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..

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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?

I don't remember which year it was, but I was a young teenager in the G.D.R.
(East Germany) ... I tried several hobbies before incl. model trains and
playing accordion (I've got some musical talent afterall, although I don't
let it out often :-) ), but they proved not to be satisfactory, I lost
interest in each of them ... and then the G.D.R. started to build home
computers and to publish books about computer theory ... I read everything
available in book stores ... and I wanted to have a computer (a western model
though), which would be the next hobby to try ... and this time the interest
lasted a bit longer ... until today ...

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

ATARI 800XL ... I did almost everything you could do with an 8-bit home
computer, I played games, enjoyed scene demos, programmed some stuff for
myself, tried to use music software without manuals (argh!) ... I used the
last opportunity I got to sell it, which is sad, but I was young and needed
the money :-) ...

AMIGA 500 ... Improved gaming performance, lots of scene demos, of course :-)
... and there was SoundTracker which I grabbed from a friend and instantly
got infected by the tracking virus ... I changed to NoiseTracker and
ProTracker later (like most people).
I sold the 500 to get a 1200.

Amiga 1200 ... Better games, better scene demos :-) ... And I started to test
the available 8-voice software and finally bought the software that simply
delivered the best 8-voice sound: a French masterpiece called StoneTracker.
I got an 68030 with 8 MB FastMem, a CD-ROM, a HDD, a monitor, a HD FDD, and I
built the whole thing into a tower. And that's about the status it still has
... Nowadays I sometimes enjoy those scene demos again and I still love to
play some Sensible World Of Soccer now and then ... still the best football
game ever ... FIFA looks better, but the gameplay ... come ooooon :-) ...

Now I have a decent PC and I'm using it mainly for internet activities
(mostly downloads, that is) ... I started to work with this awesome music
software Buzz, but now I'm enjoying a break from music making, I'm too
consumed with watching all this great Anime stuff I missed in my life so far
and I very much enjoy listening to Anime soundtracks ... The best stuff of it
all is so great I have to get it out of my head first before I start doing my
own music once more ...

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

Concerning gfx it's pretty simple: I have no talent for it. Concerning code
... yes, I could have done it, but music was more interesting for me, I had
ideas of music in my head all the time while thinking about something to code
was much harder ...

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

See answer 2 ... The programmes I was most satisfied with so far were
StoneTracker on the AMIGA and Buzz on the PC.

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

I'm never completely satisfied with my results, but I very much like to
listen even to my old stuff from time to time ... I personally believe, that
if you "reach your goal" as a musician, the universe itself will implode with
a big KaBLOOOOOSH and vanish not to be existent any longer ... just a theory,
though :-) ...

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

Not every track may have been one of my best, but there are still memories
connected with every track, and every track was helping me to make up my mind
about what and who "I am" musically ... No regrets from my side so far, but
I'm not forcing anybody to like my stuff :-) ...

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

In a demo it's of the same value as code and gfx, because the soundtrack can
ruin an otherwise excellent demo, and brilliant music can make an otherwise
rather uninteresting demo worth watching, as can megacool gfx or megastunning
code ... In games I think music has to subordinate more, in general you PLAY
a game, you don't LISTEN to it ... of course a good soundtrack gets attention
and has a positive influence on the game's quality, but that's about it.

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

I'm on a "composing holiday" if you want ... I'm collecting influences and
impressions, I'm thinking about what direction to go, I try a bit in private.
But most of my spare time I spend with other hobbies currently ... which also
implies I was not and I am not a professional composer. The only "serious"
project I was involved with was the AMIGA game "Mega Typhoon", and
remembering myself cramming some silly music together during a single
afternoon, and recognizing the coder decided to turn on the hardware filter
in the game for miraculous reasons, I think the outcome was quite ok :-) ...

Generally, I'm doing it for my own pleasure.

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

I always wanted to achieve a satisfactory sound, so CD is where I want to be
... MP3 is a fair compromise looking at the file size, and it's an awesome
format for distribution. I never played around with MIDI, I started as a
tracker, and the only people I met who were doing MIDI were telling enough
stories full of horror and technical voodoo to prevent me from trying it :-)

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

Ok, I surely will miss a lot answering this question, but to give an idea,
here are some ...

ATARI 8-bit: "Transmuter" Theme, "International Karate" Theme (Rob Hubbard,
oh yeah, one name I recognize!), "Amaurote" soundtrack (David Whittaker,
another name I recognize)

AMIGA: "Leander" soundtrack, "Super Stardust" soundtrack, most game themes by
Alistair Brimble ... scene demo tracks by Clawz, Revisq, Azazel, Legend
(mega-sorry for all I forgot mentioning now) ...

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

I had the idea several times, but I more like to recycle old ideas and make
something else out of them ... Still I don't deny the possibility ...

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Deep Forest, Yoko Kanno (not a band, but the most versatile and original
music genius currently living on this planet ... and a woman, would you
believe it :-) ?), Delerium, Garbage, Prodigy, FGTH (still) and many more ...

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

Lots of entertaining demos and a reason to keep my AMIGA 1200T in a
functional state ... I would love to have the money left to get an up to date
machine with PPC and 3D gfx and stuff, but I'm not THAT rich, the world is
not always working the fair way :-) ...

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

I was never active in "the scene" ... I just got my stuff out on PD disks and
later onto Aminet ... I wasn't very productive anyway :-) ...

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

I'm quite late to stumble across AMP, but now that I recognized it: Keep up
the work! Great approach ... And I first couldn't believe I was mentioned
here ... Thanks to whoever recognized my almost invisible footprints ...
Greetings to my family: HEY! I'M ON MONITOR! Will try TV later :-) ...

Respect to all musicians having done greater deeds than me ... and that's a
lot, I can tell :-) !

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2002 by crown of cryptoburners
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