Klaus Grøngaard, known as Link in the European C64 demo scene, was the first person to use my music editor on the Commodore 64. He was active from 1989 to 1991 and created more than 150 tunes.
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 Link’s tunes in the latest High Voltage SID Collection which was at #65 at the time of publishing this blog post. I noted down the 32 tunes I liked and created stereo MP3 files for easy listening here. You could call it sort of “Link’s Greatest Hits” as compiled by JCH.
Most of the tunes also have mono MP3 alternatives from SOASC created using a real C64.
Abnormal
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Action Guy
1990 Vibrants SOASC
American
1991 Vibrants SOASC
The bassline and synth riff in the first 15 seconds was taken from “You’re the One For Me” by D. Train.
Audio Guy
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Ball Jump
1990 Vibrants SOASC
Ball Jump, 2006 by skurk
Be There
1991 Vibrants SOASC
Be There (Caribian Dreams), 2009 by Chabee
Breakdown
1989 Vibrants
This is the only tune that doesn’t have an SOASC version.
The Champ
1989-90 Vibrants SOASC
Chase HQ II (Tune #1)
1990 Ocean SOASC
This arcade racing game conversion was also known as Special Criminal Investigation.
Chase HQ II (Tune #2)
1990 Ocean SOASC
Cheyens House
1989-91 Vibrants SOASC
Unfinished work tune.
Choice
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Comic Frame
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Comic Frame, 2011 by Hazel
Dwarf Fly
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Dwarf Fly (Flying Barf Remix), 2012 by Vincenzo
Dwarf Fly Remix, 2011 by Daree Rock
Got It 3
1989-91 Vibrants SOASC
Unfinished work tune.
Greeky Tune
1990 Vibrants SOASC
I believe Drax and I watched him play this on a keyboard at a C64 demo party.
Tequila Meets Heavy Metal, 2004 by ScareCrow
Jazz Max
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Another one I’m sure Drax and I watched him play on a keyboard at a C64 demo party.
Jazz Time
1989 Vibrants SOASC
I really like the moody leader in the first part. Makes it sound like a northern folk song somehow.
Loader / Hi
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Piano Wamp
1989 Vibrants SOASC
And again another one I believe Drax and I watched him play on a keyboard at a C64 demo party.
Rock Line
1990 Vibrants SOASC
Soundwork
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Space M+
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Spiky Zak
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Stormlord II
1990 Vibrants SOASC
This wasn’t used in the game. Matt Gray made the music for it instead.
Sweet Anne
1989-91 Vibrants SOASC
Unfinished work tune.
Title 5
1989-91 Vibrants SOASC
Unfinished work tune.
Triad
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Tuck Says
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Tune Nr. 4
1989 Cheyens SOASC
The only Future Composer tune here. I know it’s crude, but there’s just something about it.
Victory
1989-91 Vibrants SOASC
Visage
1989 Vibrants SOASC
Visage (La Deuxieme Partie), 2016 by BeeZerk
Visage, 2007 by BeeZerk
Visage, 2004 by moog (Sebastian Bachliñski)
This was just a small collection of Link’s tunes – my personal favorites. If you would you like to hear more, please download the High Voltage SID Collection as well as a SID emulator for your system.
All of the SID tunes have been saved as MP3 using SID plugin revision 33.293 for XMPlay 3.8.2 with the LAME encoder installed. I turned on stereo emulation and also adjusted the filter setting for various tunes.
Download all MP3 files: SID_Stereo_MP3_Link.zip (116 MB)
Updates
November 26, 2017: Added nine remixes.