Walk Like An Egyptian [Bitpop/Chiptune] – Tribute to The Bangles

8 bit Bitpop (Chiptune) cover of an awesome 80s song – Made with the sounds of the Commodore 64 home computer.

I wanted that bangy-clangy sound so I’ve used a bit of ring-mod in this one. Kinda feels like how I did Kiss’ ‘I was made for loving you’ – but different. 👍

One (or two) of my most loved features of the 6581/8580 SID Chip is its Ring and Sync-Mod capabilities. I don’t use them often since they are hard beasts to master. I’ve gone for quite a bit of ring/sync in this one.

I’ve also done a nice little transition from a real whistle to a ring-modded SID generated one.

As always, made with ♥
Gavin

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Grace Kelly [Bitpop/Chiptune] – Tribute to Mika

Made with the sounds of the Commodore 64 home computer.

Brown, blue, violet sky, hurtful, purple, green & mean – Anything you like. Spin the wheel, see if you win!

I don’t know how I wanted this one to sound but the way it turned out is exactly how I wanted it to sound – part carnival/funfair and part glorified ice cream van. 😁

I’ve been to the Brisbane City Amusement Centre and the Sunnybank Amusement Centre and noticed how more games are skills based carnival games rather than video games. I think that’s where my carnival inspiration came for this low-fidelity cover.

As always, made with ♥
Gavin

You’re the Voice [Bitpop/Chiptune] – Tribute to John Farnham

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsqdbEQ9Muk[/embedyt]

Made with the sounds of the Commodore 64 home computer.

I had a fella leave a comment on Reddit after I asked what other Iconic Aussie songs I could consider doing and he came back with “How good are you at emulating bagpipes?”. That could only mean one thing. This song.

I actually tried doing this one a few months ago but it ended up on the cutting room floor because the vocals I have are, well, not the standard I wanted. But I really like this song and wanted to have a go at those 8-bit bagpipes!

Since I recently did ‘Lily Was Here’ and that is an instrumental. I thought “why the hell not?”. So I’ve picked up from where I left off with this one. I tried again to massage the vocals into the piece but, nope, it just wasn’t working for me.

Here’s ‘You’re the Voice’ – no vocals but still quite bitpop. Still using exclusively the sounds of the Commodore 64.

As always, made with ♥
Gavin

Elastic Heart [Bitpop/Chiptune] – Tribute to Sia

Made with the sounds of the Commodore 64 home computer.

I think I’ve mentioned that I love Sia. 😂
Her music is super expressive and heavily utilises moody & serious chord progressions. I like her as a performer too. She often compliments her singing with performance art – possibly as she doesn’t see herself as a performer – it works for me just the same whatever her reasons are. Her vocal capabilities are also amazing. I know I’m using cover singers but these cover singers have a tough job in doing one of her songs.

So here’s my go at ‘Elastic Heart’s in six SID channels. The percussion alone is two channels. I hope you like it.

Made with ♥
Gavin

Lily Was Here (C64 Version) [ Bitpop / Chipune ] – Tribute to Dave Stewart & Candy Dulfer

Made with the sounds of the Commodore 64 home computer.

When this song came out in 1989, I couldn’t stop listening to it. I remember recording it onto a tape for my car stereo and playing it over and over again. There’s a few songs that I remember over time incessantly playing – The Obvious Child, Paul Simon, Elecktraglide, David Whittaker,

My plan for this song is to do multiple versions by targeting various sound chips from the 80s. I’m starting with my beloved C64 SID chip but I also plan to do a Amstrad/ZX Spectrum, NES & Gameboy version of this song. Over time, not straight away. It’s going to be a side project.

It’s strange, I used to do instrumental only pieces but now I’ve grown accustomed to doing these Bitpop songs with vocals, I’m a little scared to do a song without vocals as I have nowhere to hide the imperfections.

This remains to be Bitpop even though it doesn’t have any vocals as I am still using modern sound production techniques to aide the underlying chiptune.

Made with ♥
Gavin

I Took a Pill in Ibiza [Bitpop/Chiptune] – Tribute to Mike Posner (& Avicii)

8 bit Bitpop (Chiptune) cover version of Mike Posner’s song, I Took a Pill in Ibiza – Made with the sounds of the Commodore 64 Home Computer.

Made with the sounds of the Commodore 64 home computer.

I was pretty sad about Avicii passing away and I didn’t know that I shared a common despair with him in existential dread. I like my EDM and he was an EDM hero of mine. Very sad.

So instead of doing an Avicii song I chose this one as it mentions Avicii by name. This arrangement is a Bitpop/EDM nod to a great artist thats gone far too soon.

Made with ♥
Gavin

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Take On Me [Bitpop/Chiptune] – Tribute to AHa

8 bit Bitpop (Chiptune) cover of an awesome song by A-Ha, Take on Me. Made with the sounds of the Commodore 64 home computer.

I always liked the style of the C64 Musician, David Whittaker so I thought I’d do this classic 80s song in a quasi David Whittaker style.

This song has to be one of the top 5 defining songs of the 80s. The music video was awesome with how it blended reality with sketch art and was just as definitive as the music it supported.

Made with ♥
Gavin

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