PC platform

As Vibrants was present on the Commodore 64 and later the PC this – is a two-parter – this is part II.

Even though Vibrants originated on the Commodore 64, I only remember them from the PC. But, when that is said, all of the following scores are all conversions, from the Commodore 64 by Chordian (JCH), from the original scores (of course extended from 3 to 9 channels (+1 if the PCM channel are used in the Sound Blaster).

I had some trouble recording the Sound Blaster scores, due to the sync between the computers speed today and the players internal interrupt. This may be a result of way to many years between development and recording – computer-evolution, I guess.

As Jens was able to export these scores, it had to be possible! I found that there exists a plugin for Winamp that will play the .D00 and .D01 scores, and so it did. These scores are all tagged with “Sound Blaster“.

Several of the Vibrants musicians are also members of Maniacs of Noise, that in my humble opinion, is the highest achievement any chip-tune musician can get.

Lets get started

Even though the Ad Lib Music Synthesizer Card (or AdLib), wasn’t a standard component in the IBM PC, it sort of became the “standard music” time – or at least until Creative Labs, released their first Sound Blaster card.To me, the AdLib sound is the essence of the PC sound, back in the early 1990’s. I know that tracker music (PCM) also got big, but for starters, it was the AdLib sound. You might know AdLib sound under the name OPL/Yamaha OPL sound.

And for some reason, I think that all AdLib music sounds identical, not the scores, but the sound (FM) – as if there only are 10-20 different instrument. Hard to explain … I remember whenever Peter and me were listening to AdLib music in games, I would say “This sounds just like Hannes Seifert’s, Whale’s Voyage” for the PC.

Of course , this wasn’t the case, it was only the pure sound of the AdLib (I think its the “drums” that make it all sound identical).

Drax

Thomas Mogensen a.k.a Drax – one of my favorite and more productive Vibrants musicians.

An attempt for a film-score (“Film Zak”) and the track “Rolling”.

As “Gorgeous” is one of my favorites AdLib tracks of all times, I was a bit disappointed to find out that my source score file (gorgeous.vgz) wasn’t “Gorgeous” but in fact the track name “gone”. Gone is still an okay track, but it is not “Gorgeous”.

Therefor I don’t have an AdLib version of “Gorgeous”, only the Sound Blaster version – but that is also okay!

Chordian (JCH)

This is Jens-Christian Huus a.k.a JCH a.k.a Chordian – the author of EdLib and also the wizard behind chordian.net, SID Factory II, DeepSID, CShellDB & GameDeed.

The two tracks below is the only tracks that isn’t converted from the Commodore 64, but was made to test either the program or the sounds.

Besides being a very productive demo coder (in the old days) and above mentioned sites, he also has time to do a few tracks.

Laxity

Thomas Egeskov Petersen or Laxity, is yet another musical wizard of Vibrants.

The track, “The alibi”, is the essence of the AdLib sound of the PC and also a favorite of mine.

Joss

Johannes Bjerregaard a.k.a Jozz as famous jazz pianist and regarded as one of the best composers on the Commodore 64.

I remember Peter having the original score files and player for the above tracks, back when these were brand new, and even though this is still AdLib sound, the music is phenomenal and at a whole other level.

Source of inspiration and material: Chordian.net & DemoZoo