Fred Brooker Unplugged
We had an informal chat with sound engineer, music composer and game developer Filip Oščádal aka Fred Brooker about his journey through the world of games. We discussed Mr. Daniel Forró, Chris Hülsbeck, David Whittaker and 3D mastering, the first 3-channel sampled music for the 8-bit ATARI, or a 6-player multiplayer game for the Amiga. All this in the premises of Café Art.
Well, I'll leave it (the microphone) like this... Do the microphones have any special parameters? Are you using any special settings or how does it actually work?
I don’t know much about microphones …
And what did you make all those sounds with?
I'm not a big specialist in microphones, but in sound effects 🙂
I know, but you use microphones for that, right?
Clearly. So I picked the best that was on the market at a reasonable price and then used it to the best of my ability.
What a magical method!
There are definitely a lot of sound engineers out there looking for which microphones are the best. I don’t think it really matters in the game. That sound goes through a lot of processing, it only works as an input. So the important thing is to record it well, not if you have a microphone for 10 or 50 thousand bucks.
Well, it’s just... I thought some mics somehow do a better job of de-noising the signal or delivering it better?
You can use omnidirectional microphones, which most people use, or directional guns. They record, as if you were aiming a machine gun, the so-called ultracardio characteristic. This allows you to grab a special object, such as a cat meowing in the corner. My friend Honza Růžička and I were recording some sounds by the pond, people were having fun on the other side and I said to him: "Hey, we know what they're saying there!" And they had no idea. Each sample is typically denoised, equalized, normalized, and mixed with other sounds before being incorporated into the game. It’s a lot of magic and a lot of work.
CIA professionals have laser microphones that pick up sound by bouncing off glass. When the suspect is in a closed room, the sound can be picked up at a distance of several hundred meters by shaking the window.
I basically catch waves, vibrations and if we go into details, everything in the world is about quantum wave vibrations and I catch them 🙂
Half a mulled wine later...
So how did it all begin?
I would start with where I got into the computer business and games in general. By the time I was about 11 years old, I was already a pretty tech-savvy kid. I really enjoyed ICs and working with coils. At the time, the Children and Youth Center (DDM) had various clubs. I was just doing some stupid radio job, had the printed circuit etched in acid... "Okay, I'll wait, nothing to do." And they had computers in the next room! ZX Spectrum and played Raid Over Moscow on it. I thought to myself: "You fool, the attack on Moscow is amazing!" Because my family is an anti-communist family. So I used this as an argument to get my parents to buy me a small computer when Moscow was attacked so I could play.
You played it on a political note at home.
We simply don’t like communists at home. Not even members of the state police. That was the year 1985. A year later I got my first computer for my birthday.
It was a 130XE, wasn’t it?
Yes, 130XE. A decent and nice computer. It was a simple decision. Either I'll have a computer or I'll keep soldering or playing with acid and explosions 🙂
I even built a micro instrument to play with the sound. It had one oscillator and the keyboard was made up of bell buttons that I shortened the springs with. I was about 10 years old then. It was played. It was great. My very own awesome little Moog 🙂
Diatonic, right?
Yeah. To this day, I don’t understand how I ever did it as a little boy. It also had a slope. It also had a pitch bend.
By the way, I started playing music from a very young age. I have always enjoyed music. Here around the corner is Antonínská Street, there was a folk art school. Then I learned to play the piano and the organ, and finally the drums.
And what about your feet?
Even with the legs, and that really pissed me off because it was very difficult. I was small.
You're not anymore?
Yes, I'm small 🙂 My teacher Majka used to tell me: "You have to put your legs there properly!" — "But I can't reach there!"
And then my tall dad influenced me, which I will never forget. He is a fantasy and sciencefiction writer, he published a few books with Martin Klíma and AF167. He organized Jazztival concerts in Brno for many years, even though he couldn't play anything (there was only one old guitar at home). He uses the nickname Jan "Jam" Oščádal and the title Lady Fantasy 😀
Nowadays Lady is okay. Today it’s fine.
...he actually forced me to start messing with the Czech text. He taught me proofreading and drinking.
Wine?
You have to write everything...
Yeah? I can write booze, right? And what did he teach you, wine? Or what?
He first taught me how to drink hard liquor.
So it started quite badly. How old were you?
Around twelve. It was Fernet Stock, to burn the stomach worm. We ate some lettuce at home with some small bugs that day.
My father led me to literature, jazz, the Beatles and the Cimrman. He guided me to the arts and to the development of my musical talent, if you can call it that.
My mother was a ballet dancer, later she graduated from the AMU, so she had to know their communist banter too, but she said she learned it in such a way that she forgot it immediately after the exam — and then a postgraduate degree at the Charles University in Prague. She studied to be able to teach art history — due to health reasons, you can't make a living from ballet for long, and my father didn’t bring home much money, rather he drank it all with his friends at the theater (dad was a stagehand at the Janáček Theatre). So I am a child of the Opera, I naturally hate opera since my childhood 😄
We all had a great relationship with art at home. My father is a writer, my mother is a ballet dancer and I am a computer game creator. So there is probably some basis there... But at the beginning it was not very recognizable.
My mother tried to get me into ballet. For example, she said, "Try the pas de deux." But she found out that I am completely left-handed. I'm so glad I didn’t have talents.
Well, the horror!
So I went to university to study organic chemistry, because I also enjoyed chemistry — and I still enjoy it to this day, those are the explosions 😄 I went to the gymnasium, considering that I won almost all the chemistry competitions in Brno.
We started playing computer games with my friend Petr Klvač, who chose the nickname Peter Winston, already in high school as teenagers. We played games together at his house and his mom wasn’t too happy about it either.
My nickname, Fred Brooker, was based on the game Feud, which had an absolutely amazing soundtrack written by Jason C. Brooke. Fred as Philip and Brooker as him. I chose the nickname because it was cool and also because our family name is getting messed up.
Oščádal?
Yes. It is a complex name from Moravian Haná, it means Ashamed. They kept spelling it wrong for me even in the early days of the internet as O¡... they just screwed up my name, they couldn't even write "s" instead of "š" anywhere because there was no Unicode.
The music in Feud is pretty simple. Not much really, not a particularly big form. There's a wonderful tension to it. Even in that game there is tension.
I always loaded it from cassette and just listened. Maybe two hours and the parents come in and say, "Is there something wrong with that kid? Is he crazy?"
You know what my mom called ATARI back then?
I have no clue.
Clink banger.
I was sitting in front of the screen trying to create something, it sounded like dull clinks and bangs. That's how my mother perceived it, today I understand it. At the same time, I am apparently gifted with absolute hearing, which of course does not mean that I can automatically play anything well. Hearing is basically more of a nuisance, but I adjusted the tone tunings entirely according to my hearing.
What about Daniel Forró?
Daniel Forró was my friend since childhood, he knew my father. When I started with music, Dan Forró, aka Karel Horký, said: "So what if your little boy comes to me for some lessons?" He’s always been after money, but every teacher costs money — only those who can't teach you do it for free.
That will make Dan happy.
This is actually such an ideal connection. Honestly, almost everyone in our society does everything for money, right? Karel Horký changed his name to Daniel Forró, because some other Karel was receiving money from OSA (Copyright Association) instead of him 😅
Back then, in the 1980s, he said to my father, "I'm going to teach your boy to work with synthesizers." So he taught me to work with waves and different progressions. What is frequency modulation, amplitude modulation, ring modulator, ADSR and so on. That's when I understood all about the basics.
Then he sold me his thesis on sound synthesis for a lot of money. Just loosely wrapped in a bag like a pile of papers.
Typewritten, right?
Xeroxed. Dan was and still is the best in the business. First he is my friend and second he is my mentor. He got me in the business.
Thanks to him, around 1991 I told my father that we would go to Prague to buy my first Yamaha DX7IID synthesizer (an improved version of the original DX7). It cost an awful lot of money. From second-hand... That damn son of a bitch synth served me well until about 2005, when I sold it for about CZK 12,000.
Another is Yamaha VL1. But it was a virtual synthesizer, wasn’t it?
Based on a recommendation from Dan, who played the VL1, I purchased the VL70‑m, which is a virtual synthesizer for creating acoustic sound synthesis in the form of a module without a keyboard and is monophonic. For example, I used it to make guitars or various screams and whistles, you can hear it in the Flying Heroes soundtrack.
I also learned how to play the crazy...
...breath controller?
Exactly! A little tube in my mouth. I was sweating a lot and probably turned a little blue. But it’s all used in Flying Heroes. This was a great module, too bad I sold it when I moved.
At the time, Dan was at JAMU, where he taught experimental music and organized concerts. And because it was free, all the retirees came and sat there, waiting for some swag, and he let them in full blast, "Uuuuuuu! Dum dum boom." And they were totally screwed. After the concert, I went to shake Dan's hand and said, "Karl, good." Except no one was there. Just Karel and me. And the pensioners thought to themselves: "I will definitely never come here again." 😄
...not even for free!
He showed them the experimental creation completely to the core. And I thought to myself: "Dude, how many people are going to be here?" But none of them even thanked him after the concert. Just me. So the bond between us is forever.
He was very fond of using microtonal scales at concerts. There is not only classical diatonics. A completely different tuning was also used in the Middle Ages than we use today.
During conversations about another possible Vietcong game, I advised Jarek Kolář from INGAME STUDIOS: "There are no exactly given tones for the whole world, it’s like languages. In other remote parts of the Earth, they have a different language, customs, cuisine, body language, instrument tuning.” If Jarek wants to make another great Vietcong sequel, we have to tune it elsewhere. Do you understand?
I know, I know.
That's just what Dan taught me.
What's your musical role model?
I have had many role models in my life... I listen to around 500 artists.
So the Brooke, right, but that's just one track.
That was a good model, of course he had more games, it was good enough on those 8 bits and simple chips, or there was Adam Gilmore (Zybex, Draconus). Otherwise, the main role models at the beginning were Depeche Mode, which my cousin Patrick sent me on several cassettes from Sweden (my mother's sister emigrated), then Orbital, Kraftwerk, Camouflage, …
Yes, I love them too!
...Vangelis and of course Franta Fuka.
Did he compose? I did not know.
A few things I've redone for the ATARI while listening to recordings from the ZX Spectrum with the AY chip are his tracks. I did not look to see if he wrote them or just rearranged them at his discretion. They were never even 1:1 conversions, I didn’t want to or I just couldn't.
Ah, so such a bio-AI, human-AI...
...even back then we were "stealing" it from each other. It was the 1990s, nobody cared about copyright. Plus it was free, such a tribute music.
I was listening to your Star Paws on YouTube...
Yeah, that's Rob Hubbard, he didn’t do much music for the ATARI. But this song spoke to me.
There are already drum samples in this song. Did you somehow sample or download that?
All samples were from ATARI ST, which classmate Honza Pokorný had at home. He saved it on disk and Kevin Updike (Achtung Die Kurve programmer) resaved it using a ZX Spectrum to the tape, which I read on ATARI with a modified Turbo 2000. It was quite a painstaking procedure, but it worked.
What about other projects?
Peter and I had a separate Lemmings project, but we only finished the demo. It’s probably the best ATARI music I've written — it uses volumetric drum samples, overtones, plus the demo we did. I took us hell of a time — studying at university and also the lack of any working ATARI tools could be the reason. I coded using a ROM cartridge, Petr used graph paper and a pencil, then I wrote him a simple graphic editor controlled by the joystick.
I listened to this today. You have it in that YouTube mix.
After the Lemmings Intro, we said goodbye. Petr wanted to study architecture at university, he was no longer interested in games. I was studying organic chemistry and somehow we got separated for a while.
But then in 1997, when Jarek Kolář heard the 💿️ Dissolver, he said: "It's great, it’s a blast. Don't you want to work with us on some game sound?"
The company Pterodon Ltd. actually started with the assimilation of HMC into itself. The company started with Jára Kolář, Michal Janáček, Michal Mariášek, Petr Klvač and me. Then we worked on Hesperian Wars, Flying Heroes and Vietcong. A lot of people was there...
Hey, I wanted to ask about one more piece of music. On Brutal Recall. It is simply a cover of Whittaker's Xenon song.
It's probably taken over, again from the tape. We were pirates back then and we were totally blown away that we and our friends liked it. Maybe they hate us in the West for that 😂 I have a lot of friends there now, like Chris Hülsbeck. I didn’t steal anything from him. Seriously.
Did you crack that music somehow?
You have to understand, I wrote it by listening to the tapes.
Not from that game? Now I mean the Xenon. You heard that in a game, didn’t you?
I've never played it. So all the music is from the tapes.
Dense...
Explain to me what 3D mastering is. It’s not retro anymore, but I have absolutely no idea what it means in practice.
It's the tip of what you probably haven't heard in your life. That's what I did: dolby-free 3D sound, 3-channel sampled ATARI music, and the first 6-player Amiga game.
Achtung die Kurve?
Yep, for six players. I always try to do something new. Valve Software does the same.
So 3D mastering...
3D mastering is a very difficult thing, when you have to move the sound into the space. It should be noted that I am not an expert. But we wanted to have it there twenty years ago. We were told by Take 2, the English producer, that we had to be Dolby certified and thus go through some sort of certification process, and that it would cost another X thousand dollars...
Jesus!
A lot of money for something so trivial. So I said: "Let's do it differently!" and Medvěd (Michal Blažek aka Žbleka) built our own system. We made 4 emitters.
...like sound sources?
Yeah, around the player in the camera, and we put the audio into them. And then we tried to mix it up somehow and it worked. We mixed the sound even without Dolby.
...in Vietcong 2?
In Vietcong 1. Here it is. One button in the settings, but you need to have a 3D sound card and speakers to activate it.
Overall rating of the games: I feel that today's games are more technical and there is not as much emphasis on gameplay.
Today's games are also lighter and shallower. I think the gameplay is more oriented towards not dying all the time. One of the few games that really appealed to me is Death Stranding. You play a postman. This really intrigued me and I spent at least a hundred hours on it. When you shoot with your own urine and blood, it’s really cool. Hideo Kojima is probably a genius, but this is a typical Japanese game set in an American setting. It has brilliant sound processing, won many awards. I wouldn't expect that when I play the simulator of the Czech Post that I will enjoy it, because at the age of 18 I worked part-time at the post office for about three weeks.
Two mulled wines later...
What is the "text definition" in game development? This applies to the sound, of course.
A text file in which I defined the entire sound design of the game.
Was that like a script?
From today's point of view, it would be something like JSON data format. Twenty years ago, of course, there was no JSON. (Fred got it wrong here, JSON was created in 2001.)
I will still take pictures of you, I have a camera here. So your first game was Tetris?
Before that, I made some games, but they weren’t interesting and publishable. And only in 1989 I decided to make a small game studio. I was 15 years old! And I named it after Hieronymus Bosch. According to the painter who created the crazy and terrifying paintings. So Hero Music Company is a tribute to him. We have now rebranded as HMC GAMES.
Did you do that Tetris in a machine code?
Exactly. I learned BASIC in 1986 or 1987. Then I realized that there was no point in messing around with BASIC and that it was better to write it directly in the machine code. Assembly in my head. I wrote it in decimals.
What was your first BASIC on?
The first was on the ATARI. Then I already learned machine code. I used a ROM cartridge from Richter and thanks to that I had full control over the whole system and I could write whatever I wanted. I had 56K of memory all to myself. Then exported to cassette and that's how I programmed back then. Import, code, reset, fix, repeat, and export.
Which game influenced you the most?
Raid Over Moscow. That was the first game I ever saw. Maybe Manic Miner, but I've never really played that much.
I played Draconus a lot.
Draconus is great. The music for Microx is inspired by Draconus.
What was the best Amiga game for you? I'm an atarist, but I like The Shadow of the Beast on Amiga.
So I approached the music composer and he told me to fuck off.
That was Whittaker, wasn’t it?
Yeah, he sent me to hell.
And how did you contact him?
I wrote him an e-mail to EA (Electronic Arts).
Then you had an Amiga at home...
I had ATARI, Amiga 500+, Amiga CD32 and then PCs.
CD32 is a console right?
Yep.
And that was already 32-bit, right?
Well, the Amiga itself is 32-bit. It is 16/32 bit hybrid computer.
How do you know Chris Hülsbeck?
I wrote to him.
Hello?
Yeah, like that. I wrote him what I was doing, what I was doing before. And he replied: "That's great. Hi!"
You chatted...
Yeah, somehow ATARI and Amiga people can become friends pretty quickly. He also sold Dissolver on his e-shop, he sold about 5 pieces 🙂 Chris now travels around America in a motorhome. He has a studio in that truck and writes in it.
So he’s still making music.
Yeah. Then he moves elsewhere. I don’t know if it would be possible to live like this here. That I would go from Brno to Ostrava and then perhaps to Humpolec. Or our D1 highway to Prague.
...or to Pelhřimov.
We will all go to Pelhřimov one day, but without computers, it is forbidden to take any cassettes with us to Pelhřimov. Chris Hülsbeck can cross three quarters of America and still be good. Whereas you go from town to town and it’s still the same here. For me, Chris is one of the few people who made a big impact on the Amiga by doing something that seemed impossible. At the time, we were making 3-channel sampled music through the processor for the ATARI. It was not possible otherwise.
But ATARI has 4 channels.
It has but not sampled. For sample playback you have to join 2 channels, so in total ATARI will only play 2 samples at once. I wrote the playback routine on a sheet of paper in the village of Březiny not far from Polička, assembly instructions in a loop so that the timing worked out.
Now, years later, I ask Chris on an unnamed social network, “How did you guys play that sampled music?” And he says, “Exactly the same. Simply 4 channels mixed via the processor and the rest 3 channels via hardware."
He did it on Amiga and I did it on ATARI. Turrican therefore had 7-channel music, which "wasn't possible". You must have noticed that it only plays at the beginning, but in the game the music dropped to the basic 4 channels. Processor mixing has its drawbacks. At least the Amiga didn’t have to turn on the black screen.
Two more beers later...
Do you still play anything? On the organ or on the keyboard?
I don’t play much right now but I want to start again. It’s like swimming. You learn it once and then you simply fall into it. After 20 years I went to shoot sfx last year and in 2 weeks I was in.
How did you edit the music on the ATARI and what on the Amiga?
Nothing on the ATARI. That was pure machine code, it seemed easier to me. I used OctaMED on the Amiga until about 1997. The music for Seven Days and Seven Nights was written using OctaMED. Even our 💿️ Dissolver. I have worked in Cubase since Fish Fillets times.
On the Amiga?
On the PC! I composed in Cubase until I retired from gaming altogether. At one point I stopped being interested, it just became a corporate job, deadlines, planning, it wasn’t fun — so goodbye!
I use Reaper and Acoustica Mixcraft now, I want to learn Zebra, Vital and Decent Sampler. Reaper was written by Justin Frankel, the author of Winamp, which most readers will probably be familiar with.
It's hard to create on Linux, but it’s getting easier every day. Windows never again...
You're still learning. I'll put you here in that ball on the wall and we'll go take some pictures.
