I must have listened to this song about 1000 times in my late teens and early 20's. I loved my C64. Computers have never been the same to me as it was. I knew the machine inside and out, could program in basic and machine and used it all of the time.
brings back old times. Had this on loadstar disk when i was like 10. the soundtrack has been haunting me for years. gotta love the internet, you can find just about anything if you look hard enough
Thank you very much for uploading the C64 version. It is a very nice and somewhat melancholic flashback to my teenager years! I just listened to the original version (from the TV series), and I do like this version best!
I have been using C64 since 1986 when I got my first one as a christmas present, and love the sound of SID, but only heard this first time on last saturday, while going thru a stack of some disks I had bought a while ago. I selected it on some "synth sample"-program, did something else while it started playing, started to think "hmm...this actually sounds great...". I stopped what I was doing and started to listen. Pretty soon I felt the hair on my arms standing up while listening. There are not lot of instruments or vocalists that do that to me. Mos technology SID is one of the few, when it is pushed to what it was already originally designed to do. I'll never grow tired of listening the sound it makes.
The sound of the 1542 loading, the old push button 13 channel tv set displaying the bouncing graphics, and the one song on the list I never stopped listening to. This is just as amazing as I remember.
Funny, the lead synth is a lot darker and the filter tremelo effect is news to me :) I prefer the "wrong" version because I like to hear the sudued but present upper harmonics to the melody. In this version the left hand seems to overshadow the lead. I'm also fairly sure our breadbin used to alias on high notes (a slightly screeching distortion caused by digital oscillators) but talk of modern emulation always seems to feature antialiasing. Really makes me want to go in the loft now :)
It really depends on the soundsystem you used back in the days. Most people I know used the internal speaker of the 1084 monitor. I used my Stereo with a mono adapter so for me all the other 64's sounded tinny.That video sounds really normal compared to my old setup. But the good old SID wasn't very precise and every new model had it's own sound.That would explain why you remember your one sounding slightly different.You could get the .sid file and try some of the SID-presets in VICE's settings.
@vendert Yeah. as I said, the original composer decided to make a new synth sample program designed for playback of the reSID engine in VICE, and tweaked the fliter settings to sound like his machine. He also released, along with it, the program he used to MAKE synth sample. google synth 3.1b georgie and click the first link
i remember the aliasing distortion on the Amiga. i used to like the sound of it. but i think from memory you could turn or off a filter to chop it out and the power light dimmed?? i wish i had the room to leave my old c64 and amiga set up.
This is what i remember it to sound on my old commodore 64. when i sold it and got another a few years later it didnt sound the same. i remember at school you could hear the differences between machines too.
@@zaphod77 I know. I was just explaining why people might know it under different names. I LOVED this program so much as a kid, I even made a WinAmp playlist of the original source songs of all the swinth songs along with the MilkDrop2 visualizer as 'Swinth 2000' a long time ago. (Of course Stationary Ark's theme was the only one I couldn't find the original of, until 2022. sigh.)
Strange. Mine always sounded more like the version KMoser posted. I guess coz I was playing it on a C128? This version's better, obviously, but it's not the one I remember so fondly. Funny how that works.
I had a very early model C64. Mine originally had the Vic-20 style keyboard and the VIC-II chip with the bug where you fill the last two lines of the screen, press Delete and it locks up with PRESS PLAY ON TAPE. I usually just had the sound playing through my TV's speaker. The beginning of this video sounds like I remember, but the part starting at 0:18 sounds a little flat/muffled to me. I've tried all the VICE presets and none sound quite right all the time for Swinth.
Maybe that was really the sound Gerg Feil's SID produced when he created that masterpeace. But you could try to use an equalizer to recreate the sound of your old TV set on your modern PC speakers.They 'display' a much wider sound-specrum so you experience frequencies and interferences that did not occure on the original setup. For a better understanding what I mean just listen to music on a cellphone compared to a club or cinema audio system. It will most likely sound diffrent,too.
Filters on commodore 64s simply weren't very consistent across machines, especially with the older SID chip design. That said, there was a certain unofficial standard, which more machines had than not, and it's what the developers wrote the songs to. But i'm not sure if Georg Feil's personal machine met it. Fortunately the emulated c64 in VICE sounds the same on every machine. So the original author was able to optimize the tune properly for it.
Great tune, and now also very accurately recreated. For comparision; and all those who always wanted to download an mp3 of it: [triple w].se2a1.net/soasc/dl.php?d=soasc/soasc_mp3%2FDEMOS%2FS-Z%2FSynth_Sample_T01.sid_MOS6581R4.mp3 It's the original (unmodified) version played on old "breadbox" C64 (pre '87, just like the one Georg Feil had when composing it), with MOS 6581R4 SID chip, recorded as a part of the epic "Stone Oakvalley's Authentic SID Collection" (SOASC=). Enjoy!
Hi, I'm wondering if you have a non TH-cam compressed version of this, if so is it possible for me to request a download please? I've been searching for this and it would be much appreciated. :)
It can be found in the www.hvsc.c64.org/ search for Georg Feil. it's tune number 1 in the synth sample. You will need something that allows you to play back sid files.
in csdb.dk/release/?id=57436 you will find a "Synth Songs Emul.d64" this has the versions tuned for the resid engine in vice at that time (2007) the "Release Notes.txt" file explains this.
@turpinzgirl there is another video on youtube that claims to have the original theme, but instead it is a remix from another site i think. Does that version, with piano and strings, sound right to you?
![The Stationary Ark [Theme]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ryAlqBfA41o/mqdefault.jpg)
omfg it sounds so much more epic :facemelt
I must have listened to this song about 1000 times in my late teens and early 20's. I loved my C64. Computers have never been the same to me as it was. I knew the machine inside and out, could program in basic and machine and used it all of the time.
brings back old times. Had this on loadstar disk when i was like 10. the soundtrack has been haunting me for years. gotta love the internet, you can find just about anything if you look hard enough
Thank you very much for uploading the C64 version. It is a very nice and somewhat melancholic flashback to my teenager years!
I just listened to the original version (from the TV series), and I do like this version best!
You and me both. ;-)
I have been using C64 since 1986 when I got my first one as a christmas present, and love the sound of SID, but only heard this first time on last saturday, while going thru a stack of some disks I had bought a while ago. I selected it on some "synth sample"-program, did something else while it started playing, started to think "hmm...this actually sounds great...". I stopped what I was doing and started to listen. Pretty soon I felt the hair on my arms standing up while listening. There are not lot of instruments or vocalists that do that to me. Mos technology SID is one of the few, when it is pushed to what it was already originally designed to do. I'll never grow tired of listening the sound it makes.
That c64 music demo changed my life. Introduced me to Jarre and Oldfield. Haven't heard this in 25 years. thanks for sharing!
Loved my Commdore computer ! Started with a VIC-20 then Commdore 128 ... was playing this so many time in C64 mode
The sound of the 1542 loading, the old push button 13 channel tv set displaying the bouncing graphics, and the one song on the list I never stopped listening to. This is just as amazing as I remember.
*1541 ;)
You're right. Why was I thinking 1542? @@LarsTragel-zh7ei
The video of WinVICE playing Swinth sounds a little tinny to me, but I don't recall my NTSC C64 ever sounding quite like this.
Funny, the lead synth is a lot darker and the filter tremelo effect is news to me :) I prefer the "wrong" version because I like to hear the sudued but present upper harmonics to the melody. In this version the left hand seems to overshadow the lead.
I'm also fairly sure our breadbin used to alias on high notes (a slightly screeching distortion caused by digital oscillators) but talk of modern emulation always seems to feature antialiasing.
Really makes me want to go in the loft now :)
This and Monty on the Run. Two most iconic songs on the C64.
C64 Tetris is pretty iconic too i think. sure the game itself sux, but the music is awesome.
Listened to that sound 25! years ago! Thank you for remembrance!
It really depends on the soundsystem you used back in the days.
Most people I know used the internal speaker of the 1084 monitor.
I used my Stereo with a mono adapter so for me all the other 64's sounded tinny.That video sounds really normal compared to my old setup.
But the good old SID wasn't very precise and every new model had it's own sound.That would explain why you remember your one sounding slightly different.You could get the .sid file and try some of the SID-presets in VICE's settings.
@vendert Yeah. as I said, the original composer decided to make a new synth sample program designed for playback of the reSID engine in VICE, and tweaked the fliter settings to sound like his machine. He also released, along with it, the program he used to MAKE synth sample. google
synth 3.1b georgie
and click the first link
This sounds like we’re building a stone monument for all of eternity.
i remember the aliasing distortion on the Amiga. i used to like the sound of it. but i think from memory you could turn or off a filter to chop it out and the power light dimmed??
i wish i had the room to leave my old c64 and amiga set up.
This is what i remember it to sound on my old commodore 64. when i sold it and got another a few years later it didnt sound the same. i remember at school you could hear the differences between machines too.
Spectacular. You did an awesome job. I wish I could download it....and every of my favourite C64 tunes mixed like this ;)
copy the URL for this video and go to youtubemp3
I first experienced this on a program called Laser Show on the C64 that had changing patterns displaying .
The program is actually called SWINTH. (SWIsh + syNTH sample)
@@zaphod77 It came out under a few different names. Our group on the west coast of Canada knew SWINTH as Music/Graphics, for example.
@@exidy-yt swinth is 100% the original name. many copies were modified.
@@zaphod77 I know. I was just explaining why people might know it under different names. I LOVED this program so much as a kid, I even made a WinAmp playlist of the original source songs of all the swinth songs along with the MilkDrop2 visualizer as 'Swinth 2000' a long time ago. (Of course Stationary Ark's theme was the only one I couldn't find the original of, until 2022. sigh.)
Strange. Mine always sounded more like the version KMoser posted. I guess coz I was playing it on a C128? This version's better, obviously, but it's not the one I remember so fondly. Funny how that works.
I had a very early model C64. Mine originally had the Vic-20 style keyboard and the VIC-II chip with the bug where you fill the last two lines of the screen, press Delete and it locks up with PRESS PLAY ON TAPE. I usually just had the sound playing through my TV's speaker.
The beginning of this video sounds like I remember, but the part starting at 0:18 sounds a little flat/muffled to me.
I've tried all the VICE presets and none sound quite right all the time for Swinth.
Maybe that was really the sound Gerg Feil's SID produced when he created that masterpeace.
But you could try to use an equalizer to recreate the sound of your old TV set on your modern PC speakers.They 'display' a much wider sound-specrum so you experience frequencies and interferences that did not occure on the original setup.
For a better understanding what I mean just listen to music on a cellphone compared to a club or cinema audio system.
It will most likely sound diffrent,too.
Filters on commodore 64s simply weren't very consistent across machines, especially with the older SID chip design.
That said, there was a certain unofficial standard, which more machines had than not, and it's what the developers wrote the songs to. But i'm not sure if Georg Feil's personal machine met it.
Fortunately the emulated c64 in VICE sounds the same on every machine. So the original author was able to optimize the tune properly for it.
Great tune, and now also very accurately recreated.
For comparision; and all those who always wanted to download an mp3 of it:
[triple w].se2a1.net/soasc/dl.php?d=soasc/soasc_mp3%2FDEMOS%2FS-Z%2FSynth_Sample_T01.sid_MOS6581R4.mp3
It's the original (unmodified) version played on old "breadbox" C64 (pre '87, just like the one Georg Feil had when composing it), with MOS 6581R4 SID chip, recorded as a part of the epic "Stone Oakvalley's Authentic SID Collection" (SOASC=).
Enjoy!
Unfortunately after 6 years, the link is dead....
Haha, now I gotta run downstairs and turn on my 128 and see if I have this, got a good collection of sids from friends back in the day.
you are looking for either synth sample or swinth.
I had this in my C64 disks. I'm sure everyone did....
Oh lookie, this video is popular enough to get ads now. Sorry people. :(
I first heard this demo on a C128 and it sounded "wrong" also. I wonder if it sounded this way on all C128s.
In 64 mode or 128 mode? Pretty sure the 128 used the same sound chip in both modes.
Here's the original music! th-cam.com/video/mAsv-nqJ4VY/w-d-xo.html
I'll be darned, that's actually it. and it's NOT the one form the album.
And now i'm not sure if bandcamp has the wrong track names.
Does anyone know the name of the game (C64) (I think it was a science fiction game) where "Stationary Ark" was the theme when you finished the game?
Hi, I'm wondering if you have a non TH-cam compressed version of this, if so is it possible for me to request a download please? I've been searching for this and it would be much appreciated. :)
It can be found in the www.hvsc.c64.org/ search for Georg Feil. it's tune number 1 in the synth sample. You will need something that allows you to play back sid files.
@@Afthartos or he just uses a youtubedownloader...
Same here!
nEAT
great
I know. quite epic, huh. check out my other music rips. :)
Feil reprogrammed it??? Citation needed.
in csdb.dk/release/?id=57436 you will find a "Synth Songs Emul.d64" this has the versions tuned for the resid engine in vice at that time (2007) the "Release Notes.txt" file explains this.
@@zaphod77 thank you sir!
@turpinzgirl there is another video on youtube that claims to have the original theme, but instead it is a remix from another site i think. Does that version, with piano and strings, sound right to you?
@turpinzgirl I've never seen the original show. you know where to get a recording of it so I can compare how it sounds?
a video of a c64 that actually plays the tune the way it's supposed to. th-cam.com/video/px2rVl7t-gY/w-d-xo.html