Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

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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.

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Handle:

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Group:

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Date of birth:

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

It all started back in 1988, on the ATARI 800XL computer :)
Being greatly impressed by the games made by Zeppelin (with Adam
Gilmore's music), of which my absolute favourites were Zybex and
Draconus, I wished to create something similar... and later, together
with Vlad Komkov (who later became our coder known as "Juggler/LKR"),
we started ripping music blocks from those games, trying to understand
how they worked and how notes were encoded. Then I started to take
my first steps at music making, using the debugger made by Vlad
(the notes were programmed in hexadecimal format). Later we were
joined by our common friend Peter Sdobnov (Quark/LKR), a very talented
programmer. He alone (!) designed and created his own game on ATARI
800XL, and the whole process took him 2 (!) weeks (concept, coding,
GFX, Music/SFX, everything!) The game was given the name "Breaker",
and was in fact a really good game, but unfortunately, very few people
got to see it due to Peter's reluctance to give it away... (I still
hope it will be made available sometime in the future). Together with
Vlad, they made the debugger more suited for music-making.
In about two years, I assembled my own ZX-Spectrum with an AY-3-8912
sound chip, and went on with my music-making experiments.
When in 1992 (or so) a program called Sound Tracker was released
on the Speccy, I immediately got hooked on it. Now that I think
of it, the bulk of my music was written back then, in Sound Tracker.
A year later (in 1993) I bought myself an AMIGA 600 HD, and that's
when it all started for serious. I was so impressed with its
capabilities, that I hardly ever ran out of musical ideas.
That's how it all began...

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

a. A gruesome soviet computer called "Sura", based on the KP-8080 (or 86?)
processor (a soviet analog of the famous Intel series). It only worked
for one month, after which I broke it apart and used what was left (or,
more specifically, the casing) to build the next one:

b. ZX-Spectrum 48 (with the AY-3-8912 sound chip) of my own assemblage,
which got eventially burned to hell ;)

c. Another ZX-Spectrum 48 + AY-3-8910, an exact copy of the previous one :)

d. ATARI 130XE (that one had the looks, the best design I've ever seen).
I still sometimes turn it on to play Boulder Dash and Zybex :))

e. ZX-Spectrum 128K + Disk Drive + Yamaha YM-2149F (that one sounded
much softer than the AY, by the way) + Stereo Covox (also self-made).
I used this one mostly for making music with Sound Tracker.
Miraculously, it still works!

f. AMIGA 600 HD (20mb) :) Unfortunately, this one passed away after 1.5
years or so...

g. AMIGA 1200. (bought second-hand on the 7th of December, 1994, during
the infamous crisis of the Commodore company). I still use it today,
with the following additions: 1.76 HDD, Accelerator (processor):
Blizzard 1240+SCSI adapter (MC-68040/50MHz), 128 Mb FastRAM, 40GB
HardDrive, Melody 1200 (soundcard), CDR Teac, Modem.

h. iMAC G3/500 MHz/640Mb Mem/80GB HDD. Typing this text on it now :)

The last one was bought specially for sound and music work. Others
were used mainly for gaming, making tracker music, and other demoscene
activities.

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

I've always liked to tweak sounds.. and I've been a music fan since the
early childhood. At the age of 10 or so, I started to play with my piano,
trying to get some melodies out of it... one of the melodies was later
used in a song called "Sadness", which I made on the Ensoniq TS-12 synth
back in 1995. That is why music has always been my main interest, as
opposed to gfx or coding, of which I know very little :)

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

a. VVK's $ Quark's Turbosaver. :))))) This is the ATARI XL/XE debugger I
mentioned earlier.
b. The embedded ZX-Spectrum 128 debugger. :)
c. Sound Tracker (speccy)
d. Scream tracker (pc)
e. ProTracker (AMiGA RuLEZ!!!)
f. Noise Tracker. (AMiGA)
g. Fast Tracker/Impulse Tracker (pc)
h. MusicLine. (AMiGA) That one had a very interesting sound, too bad it
never gained the popularity it deserved... :(
i. Symphonie PRO. (AMiGA)
j. Sonic Aranger. (AMiGA)
k. OctaMED, OctaMEd Sound Studio. (AMiGA)
l. Soundprobe, SoundFX. (AMiGA)
m. DiGi Booster PRO (Super program, BIG thanx to the Polish dudes!!!)
Half of my album was made using this program!
n. THX (AHX) tracker. Good old 80s!
o. ProTools. (MAC)
p. Cubase. (Haven't got my way through it yet)
q. GoatTracker. :) (MAC-os-X)
...e.t.c.

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

Perhaps Mod.Flight of the Dream and DBM.Flowering Planet.

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

No, I only write what I like. It all comes from within my soul.
I have a lot of unfinished modules, however...

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

I think music is very important. I'd even say that without good music,
demo is not a demo, and game is not a game. In general, sound (and music)
is a very important aspect in arts perception, that's what I think.

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

I still write music, but it's more like a hobby. I work as a sound engineer
at the VGIK Film-studio in Moscow. That's where my hobby has led me :)

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

Those can be nice... but I don't like MP3. I prefer collecting high quality
records (uncompressed). As far as the demo scene is concerned, I think that
MP3 compos don't really fit in. MP3 music is in the league of its own, and
certainly deserves dedicated festivals... :)

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

Flight of the Dream (4-Channel Protracker Module)
Flowering Planet (32-Channel DiGi Booster PRO Module)
Mouldy Clouds (24-Channel DiGi Booster PRO Module)
Tof Loader Theme (4-Channel Protracker Module)
My Virtual Dreams (4-Channel Protracker Module)
Cosmic Reflection (4-Channel Protracker Module)
Deadly Motor (4-Channel Protracker Module)
Zonerange 3.2 (4-Channel Protracker Module)
Trance-X Vibes (4-Channel Protracker Module)
Dreaming Into The Rain (Real Music made with Ensoniq TS-12)
Insight (Real Music made with Ensoniq TS-12 (Matrix Soudtrack by me :)) )
Trip to Japan (Real Music made with Ensoniq TS-12)

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

Almost done :)) Coming soon.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Mostly electronic music of all kinds. My main interests are Trance
(PSY/EYE-Q/CLASSIC), DUB, Syntipop, clasical electronic music.
Favourite bands: Shpongle, Hallucinogen, Astral Projection, Infected Mushroom,
Stivie b-zet, Blue Planet Corporation, Human Blue, Jean Michel Jarre,
Klaus Schulze, Vangelis, Enia, Delerium, Enigma, Sven Vath, Biosphere, e.t.c.

In fact, I'm really open-minded.. I listen to all kinds of music,
including classical music (Vivaldi is my favourite, BTW).

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

It gave me everything! Without it, I wouldn't have been what I am now.
And I am glad it exists!

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

Semi-active, I'd say. :) Lacking inspiration right now.. personal problems,
spiritual crisis.. I hope it will pass soon. Still need to finish my album!
And, apart from that, I have plans to remix some of the old C=64/ATARI tunes.
I've already made one, for the "Defbeat" tune (originally written by
The Ruling Company).

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

Greetings to all Looker House members. Greetings to the computer musicians
all over the world! And especially respects to: Rob Hubbard, David Whittaker,
Adam Gilmore, Jonathan Dunn, Allister Brimble, Chris Huelsbeck, Reyn Ouwehand,
Maniacs Of Noise, Vibrants.

Big thanks to the creators of the Pokey, SID and Paula sound chips! Special
thanks to the creators of the great AMiGA computer! And to everyone who helps
to keep it alive! Thanks to all my friends, and to everyone who knows and
remembers me. Big thanks to YOU for the interview :) Bom!

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2003 by crown of cryptoburners
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