Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

.

`n. .rP'

`qb ,dP'

TLb. ,dMP' all rite, now you get the chance to read

TML.dMMP some facts about some of the major amiga

,nmm`XXMPX musicians. read about their history in

,#MP'~~XNXYNXTb. the scene and their plans in future.yes,

,d~' dNNP `YNTb. that's meant to be read while listening to

,~ ,NN' `YNb their modules. read 'em over and over and over..

dNP `Yb.

,NN' `b. · i n t e r v i e w · ___________

______dP _____________ \ /

\ ,N'\____ _____________. _____ \ \_____. ____\ /

\___P___/ .\--\__ __/__ |--\____)---\ _____/__ |--\_ \ _/

| | | \ | | \__| | _ \ / | \__| | /\ |

| _| | | _l_ | | \ / _l_ | ___|

l___/=l___|====l____/===\______|==l______|\ /l___/===\______l____/

\/

•

Handle:

•

Group:

•

Date of birth:

1-How did your interest for computers start? Which year was that?

When I was young I was given a 16k ZX Spectrum, which is what got me into computers to start with, coding simple stuff in BASIC. Then around 1987/88 I got one of those shiny new Amiga 500's, which is what I consider as the start of my scene-journey. In the early 90's I opened my /x BBS called "Havok", which ran until around '97. Before anyone asks, no, I'm nothing to do with the physics engine company and yes, I had the name first ;)

2-What machines did you previously have? What did you do with them?

Too many to mention :). I've had various Spectrums, Acorns and similar but I've always been an amiga scener at heart. I never owned a C64 which is a little unusual for an amiga scener. I made up for that with amigas though - over the years I've had 4 x A500, 2 x A500+, 4 x A1200 and stacks of addon hardware. I still have 3 A1200's in storage :)

3-For what specific reason did you end up making music rather than gfx, coding?

Technically I didn't! Over the years I've done pretty much everything except gfx - been a sysop, coder, ascii artist and other stuff. Tracking was a "fun thing" for me - I enjoyed doing it but I never set out to become a musician or tracker for a group. I found sampling and tracking was a nice change from running the BBS and coding. One of my favourite things was to remix other peoples tunes, especially big demotunes.

4-Which composing programs have you been using? Which one in particular?

I always used Protracker. Octamed just wasn't cool ;)

5-With which module did you feel you had reached your goal?

I've got a few modules I'm pleased with, but I never really reached anything that could be described as a goal. As I mentioned before I never set out to become a tracker for a group, so if the modules pleased me then that was a goal in itself.

6-Is there a tune you would like not to remember? For what reason?

There's a few I'd rather forget, but if I listed them here then I'd just be reminding everyone about them ;)

7-In your opinion, what's the value of a music in a demo, game?

Immeasurable. It's easy to demonstrate the importance of music. Watch a horror film on mute, and play "light" music at the same time. The impact of the movie is reduced, and it's the same with demos and games. Music helps set the scene, provides clues to the dramatization of each visual and builds suspense. Any film student can tell you how important music is. The trick is to make the music appropriate and synchronized. That's the difficult skill. Saying "dark scenes must have dark music" is only half the equasion. I'm sure everyone has seen productions and movies where the music offsets the action (nursery rhymes while people are getting shot, for example). As games and demos get closer to movies the importance of music will continue to increase. That's why proper direction (as in, a director) for the product is essential.

8-At present, are you still composing? For professional or leisure purposes?

I haven't touched a tracker in 5+ years. Some might say that's a good thing...

9-What do you think of today's pieces of music such as mpeg,wave,midi,etc...?

The question lists formats rather than pieces of music. There's 2 ways to look at this - technologically and artistically. Today's demos have 2 major technical-quality advantages. First, MP3 and similar formats allow musicians to create pieces in a less restricted environment. Anyone who did 4 channel tracking 10 years ago will tell you all about the tricks used - doubling up samples to get more into a mod, using tracker commands to control playback, resampling tracks to emulate more than 4 channels. These are all limitations that todays composers don't even think about. Second, size is no longer a problem. Nobody thinks twice about a 5mb MP3 but 10 years ago this would be much larger than entire demos. Downloading at 4k per second on a modem and with 2mb chipram, size was a serious consideration. The funny thing is, a lot of people assume MP3's were the first way people could get music onto a computer. Just check the Aminet mod/voice dir and you'll find stacks of commercial music converted to a module. I did a few myself :)

Back on topic, that's the technical side. Artistically I think there's no difference. We're talking about the same difference between 64k and full demos - there's a technical limitation difference but it doesn't change the artistic "value" of the creation. The problem is not the composer's, it's the listeners (or the party compo judges). If they can't understand the artistic value and differences between 2 productions and judge them on their artistic merits then it's just a technical question of who has the better equipment, and anyone who judges on that basis has no right to judge at all.

10-Could you tell us some of your all times favourite tunes?

Here's just a small selection. I love both Elwood's and Willbe's works. Willbe & sear's "back, back, back" is one of my real favourites, but both of those guys are so good it's easy to forget it's not commerical. Elwood's "I Can Seek", "Memorize" and "On the Run" are IMO some of the best.

On the mod side of things, a lot of the original Mono releases (the original 1990 mods, I mean) are great. I just had a look at the Monotonik site and it seems like a lot of them aren't available anymore. H0l did some great music outside of Mono too. Most of my other favourite mods are attached to demos - whilst I wouldn't say that Laxity's Desert Dream mods were incredible on their own, listening to them while watching Desert Dream really elevated them from good to excellent.

11-Are you planning to make an audio cd with some of your music remastered?

Well if Britney Spears can do it and make money.... No. :)

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

I'm not a one-group kinda guy. R'n'B, Jazz etc is my thing. The next few songs on my playlist are Mary J Blige - We Belong Together, Twista & Kayne West - Slow Jamz, 2Pac - Life Goes On, The Game - Put You On The Game, Young Jeezy - Then What, Kano - Nite Nite, Usher & Ludacris - Lovers and Friends.

13-What does/did the amiga/c64 scene give you?

A lot of friends and some great experiences. The scene started a lot of things for me, business and personal. It's hard to describe exactly what the scene has given you, but I guess some of the old guys will know what I mean when I say it's that feeling you get when you run into a guy on a forum/irc you last saw 10 years ago on some BBS.

14-Are you still active in the scene these days?

No. I'm probably best known for the Havok Free Scene Radio station, which was the last real scene-related thing I did (about 4 years ago now). I'm still around but inactive, just like everyone else :)

15-Anyone to greet? Anything left to say? Feel free...

Just a "hey" to everyone I know, the days of 15 line greetz and a list of boards to call is long gone I think... A final thought for you:

One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2006 by crown of cryptoburners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quick Search

Random link

Database Stats

Interview