Inteview with Dire

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           Dire / Eremation, ex-Ascii Unlimited, ex-The Dark Demon       
                                                                             
                       German editor/ex-trader on Amiga                  
                      English interview by Crown in 1999                 
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown: Handle:                                                               
                                                                             
Dire: Dire ;)                                                                
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown: Group:                                                                
                                                                             
Dire:   Eremation,  an  old,  but  nowadays  unknown group due to inactivity -
friendship rules                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown: Family name:                                                          
                                                                             
Dire: Barbat                                                                 
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown: Given names:                                                          
                                                                             
Dire: Nico                                                                   
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown: Date of birth:                                                        
                                                                             
Dire: 26th July, 1975                                                        
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown: Site Address:                                                         
                                                                             
Dire: http://www.barbat.de/nb/                                               
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:  How did your interest for computers start?  Which year was that?     
                                                                             
Dire:   Back  in 1986 my brother got his first Amiga, a good old A1000.  I was
so  much  fascinated  by  the  possibilities  of this machine that after a few
months  I  got  my  own  Amiga.   It was a great time, playing Combat Pilot in
link-up-mode and beating my brother ;)                                       
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:  What machines did you previously have?  What did you do with them?   
                                                                             
Dire:   First of all I had an A1000, after that an A500, both were mainly used
for  games,  but also for painting with DPaint.  Later I entered the scene and
got more creative.  Actually I own an Amiga 1200D with comfortable 040/050 and
18  MB  RAM.   It's  enough  for  my  purposes.  If there might be a new Amiga
someday, I'll be one of the first to buy one of course hehehe.               
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:   For what specific reason did you end up making music rather than gfx,
coding?                                                                      
                                                                             
Dire:   In  fact  I  would not really call me a musician as I haven't done any
scene  computer  music  for  about  5 years now due to time limits, and I have
always  been more an editor and trader than a sounder.  I am sometimes playing
a  bit  on  my keyboards anyway.  When it comes to music I think it's much fun
composing.   Programming  as  well as painting is quite long-during - you need
much  time  to  come  to  a satisfying end.  When you are doing music, you can
translate  your  inspiration  and ideas directly in a few seconds.  This makes
music so much fun ...                                                        
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:    Which  composing  programs  have  you  been  using?   Which  one  in
particular?                                                                  
                                                                             
Dire:  Well, nothing came over Protracker in the history - 2.2 of course.  All
later  products  were  buggy,  ugly  or difficult to handle.  Of course I also
worked  with  OctaMED  and  nowadays  I  am working with several editors, even
Cubase and Camouflage to carry out the MIDI-functions.                       
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:  With which module did you feel you had reached your goal?            
                                                                             
Dire:   With  the  late  version  of  "Love is so deep".  An early version was
played  on  the  music  competition at Doomsday Party 94, but their soundboxes
were  damaged  so  that  only  two channels were played and the strange module
sounded really ugly ...  I prefer slow mods over techno style.               
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:  Is there a tune you would like not to remember?  For What reason?    
                                                                             
Dire:   Sure.   Anybody  has  ever  composed a tune he absolutely did not like
later.  I first tried to compose some fast and heavy core style modules, but I
more and more found out that techno sucks.                                   
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:  In your opinion, what's the value of a music in a demo, game?        
                                                                             
Dire:   It  surely  gives  the production the final edge of atmosphere - if it
fits  to  the game/demo/etc..  A demo would be nothing without sound.  And the
same  goes  for  games  -  though  I find effects more important than music in
games.  By the way - the most modules included in disk magazines do not fit to
the productions.  Reading and techno - argh.                                 
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:   At  present,  are  you  still composing?  For professional or leisure
purposes?                                                                    
                                                                             
Dire:   Meanwhile  I  am  more concentrating on writing, i.e.  for a big print
magazine  here  in  Germany.  I am also working on a computer game, where I am
involved  in  the concept and coding as well as in the music.  For the scene I
do  not  find time to compose unfortunately.  Rather Ghandy/Darkage and me are
pushing  ahead Scenet, a big url and email collection.Just click www.scenet.de
to get to the scene gateway.                                                 
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:    What   do   you   think   of   today's   pieces  of  music  such  as
mpeg,wave,midi,etc...?                                                       
                                                                             
Dire:   I  use  MIDI  quite  long  and it is a good thing.  MP3 is okay, but I
prefer real scene music :)                                                   
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:  Could you tell us some of your all times favourite tunes?            
                                                                             
Dire:   My  absolutely  favourite  is  "Face another day" by Jogeir Liljedahl.
This  one is a 17 minutes slow musicmodule masterpiece.  Everybody should know
it.   I like most of the works from Jogeir, Subject and PSL.  When it comes to
chip music, nobody beats Curt Cool.                                          
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:   Are  you  planning  to  make  an  audio  cd  with  some of your music
remastered?                                                                  
                                                                             
Dire:  No.  I do not want to get on your nerves :)                           
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:  What bands are you currently listenning to?                          
                                                                             
Dire:   Oh,  easy  question, fast answer:  Rolling Stones, REM, a-ha, Cure.  I
also  like  the  music  style  of  Sixth  Pence  none the Richer or Crash Test
Dummies.   But  their  music  is  pressed  down  by  hip  hop  and  dancefloor
absurdities.                                                                 
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:  What does/did the Amiga/C64 scene give you?                          
                                                                             
Dire:  It gives me much fun working on and watching scene productions.  I also
got to know good friends.  What more should one expect ...                   
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:  Are you still active in the scene these days?                        
                                                                             
Dire:   Yep,  as said above I am working on Scenet together with Ghandy.  I am
organizing  the  Cologne  Conference together with Evrimsson and Ghandy and of
course I like visiting some of the good (real scene) parties ...             
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Crown:  Anyone to greet?  Anything left to say?  Feel free...                
                                                                             
Dire:   We  all  know  it  has  been  a  hard  time for the Amiga.  Anyway the
community was kept together by the scene.  Thanks to all who kept loyal to the
Amiga!  Also greetings to my good old friends in the scene of course.  See you
all in the year 2000 :)                                                      
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
Interview taken from http://scenet.de                      }