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?

I first became interested in computers probably when i was 14, around the
spectrum/c64 days. the first games i saw were stuff like manic miner, jet
set willy, commando, etc, and i was amazed!

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

i had a spectrum first for a couple of years and then eventually a c64.
then next was an amiga where i got into the scene. on the spectrum i just
played games, and pretty much the same on the c64, but i loved the music of
the c64 and some tunes would really stick in my mind for a long time.. on
the amiga is when i got creative and started first getting into gfx. after a
while i turned to music. i wanted to make tunes like i heard on the c64 and
this is all i ever did. there were other musicians making music with 'real'
instruments, but they would moan at each other for stealing/ripping samples
and anyway i didn't have a sampler of my own when i had an amiga, so i would
just make chip tunes. i wanted to do stuff like the old c64 musicians made,
like rob hubbard and martin galway.

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

well, i started with graphics and really enjoyed making logo's ! but, i
didn't really have it in me, and although i was learning, i guess i just
lost interest and was not progressing as much as i wanted to.

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

in the amiga days i used protracker like everyone else. i tried the real
chip trackers like future composer and sonic arranger, but they were fiddly
and tiresome to learn and i didn't have the patience. just when i lost
interest in music and the amiga scene, the amiga group called Abyss released
the excellent THX music tracker! i was gutted that it was released when it
was.. if only it was made a few years before.. :-(

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

i didn't really make many modules, and the groups i were in were pretty
inactive which was just bad luck i guess.. england UK always had a problem
with coders.. there were hardly any around, which sucked. i knew a few
people like dreamfish, hollywood/mono211, bassline (where are you?) and we
would just swap our modules between each other and give each other feedback.
those were great days!

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

everyone has work that they don't like or whatever, when you begin
something like tracking, gfx or coding you have to learn the hard way and
you will often make bad music/bad gfx/lame routines .. but the struggle to
improve your work is half the fun! but also, it can be depressing when what
you make is no good, and some people don't like that and just give up.

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

i think music (and sound in general) is easily as important as anything else
in a demo or game. there are hundreds of examples i could give, but anyone
with any sense will know that music adds to the feel of a demo or game.

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

i have a pc now and i have a soundblaster live card, and also a soundblaster
16 card with a yamaha db50xg daughterboard attached to it, all in the same
pc. but to be honest i have lost interest in making music these days.. i
get really fustrated and annoyed when you sit for hours but cannot get
something to sound good!
lately i am coding in C, and i have been learning how to make games.
eventually i hope to remake the classic c64 game called paradroid for the
pc!

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

for a couple of years i worked hard to learn all about midi and got a midi
keyboard etc and learned how to use proper midi software like cubase. after
a couple of years i finally decided that midi is basically a load of crap!!
all the the ins and outs and the midi software packages take ages to master
properly, and with me it was always the case of wanting to do something and
then looking around for hours just to find how to do it like bend a note or
something.. with protracker it was easy to get a lot of nice effects all in
one screen, and i miss these old days of tracking. i have heard some
amazing stuff what people have made with tracker software lately, and am
beginning to wonder if midi is really worth bothering about. if you have the
time and patience though, go for it, but for someone like me who wants to
write something quickly and easily, midi is all wrong.

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

i have 2 all time favourite tunes. the first is a tune which you can hear
at the end of an old fairlight demo called 'fullmoon'. this tune is
originally a hippel tune from an old amiga game which was called something
like prehistoric tale/isle or something but was remade very well with 'real'
instruments by the musician called Jogier. my other all time favourite is a
tune composed by romeo knight called 'beat to a pulp' using the amiga sidmon
tracker. There are so many classic tunes i remember, so it would be much
easier to list the musicians which really inspired me through the years.
these are: rob hubbard, martin galway, maniacs of noise, chris hulsbeck,

4-mat, romeo knight, wotw, etc. i think my overall favourite chip tracker

of all time on the amiga though was subject/balance, who wrote some really
simple but very catch tunes. god knows what he is doing these days.

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

i just made some chip tunes ;O)

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

my music tastes change all the time, but at the moment i quite like dark
drum and bass stuff. i like other stuff though, stuff like aphex twin,
ozric tentacles and techno tunes, but also guitar stuff .. "if it stirs
emotions i like it"

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

well some of the best days of my life for sure. i am originally from a dull
town in the UK where there is nothing to do, and when i was younger a lot of
my friends and people my age would just sit around outside and do nothing,
or, sit in a garage and take drugs or whatever.. i got into skateboarding
for some years but i never got very good at it and became annoyed and
fustrated. i wanted to do creative stuff so i guess that's how i got into
the amiga scene. i always liked video games ever since going to arcades
when i was young, and so i would play amiga games and swap disks with people
through the mail. these people kind of got me interested in the amiga scene
which was growing and growing. it was always good to go downstairs in the
morning and find a jiffy bag with 10 disks of the latest demos and games
sitting there! before this i would get demo's from public domain companies
and watch them, but that sucked because you had to pay for the disks. of
course, that's all over now due to the internet where you can get
EVERYTHING!

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

if anyone ever wanted a tune i would make one for sure, but i am not in a
group or on the 'scene'. i am enjoying learning to program at the moment and
have figured out some old demo effects and sprite routines. if i can now
learn scrolling and tile map / artificial intelligence stuff, i will start
on this remake of paradroid for the pc.

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

well, hello to all my old freinds if you are out there, like dreamfish,
hollywood, bassline, dark, aquafresh, pink, michael, ninja/angels,
ice/anarchy, and all the old sceners out there who remember the old days.
it's cool that the scene still lives on, although i have no idea if it's as
fun as it used to be..

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

Quick Search

Random link

Database Stats

Interview