MUSIC FORUM ----------- Welcome to Issue 10's Music section. I must thank my mate Al Brimble for yet again supplying us with good music again and for the continuation of the Midi article that was featured in Issue by Bjorn Lynne/Norway. It's strange that I don't get too much response on the music front apart from good friends of mine, where are all you Amiga musicians??? People who have their work featured on Newsflash have the opportunity to get an instant worldwide audience and this has led to work due to software companies getting in touch with the musicians and that means money! I was most pleased to hear from Richard Van Der Veen, from Holland who is better known under his alias of "The DJ" who gained notoriety for two classic Amiga scores including the legendary Ivory Towers when he produced music for the demo-coders 'Fashion'. Soon after this he headed off and did 12 months service in the Dutch army, in Vietnam.. fortunatly he survived and is now back creating nice music with Sidmon amongst other things. (check out his first Sidmon effort on Newsflash 8). Richard is also after commercial work and we look forward to hearing more from this promising musician. For those who are interested, Richard is 22, comes from Emmen in Holland, has blond hair and is heavily into beer! His favourite music is Vangelis and Jarre. I've had a couple of letters asking why we don't do an 'Amiga Music chart' this is a great idea but for that we'd need response... so if you want to write down your 5 ALL TIME favourite music scores and your 5 ALL TIME favourite music disks and include the name of the artist (if known) and I'll compile a chart - fair enough?? That way we can have an album and singles chart!! Rick Lemon suggested that Bjorn Lynne's GONE FOR GOOD should be top but failed to mention any other scores... If you create a music disk why not send it along for review? We'd love to hear it and give you a plug on here. (We don't distribute any PD disks although we have a range of promotional music disks done with full permission and authorisation). The music featured this time on Newsflash includes some more C64 converts from conversion-master Al Brimble - Commando Hi-Score tune, Crazy Comets and Labello (all originally composed on the C'64 by Rob Hubbard). All were created using Brian Postmas Soundmon 2.0 - the routines used are in fact copyright Brian Postma 1989 and shouldn't be ripped - or featured on Newsflash, the source-code that is... (SORRY!! Brian...) Apart from the C64 conversions (which we'd been asked for more) Allister has another 3 bits on here namely... FOOTBALL TUNE: A lively Ben-Daglish sounding score that uses totally synthesised instruments - yes, even the drums are synthetic! AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER: Allister set out to create a style of piano playing that had 'feeling' - meaning he has attempted to duplicate the soft and playing of a piano and copying keyboard velocities etc. The effect of tinkling the ivories is done well, especially the bit at the end! There's also a little bit of NUK banter at the end of the scroll... :) LATEST SOUNDS: Following on from the technical specs Allister rabbited on about on an earlier Newsflash about his "Never Ending Story" tune, he has included this piece which amply demonstrates his theories. All sounds are synthesised and I think you'll agree they are very realistic considering they are only synthesised and are about 64bytes long or so!! The whole demo including the string art etc (by Brian Postma) is only 6.5K after crunching! I've also previewed Allisters music for the game "Plexu" by Newline, this is very nicely done using synthetic sounds and samples and the 5 pieces are all very well put together especially considering the scores had to be limited to 3 channels - the other reserved for sound effects. Although a new routine to allow soundfx at the same time (using priorities) is now being coded. I also recieved a tape from Allister including a few scores written using his MIDI set-up. His alkaline house score was strange to say the least!! Ok, that's enough music news/banter for this time.. PLEASE send music info and news - as well as your music for review to Newsflash UK, Po Box 13, Ossett, WF5 OXA, England. If anyone would like their work featuring on the top-quality "Best Of..." Newsflash range then drop me a line, currently we have 3 such disks.. The Best of Seb Lentfert, Al Brimble and Bjorn Lynne. All 3 disks are of a very high quality, include details of the artist concerned and hopefully will lead to work for them. Same time, same channel.. tune in next time. Martyn.