The SID Homepage — Interviews with Rob Hubbard (Commodore Zone, Happy Computer 7/86)

Two interviews with rob-hubbard reprinted on the sid-homepage: a commodore-zone question-and-answer by Waz and Kenz (answered "within 24 hours", from Electronic Arts, about 1997) and a short Happy Computer interview from July 1986, at the height of his C64 work. They give how he started, how he worked (assembler source, no editor), the night commando was written, the three phases he saw in his own output, the origin of sanxion, the samples in his last C64 tunes, and what he did afterwards.

Key claims#

Commodore Zone (c. 1997)

• Intro names Knucklebusters, I-Ball, Nemesis the Warlock, Warhawk and the Sanxion loader as classics "ten years after original release".
• Start: "I worked as a pro musician, and I started learning basic followed by machine code." Educational software he could not sell, then a game for a company that went broke — "graphics are good, game is bad, music is great" — so he "decided to just do music and audio. After a few months I did Thing On A Spring and that got me started." Thing On A Spring "was actually something I wrote to test my first driver"; Chimera and WAR were written around 1980; the Dragon's Lair 2 tunes were sketched in one afternoon by recording himself playing for three hours.
• Tools: no editor — "I just used an assembler and edit the source code — most people in those days did the same. There really wasn't time to sit and write an editor, as there was so much work to do." (sid-player-routine, tracking-workflow)
• Influences and aim: Jarre, Synergy "and other synth bands"; "My main thought was really to try to get a strong bass line and a strong melodic line." Master of Magic and Zoids were inspired by Synergy tracks, which also shaped Spellbound, Kentilla and a slow Dragon's Lair 2 tune; I-Ball was commissioned as Cabaret Voltaire pastiche — "some of what I was trying to do was pushing the driver too much".
• Commando: "I went down to their office and started working on it late at night, and worked on it through the night. I took one listen to the original arcade version and started working on the c64 version … I just did what I wanted to do. By the time everyone arrived at 8.00am in the morning, I had loaded the main tune on every C64 in the building! I got my cheque and was on a train home by 10.00 am".
• Three phases: "The early stuff was very safe, give them what they want kinda tunes. The middle period was more adventurous and was generally better stuff. The later tunes were OK, but sometimes tried to push the SID too much, and sometimes didn't really work very well." Favourites: Sanxion, Kentilla, Crazy Comets, WAR.
• Sanxion: written "about the time I bought ZooLook" (Jarre) — "I think the synth solo in Sanxion is actually pretty melodic, even after all these years!"; a slower Amiga version is lost; the Zzap! Sampler tape remix of "Thalamusik" was sequenced with a friend's Yamaha sequencer and Akai sampler and is "not very good". Delta's hidden jingles are clips from Sanxion and Romeo/Juliet meant as stingers (end of level, extra life).
• Samples: the "Go!" in BMX Kidz is his own voice; his last C64 tunes, PowerPlay Hockey or Kings of the Beach (EA, 1988–89), "both had samples in them" — "I knew that they would probably be the last of the C64, as sales were declining rapidly. At time I was really tired of doing C64 stuff" (chip-samples).
• Favourite C64 musicians: martin-galway (Rambo, Chariots of Fire from Hyper Sports) and David Whittaker, both friends. Auf Wiedersehen Monty: Gremlin asked him "to spend 2 days working with Ben at their office" because the original Monty on the Run was popular (monty-on-the-run). No royalties, ever; Invade-a-load's reuse of One Man and His Droid was news to him. One rejected piece (for Firebird, he thinks) survives only as a MIDI version.
• Archive: "SidPlay has really made it possible for me to have an archive of those old tunes, as I lost all my original source code disks when EA UK moved offices (someone threw them out)" (hvsc, sid-format). Liked the ProTracker renditions of Ace 2 and Sanxion. Still in contact with Galway, Whittaker, jeroen-tel, charles-deenen and Barry Leitch.
• After the C64: Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes (PC); nearly all EA Sports Genesis titles of the early 1990s (Madden, NHL Hockey, PGA Golf); in 1997 audio technical director at EA, IASIG steering committee, Nuclear Strike (PSX/PC); "I write very little music for games these days." Zzap! 64 "definitely helped my career get started"; his C64 is "in my office, here, tucked away in a box".

Happy Computer 7/86

• An English journalist, quoted in the intro: "It's unbelievable, how he makes the C64 sound like ten voices with only three."
• Started "two years ago" (1984) with a music program, educational software and a game; "After half a year of begging at software companies I got my first three jobs": Action Biker (Mastertronic), Thing on a Spring (Gremlin Graphics), Confuzion (Incentive); then Mastertronic, Firebird, Elite, System 3, Gremlin, Martech, Alligata.
• Favourites in 1986: Master of Magic, Comets, Gerry the Germ, Spellbound, Kentilla; "absolute" favourites Monty on the Run and Zoids. Chose the C64 because "the C64 has the best sound quality".
• Time per tune: "Normally it takes about two weeks to compose and arrange … I managed to do one in two days. That's how 'Commando', 'Zoids' and 'One Man and his Droid' were created."
• Aged 30 ("a bit old for this job"). Music Studio-type programs? "No. I do my music in pure machine code using an assembler. I tested those programs, but their possibilities are limited. 'Electrosound' is the only one that I like."
• Favourite other composer: Galway (Rambo, Comic Bakery). Listening: Chick Corea, the Brecker Brothers, Mozart, Ravel, Tippett, New Order, Tears for Fears, U2, Bowie, The Who, the Stones. Coming: International Karate, Kentilla, Spellbound, Thrust, Proteus; plans to try the Schneider CPC and Spectrum 128 and hopes for the Amiga.

Practical takeaways#

• The Hubbard brief in one line: "a strong bass line and a strong melodic line" — the bass carries the rhythm (see commando, which has no kick) and the lead carries the tune.
• Working method: source code in an assembler, no editor; a tune in two weeks, two days when needed; test pieces to prove a new driver.
• His own periodisation — safe, adventurous, over-pushed — is a caution against asking the chip and the driver for more than they give.

Notable quotes#

"I took one listen to the original arcade version and started working on the c64 version."

"I just used an assembler and edit the source code — most people in those days did the same."

"My main thought was really to try to get a strong bass line and a strong melodic line."

Relevance to the wiki#

First-hand career and method facts for rob-hubbard, the creation stories of commando, sanxion and the Monty sequel, and a composer's testimony to SidPlay-era archiving for hvsc.

Pages touched#

rob-hubbard · commando · sanxion · monty-on-the-run · martin-galway · jeroen-tel · charles-deenen · commodore-zone · sid-homepage · hvsc · sid-player-routine · tracking-workflow · chip-samples · wavetable-programming · octave-bass · melody-writing