By Maurits van de Kamp

Maurits (or Comp7 as he is known on #atari!) is a member of Bassment - a group of musicians using Atari computers to bring their creations to life, he is also the musician on Croft Soft's next release - Mole Mayhem...

Take it away Maurits...

1. Describe your Atari setup

I currently have a C-LAB Falcon MKI (although it says MKII on the casing, due to some administrative trouble at C-LAB. well, it looks good to the friends), with an internal 174MB IDE-harddisc and an external ZIP-drive (SCSI of course). I also have a Mega STe4 with 46MB harddisc intern and a megafile 44, expanded with a 105MB scsi harddisc. I was actually planning to sell that last lot when buying the Falcon, but I couldn't part from the good ol' Mega.. :) My bank account wasn't too pleased with this by the way.

The Falcon stands in the center of my studio setup, consisting of keyboards, drummachines, modules, effect stuff and a mixing desk. I used to use the Mega for this (with the Breakthru sequencer for the samples) but the Falcon is of course a major improvement. Also I went from recording on a Tascam 4-track recorder to HD-recording on the Falcon (yes, on the ZIP..) :)

2. What is your Atari's main use?

The Mega does my internet mail, and of course the classic games. The Falcon is used for music, design (DTP) and further internet stuff.

3. How long have you been an Atari user?

I've been admiring the 1040ST since it came out, but being a little school boy with no other jobs I couldn't afford it. In fact I started making music on an Amstrad CPC464, with The Music Machine plugged in the back. MIDI and sampling, a Falcon avant la lettre.. :)) I think it was in '91 that I was a bit tired of the limitations and decided to buy a second-hand 520ST. I've been making good use of the fact that crazy people around here were already thinking Atari was dead back in those days. So I bought a lot of Atari stuff at rediculously low prices and took them to a secondhand shop to trade them in for stuff I actually needed. :) Many Atari computers have passed through my studio that way. It does bug me that I never touched a TT though.. must buy that once. :)

Despite the fact that people in my school have been trying to convince me to buy a PC since '92, I never did, and I think it will be a while before I do. I can do all I want with my Falcy, and I think I saved thousants of guilders by not giving in to the Intel hype back then. The longer I put it off, the more money I save from getting wasted! ;)

4. What is your favourite Atari program?

There is still a lot around that I haven't seen, but the best thing that sits on my Falcy right now is definitely Cubase Audio. Since I started my first steps in music producing (around '86, with The Music Machine) I've always been trying to get the best results possible with relatively low-cost equipment. Since then I have a little more to spend, but I still need to look for "cheap solutions". And I must say the combination Falcon+Cubase Audio is an absolute dream come true. I can do all the kinds of editing I could wish, and which I wouldn't dare to ask for in my 4-track time. I'm one of the few people who actually paid for the program, but I must say it's worth every penny.

Btw, I'm also very enthusiastic about the KGMD/TAF MiNTos setup. I think there must have been an awful lot of work in this, and the result is that most unix-alike software for other systems can now be compiled for the Atari as easily as for a Sun machine or whatever. So if you look a bit further than the Windows-brainwashed computerworld, you see that that our lil' Atari is not as isolated as lots of people think.

5. What is your opinion of the Atari market today?

I think I'm pretty well off, living in the Netherlands. Of course I would like it to be a bit bigger, but I have no trouble finding what I'm looking for. I know lots of places to get software, and I am VERY satisfied with my C-LAB dealer. Ok, I have to travel a little bit further than my PC-using friends, but I don't really mind. The Atari dealers are generally more trustworthy as well (with a few exceptions!). The PC world is full of guys trying to make a quick buck, and on top of that, dealers see themselves getting in trouble with stock that ages by the month, so they have a little too much reason to sell stuff as quickly as possible. I'm sure I don't trust ANY of the big PC shop chains, and I have no idea which of the little ones to trust. But I'll see that by the time I need it :)

Atari users are a bit spread across the planet, so you tend to feel lonely in your choice, but when you get together (at dataparties or Atari Shows), you see there are actually still loads of people who decided to make their own choice instead of letting the market tell them to buy a PC.

6. Any information about yourself ie your occupation etc.

Hmm.. that's a bit vague at the moment.. :) I'm officially still a student, but I have only a few projects pending before I can start my real study finishing project. My student grant stops now because I'm anlready 25, so I do some work as well.. I can't do really much in school anyway. I'm studying "Industrial Automation", which is a combination of electronics, informatics and engineering. Meanwhile I work in a theatre/TV-lighting company. In school I've been specialising in Fuzzy Logic, which I did myself 'cause they're actually not teaching it. They've already asked me to teach a bit of fuzzy over there, after I finished studying myself.

I've had the same offer from the company where I'll do my finishing project (which consists of replacing a conventional controller by my own designed fuzzy logic controller to prove that it's more easy and also works better..) :) and they've also asked me as a temporary web designer. Furthermore I might get a project-based job as a musician for a big entertainment company.. :) ..so that's 4 non-fulltime jobs now.. I guess I'll take 'em all and meanwhile stay at the lighting company to have some security.. it all sounds too easy, something is bound to go wrong. Well, let's see if I ever finish my education.. ;)

But this isn't all.. I'm of course involved in the Bassment Productions. I'm doing this with some other people (Angela, Jessica, DJohn, Reneo, PyRoMaN and Volkan) and we are planning to make it an official company. The idea though is to keep on doing it for fun and to help others, and not to get rich off it. Which means we all do other jobs, so there's absolutely no financial risks, and we can do with this company what ever we want or have time for. Check out www.bassment.demon.nl for more info.. :)

Well, I'm also in the band Black Currant, and produce house music under the name Purple Trance (both are Bassment parts of course), and I also lead a latin percussion band, which is a part of Harmony Aurora. I don't know how long I'll be doing this btw, because there's a stubborn and too old-fashioned committee in my way there.. I guess they don't really know me yet. :)