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- ¾¾ The "Art of MED" (version 1.2): MED v.3.00 Music + Graphics ¾¾
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- ¾¾ Introduction by disk-producer: Alex Van Starrex ¾¾
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- Welcome to a new version of the "Art of MED" - my "ultimate" music-disk
- to date. This is the third version of the disk that has appeared, following
- its release in various countries around the world; and, in keeping with the
- (unfortunate) need I find to occasionally revise my disks, I've released it
- as "shareware". Owners of this and previous versions of "Art of MED" should
- register (by letter) with me, in order to receive details of future updates
- (and of new releases in the "AVS-Amiga" disk-range, generally).
-
- The main change to previous versions of this disk is the "clean" sound.
- This has come about by adjusting the instrument-levels (and the songs as a
- whole) through a set of external bookshelf-sized speakers, plugged into the
- monitor's headphone-jack. I started using this system to enhance my Amiga's
- output a few weeks ago, but it was Richard Ramella at Jumpdisk magazine who
- got me thinking about changing my music to suit this system - by commenting
- on the "over-emphasis" of the rhythm in the songs. Although I'm not so sure
- about the cleaner/weaker sound, the songs are certainly easier to listen to
- in this format.
-
- ----------------------------
-
- Listeners who are used to the usual "three-minute attention-span" type
- of music found in Amiga demo-disks will be in for a - hopefully pleasant -
- surprise when they listen to these works. The songs range in length from 10
- to almost 65 minutes before repeating - for a total (non-repeating) time of
- 5 to 6 hours! Of course, I've also tried to make the songs entertaining for
- their duration, which is assisted by having the "Sizzlers" graphics program
- on board.
-
- "Sizzlers" is one of my favourite Amiga programs, and its ever-changing
- screens complement these songs extremely well - though I'd advise users of
- this disk to search-around until they find a screen that matches the music
- they are currently listening-to. And of course both graphics and songs will
- multitask with other Workbench-driven projects.
-
- Instructions for running the songs and the "Sizzlers" program are found
- in the "Docs" drawer of this disk, together with details of other disks in
- the "AVS-Amiga" range. The documents have been separated from the programs
- in order to minimise disk-access time: users will soon become familiar with
- the disk-operations, anyway.
-
- ----------------------------
-
- Owners of half-magabyte machines might have trouble running "Sizzlers"
- and the larger songs at the same time, due to the fact that MED-Songs must
- de-compress in memory in order to play - and "Sizzlers" doesn't return all
- its memory to the system. One way to minimise such effects is to "screen-
- switch" instead of escaping from "Sizzlers", to change songs (though songs
- take much longer to load if "Sizzlers" is running).
-
- Those who enjoy this disk are encouraged to send copies to any Amiga-
- owning friends, as well as disk-swapping partners and local Public-Domain
- distributors. I would request that anyone wanting to make substantial use
- of the contents (especially for commercial-purposes) contact me first, in
- order to avoid problems with licence or copyright-infringement.
-
- ----------------------------
-
- Before I go, I'd like to mention a few other things about the songs.
- They were composed with MED version 3.00, the latest version (and now the
- best music-sequencer available for the Amiga). It would be impossible to
- create music of this scope and variety with any other "SoundTracker" type
- program (let alone any other Amiga music-program). So "hats off" to MED's
- programmer Teijo Kinnunen, who I have also found to an keen supporter of
- my work - his forwarding to me of a copy of MED v.3.00 led to me creating
- these songs.
-
- The other primary influence in the creation of these songs came about
- as the result of a trip to Japan, which I undertook early in 1991. People
- say that "travel broadens the mind" - which is, I suppose as good a reason
- as any why my MED v.3.00 songs are broader (in length) than those I wrote
- with earlier versions. In that respect, I send greetings to the Commodore
- Fan Club of Japan, with whom I made contact as a result of the trip - and
- to those people around the world previously unfamiliar with my work.
-
- Happy listening (and viewing)!
-