Rob Hubbard
{{short description|British composer (born 1955)}}
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{{Lead too short |date=May 2024}}
{{BLP sources|date=March 2010}}
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{{Use British English|date=June 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Rob Hubbard
| image = Rob Hubbard.jpg
| caption = Hubbard in 2023
| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1955}}
| birth_place = Kingston upon Hull, England
| genre = Video game music, Chiptune
| occupation = Composer, programmer
| years_active = 1985–1996, 2004–present
}}
Rob Hubbard (born 1955) is a British composer best known for his musical and programming work for microcomputers of the 1980s, such as the Commodore 64.
Early life and career
Hubbard was born in 1955ZZAP! 64, October 1985Happy Computer, July 1986 in Kingston upon Hull, England.{{cite web|url=http://www.c64.com/interviews/hubbard_part_2.html |title=For the best in C64 nostalgia |website=C64.com |access-date=2016-06-20}} Hubbard first started playing music at age seven. Whilst at school he played in bands. After leaving school, he went to music college.{{cite web|url=http://www.c64.com/interviews/hubbard.html |title=For the best in C64 nostalgia |website=C64.com |access-date=2016-06-20}}
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.{{cite web|url=http://www.sidmusic.org/sid/rhubbard.html |title=Interview with Rob Hubbard |website=Sidmusic.org |access-date=2016-06-20}}
Rob explained how he acquired his first computer, the Commodore 64, and why he chose that specific computer in an interview, "The buzz that was around at the time was that musicians are gonna have to get into computers." He ended up with a Commodore 64 specifically over any other computer because the others he knew of only had 8k or 16k of memory.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OxRyOSTHDM&t=250s |title=Rob Hubbard - C64 Musical Wizard - Retro Tea Break Interview |date=2019-11-11 |last=The Retro Collective |access-date=2025-03-30 |via=YouTube}}
Music on the Commodore 64
Hubbard subsequently wrote or converted music for a variety of publishers on over 75 games between 1985 and 1989. Some of his most popular tunes include Commando, Monty on the Run, Sanxion, International Karate, Skate or Die!, Crazy Comets, Master of Magic, Delta, Thrust, Lightforce, Spellbound, One Man and his Droid. The game Knucklebusters includes Hubbard's longest tune: a 17-minute opus. Hubbard has mentioned his personal favourites are Sanxion, Kentilla, W.A.R., International Karate, and Crazy Comets.{{cite web|url=http://www.karsmakers.nl/metal-e-zine/robb.htm |title=Interview with Rob Hubbard |website=Karsmakers.nl |access-date=2016-06-20}} His least favourite was Samantha Fox Strip Poker, which he admitted to having done purely for money; he was listed in the game credits with the alias John York. He has stated that he had many musical influences including Jean Michel Jarre, Larry Fast and other synth bands.{{cite web|url=http://trondal.com/c64sid/rhubbard.html |title=Interview with Rob Hubbard |website=Trondal.com |access-date=2016-06-20}}
Hubbard mainly composed for the Commodore 64's SID sound chip. He worked freelance and turned down offers from companies to work in-house.
Move to Electronic Arts and the United States
After working for several different companies, he left Newcastle in 1988 and had the choice to work for Electronic Arts or Microsoft. Hubbard chose EA due to their prominence in the gaming industry as Microsoft had (as yet) no gaming platform. His work with EA Electronic Arts in America was as a composer. He was the first person devoted to sound and music at EA and did everything from low-level programming to composing. One of his most famous compositions during his period at EA, is the music featured in the loading sequence of the Commodore 64 version of Skate or Die, which features multiple sampled chords of electric guitar and organ. Playback of samples was facilitated by exploiting a feature in the SID sound-synthesizer chip: altering the volume register produces an audible click, and altering the register thousands of times per second enables a relatively crude (but surprisingly clear and sophisticated for eight-bit computers) form of sample playback.
{{cite web
| url = http://www.pauliehughes.com/page22/page22.html
| title = SID Music
| website = Pauliehughes.com
|date=6 April 2008
}}
He eventually became Audio Technical Director,{{Cite web|url=http://www.sidmusic.org/sid/rhubbard.html|title=Interview with Rob Hubbard|website=Sidmusic.org|access-date=25 July 2020}} a more administrative job, deciding which technologies to use in games, and which to develop further.
After the Commodore 64 period, he wrote some soundtracks for games which appeared on the Amiga, Atari ST, IBM PC and Mega Drive.
Recent activities
Hubbard recently{{when|date=August 2018}} contributed a few re-arrangements of his themes to Chris Abbott's C64 tribute Back in Time Live. Hubbard has performed several times with the Danish C64 cover band PRESS PLAY ON TAPE{{Cite web|url=https://www.arcadeattack.co.uk/rob-hubbard-chris-abbott/|title=Rob Hubbard & Chris Abbott (Gremlin/EA) - Interview|date=26 October 2017|website=Arcadeattack.co.uk|access-date=25 July 2020}} 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 and fellow chiptune composer Mark Knight.
Hubbard left EA in 2002 and returned to England.{{Cite web|url=http://www.the-commodore-zone.com/articlelive/articles/19/8/Rob-Hubbard/Page8.html|title=Rob Hubbard|website=The-commodore-zone.com|access-date=25 July 2020}} He has recently resumed playing in a band, and he has revisited his past game-music work in concert. His recent compositions have included music for mobile-phone games.
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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.8-bit-symphony.com/rob-hubbard.html|title=Rob Hubbard|website=8-bit-symphony.com|access-date=25 July 2020}}
In 2014, Hubbard appeared in and composed music for the documentary feature film From Bedrooms to Billions, a film that tells the story of the British video games industry.
In November 2016, Hubbard received an honorary degree from Abertay University for his contributions to video-game music in the 1980s.{{cite web |url=http://www.abertay.ac.uk/discover/news/news-archive/2016/name,32256,en.html |title=Abertay announces honorary graduates |website=abertay.ac.uk |access-date=2016-11-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127093711/http://www.abertay.ac.uk/discover/news/news-archive/2016/name,32256,en.html |archive-date=27 November 2016}}
Works
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.c64audio.com C64Audio.com]
- {{musicbrainz artist|id=dff554f2-1da0-46d5-81ad-e6382e3ac444|name=Rob Hubbard}}
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Category:British male composers
Category:Chiptune and tracker musicians