:04 I did some relocations for Dr. Science, who was in Goteborg assembling the demo for the compo. The deadline for the submission was 11 o' clock... Doc was quick enough (I had no doubt about it) to make it in time! You can download the demo from here: https://csdb.dk/release/?id=158642 http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=71704 Last but not least: the picture in the thumbnail comes from the "disco ball" part, made by the mighty Tsurugi!

I started to write this tune on... wow! July 28th 2016! Just one year before Planet Golf's release date! This track was meant for the hall of fame, so I thought I should do something in the vein of the high score tunes of games like "Commando", "Monty on the Run", "Hysteria", "1942", and so on: nostalgic and even a bit sad melodies with a very simple rhythmic pattern. Actually I've always sensed also a bit of "love" in these high scores tunes, so I thought I should add some to mine too. I took as "references" (mainly for the structure) some old power ballad, like the ones from Scorpions ("Believe in Love", "Still Loving You", "Yellow Raven"...). And so this tune was born. This tune has a peculiarity that someone might have noticed: towards the end of the chorus there's an odd "modulation" which carries the tune into a different key. So every time the chorus is played the key of the tune changes. There are 5 key shifts (up or down), so it must be a real pain to play it live on real instruments... Does anyone want to try? :D For the final part (I won't write for what: just listen to the whole tune! :P ) I took inspiration from a game that I consider the best J-RPG ever made... I finished it around August 13th. Almost exactly one year ago! I hope you'll enjoy it!

I started to write this tune on September 29th 2016 for the 25th years of Atlantis demo. On October 10th I stopped working on it after making the intro (with the main "riff"), the "verse" and a very small bit of the chorus, probably because the deadline was near and I was afraid I couldn't complete it in time. I've already written about the tune that was actually used for that demo, so how did this tune become part of Planet Golf's soundtrack? I really liked it and wanted to complete it someday, so, while working at Planet Golf, after deciding to make a different tune for each planet I thought it was the right chance to start to work on it again. It was March 26th 2017. Since from the beginning I had in mind to do something "classic", in the vein of baroque music (as the main "riff" suggests), I initially thought to the verywell known "Toccata and Fuga in D minor" by J.S. Bach, but my tune was in A minor. Of course I could transpose it (I would never transpose a Bach's work to adapt it to something made by me!), but it sounded really different and odd! So I needed something in A minor... I listened to lots of classical works from various composers, and in the end I stumbled upon this... To the readers the task to guess the title and the author of the work I've used... :P (There are a few coincidences about it, but I will keep them secret in order not to spoil anything. Anyway these coincidences made me think I made the right choice!) By the way, I finished the tune on April 20th 2017. It seems like I was quite fast, but the tune required a lot of work. In the classical part almost every note has an "effect", because I wanted to make the SID play it like a human being would. I wanted to add some "feeling" to that part, in contrast with the "coldness" of the electronic instruments. By the way, a few words about the "meaning" of the tune (another slightly "conceptual" one): I wanted to make a sort of crossover between classical music and electronic music (as you may have noticed... :P ). This is more evident towards the end of the classical part. In the original score there was a slightly different "chorus", in a major key. I cut that "chorus", added a bar and then put the main "riff" of my tune as the "new chorus", played by the harpsichord and the violins. That is the "climax" of the crossover, because it's were not only the SID chip plays (or tries to play) classical instruments and tunes, but classical instruments (even if played by SID) play an electronic "riff" while playing a classical work. I'm sorry about the bad explanation... Anyway I'm sure you'll understand what I meant just by listening to the tune! I hope you'll enjoy it!

At some point of Planet Golf's development, around the end of January 2017, since there still was time to do some other "SID experiment" for the game, Antonio and I decided that we could put a different tune for every planet, instead of the same tune for all of them. I think this is where we involved my brother Gaetano! This tune contains a few "conceptual" elements: it starts with someone or something that rises from the abyss attracted by a sound that gradually becomes louder (a sonar which indicated something?), and then the music actually starts (apparently mimicking the "sonar"). Towards the end he/it jumps into the seas and goes back to the abyss... Some time after submitting the tune (I finished it on march 21st 2017, by the way), I thought I should add a "water noise" like the one in the beginning, which decreases in intensity the more he/it goes down, but I should have put the 3 voices "mess" into 2... Almost impossible to do in a smooth way... I wish I had more time to develop the melodic parts better, and maybe to add one more part... I'm never satisfied of my job! :D P.S.: I had to make a 6581 version for this tune too because of the heavy use of filters, but... the version you're listening to now, the same that is on the CD, is the original one!

I started this tune on December 1st 2015 and I worked on it until january 13th, when I got stuck! I wrote the beginning of what should have been the 2nd part, but I couldn't go on... When Antonio decided to publish a preview of the game (Semptember 2016) I decided to use a short version of the tune containing just the first part. I just had to make some little changes to make the lead instrument audible for the 6581 SID models, but wait: the version you're listening to now (the same that is on the CD) is the original one, with the filters working correctly! Towards the end of the production of the game we needed another tune. Since there wasn't much time, we decided to keep this tune as it was on the preview. When I listen to this tune it seems too short and incomplete... If I had more time (and maybe more ideas) I would try harder to develop the second part and maybe add a third one, as I had initially planned to do... P.S.: As for the other Planet Golf tunes, the title was decided by Antonio, whom I thank!

For this tune I used the same istruments of the "main theme". I took inspiration from the ship selection tune (a very epic march) of a popular arcade game of the late eighties. To the readers the task to identify it! :D It took me 2 days (14th and 15th of June 2016) to compose it. I decided to make it so short to "imitate" that arcade game tune and also because I thought that the player would be busy thinking what planet to choose and would like to start playing as soon as possible... As always, after the tune was "finalized", I thought I could make it a little longer...

I started this tune in november 2015 from an unusual chord progression born "by chance", while I was experimenting on the keyboard. I wanted to create something "spaziale" (*), futuristic and epic, but a bit disturbing at the same time (that is the feeling I have when I think to "space"). In the beginning there were no drums at all, and no plans to introduce them. But when the tune was almost finished I thought that it wasn't epic enough. I tried to create a very powerful synthetic snare sound by using two voices, and I was satisfied with the result. Of course I had to change something in the bass and the chord patterns (and maybe I should have changed something in the melody one too). I had almost finished the track around mid-february 2016, but I "finalized" it in the first days of june. The odd "bass" at the end of the tune happened by pure chance. To the readers the task to understand how... :D Soon after finishing the main theme tune I started working on the planet selection tune. But that's another story! (*) "spaziale" is an adjective that means "related to space". In Italy it's common practice to use english words as "technical words" even when they can be easily translated into italian. Most people don't even know their meaning. I hate this. In the case of "spaziale", it could be translated into english, but I should have changed the whole sentence. It was easier to use one italian word, and that's what I did... :D P.S.: On the 6581 SID model the bass sounds "flatter". It is due to the different implementation of filters, as you probably know. I had this "problem" in other tunes as well, as you'll see...

On Friday August 5th 2016 Dr. Science of Atlantis sent me an intro he was making for Genesis Project asking me if I could do a "rainbowish", light and merry (but not too much) music. I was already busy with work (in that period I was working in Rome) and with some other SID related projects, but I accepted, knowing that on that day I had a long train trip back home to do... In fact I composed almost all of the tune during that trip! When I sent the file to Doc he said it was OK, so I didn't do any further change, though it sounded a bit rushed to me, especially in the last few bars... The next day I had a song stuck in my mind. A song by a rock/pop band that I loved back in the '90s and that I still like to listen to these days. I couldn't figure out why that song came to my mind so abruptly and why it didn't go away, so I picked up the guitar and started to play its chords... That was the same harmonic progression of the tune I had done the previous day... :D It absolutely wasn't done on purpose, so I consider it a mere (and nice) coincidence! :) Here is the link to the csdb entry of the intro (which is actually a cracktro): http://csdb.dk/release/?id=150680