C64 first remixes ???

As far back as 1986, a company called Mupados released via the W. H. Smith chain of shops a cassette tape called Datahits.

This tape contained the first remixes of C64 music, containing enhanced versions of the tunes from Rambo, Never Ending Story, Ghostbusters, Crazy Comets and Hyper Sports. The music was still fairly similar to the original (the C64 still provided all of the melody) but was in stereo and had realistic sampled drum tracks overlaid onto the music.

In the creation of DATAHITS, Mupados used:

• The COMMODORE 64 Computer
• The COMMODORE Sound Sampler
• The COMMODORE Sound Expander
• The COMMODORE Music Studio
• The TRON Digidrum

Another piece of music on similar lines was provided on a cassette given away with Zzap!64 magazine in June 1987. The cassette, called "The Zzap Sampler," contained a number of game demos on side 1, and a fully remixed version of the Sanxion loading tune on side 2 entitled "Thalamusic." This was rearranged by Hubbard himself using top-of-the-range keyboards and drum machines, and it was extremely popular.

"...Thalamusic - an audio remix of the Sanxion loading tune. Approximately five minutes and forty-two seconds in lenght. Rob used authentic Fairlight samples, as heard on Jean Michel Jarre's "Zoolook". The piece was performed on a Yamaha CX5M, linked up to an AKAI S900 Sampler with a Digital Reverb and a Yamaha RX15 Drum Machine, and recorded on a four-track..."

Get these tape MP3s (and others) here:
Gamestone - Zzap64!

Text is © Adam Dawes

Taken from Play it again, SID article, as published in issue 4 of Retro Gamer magazine.

Thanks Gamestone !!!