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..

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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?

I think I was about 10 years old when we got our first Computer, a C64. We
had to share it among 5 people (my father, brothers, sister).

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

At first I began enthusiasticly playing games like "jumpman" on our C64 and
some other games. But after a few weeks it became boring just to play games.
So I started to code. I first began in C64 basic, but then I saw that ASM was
the only real coding language.

Some years later I had served enough money to buy my first own computer, an
Amiga 500. I made most of my old modules on the Amiga500, using a few sample
disks cointaining samples that had been shamelessly stolen from other modules
I am sorry for this, but I had to serve money for years just to be able to
buy the Amiga and was therefore unable to buy some synthesizer. When I got my
Amiga I came also into contact with scienide, more exactly with blork and
ply2 (scienide was not yet founded this time). I have never made music on C64
and later on Amiga I have never really coded, because we had ply2. Since I
got Protracker from Ply2, my first interest was making modules.

Later I bought an Amiga1200 and was the first time able to store samples on
hard disc - a sensational feeling. On the Amiga1200 I continued making music.
Some more years later, when I lost my hope that Amiga Technologies will be
saved, I was quite dissapointed and bought my first PC. The begin of a long
and unfortune idle period, except from some small modules made with Fasttracker.
I also the mp3-file "lightyears away" in this time period together with klystron
of scienide. But in the following time I had no time left to make music,
because I began my study in mathematics. During this time, my equipment problems
(i.e. no money to buy some) gone and the time problem came. During the study I
learned Java (and coded the scienide applet) and startet coding C++, because I
liked it and I needed it for my master thesis. During the whole study I was
interested mainly in completing the study quickly, so I never found the time to
continue making music. Fortunately I have now finished it and startet a Ph.D.,
and I have decided to take the neccesary time for making music from now on.

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

During study I had no choice. I needed Java and C++ for the study and
failed to make music, because of lack of "time and space" - the time to buy,
install and use equipment, and the neccesary space for the equipment. Since I
began coding in C++, and because I wrote my master thesis in the field
of computer graphics, I returned to coding, and so I will be coder and
musician for scienide in equal parts.

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

Protracker and Fasttracker were the most important programs. I also have
composed a track with impulse tracker 2.14 (i am not sure about the number).
The co-productions with klystron I made with octamed soundstudio.
But i am still waiting for a real successor of Fasttracker...the same kind
of editing, but extended with up-to-date capabilies. I hope meantime some
such program has come...i did not have updated my knowledge about
new programs the last months.

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

I hope this module will come. I like the compositions of some of my
modules. This is no miracle, because I composed them in a way, so that I
liked it :-) But I think ALL modules suffer from poor sounds. I have never
achieved to create a module that corresponds to my imagination about how
it should sound like. But I will continue trying it, and I hope there will
be a better chance because of more equipment and a greater sample collection.
But on the other hand if I will use more equipment, I must be careful to
prevent my sound from becoming mash-like and soft like the most tracks
that are made using studio equipment instead of a clean tracker. I aim
to compose music with fat sounds not being possible with old trackers,
but in the same style and with the same detail work.

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

My memory is quite bad, so i am happy about all I can remember :-)

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

I think a demo with a boring sound is a boring demo, a demo without
sound is no demo at all. With games my opinion is similar. That is
the reason why I am nearly completely uninterested in current PC games.
I like the 3d graphics, but without suitable sound, I only take a
short look at a game, say "oh, nice gfx", and forget it. The
last game with a (in my opinion) absolutely convincing soundtrack
was "Outcast".

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

I never made music for professional purposes. If I would take
the risk of living from making music, there were a high probability that
I would often be forced to make music that I do not like. For leisure purposes
I can always make the kind of music that I want to do, and therefore I need not
to fear to lose my fun on making music. On the other hand, if I ever have a chance
and the time to make an athmospheric game soundtack (optimally in a cinema-like
style) I would do it.

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

If think midi is - perhaps except from usage for a just-for-fun piano track - a completely
useless format. No real music can be composed without a carefully chosen
own instrument set. If one exchanges the samples of a good module by
an arbitrary set of "similar" sounds, the result will sound like bullshit or,
in other words, like a general-midi file.

Theoretically mpeg and wave offer clearly unlimited possibilites. But on the
other hand, most mpeg/wave files suffer from the definitely limited
detail-love of its composers. I think the more technical possibilies
exists, the more difficult is it to spend the neccesary time on editing
each singular tone of a track. And therefore many composers seem to
compose just by recording tone sequences with some nice synthesizer sounds
and say "Hey..thats it". I think that is the reason why there are so
few mp3/wave files worth to be compared with an amiga module or a C64 tune.

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

C64: the last ninja, most of the tracks of rob hubbard, maniacs of noise,
chris huelsbeck
Amiga-Gamesounds: Turrican I-III, "Exodus 3010" (a really nice game that
unfortunately always crashed) ,Pinball Fantasies, Pinball Illusions,
Beast I-III
Amiga-Demos: Dove-Demo, Stellar Mindflow, Interference...
PC-Demos: Second Reality, .theproduct, 3dmark 2000
PC-Games: Extreme assault, Outcast
puhhh...this was really a lot and is although only a fraction.

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

Not for the next time. There are enogh new musix to compose.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

In general I do not like bands, because all kind of "officially accepted
party music" suffers from far too many repetitions. But I like for example the
synthesizer arrangement and synthesizer of bombfunk mc.

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

95% of all musix that i like to hear. I think C64 and amiga have a style that
can never be replaced by the PC scene.
Since august I startet an appartement-sharing community together with klystron,
and we bought an extra sofa and a suited coffeetable to make two amigas
permanently accessible.

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

I am active again, after a long and unlucky idle period. This time I am coding
for Scienide and have startet to install a small sound studio with klystron
to start composing again.

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

I would like to send greetings to my girl friend Karin. And I think if she
reads this interview, she will see at least 100 mistakes in my english
language :-(
Furthermore I send greetings to all sceners and to all people that are interested
in my music.

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2002 by crown of cryptoburners
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