Amiga Music Preservation -

Interview

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`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.

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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?

Sometime in primary school, about 1982. We got hold of a BBC Micro and
I got fascinated by it.

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

In 1983 I persuaded my parents to buy me a Spectrum 48K, which set me up
for quite a few years. I got into BASIC progamming and, inspired by the
way the music for Manic Miner was done I wrote my own little seqencer
using arpeggios. Later, after I got my first MIDI synth I also got a
Cheetah MIDI interface.

When I was in the sixth form, I met a guy called Fender from THR. He
showed me what the Amiga was capable of when he took me through his demo
collection. This was about the time of the first ECS Amigas and Scoopex's
"Mental Hangover". With the money from my Saturday job I bought an Amiga
and a sampler, Fender gave me SoundTracker and I started composing. I
did some art in DPaint too, but it was mostly music.

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

Music was what I was into before I even knew computers existed. I used to
write tunes by playing and taping one track, and playing it back whilst
playing another track and recording both. About ten tracks per tune, so the
first track I recorded would be a little faint as it had been re-recorded
ten times!

It was what I considered myself best at, and something I've always liked
doing. I was determined to get on the scene, and music was (at the time)
the best way.

I did do GFX and coding, but before scanners became affordable I was terrible
at drawing with a mouse, although I could do fonts and logos okay. Coding
was mostly done in C on the PCs at school, writing text-only adventure
games. ;) I'll admit that assembler scared me back then, and I just never
felt I was good enough to code demos.

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

The classics! ;) SoundTracker 2.4 to start with, then 2.5. A bit later
NoiseTracker 1.2, then 2.0 (M&K ruled!). ProTracker 1.2 was the one I
stayed longest with, but I had to upgrade to 2.3B when the AGA Amigas
came out. That was the staple program until recently when I got hold of
my own PC and FastTracker. I can't get on with ImpulseTracker and OctaMed
at ALL, the interfaces are just too different.

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

I think the original version of "Serendipity City" was the first tune that
I was really happy with, and I was happier still with the remake I did a
few years later, which was one of the few tunes of mine that was actually
used in an intro! "Flight" and "Float" were good moments for me too.
They're when I really felt I was writing MY music, rather than being just
like every other demo musician. I never thought I could get noticed by
trying to be better than people like 4Mat (because I WASN'T as good as
4Mat ;) so instead I tried to get noticed by being different.
Static/Rebels was my main inspiration, along with Romeo Knight/RSI because
he had such good samples!

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

Oh hell yes! None that were ever released fortunately, although I intend
making them available for download along with everything else because
I believe that I should give people the WHOLE picture! I'm not ashamed
of any of my really early tunes, the ones made with just the samples on
the ST-XX disks, because it's the samples that make me cringe, not the
tunes.

But I really went through a bad period around 1992/93. I couldn't finish
tunes, so I forced myself to finish them instead of throwing them away
like I should've done. "Son of Serendipity", "Vagueodrome" and "A Night
in Bed With Cathy Dennis" are ALL utterly worthless, derivative crap.

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

It holds the whole thing together. In the scene's early days, maybe it
wasn't so important because demos were rarely designed and the music was
there just because it was expected to be there. But later the music was
essential for creating the mood for a demo. Plus, of course, there are
many examples where the music is the whole point of the demo. The first
really successful marriage of music and demo IMHO was "Mental Hangover",
that tune was exactly what was needed, a sort of "dark overlord" aura.

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

Yes, for pleasure. Although I write music for MP3ing these days, so the
.XMs are often around the 20MB mark! For some inexplicable reason h0l
still likes my stuff and releases it on mono. LoudFactory, a net radio
station, seem to like me as well...

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

MIDI is a pain in the neck, simply because you can't guarantee hearing
the same thing on two different computers. WAV takes up too much space.
MP3 is good, although I often find myself fiddling with an XM I THOUGHT
I'd finished to try and get rid of some of the "screeching" you get from
encoding it... :P Still, MP3 is generally a good thing, and the format
I do most of my stuff on now.

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

A few that stick in my mind are: "1989 - A Number" by Romeo Knight
(from the RSI "Follow Me" demo), the theme to "Mental Hangover" by Uncle
Tom, the theme to "3D Demo II" (Anarchy) by Mad Freak, the themes to
"Voyage" (Razor 1911) and "Enigma" (Phenomena) by Firefox&Tip&Mantronix,
the music from the Crystal-Slients-Anarchy party report intro by Static,
the first tune Heatbeat ever had in a demo... agh, that's all I can
remember offhand! ;) But if I can't recall them straight away they're
probably not my favourites... ;)

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

Maybe. ;) I've been remastering some of my MODs for MP3ing, but how to
you remaster 8-bit samples? :P It's a possibility, but I need money...

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

[checks pile next to CD drive] "Xtrmntr" - Primal Scream, "High on Your Own
Supply" - Apollo 440, "Significant Other" - Limp Bizket, "Hardknox" -
Hardknox, "Pieces in a Modern Style" - William Orbit, the "Macoss Plus"
soundtrack, the "Slayers" movie soundtrack, the soundtrack to the game
"Rollcage 2" from various Moving Shadow artists, and a CD called "The
Best in Trance" I got off the front of the May issue of M8 Magazine,

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

Many friends for life, a few enemies for life, and confidence. Sadly it
did not give me fame. ;)

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

Errr... theoretically I'm still a member of Desire. I wrote a retro intro
in late 1999 when I discovered the group still existed, but still haven't
finished it, and I haven't heard from Guy Frost for a while. So I
wouldn't be too surprised if I've been dropped. I'd say mono was my
only scene connection ATM.

I do GFX, coding and writing for myself and anyone who asks for it really.
My job takes up a hell of a lot of time, so I don't feel THAT inclined
to code in my spare time any more... Mostly I'm involved with anime
fandom these days, although I still make music for the scene.

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

h0l - Thanks for being the best scene friend a guy could have.
Mortimer Twang - I'm never on ICQ, sorry!
n00dle - Shame about Squee, mail me!
Argus - You went MP3 before releasing that MOD! ;)
All in mono - W.E.R.O.C.K. ;)
All in Desire - Sorry for my non-production, but this job... :P
All at LoudFactory & DMusic - Thanks for all the support!
Everyone I met over the scene years - Get in touch! I'd love to hear from
you all again!

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