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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| _| | | _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?

Well, somewhere in the mid eigthies, my father bought an brand new Atari
1040 STF. I first started to play games on it (I had a C64 before it with
tons of games), then I found interest in programmation. As I was also a
musician, I try to play with it that way. My Bro, Ben from OVR, coded for
me a soundchip player in ASM 68000, then I used it to compose songs. I
think I have released not far from 50 chiptunes on ST. That's more or less
the way we discover the Demo scene, and enter the Overlanders crew (before
that, we were in UNDEAD crew, who won the Trancebeauce II demo contest)

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

On C64, only basic programmation, playing games, and some little sounds
programming tests. A so great sound machine !!

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

I was a musician, playing harpsichord, piano, keyboards, and a bit of guitar.
It was already my passion at that time, and nowadays, it has not changed at
all ! ;-)

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

On ST, the player made by Ben did not provide any editor. I, you'll think
I'm crazy but it's the pure truth, composed each of my musix by entering
the source code of my Bro player, modifying datas : I programmed my music
using GenST development environment, and each note looked like dc.b or
dc.w $b3,$64 ...and so on ! Incredible huh ? I had to re-compile each
time I wanted to hear my song ! :-)

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

No one ! Once your reach your goal, life is boring... don't you think ? :-)

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

ho ho... the very first one sounds very bad... The player was not yet good,
and my experience on ST composing was very poor !! I don't like to hear it
again. But, well, that's funny, but only for me I guess !

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

The same as a soundtrack in a film. When properly made, it contributes to
the general ambiance of what you see on the screen, and, sometimes, is even
linked to the scenario. Well, of course, when you take some time to
synchronize both... But I mostly composed tracks for my own pleasure, not
specifically for demos, apart from some of them.

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

I'm still composing, for leisure purposes mainly, but I try to work as an
artist. I plan to release a Maxi Vinyl in a well-known french House music
label, called Pro-Zak Trax. Not done yet, but I hope this project will see
the light (should be soon), and can be the beginning for more professionnal
music projects. By th way, the tracks I proposed in this first record project,
on one hand, are made for dancing in club, and on the other hand, use the
spirit of ST sounds and the way I used to composed on ST !! Hope you'll be
able to hear from it !

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

I only dislike those poor formats used for online music transferring, such
as Real Audio : it's so poor quality ! I like quality. MP3 is, from a sound
engineer point of view, a nice compromise. But I'm convinced that better
formats will be shipped in the future (if only we don't have to be crunched
by Microsoft Power.. :-( )

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

Wooo.. that's impossible !! Well, by focussing my thinkings on ST scene,
and without bothering others wiz my own productions, I would say.. hu...
some from old school style (like Count zero), some from new style (like
Tao or Scavenger) for which much more ST cpu power is used and dedicated
to music. I'm sorry, I can't really choose !! Well, okay, The musix of
Wings of Death. But there're so many names coming in my mind !

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

That an old project I still have. I even made some tests in the past. Well
it depends the way my professional carreer starts and goes on in the musical
business. But, sincerely, I'd like very much to. There's matter to make
nice things by remastering them.

12-What bands are you currently listenning to?

Another question with so huge list of answers... Ok one name them :
Rick Wakeman. A keyboards virtuose.

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

I spend some time on amiga scene, attracted by the soundtrackers softs. So,
I'd say Amiga makes me discover the soundtrackers, a very very handy tool
for composing. I'm a very fan and still user of Fasttracker, for instance.
Concerning C64, well, it gave me the passion for having fun with computers,
since it was my very first one machine !

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

Not as my Bro is : he recently shipped his web site
( check dis out : http://sashipa.ben.free.fr ), full of ST muzix, and
made it's own plug in for winamp, wich is actually the only one plugin
able to emulate correctly my tracks on ST, due to the numerous player
formats he made for me ). Personnaly, I sometimes participate to CD
compilations for example, but above all, I keep a lots of contacts with
former ST scene activists (as members of OVR, Legacy etc....).

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

Well, first greetings go to u ! Coz' I like very much people who contribute
to make the scene alive. I loved that scene, and regret it. But, otherwise,
to all my friends who'll pass by these lines, I say : wooo, it's cool here,
ST will never die ! Since it's deep in our hearts ! :-)

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