Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

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,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..

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Date of birth:

1-How did your interest for computers start? Which year was that?

I first got interested in computers back in 1982 when a friend showed me their ZX81 and subsequent ZX48. Not long after this I was given a Commodore 64 by my parents just after their launch in 1982. Initially I was disappointed as I had wanted a Spectrum as well, but I soon came to realise how much better the C64 was particularly in regards to both its graphical and musical ability.

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

C64, C128, A500, A1200, A4000, PC. I still have all of them, and still make use of the A4000 mostly now for my email and IRC.

The C64 was originally bought as an educational machine, but this idea didn't last for very long and it was soon turned into a gaming machine, with the odd bit of basic programming. I dabbled with some basic assembly around 1986, but it wasn't one of my strong points so I left it alone.

The Amigas were first purchased as games machines, but I soon found the PD Scene and started to collect many of the demos and music collections popping up all over the place.

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

Not long before I was bought my first Amiga, I had dabbled with Advanced Art Studio on the C64. While the images were not as great as the talented artists of the day, it wasn't a complete disaster, with the final result somewhat resembling the game box artwork I had tried to remake. Once I had the Amiga, I attempted to get along with Deluxe Paint 2 and later DPaint 4. While I could draw something that was recognisable, the results were average, and nowhere near the level of artwork I had seen from many sceners.

I had also had a bash at coding, but my skills were limited and my knowledge of C and Assembly very limited.

I had however, always had an ear for music having learnt to play both the violin at 8 and drums at 13. Having listened to game tunes for many years - starting with the classic musicians on the C64 and then the wonderful compositions used on the Amiga, I sat one day listening to some music tracks set in a demoscene intro, and figured I could improve on the tune by tweaking it. Having recently acquired one of the plethora of trackers available at the time, I set about trying to grab the samples from memory and recomposing the tune.

The final result was never released, but I enjoyed creating it, and it set me on the path of a love for creating tunes on the Amiga. While a majority of the tunes I created were never released, I did place some of my early remakes of C64 tracks onto Aminet and some usenet groups. Eventually, in 1994, I met up with both Mike/Anathema and the guys coding Blitzbombers (at the time an Amiga Format competition entry). I was asked to create just one or two tunes initially for the game, which was not at that time being considered as anything other than a competition entry. The graphics were simplistic, but the phenomenal gameplay element was all there. The tune I created was just for the introduction, but ended up never being used once the game gained a facelift thanks to a new graphics artist.

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

Most of the compositions I made on the Amiga were created using Protracker. While I started out with NoiseTracker and Soundtracker (2.4) and MED, it was the Protracker Series that I loved using the most. I especially liked the 3.15 - 3.6x interface which was clear and simple to get to grips with. Eventually a need for more channels lead me to start playing around with Digibooster Pro 2.2 and Octamed SoundStudio. Most of my last tunes were all created first in OSS, and then re-edited in PT3.62 to make sure they worked properly on the replayers that were being used. Some unfinished remakes (Apidya End Theme for example) I had converted into XM format from OSS so that they could be both played and edited under FastTracker 2 or my PC tracker of choice SkaleTracker.

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

That is a good question. I have created so many tunes that were never released, or that I just never got around to finishing. One of the tunes I was most proud of just has the working name (Test3), created in about 1997/8, which having showed to Mike, he just had to go and tweak - all for the better. Of the recent SID remakes that we have both collaborated on, my favourite still has to be the Cobra Theme tune, simply because it was a great tune, and was probably one of the more difficult tunes to get the timings perfect on.

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

Well there was always the entertainer tune I did, which was one of the first I released. While technically it is a fairly close resemblence of the tune, the instruments are..well... less than great.

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

Without the aural component of any production, there always feels like something is missing. You could have the most competent piece of coding going with awesome graphics, yet without that background track it somehow feels flat and plain. The music aids to set the mood and tone throughout the production, and is typically the one thing universally that people remember about them. Conversely, a bad piece of music that doesn't fit in with what is going on also destroys a production.

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

I have tracked a few modules over the past few years, but these are all for pleasure for a production Mike and the Anathema crew have been toying with since 1996 - Chip Attack 2. Work committments have meant that I now spend much less time on my Amiga/PC than I used to, and do not have the frame of mind to sit down and compose anything worthwhile.

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

There is a wealth of talent out there composing tunes with a wide range of programs and utilities. Whilst most MIDI tracks never sound as good on your rig as that which it was created on, there are some wonderful tunes be they MIDI or tracked that have been digitally mastered and saved as MP3 and OGG form.

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

From the C64 practically anything by Matt Gray and Rob Hubbard (anyone for Last Ninja 2, Crazy Comets and Sanxion).

On the Amiga we have classic tunes such as Space Delirium (Bjorn Lynne), Phenomena's Enigma, Romeo Knight's Cream of the Earth, Chris Huelsbeck's Turrican series of tunes, Captain's Beyond Music. There are so many great pieces of music out there, it is hard to single some out whilst exluding others.

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

I wouldn't mind trying at some point, but I have no firm plans to do that yet.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

I haven't listened to much at all in the past couple of years, but what tracks I have are mostly either remixes from Slay Radio, or Bjorn Lynnes CDs.

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

The Amiga scene gave me a passion to go out and create something, and have a great amount of fun in the process. It was always great to see what the scene could produce next, especially when they were pushing back the boundaries and doing things people said could never be done.

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

No. I just do not have the time to follow much of the remaining scene these days. I try to keep up when I can thanks to sites like http://ada.untergrund.net/ run by z5.

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

Greetings go out to my partner who had to put up with my spending hours perfecting a pattern in whichever tracker I had running at the time, Mike and Simon/Anathema, the two Steve's of Leading Edge Software, and anybody else that I've met over the years.

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2006 by crown of cryptoburners
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