Here is our fast interview with Nesteroulis Vasilis aka DJ Nest. Get to know him and why Amiga is his passion. The vintage societies grow all over the world and in Greece, this is no exception. Amitopia wants to visit this country someday at some Amiga event there. If you know of any Amiga event,… then please send an email to post at amitopia dot com!
Let’s Interview DJ Nest
Hi Nesteroulis, can you introduce yourself?
I’m a tracker fan and an amiga enthusiast with love for the Amiga Scene and music. Also a Member of the Greek Vintage Computers Society Club. A real members club where we participate in various Gaming Events and also have a personal space with our Retro collections. I compose music with various Amiga trackers (Protracker, Octamed V4 , Digibooster Pro) and also started experimenting with Renoise tracker 2 years now. I also use midi synths with my Amiga and midi equipment. Music got me again after some years of amiga hibernation when I was looking over the internet and Soundcloud other Amiga music composers have started again compose on their Amigas. on 2015 I heard ”Amiga Junglism’s” tracks on SoundCloud and this is it….I started tracking again on my Amiga and I started with this track on Protracker again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAmkkcbw9HA
How long have you been using the Amiga?
The 1st time I used an Amiga was in 1990 when my father bought an A500 with a 1084 monitor. I and my older brother were playing like crazy classic Amiga games. My brother was a Dj those years and mastering his techniques on Drum n Bass music. I was 10 years old when I first used my A500. Then Around 1994 one friend gave us Protracker on disk with some sample disks. One year later I was experimenting with Drum n Bass music. Amiga was more like a creativity computer for me than a gaming machine. That’s why I use my amiga for music a lot.
What is your current configuration?
My main Amiga for almost daily use is my Vampire V2 A600, 2mb chip ram, midi expansion, Akai S2000 midi sampler, Korg MicrokorgXL+ midi synth, PCMCIA wifi card, external CD-ROM, coffinOS installed. This computer was my most not used Amiga back in the days and now combined with my music productivity and the power of the Apollo Core I can use at high speeds programs like DigiBooster for music and expand up to 128 channels tracks if I like but I stick mostly to maximum 8 channels.
What are your favorite activities on Amiga?
I use various trackers to compose music on my amiga and I never stop experimenting on music almost 25 years now. 2 years now with my Vampire600 I use a lot the Digibooster pro software to compose music with more channels and faster CPU as you can’t compose on Digibooster without a 68030 accelerator at least. Vampire flies and can play perfect 64ch .xm modules. I also like a lot the Amiga Demoscene. I hope to get involved someday and hear my music on an amiga demo. I also started making music for Amiga games. It is a challenge I wanted to face because my tracks have heavy sampled sounds in D&B music and from 600-900kb you drop down to 50-80kb its a bet with myself self I want to win. I work together with John Tsakiris, the creator of the new 2018 game Worthy. As you see music on amiga never stopped but also has a bright future with all this new hardware around. Vampire V4 has good potential with a full 16bit sound.
As a DJ, do you think that the Amiga with Vampire will remain a competitive machine in the field of sound?
We need more music tools to be competitive. I want to believe that new software will be released for the next 5 years. We have dedicated members from the community, there is developing on Milkytracker for the Amiga 68k and vampire as we speak. I test a lot this software, its a WIP but very strong at this stage. I hope we see more tools for music in the near future. Vampire new accelerator cards will have 16bit sound soon but even without that option, Paula chipset has a very crisp and deep clear analog sound. with the right tools and mixing experience, you can archive proper quality music.
What is your opinion on AmigaOne X5000?
Don’t have a next-gen Amiga. Never had and never used one. I stick to the classic machines.
Finally, do you have something to say to our readers?
Vampire600 gave life to an A600 I had dead almost 20 years on a box because there was not even one option to accelerate this computer with something reliable from the 90’s era market. When V600 V2 came out I was a skeptic but after a year of development and a promising road path from the Apollo team, I joined the list for my V600 V2 card. After almost 3 years of use, I can say that this computer is more stable than my A1200 with a 68060 accelerator. Now my underestimated A600 is a workload beast. I demonstrate my V600 on various Exhibitions in Greece and people can’t believe that this Amiga600 can play 3d accelerated games, watching videos, playing 68060 demoscene stuff and many more. I feel the Scene more active than in 1994. V4 standalone card is almost ready to launch and the V1200 card is around the corner. The future of Amiga, our beloved computer from the mid-’80s is still alive and kicking.
Feel free to add any information you find relevant (comments, images, videos, etc)
Important Links
DJ Nest Facebook Page
His official new releases on Amiga Music Preservation
amp.dascene.net/detail.php?view=16180
The Amiga and Amithlon project page
paranoicb.wixsite.com/theamigaproject
His Music and Vampire based YouTube channel
DJ Nest Soundcloud page
https://soundcloud.com/dj_nest_nesteroulis_vasilis/tracks
Latest track made with Vampire600 and Digibooster
We need to give a huge thanks to DJ Nest which wanted to answer all of our questions. It is nice to give knowledge about Amiga users worldwide. The creativity is so intense which the owners of Amiga should embrace it. Amiga creativity is really unique and it got a force that no other Amiga computer got.
We love what DJ Nest is doing for the Amiga! Keep on doing what you do. It is really worth it!
Source: Questions by Hugo Pereira – DJ Nest did the Answers
