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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| _| | | _l_ | | \ / _l_ | ___|

l___/=l___|====l____/===\______|==l______|\ /l___/===\______l____/

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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?

Having grown up in in East-Berlin, in 1985 my dad started to bring
west-german computer flyers home. I scanned them thoroughly - it had me.

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

In 1986 I was proud to get a C64 + Datasette. For a solid year I played
hundreds of games.

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

I got a group of class mates and other freaks together and founded the
'Highlight Crew'. I wrote intros, recracked releases, made trainers, made
demo and music collections. Everybody in the group specialized in something -
trading, cracking, grafix, laming, I did the music - I felt I was destined
for it.

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

C64: SoundMon.

Amiga: Octalyzer, Sound-/Noise-/Star-/ProTracker, OctaMed.

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

'Pitty in Concert' from the LemTro ('91) probably got to be the most famous.
A mix of styles influenced by various artists (Romeo Knight, Jesper Kyd,
Audiomonster etc.). It perfectly resembles the Amiga music style from the era
'90-'92.

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

In some intro chip tunes I hacked so much with the music commands that they
never played back 100% correctly. Programmers wouldn't notice and just think
of it as bad music, releasing intros before I heared them, that was really
embarrassing.

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

There used to be boundaries for home computer music (sample rate, channels,
memory etc), and often a good music was one that perfectly adapted to those
boundaries and still sounded good. Music used to be a 33% feature - equally
important to coding and grafix. In the recent years it has lost this
importance. Who really cares about the music in a game nowadays? Mostly you
switch it off.

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

Not actually composing music, but I hope to pick it up again sometime.
In 1999 I implemented a stunning 3D sound engine for an industrial Virtual
Reality application (features include head tracking, moving sound sources,
and much more). Currently I'm working on a 3D sound authorware for 5+1
systems (including DVDAudio).

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

Well I love my MP3 player and the world of P2P sharing. You can now really
choose your individual style. Music technology never stops and will go much
beyond stereo or 5+1. We will have real 3D sound sometime.

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

C64 - Martin Galway - Wizball
C64 - Rob Hubbard - Lightforce
C64 - Jeroen Tel - Cybernoid II
Amiga - Jesper Kyd - Hardwired
Amiga - Diablo - Budbrain Megademo Endtheme
Amiga - Phenomena - Joyride
...

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

Already spread a few - if you want one, please email me!

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

British Hardcore Jungle mostly (Dj Hype, Grooverider, Alex Reece)
Electro Pop (Orbital, Chemical Brothers, Electric Kingdom)

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

I realise now that it was an absolutely unique time that can't be restored.
I'm glad I lived it in the right age. None of our kids is ever going to listen
to those unique 8-Bit sounds, or are they? Coming from East Germany, one of
the most amazing things I found was that teenagers got together across
Europe's bordes without any support from government or industry, challenging
each other, doing fantastic things driven by pure enthusiasm.

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

Not really.
I have a lot of contacts and friends from this time. I stopped going to scene
parties because I guess I'm growing out of age and it seems today's kids just
became porn download masters (please proove me wrong).

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

I loved that 3D Cryptoburners Amiga demo (u know, the one for red/green
glasses), I watched it many nights (best contrast!), the music was pure magic.

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