Inteview with Dredd

found inTypeAuthorYear
downloadGrapevine 08Diskmagazine
LSD
AMB - Ajazz - Andy - ...
a2/92
        DREDD AND MARC SPEAKS


           by Dredd/Equinox
      and Marc Panther/Soundwave


I was sent this for Grapevine, and to
be honest, i'm not sure how to
catergorise it, not quite an
interview, or it could be one with
both Marc and Dredd, therea a lot of
noisetracker help also, Well... read
it and see!


Sometime ago I asked my very good
friend Dredd of Equinox to type me
some scroll text for a new tune i was
gonna release but  when I read through
it, I thought it was too good, so i
thought I would submit it to
Grapevine.  So it's Dredd of Equinox
at the controls for a second time!
You all thought you'd got rid of me
but you were wrong!
Over to Dredd...

What can I woffle on about this time?

Films:-
1)  Dead Again - A pretty good film
with a neat twist.  It's a thriller
based on Hitchcock's style of films.
I've taken 2 different girls to see
this film and they both liked it so
give it a try guys!

2)  Point Break -  I saw this a few
months ago at the film festival
"Black Sunday 6" (Hello everyone who
went!). It's a cool film!  Yep, I
admit to liking a Patrick Swayze film,
it features some good stunt work, some
violence, surfing and skydiving.
3)  The Fisher King  - A bloody weird
film but what do you expect from Terry
Gilliam?  There's fantasy, humour,
madness, romance and misfortune all
rolled into one film.  Robin Williams
is cool and fits perfectly.  Watch out
for the very funny scene in the
restaurant!  One of those films you
have just got to see.

Music:-
1)  Tasty Fish (The Other Two) - Great
debut single from Steve and Gillian of
New Order fame.  Typical good use of
synths to create a wicked beat.
Should be number 1!  -Yeah I agree
this is worth a listen especially with
the head phones on (Marc)-.

2)  Radio Song (R.E.M.) - Yet another
release from the brilliant "Out Of
Time" album.  Not as lyrically strong
as the other tracks but still worth a
listen.

3)  Habibi (System 7) - If you like
dance music then check this out. The
cd single features a 10 minute mix.

4)  The Unforgiven (Metallica) -
What's this Metallica playing a slow
song? and they still piss on all the
other metal bands!  If you like metal
you should have already bought this!

5)  The Girl with the Loneliest Eyes
(House Of Love) - The House of Love
are back!  Good to see Chadwick
releasing material as good as that
featured on the debut album.

6)  Tomorrow's Tears (Cranes) - A band
whose lead singer has one hell of a
weird voice.  Strange at first but you
soon get to appreciate it. If you like
different music this maybe up your
street.

7)  After the Watershed (Carter USM) -
Looks like Carter aren't relying on
the technology as much.  One of their
most accomplished releases so far.
just think they're getting even
better!


          -= SHOW REPORT =-

I went to the show in London.  On the
way down we got caught in the first
class section of the train and had to
pay 3 quid, we usually just get moved
to second class! bitch eh?

By the time we got to the show MDS and
SPG were both dying for a piss so I
gave them money to get my ticket while
I went to the bank for some cash.  I
walked down to the nearest bank which
wasn't far but all the machines were
empty so I ended up running 2 miles
down the fuckin' road to go to the
next bank!

MDS and SPG thought i'd got lost!  The
show was ok but nothing  special.
Hello to Sab (Glad I didn't go on the
waltzer after you!) Zigor and all the
others we met down there!).  One thing
which I liked about the show was the
forum, where people could ask the
personalities questions.  I
particularly liked the part where
someone asked when First Samurai would
be out and the guy said "In about a
month or (pointing to some crackers)
you could get a copy off these guys!"
-was he pointing at some LSD members
(Marc). -No, Pazza!-

Another question asked was whether the
PC would take over the Amiga and the
personalities said yes, basing their
answer on the ever increasing speeds
of the Intel X86 series of processors.
They said that the PC was crap but due
to the great speed advantage it would
overtake the Amiga.  Well I think this
is bullshit since IBM and Apple have
just announced that they are to form a
partnership and produce the next
series of PC's using Motorolla RISC
chips!  Now everyone knows that the
Amiga uses Motorolla chips so it would
be natural for them to use the new
chips when they appear making the
Amiga the superior machine!  In fact
there are rumours that Commodore
have been experimenting with RISC
based Amiga!  By the way the women on
the System 3 stand were fit!

There were some very weird people in
London like the guy wearing the blue
velvet jacket with black fur trimings!
Why do all the people on the tube just
stare into thin air as if they were
high? -You shouldn't fart then dredd
(marc)- Anyway by the time it was time
to catch the train back, my legs
were killing (Mainly from the run!)
and I was glad of the rest on the
train but it turned out to be a bit
longer than we had anticipated!  You
guessed it, the train was delayed!  We
were stuck in rugby for almost an
hour!  What a day!
-You should have gone by car dredd it
would have been alot quicker (marc)-

Quick Joke: Why do French policemen
use roman numerals for their coller
number?
Because they'd look stupid using
French letters!

I suppose I better do the boring
greets now!  -No, no you can't you
can't have greets it looks silly Well
if Pazza decides to delete the
following it's not my fault!  But
maybe if it's worded like this you
might get away with it (Marc)-

Special late xmas greets to (no order)
Marc Panther (hope you stick this text
with your best music!)  ha!  -I went
one better than that as you can see!
(Marc)-
Joanna, Elaine, Claire, MDS,
Hulmerist, Sabbath, Carlos (I'll send
soon now that I have spare disks!),
Jari, Shredder, Corofil, Polyphony
Rubber Bung and Captain Blood.
Normal late Xmas greets to (no order):
Suky, Alex, Stv, Devistator,
Supersonic, Craze (See comment for
Carlos!), Peter, Soleman, Tally,
Yoyo, Legend, Mojo, Stv, Manny.

Right now can I have a kip? (19/11/91)


Let's do it again.........

Cheers Dredd, yet another very
interesting type-up, now it's my turn
how many guys/gals on the Amiga scene
read the scroll text in a music -
intro - or Megademo all the way to the
end?  Not many I guess, most of you
would say well it just depends on the
demo - intro etc.  And have you ever
wondered why people put their greets
at the end of their scroll text.  Well
it wont take you long to figure that
one out!

I would like to know why musicians are
thought of as 3rd best?  You must have
seen loadsa productions with the
credits as follows;
Coded.......
gfx.........
music.......and thats how it's always
been from the early days.  Granted the
coder is more important than the gfx
and the sfx guys and it is he that
puts everything together so it's
mainly his decission what goes where
and the order of credit.  I say it's a
joint production as a intro or demo
ect with-out gfx and sfx wouldn't look
much unless the coder is multi-
tallented and they are but very few.

Does anybody have Technosound Turbo
v2.9 or Music Box?  Gimmee


Does anybody have MS DOS5 (On 5-1/4
for the PC)? or Highspeed Pascal (by
Hisoft the makers of Devpac) Highspeed
Pascal for the Amiga is suposed to be
as fast as Turbo Pascal 5 on the PC.
A claimed compiling 20000 lines per
minute on a A500.

I was going through a few demo/intros
this month and I came across a party
invite demo called SB23C Bash by Soc.
Brigade and I thought it was well cool
the music was really together (music
by Erno/SB and coded by ADT/SB) if you
haven't seen it you will find it on
LSD Addiction pack 145 it's worth a
look hear.  Also checkout the new
extensors demo called "Hypnautic
Hammer II", but you'll have to wait a
short while to hear the techno-music
turn out the lights for the cool
effects.

I have had a few letters asking if I
can help with music based problems I
can't answer them all here as i'd be
typing till next Xmas of 1992 but here
for the benifit of a few are a few
problems answered.

Hi Marc,
When i'm doing some sampling I seem to
get a back ground hiss which i've
tried to get rid of, I re-sampled and
re-sampled but the result is always
the same, sometimes it can be only
heard when I listen to the playback
through headphones.  Also as i'm
having problems do ya think you can
send me some of your soundwave
samples?  Please!
Answer:
The only answer to this problem is
filtering most of the samples used in
soundwaves tunes are filtred with
Dolby B and C, I would use Audiomaster
III sample editor you can get rid of
most of the back ground hiss, you
didn't mention what you were sampleing
from but try Audiomaster.  As for the
soundwave samples yeah sure let me
know what sample instruments you want
but I hope this is not an excuse for
not sorting that sampling problem
because you should be able to cure
most if not all of the background
hiss.

Hi Marc,
I'm just starting to compose music on
the amiga what is the best player
editor to use as i'm confussed as one
of my contacts told me I should use
Protracker and another contact told me
Noisetracker which is the better of
the two to start on.

Answer:
I have to be carefull here as some
musicians reading this will disagree
as some use Protracker and some use
Noisetracker.  I find that both are
good although Protracker could use a
few things more (I wrote to the Amiga
masters submitting a few ideas as they
ask for any comments but I got no
reply), Noisetracker has a few bugs
(so has Protracker all versions) what
i'd do is play around with one then
the other then decide, if your
wondering which I tend to use the most
I can tell you Noisetracker and if
anybody wants to know why?  You'll
have to write and ask me.

Yo Marc,
I have problems keeping a beat going
in my tunes how can I avoid not doing
this?  Also can you tell me what is
the best way to start a good tune ?

Answer:
You can do two things to keep a beat
going (I asume you are using
Noisetracker or Protracker) click on
record and using a drum sample tap out
a beat and play it back if you're
clever enough you can count in your
mind in between the drum sample or the
lazy way would be to use edit a count
the number of lines in between the
drum sample.  The other thing is to
buy (I hate that word) a metronome (I
bet not many Amiga musicians have one
of these!).

The answer to your second question is
most musicians work on their
percussion (drums/cymbols/claps/
toms/ect) If you are clever you can
work on your bass line or cords first
(depending on what sort of tune you
are composing) and if your really
really clever you can do your lead
melody/tune first but you might find
that a bit difficult as its not that
easy.  If you still cant get your tune
together send it to me and i'll help
ya out no problem!

Hi Marc,
How do you change the volume of a
individual note without altering
the sample volume and will it work
with midi instruments?

Answer:
This is how it's done Steve

b-2 01000--- 00000
b-1 01c20 <--this is how you decrease
--- 00000    the volume of an
             individual
--- 00000    note by using the c
             command
b-2 01000    i.e C00 to C40 to build
             up the maximum volume or
             C40 to C00 from maximum
             to minimum, grouping them
             altogether like this.
b-2 01c40 <--produces volume slide
--- 00c35 <--on a sustaned sample
--- 00c30 <--or looped sample.
--- 00c25 <--this also works in
--- 00c20 <--reverse and it is
--- 00c15 <--called crescendo/
--- 00c10 <--decrescendo.

or like this...


b-2 01a40
b-1 01a35
b-2 01a30
... etc

Using the "a" command for volume slide
gives a smoother sound.  Using the "a"
command has no effect on Midi but as
far as I can remember using the "c"
command you can override the default
volume of the instrument.

example:
C-2 04000
--- 00a01
--- 00a02
--- 00A01
--- 00A01
--- 00000
--- 00000
C-1 04000
... etc
Yo Marc
Can you tell me any pattern tricks or
effects that I can try that are
not in the instructions of
Noisetracker/ Protracker?  I've sent
ya some of my latest tunes, tell me
what ya think!  Please don't spread
'em because there gonna be used in our
future productions.

Answer:
Hi Paul, first of all thanx for
sending me some of your tunes, of
course i'm not the guy to tell ya that
your music is rubbish and you must be
tone deaf he-he-he, (just joking)
Anyway Paul what I was trying to
say was I can give you my opinion but
thats it as most of the music i've
done some of it I consider is rubbish
you might come to the same conclusion
i'll send ya some of my music and you
can tell me which you ones you like
and what you consider rubbish.  I
think most musicians like their very
first tunes.  He-he-ha-ha-ha, I know I
don't!  Your tunes are great and I
won't spread them in fact i'm gonna
put them into my music collection.  As
for tricks or effects I dunno what to
tell you but wait, what about this;

Example A     Example B

C-1 01000     C-2 02000
C-1 01000     C-2 02000
C-1 01000     --- 00000
C-1 00000     --- 00000
C-2 01000     C-1 02000
C-2 00000     C-1 00000
E-1 01000     --- 00000
E-1 00000     --- 00000
F-1 01000     C-3 03000
F-1 00000     C-3 03000
A-1 01000     --- 00000
A-1 00000     --- 00000
A-1 01000     C-3 03000
A-1 00000     C-3 00000
C-1 01000     --- 00000
C-1 00000     --- 00000

Spot the differance between example A
and B, both when run on Noisetracker
or Protracker will sound exactly the
same as long as the instrument number
remains the same you can change the
note as many times you like it will
still play.  If you want to use the C
command you have to include the
instrument number.

If any musician reading who has any
tips or special pattern effects or
would like to give any advice to other
musicians that read Grapevine or if
your a musician wanting to get player
editors/player source or if you are
looking for a sample or samples, why
not write to me or Grapevine and if I
get enough responce from you other
musicians I will run a regular
article.  It's up to you out there,
all the above questions I was asked a
while ago but I didn't have the
time to answer them fully.  I have had
alot of musicians asking about
freelance music work, I hope to be
answering some of the questions in the
next issue of Grapevine so if you have
something to say you know what to do

I have had quite alot of letters in
the past asking me if i know how to
sort this and that problem out
(musically based of course) one of the
most common is how to ripp music using
a ripper the answer to this question
is easy follow the instructions and if
you can't sus it out you have got
problems.

Which nicely brings me to the article
in Grapevine 5 about what Pazza (hi
Martin) said about ripping music and
doing cli menu compilations I agree
100% about what was said.  it's even
worse if they dont credit you for
ripping/using your music.  Most small
groups haven't got a coder they might
have a musician or a graphic artist if
the musician wants to release his own
tunes what can he do but use a PD
player and compile his tunes with
maybe an ansii logo and a dos menu
with setmaps.  What most groups tend
to do is rip tunes add a couple of
their own and throw in a boot menu or
coded file menu is this acceptable?
Or is it just as bad as the guy who
rips music and dos files them I
suppose;

a) If a group or individual member of
a group releases a disk with music
ripped from intros or demos weather it
has a clis menu or coded menu is it
considerd lame?

b) If a group or individual member of
a group releases a disk with music
ripped from intros or demos and
including some tunes added by the
groups own musician weather it has a
cli menu or coded menu is it also
consided lame?  If anybody knows the
answer they can write to Grapevine as
I surely don't know as (a) is the same
as (b) the only differance is (b) has
had music/tunes added by the group who
released the disk.  Maybe the readers
of Grapevine like to comment on this?

Well i'd like to make a comment on
another thing greets.  You have
noticed that most group greets are not
in special order why?  Whats the
difference as long as you get greeted
weather your 1st or last!  Why not
tell the scene who is your best
swapper it might give your other
contacts an incentive to become
better.

If you are one of the fortunate guys
to get the same stuff 8-10 times each
week and you have to write/type lists
out why not put an advert in Grapevine
saying message to all my contacts I
swap with these guys (give their
name/group) don't send me any stuff by
their group or them as I get their
stuff direct, simple, this will
hopefully prevent you from getting the
same stuff 8-10 times and you
shouldn't have to write/type so much
on your lists.  Plus you will be
advertising yourself as a good swapper
as other Grapevine readers will see
how active you are!

Has anybody out there got any sheet
music if so i wouldn't mind a
photocopy and if you collect/swap
sheet music (i'm the very first
to do this!)  I will send you some in
return.  But please note i'm not into
swapping samples ripped from the PD
Soundtracker (ST:01-ST:10 etc).

Well drastic news the Post Office sent
me two letters, the first was a letter
from a girl I write to, hi jill, the
2nd package, well what was left of it
should of contained stuff from my long
time friend simon of EOC 1999.  I was
informed by the PO that a mailbag was
stolen from the local postie and guess
what?  Some of my mail had been
nicked.  But days later they cought
they guys responsible as they tried
to cash the stolen giro's.

Did you know the PO will cough up a
total of £24 maximum if you have lost
post.  Yep if you've posted some disks
off and they haven't reached the
intended reciever (and i'm sure it's
happened to some of you out there!).
here's what you do, goto your nearest
PO ask the post master for a claim
form and if he asks why just tell
him that you suspect that a parcel/
package/envelope has gone missing and
you want to claim.  Take the form fill
it in either at the PO (if you have
all the information with you) or at
home, take it back to the local PO
were you got the claim form from and
hand it to the post master.  If you
are thick and you don't know what
sections to fill in on the form just
explain to the postmaster that you are
as thick as a dockers sandwich and you
need help. (he will show you what
parts to fill in).  In a couple of
days you should get a letter from the
PO saying something like this...

Dear MR?
Thank you for your enquiry of
(whatever month/date you put in
your claim) about the problems you
have been experiencing with Royal Mail
services.  The matter is recieving
attension and I will be in touch with
you again as soon as possible.  In the
meantime, should you wish to contact
me, please telephone or write quoting
the reference number which you should
find at the top left of this letter.
Yours Sincerely

Postman Pat & his Black and White Cat.

Customer Care Dept.

Well, that concludes this small(!)
article, I hope you've enjoyed
reading it.

My address, if you wanna contact me
with reference to the music article

             Marc Panther
           24 Dunmail Road
              Wrensfild,
               Newtown,
              Stockton,
         Cleveland TS19-0BH.

A belated Happy New Year.
End.