Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

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`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 · ___________

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Handle:

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Group:

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

I think around -87 or -88 when people at school traded turbotapes : this seemed interesting! :)
With limited resources to say the least, I only did tapes. But even back then I was hooked on computer music : I could sit for
hours reading scroll texts while the music looped, and looped...and looped... (poor parents, having to listen to that kind
of music for hours on end! :)

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

Hmm, various Amigas
over the years.The last (and by far the worst!) setup was a souped-up a1200 with cgfx,network card,68060 with PPC,
even a sound card (which I never got to work,ehh!) and two monitors.This shite needed two or three reboots to start up.Naturally
I missed my old optimized system - the 040 with a broken fan that needed to be "kickstarted" with a pen :) That time of the year,
I had to pay back taxes and sold off the whole lot to a local scener (forgot his name).I had been away from the scene for a few years
by then - I wanted to start my own ftp with my collection available for everyone.Of course, Coma/3LE is already lightyears
ahead of me by then with his Modland ftp,ehh :) Adios, scene.

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

Here I must explain that I was never a musician : I collected mods. The few mods that I 'composed' were only the result of extreme
boredom.With no artistic gifts at all - what else is there except being a collector? :) Hint: An immense memory helps :)
For coding, I suppose I would've fared better than with graphics, but I quit that before I could figure out how to make scroll
routines on the c64. Meeting Mr.Z (Turbo 250) years later : over a few beers he tried to explain how but, alas, that ship had
already sailed :)

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

Protracker, various versions. Audiomaster (II?) when Elbie (we'll get back to him later) lent me his sampler.
For 99% of the time I used ripping tools like Pro-Wizard,ExoticRipper, MegaSoundCracker,Multi-Ripper,DLD,the XFD package...
HippoPlayer.

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

Closest thing I can think of is ripping the "Condom_Corruption" mod from the Spaceballs demo "State of the Art".
This was pre-Internet (for me) and with only 512KB ram in my amiga : the most state-of-the-art ripping tool I had back
then was Multi-Ripper 1.20. This has some support for older crunchers (some even better than XFDmaster.library)
but I ended up using its "scan sectors" option : here I had to scan and save sectors back and forth..and booom!, as
soon as there was a corrupt module being found,I could concentrate on the latter half of the disk.

If this sounds lame indeed, I don't blame you. But you have to remember that this is ... -95, I have -severely limited-
knowledge of AmigaDOS commands and quite shitty tools (ok, I had moved beyond Cli-Mate.. :) and for what little knowledge
I picked up in later years, it wouldn't have happened without my interest in mods.

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

Again, I can only offer something remotely similar : I'd rather descend into the sulphur pit whence I came, than
seeing some of "my" rips of mods where a lossy packer was used in the game/intro/demo (The Player,etc, where all
the original sampletexts are jettisoned) The less said,the better :)

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

It provides most, if not all, of the ambience.Without shitting on the thousands and thousands of talented graphics
people out there : there is just -one- graphic artist that could provide ambience without the music.I'm talking about
the insanely talented M i m e / R a z o r 1 9 1 1.Then, have a look at Quake 1 where the sound effects become
almost... music :)

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

Closest thing would be that I sometimes use Audacity for converting to and from various sound 4-mats. :)

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

I think that people shouldn't be afraid to embrace new technology, but, don't shit on what's regarded as old!

(At the moment, I'm listening to Klaus Schulze's "

Playmate in Paradise".. what a lovely tune!) To be quite honest,
what I've seen of "newer" c64 stuff on youtube fail to impress me in terms of "music".Technically impressive as hell, of
course, but, hey, a few seconds of sampled Dire Straits "Money for Nothing" were cool as hell once! :)

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

Oh.. forgetting tons... c64: Martin Galway's "Arkanoid" intro and game-complete music.. "Parallax" intro..
John Keding/XAKK "Odd Rabbits" tune, hehe :) Jeroen Tel's "Cybernoid" 1 & 2 intro music... Jonathan Dunn's
(casette) loader tune for "Operation Wolf"... Rob Hubbard's "Mix-a-Load" for "Delta"...

amiga: "A space journey at 23.4 impulse power" by Supernao/Spaceballs.. "Soul_Free" by Delorean/Complex..
"Spell-amelioration" by Uncle Tom/Razor 1911... "Wallstreet Fighter" by Walkman/Complex...
"Visions" by Mel o'Dee..

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

LOL. Again, the closest thing is I do tons of compack dvd's for friends : think "autistic" not "artistic" :)

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Depends on what kind of mood I'm in, but, one hand on the Bible (which promptly bursts into flames)
I'd say.. "old" Metallica..Hans Zimmer and John Williams..
Apoptygma Berzerk, of course. Kraftwerk...

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

A tremendous sense of "belonging" and determination...friendship.. it came at a horrible cost,though.
It all became an addiction which made me ignore too much of real life. Being severely introverted only
helped.Pissing away any possible job skills for the future : but without this I wouldn't be what, and where,
I am today.

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

No, I just pop in at ircnet #amigaexotic" from time to time.I'm in another scene these days - the restaurant
business.

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

Ah yes! I must state, once and for all, that me and Elbie's group t13n! (The 13th night!) existed well before
some people calling themselves "Terror 13" started uploading stuff to Aminet.Can't seem to find any of it now (sept. 2012)
though... "The thirteenth night" is taken from the movie "Willow" (1988), at the end, when Queen Bavmorda wants to
"Send the child into the thirteenth night!". Sounds like a nice and cozy place, eh? :)

Elbie's former handle was Fizban and he used to be in Goto10. The "Fizban" in AMP's database is not the same guy.

Greetings to the AMP staff for all their work.Luckily they're not alone : keep up the Sisyphean task
of music collecting.. Zeg,Buzz,Coma..et al.

Shoutouts to all friends in the scene, past and present.

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This interview was kindly sent to us by Guffaw over IRC in Sept 2012. thx!
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