|
BIGGEST JIM
|
posted 28-04-2001 02:27 PM GMT
 
hi people, here Rob de V.
I cut and pasted the whole interview, for your convenience. You're welcome!
bye, Rob INTERVIEW MIT ROB HUBBARD - VON ROBERT FEUCHTL
SPEX: We heard that you are still working in the games industry. What exactly are you doing now and how would you describe the game & music developement back in those times in relation to now?
ROB HUBBARD: I work for EA in Calofornia, still involved with audio but more on the management and technical side of things.
These days audio for games requires many specialists - music, sound design, dialog and localisation. Music and sound effects has to be as good as film/TV. We have to do play by play commentary, where phrases are joined together on the fly. Then we have to localise for as many as 11 languages for simultaneous ship.
SPEX: Are you a studied musician or autoditact?
ROB HUBBARD: I am a studied musician.
SPEX: How and when was your first encounter with computers and especially with their soundchips?
ROB HUBBARD: Back in the early 1980’s. I first saw an Apple 2 and then the old Sinclair (pre spectrum) machine. I bought the C64 for it’s sound chip. The other machines that I bought included Atari, Amstrad and Spectrum.
SPEX: In my opinion the quality of some of the better 8-bit computer-music-trax were due to technical limitations. Are u aware of limitation as a creative kick-ass?
ROB HUBBARD: You had to write specifically for the limitations, and not do something that was just impossible. This led to the evolution of the styles that people developed for the 8 bit machines. Some of the music was actually pretty good despite the limitations.
In the early days most of the music was simply done by programmers who did not understand music or the SID chip. It was out of tune and had many wrong notes and was simply just horrid. I figured I could do a lot better, so that’s what I set out to do. I understood synths very well so all I had to do was learn programming. I did a music piece in BASIC which limped along, and had to learn assembly. Once I figured out how interrupts worked I was done. The next thing was to write the driver to swap out patches and try to do something musical. That’s how the styles developed - short phrases, very percussive, try to be melodic, and have a strong bass line to hold it together. It was very hard to do a very slow piece, such as a string orchestra slow piece. You had to maximise what it could do well, and avoid what it simply couldn’t do.
SPEX: Was it difficult to work on different platforms? On which platforms did you work?
ROB HUBBARD: Over the years I’ve worked on C64, Atari 8 bit and 16 bit, Amiga, Spectrum, Amstrad, Einstein Tatung, Tandy PCs, Apple 2GS, NES, Sega Genesis, SNES, PSX, 3D0, DOS PC, Windows PC etc.
SPEX: Do you own a SIDstation ?
ROB HUBBARD: No...
SPEX: My absolute favourite is »One man & his droid«... how came this song to your heart? I mean its kind of majestically »sad« and kicking at the same time. How come?
ROB HUBBARD: This was very Jarre influenced from his earlier stuff. It really isn’t supposed to be sad, but (for the time) more futuristic.
SPEX: If you draw a line from the home computer era to now: are you pleased with the situation regarding the possibilites of computers of nowadays? I mean due to graphical OS the computer could be used by more people then before, but its still a young medium. What do you think?
ROB HUBBARD: It’s a double edged sword situation. More people can use a computer, but DOS really wasn’t that hard was it? The problem is, that not people have tried to explore it as a new medium for creativity, which is very sad. There are lots of very interesting things people could be doing but aren’t taking any financial risks.
SPEX: Are you doing music now? What exactly? What synthesizers & equipment do you use?
ROB HUBBARD: I reallly don’t do much music these days, except for solo piano. It is really difficult and time consuming to get great results from synths, that compare with live players. I do have an E4 with sample libs, DSP factory etc.
SPEX: Favourite games & vibes of that times?
ROB HUBBARD: Old C64 game - Turbo 64 (driving game like pole position). Ghostbusters, Adventures of Wanda, Sanxion etc. Today I like driving games and adventure games like the Sierra on Line games.
SPEX: Your favourite POKE-adress?
ROB HUBBARD: Sorry dude....can’t remember the old pokes....
SPEX: Ok. Thanx & take very care!
Robert Feuchtl
x |
Zzap Rrap
