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.

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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?

Well, that was way back in the late 80s I suppose... the Amiga came out
and a lot of advertisement was done way back in time, focusing my
attention on that great computer, till my parents finally bought one
for me later that year on xmas... It was quite a fun I had with the
machine, although I only played around quite a lot in the beginnings..
still, my interest for computers was there and was not about to
disappear for at least the next 10 years... ;))

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

hm.. my first computer was an Amiga 500.. with this machine I mainly
played games.. Then, I got my hands on an Amiga 2000 and soon my
scene activities started.. in fact, the majority of tunes of the early
90s I released, both in Hardline, Essence or whatever productions,
where mainly composed using this computer... but also this computer
crashed and so, some years later, I bought my fine A1200 which I still
use till today, for everything from wordprocessing for my university
stuff to composing via Protracker...
well, I could mention that I also bought an PC some day, but I very
soon lost my interest in it at that time and donated it (hehe, more
or less..) to my brother.. ;)

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

coding?

hm.. hard question.. In fact, I also tried to paint some GFX and even was
seen coding small tools nobody needs in Assembler... still, those things
did not end up to be as successful for me as I thought... I guess I simply
have some more talent, speaking about musical terms.. I also play guitar
in real life, tried to play a couple of other instruments in earlier years,
this experiences also really count, as one gets a feeling for melodies,
harmonies etc...

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

well.. I started up with Noisetracker and worked my way through all
possible and not-possible versions of the wellknown ProTracker.. here
I gotta mention, that I nowadays use either PT2.3a or (more often)
the MelonTracker to compose my modules... I hate the Hi-RES Screen
ProTracker (although Crown might kill me now as the one was done by
Cryptoburners if I remember right..;-)), the old one has always done
a great job for me...

other music programs I use: hm.. I once bought a german program entitled
"Sonic Arranger", but only did a couple of tunes with it..
"THX" is also stored on my HD, but till now I haven't had any time to
work myself into it any deeper.. so... hehe... Protracker definitely
has to be considered as THE program for me, speaking about Amiga music.
I know that many guys claim that PT is outdated and no more up-to-date..
in some way I even agree, still PT always had everything I needed and
wanted, so I am really 100% satisfied.. in fact, all Dascon tunes
around that have been used anywhere, nowhere, whereever, are entirely
done using ProTracker..

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

hm.. I suppose till now I haven't reached my goal... my goal is, to produce
THE ultimate song.. but this song is a song no one will ever be able to
compose.. there are some songs in which I realized my inspiration at very
high level - those songs do really satisfy me, still I do not thing I
reached my goal, yet.. among the songs I am really satisfied with are...
ROM-Theme (from ROM#1), The Whistler (from Essence- Meeting Intro 2),
Clockwise (with Prodigy/Oops! from X-Files #22), Spacewards (3rd place at
TP7 4ch competition).. plus some more.. ;))

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

hm.. there are tunes that are fastmade ones and lack quality.. for example
when I attended the Dooms Day party some years ago I had no module for the
music competition and wanted to create one in order to compete... the module
I came up with in a couple of hours is below my standard in my opinion,
it is synthpop of the oldest style and although some melody lines are pretty
catchy, I do not feel like thinking too much about this tune nowadays.. ;))

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

well.. music is a very important fact.. we know that from the cinema... when
you see a scene two times, one time accompanied by a "horror scenario"
soundtrack, the other time accompanied by a "easy listening" music score,
you will notice that the entire scene is presented in a 100% different
light by that.. the effect the music has is damn important !
The most important thing is, that music has to fit: in a mag, you need a
tune which is played in the background without getting annoying, but still
it has to be so cute that if the reader WANTS to pay attention to it he
GETS something to listen to.. speaking about demos it looks the other
way round: hit, hit, hit ! That could be the strategy of many musicians
if you take a close look at those scores.. Straight-in-your-face techno
beats together with fast timed demo effects - this definitely kicks ass
on each scene parties as everybody knows who once attended to one...
So.. the music is a really damn important part of a demo or a game, as
it adds alot to the atmosphere and the overall impression..

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

yes, I am.. more or less.. I rejoined the scene last december and from time
to time ppl can find me in front of ProTracker, producing something new...
of course I am doing it just for fun, I tried to work professional a bit
when I was unemployed, but now that I am on university again, I do not feel
like having any time left for game projects etc... but as long as I feel
like doing it and it is connected to some fun for me, I will definitely
continue my work for the Amiga demoscene...

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

hm.. not my cup of tea.. I know too less about anything of those formats in
special, so I won't come around with any conclusions.. ;)

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

Sure..
Tip+Mantronix: Overload, Joyride, almost all tunes those guys did..
Nuke (Spaceman): almost everything.. especially the "Legalise It" modules..
Tip+Firefox: the Enigma Song.

hm.. there are sooo many.. I cannot recollect all..

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

nope.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

hmmm... The Notwist, Korn, Deftones, Kyuss, SloBurn, Kinderzimmer Productions,
Fuenf Sterne Deluxe, Smog, Slut, CoalChamber and and and and and...

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

The Amiga scene did give me a lot of fun during my younger years.. I had loads
of fun, sitting in my room, reading early mags, composing tunes.. the scene
was a pool of many people with common interests who I got in contact (and in
some cases really friends) with.. Unfortunately this "idealistic" attitude,
producing demos just for the sake of producing demos, is hard to find anymore
nowadays... the scene got worse.. definitely.. still.. I will continue my
work for it as long as I have at least some fun doing so.. ;)

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

yeeeeez... ;)

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

Well.. greets to anyone I know, especially the guys knowing me via the IRC
channel #amigascne... special greets to...

Touchstone/Essence - Thomas, hope everything is working fine with university
Rahiem/Essence - hehe.. let's kick some asses again.. back on track 98 !
Mop/Essence - my dear Noel.. hope wheather in Malta is fine these
days.. ;)
Chromag/Essence - Timmchen.. "Sandpit" muss wieder ran.. hehe...
Darkhawk/Iris - hi there mate.. I just hope "Miracle" will come out again
Prodigy/Oops! - my dutch mate! Let's do some more coop's soon !
Jazz/Haujobb - Jazzie... come and visit me, cunt ! ;)
Cyclone/Abyss - ..always nice pixels from you.. SKALA !
Sunny/Nuance - haven't seen you on IRC for ages, my dear.. take care.
Raven/Nuance - all the best to you, my mate.. concerning EVERYTHING..
Bigrat/Nuance - hi there, matey.. keep X-Files up..

+ the tons of people I forgot here... sorry, sorry, sorry...

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2001 by crown of cryptoburners
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