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 used to have a C-64 in about 1983 (I was 13), originally bought to play
games (hehe :) )

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

I saw some kool demos like the Compunet stuff and decided that I'd have a
go. I bought a book on 6502 assembler and started coding. I did rasters,
side borders and shit like that and then when the sexy Amiga came out, I
bought one of the first A500s to come out in England. I then bought a book
on 68000 and started to code demos on the Amiga. You will find that all the
early Magnetic Fields were coded by me - including their first sine scroller
demo, 3d starfields and stuff. I even taught Spook (ace DTL coder
extraordinaire) to code the Amiga by letting him have some of my early
source code!

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

it got to the stage on the Amiga where the demos were getting so complex
and well presented that it was taking months to finish a production. I
simply didn't have the time to do this much work. So, I had done some little
bits and pieces of music for Mag Fields (such as Hysteresis and loads of
others) and we had other good coders, so I just became a musician instead. I
did have a relapse at one stage and coded a couple of intros (there's the
going dotty intro and a starfield/scroller intro I did).

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

I used to use Protracker all the time on Amiga and I'm currently using
Fasttracker on the PC now I've re-started writing again. I've also used MED,
Future Composer (shitty editor.... urrrrrgggghhhh :( ), Mugician, Sound
Monitor (ok but replay takes loads of raster time!) and also Cubase and
stuff for MIDI.

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

Hysteresis was pretty good, even though I didn't have any keyboards of my
own at this stage. The later ones got a lot better as I bought my own
keyboards (I went through a few such as SY-77, Roland JV-80, Korg 01/W,
Juno2, Juno 106 and Gem S2 coz I'm really fussy!) and had better samples to
use. I have a particular fondness for 'Folk Song' which was in one of the
last DTL demos and also 'Whispered Dreams' which was one of the last Amiga
tunes I wrote.

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

There's quite a few I wrote as Dextrous which are pretty lame..... such as
Liquidity and some other early tunes. I think there are some earlier ones
that you haven't got which are really shit! I think I was just trying to
find my own style and get used to using portamentp and delay/echo effects.

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

I think it's very important - but it seems to have become less important as
far as reviewers are concerned. In the old days the music could make or
break a game, but with cd-audio and stuff there's a lot more good music
around.

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

I've just started re-composing after about a five year break just for
leisure purposes. I've had my days of working professionally - unless you
are full-time you get treated like shit. I've had offers of work for
Codemasters and all sorts and then written a tune only to have the coder say
"Oh the project manager says we have to use xxxxxx instead so we can't use
it now!" I was quite interested at one stage on going to see Visual Concepts
(where Spook used to work). I sent them a tape with both Amiga and MIDI
music on it and they were very keen, but I then got a big promotion at work
(I code computer systems for a bank in England!) so I stayed here.

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

Its a lot easier writing in MIDI than trying to make kool tunes in four
channels!!! I know - I've done both. I think game players now take it for
granted that music should be good - but I do think that there's too much
house/techno and guitar rock music in games and not enough atmospheric
tunes.

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

There are a few:

Overload by Tip and Mantronix - when I first heard this it just blew my mind!
OccSanGeen by Uncle Tom - kool Juno 106 samples!
Acid Jazz by Nuke - Starsky and Hutch (70's cop show) music re-visited
Space Delirium by Dr. Awesome

Recently, I've heard some mindblowing stuff from Elwood - 24+ channels of
absolute magic!

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

No, I sold all my keyboards when I bought my house. Me and a friend had a
house record out in 1992 as '2 Damn Funky' which sold a few. I might get
some more keyboards in a few years - who knows?? I bought some Technics
decks about three years ago and have been mixing instead, played out in bars
etc. so I concentrated on that.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

I listen to a lot of house and garage stuff - which is funny cos that's not
the kind of music I write on computers!! Generally, I find that techno and
stuff is very simplistic to do on computers. I wrote 'Pandemonium' in about
3 hours and everyone thought it was fantastic. Something like 'Whispered
Dreams' took weeks as I had to be in the right mood to finish it! I also
listen to a lot of trance stuff like Man with no name, Sasha, BT and stuff.

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

It was such a fantastic time. We used to get treated like celebrities at
computer shows and copy parties. It was just a feeling of belonging to such
a massive group of people, all with similar dreams, all trying to out-code
each other and to be the best.

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

No, when I stopped producing music for DTL, me and the other founder of
members all felt that it was time to call it a day (No.5, Spook etc.). It's
only now I've got up on the net and started getting mails from people that I
realised what an impact me and the other DTL members made. It's great to
know that people still remeber us.

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

Well, all the ex-members of DTL and Magnetic Fields still on the net (Cache
m8, cheers for the Crossdos - I can now get all my toons onto PC!)

Crown of CRB ( thanx for some of my old toons)

Buzz

Anyone else out there who has once listened to one of my toons and loved
it!!! - that's why I made them!!

L8r guys ---- keep up the good work. Keep you eyes peeled for a Yaz website
soon!!!!

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