Jeroen Tel to Remake Some of His Classic Commodore 64 Game Music

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Jeroen Tel (founder of the Maniacs of Noise) is well known for creating some of the most memorable C64 music and he is now raising money for remaking some of his masterpieces "in a professional way". From the Indiegogo campaign:

 

At the age of 14-18 years old (from 1987 to 1991), I composed music for numerous famous Commodore 64 games. It's been my dream for over 20 years to remake the most memorable of these C64 SID soundtracks in a professional way.

He is planning to book a studio for this and therefore some money is needed. His goal is $38'911 USD. Unfortunately my expertise doesn't allow me to estimate whether that's too much or too little for something like this. Personally, I'm stoked about this since those C64 SID soundtracks take me directly back to my childhood. I have already combed through Stone Oakvalley's Authentic SID Collection but I'll always take more

 

Jeroen Tel in Wikipedia

The Indiegogo campaign

[GoldSrc]

Man I love the C64 Robocop 3 theme.

 

Too bad I'm kind of broke right now.

Thanks for jetting me know though, I'll see if I can spare some money in the next week.

[kainobean]

-snip-

 

D: that was some amazing music... how have i never heard this befor... i feel ashamed to call myself a classic gamer and never have heard such amazingness befor... i think i must go out and buy a c64 just to experience this classical awesomeness.

[GoldSrc]

D: that was some amazing music... how have i never heard this befor... i feel ashamed to call myself a classic gamer and never have heard such amazingness befor... i think i must go out and buy a c64 just to experience this classical awesomeness.

Amazing isn't it?

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It appears this crowdfunding isn't entirely unique as Matt Gray is also remaking the legendary Last Ninja II tracks: excellent

[Trik'Stari]

Just curious, but why does it take $38k to remake some songs? Couldn't he just do it with a laptop or decent costing high end desktop?

 

Seriously, when it comes to purely digital music, what does the $38k get you that you don't get on a decent desktop? Is the software expensive as hell or something? I get the idea of making money from it, but wouldn't that be through selling the music?

 

Amazing isn't it?

 

That was indeed awesome.

 

WHY IS VIDEO GAME MUSIC NOT THIS AWESOME THESE DAYS?!

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Just curious, but why does it take $38k to remake some songs? Couldn't he just do it with a laptop or decent costing high end desktop?

I had the same thought myself but I'll leave the question to the experienced audio professionals. For now I'll give the guys (Jeroen Tel and Matt Gray) the benefit of the doubt because as a programmer I know how many people underestimate the effort required to write software; it just seems so easy and cheap that people just wonder: how hard can it be? Questions of this nature often have a legitimate answer.

[Robin88]

Man I love the C64 Robocop 3 theme.

 

Too bad I'm kind of broke right now.

Thanks for jetting me know though, I'll see if I can spare some money in the next week.

Holy cow that's incredible, best 4 minutes of video game music I've heard in a long time.

This guy was a genius with the C64 sound processor, brb I'm gonna go and listen to more of his stuff

Also, watching the oscilloscope output is mesmerising, I could watch that all day

[Robin88]

Just curious, but why does it take $38k to remake some songs? Couldn't he just do it with a laptop or decent costing high end desktop?

 

Seriously, when it comes to purely digital music, what does the $38k get you that you don't get on a decent desktop? Is the software expensive as hell or something? I get the idea of making money from it, but wouldn't that be through selling the music?

 

 

That was indeed awesome.

 

WHY IS VIDEO GAME MUSIC NOT THIS AWESOME THESE DAYS?!

I think he needs the money for the instruments and equipment, a lot more goes into digital music than you realise, and even just a synthesiser is really expensive for a good one, and then he needs to deal with the lawyers and rights to the music, and then he needs a publisher, and if he's making CD copies he'll need to pay for that too, 38K doesn't go very far when you think about it.

But yeah, why can't music be that amazing today, the best music definitely came about in the 8bit and 16bit eras, for all the high quality audio we can make, the quality of the music writing hasn't really kept up with it.

[Trik'Stari]

I think he needs the money for the instruments and equipment, a lot more goes into digital music than you realise, and even just a synthesiser is really expensive for a good one, and then he needs to deal with the lawyers and rights to the music, and then he needs a publisher, and if he's making CD copies he'll need to pay for that too, 38K doesn't go very far when you think about it.

But yeah, why can't music be that amazing today, the best music definitely came about in the 8bit and 16bit eras, for all the high quality audio we can make, the quality of the music writing hasn't really kept up with it.

I'm asking from a technical standpoint. What can a synthesizer do that any decent computer cannot do? Lawyers and publishers....ugh, those kinds of scum almost make it seem not worthwhile

[Robin88]

I'm asking from a technical standpoint. What can a synthesizer do that any decent computer cannot do? Lawyers and publishers....ugh, those kinds of scum almost make it seem not worthwhile

I am not really the kind of person to answer that cause I'm not all that knowledgeable on the subject, but it's like anything really, a Red Epic is a better camera than a smart phone, even though both can record video, and I would imagine that it's the same for a synthesiser, you might be able to make music using a PC, and it'll probably sound good, and definitely final mastering and post-production will be done on one, but actual composing and performing the music will need proper equipment if he wants it to sound as good as he can.

This is all conjecture of course, like I say, I'm no expert when it comes to music production, so I could be totally wrong, I'm just going on the fact that even a basic mixing desk and speaker setup can set you back several thousand, and he'll want the best he can get his hands on.

I would say though that most of the money will be spent on legal stuff, even though he wrote the music, the rights still exist with the publisher of the game, so he'll have an uphill battle just getting permission to rewrite his own music. But I would say it's absolutely worth it, imagine Robocop 3 theme rewritten and performed with modern instruments, it's gonna sound epic

[GoldSrc]

Just curious, but why does it take $38k to remake some songs? Couldn't he just do it with a laptop or decent costing high end desktop?

I don't think he needs 38K to remake those songs, in his indiegogo campaign says that it will receive all the funds even if it doesn't reach its goal.

But I think he may need that money to press the CDs and DVDs he will give with some perks and I have no idea how cheap or expensive that is.

 

Holy cow that's incredible, best 4 minutes of video game music I've heard in a long time.

This guy was a genius with the C64 sound processor, brb I'm gonna go and listen to more of his stuff

Also, watching the oscilloscope output is mesmerising, I could watch that all day

 

Yup, Jeroen sure knew what he was doing with the C64.

And watching oscilloscope waveforms of this kind of music is just beautiful.

I'm still trying to get the separate channels to try it on my old analog oscilloscope, I just love that green phosphor glow :3.