Aminet 48/Aminet 48 (2002)(GTI - Schatztruhe)[!][Apr 2002].iso/Aminet/docs/misc/AmigaArena0102.lha/AmigaArena0102/NicholasB_EN.txt

Text File | 2002-02-17 | 10.8 KB | 248 lines

   Amiga Arena Interview
   ---------------------

   Developer: Nicholas Blachford
   Software:  Aural illusion, Aural Synthetica
   Homepage:  www.blachford.info/blachtech
   Mail:      [e-mail]

 *Please introduce yourself to the readers!*

 My name is Nicholas Blachford, I'm a 31 year old Software Engineer/Architect.
 I grew up in northern Ireland but have lived in Holland (Amsterdam) for
 the last 2 years.
 I got my first Amiga in 1997 and from 1993 - 1998 I developed Amiga
 Audio Software.
 I later moved onto BeOS where I continued developing audio software
 then I moved to holland and have been working on business software
 since then.

 *When did you start working with the Amiga?*

 1987 I think.  Originaly I was going to buy a C128 off a friend when I
 noticed I could get an Atari  ST for the same price and with a much
 better spec.  I also seen an advert for an Amiga and considered it as
 well.I thought about it for a while then I seen an Amiga showing one
 of the NewTek demos, it had pictures in HAM mode and that just blew me
 away - so I got the Amiga!
 It was a French A1000 which had been modified by putting stickers on
 the keyboard!  Excellent computer though, the ability to put the
 keyboard under the front was a work of genius.  It came with Workbench
 1.1 and 1.2 as well as "Kickstart" disks as the OS was not in ROM like
 later Amigas.  I upgraded it with an A520 HD / memory expansion which
 fitted on the wrong side - backwards!  But becasue of the extra memory
 I was able to run a leaked copy of Workbench 2.0 before any of my
 friends!

 About 1991/92 I upgraded to an A500+ which had some better video modes
 and AmigaDOS 2.0.  It was about this time I decided to start writing
 software.  I'd just flunked a University course so I decided that
 computers interested me more and wanted to study them, So I decided to
 write a program which I could then sell and it could pay for the course
 - it never did.

 I didn't have that machine for long as I upgraded it to an A1200.  I
 got a grant to pay for a copy of SAS/C and a Harddrive (300 Euros for
 60MB!).  I started writing Aural illusion in the beginning of 1993 I
 fully expected an Amiga with 16 bit sound would appear soon so it was
 written to handle 16 bit files and do 32 bit processing.

 I initially tried selling it myself but that was a disaster and did
 nothing but cost me a lot of money (though I did get a couple of good
 beta testers who'd seen the ads).  Eventually a company in the south of
 England called Seasoft started selling the program for me but it still
 never made me any real money.

 I did a first then a second version but I got a bit bored writing audio
 effects so I decided after reading an article on Modular Synthesizers
 to write one of these. I did this in 1995 and took the decision to make
 it complex and powerful instead of simple and easy to use.  It paid off
 as it could make amazing sounds.  It took about a year to write with an
 update a few months later.  I upgraded the Amiga with a 50MHz 68030
 because it was so processor intensive.  It didn't work in real time
 like today, you would set up all the connections and settings then you
 would "Render" a sound.  Unfotunately I only sold 12 copies!

 I then moved on to Aural illusion v3.0 which was a complete rewrite due
 to the messyness of the code in v1.0 and 2.0.  I worked on this for a
 couple of years but by then the Amiga market had died and I decided to
 switch to the PC.  Just after this decision I got a job in England and
 cancelled development alltogether.  Unfortunately the job I was
 supposed to do got cancelled just after I started so the company didn't
 keep me for very long.  So I went back to Aural illusion, however I
 dediced the Amiga version was so close to completion I'd finish it off
 then port it to Windows.

 Then I was contacted by someone from Be Europe.  I'd heard a bit about
 BeOS but not much but he'd seen Ai2 and sent me a copy.  For an Amiga
 user Windows was (and still is!) slow as a dog and eats vast resources.
 I had a PC much more powerful than the Amiga but the Amiga still kicked
 it's ass!  BeOS changed all that, this was what PC hardware was really
 meant for.  I think BeOS was the true successor to the Amiga and you'll
 find a lot of ex-Amigans in (whats left of) the BeOS community.  In
 fact the first time I went to "Begeistert" (BeOS meeting in Germany)
 someone had an A3000 with them!

 I decided to switch to BeOS and develop Ai3 there.  It was soon
 apparent I would have to change a lot as BeOS forces you to write in C+
 + and I was adding dozens of new effects so I upped the version number
 to 4.0.  Unfortunately it was never quite finished on BeOS either, I
 was offered a job in Holland and haven't had the time to finish it off
 since.  Once you start developing full time for someone else that last
 thing you want to do at home is start programming again.

 I have however open sourced everything for Amiga and BeOS.  I recently
 changed the license to BSD style and posted the source and now a binary
 for Ai3 to the web site.

 *Which Amiga model do you own*

 Still got the old A1200 + 030.
 I also have a copy of Amiga forever for Windows.

 *Which version of the operating system is running on your computer?*

 AmigaDOS 3.0 I think?

 I use an 800MHz Athlon running BeOS (the recently leaked and truly
 excellent DANO build).
 ...and Windows 98 - but only when I really have to!

 *Which software are you developing?*

 Whatever someone pays me to write!
 Nothing for the Amiga unfortunately :-(

 *Can you tell us what your software is about?*

 The stuff I did write:
 Aural illusion is an audio editor.
 Really it's meant for sound processing instead of just tweaking sounds.
 You can load multiple sounds and combine them then do loads of
 different effects on them.

 Aural Synthetica is a Modular Synthesizer.
 You set up oscillators to generate sounds and there are an arrary of
 modules you can route the sound through for processing.  You can make
 some pretty amazing sounds.
 There are also 4 discs worth of "patches" with which you can create
 sounds or modify them to create new ones.

 *How long has the development taken so far?*

 I spent 7 years in total developing (5 on the Amiga) but it never made
 me any money :-(
 Best bit is though I had a grand total of 2 bug reports in all that
 time.

 *Which software are you using for developing?*

 I used SAS/C and GadToolsBox.

 *For which system (AmigaOS, AmigaDE, MorphOS) are you developing?*

 All the above ran on real hardware Amigas running AmigaDOS!
 They also ran on Amiga Forever.

 *Which OS will you support in the future?*

 If I ever start it up again it will *not* be on Windows.
 ...but I can't see myself doing an Amiga version either I'm afraid.

 *What can we expect of future versions?*

 From me nothing, but thats not to say someone else couldn't do
 something:
 The code for Ai3.0 is all there and to finish it off shouldn't be too
 difficult.

 Ai4 has a lot more effects and these could always be back ported to the
 Amiga,
 this shoudln't be that much work as they are all in C, in fact quite a
 few are from the Amiga!
 There are some changes I made and the variable type names are different
 but it shouldn't be too much work to fix that.

 *Don't you lose the fun and the interest in programming if you see
  the small amount of feedback you get from the small Amiga market?*

 I'll answer both:
 I never got much feedback but it was very enthusiastic, not many people
 use Aural illusion but those who do seem to really like it.  I neary
 (or did) give up on Ai3 at several points but it was users comments
 which kept me going.

 *When did you last use your Amiga?*

 I've not used it in years!  I used in parallel with my PC for a long
 time though, I even had the PC keyboard mounted on the Amiga keyboard
 to save space!

 *Which software did you last buy for your Amiga?*

 The final SAS/C upgrade, I heard about it on the internet, someone was
 selling of the last few copies so I ordered one from.
 I got Amiga Forever much later on though if that counts.

  *Which hard/software are you planning to buy?*

 Now BeOS is dead (soon to be reborn in PalmOS 5.0) users have to find
 somewhere else to go.  I've used Windows enough to really dislike it
 and I don't like the idea of supporting a company whose licenses
 deliberatly put Be inc. out of business.  I've used Linux quite a bit
 but never at home, Both the Amiga and BeOS had a very good desktops -
 the best of their respective times and thats one area Linux is behind
 in.Simply put I want a computer which is easy to use.  That said
 Linux has improved rapidly and I have never seen the Linux kernel crash
 in 4 years.  On the other hand I have never seen a version of Windows
 which does not crash (and that includes NT, 2000 and XP).

 I know this will sound horrific to Amiga users but...
 I think Apple has come back big recently, they have good hardware and
 now a very good Unix based OS, the fact it looks so good only adds to
 it in my view.
 In fact when Steve Jobs return was announced I remember discussing what
 would happen with none other than Dave Haynie :-)

 If I can get the money sometime, I'll probably get one of the Titanium
 Powerbooks.
 I have a huge tower PC which makes an incredible amount of noise and is
 stuffed full of PCI cards, I like the idea of a super thin notebook
 which does more, quietly!

 *Do you believe in a comeback of Amiga?*

  Looks like it is happening without my belief...

 It good to see something is happening though.  I was involved in the
 JMS and the ICOA discussions when they were being set up and I
 recognise some of the names of who is involved in Amiga these days.
 It's good they have continued with what was pretty reveloutionary
 technology at the time.

 *Your final words for the readers?*

 I have very fond memories of my Amiga days, there was a real community
 feeling especially in the relatively small audio sector.  I was really
 quite surprised to see that the community is still so alive - as I
 discovered when dozens of visitors suddenly showed up and downloaded
 software I haven't used in years!

 I can remember being amazed by a 24bit colour display in Amiga World in
 1990 - the same show where the VideoToaster was first unveiled.  Then
 there was all the excitement with the coming AA and later AAA chipsets.
 Commodore of course went bust but there was there was always hope of a
 future with a friendly company with new hardware and processors.

 I think the Amiga of tommorow will be very different and it will be
 nice to see a comeback even if it might not have quite the magic of the
 early days - Paula, Agnus and Deneise are long gone - but not
 forgotton.  I have a lot to thank the Amiga for, In fact I met some of
 my best friends through the Amiga.  I wish the Amiga, and it's
 community well, and I hope you enjoy using my software.

 © Amiga Arena 2/2002