Amiga ISO Collection/AmigaDemoCD1.iso/DEMOS/EC28B.lha/eurochart28/articles/Rhubbardinterview

Text File | 1996-06-02 | 11.7 KB | 417 lines

»BIG:»CL4:                      Rob Hubbard -
                           Father of
                  computer music
»SML:»CL6:--------------------------------------
»CL2:            by MeloManiac
»CL6:--------------------------------------

»CL9:Rob Hubbard»CL0: - that name should mean
something to most Amiga-scene people -
at least the ones who started off with
a C64 for demo-coding, or just gaming.
Even though he was not the first to
apply music to a game, he sofisticated
and developed it to such a level that
it would be fair to call him the
father of computer-music. Titles like
'»CL9:Monty on the Run»CL0:', '»CL9:Sanxion»CL0:',
'»CL9:Delta»CL0:', '»CL9:Thrust»CL0:', '»CL9:Skate or Die»CL0:',
'»CL9:Master of Magic»CL0:', '»CL9:Warhawk»CL0:' and
'»CL9:Spellbound»CL0:' are among MY favourites,
of the more than 50 (possibly close to
a hundred) C64 games »CL9:Rob Hubbard»CL0:
composed music for, starting off with
Thing on a Spring. In the late 80's he
moved from England to the U.S., to the
PC and consoles, doing a few things on
the Amiga on the way (including
»CL9:Populous»CL0:), and today he's no longer
composing music for games, his last
job being on the game '»CL9:Shockwave -
Operation Jumpgate»CL0:' for the 3D0.

I sent a few questions for this
legendary computerpersonality, and
these are the answers he gave me:

»CL4:MM: First of all, I think a lot of
people would like to know what you're
working on at the moment?

»CL6:RH: My job is Audio Technical Director
for »CL9:EA»CL6:. I work with the producers
helping them make sure all aspects of
audio work gets done, and is on
schedule.

»CL4:MM: Then I'd like to go back to the
early 80's, where your computer-music
career started. The first I saw of
you, was a couple of demo's you sent
out, demonstrating examples of doing
classical, as well as rock/funk/pop on
the C64 - these examples were
outstanding at that time, because of
the complexity of the sounds, not just
being 'bips' and 'bleeps'. Were you
contacted by any persons or
softwarefirms because of these demos?


»PIC:Clip3b.Sanctum»



















»CL6:RH: I did some demos to try to get
work. It was still difficult getting
work in the early days.

»CL4:MM: What was you first game-music job
on the C64?

»CL6:RH: »CL9:Thing on a Spring»CL6:, and then »CL9:Action
Biker»CL6:.

»CL4:MM: Although you've done music for a
lot of C64 softwarefirms, you did
many things for firms like
»CL9:Mastertronic»CL4:, »CL9:Thalamus»CL4:, »CL9:Martech»CL4: and
»CL9:Firebird»CL4:. Were you more or less
working full-time for those companies,
or did they just return to you,
because they were very happy with what
you did?

»CL6:RH: I built up a very good working
relationship with these software
companies. I would basically work for
anyone at that time.

»CL4:MM: Even though you're probably the
most famous C64-musician, we shouldn't
forget people like »CL9:Richard Joseph»CL4:,
»CL9:Maniacs of Noise»CL4: and »CL9:Ben Daglish»CL4:. You
worked with »CL9:Ben Daglish»CL4: on a couple of
games - was that a coincidence?

»CL6:RH: I worked with Ben on the second
»CL9:Monty »CL6:game. I think that »CL9:Tony Crowther
»CL6:wanted us to work together. We only
did the one game.

»CL4:MM: Now for at little technical
question - I've always wondered how a
C64-module, containing several tunes,
could take up as little as 2-3k, and
still play for a very long time. How
did you technically make a C64-module
- did you have your own customized
editor, like the Amiga/PC's trackers?

»CL6:RH: Everything was written in 6502
assembler and used a very efficient
system of packing the date into
nibbles and bytes - there was never
very much spare memory available. All
the music data was entered in as HEX
DB statements. I used to edit the
music in real time using a machine
code monitor.

»CL4:MM: With all the games you did music
for, one could think that you made a
good living from doing C64-music, but
computer-music on freelance-basis is
no goldmine, is it?

»CL6:RH: Well, I have to say that I earned
a lot more money doing music for C64
games than I did doing professional
music work, like music arranging,
copying or playing gigs. It also
opened up the opportunity for me to
move to the USA and work in »CL9:Silicon
Valley»CL6:.

»CL4:MM: How much money did you normally
receive for doing the music for a
game?

»CL6:RH: Well, when I first started in 1984
it was something like 100 or 200
English pounds. Prices went up and by
the time I moved to the States - in
1988 the money was up to 1000 to 2000
pounds.

»CL4:MM: Yes, in 1988 or something like
that, you were shanghai'ed by an
american software-firm, »CL9:Electronic
Arts»CL4:, and got a fulltime job as
musician on PC and consoles. How did
you like that change?

»CL6:RH: It was something I wanted to do,
and turned it out to be a good move.

»CL4:MM: In 1989, I think, you stopped
doing C64-music completely. Now there
were some new names, like »CL9:Maniacs of
Noise»CL4: (»CL9:Charles Deenen»CL4: and »CL9:Jeroen Tel»CL4:).
What do you think of them? It's clear
that they had you as their
inspiration.

»CL6:RH: When I started doing music for the
C64 the standard was really bad. In
1988 there were some very good people
doing music for the C64 and I'm glad
that they are still doing well.
»CL9:Charles Deenen»CL6: works for »CL9:Interplay»CL6: in
LA and I think Jeroen still works for
»CL9:M of N»CL6:.

»CL4:MM: You did a couple of things on
Amiga for »CL9:Electronic Arts»CL4:, of which
»CL9:Populous»CL4: is my personal favourite. I
read something in a magazine saying
that you just HAD to make music for
this game! Is that true, and why?

»CL6:RH: »CL9:Populous»CL6: was a very interesting
game and very different. I tried to
use elements from Gothic chants in
that tune. I heard that someone in
Japan arranged and recorded that tune
with a full orchestra. (I would love
to hear it!)

»CL4:MM: So would we, indeed! At that time,
the Amiga was the most popular games-
platform. Do you think that you'd have
done a lot more Amiga-music, if you'd
stayed in the U.K., where the Amiga
was (and still is, I believe!) a much
stronger market than the PC?

»CL6:RH: Yes, I think that is true - I
think I lost out on some Amiga stuff.
I thought that CD-I was going to be
big in 1988, but it didn't happen
either. I did about 4 Amiga titles.

»CL4:MM: How do you think the music has
changed, because of the technical
superiority of the computers following
the C64; the Amiga, the PC and the
Sega - has it had an influence on your
music?

»CL6:RH: Actually the BIG difference was
what the USA wanted as opposed to the
Europeans. There was a computer music
culture in Europe that simply didn't
exist here in the USA. There was no
way anyone could write really off the
wall tunes (like »CL9:Knucklebusters»CL6:, or
»CL9:I'ball»CL6: or »CL9:W.A.R»CL6:) here in the USA. You
have to write very straight music
here.

»CL4:MM: What was the biggest difference/
difficulty, moving from the C64, up to
computers, where you were 'forced' to
use samples, instead of synthetically
created sounds?

»CL6:RH: Well, samples are good for
somethings and not others. You can
still do a lot with synthetically
created sounds. It's easy to do more
techno tunes with samples, but once
you sustain samples things sound very
much like an organ.

»CL4:MM: One of the reasons I'm asking is
that I know you've played in bands
before getting into computer music.
How did you use your band-skills in
C64-music?

»CL6:RH: I tried to use better drum and
bass parts. I also tried to get more
realistic guitar solos.

»CL4:MM: In your music, it sounds like you,
in particular, know a lot about
playing the bass - they're very often
very realistic and dynamic. DID you
play the bass in the band(s)?

»CL6:RH: I played left hand bass on a synth
a lot of the time. I used to do a lot
of arranging and transcription work.

»CL4:MM: What do you think music should add
to a game, and do you think music is
important in computer games?

»CL6:RH: It depends on if you mean back in
1985 or nowadays in 1996. I think
music is very important in creating
moods and highlighting action.

»CL4:MM: A couple of questions about your
unmatched popularity. How is it to be
so popular? Even though you aren't and
were not a public person in the
tabloid press or something, you ARE a
very known person, among
computer-enthusiasts. Has it been a
problem?

»CL6:RH: The only problem I had was that a
lot of people had my phone number and
I used to get a lot of phone calls at
all times during the night - people
from the USA and Japan used to call. A
lot of the calls were about 'how do
you scroll the screen' etc. The only
other problem was that there was
always a lot of pressure to try to do
better and better. It was difficult to
please everyone.

»CL4:MM: Do you recieve any fan-mail?

»CL6:RH: I did in the mid 1980's from all
kinds of people.

»CL4:MM: Why did you stop composing music
for computer-games?

»CL6:RH: Eventually, you have to move on
and do different things. You have to
grow. The games these days are really
huge productions and because companies
spend huge amounts of money producing
them, no one can take any risks. The
net result is that all the games look
the same and copy each other. I'm not
that interested in writing music for
racing car games, fighting games or
sports games.

»CL4:MM: What was the last game, you did
the music for?

»CL6:RH: '»CL9:Shockwave - Operation Jumpgate»CL6:'
for the 3D0.

»CL4:MM: There're many people on the Amiga
(and PC) scene who has a talent for
music composition - what would you
advise them to do, if they want to
write music for games?

»CL6:RH: I would advise them to study music
in college and think about doing music
for games, film and TV.

»CL4:MM: Today it is much harder getting
into the 'computer-music-business',
with CD's, and the much higher
technical demands, don't you think?

»CL6:RH: Yes, we are now looking more and
more at professional composers who
work in Hollywood - there are some
extremely talented people about.

»CL4:MM: Do you think computer-music as we
know it, played through a sound-chip,
'recorded' on a standard Amiga/PC, for
a very small amount of money, is dead?
Will it all be professionally
CD-recorded music from now on?

»CL6:RH: Yes. (»CL8:Ta' den! SLAM! -ed»CL6:)

»CL4:MM: And does that take computer-music
to a higher level, musically?

»CL6:RH: Well, I don't know. Games today
are simply entertainment like TV is. I
would say that we had some 'art' in
the old days, along with a culture
that set us apart.

»CL4:MM: Which computers do you use today?

»CL6:RH: Pentium 100, and a MAC.

»CL4:MM: What do you think of the Amiga, as
a computer - not it's current
situation, as we all know it is pretty
ugly.

»CL6:RH: The Amiga was a truely wonderful
machine in it's day. I bought one of
the early ones. If it had run MS-DOS
it might have survived.

»CL4:MM: Sometime in the late 80's, you did
a great version of '»CL9:Sanxion»CL6:', recorded
on expensive sound-equipment (as far
as I know, a Fairlight synth),
released on an issue of Zzap!64 - have
you done more 'professional' stuff
later, or do you intend to record a CD
at some time?

»CL6:RH: I don't remember doing this!! I
would like to do a CD at some time
just for the fun of it.

»CL4:MM: What kind of music do you want to
do on that CD then?

»CL6:RH: I would like to do some C64 stuff,
brought up to date a little.

»CL4:MM: Thank you VERY much for taking
your time, answering these questions!
I think a lot of people are interested
in what you've done, and what you're
doing!

»CL6:RH: No problem...


»CL0:Amiga-titles by Rob Hubbard to check
out: »CL9:Populous»CL0:, »CL9:Ski or Die»CL0:, »CL9:PGA Tour
Golf»CL0:, »CL9:Centurion»CL0: and »CL9:Indianapolis 500»CL0:.

Some of my questions have been changed
slightly, to link the questions better
to the answers. A few things has been
changed in the answers to clarify
matters (e.g. I've substituted M of N
with »CL9:Maniacs of Noise»CL0:).