Remix64 — An Interview with Anders Carlsson aka GOTO80 (Neil Carr, 2002)

Neil Carr interviews goto80 (Anders Carlsson, born 1981, Swedish) for Remix64 on 2002-09-18 — early in his career, just after moving to Gothenburg. The intro frames him as a maker of "rather funky and experimental SID tunes" composing for the C64 since the mid-90s.

Key claims#

• Path to the SID: in the mid-1990s he began composing in K12's editor Groovy Beat ("a really weird piece of software"), tried others, then "settled with JCH's editor and have been using it since" (jch-editor). He came to C64 music from composing chipmodules on the Amiga "but wanted the real deal with the SID-chip", plus nostalgia.
• Setup in 2002: "Commodore 64 (new sid!) 1541 1581 Action Replay 6 JCH's NewPlayer 20.G4" — i.e. he composed on the new SID (8580) with JCH's NewPlayer version 20.G4.
• Favourites and influences: favourite C64 composers Kjell Nordbo, rob-hubbard, jeroen-tel, Jeff, Shogoon, Zardax, AMJ; inspiration from Kjell Nordbo, Jeff, nu-jazz, drum & bass (the Moving Shadow label's style), grindcore, Zardax. The tune he wishes he had written: Anal'ouge by Jeff ("I would have fucked it up bigtime, hehe"). Own favourites among his tracks: Pappap or Monkeywarning.
• On the SID's flaws and joys: "I don't like the envelope-bugs — that the trigging of the sound, the attack, fucks up now and then (which hardrestarts kinda solves)" (adsr-envelope, hard-restart). He dislikes the differences between new and old SID and between individual chips: "listening to my tunes on an old SID is not a good idea at all" (6581 vs 8580 variance, sid). He loves "ringmodulation, knee-deep pulsemodulating bass sounds and the freedom of the SID" (ring-modulation-and-sync, pulse-width-modulation); "Setting bits n' bytes to make sound&music is superfresh." He also dislikes "the noise from the C64".
• Why keep composing on the C64 (2002): "The C64 has a unique sound, and one can work wonders with the SID. And it's fun working with such hardcore limits, forcing you to realize your ideas in other ways." For minimal 8-bit he uses C64 and Amiga, otherwise synthesizers; "the things inbetween — sampled 8bit-stuff — aren't necessary for me." He sometimes starts a tune on the Amiga and finishes it on the C64 or vice versa.
• Contrarian stances (which Remix64's own outro calls "slightly controversial"): he never got the idea of C64 remixes — "I can't recall listening to a single good/fun c64-remix (except for my own remix of Ghosts & Goblins, hehe)" — he prefers real soundchips to studio music in games, and signs off: "Don't imitate, innovate — fuck emulators."
• Activities in 2002: just moved to Gothenburg to study music; records coming on Bleepstreet and 8bitpeoples; music for monotonik.com; the HT single; Extraboy electronica for the Subnatura label; a Tim Koch remix CD contribution; a drum & bass track for No Sides Records' VGM compilation; "Trying to fix two of my C64s so they will live again." Fondest C64 memory: "Gathering the family infront of the C64 to play Leaderboard!"

Practical takeaways#

• A working 2002-era SID chain: real C64 + 8580 ("new sid"), 1541/1581 drives, Action Replay 6 cartridge, JCH's editor with NewPlayer 20.G4.
• His stated reason for hard-restart is the practical one: it "kinda solves" the envelope bug where the attack misfires — the player-side fix for adsr-envelope misbehaviour.
• Chip-to-chip variance is a real deliverable problem: a tune voiced on an 8580 can fall apart on a 6581, so know which chip a tune targets.

Notable quotes#

• "The C64 has a unique sound, and one can work wonders with the SID. And it's fun working with such hardcore limits."
• "I don't like the envelope-bugs — that the trigging of the sound, the attack, fucks up now and then (which hardrestarts kinda solves)."
• "Don't imitate, innovate — fuck emulators."

Relevance to the wiki#

The earliest first-hand goto80 source in the wiki (2002): it fixes his pre-defmon toolchain (Groovy Beat, then jch-editor + NewPlayer 20.G4 on an 8580), his aesthetic loves (ring mod, pulse bass, hard limits) and his emulator/remix scepticism — a nice foil to the later emulator-based practice workflow in s-electropizza-defmon-vice-chip and the improv practice in s-goto80-site-defmon-posts.

Pages touched#

goto80 · jch-editor · hard-restart · adsr-envelope · ring-modulation-and-sync · pulse-width-modulation · sid · commodore-64 · rob-hubbard · jeroen-tel