News from THE GATHERING 1993 in Oslo, Norway ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *StarShip* News Network Special Report Copyright (c) 1993 The *StarShip* ______ (__ __) by Eric ("SideWinder") Gieseke / / / / (_/he Gathering, an annual get-together of Europe's best and greatest Amiga talent, was held in April in Oslo, Norway, sponsored by the Euro-Demo Group, Crusaders. This year, The Gathering attracted over 3,000 Amiga enthusiasts, the largest group ever in attendance since its start three years ago. New Amiga products from Europe were displayed, as well as a contest for best animations, demos, MODs and pictures. Grand prizes in each catagory varied from $1000 to $2500, with many incredible entries on display, pushing the Amiga to new frontiers. This year's winners wowwed and impressed the crowds, with First Place in the Graphics/Audio Demo category going to the mighty Kefrens for their production "The Desert Dream," an impressive animation/music extravaganza lasting almost 15 minutes. ______________________________________________________________ / \ | Winning Euro-Demo in the *StarShip* Library! | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | | "The Desert Dream" -- The Gathering's First Place Winning | | Euro-Demo -- incorporating fabulous 3D graphics, music | | and synchronized sound effects, is absolutely perfect for | | amazing your friends! This 2-disk set can be downloaded | | from the *StarShip* Library: | | | | Files 19354 DESERTDREAM_1.DMS and 19363 DESERTDREAM_2.DMS | | | | Big downloads -- and well worth it! | \______________________________________________________________/ The Demo "SPEED" by Sim/Razor grabbed Second Place. This fast 3-disk German 3D animation/mini-movie production also had great music and sound effects. Third Place went to "Destinations Unknown" by SPACEBALLS, the guys that brought us the famous "State of the Art" Demo. Simply brilliant! It's demos like these that push the Amiga beyond known limits, and show the world what our favorite computer is capable of producing. Many times I have convinced friends and associates to buy an Amiga just by loading up a Euro-Style Demo, music MODule or one of the Trackers like MED, or Pro-Tracker. And I've seen what happens when you put an eye-popping Demo on an Amiga in a store, instead of pointing at a potential customer with that pretty Workbench hand. One can only imagine what these Euro-teams are cooking up on the new AGA machines, and hopefully we won't have to wait a whole year for next year's Gathering to find out. The MOD Music Scene Music on the Amiga is becoming one of the most talked about topics in the computer world, mainly due to the growing popularity of MODs. Amiga music MODules now can be played on just about any PC, Mac or Atari, and even on workstations, plus of course our native Amigas. If some of these MODs were recorded professionally, they'd be smash hits on the radio or on title tunes for some show on television. Of course, they are 8-bit now, but with the release of new DSP chip, hopefully sometime this year, the Amiga will enter the domain of 16-bit, 16-32 track digital recording, essentially all the power of MOD tracking but with many times more channels, and CD-quality 16-bit plus live digital effects. This would be a most affordable pro-music workstation all in one computer, making direct CD-mastering from an Amiga a very real possibility. Composing with MED or Pro-Tracker on a standard Amiga is pretty hot, but toss in DSP support and watch the temperature rise by a couple hundred degrees creating a whole new market in the proccess for musicians on all spectrums of the music scene, from hobbyists to seasoned pros. The Amiga would then open up whole new world to many musicians around the world! Amiga MOD Music Legends Out of the Amiga music scene in the last few years have come some incredible music MODs and, of course, the people who composed them. You'll find these folks doing the 'MOD thing' for commercial projects such as entertainment software, for competitions in Euro-Style Demos, and just for the fun making music! There are a lot of great MOD composers around the world, most of them in Europe though there are some fantastic musicians in the USA too, like Maruko and Death Jester, both from Texas. My personal favorites and those I look up to the most include... Bjorn "Dr. Awesome" Lynne who lives in Oslo, Norway. This ex-Crusaders musician is simply one of the best and most accomplished Amiga musicians around, with CDs, tapes and even a movie soundtrack to his credit. He still occasionally makes a new MOD on his Amiga but he's more active now on the 16-bit synthesizer and studio scene. He has over 50 MODs released. Jim "U4ia" Young is another living MOD legend. This guy is from Bristol, England, and has composed well over 50 MODs of an amazing variety and style, from classical to pop to Techno and beyond. Jim's music can be found all over the world on most Amiga bulletin boards. Chris Hulsbeck is one of the pioneers of computer music. From the early days of the C=64 3-voice SID chip through the years into modern Amiga MODs, Chris has composed hundreds of songs and even written his own music program to compose special 7-voice MODs. Currently residing in Germany, Chris has also done music for some of the hottest games ever seen on the Amiga. HeatBeat of REBELS is one of the hottest MOD stars in the World -- even though he's only 16 years old! He started writing MODs at age 13, and by 14 was already a legend in the Euro-Demo scene. Living in Finland, he has composed over 75 MODs, and the quality and style of his music is amazing. Better known in Europe, a lot of his stuff is being sent over the ocean for our listening satisfaction. Captain of IMAGE -- the man behind the all-time best MODs, Space Debris and Beyond Music -- is a Finish composer who has left the MOD scene for a TECHNO Band called "Dance Nation" where you can hear some of his awesome composing skills in action. He didn't make many MODs, but those he did are breath-taking. I also HAVE to mention guys like Romeo-Knight, who wrote the famous Bossendorfer Piano MOD, which is a must-hear, and many other nice MODs, and also Audio-Monster, who makes MODs that sound incredibly movie/spacey-like with great atmosphere from sampled sounds. There are others, of course, and I wish I knew the real names of these composers, though they're more famous by their aliases, anyway -- and, of course, their fine musical MOD talents. The Amiga MOD scene continues to change and evolve as new technologies and opportunities become available to MOD composers, and new audiences tune in and discover... the 'MOD thing.' Much thanks to my favorite local board here in San Antonio TX, Amiga INC., for supplying the latest European Demos, MODs and other assorted treasures from around the world. Their number is 210/662-7669. Stayed Tuned and Keep Track'in! [found on google groups -- msg ID <01GYD9B0S7LU8WWER0@ITHACA.BITNET>]