*********************************** AM/FM ***********************************      EDITORIAL     AM/FM MAGAZINE DISK #12    Did it! (Phew!) For the first time in the history of AM/FM, we've had more than our fair share of problems and bad luck before we could finally release AM/FM. Since we released AM/FM issue #11 a couple of months ago (actually a little more), we have had enough trouble for a whole year, so I really hope things will run more smoothly with future issues! First of all, when I had only just barely started to collect material for this issue, I found that the features I had picked out so far were superb, but took a whole lot of disk space. So before I had included any articles or music at all, the disk was almost full! (uh-oh...) However, as I kept working on it, I managed to squeeze in some music and some articles, but perhaps not as many as there have been in the last few issues. So if you think this issue looks a bit "thin" on material, keep in mind that the disk is absolutely stuffed full of heavily compressed first class material. Even in AM/FM, you won't find more material than can possibly be crammed onto a disk, I'm afraid. I've been playing with the thought of releasing each issue of AM/FM on two disks; but I think this would only cause confusion "AM/FM Magazine Disk #12, disk 1 of 2..."? Nah.. Instead of going for two disks each issue, I will rather release AM/FM a bit more often - that way, the material on the AM/FM disks will also be newer and fresher. So I guess you will have to live with AM/FM on one disk, containing only as much material as I can cram onto the disk. I hope most of you out there support me in this desicion. Anyway, the problems didn't stop there. Teijo Kinnunen was kind enough to update the AM/FM menu program, making it a bit more user friendly by adding a "Quit" button and making it run on it's own screen. So I happily started to use the new version, and everything seemed to work fine. Unfortunately, just when I was about to release the disk, I discovered a bug in the menu program, and I had to send an express letter to Teijo, asking him to rectify and return to me as fast as !"%€#(!€&(#!. Further delay was caused... (Thanks to Teijo anyway, who sent a fixed version quicker than I ever thought would be possible!). As if all of this wasn't enough, I also had serious problems getting together this issue's Sample Disk, which is always released together with the Magazine Disk (So the Magazine Disk had to wait for it). Kon Wilms, who have done most of our recent sample disks, had to get his Amiga repaired, so there was no way he could do another sample disk within the time we were hoping for. My own Amiga wasn't 100% either, without a static noise-cover, and with a partly broken sound sampler, I could do the samples myself, but they wouldn't have a perfect quality. Thinking about the reputation of AM/FM, I didn't want to release something that wasn't of great quality, so I asked another friend of mine, Bobby Shahsafdari, to make the samples this time. Further delay. :-( (No more sample trouble here now, though, because a few days ago, I bought myself a brand new A1200 and fixed up my sampler.) New AM/FM Special Disks Well, despite all of these problems, here it is then: AM/FM #12. The Sample Disk has also been released, and as usual, it is of the best quality possible. And not only that, but at the same time as releasing these two disks, we are in fact also release two other AM/FM disks; AM/FM SPECIAL DISKS #4 and #5. These two disks contain a lot of previously unreleased Amiga-only music by myself; actually, a total of 19 songs. All of these songs were originally composed for games and other projects over the last couple of years. But because of lazy programmers, contractual problems, financial problems, etc., etc., these games have never actually made it to the shops. So that leaves us with the music, all of which is now available on these two AM/FM Special Disks. More Basement Tapes Please! We continue our "Basement Tapes" column this issue by reviewing Volker "Jester/Sanity" Tripp's first music tape "Simplicity". Despite the fact that a lot of people have written to me to tell me what a great idea it was to start such a column, and how much they enjoy reading it, I haven't received any more tapes at the time being. Without amateur-tapes, there can't be any Basement Tapes column either, so if you're into composing your own music, be a sport (!) and send us a tape - your music will be written about in AM/FM, and if you want to, we can also tell everyone where and how to buy this tape, or perhaps you just want to swap tapes with other amateur-musicians. Don't just sit back and read about others! Go ahead and send in a tape! The ONLY condition we set is that the music is composed by yourself, and not reproductions of someone else's music. Apart from that, the tape can contain everything from 1 to 100 songs, and they can be made on any equipment you want, from only the Amiga to a whole orchestra. Record your tape at home and send it to: AM/FM - c/o Bjorn A. Lynne - Schleppegrellsgt. 10 - 0556 Oslo - NORWAY (If you want us to return the tape to you, you must include 20 NOK worth in unused Norwegian stamps). Before I sign off, I will let you know that on AM/FM issue #13, we will have a Music-X Synth Protocols Special Feature, with Music-X Sound Storage Protocols for almost 100 (yes, one hundred) different synthesizers! There will also be great music, superb utilities, nice articles and everything else that goes with a new issue of AM/FM ! See you there! Bjørn A. Lynne [Ed] *********************************** AM/FM ***********************************