Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

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`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?

When I was 11, the 6th grade went to the next bigger town to find out what
"high school" would be like. One of the high school teachers had a big room
filled with home computers. I was stunned by Apple II, ZX-81, Acorn Atom etc.
Pretty soon I'd convinced that teacher (who is still a good friend) to lend me
his Acorn Atom. I spent all free time in a dark alcove with its screen brightness
on max. My fate was sealed. This was 1982.

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

I had a bunch. First one was Acorn Atom, but a few weeks later I sold my gigantic
tub of Lego and bought a TI-99/4A. It sucked. The first CPU I programmed in hexcode
was the Z80. (Microbee, Spectrum, MSX, ...) On the MSX I made my first demo. A brief
while I had a C-64, but immediately after that Amiga 500/ Atari 520 ST came. I actually
bought an Atari, but right after I met someone that had an Amiga. Luckily, the store
accepted my returning it.

What I did on them? Too much to list :) Coding and playing games. But when I got the
Amiga everything changed. DPaint was so lovely, it *made* me wanna draw! And of course
Sound/Noise/Protracker. The only contact I'd had with music before that was the usual
flute/piano lessons in school.

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

I did my first music (some crappy blues song) 2 weeks after I saw my first Amiga. I biked
to my mate directly after school every day and his mother gave us pizza, which was a novelty
here then. I had learned Seka and had made B.R.A.I.N.S's first demo (using gfxlib to draw
graphics cos I had no idea there was an IFF converter :P), so we needed a song.

I loved making music when I got an idea. Uncle Tom was my sugardaddy for cool instrument
disks from Italy and everywhere.

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

All of the trackers, none of the chip music editors, even though I love the stuff Brian
Postma coded (and are coding!). From Soundtracker 1.0 from Germany with love :) to NoiseTracker
(well coded and useful effects) to Protracker 2.3d and 3.11. All my modules should play in 3.11,
barring some vibrato/slide/pattern restart codes.

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

No idea. I guess mod.photon storm, since I entered it in the music compo at some copyparty.
I came 4-6th place or something and won a 10-pack of disks, so I was happy. There were three
titans stealing the podium - 1. Uncle Tom (mod.poseidon or mod.spell-amelioration) 2. Firefox
(mod.macrocosm?) 3. (IIRC) mod.desert something, can't remember his handle. I thought that guy
should have won over my friends, cos it was awesome.

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

My first tracker song. It really sucked. :)

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

The reason the demo scene turned me on was that NOTHING can beat sonics synced to graphics
that are "alive". Overdoing it can have the opposite effect. Take the CeBit '90 demo by Red
Sector. Graphics really aren't good, but when you reach a certain point in the music the ugly
text writer looks great, because both together makes you expect something great, and then the
cool 3D comes on-screen and you're rewarded! People used to modern graphics would not see it now,
I think. Arte by Sanity is another example. Extreme syncing, but works for me.

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

I'm doing music for a Web game, but apart from that it's for leisure purposes. It has always
been about getting an idea and experimenting. Sometimes you reach it, sometimes not. I love
Reason, haven't tried Logic cos I don't have a Mac.

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

MP3? I have no MP3! (hehe) Well, .wav is full quality, everything else is not. To encode I use the
glorious RazorLAME with VBR. .mid has always, and will always suck as long as the intended
instruments aren't included.

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

(Looks in the Uncle Tom folder) :) Seriously, pretty much every module by Uncle Tom, Walkman,
Firefox, Fred, Audiomonster, Chris Huelsbeck, Tim Follin... the big names are big for a reason.
Don't underestimate Mahoney either, there some absolute gems to be found. On C-64, Hubbard, Galway,
the usual... my scene fave is Jeff by far. On arcade, all music for Atari System One games, partly
because of the sweet sound chip. (Marble Madness <3 !)

GRG in cyberspace by Glenn Gallefoss and mod.galaxy are semi-recent discoveries. Human_Race.sid by
Hubbard is absolutely fabulous fave on C-64.

But my choice for Amiga is actually two tunes. The two custom tunes used in the famous crack intros
by Paranoimia and Vision Factory. They apparently have no official names, but the author is TSM.
They are inseperable, because they are equally finely crafted in their awesome simplicity.

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

Audio CD? They used that in the 90s, right? :P I'm a dwarf next to the scene titans, so their work
is more deserving of a remix, if I would do one. I'm more into perfecting the soundscape, i.e. mix
distinctness, building the mood with the right instruments, assrape mastering, that kind of stuff.
If I get a request and have time, sure. Is there a mod to .mid converter, to bring the notes into
Reason? (Haven't looked.)

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

A recent re-discovery was Alan Parsons Project. Lyrics are a bit naff, but who cares when the studio
work is so awesome? Every album has MANY awesome songs on it. Socalled - Ghettoblaster was fresh
(and weird). I also look out for old songs that still 'have it'. Keith Jarrett, Bach, Jarre, James
Horner inspire when I code.

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

The feeling of being a part of an awesome phenomenon, and, disregarding trashing others (which is
unproductive and still prevails in the scene), being part of a cutting edge intellectual exchange.
The feeling of making something that NOBODY could deny was great, even if they hated your guts!

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

When I have the opportunity, I finish some nearly-finished demos/games I have lying on my A500 harddisk.
Last was Scoopex-Xmasdemo, a 29000-color 3D scroller routine that had been untouched for decades. :) You'll
find me on the usual irc channels and forums. I'm also 'becoming' active in the GP2x scene. I intend to show
the GP2x yoofs (c) Archer MacLean what that underestimated machine can do in asm.

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

Special greetings to those that stayed in touch even after moving... Uncle Tom, Rave, Rioter,
Mahoney, Judas ...

Super greetings to current and former members of Scoopex, especially Stingray, Shark The Master,
Vectrex, Mermaid (!). OK then, I'll greet tmb too ;)

All the great guys on abime.net: Jope, Belgarath, Bippy, Duke, and the unforgettable Toni Wilen :)
All the great guys on gp32x.com, #gp2x, #gp2xdev: Critical, Notaz, Gnostic, and of course DJWillis.
Mr. Nice guy Jeff :)
Brian Postma

Message: Keep it Kodos ;)

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2008 by crown of cryptoburners

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