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From: Joel Hardy (xxxx@xxxxxxx)
Subject: Request: humret.xm
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.sounds.mods
Date: 1997/12/15
A long time ago (I think back when I was on AOL),
I found a mod, and to the best of my memory, it was
called "The Humble Return", HUMRET.XM, by J. Wong.
If anybody has it and would post it or email it to me,
I'd be very grateful :)

--
Joel Hardy (xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx)
--

I found this message through GoogleGroups today after my friend e-mailed me old music I used to “create” on my old Windows computer in the early 90’s. I had a 486DX/33mhz processor at the time. I think I had 16MB of RAM.

A very long time ago I used to mess with a music tracking software program caled “FastTracker II” It looked very cool and it was such a blast to work with. And I don’t even know how to write music.

Today a high school buddy e-mailed me three tracks I made. I found my final composition online at someone’s web page, which is quite the surprise. Someone found my file? I think I uploaded it to a music newsgroup once but it was so long ago.

As far as I know, these files are playable in the latest version of Winamp. They are .XM files. Consider them MIDI files of sorts, except that the samples are built into the file so it sounds the same across sound cards.

I made these files sometime between 1993 and 1995.
Download file: old_xm_comps.zip

myung.xm
This is the Myung Theme for the animation Macross Plus by Kanno. I listened to the CD I had and tried to filter out each melody/harmony (is that even the right word?). By doing this I was able to mimic the original song - only with a ambient -styled instrument.

cybercor.xm
Generic techno track I created just to see if I could arrange something. The main notes sound like Rob Dougan’s stuff for The Matrix. Except I did this what, in 1993? I consider it a “generic” theme - it’s easy to create a mood.

cfodder.xm
Another test. This song belongs to a shareware game that was released a long time ago, I just made my own arrangement. Yet another test.

humret.zip
The Humble Return. This was probably my first serious composition. Near the end it borrows from some electronica at the time, but the other stuff tries to be original. I didn’t really have any reference. I just tried to make it sound richer by adding more instruments. I worked with 12 channels supposedly on this one.

Realize that I don’t know how to make music. I started with empty tracks, ripped out samples from other .XM files and made the arrangements myself. Thinking about how I pulled it off back then, perhaps I should start doing it again soon. It was so much fun creating sound like that.