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?

I started out with the Commodore 128D in 1987, my father bought it for
me, counting the years, I was 6 years back then. Like most other, I started
out playing games, but after getting the Final Cartridge III, I discovered
lots of other aspects of the computer. Not that I did much to it, but I
atleast found out that there were more to do than

load "$",8,1
list
load "bladadi",8
run

Also, I had a painting program I drew some pictures in, none of them turned
out well though. Most software was for the C64, but I also had some
programs that ran in the 128 mode, among others a database programme which
I cannot remember the name of now. So, I atleast tried out something more
on the computer than playing games.

I still have the computer and the disks around, every once in a while I
set it up to enjoy a nice evening of memories.

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

Like already mentioned under the previous question, I started out with the
Commodore 128D. Then, in 1990, I bought an Amiga 500, it was the way to
go back then. I never regretted this, and just as with the C128D, I started
out playing games, but quickly gained an interest in both trackerprogrammes
and graphicsprogrammes. The main inspirational source was a friend who was
(and by the way, still is) a few years older than me. I got lots of samples
and helpful utilities from him, and that set me up to do some work.

Unfortunately I didn't know many people with Amigas and when they disappeared
and switched to another platform, I didn't get any more stuff for my Amiga 500,
which by the way still is on my desktop right beside of me. In 1994, I bought
a pc, a 486 dx2/66, which I used for some years. Interest for both graphics
and music was still there, but at the time I didn't find any decent tracker
on pc, so I bought a synth and a midi-interface. The pc is still sitting in
a corner, the synth is here, and the midi-interface is still tucked into
the casing of the machine. However, I got tired of the computer when everything
started running even more slowly than before, and I didn't upgrade the pc.
To be honest, there were some years in the nineties I didn't do much with a
computer at all. I started playing the synths (it was now two of them) without
a computer and even though I'm still not halfway decent at liveplaying, it
was more exciting than waiting for Windows to finish working on the swapfile
every time I moved the mousepointer.

In 1999, however, I got in touch with a fellow who was into the Amigascene,
and after some talks, I found out that I should buy an Amiga again, and I
settled for an Amiga 1200 with a 040 processorcard. After lots of seemingly
unsolvable problems, which turned out to be my version of the mainboard
needing to have two small chips removed in order to get right timing on
faster processors, I was up and running. I watched demos, collected modules,
and was often amazed by what people were able to do.

I had been into some simple coding before, like BASIC on the 128D and ofcourse
AMOS on the Amiga 500, and I wanted to try out assembler. So I got a decent
assembler, started looking for some small examples, didn't find much, but
atleast my willpower made me stick to it, and I slowly started to learn. Now
I have released atleast a couple of intros and I code the VOID diskmagazine
Saxonia. It still runs on an Amiga 500 with fastmemory and I like to keep it
that way, I like the old style even though it is cool pushing both aga and
faster processors to see what they are capable of. But I think that this is
for demos and intros, not diskmagazines. I must admit that the coding has
taken up a lot of my time with the computer, and after I got the Saxonia mag
together, I don't have the time to make as much music as I would like to,
it has been completely quiet in that front for some months now. However, I
have coded an oldstyle musicdisk halfway finished and I plan to make some
modules for this one, as well as getting some contributions from others.

The mentioned Amiga 1200 with a 40mhz 040 processor is my current computer.
I don't think that I will upgrade in quite a while, I think that most software,
both programmes and demos/intros run well enough, atleast the ones I'm
interested in seeing. But I must admit that a powerpc-card along with a
graphicscard would be cool. But I have other priorities too, and an Ensoniq
EPS 16+ sampler which I bought some time ago also took some money, even if
it was used.

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

Hehe, from my previous answers, you will see that I have not ended up making
music instead of other works, I try to do a little of most, although I'm still
not halfway decent at painting. Perhaps I'm like those who made the first
sceneproductions on Amiga, I do a lot of the work myself, and perhaps that's
necessary in these days, when many people seem to be unwilling of contributing
outside any parties. I'm in the business for the fun, not to earn money,
so I don't care much about the parties.

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

I have used several trackers, the first one was ProTracker 1.1.a, and now
I use ProTracker 2.3.d (one of endless resources made more compatible with
aga) and AHX. I tried out several sequencers on pc and they were all usable
but I think that the best one was one that came with the midiinterface, it
was nothing much heard of among others.

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

I don't think that I have reached my goal yet. To be honest, I seem to be
the only one who liked the latest module I released, it was the one used
in Saxonia #1. One thing that I personally don't consider a problem is that
I have what's known as a more special taste in music. The closest I come to
liking commercial music is country and some eighties rock I think, my
favourite music at the moment being oldstyle Norwegian music, which is hard
to do in trackers, but I try to make my own twist to it. Perhaps at least
that module wasn't too successful, but I still don't mind hearing it myself.

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

No, I don't think so. From my collection of my own modules, I have only
released a few, and I don't think that there are any reasons for wanting
to never hear about them. I like them all in a special way, perhaps because
of the work it took to make them. But unquestionably, I have many modules
that I have never spread, and there's a reason for that. Some of them have
never been finished, I have problems sticking to doing the same for a long
time, and some of them should never be finished, as it hasn't turned out
the way I wanted. But, as said, in that case I don't release them so it's
not really a problem, making the few parts of them which I have didn't
cost me more than some sparetime.

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

In a demo, the music is very important. I'm usually not a fan of timing the
music to every single effect on screen, look for instance at some demos
from the nineties, whatever platforms. What I like is music that sets you
in a special mood which is suitable for what you're about to see. There are
several ways to do this and one can be just as right as the other. Just
look at for instance the modules in D.O.S/Andromeda, or the slideshow
Seven Seas/Andromeda. I'm aware of that some people seem to dislike the
music in D.O.S, but I still think that it's excellent. These are slow
strong tunes, that sets you in a calm mood. On the opposite, we can look
for instance at the music in Global Trash/Silents, it's hard from the
beginning, and in a way, it suits the demo and the design in general.
To mention some never productions, one can for instance look at Light/Iris.

Concerning games, music is still an important aspect, but not to the same
extent as in sceneproductions, at least not for me. I don't play much
games, but when I do, I don't always turn on the amplifier. The playability
is the most important in a game, something that many gamesmakers seems to
have forgot these days. But, ofcourse it's not the same playing a new
racinggame without sounds, that's for sure.

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

Yes, I'm still composing from time to time, but not as much as I want to.
Like mentioned, coding and writing articles for Saxonia takes some time.
I have ofcourse considered trying to write music for more professional
purposes, such as writing jingles for localtelevision and the likes, but
it has so far stayed with the thought. It takes a lot of time, and you have
to be more careful writing the music, even think about what other people
like. I write what I like now, and I'm happy with that.

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

First I would like to say that I still consider modules in all various
forms as today's music too. It is perhaps not as big as before, but I think
that it's a very decent format. Fourchannel-modules have a special feel to
them, which nothing else can resemble. Also, there are several qualities in
multichannel-modules. I think that it's harder to impress somebody when
releasing an mpegfile, simply because the makers can then use whatever
they want to, sample long pieces from commercial music, use professional
studio equipment and even use some cheat-program that almost makes the
song for you.

Midi can be fine, but it's hard to make something impressive if you are
to stay within the limits of for instance the GM or GS setup. You quickly
need more interesting sounds than that. This also varies with the synth
used, some have excellent GM/GS sounds, others have not. I have a Roland
JV-30 and in order to make this sound well, you have to adjust many parameters
on the synth, these doesn't necessesarily give nice sounds on other synths.
When using midi, I prefer using both my Korg EX-800 soundmodule with analogue
sounds and my Ensoniq EPS16+ sampler. I have even considered trading in the
Roland synth for a piano-module which sits waiting for a new owner in a local
shop, I have to see about that. I don't think that I will miss the GM/GS
that much.

For spreading midimusic, I think that this is the only place where mpegs
come into handy use. Because of the aforementioned reasons, you cannot
expect tunes to play the way they should on other machines, especially with
samplers and analogue synths being used. But then, so that I will not argue
against my own words, the listener cannot know what equipment the tunes are
made on. In some cases, this doesn't matter, but for scenepurposes, I think
that it should be clear what's used.

I think that what I have said about this also covers my attitude towards
other formats. In general I don't understand people who download lots and
lots of commercial music. Ofcourse this might be because I don't like much
of it, but also I prefer to be able to hear music without having my computer
on. Also, I have never been interested in all the new "fancy" stuff like
pocket mpegplayers and so on. In general, nothing beats vinyl and tapes
both the common tapes and big tapereels for me. The sound feels much more
alive, if that's understandable to somebody.

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

I have many old tunes I still like listening to when working with the
Amiga. One of the oldest is Sleepwalk by Karsten Obarski, the famous man
who coded the first SoundTracker on Amiga. As far as I know, this was one
of his first tunes. He also made a cool piece of music in Crystal Hammer.
Moby's funk and rockmodules are always entertaining, for people not into
the amigascene, I should perhaps point out that this isn't the same
musician as the commercial Moby. There are also several songs by
Mr Man/Andromeda I like listening to, they are relaxing and pleasant to
the ear.

If you also want to know other songs made outside the scene I like listening
to, I must point out the excellent Norwegian musician Annbjørg Lien.

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

No, at least not yet. My released songs would not fill up half a cd so
far.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Like already mentioned, I like Annbjørg Lien's music, as well as some eighties
rock (I still think that Europe is good, just not the song everybody remembers,
Final Countdown), and some country is nice. Just don't call much of that
popular music country, it should be the kind of music that Dave Dudley,
Jerry Reed and Kris Kristofferson makes.

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

The Amigascene gives me something to do on my sparetime, I like coding and
working with things I consider entertaining. It also brings me thoughts
about the state nowadays, with pc's running disgusting operating systems
and people always saying that they need faster computers instead of
requesting better optimised code. It gives me an alternative to the boring
mainstream everybody seems to follow these days, and last but certainly not
least, it brings me lots and lots of happiness, watching new productions,
listening to music, and watching what's left of real pixelled images.

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

Yes, and I plan to stay that way as long as there are other Amigasceners.

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

I would ofcourse like to greet everybody in our fine group VOID. I would
also ask everybody to consider writing an article or two for our diskmag,
supporting a scene they are in, or have been in. I would also like people
to think for a moment about why they are in the scene. If it's not for the
fun, perhaps they would be better off looking for something else, it seems
to be lot of people not very happy in the scene.

Take care everybody, and have fun, that's why we joined the scene in
the first place.

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2003 by crown of cryptoburners
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