Back in 1984, a little cTrix began writing chipmusic on a Commodore 64. In 1991 he shifted to the Amiga with it’s mind-boggling 4 channels of digital 8bit sound and 512k ram. Armed with 10 seconds of sample memory he explored a world of house music, power funk and ’90s rave through collecting disks of samples from computer swap meets and bulletin boards.

Blip: How did you first become aware of the possibility of creating art using vintage hardware or using vintage equipment?

What a question to start! May as well just give you the story.

Being born in 1980 I grew up during the C64 / Amiga / early PC era. I got a C64 in 1983 and a year later got music software for it. I spent hours making crazy noises by combining notes and instruments at fast tempos. So technically I was 4yo and aware of “vintage” (aka cutting edge) hardware for making art! By the time I was 11 we had both Commodore and PC machines (my dad was an engineer) and we also had image digitizer boards (black and white), a scanner and the first Sound Blaster. So naturally I started using them creatively.

Getting software wasn’t easy in 1990. You would go to the local computer enthusiasts swap meet and pester the people at the shareware tables to get certain software for you. Many floppies had listings of what else was on a given BBS so you would write a list of ZIP/ARJ files you wanted, add up how many KB it took, then hand over the list along with 2 weeks pocket money for the floppy disks. And thus started my collection of tools, MOD files, samples and sprite libraries!

By 1991 I’d sourced a tracking program and began making Amiga MOD files using the samples I’d collected and also sampling from songs on the radio and my guitar / drum machine. I grew up making cassettes for my friends and family of Amiga MODs and MIDI tunes and often tracked guitar and vocals over the top with a 4-track. It was all pretty lo-fi but fun working with those limitations.

I also obtained Lightwave and Deluxe Paint and made low quality animation loops that I could sync together with music. I eventually came across the demoscene in the early 90’s which changed everything. Suddenly I was watching full screen motion graphics with 3D elements which (at the time) was only something a “million dollar super computer” could do! I’ve followed the demoscene since then and many of the associated competitions include chip music categories.

In the late 1990s everything came down in price dramatically. Especially hard disk recording equipment. Suddenly there were no limitations in polyphony or tracks HOWEVER… cheap + value = crashes. And a lack of reliability. Eventually I fell victim to a crash on my trusty MC505 all-in-one sequencer box. I lost everything I’d worked on for about 6 years and the backup had failed. I had recordings of shows, but nothing I could play out live anymore. My sampler was still packed with sounds so for “old times sake” I decided I’d do some tracking. While looking for trackers I found vast advances in software for the C64, ST and PC. Then a mate handed me a DMG thus I started tracking on LSDJ too. The chip software is rock solid too.

So my revisiting of (the now) “vintage” computer was born out of a longing to work back within a simple stable environment where everything boots quick, is fun to write in, and easy to backup. I get to flip between lots of sounds for effect and program drum sounds again, so it’s a throw back to the fun I used to have as a kid with a C64. I still see an Amiga (especially) as a cutting edge machine.

Blip: What kinds of influences do you draw upon to make your work?

The demoscene and tracks from demo chip compos are a huge one. I, like many chip artists, also listen to a wide range of music spanning electronic, rock and acoustic. I also love going to events like outdoor dance parties where you are in the middle of a forrest with a top-end sound system blasting out amazing music. You can stand in the sweet spot between the speakers in a perfect listening environment and suck up hours of crazy tunes that you have never heard from a DJ who has spent months searching for new material. I often go on writing sprees after events like those.

Blip: Who are your favorite musicians?

Bobby McFarren, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Miles Tackett, Steve Via, Brubeck, Miles Davis, Hendrix, the Shulman brothers… to name a few. I won’t name chip artists because I’ll miss someone!! But I do like the chip artists who write well composed music or (in the case of techno) come up with cool combinations of sounds and spend some time sequencing their tracks.

Blip: What type of tools do you use to create your work?

Lots! But here is a list:

LSDJ (Gameboy)
Goat Tracker (Commodore 64)
ProTracker (Amiga 500)
OctaMED (Amiga 1200)
MODPlug (PC – often for Amiga MOD files)
Atari-x-MOD (Atari 2600)
Lynx Chipper (Atari Lynx)
DASM Macro Assembler (lots of platforms)
Disaster Area Tiny Synth (PC)
Untitled soft synth for making efficient music for PC 4kb demos.

Synths: MC202, Yamaha DX7, Prophet 600, Juno 106, Kawai MP9000 and a DSI Mopho. I generally sample notes from these for Amiga tracks.

Reaper (for mixing / recording)
Cool Edit (as a wave editor)

Blip: What do you think of the scene as a whole?

The chip is awesome. Everyone is so friendly and slightly crazy also. The last time I visited New York I stayed for a month and crashed with chip artists for the entire trip! Some of the people I stayed with I’d met maybe once? Like wise, we host people when they come to Australia and I know they do the same in Europe. There is so much love for the chip scene by all involved and a general sense of excitement generated though making tunes.

Blip: Do you feel your music is representative of it, or exists in opposition to the community?

I guess my Gameboy and C64 tracks are what I’d classify as chip music material that “fits” our scene BUT funnily enough I’ve been requested to play an Amiga set at Blip. My whole mission on the Amiga (since I got back into it in 2005) was to make music that didn’t sound like it could possibly be playing from an Amiga! My newer music has samples from C64/DMG/2600 and hand drawn waveforms so it sounds a little more “chip-orientated”. I’ve also gone back to my old sample disks from the 90′s to get some more retro sounds happening. Silly really.

Blip: What are your hopes for the future of the chipscene?

That we keep getting newcomers who have access to the hardware based sequencers. LSDJ, NanoLoop, FamiTracker, Protracker, AdlibTracker, NinjaTracker, Harmony Cart, LGPT… the list could go on! And that we keep the actual vintage hardware running in the future too. You need the real machines so it enforces it’s oddities and limitations on your musical style. We are in an awesome age where everything is still affordable and just about holding together with some TLC so I hope that the people with stockpiles of DMGs and C64′s keep sharing them out to the Nubees when the prices skyrocket! Because when you are a kid at school with limited pocket money, an older chip musician going “here, borrow a DMG, I’ll show you how it works” might be the most magic thing that can happen for them.

In general, I hope that the chipscene remains to be a bunch of inspired and fun people who love what they do and are proud of the community to which they belong. And I have no doubt that this will be the case well into the future.

cTrix is playing 5/20 at 1240am with visuals by  m7kenji

Tags: cTrix