TW #27 — Basehead on Lotus Position (Cyberdmon)
A short IRC interview about basehead's solo musicdisk Lotus Position, released under five-musicians.
Key claims#
- Lotus Position was originally to be Modernize-1, a joint disk with Stalker; when the two decided on solo disks the name was retired. Seven songs, about 4 MB unzipped, roughly 57 minutes of music.
- Song sizes average around 512 KB "cuz i have a 512 GUS"; Smooth, Freedom and Stepout were made on a Sound Blaster Pro and the last two exceed 512 KB (Freedom is "in the 900's" and, he thinks, the best song).
- Working method: he composes only with "some sort of a MEGA inspiration", then "like mad until it's done" — usually 5–6 hours, rarely in two sittings. Open Your Mind has 208 orders over 99 patterns yet, he says, is not repetitive.
- Inspirations per song: Freedom — his girlfriend; Stepout — an acid-jazz compilation; Passion — 1980s new wave "that doesn't need to show off to be great".
- Own verdict: "as modules go … just fine, but musically I'm capable of a lot more". Expects a + or * rating from Demonews, whose ratings "are kind of fucked most of the time".
- Dreads "Progression vs Lotus Position" (i.e. Necros vs Basehead) debates: "our music is NOTHING ALIKE".
Practical takeaways#
- Sample memory shaped song size: a 512 KB GUS meant ~512 KB songs; bigger songs were made on a Sound Blaster Pro with software mixing.
- Many orders over fewer patterns (208 over 99) is Basehead's way to length without repetition — see orderlist.
Relevance#
Concrete numbers on 1995 musicdisk production (sizes, durations, hours per song) and the GUS memory constraint; the Necros/Basehead comparison the scene kept making.