Sanxion (C64, 1986)

rob-hubbard's music for Thalamus' Sanxion. Newman's example of a noise transient on a pitched instrument: channel 3's pulse-wave bass "is augmented with digital noise in its attack", so a 16th-note bassline "appears to create both a synthetic bassline and a continuous shaker or hi-hat sound from a single channel"; its heavily ring-modulated lead and supporting lines "sound utterly cacophonous" in isolation but gel together (source: s-newman-driving-the-sid-chip). The GoatTracker readme mentions "the beginning of Sanxion loader tune" as a case where a pulse note starts without an initial pulse-width value (source: s-goattracker-readme).

From Hubbard's interview#

• The loader tune, "Thalamusik", was "described by many a C64 user as the best C64 tune ever" (Commodore Zone's words); Hubbard wrote it "about the time I bought ZooLook" (Jean-Michel Jarre) — "There was only 2 tracks that I liked on that album. I think the synth solo in Sanxion is actually pretty melodic, even after all these years!" It was one of his four favourites in 1997, with Kentilla, Crazy Comets and WAR (source: s-sidmusic-hubbard-interviews).
• A "much slower version on the Amiga" is lost; the audio remix on the first Zzap! Sampler tape was sequenced with a friend's Yamaha sequencer and Akai sampler — "in all honesty it is not very good"; he liked a ProTracker module rendition of it. The hidden jingles in Delta are "small clips from Sanxion and Romeo/Juliet music" intended as stingers (source: s-sidmusic-hubbard-interviews).

As others hear it#

On Lemon64 in 2020 NM156 named the loader as the best-known use of ring modulation and sync on the C64: "The most well known tune that does it I guess is the Sanxion loader (also one of the first that did it)" (source: s-lemon64-learning-sid-sound-design).

Techniques: wavetable-programming, channel-interleaving, ring-modulation-and-sync, instrument-design.

• lasse-oorni (2002): "Hubbard's Sanxion loader, and the various Ocean Loaders evoke the most feeling in me" (source: s-sidin02-cadaver-interview).

• dustbin (2004) puts "Sanxion's tape loader music" first among the best SIDs ever (source: s-sidin07-dustbin-interview); and the sample disk of digiorganizer carries "sanxionsnare", "sanxionbase" and "sanxionchord 1–3" among its 4-bit samples (source: s-sidin06-digiorganizer).

• matt-gray remade the loader for his Reformation Kickstarter "in just a few days" and calls it "Thalamusik … pretty much flawless and so innovative at the time" (source: s-sidin15-matt-gray-interview).

Related#

rob-hubbard · commando · monty-on-the-run

Sources#

s-newman-driving-the-sid-chip · s-goattracker-readme · s-sidmusic-hubbard-interviews · s-lemon64-learning-sid-sound-design · s-sidin02-cadaver-interview · s-sidin07-dustbin-interview · s-sidin06-digiorganizer · s-sidin15-matt-gray-interview