An Interview with Steve Barrett

I was originally attracted to the C64 music scene by the demos of Demon on CNET. Later on it was probably Martin Galway who I rated most highly.

Chronicles of Omega. A game that didn’t get much recognition. Also, the main tune from Hyperblob, although it takes a while to get going.

Ben Daglish’s title piece for ‘Kettle’ was a fantastic arrangement of a familiar tune. I also thought that Galways’s ‘Comic Bakery’ and Hubbards ‘Master of Magic’ were brilliant.

In 1986 I borrowed a copy of Electrosound, a primitive music editor and started to compose ‘classical’ style pieces. Later on I started to use SoundMonitor about the same time that I joined CNET and got involved in making demos.

It was such a huge leap forward compared to anything that had gone before it that it took a while for composers / programmers to exploit the hardware.
Eventually, it’s deficiencies became more apparent, particularly the inconsistent filters.

I first heard that Reyn had done a remix of this tune quite a while before I actually heard the track. When I eventually heard it I was very impressed, and flattered.

I left University in 1989 and started ‘real’ work. It was always a part-time arrangement and although I continued on for about a year, I couldn’t really dedicate the time. Besides, it started to become apparent that to be successful in the industry, you really need to competitive on the coding side, an area in which I was quite weak.

The Amiga and Atari ST. I’d like to acquire an Amiga again so I can play some of the old files that I’ve kept that never made it to publication.

On occasions yes. Especially some of the slower, more melodic ones. A few of which I never made it into games.

It was such a huge leap forward in sound capability that it attracted people like myself who would never got involved in the games industry. There was also the Internet like community on CNET which inspired a very enthusiastic and creative environment.

Not realistically. With the advance of technology since the days of the C64, there is now very little difference between computer music and studio music. As a result, the barriers to market are much greater.

No.

Absolutely. As stated before, I was never a great programmer and although the routines that I had written for me by friends were good, they couldn’t compete with the code of Hubbard, Galway etc. Also, getting the best sounds out of the chip required a degree of patience that I didn’t posses.

It was definitely a matter of timing, if I hadn’t joined CNET in 1986 I never would have got any further. I wasn’t truly dedicated to the craft and couldn’t spare a great deal of time. Despite all this, I was a wonderful experience to be part of such a progressive and innovative scene and the money came in helpful whilst living on a student grant. Also, learning to deal independently with companies was a great experience.

Not really. A couple of projects / games never made it to final release but I simply reused the music for later projects. I do remember having to hassle Virgin Games for ages before I received payment for Monopoly.

Limitation forces you to concentrate on the core elements of music. If it sounds good on a 1980s computer then it will sound good on anything. When the Amiga came out there seemed to be a glut of repetitive drum / bass / sample tracks which didn’t do the machine justice..

I don’t think the current market will really understand the retro element of the C64. But there’s no reason why some of these remix album tracks couldn’t have appeal to todays audience.

I think I will, I certainly haven’t completely closed the door on music and composition. I would probably concentrate on piano / string based pieces. I’m a big fan of some of the new bands such as Bent and Alpha so might be tempted to try my hand at that style.

I’m a freelance project manager working mainly in the Telecoms industry. Most of my contracts involve setting up new sites and organising the IT and infrastructure elements.

I miss the raw, pioneering element of the C64 and the fact that much of the progressive coding was done by part-timers and hobbyists.

I’m quite happy to continue on with my current career and pursue my interests. I have a serious travel bug which seems to grow stronger the older I get. I spent most of 1999 travelling the world and am currently making plans to spend the second half of this year backpacking around Eastern Europe.

The more I read about the C64 community the more I realise how important those years were in giving people a taste of the multi-media world we now enjoy. I hope that the open and organised way that the C64 world is made available to today’s users continues for a long time to come.