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.

,NN' `b. · i n t e r v i e w · ___________

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\ ,N'\____ _____________. _____ \ \_____. ____\ /

\___P___/ .\--\__ __/__ |--\____)---\ _____/__ |--\_ \ _/

| | | \ | | \__| | _ \ / | \__| | /\ |

| _| | | _l_ | | \ / _l_ | ___|

l___/=l___|====l____/===\______|==l______|\ /l___/===\______l____/

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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?

In 1981, I was 9 when I had a Philips Videopac for my birthday. I played a
lot of video games on this platform (Asteroids, a tank game, a Pong, a
bowling ...), and I had a cartridge to program in Assembler. I remember this
one was n°9 in the "official" collection. I never managed to program
anything serious with this, as it was completely undocumented. Before the
Videopac, I was playing with small pocket video games like the original
Donkey Kong (two screens), the Firemen, the Octopus ...

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

After the Philips Videopac : ZX 81+64 Ko Indescamp expansion memory pack
(1982), ZX Spectrum (1984), my father's Toshiba PC Laptops (the Papman and
the AT-286), Amstrad CPC 464 (1985), Amiga 1000 (1988), Amiga 500 (1990),
then Amiga 1200 (1992).

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

I was coding and cracking a lot on Amstrad CPC (with handles like The Spy,
Spy C.C., HCL). When I had an Amiga, I founded a lame group (Diskfighters)
to swap the most recent warez with some contacts in France and western
Europe. That drove me to stop coding and cracking, while I was getting more
involved with the swapping and founding / organizing jobs. I discovered the
music trackers in 1989, I guess it was the old Soundtracker from Karsten
Obarski. When I've been busted in late 1991, my first tracks were sized up
with all my hardware and software.

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

My preferred ones were Protracker 2.3b then 2.3d. I've composed more than 80%
of all my work with these programs. I've done some little work on Sidmon 2
and Future Composer, but I didn't like their interface and their ergonomy.
On PC, I use (rarely) Modplug Tracker which is public domain and has a good
compatibility rate with Protracker 2.3d.

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

None. This maybe explains why I've composed so many tunes (more than 250).
I've always felt dissatisfied with any piece of the work I have done. And I
like the (positive) idea that maybe I will try again some time and do some
really good music. But I'm far from my ideals, and today, I don't possess
the means to reach these.

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

A lot, for a whole lot of reasons. I also hate most of the comments I used
to write in my soundtracks. It reminds me that I was a teen with immature
feelings like, for example, a certain sense of being superior. Which I
wasn't, of course ...

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

I would prefer to ask the reverse question : what's the value of a demo,
game with a good or bad (I would say appropriate / inappropriate) music ?
And what if there were no musics at all ? For such productions, the music is
only part of the experience. When I listen to music, it's a completely
different experience.

If you allow me to add something, I would differenciate the process of
making / using musics in demos and in games. The soundtracks in a game
obviously endorse a supporting role. In demos, it varies more according to
the underlying concepts.

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

I feel very disarmed with my knowledge of new music programming tools on the
Windows platform. I'm running out of time in my life, so I can't train as
hard as I did in the past - in order to be able to master all the principal
technical specifications for these programs. I would love that someone teach
me in a very short time how to use them. Apart from this, I sometimes used
ModPlug in the last 6-7 years. I used it only for leisure, and mainly for
unfinished work.

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

If you mean by that the musics that have been composed by scene musicians, I
have very little knowledge of what has been done in the past 10-12 years. If
you mean the formats, then yes, it's useful for people who use them.

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

My favourite composers were Dizzy, Romeo Knight, Heatbeat, Dr Awesome, Uncle
Tom ... I also liked Audiomonster, Doh, Arios, Monty, Reflex, Darry Booper
who were good composers but also good pals during the old days.

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

Perhaps, if I have the time to do so (very little chance). In case of, I
would fill it with completely new soundtracks, and full remixes of some
existing soundtracks.

12-What bands are you currently listening to?

I'm quite eclectic. As long as this is good music, I generally don't care
for the genre. That said, I currently have a grip on musicians like David
Bowie, Air, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lou Reed ...

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

It's a complex question for me, as I was 50/50 involved in the demo and the
crack scenes. I was forced (fortunately) to stop all illegal activities, as
I felt concerned with the deep implications for myself and the others. On
both scenes, maybe more on the demo side, I made good friends, of whom some
are still friends today.

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

Not more than an inch. I left the scene in 1994-1995 (and earlier for the
crack scene). Since then, I only kept links with some friends and alike who
have been punctually active in the last few years. I was asked by Melon
Dezign to write a scrolltext for one of their latest demos, but nothing
else.

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

Greetings to all of my friends. You don't really need to know who they are,
and it's constantly evolving. But I'm sure they will recognize themselves.

The old brave said : "The words fly away, the writings remain".

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please note: this interview is ©opyrighted in 2006 by crown of cryptoburners
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