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?

My ancle showed me an IBM PC XT at his work, in the mid 80s. There were
a few games (Digger, Cat, Arkanoid, Galaxians) I used to play. I was
impressed with the colours and music (yes, PC-speaker). I still love the
themes from Arkanoid and Cat.

My interest in computers began while I was studying at an art school, and
my parents took me to a "computer animation studio" at that time.
They had a Yamaha MSX2 with a b/w monitor in that studio, and a program to
make animations on it. Children never heard MSX's music there, we were
just doing some drawing.

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

a. Textmode programable calculator :) I wrote a few simple games on it.
b. In 1990 I visited Belgium, where I saw an Amstras CPC (Shnaider).
We used to play the Barbarian game with my friend Danny for hours :)
Also he showed me the DEMOS! There were 3D vector figures flying around
with a Strauss' waltz accompaniment :) Another demo showed a full colour
Ferrari with some digital (sampled!) rock music. That was a day! I was
really impressed, so I even recorded the music from the demos and games
directly from the built-in Amstrad's speaker to a portable tape recorder,
using the internal mic. The quality was terrible, but I've listened to that
cassette for many years without problems :)
c. Before the last year in school, I had had some practice lessons at the
goverment technical library where I worked with animations on a PC. I saw
the Crystal Dream demo made by Triton and STMOD there. It played MODs
(actually, it was MODs converted to STMs) on the PC-speaker. Oh, my God!
It was amazing! I brought a tape recorder again and recorded another cassete
(from the build-in speaker to internal mic again). It was year 1991.
A bit later, when the Scream Tracker 2 was released, I made a covox, bought a
good tape recorder, connected them to a PC and became a tracker musician :)
d. Got money from a summer schoolpractice, bought an amazing fully 16-bit
russian BK-0010 computer (DEC PDP-11 like) where I even coded my own tracker.
e. Several years later I got a PC, and coded a few demos on it.
f. Then I discovered the Amiga demoscene (thanks to RDC and Xpeh /
Looker House) and bought an A1200 with a 68030 processor and HDD.
g. Now I have an Apple iBook G4 1.2 GHz.

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

I used to draw and paint for 7 years, on paper and computer, before I bought
my first computer. So when I got it, I wanted to do something different.
Because I enjoyed demos, I started coding and composing music. At that time
I entered the Moscow Technical University of Electronic and Mathematic to
study programming and A.I., but it gave me almost nothing new (except a few
good friends and knowlange in physics).

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

Scream Tracker 2 on PC, self made Strogino Sound Tracker on BK-0010 then,
Scream Tracker 3, DigiTracker, Impulse Tracker, Psycle, Skale Tracker and
ModPlug Tracker - all on PC. I also used ProTracker on Amiga, but just for
fixing/tuning the MODs which I basically wrote on ST3. Now I'm using the
Schism Tracker on the Macintosh and Milky Tracker sometimes.

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

I guess, "Silmarill" was the first one, in the late 1994. One year later I
composed the "She Was Innocent" module, wich we finished together with Tarh.
It really reached a goal, because it took a prize at the EnLight'96
demoparty and made the SandS demogroup famous on the russian demoscene :)
But now I like "Goodbye" and "I'll See You Soon" more, because of the
original samples, style and even vocals. Some people can't understand what's
so special in "Folk Boys", because it sounds mostly like live music, so
you'll miss all that tracking tricks while listening. But it is also a well
tracked module.
Also I like a few IT-modules where I reached some very complex tracking
technique with filters and all that tricks, but people said it sounded
"too commercial". The hell with it :) So, I wrote a few 4-channel MODs with
live samples and nice melodies to go back to the demoscene roots.
"Sad Child Song" is one of them (drums tracked by Tangerine in the very
right style, big thanks!).

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

No problem, I had already deleted them before anybody had a chance to hear them :)
Also I don't like a few tunes spoiled by game developers (you know, you make
a cool tune but they say: ok, but please remove all that jazzy notes, rock
breakes, too expressive melody, symphony parts and adjust the volume to the
same level throughout the whole tune). For example, the original "Horse in
Synthesed Land" was very rock'n'roll-ish, but for the game release it became
just some background pop. That's why sometimes we in SandS release
"alternative versions" of our game music for the demoscene (for example,
bringing back the cut out parts and 16-bit samples to modules downsampled
for consoles).

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

You know, the lead people from Lucas, Nintendo, etc. used to say that "music
makes 50% of a film/game". It's true, but not all film/game makers understand
what music really does: they are ready to pay a lot of their attention to
the music, but they can pick a wrong way or scheme anyway.
Demo... In general, nobody will tell you what exactly you must do to compose
and how it must sound, so the demo soundtracks are more artistic, true
and fresh. I like demo soundtracks. Even composed a few :)

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

Yes, game development (tracked and live music as well). But tracking is a
good entertamend for me, I still compose just for fun too.

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

WAV - ok, audio CD - almost ok. You can laugh, but 44 KHz is not comfortable
for me: when I'm working with EQ, I can hear how the very highs react on EQ
manipulations in a wrong way. I use some professional headphones with the

5-35000 Hz range and can actually hear how the freqs above some value "move"

in a "freezing" way when you operate with them. It all does not matter in
tracker music: you can say "well, it's just a tracker", forget about "quality"
and start to enjoy the music :) I like this way of thinking.
Also I like live music. When you hear the violin or jazz trumplets, you
quickly understand: this sound could never fit on a CD.

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

Oh, not again :) One day they asked me the same question for another
interview, and I made a two page list. I better point to authors.
Briefly, classical Amiga trackers like Dizzy, Bruno (his "Listen" has a huge
influence on me, I started to love jazz), Moby, etc.
Future Crew musicians - they were the first who demonstrated how 16 channels
can be fully used). Xpeh and Tangerine from Looker House, they helped me to
gain my tracking technique, and also they were the first people I got to know
in Russia who composed really great music, like the best trackers arownd the
world (how could they not inspire me? ;)
Five Musicians and Orange groups. And many more, from Russia as well. I have
a huge collection and love every module in it, they are all hits.

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

Since I've started composing game music, some of it has already been published
on CDs, so I see no reason to make a "special" music release on a CD.
However, I've reworked two tunes of Purple Motion for "reTracked" CD vol 1.
If there is going to be a second volume, I'll make my own tune, probably one
of the well known oldies like "She Was Innocent" or "First Night By The Sea".
Heh, I once recorded a few tunes with my guitars with super high quality
active pickups, sampled them with an expensive ADC - it can be a good
matherial for a CD, but what I've done? I cut it all into short looped
samples, converted to 8 bit and made a few MODs! It was fun! I liked it.
Don't tell me, who really need CDs? :) Download MODs and be happy.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Right now I'm listening to a Ringo Starr's album (unpublished yet!).
I like to collect rare bootlegs and unpublished records by the Beatles'
musicians :) Well, I like live music. Sheryl Crow makes wonders: she plays
the piano, guitar, bass, composes music and writes lyrics - it all makes
her songs "true".
Well, Vangelis. Andreas Vollenweider (thanks to Tangerine).
Classical music (hate that silly contemporrary interpritations like Readers
Digest's "gold classics", "music for good mood", "classics in rock sound",
etc. It's all stupid fast food).
Jazz. No life is possible without water and jazz :) I dig funk as well.
Of course, I listen to the music made by ex-demosceners, like Dune/Orange
("Brithomstates" nowdays), Mellow-D / Five Musicians ("Kschzt" nowdays),
Purple Motion / Future Crew (got CD with his sign), etc.

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

The Amiga scene gave me the sense of style. As a coder and designer, I used
the Amiga "vision of style" in my own demos, graphics and videos.
Also, the Amiga scene gave me a lot of contacts with interesting people.
And the music, of course. I'm still tracking 4 channels MODs, maybe because
I feel the inspirative influence from the old masters :) They did really
unbelievable things.

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

Yes. Look at www.thesands.ru :)

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

Greetings to all trackers whose music I've listened to. Nowadays I am too
lazy to write greetings even in my modules, so look at the older releases,
there's lots of greeting text in there :)

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2005 by crown of cryptoburners
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