Thomas Mogensen, known as Drax in the European C64 demo scene, created almost a thousand SID tunes on the Commodore 64 from 1987 and up. Most of these were composed in my music editor.
SID tunes are chiptunes created on the Commodore 64, or an emulation of the C64 or its SID chip.
The SID chip in the Commodore 64 was quite advanced in 1982. It had three channels across eight octaves, ADSR, four different waveforms, pulsating on the square waveform, three ring modulators, and multi mode filtering. The music players written for it were usually called 50 times a second, quickly changing waveforms and frequencies to simulate vibrato, drums and arpeggio chords.
I’ve been listening through all of Drax’s tunes in the latest High Voltage SID Collection which was at #65 at the time of publishing this blog post. I noted down more than 100 tunes I liked and created stereo MP3 files for easy listening here. You could call it sort of “Drax’s Greatest Hits” as compiled by JCH.
Most of the tunes also have mono MP3 alternatives from SOASC created using a real C64.
24th Amaranth Grand Prix – Selector #1
1991 Vibrants SOASC
24th Amaranth Grand Prix was supposed to be a racing game similar to Out Run, only here you were riding a motorcycle instead. It was never finished.
24th Amaranth Grand Prix – Selector #2
1991 Vibrants SOASC
24th Amaranth Grand Prix – Selector #3
1991 Vibrants SOASC
24th Amaranth Grand Prix – Two Channels Level Tune #1
1991 Vibrants SOASC
Note that this tune only uses two channels. The third channel was reserved for sound effects.
24th Amaranth Grand Prix – Two Channels Level Tune #2
1991 Vibrants SOASC
Note that this tune only uses two channels. The third channel was reserved for sound effects.
24th Amaranth Grand Prix – Two Channels Level Tune #3
1991 Vibrants SOASC
Note that this tune only uses two channels. The third channel was reserved for sound effects.
8-Bit Mayhem Podcast: Episode #4
2006 Maniacs of Noise
Ass-Song
199? Vibrants
Unfinished work tune.
Avenge
1992 Vibrants SOASC
I love the chords in this one.
Baboon
1991 Vibrants
Baboon, 2011 by Mordi
Baboon (Skydive ReMix), 2010 by Chabee
Balance
2013 Vibrants
Beast
2011 Maniacs of Noise
Bend Over
2014 Vibrants
Bja5_0
199? Vibrants
Unfinished work tune.
Black Magic
2015 Chorus
Boneless
1990 Vibrants
Boneless (Rain Forest Mix), 2001 by Mr. SID
Bones II
1989 Vibrants SOASC
From Drax’s earlier period.
Bonzax
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Also from Drax’s earlier period. Quite atmospheric.
Party of the Year, 2009 by Mordi
Botanical
1991 Vibrants SOASC
Break-Up
2009 Crest
Break-Up, 2010 by Chabee
Bridge Conversion
1991-92 Vibrants SOASC
Cooperation between Drax and JCH. Conversion of the “Colonel Bogey March” by Kenneth J. Alford, as was heard in The Bridge on the River Kwai. Composed at my place.
CALS1 (Tune #2)
1991 Vibrants SOASC
Unfinished work tune.
Cafe
2011 Maniacs of Noise
Camerock
1993 Vibrants SOASC
Capripholian Waltz
2005 Maniacs of Noise SOASC
Capripholian Waltz, 2012 by moog (Sebastian Bachliñski)
Capripholian Waltz, 2006 by Makke
Caught in the Middle
2010 Maniacs of Noise
Caught In The Middle (Summer Edition), 2010 by Dees
Church
1989 Vibrants
Clarence
2004 Maniacs of Noise
Clarence (Short Remix), 2007 by Dafunk
Colorama
2013 Alpha Flight
Cooly (Lollypop Frosty Land)
1992 Vibrants SOASC
A sketch for the final AdLib version used in the PC platform game Lollypop (1994).
Crispy Crushing Crackers
2013 Vibrants
Crooner
1992 Vibrants SOASCADLIBSB
I converted this to both AdLib and Sound Blaster in 1992.
Crying
1990 Vibrants SOASC
Da Capo
1989 Vibrants
Deathblow
1996 Vibrants SOASC
Delicate
2015 Chorus
You got to love Tristesse from Drax. Such a beautiful one.
Still missing some of my favourites here, like Stories, Rushed Off, Heartless, Focus, Dope Out, etc.
Disco Zax, Overlame, Boneless, heard those in so many demos in the very early 90s, DRAX seemed to rule the demo scene back then 🙂 He was so insanely productive !!!! … well yeah, i’m a big fan of DRAX, more recently, i liked Resolution and Gemini .. Thomas is really the kind of awesome melodies.
Interesting to hear the analog pops in his Thaw tune … that 6581 DC offset modulated by the envelope, i love it 🙂
No heart for Pretence? It’s so freaking beautiful. Drax at his bittersweet best. 🙂