*********************************** AM/FM ***********************************     EDITORIAL       AM/FM ISSUE #15    HI EVERYONE! Ok, this time we've been even quicker than usual in getting the next issue out - in fact, I think it's only about three weeks since we released issue #14; and here's #15 already! The reason for this is that because of holidays and everything, #14 was delayed for quite a while, and all the time, good material kept coming in - so when we released issue #14, we already had quite a bit of good material for #15, which of course shortened the production time for this issue. All to the better for you readers! In this issue, there's only one PD Music Disk review, I'm afraid - and no reviews at all of new CD releases. The reason for this is the usual problem with disk space. At the time of writing this, this AM/FM disk is as good as full already, and there's no point in holding it back, waiting for some reviews which there won't be any disk space for anyway! So instead, we will give you a *double* dose of reviews next time, ok? I hope you'll enjoy all the other articles, utilities, etc. on this disk so much that you'll forget about the missing music reviews. Make sure you don't miss this issue's Basement Tapes section, with a review of a great new Basement Tape that we've received. And while I'm on the subject of Basement Tapes, I must *once again* urge more of you readers and amateur musicians to *please* send us a tape with your material! Come on - don't just sit there and wait to read about what everyone *else* has done. It is YOU readers and amateur musicians who must make this column live, so come on! Your favourite AM/FM Editor (me) is even busier than usual these days and weeks. I find myself in the middle of lots and lots of exciting projects, but I hope you will notice the fact that even though I'm *extremely* busy with composing, producing, writing, etc. etc., I have *not* let AM/FM suffer and put it back by weeks etc. The simple explanation to this is of course that I *love* editing and releasing AM/FM, it's my favourite way to spend my evenings, so even though I *should* have been doing other things, I've been doing AM/FM anyway...! If some of you should think "well, what exactly is it that this guy is so extremely busy with then?", I can mention a few things like getting married, getting new jobs, composing music for the most important project I've ever been involved with, composing music for my next CD, etc. Yes, it is true that I got married about a month ago (thanks to Kim Jensen for his "dedicated" song "White Wedding" in this issue's Amiga-only Music section), and I am also heavily involved these days with composing a soundtrack for a theatre production titled "Brave New Virtual World", which will have it's premiere in Oslo, Norway on the 20th September (!bloody h... - *that* soon??!). In the middle of this, I am composing music for my next CD, "Montage", which I hope to release around Christmas time. The last couple of weeks have been used to compose the title- track from this CD, and so far, I've used 3-4 weeks to compose the first 3-4 minutes of this song! Of course, I'm doing all sorts of other stuff in between; like editing AM/FM, etc. One practical thing that I'd like to mention is that from this issue on, we're using another program than Powerpacker to compress the music modules that are in the music directory of the AM/FM Magazine disks. The new program we're using is PMC (Power Music Cruncher), which is a compressing program which is especially made to effectively compress music data. It is about 10-15% more effective on music modules than PowerPacker. To decrunch these files, you need the program PMC which is stored in the C-directory of this (and all future) AM/FM-disks. To replay the modules *without* decrunching them first, you must use a module- player that supports the PMC-compression format. The only two programs I know of at this time that can handle this is AM/FM-Play, which is also stored in the C- directory of this disk; and the more advanced module player "PowerPlayer". You also need lh.library in LIBS:. Thanks to using PMC instead of PowerPacker on the music modules on this issue, we've been able to squeeze yet another 50 kb or so on the disk! Some special thanks in this editorial should go to André Meyer for his constant help on every issue, Geir Kristoffersen for all his nice MIDI music on this issue, and Stephan Fuhrmann for AM/FM-Player and PMC. Ok, see you all again in AM/FM #16. Please don't expect that issue to come out as soon as this one did - after all, the normal period is about two months; and 3-4 weeks between issues will *not* be the new standard...  Enjoy this meaty issue - see you soon!  Bjørn A. Lynne [Ed] *********************************** AM/FM ***********************************