For our third interview, I was lucky enough to talk to a gentleman who needs no introduction, Oliver Wittchow, developer of the highly respected Nanoloop music software. In the first part, we talk a little about Oliver’s background, the very first performance using Nanoloop and the port that never was. A quick thanks to Peter and Matt who suggested a couple of very interesting topics for questions. This interview was conducted by email over a period of about a month and I would like to thank Oliver for his time and detailed answers.
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LB: So how did the idea for Piggy come about? Marc: well, I had been using LSDJ for a while and even tho I was in love with the program, I longed to have the same flexibility with another type of sound generation. No matter how you like the Gameboy sound, there is a moment where you get tired of it, especially if, like me, you do your tracks without mixing techniques, synths and so on. I wanted to have something similar for samples and midi. I remember having a few chats with Starpause and Firestarter about it and we all got very excited about the perspective. So I went for it. LB: Did you plan to work on the GP32 from the outset or were you deving on PC without a particular platform in mind? Marc: It’s always been the main goal to do a hand-held program and to stick with the LSDJ interface. I was looking at a couple of options possible at the time: DS, PSP and GP32. The home-brew scene on DS & PSP was already pretty strong but it was constantly moving, so rather than trying to base myself on moving ground, I decided to go for the GP32. Especially that the idea of a company distributing an open platform like Gamepark did was great so I was happy to jump on that boat
LB: First off thanks very much for agreeing to the interview Marc: My pleasure. LB: Were you a programmer first then a musician or the other way around? Marc: I actually have still some trouble to consider myself as a musician. LB: I will talk about this a little later but I think most people would say you manage to do both pretty well. What sort of computers were about when you became interested in programming? Marc: My first programmable unit was a TI-98. Not really anything fancy but it got me hooked. Then I went Sinclair ZX-81 (my first assembly code), Vic 20, C64, Amiga and finally PC. I got really sad at the time to drop the Amiga since it took ages for the pc to even reach the level of sound flexibility of the Amiga but I had to keep with times I guess. LB: Why did you switch to the Vic20 after the ZX81 rather than staying with Sinclair? Marc: I don’t think there was a specific reason. Either it came out before or it looked more sturdy. The Sinclair experience was good but to be properly set-up the ZX-81 looked like a cobweb of wires and extensions all over the place. Compared to that, the all-in-one and proper keyboard of the VIC looked like heaven sent. I think I said to my mum at the time ‘this is the computer I well ever need’.. which was a little naive I guess LB: The ZX81 PSU got REALLY hot if I remember rightly too. Marc: yeah, and if you wiggled the extension a little too much you would easily loose everything LB: I had that happen a time or two myself. Which model Amiga did you have? Marc: A simple A500. I loved that machine. It’s been the playground of a lot of my first explorations.. sound, 3D.. multi-process environment. It was a truly amazing machine for the times |
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