Musicians interrogation room... Alone coder/i8 When and why did you start to make spectrum music? I love music and always was occu- pied with it, when there was a pos- sibility. In a deep childhood, I had a one-voiced piano and a few child books with the notes (however, I didn't learn to play). Later, I used it to put notes in a Wham. For the first time I wrote on AY (in PT3) when I found this editor and brought it to John in december 1998. We didn't succeed to do any music this time. First module I wrote, when attached an AY chip in 1999. In that time, the sound was put to the speaker di- rectly from chip, so it was barely heared :) I suppose, the first technical ex- perience you gained exploring so- meone's tunes for samples, orna- ments and other tricks. Who was that spectrum musician who influen- ced your music and whom you can call your teacher? Those years, certainly, John Silver. Later - MMCM, Macros, Nik-O, Ironman, D-Juice. Now, I borrow good ideas from anyone :). What was the first music editor that you used? Wham, not the FX version. I made a disk version. But, maybe the first editor was the one, I don't remem- ber the name of - one channel with the duration, set for each note. Also, I edited data for my pla- yers, written because of nothing to do (using basic and asm). What do you think about your past as a spectrum musician, what im- portant moments in your progres- sion can you note? I'll repeat exactly the same words as I said in Genz#3, but adding, that now I'am inclined to the se- miclassic - semiambient style from the game Unreal. Also, now I pre- fer live (acoustic) drums, not electronic. How do you think, do you have any fans, and what do you think they particularly like in your music? Would you like to say some words for them? AY composers, whom I in corres- pondence with, know my music and have an opinion about it. The main mass of people doesn't know it. It is mostly experimental, i.e. just shows how it could be done - as if intended for composers. What musical instruments do you use (if you ever used) during com- posing process? Do you have any ex- perience of musicmaking on other platforms? What do you think about it? Until this winter, I was drawing a samples for each module anew, so- metimes doing just 2 modules with the same samples. For now I have a set of drums, which are tuned suc- cessfuly enough, and I store it as a samples. One of it - bassdrum ta- ken from the track by Slip "Lena bay!bay!". On other platforms I use programm 'mod plug tracker' to convert samples and music into wav. Of course, I read notes there if it is the point of interest :) Do you like to criticize yourself? What is the weakest spot in your techniques (rythm, melody, arran- gement or something else)? I always critical inside and not saying much about that :) The bre- vity of music is bad for me, my tracks always consist of 1-2 repea- ting phrases. What kind of music do you listen, what bands/projects affect you, what moods and feelings you try to put in your own compositions? Re- mixes: what do you think of this? It seems, this question refers not to AY music? I have no tape re- corder, my pc is broken, that is why I can say what I was listening to and analyzing formely - tracks by A.Brandon and M.van den Bos from the games Unreal and Unreal Tournament, music by Manwe and audio cd by Slip, he send me some time ago. If I catch something in- teresting on radio or TV, I stay and listen. But this is a matter of chance. But in principle, I'am familiar with the main trends in classics, electronics, jazz, pop, rock-music and so on. I took some CD's from friends, listened the mu- sic from consoles... Remixes are needed to gain experience and try some new methods in sound. What music compos did you partici- pate in, what was the highest rate and what do you think about your achievements? I sent tracks to the various par- ties very often, but was taken on- ly on Paradox'2002, Para- digmus'2003 and Antique Toy (not taking into account ours virtual The Compo, that is still not fi- nished because of absence of fil- led votelists). The highest (4th) place was at Paradigmus, because there were only 5 tracks :) But re- ally high grade I regard to the _last_ place at Paradox'2002. What do you feel when your track is playing on a party? Are you con- cerned with sound equipment, peop- le that vote or it doesn't bother you much? The sound is very important - I use refinements of YM2149F chip. I attended Paradigmus and accepted the sound, though it was played by AY Emul. The point is, that the old version of AY Emul plays gentle envelope with the stunning hiss, but big speakers lowered this hiss till the merely pleasant level. It (and the amplifier, used in a TV set) gave an opportunity to hear a sound at all, because it was almost 30 times quieter than average AY track, i.e. it is he- ared, generally speaking, not at every home gear :) I have no hope to the public, conniving it's tas- tes is not my principle. Do you have any interesting ideas about the future of spectrum music? Maybe there are some hardware or software innovations that you would like to have? New ideas could be realised by the means of new methods of editing overlayed channels, drum machines and so on. Maybe it wouldn't be tracking at all. Appearance of 100Hz music is not excluded. It co- uld happen after the mastering of 1st tempo. Anyhow, I already dis- cern 50Hz quantums and trying to defeat it by the envelopes... What is the most interesting as- pect in spectrum music composing for you -to perfect your skills within the bounds of one 'style' or 'genre', or to continue the thorny path of experiments with so- und and techniques? I'am writing completely randomly and can't answer this question. Can you tell us some your original ideas that you want to realize in your music, maybe you want to make a demo or a game soundtrack, may be just to try what you have never tried yet, the new field of apply- ing your talent? I already have an experience in de- signing magazines and games :) What I want, is to complete majori- ty of my tracks to the level, when it could be listenable. Then it wo- uld become the common property of people. What do you think about co-operati- ve composing, is it interesting for you? Yes, I co-operatively composed qui- te often (live and in absentia). For example, a lot of John's tracks, starting from 2001 were written in my presence and usually contain one or two my notes and a pair of samples :) and almost all my tracks, written in the begin- ning of 2002 were edited by Macros. Whom would you like to make music with? Please name 3 authors among the contemporary spectrum musici- ans that you like most. Nik-O, C-Jeff, Miguel. Can you say some words of advise for those musicians who are just starting out? My friends! Compose music, that will help you to understand it better, and to perceive many deta- ils of life through it. If your mu- sic is turning out bad - do not despair. Our music is called ama- teur. The major part of mankind doesn't even know about it - you wouldn't find the name of Ironman or Nik-O even in the most thick dictionary and wouldn't hear it even at the most alternative radio channels. But it pushes people not lesser than that, commercial, and not lesser than the other, eli- tist. That is because it is liste- ned by people, who can really find something in it. Be afraid to go the way, pointed by herd.