SIDin #3 — Stephan Schmid (Steppe) interview (Stefano Tognon, 2003)

The sidin interview with stephan-schmid — Steppe, webmaster of the Demodungeon and since October 2002 a member of the hvsc crew: three weeks of Soundmonitor in 1991, what an HVSC crew member actually does all day, a ripper's case for the emulator and a listener's case for owning both SIDs, and a playlist of scene tunes from /VARIOUS.

Key claims#

• Who: 28 in February 2003, in Erlangen, Germany, finishing a geology degree "by June this year"; webmaster of www.demodungeon.com, "a site meant as a tribute to the C64 demoscene". Presenting every SID tune from the demos with screenshots made him rip the ones missing from HVSC; "My ongoing contributions to HVSC finally ended up with the HVSC crew inviting me to join in October 2002." Tognon's introduction names "his great work onto demos and music" and "his fantastic 'Tune 2' music that I consider one of the best Last Ninja 2 inspired composition". His address is steppe@demodungeon.com.
• 1991, three weeks: got soundmonitor "that was back then published in the 64'er magazine as a type-in listing", learnt it "really quickly", made his first tune Erste Schritte "on the day I finished typing it in"; wanted the sounds of the crack intros ("probably even more fascinated than by the game tunes"), found reproducing them in Soundmonitor "simply impossible" and quit, "disappointed by the limited capabilities of the editor". Back at the keyboard "this week" with the JCH editor (chordian) — "It's not quite easy to use, but I'm sure you'll hear more SID music from me soon."
• HVSC crew work: "about one to two hours per day": "checking a few demos or disks for unripped tunes, ripping them when necessary, contacting composers for information and verification, writing mails to the quite busy HVSC mailing lists, maintaining the Ripped Tunes list and the RSID to do list"; more in the one or two weeks before an update, "thoroughly checking the upcoming beta-version". "It's my favourite hobby."
• Emulator: vice for "productivity stuff, like ripping tunes and everything coding-related" — "Vice's emulation quality is slowly nearing perfection", and multitasking with the other tools open "really makes it a pleasure to work with"; never for games, demos or composing: "you just need a real SID chip, the background noise and the humming of the 1084". A C64 beside the PC keyboard and a 1541-II on the PC case "only used for transferring disks" (commodore-64).
• 6581 vs 8580: "I like both chips, each one has its advantages. Samples and filters on the 6581, the combined waveforms and the generally clearer sound on the 8580"; a breadbox and a C64-II at hand to match a demo or game to its chip; the dream of one C64 with two SIDs switchable while running, because in 64ever's Insomnia "Jeff's tunes heavily use the 6581 filters and really sound much better on the old SID, whereas Vip's tunes should really be listened to on a 8580" (sid).
• Own tunes: "all my own SIDs aren't too good"; thumbs down for Erste Schritte, "nothing special, both musically and technically"; likes Tune 2 "with the unintentionally crept in Last Ninja II cover" (last-ninja-2) and "the soft arpeggios in Nicht Schlecht", where he first tried "a pseudo 4 channel sound, by interweaving drums and bassline" (channel-interleaving).
• Composers: of the game composers jeroen-tel, martin-galway, Follin, matt-gray and Martin Walker, with rob-hubbard "unfair to leave unmentioned" but less listened to; "Actually I like the 'new' sound of the scene musicians far better anyway, so I spend surely 90% of my time listening through the /VARIOUS directory": Mitch & Dane, Shogoon, Daf, Jeff, Vip, DJB, GRG, Goto80, Trident, Wacek, Wizard.
• Best SIDs ("about 600 SIDs in my alltime favourite playlist"), given as HVSC paths: Dwayne Bakewell Old_Friends_PSID ("a fantastic lead-melody! And the samples fit in really well, too"), Arman Behdad Sweet_Fantasies (from Xenon's Arcanum), Glenn Gallefoss Electronic_Transfer ("Technically maybe one of the best SIDs ever done"; "check out the Soiled Legacy tunes at least"), Goto80 Datagoaskit_2002 ("So weird and yet so mature! … 8580!!!") and Slobband ("For its minimalism and a perfect choice of instruments"), Mitch & Dane Gloria, Shapie Im_Back ("SID popmusic at its best!"), Shogoon Altered_States_Tune_1 ("musically lightyears ahead of the crowd"), Jeff Crest_Main_A ("The middle part of this tune starting at around 2:00 is mindblasting!"), Sonic Man_With_No_Name_culture.
• Closing: "Keep the 8 bit torch up … it amazes me that there's still some activity going on in the scene in the year 2003"; a SID rip compo with Peter Sandén at demodungeon.com/ripcompo/ "to fill out the last empty spots in HVSC with missing SID tunes that have been requested by many SID fans", prizes including Instant Remedy's C64 remix CD.

Practical takeaways#

• A 2003 snapshot of what keeps hvsc growing: rips from demos and disks, composer verification, a Ripped Tunes list, an RSID to-do list, beta checks before each numbered update.
• The 6581/8580 choice as a listener's rule: filters and samples → 6581, combined waveforms and clarity → 8580; a demo with tunes by different composers may need both machines.
• Soundmonitor's ceiling in one sentence: crack-intro sounds were "simply impossible" in it — one reason the scene wrote its own editors (tracker-scene-history).

Notable quotes#

"Samples and filters on the 6581, the combined waveforms and the generally clearer sound on the 8580."

"Same goes for composing, you just need a real SID chip, the background noise and the humming of the 1084."

Relevance to the wiki#

Creates stephan-schmid; adds the crew's working routine and the /VARIOUS half of the collection to hvsc, a ripper's verdict on vice, a late user's verdict on soundmonitor, the 6581/8580 preferences to sid, an interleaving example to channel-interleaving, a JCH-editor user of 2003 to chordian, and a 2003 desk to commodore-64.

To verify#

• (unverified) The issue's news pages call the compo "Steppe and Yodelking's Rip Compo"; the interview names Peter Sandén as co-organiser, so Yodelking = Peter Sandén is the likely reading.

Pages touched#

stephan-schmid · hvsc · vice · soundmonitor · sid · channel-interleaving · chordian · commodore-64 · sidin