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Agemixer

entity person C64 / SID #person #musician #coder #scener #c64 #sid #tiny-sid #size-coding
aliases Agemixer/SCL
sources SIDin #1 — Iseq music composition program: the comp.sys.cbm threads and Steve Judd's Commando cover (2002) · SIDin #8 — Tiny Sid Compo, the 512-byte entries (Stefano Tognon, 2005) · SIDin #9 — Tiny Sid Compo, the 256-byte entries (Stefano Tognon, 2006) · SIDin #1–15 — Editorials and News digest (Stefano Tognon, 2002–2015) · SIDin #8 — Aleksi Eeben interview (Stefano Tognon, 2005)
created 2026-08-30 · updated 2026-08-30

C64 scener, musician and coder, posting as "Agemixer/SCL" in the June 2002 Usenet debate over iseq (source: s-sidin01-iseq). The wiki knows him from two sides: the most detailed critic in that debate, and joint winner of the 2005 tiny-sid-compo's 256-byte category with a self-modifying zero-page player.

Facts#

  • The iseq verdict (June 2002, comp.sys.cbm, after actually testing it): "too far from the common 'standards'"; it hangs on speed changes; the loader fails with Action Replay; CIA-timer tempo "makes a lot of restrictions in demo and game needs" — such a tune cannot go into "a fullscreen FLI demo or raster timing stuff"; "I wouldn't recommend Iseq for any serious music making" (sid-player-routine) (source: s-sidin01-iseq).
  • Editor-ergonomics checklist: single keys for the common actions, F1/F3/F5/F7 = play/stop/cont/f.forward (DMC-styled), destructive commands behind SHIFT/CBM/CTRL, "different keysets (DMC-like, JCH-like)" (dmc) — points the wiki reads as the convention trackers settled on (tracker) (source: s-sidin01-iseq).
  • "Ultimate Tracker": his own abandoned editor project — a flexible player, "'variable speed' like iseq", "SLTS samples", "free IRQ/NMI for possible sample addition" and a "cleverly optimizing tune packer" — was "too large a project"; Steve Judd's answer: "I totally think you should write your own player … That's what keeps the C= going" (source: s-sidin01-iseq).
  • The Commando challenge: he challenged Judd to cover rob-hubbard's commando; his own cover, made in dmc 4.0B ("easy but one of hardest ones for covering anything well"), is hvsc's /VARIOUS/A-F/Agemixer/Commando_Remix.sid (source: s-sidin01-iseq).
  • Tiny Sid Compo 2005: My Block .. one block took joint 1st in the 256-byte category with 186 points, tied with Frantic's New Kid on the block (sources: s-sidin08-tiny-sid-512b, s-sidin-news-digest).
  • How the 256 bytes work (Tognon's analysis): the program copies its 23 code bytes to $0000–$0016 and runs in the zero page — "now all the variables can be accessed from zero page and so using only one byte for the address!"; a free-running counter masked to 32 values is the whole song, its bits picking voice 1's notes, inverting the drum every 4 counter values, and setting the filter cutoff and voice 3's pulse; self-modifying code changes the masks every 8 pattern passes; sync on raster $80 (sid-player-routine) (source: s-sidin09-tiny-sid-256b).
  • Reputation: aleksi-eeben names Agemixer among his favourite SID authors (source: s-sidin08-eeben-interview).

iseq · tiny-sid-compo · commando · rob-hubbard · dmc · hvsc · aleksi-eeben · sid-player-routine · stefano-tognon · sidin · tracker-scene-history

Sources#

s-sidin01-iseq · s-sidin08-tiny-sid-512b · s-sidin09-tiny-sid-256b · s-sidin-news-digest · s-sidin08-eeben-interview

To verify#

  • Real name, country and the meaning of the "SCL" group tag are in no wiki source.
source file wiki/entities/agemixer.md · graph