Rob Hubbard - C64 Musical Wizard - Retro Tea Break Interview
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- čas přidán 10. 11. 2019
- Rob Hubbard is a giant in the world of video games and his music enhanced and at times surpassed the quality of the games themselves. Today we learn about his wizardry with the C64's SID chip as well as what he went on to do in the '90s which is less spoken about but just as interesting.
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Thanks for watching, be sure to check out c64audio.com/products/8-bit-symphony-pro-pre-order for Robs upcoming 8bit Symphony CD and the wonderful orchestral re-imaginings of his works. I hope you enjoy the chat!
Neil - RMC
Also c64audio.com/collections/project-hubbard
This was an excellent interview. Thanks!
Fantastic interview Neil and sorry to be that guy, but can you tell me what those headphones you're wearing are?
Thank you @@porkybitz - They are Howland West CIS-7000 according to the label... I can't tell you much more as I found them in a charity shop but they seem pretty vintage
The man, the myth, the legend! Rob Hubbard! Great interview, Neil and I'm glad to see that Mr. Hubbard is doing well. Cheers!
His talent has been appreciated by me since the 80s, great uplifting tracks he's created. Also Ben Daglish (RIP), Martin Galaway, Fred Gray
Seeing 'Music by Rob Hubbard' on a game influenced my purchases back then, and today it influenced my need to _immediately_ click on this interview! Not disappointed today, as then!
Fun fact, he used to go to the whittington and cat pub here in Hull in the 1980s and my old man used to have the odd pint with him, around the time he was getting into music and computers.
Oh wow, you really found the legend himself!
Words cannot begin to describe how much I love his music. Truly, a real legend that will stand the test of time.
Most underrated Rob tune? Populous. If there's one tune that deserves a modern re-make, that's the one.
Thanks to both for this lovely chat, I really enjoyed it. I'm also grateful that you took an extended tea break this time. :)
I used to play that game on my mega drive....amazing game
I did a remake of Delta C64, will look up Populous but I probably do Turrican first.
The music for Dragon's Lair 2 is incredible. What a humble genius
such a humble chap also
JSW and Warhawk on Atari 800XL was also great. He quite liked the Pokey chip when we spoke to him. When we were teenagers we phoned him from a telephone box in Manchester and was surprised that he gave us the time of day and answered our questions!
Now THIS is an actual legend.
Martin Galway's Parallax with that stereo effect .. goosebumps!
OMG I can't wait to get home from work now, Rob Hubbard is basically the God of 8-bit music.
The Sanxion loader tune is a work of consummate genius. This man really is a legend.
Thank-you for mentioning the Sanxion loader, personally my absolute favourite. Genius!
The little picture of Rob on the phone in the bottom corner reminded me of the days of Multi Coloured Swap Shap with a phone in competition or interview!
Super Tea Breat BTW with Rob!
Rob Hubbard & Swap Shop, I don't think my nostalgia gland can take any more
Damn.. I loved Swap Shop sooooooo much!
Omg Rob is my idol ..ever since I was little his music has been such a big part of my life and even now every one of his times is like an instant memory ... They're right up there with the likes that smell of your mam baking etc that transport you back to the Times when life was simpler and easy....the best times of our lives. Great video mate :-)
WOW Rob Hubbard on the Phone... Always liked his music. So many good memerories.... Now i am nearly 50 years, still loving them... Thx for the Interview... :-)
Pint of Cider, doing some Atari 800 coding and listening to Rob Hubbard - my idea of heaven :)
Being a computer musician back in the day was like being a violinist and having to build your own flippin' instrument.
And you'd still have to play on a single string. :) I mean, in the 8-bit era the hardware was limited not only by the sound chip, but how much memory the machine could handle, yet these composers made really amazing works.
Monty on the Run.. I can almost still recall that music in my mind. Fantastic. As a games developer for Icon Design (Manchester) I had to work with David Whitaker on a few games. I vaguely recall he also sampled my voice for a game I didn't work on, because I didn't have a UK accent. Super times. Shame the games industry went all violence, left the industry for less violent projects.
I want to remake Monthy on the run.
Wow you managed to get the main man himself, great job. He's among the elite of Musicians who was able to extract the best from the sid chip and produced some incredible music for the machine. Absolutley love your channel and it was a privilege to listen to the interview.
What a wonderful interview. Many thanks to both of you.
As a C64 user back then, those tunes were (and still are) just so memorable.
What Mr. Hubbard was able to squeeze out of such limited hardware was nothing short of genius.
The new orchestral versions only help to further reveal just how superb the actual compositions are.
My brother did the artwork for the cover on that record. He had a book printed with quite a few similar images but included was Rob Hubbard along with Martin Galway. The Martin Galway one I have as a canvas on my wall. The images were used in Project Sidologie which is a Jean Michel Jarre inspired project done in the C64 style by Marcel Donné
Such a down to earth fella..
He helped inspire so many young imaginations while playing what were such simple but effective ideas we called computer games back in the day.
Thank you for sharing this tea break Neil... Completely wonderful!!!
Thank you for this treat, it is certainly much appreciated. I hope you can interview more of these beloved musicians, (like Jeroen Tel, Chris Huelsbeck, Martin Galway, Matt Gray, just to name a few), and have a bit of their music in the Retro Tea Break. As usual, an impeccable video, thank you so much. :-)
I used to buy games just for robs music. Thanks for this interview.
Once again, RMC comes through with remarkable content. As a Canadian I am educated each video about the U.K. perspective on computers, software and personalities from “back in the day”.
I think I’ll fire up my C64 tonight and listen to some SID music.
I've watched and loved all of these tea-breaks but as someone else has already said, this...THIS is a true legend of the scene.
Amazing! Just two or three days ago I wondered if you'd ever get someone like Rob Hubbard on the line and here he is! I never had a C64 (Atari 800XL rulezzz!), but I always envied the Commodore owners for the great, great music they got. Commando! Crazy Coments! International Karate! One Man and His Droid! Thing on a Spring! Skate or Die! Warhawk! Pure genius.
When I hear the name "Rob Hubbard", I immediately think of the music for ZOIDS: my Top #5 game music of all time.
A big thanks Neil (and to you Rob Hubbard) for this priceless trip down memory lane. Massive flashback to my C64 teens and very interesting to see what RH did in the following years and going forward.
What a great interview. My daughter and I were at the concert in Hull, and we've backed Project Hubbard. Always good to hear him and it was nice that you asked him a few different questions, in a little more depth than usual. Many thanks.
Used to love listening to delta in game music. as a kid it sounded just like Koyaanisqatsi by Philip glass
I was a teen back then. The gaming industry was in its infancy and there was no internet. And yet among the few names that stood out Rob Hubbard was number 1 in my mind. I was and still am a huge admirer of his work on C64. It's true, a great soundtrack can change how the whole game is perceived and enjoyed. Games like "Thing on a spring" were not my favorites, but then something in my head was telling me "With a soundtrack like this, this game can't be bad; I should try it sometime".
I went to 8 bit symphony in Hull earlier this year, it was all c64 music and was orchestrated by Sir Rob for a full symphony orchestra. It was truly amazing.
Fantastic interview even if we didn’t get to see him, so great to hear from such a legendary 8-Bit composer.
Great interview! The Delta theme is amazing! Spellbound is amazing too! How incredible that we had a genius like Rob on the C-64!
Its funny after all these years, i can still hum along to those classic tunes. Thanks for the interview. Long live the SID chip!
Thanks for this and all people of scenes like the 'C64/AMIGA' 💝.
Have all happy days with a lot of fun ;)
Gotta love Rob Hubbard. Thanks Neil for having him on to chat. Rob's definitely one of those super-humble but supremely talented guys. Another northerner who had a similar way about him and a huge inspiration but under-sung in the industry, was Rod Temperton, who wrote Michael Jackson's famous hits such as Thriller, Baby Be Mine, etc Legends.
Never have I clicked on a thumbnail so quickly!!!!
Love it, could listen to Rob all evening!! Total C64 GOD!! He mentioned knucklebusters which is totally underrated, MOTR is a fave tho :P
Well, its logical only to hear Rob Hubbard's audio, isn't it 😀
Cool video matey, Rob is a music god thanks for all your awesome game tunes ;)
This was an amazing interview. Rob Hubbard! Thank you!
Holy cow, first Tim Follin and now Rob Hubbard? You're gonna spoil us, Neil! Any plans to get Huelsbeck on here?
Seriously, though, the title theme to Monty on the Run is possibly the single greatest piece of game music ever made.
Congratulations and thanks for this interview!
What a smashing interwiev Niel 👍👍👍. Have always loved rob’s tunes on the C64 😁😁
Once in a life time, you make great music. Never again is it the same.
Great vid Neil! Rob Hubbard is my favorite 8-bit musician ever, some of the best tunes on the C64 was made by this guy. I was one of the fans to buy a game just if he'd made the soundtrack. Sanxion is my all time favorite SID tune from his amazing collection. Legend :)
I've just come out from the lab and have to report that it turns out the theme tune to Chimera on the C64 was the best video game theme song.
What a great interview with a wonderful artist. Thank you very much.
Really talented bloke and responsible for some of the very best of the pioneering game music of the 80's.
Sanxion, Thrust, Warhawk, Human Race tune 4, Thing on a Spring, Monty on the Run, Commando, Crazy Comets, Lightforce, Spellbound.........
He totally dodged the question about some of his tracks being influenced by other music though.
Bits of Prophecies from Koyannisqatsi by Phillip Glass are obviously used in Delta.
Bits of Space Agent and The Unknown Planet by John Keating are unmistakeably borrowed in Warhawk too
Enjoyed the Interview a lot 👌🏻😊
He‘s a true legend indeed !
Mr. Hubbard himself. This is a very interesting interview and Rob seems like a really cool guy. Gonna check out that symphony project!
EDIT: Preordered!
I know Rob well. We won't mention his keyboard collapsing at the BIT Live 1. Never seen anyone play on the floor before 0_0. He's a lovely chap but finds it all a bit strange lol. It's a shame we've lost so many other composers in the past 10 years ;( Got whole folder of his unreleased music ;)
A true legend from way back in the day 🤩 what an interview!
Congrats on this one Neil! I would love to hear from other SID maestros like Tony Crowther and Martin Galway.... just amazing music in those days!
Amazing interview with an absolute legend. Thank you ❤️🐵
wow! what an honour.. fascinating interview... Rob is a true genius.. many many thanks for this Neil :)
It really was a special privilege to speak with him, I'll remember it fondly
@@RMCRetro next David Whittaker... ??
What a humble genius
I have been to a few retro concerts when rob played and met him once just for 1 Q&A. I nearly met him when I went to the codemasters office but missed him by a few hours I was told. He had such an influence on me but lost track during his EA days but feel grateful on catching up in 2001 with back In time stuff. It was great to hear him here and on par with my meeting jeff minter in 1983 at a London commodore show. Thankyou for the vid. My question would have been around mega apocalypse I think as I heard that was a technical marvel splitting 1 chanell into 2 making it sound like 4 channels rather than 3. Thanks again.
Thanks for sharing!
Such great tunes! I just love his work, he should be very proud.
thank you. these interviews are great!
You're welcome, thank you for watching them
Brilliant, most interesting to hear Rob Hubbard, thank you very much!
Super interesting, great work! 👌
OMG I'm so glad I stumbled across this channel.
Hello and welcome aboard! There will be lots more Tea Break interviews coming in 2020 🎅
Bought him a pint at a retro event once!
His music on the EA hockey series on the Genesis hooked me into hours of gameplay a day, loved his rock sound.
I was always impressed with the music that Rub squeezed out of the Commodore 64.
I never understood the "Wow" that people seem to hold for the music of Commando, except that he squeezed some impossible percussive sounds out of interrupt glitches to make the SID sound much richer than it was generally capable of.
But if you want to talk about making music sound RICH and thick with only a 3 voice chip, consider that Skate Or Die uses a thrashing guitar chord to really open it up, and this has lead to people writing Amiga Module Players for the C64 and SID Chip. We can now play a 4-Channel Sampled Module on the SID.
I personally am getting my hands on EVERY SID CHIP I can and trying to figure out how many I can jam into one C64 using 2020 technology.
@RetroManCave - PLEASE get Rob Hubbard into the cave for a video interview. This was ultra-awesome but fly the man in and feed him some Vodka... Beers and Steaks, and do a 4 hour video with him on Coding Machine Language Music.
Robin has done some basic Machine Language Tuts on some border colour cycling and it helped me understand the 50 interrupt cycles a little better than
10 PRINT "I'm Cool"; : GOTO 10
or in Bigmouth
10 SAY "I am a ,DORE Sixtee fur"
Jesus rob didnt do bomb jack :)
@@ryg1943 Yeah, you're right. I was thinking of something else. Forgive my 42yo senility.
Thanks for all those tunes Rob
Great audio on new mic!
I always loved the music from Monty On The Run and Thing On A Spring, What about thrust Concert, I remember Robs name being in it.
Ultravox was Midge Ure band back in the 80s - I noticed Neil didn't say anything so he didn't know either lol
This means nothing to me 😂
RetroManCave 😆😆😆😆
so way back in the early c64 days, rob hubbard used to make little musical demos (before he made for games) that got shared around with people, one of these had his phone number on it, as a 14 year old i phoned it, made up some story about wanting music and sound effects for a file manager/app launcher,.....i was ahead of microsoft by years with that one (about 1984) , wasted a couple of minutes of robs time with gibberish
Best interview ever, Rob is a genuine legend of the 8-bit days. I was a dyed-in-the-wool Speccy fan, but nowadays I would buy a C64 just to hear Rob's work, or even just to hear Monty on the Run, the best SID tune ever. Best 8-bit tune ever. He even worked wonders with the POKEY on Jet Set Willy. The Speccy's AY chip, garbage unfortunately.
But I had a Speccy growing up and though it didn't have the envelope filters of the SID it had a less messy and precise sound I felt. And then I guess I moved on to to the ST with a familiar Chip that had modulation and extra features or that was maybe the power of the extra processing and the demo scene was great with AY sound.. You know what... looking back now I would rather have pure, chip sound rather than samples like the Amiga. Bit like prefering the Megadrive over the Snes. That, crude DX7 style synth is legendary. Especially that jangly guitar sound. Hence how Rob liked moving to Yamaha based synth chips in the early PC adLib cards. And does he really look like a 70's pornstar...........still in that phone window. Lol x
A man from my home town of Hull :) ..a real legend..sadly never mentioned when great people from Hull are...
I still listen to the SID tunes from Master of Magic, Commando, and Skate or Die all the time. Rob was, hands down, the best 8-bit composer. There were games that I played that I didn't even like just to listen to Rob's music (I'm looking at you Last V8).
Back in time 2001 was like a childhood dream come true. We all, including Rob on the wine got very drunk! Got a ton of pictures from that with guys no longer with us, some pics I couldn't share to save face! The hangover on the way back was horrendous lol
Thank you! 🌟
I think when Rob was talking about Delta and the experimental nature of the tune he wasn't talking about the title tune but the in-game music. The title tune was inspired by Philip Glass and the in-game by On the Run by Pink Floyd.
28:23 Ultravox was the band name!
Cool! The man is a legend.
i love rob hubbard
Favorite tune is Goldrunner . Love that tune
why did you put a mug on rob's head?
AMAZING!
First thing I looked for when buying games was the name "Rob Hubbard", I bought no end of terrible games just because of him!
Get Allistair Brimble next
Another legend
andrew braybrook would be great
What a humble guy. Does he realise how much his music has affected so many people? My faves are Dragon's Lair 2 on the 128k Speccy, IK+ on Speccy 128k and Master Of Magic C64, Last V8, Auf Weidersein Monty collaboration with Ben Daglish
I remember listening to his music when I was a c64 kid, only in recent years I've found out his name. The Beethoven of chiptunes. Thrust, Skate or die, International Karate, Spellbound, Sanxion are my Top 5
Such a clever guy. Would love to see what's inside his head. Always think the goings on inside his head is like one of those crazy Terry Gilliam Monty Python animations 🤯👍
It's interesting how such a soft spoken person makes such intense music.
This Man Mr Rob Hubbard and Mr David whittaker were Fantastic For their gift to music in games and I wish them GOOD LUCK and ultimately to Thank themxxxx:)
Thank you LADS! :)
Why not credit you with LEATHERNECK (AMIGA) music, sir
PS ULTROVOX LOL
so many seemed to want the arcade style joysticks back in the day but I always preferred the tac 2 and slik stik
Legendary.
Rob is incredible and my favourite composer of all time regarding Chip tunes. And a shout out to wife Lin (still I hope) for coding to other Computers while he was out gigging. What a legend. I grew up with the Speccy and felt the AY could also do great stuff. No fancy envelope filters or decay and attack control But a cleaner, precise sound that I loved. I know it's not Rob H but check out the Robocop Title Tune that sounds just as good on the Speccy. Was playing my guitar with my boy earlier and explained my wah wah is called an envelope filter. But as my 4 year old just said..........if we have that we get no Post...............He's a Legend already. More to the fact he knew what a filter was. Maybe he should invent a letterbox that filters junk mail back to them. I will have a nice Nursing home then. Xx
An aspect of these great old tunes from Rob Hubbard and Martin Galway and others is that their tunes sounded a bit different on American C64s because of the faster refresh rate (60hz vs 50hz), so when I hear them here they sound too slow! (Probably sound too fast when you hear them on American C64s, eh?)
He is my favourite game music composer he is brilliant. The music for thing on a spring was better than the game.
Most of his music is better than the games they're in!
As soon as you asked that first question, I thought to myself "D'oh! He's been asked that one a million times!" Great interview, though. Rob is a good guy. I saw him give a presentation a number of years ago about writing music for those old systems back in the day and it was obvious that a large number of people in the crowd didn't know of him or how amazing his music was (especially given the limitations of the systems he worked on). His response from them at the end was tepid at best, which was really disappointing to see.
Anyway, another thing he said there was that the game companies would tell him how much RAM he had to work with to create his tunes, and one of them only had 100 BYTES or so to spare, but he was able to do it anyway. Don't know what game or system that was, though.
There's more than a bit of Prophecies by Phillip Glass in the Delta track ......
Crazy to think he had time to start his own religion as well!
Legend
Wow you have pulled out a trump card getting the main man in this interview. Any chance of getting Martin Galway on at some point. I really really enjoyed watching this and I thought you asked him some great questions.