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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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?

Probably 1981 when the annual show came to town (like a carnival) and they were demonstrating
green screen computers. A two line program had you type in your name, and would answer back
hello with your name. I was pretty amazed. The following year a friend's parent bought him a
black and white System 80, and in that same year another friend's parents bought a Commodore
Vic-20. I was desperate for a Vic and in 1982, my parents came home with a Commodore 64. In
the small country town where I lived, computers were a very rare sight. That first night we set
it up and painted reverse character coloured bars on the television. Absolutely amazing stuff.

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

My first machine was the Commodore 64. I spent most of my time playing Tronic Cycle which was the
only game I had. Then I was given a book of type-ins and would spend hour upon hour typing in
basic program and found them to be sometimes worth the effort. This is basically how I began to
teach myself basic programming. Soon I moved to writing 6802 machine code with a monitor
cartridge and made a few simple smooth scrolling routines and sprite stuff. I got a summer job
the year after and used the money I earned and selling off my old machines to buy news ones. I
sold the C64 and bought the Commodore 128. Loved it but used it more on the C64 side. The C128D
came along and that looked really cool so I sold the C128 to buy that.

Then the Amiga showed up and all my loyalies dropped for that. I sold off the C128D and with my
savings bought the Amiga 500. I was about 16 then I think. Once I had the Amiga, I lost no time
in learning to write games using AMOS, play around with some music, and then some assembly
coding but I never got that far with that stuff. I upgraded to getting more RAM and a harddrive.
I didn't really stop using the Amiga until a year after the internet became popular and I finally
moved to the PC (486).

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

In my second last year of high school I got to do a week of work experience at Commodore in
Sydney. I had a blast and this was before I actually owned an Amiga. One program that I got to
play with was Instant Music by Electronic Arts. I was completely hooked because to me, the Amiga
sounded like a real band. I was totally hooked. I bought the Amiga and Instant Music and learned
to write some stuff. My coding went a little by the wayside because music was much more
instantaneous and satisfying.

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

In the old days it was Instant Music and then I was sent a disk with NoiseTracker on it and a few
ST-01 instrument disks. I used Noisetracker as my main tool for years despite all the flavours
coming out. Later on, on the PC I toyed a bit with MIDI and various soft synths but never
produced a great deal.

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

I don't think I ever did. I used to think each mod I did was great but when compared against the
mods from europe, mine were pretty pale in comparison. Although in saying that mod.techbliper_93
was quite different compared to everything else at the time and was kind of quirky.

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

Yeah I wrote a mod for an old ex-girlfriend. Sentimental emotion doesn't work with cheesy 8 bit
samples. Makes me cringe that I would write for that reason. Ok track though. See if you can
work out which one from the downloads

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

Music in a demo is what makes it. And the ones that kick along are all the better. Oldies that
come to mind are mod.technologicaldeath, the Desert Dream tracks, and the track from the Nine
Fingers Demo. For modern demos, strict quality trance is always a fave for me or any style
really, as long as it's cleverly done. For games, intelligent music systems like the one in Far
Cry are impressive for atmosphere.

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

No not really. Occasionally I fire up a soft synth or something but I haven't written a note for
three years. I have three synths to get rid of and have to face the fact that I'm not that much
of a composer. I had some good ideas but my production was poor. I play drums and hand percussion
more now.

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

GS-Midi really isn't that great to my ears though Koji Kondo used it to great effect in Zelda 64.
I think the guys who write on softsynths and equipment these days seem to produce the best quality
stuff whereas I feel that guys using trackers like fasttracker are stuck in a rut holding on the
sound from the old days. But not all of course, and maybe for the others that's the sound they
want to keep. I think when Purple Motion came around in the early PC tracking days, he set in
stone a particular sound that still exists today.

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

Beyond Music, Condom Corruption (shocking title), Technological Death, Vampire (banana demo),
Crystal Hammer, Hitmix 88b, Desert Dream Parts I & II, anything by Team Hoi, anything by Lizard
King (he was the king!)

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

Nah, my stuff really isn't good enough for that. I had some good ideas that had great potential
but they'd have to be reproduced and mixed by someone else to be worth anything.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Scooter, Midnight Oil, Eiffel 65, and a lot of unsigned stuff from mp3.de and the old mp3.com.

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

A childhood I guess, stacks of memories and a couple of lifelong friends. Also a good kickstart into
the commercial world as I'm now a full time programmer and web developer.

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

No, I just watch from the sideline from time to time maybe download the occasional demo but I don't
know the names of any groups.

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

Probably Kris from Phobia who used to be our coder, and has been a friend for many many years.
And a couple of guys I vaguely remember from Digital Access: Johnny Turbo (organiser), and Cool
Col J (composer). Lastly Mike, who never wrote for the scene but is still the best composer
around.

Anyone who remembers me from our former lives, feel free to drop me an email.

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2005 by crown of cryptoburners
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