Rob Hubbard

Rob Hubbard (born 1956, Kingston upon Hull, England) is a music composer best known for his composition of computer game theme music, especially for microcomputers of the 1980s such as the Commodore 64. His work showed the real potential of both the Commodore 64's sound hardware and the ability of good music to improve the gaming experience.

Early career

In the late seventies, before scoring games, he was a professional studio musician. He decided to teach himself BASIC and machine code for the Commodore 64.

Gremlin Graphics

Writing a few demos and some educational software for learning music, he approached Gremlin Graphics in 1985 with samples of his work, to attempt to market his software. Gremlin were more interested in the tunes than the software and he was asked to create the soundtrack for "Thing on a Spring", a platform game. Hubbard created a theme that mixed violins, electric guitars, and amusing basslines.

Hubbard went on to write or convert themes for games such as "Monty on the Run", "Crazy Comets", "Master of Magic" and "Commando". Some of his most famous tunes include also "Thrust", "Spellbound", "Sanxion", "Auf Wiedersehen Monty" and "Ricochet". The game "Knucklebusters" includes Hubbard's longest tune that is 17 minutes long. The loading music for "Sanxion", "Thalamusik" (named for the software house that published the game, Thalamus) still remains a strong favourite among his fans to this day.

Move to Electronic Arts and the USA

After working for several different companies, in 1989 he left Newcastle to work for Electronic Arts in America as a composer. He was the first person devoted to sound and music at EA, and did everything from low-level programming to composing. He became Audio Technical Director, a more administrative job, involving deciding which technologies to use in the games, and which to develop further. After the Commodore 64 period he wrote some soundtracks for PC -games and Sega Mega Drive. One of his most famous C64-era compositions is the music featured in the loading sequence of the game "Skate or Die", which features samples of electric guitar. Playback of samples was facilitated by exploiting a flaw in the SID sound-synthesizer chip: altering the volume register produced an audible click. Thus altering this register thousands of times per second allowed for a crude form of sample playbackcite web
url = http://www.pauliehughes.com/page22/page22.html
title = SID Music
author = Paulie's SID Music Page (A Fourth Channel section)
date=April 6, 2008]

Recent activities

Hubbard recently contributed a few re-arrangements of his themes to Chris Abbott's "Back in Time Live" C64 tribute. Hubbard has performed several times with the Danish C64 cover-band PRESS PLAY ON TAPE who have covered many of his early tunes using a full rock-band arrangement. Hubbard has also performed his old music on piano with the support of violinist madfiddler.

In 2005, music from "International Karate" was performed live by a full orchestra at the third Symphonic Game Music Concert. The event took place in Leipzig, Germany. Hubbard arranged and orchestrated the piece.

Hubbard left EA in 2002 and returned to England. He has recently resumed playing in a band, and has even revisited his past game music work in concert. Recent composition jobs have included music for mobile phone games. His original SID music can be found from The High Voltage SID Collection though emulated SID files sound occasionally quite different compared to authentic SID sound.

Compositions

* "Commando" (based on theme from "Commando" arcade game) (Elite Systems, 1985)
* "Rasputin" (Firebird, 1985)
* "BMX Kids" (Firebird, 1985)
* "Monty on the Run" (Gremlin Graphics, 1985)
* "Thing on a Spring" (Gremlin Graphics, 1985)
* "Confuzion" (Incentive Software, 1985)
* "Crazy Comets" (Martech, 1985)
* "Master of Magic" (inspired by the Synergy album Audion) (MAD/Mastertronic, 1985)
* "The Last V8" (Mastertronic, 1985)
* "Action Biker" (Mastertronic, 1985)
* "Formula 1 Simulator" (Mastertronic, 1985)
* "Hunter Patrol" (Mastertronic, 1985)
* "One Man and His Droid" (Mastertronic, 1985)
* "Battle of Britain" (PSS, 1985)
* "Harvey Smith Snowjumping" (Software Projects, 1985)
* "Up Up and Away" (the song is based on some old pop song, Starcade, 1985)
* "Deep Strike" (Durell, 1986)
* "Bump Set Spike" (Entertainment USA, 1986)
* "Ninja" (Entertainment USA, 1986)
* "Chimera" (Firebird, 1986)
* "Gerry the Germ" (Firebird, 1986)
* "Proteus" (Firebird, 1986)
* "Thrust" (Firebird, 1986)
* "Warhawk" (inspired by the John Keating album Space Experience) (Firebird, 1986)
* "Lightforce" (FTL, 1986)
* "Geoff Capes Strongman Challenge" (Martech, 1986)
* "Samantha Fox Strip Poker" (he's credited as "John York" in this one, because as he says, "it was such a cheesy title and they wanted that cheesy lame music along with it - I didn't want to admit that I did it just for the money") (Martech, 1986)
* "Tarzan" (Martech, 1986)
* "W.A.R." (Martech, 1986)
* "Zoids" (melody is from the Synergy album Audion, Martech, 1986)
* "Flash Gordon" (MAD/Mastertronic, 1986)
* "Spellbound" (MAD/Mastertronic, 1986)
* "Hollywood or Bust" (Mastertronic, 1986)
* "Human Race" (Mastertronic, 1986)
* "Kentilla" (Mastertronic, 1986)
* "Phantoms of the Asteroid" (Mastertronic, 1986)
* "Video Poker" (Mastertronic, 1986)
* "Knucklebusters" (Melbourne House, 1986)
* "International Karate" (System 3, 1986)
* "Sanxion" (Thalamus Ltd, 1986)
* "Jet Set Willy" (Atari version) (Tynesoft, 1987)
* "ACE II" (Cascade, 1987)
* "Saboteur II" (Durell, 1987)
* "Sigma Seven" (Durell, 1987)
* "Thanatos" (Durell, 1987)
* "Thundercats" (Elite, 1987)
* "Arcade Classics" (Firebird, 1987)
* "I-Ball" (Firebird, 1987)
* "Shockway Rider" (FTL, 1987)
* "Auf Wiedersehen Monty" (with Ben Daglish) (Gremlin Graphics, 1987)
* "Chain Reaction" (Kele-Line, 1987)
* "Mega Apocalypse" (Martech, 1987)
* "Nemesis the Warlock" (Martech, 1987)
* "Wiz" (Melbourne House, 1987)
* "Bangkok Knights" (System 3, 1987)
* "IK plus" (International Karate plus) (System 3, 1987)
* "Dragons Lair Part II" (Software Projects, 1987)
* "Star Paws" (Software Projects, 1987)
* "Delta" (inspired by the Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon and Philip Glass' music for Koyaanisqatsi) (Thalamus Ltd, 1987)
* "Trans Atlantic Balloon Challenge" (Virgin, 1987)
* "Nineteen" (Cascade, 1988)
* "" (Electronic Arts, 1988)
* "Kings of the Beach" (Electronic Arts, 1988)
* "One-on-One 2" (Electronic Arts, 1988)
* "Power Play Hockey" (Electronic Arts, 1988)
* "Skate or Die!" (Electronic Arts, 1988)
* "Pandora" (PSI Soft Design/Firebird, 1988)
* "Ricochet" (Firebird, 1988)
* "" (Electronic Arts, 1989)
* "" (Electronic Arts, 1989)
* "Kings of the Beach" (Electronic Arts, 1989)
* "Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoffs" (Electronic Arts, 1989)
* "Populous" (Electronic Arts, 1989)
* "Hard Nova" (Electronic Arts, 1990)
* "Low Blow" (Electronic Arts, 1990)
* "Ski or Die" (Electronic Arts, 1990)
* "The Immortal" (Electronic Arts,1990)
* "Road Rash" (with Michael Bartlow) (Electronic Arts, 1991)
* "" (with Brian Schmidt) (Electronic Arts, 1991)
* Road Rash 2 (with Don Veca, and Tony Berkeley) (Electronic Arts, 1992)
* "" (Electronic Arts, 1992)
* "NHL Hockey '95 (Electronic Arts, 1994)
* "" (Electronic Arts, 1996)
* "World War II Fighters" (Electronic Arts, 1998)
* "X Squad" (Electronic Arts, 2000)
* "Rumble Racing" (Electronic Arts, 2001)

References

External links

* [http://mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId=6/ Biography at Mobygames.com]
* [http://www.ocremix.org/composer/id/80/rob-hubbard/ Composer profile] at OverClocked ReMix
* [http://www.c64audio.com C64Audio.com, Rob's publisher and record label]
* [http://www.pressplayontape.com PRESS PLAY ON TAPE's website]
* [http://www.remix64.com/interview_rob_hubbard.html Remix64's Interview with Rob Hubbard]
*musicbrainz artist|id=dff554f2-1da0-46d5-81ad-e6382e3ac444|name=Rob Hubbard
* [http://www.the-commodore-zone.com/articlelive/articles/19/1/Rob-Hubbard/Page1.html Legends of the C64 article on Rob Hubbard]
* [http://www.last.fm/music/Rob+Hubbard Rob Hubbard at Last.fm]
* [http://www.myspace.com/c64orchestra Rob Hubbard's music] A classical orchestra that's playing C64 game music of Rob Hubbard