C64 Martin Galway's "Parallax" Oscilloscope view

[@retrogamesrevived1189]

Still listening in 2024, i will never tire of this for as long as i live ❤️

[@thejaceofspades]

same

[@AI-Rainbow]

yeaaasss!!

[@TheTomatoWatcher]

It's 3AM and I have a paper due tomorrow, but instead I'm listening to this.

[@MEMPHISBUTCHA]

How you do on the paper?!

[@TheTomatoWatcher]

@@MEMPHISBUTCHA I forgor 💀It was 2 years ago lol, though considering I'm still alive today I probably did okay on it.

[@MEMPHISBUTCHA]

@@TheTomatoWatcher That's awesome lol! Time is funny, sure fly's by!! ⌛

[@zzzzzzz1zzzzzzzzzz1z]

procrastinators united

[@ChishanFipz]

I once found MG's phone number embedded in a piece of code in some early game or demo - Just got a trilogic expert that christmas - 1984 i think - I rang him and I think 12yo me was a complete idiot in whatever I said, and he just ripped the crap out of me - He wasn't rude, he was having fun and laughing, & I know I was a complete tool - I thought he was more awesome for it! None of my friends believed me. I rang up many others back then too - for some reason people put their phone numbers hidden inside their code back then - Tim & Cory were a couple of others - Would call them regular and they were nothing short of fantastic, Swapping 5.1/4 discs in the post with demos and stuff they had done. Happiest days of my youth. Playing these games and listening to such incredible music - My SID chip was slightly broke but this made it sound even better. Delta/Sanxion/Wizball/Green Beret/Parallax/LastNinja/MegaApocalypse/OceanLoader123 were the soundtrack to my youth.

[@StarlancerAstro]

Parallax intro is one of those things that you either get or don't and if you do, you understand a bit of my mind and everyone that loves it a little more.

[@stacymitchell1890]

+Starfire Technology What is this? Explain yourself I don't get it. I want to understand, I get the sound is being visualized but I don't know what the meaning of this is.

[@StarlancerAstro]

+Stacy Mitchell What I mean is the music, I would say most people would here this and think just noise, random blips and beeps. To me there is something about the melody, how mathematical it is, so digital yet at the same time so alive and mind expanding. It can literately relax me from an anxious mood, if you get what I mean, how the math, waveshapes and sound all come together in something beautiful, then you get how my mind works just a little bit more then most people. Being able to see the waveforms just brings that all to another level.

[@digitalblasphemy1100]

+Starfire Technology I get a totally different experience from it. It makes me laugh sometimes when I'm overwhelmed by a sound that puts the hair on my arms up. That feeling when you hear something, a sound or set of sounds, a pitch from a woman or man's voice singing, a violin or in this case, synth. Something in me swells to tears and I laugh when the music does that to me. Not because I think it's ridiculous that I'm overwhelmed by the sound emotionally but I think it's because crying and laughing are very closely connected somehow. My sister cries all the time and in the middle of it, she will just laugh for no reason at all. It's like the calm after the storm. I'm not high I swear.

[@xldkxnewyorker8914]

+Starfire Technology Whatever drugs you're taking... Send them my way

[@quadpad_music]

@@digitalblasphemy1100 - If you get overwhelmed by sounds you just might as well just be sensitive to sound, it's not "ridiculous" at all :3

[@midlowreborn]

martin deciding to build a table and a chair from scratch at 9:18

[@SendyTheEndless]

Dat ending tho. The brain melter. And visualised like that, it kinda looks like parallax. I wonder if that's what he was aiming for.

[@GregDaniel78]

SquareWaveHeaven I read a really old interview somewhere, where Galway admits he 'painted himself into a corner' and couldn't figure out how to finish the the tune, so just messed around with that belting discordant racket using as many effects, filters and bends as he could.

[@digitalblasphemy1100]

8:20 to the end is nuts. Put your headphones on and go into a trance

[@ExtremeWreck]

Yeah, truly. I could say that this entire song just makes me go insane!

[@inphanta]

I remember loading this up for the first time and sitting there transfixed listening to this as the colour bars strobed. It was a religious experience.

[@Somelucky]

It's amazing how such creative pieces of music were produced on a simple 8 bit computer with a fantastic synth chip.. only to be skipped seconds into it after a 5min load time. I played this game when I was a kid, but I rarely ever listened to the full intro track.

[@Dave-nf7xg]

I left my sincere thoughts about c64 music in general at the lightforce youtube vid, but for fucks sake.... This has absolutely have to be one of game's histories most memorable soundtracks ever. If not, the judges are just too young, unexperienced or just too fucking halfwit to know game music history.. This is where it started, period. and this is why we still listen to it.... Bless all of you :)

[@GammelfarMusik]

Amazing how much sound he got from only 3 note polyphony. The SID chip still sounds great!

[@m1serfreed477]

This is one of my favorite tunes on C64, breathless stuff, the tune from 7:16 is just off another planet

[@jhoughjr1]

yes and now so am I. How have I not heard this? lol

[@HyRax_Aus]

@@jhoughjr1 You should hear Matt Gray's modern remix of this from his Reformation 3 album.

[@LarsTragel-zh7ei]

From there? It's "from another planet" from the start.

[@ladeluff_]

THE best 8bit work ever made. period. goosebumps every time. All hail to Galway.I used to put the game on just for the music much more than playing it.

[@davidwoodcock8042]

Same here, Ladeluff. If memory serves, the game was not terrible - mediocre, perhaps. But utterly eclipsed by its own title screen - hypnotic visuals and THIS work of magnificent art. The time I've spent transfixed is orders of magnitude greater than the time I spent playing the game itself.

[@jhoughjr1]

Richard Bayliss I like but I hadnt heard these of Galway's

[@jhoughjr1]

This was beyond goosebumps somehow. just wow. Truly had the muses with that one.

[@LarsTragel-zh7ei]

This is Jarre level. ps. Tel is a joke.

[@markemark-beenthere]

Wizball - Very strong contender?

[@Locateson]

What you can see here is a genius at work

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

No - it's a readout of the product of it. He is not around. You cannot deduce the nature of his former presence or work process from the result. All that may be said is that what you see here is the digital representation of aspects of work of a genious.

[@MultiJeje12345]

deep

[@antihumor2231]

@@whynottalklikeapirat Go to 2:32

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

@@antihumor2231 Aside from the fact that your comment sounds appropriately like basic programming for C64, I don't think you understood my slightly obtuse comment.

[@zachary_newsom]

what a pretentious twat

[@TheSlysterII]

What a fantastic piece of work! This is made on a machine that is 30 years old which makes it even more wonderful. But from 9:40 onwards, the harmonics that are used are absolutely superb, even down to the last note, a fantastic piece of music, and should be lauded for that.

[@MrHodvig]

The machine was 30 years old in 2012 :)

[@retrogamesrevived1189]

You know what…all these years ive just regarded the last bit of this track as just noise, random noise and ive finally seen it…i hear it now…pure harmonic genius! Wow!!!

[@TheSlysterII]

@ajbreit Wow! What a description! Never thought of that until now! Thanks for putting that out there.

[@jhoughjr1]

@@retrogamesrevived1189 Speakers help. If i wasnt at my comp but on my phone it would go unnoticed.

[@CliftonWood]

And THIS is why I've always thought of Martin Galway as one of the greatest musicians on any keyboard, chip, or synthesizer. Ever.

[@nyrbsamoht]

@Stefan W. Comic Bakery is my favorite song of all time in the history of pretty much anythinng. he is indeed a genius

[@Hawthorne-Studios]

Ben Daglish also. I think they did work together on a project as well, but he or the one like him was very protective of his music code.

[@thomaspatteson]

A triumph of human achievement.

[@dubstar1981]

I love you for creating and uploading this. Absolutely mindblowing! For me Parallax always was the most epic chiptune and I'd bet Martin Galway did a fair bit of listening to Philipp Glass and Jean Michel Jarre before writing this :)

[@FellUpAndDown]

I don't know why, but I'm still drawn to this Tune after 34ish Years. Well this, last ninja, ocean loads etc etc but mainly this :)

[@ladeluff_]

same here.

[@killy1]

Pretty cool the creativity we took for granted as kids is being recognized.

[@XYZB0RG]

this is seriously awesome

[@unikat73]

back then I just had the song running on the c64 and then played on the floor with star wars figures

[@AironExTv]

Ah, what a great tune. Don't forget the psychodelic visuals that went along with this title tune. This has to be the ultimate companion piece to any "experience" :D .

[@zenithquasar9623]

Seeing this through Oscilloscope added to its beauty! Incredible!

[@nyrbsamoht]

thanks very much for making this video its a thing of beauty. when those square waves come into phase its so nice to see it and hear it

[@goodbyemoonmen2844]

9:18 i can almost smell sawdust

[@arro140]

the c64 can't cut wood

[@MauveDash]

@@arro140 r/woooosh?

[@arro140]

indeed

[@Andre-nx5xl]

Hypnotic carpentering! Very trippy!

[@pschiptunes64]

@@arro140 not if you don’t mod it

[@TheHixonCHEF]

Takes me back to when I was 14. I'd pause the tape to listen :) LOVE IT, thanks for uploading it.

[@garyfreeman7122]

Same here. I liked playing the game, but often I'd load it up just for the music. Same goes for Wizball, Target Renegade, and Nemesis the Warlock. Great tunes all

[@Gustavinhocartanoso]

*I feel like a god, smiling in the face of the abyss.*

[@aresaurelian]

How nice to see it being appreciated.

[@VerwirrteMiauKatze]

I was really skeptical until the first minute - I am glad that I did not turn it off, though.

[@maleiva]

The music is creepy and epic. The last seconds (9:17) of music, i imagine travel in the spacecraft hurtling through hyperspace toward an uncertain course.

[@Then00bhunt3r]

+Maleiva I thought 11:00 was supposed to be the engines stopping and the ship landing.

[@retrogamesrevived1189]

2:52 only 2 channels running and still fluid harmony ❤️

[@carstenmaul7220]

A man and his SID

[@3Null3]

What an eternal journey❤

[@Trimethopimp]

What a masterpiece. Great visualisation too, quite educational for a synth noob like myself!

[@Kuranyi1904]

Wow what a masterpiece of Gaming Music.

[@leopold7562]

Ah, Martin Galway. Undoubtedly the best of the SID musicians in terms of pure composition, his tunes had a flow to them that few could match and, had he been born 300 years earlier, he'd no doubt have been one of the better known classical composers. I respect his abilities enormously, but unfortunately they just don't do it for me. I much preferred the rough and ready stuff that Rob Hubbard created which, whilst not flowing quite so much, were much more enjoyable to me. But that's just one man's opinion.

[@davidwoodcock8042]

Ah, leopold, I love this comment, thanks for posting it. I'm a Galway guy, but there's no doubt in my mind that Hubbard also had a remarkable talent for crafting a catchy tune on the good old SID. 👍

[@sunn1011]

@@davidwoodcock8042 my love to you and lee xx

[@00Skyfox]

Parallax is one of my all time favorite C64 tunes, because of the futuristic, other-worldly feel to it. I really love when things start to pick up at 7:16. It was always fascinating to watch this in its combined waveform or on a spectral analyzer, but I've never seen it shown with all 3 voices playing separately. Awesome to see!

[@ArtyomR_102]

Thanks to nyanpasu64, he made that program

[@LarsTragel-zh7ei]

THIS IS THE FUTURE.

[@CM-se1qe]

If only the game was made for this song and not the other way around. Stanley Kubrick built a fitting film for Also Sprach Zarathustra, so I don't see how an epic loader tune did not get the sort of epic game it deserved.

[@perfectfutures]

C M maybe one day it will. I’d say the audio technology of the C64 was far ahead of the rest of the computer (and that this music is timeless just as it is). We are only just starting to make the kinds of games people dreamed of, with sophisticated game engines and tools letting artists express themselves, whereas back then the game engine might take up most of the time and energy. By the time such tools were developed for the C64, people were already moving on to the next generation. Hence new consoles come with development tools before they are even released! I know there were some great 8-bit games. But maybe not so many as epic as the music.

[@jhoughjr1]

@@perfectfutures The c64 still had legs longer than any other generaton combined really . It was form 1982. It was revolutionary for its price point. And had the right mix of hw and sw at the right time

[@chrisprince3476]

amazing still listen to it regularly and all his other stuff

[@mikakeinanen8382]

Theres no music like it in the history of mankind

[@LarsTragel-zh7ei]

Yes.

[@LEKProductions]

Awesome PWM manipulation! I wonder if Galway has seen this... I remember stopping the tape as soon as the loading theme started on so many games.

[@galaxion500]

9:21 onwards is amazing.

[@garyfreeman7122]

I just saw your sexy thumbnail pic and knew we should be together, making little baby retro joysticks

[@galaxion500]

haha

[@leelo42]

I was zoning out while watching this, and noticed that when it all kicks off after 9:20, the top track at times looks like the in-game ship :)

[@lastburning]

Awe-inspiring

[@Studeb]

I still remember listening to this for the first time back in the 80s, I was already a fan of Galway, but at first I just thought it was weird, I had no idea of how long the buildup of the track was, so it just felt disappointing at first. I love the high score loop even more, is it on KZbin?

[@Studeb]

YES! kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6qYpGioaNpro7s

[@nessamillikan6247]

Yeah, the stuff after the buildup is masterful, but I just don’t see the point why he dragged the first bit out so long. I’m new to his work, so I anticipated 11 minutes of the same buildup, haha.

[@pschiptunes64]

9:18 is meant to torture some SID chips

[@MrSwedeProductions]

Over 11 minutes long from an 8kB file... pure magic!

[@raggedcritical]

Less than a single frame of the video used to play it.

[@Emulous79]

Back in the day I never heard this in its entirety. Whoa. Pretty hardcore.

[@carnacci6410]

great acid sounds... I don't know exactly why, but these electronic sounds are so warm... what a nostalgia... and the ending part is so psychedelic... definitely a masterpiece!

[@0002pA]

The ending reminds me a lot of the ending to Daft Punk's RAM, Contact.

[@matricasrpska]

Masterpiece!

[@jhoughjr1]

MY GOD ITS FULL OF STARS

[@unabdingbar]

If you stare at a point behind your screen, you get nice 3D effect.

[@димагерпан]

это просто фантастика!!!!!!

[@m1serfreed477]

it's fantastic

[@Tomatenkiller]

Awesome stuff. Puts you into another world.

[@Gringomania]

I like these wha-wha-, phaser- and flanger-effekts

[@Gringomania]

so awesome ... I was parallized from the first time I heard that tune....

[@Then00bhunt3r]

+Gringomania Paralyzed. I see what you did there.

[@rsouth454]

These sounds ! That highly modulated squares and arps in clever interesting layers and changes on a digital sound chip controlled by computer made the c64 feel alive and games felt exciting even if some were crap 😂

[@jackcimino8822]

0:23 I like how he uses pulse waves to create a sort of e-piano sound

[@Sarwex117]

you can make one, using sine wave

[@jackcimino8822]

@@Sarwex117 The C64 doesn't have sine waves.

[@Sarwex117]

@@jackcimino8822 i mean, aside from c64

[@viralbox9216]

@@jackcimino8822 it can if you use the low pass filter

[@abz_5072]

Lets see Vib Ribon traverse this lol

[@toretronio9030]

Hoho she will trip in the ending

[@sillonbono3196]

Still one of the most original pieces of computer music ever produced.

[@GeoNeilUK]

I do kind of wonder if the BBC Proms had a Video Games Prom of orchestral arrangements of video game music that included this piece. I can imagine the meme now.. _Mind meltingly awesome orchestral piece_ BBC Narrator: And that was Tim Fallon's composition, "Opening theme tune to Fruit Machine Simulator" originally composed for the Commodre VIC 20 in 1984.

[@fl00d69]

Epic, epic fucking shit from my childhood. Oh yes.

[@GavTV29]

I guess this is what you get recommended when you can’t stop watching oscilloscope videos of Tim Follin music, definitely not complaining

[@tombombadil2793]

Awesome.

[@MegaPaulina91]

This is Nice. Lovet it.....

[@Thunk00]

This theme is so tremendously and wonderfully self-indulgent. I can hear folk, rock ballad, trance, and disturbing dark ambient. This song expresses pride, struggle, imagination, epiphany, loss, perseverance, despair, recovery, grief, a whole range of human emotion. It's hard to believe that it was just title music from a computer game soundtrack.

[@MrJawol]

there's some magic in there

[@eiswolf6885]

I wish I could "STAY FOREVER"

[@danielstrobel]

Another visitor.

[@jdmresearch]

One word: Intense.

[@jaedaens]

Let us bow to one of the holy trinity of C64 music gods, that which is Martin Galway, Rob Hubbard, and Jeroen Tel. I will make many sacrifices in your honor, holy ones.

[@LarsTragel-zh7ei]

Tel was an early talent but is too fucked up to be listed.

[@gmdrandom6287]

@@LarsTragel-zh7ei?

[@TimCant]

superb

[@tihomirdmitrovic]

I remember, my TV haven't has audio out, so I had to wire it directly from speakers to a connect it to hi-fi :)

[@PanacheDom]

Génial avec l'oscilloscope !

[@nottoday5773]

9:18 when you decide to chop down a red oak tree with a chainsaw

[@ExtremeWreck]

And then the chainsaw starts playing the guitar

[@ls56873]

I love the oscilloscopes (sometimes it's square) from 2003, it's trendy ... keep it up

[@zeffirelli2644]

This sh*t goes hard af😭😭😭😭😭

[@tommytwotone6070]

Upper vs Middle vs lower class struggle in an oscope. Impressive.

[@MrMichaelSnuff]

2:33 WHERE IT GETS BUMPIN'

[@gretagrain]

sure is pure

[@digmsymii321]

Surprisingly, I suspect, Martin managed somehow to musically express my whole life, from birth till death. It is interesting and sad at the same time... Very strong composition!

[@HyRax_Aus]

Oooh, that's deep. I love that interpretation!

[@doopdee]

Your life must have been very sad then But seriously, that, in a way, is a very good analogy: The song starts off lighthearted, but then tenses, with it seeming that there is no way out of the sadness. Then, at 5:44, all the emotion crushes down upon you, and you realise that there is hope, at 6:45. In your old age, you come to accept your fate, now at 8:18. As your dementia consumes you, your mind and soul falls apart in 9:03. As you slowly die, at 9:21, slowly becoming nothing more than a body of flesh, and hear the heart monitor stop beeping, at 11:09, your life vanishes: it is no more.

[@JohnKuhles1966]

Only a narcissist can come up with that statement dwelling in self-importance or it is sarcasm ... then it is okay I guess ;)

[@digmsymii321]

@@JohnKuhles1966, it that case, kindly consider the comment as a product of self-irony, not selfishness.

[@JohnKuhles1966]

@@digmsymii321 I knew you gonna say that because I have done the same in the past (not anymore) ... because it is "nothing burger" shallow "feedback" loop

[@Jaakk0S]

I wonder if anyone's noticed but they used this theme in the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. It can be found under the name "Nazgul theme"

[@galaxion500]

sublime

[@anthonyleighton4754]

Still sounds futuristic .....and came out in 1986....

[@alexanderwingeskog758]

ADSR to the fullest! And my 60Hz monitor does not deserve it... They where doing 200 Hz by this time...

[@verbicide4736]

At 8:22 is the first channel doing a PWM sweep? Is that even possible with that waveform, Or is it doing some sort of ring modulation? Whatever it is, is it doing the same thing at 9:19 or something else?

[@RolfRBakke]

Yes it is PWM. That wave is a combination of triangle and square.

[@verbicide4736]

That makes sense. I just thought that if that specific wave was triangle and pulse, then it would also be subject to PWM. I'll have to experiment with that in SIDs of my own.

[@grobalicious5906]

Why does the combination wave have all those spikes instead of having a smooth line like this "_/\__/\__/\_"? Also, how come sound generating software such as the 3001 sound odyssey never offered this waveform? I was only able to duplicate this from playing around with basic programming.

[@verbicide4736]

That waveform is created by mixing the Triangle and Pulse waveforms. I can't honestly name any other synthesizers that can do that.

[@deathbuncentral2310]

Grob Alicious that's the nes high pitched square wave

[@Tomatenkiller]

OK that was crazy good

[@pantsstyle]

chiptune therapy

[@AB.BABY.]

That ending. Woah.

[@filuferru]

Imagine the "docking scene" in "Interstellar" with THIS music in the background.... "It's not possible!" "No: it's necessary." ........ Mind blowing.

[@myfirstchannelisdead]

Platypus Cloud Kingdom

[@LordOdyseus]

This one is the original tune.

[@swordblaster2596]

Galways magnum opus? I think so.

[@frankmeyer9984]

Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow...

[@minoanlight4545]

2:33 here we go...

[@b1lleman]

good memories.

[@fghsgh]

Okay, how is pulse+triangle fading into pulse+saw? (at the end, top channel)

[@Gaeming78]

First days of humanity

[@InnerTurbulence73]

Beauty.

[@AReallyLongAndUnremakableUser]

COMMODORE 64: Your limited to three channel momo, what's the best you can come up with?? MARTIN GALWAY: Hold my chip tune.