Ambrosia Software Web Board: Randy Pringle Interview - Ambrosia Software Web Board

It's been a few years now (that's hard to believe) since we got permission from Ambrosia to have the Cythera music. At the time there was some interest in contacting Randy Pringle to see if he remembered the game and had any comments on it. I tried to send him a few emails, but to no avail. Recently, I started searching again, and finally, we've found the elusive Randy Pringle!

http://absolutestudio.net/

That's the website of his studio, Relatively Absolute Studios. I sent an email to the address on that site to make sure he was the Randy Pringle we knew, but I never get a reply. So I called him today, and he's a very personable guy. He did remember Cythera, very well in fact. Sadly, he said he no longer has any of the music files he composed for the game, nor does he have a copy of the game itself. It has been over a decade. He was happy to take a few minutes to talk to me, and told me to feel free to share it with everyone. Here's a nearly complete transcript of our conversation. Unfortunately, I wasn't set up to record the beginning of the conversation, so it starts a few minutes in. Also, I'm not the best audio-to-text transcriber in the world, so there may be some mistakes; I've tried to keep it as accurate to the original conversation as possible but still be coherent. The ending is truncated a little bit, too.

W: All of us thought it would be wonderful to hear a little of the backstory from you because we love the music! The game wouldn't be what it is without the music.

RP: Fantastic; that is so wonderful. The beginning of digital recording was around the time period I recorded that. It was done with a MIDI file, and I was actually laid up in my basement, so I didn't walk very far. I was using a Macintosh with 8 megs of RAM, had one little speaker to hear the music out of. I think I did have a couple of monitors set up, but anyways, it was a Roland keyboard and a Macintosh Performa 475 with 8 megs of RAM. I was running Free Style sequencing software. I don't know if you'd be interested in all that.

W:No, I am interested. So you did everything through a MIDI keyboard into the computer?

RP: Oh yeah. Yeah, it was very primitive, and it was the beginning of the digital recording age so that was the top of the line, at least that I knew of.

W: Well I know Ambrosia was at the forefront of kind of the digital release era because most of their games were downloaded from online, and at the time, I remember spending half an hour to download a 7 megabyte game, so I know they had to keep the size down.

RP: Exactly, I had dialup. I had a 14.4 modem; I'm sure you had something similar.

W: Yeah, it took forever. My dad always described it as trying to suck a milkshake through a coffee stirrer.

RP: Oh you know it!

W: I'm so glad we have broadband.

RP: It sure is nice to have it that way; get a lot more work done. I'm sending huge WAV files and MP3 files up now that I could never have done before.

W: Oh I know; back then you had to send tiny files! Well I was reading about the old format, and that it was in a MIDI format, and it made me wonder how many songs you actually composed for them that you sent in? Did you send in a bunch of different songs, and they just picked a few?

RP: Well, this is how Glenn and them worked that out. They wanted a song for a specific part of the game. They wanted one to be. . . wonder if I still have the original email, that'd be nice if I did. They wanted one to be melancholy and sad; they wanted one to be enthusiastic and regal, perhaps even partially, I think the wording they used was "royalty". I can't remember exactly how they said it, but they wanted specific moods for specific parts of the game. And I just tried to write in order to make that happen as best I could. Songs just kind of come to me as I write them; I write on the fly.

W: Well I do think you're very talented because in playing the game, I can hear a lot of different styles that go into it. Like one part is heavily woodwinds, and the next part is all guitar. It's a very broad range because you have the royal sounding theme and majestic music and then something more peaceful.

RP: Oh yes. Majestic was one of them. And actually guitar... they might have revamped the music a little, which is okay, because I couldn't have put a guitar in.

W: It sounded like a guitar strumming, I wonder what it actually was.

RP: It could have been the MIDI keyboard with it's guitar sound.

W: That must have been it. I don't know much about music; I'm more into the computer programming side. I'm actually a computer science student.

RP: Wonderful! I've been online through Kaplan.

W: So you've been doing online stuff for a while?

RP: Yeah, music just drove me into this, because I'm 52 years old, and I did not grow up with computers. And once I realized that I could record the music on the computer and redo it without having to splice tape or redo the whole song, ah man, I had to have it! The last twenty years of my life, since about that time period, has been devoted to collecting these new technologies. Some of the equipment is expensive, and I'm not really famous or anything, I don't have a lot of income. But that's where I want to go with it, I want to go into film music. And I don't really want to be famous or anything; I just want to be able to pay the bills off.

W: Well, it's nice to be recognized for your work, too. I know a lot of us who play this game, and it's like 12 years old now, there are a few of us who love everything about it, and we just love hearing about your experiences with it.

RP: I think that's wonderful; I just love it! In fact, I wish I still had a copy of it, but I don't. It probably wouldn't work on my new Mac.

W: Yeah, it doesn't play on the new Macintosh's unless you emulate it. Ambrosia was actually considering updating the game to work on newer Macs a few years ago, but Glenn Andreas just didn't have the time or resources to do it. But that sort of thing happens. They move from the classic Mac OS to Mac OS X, then they move to Intel processors. In the game development business, it's really hard to keep up.

RP: I can imagine. I took a little programming, and I admire you guys. It went a little over my head, but I got a glimpse of it. I probably won't retain any of it, I can't even remember the terminology, but I think it's amazing. If you ever need music for anything, you should call me; I'd be happy to help out.

W: I will, and I'll also put in a plug for your website, I'm sure the publicity would be good.

RP: Yes, the website design is something I do know how to do; that's my home-made website. I'm glad you found that. And you can direct anybody that's interested in this to my email. As a matter of fact, I should put a little something on the website about it. That's what I want to do with that site, I want to give people a little history about how I worked my way into the industry. It's been a long road, I've done a lot of research and studying.

W: That makes me think of something else I've been wondering: how did you happen to find Ambrosia Software in the first place? Did they find you or did you know about them?

RP: I went to a website that listed all the different game companies on it, and I just sat there and wrote emails to different production companies. Some of them I never heard from again, and it just seemed like Ambrosia just hit. I can't tell you how many cassettes I've sent out, cassettes and CD's I've sent to different places, but you just never hear from them. Now I'm working on production quality. On my website there is some music there, it's a collection of stuff I've done so far, and you guys are welcome to listen to it, it's all free.

W: Yeah, I'll have to put up a link to that.

RP: Actually, just like a needle in a haystack, it was a miracle that I found somebody [Ambrosia]. Nowadays, I believe most businesses have in-house production, musicians within the company, so it's a pretty hard business to break into.

W: Yeah, I imagine so; I know the music industry has changed a lot. It used to be all bleeps and bloops, then it progressed to the MIDIs, and now everything is audio CD quality music.

RP: You bet. I've got two different types of software that I use for my orchestration now. They use gigafiles; it takes gigs of information to make the violin sound like a real violin, and it's very realistic. I use EastWest and GigaStudio.

W: Those make it sound really lifelike?

RP: Oh yeah, it sounds like there's a real musician in the room with you. And all the effects are included, you can make it sound like you're in an airplane hangar if you want to. And the drums they have now are just fantastic. Back when the MIDIs were the only thing you could use, the cymbals didn't really have any sustain, and it wasn't very realistic. As a matter of fact, the drums they didn't even want there, it was too busy. The first few songs I gave them, I had drums with them, and even though the drum parts were nice, they weren't realistic enough. And they just decided they didn't want the drums. Most of them actually don't have drums, if not all of them.

W: I think some of them do, I can think of a couple. In my opinion, they're all very good songs. To be able to look at a list of the themes they wanted and then be able to create all those various themes amazes me. It's truly a wonderful thing that you've done.

RP: Well thank you. And I've played in country bands and rock bands, and I'm starting to listen to some newer music too, and I'm really starting to enjoy some of the electronic stuff. And I'll probably try to touch on every genre that there is.

W: I see, so you enjoy a broad variety of musical types?

RP: Yeah, I like it all. And I can't wait to get the studio done so that I can get out there and do some work that way.

W: So you've been working from your home all these years?

RP: Oh yes, I've even got stuff in my bathroom! It's in my living room, my dining room, and some wires are hanging up there in the bathroom! We need to get some of it cleared out. The studio's gonna be nice. Well, I gotta go play tonight with the Grey Matter band.

W: You do live performances as well?

RP: Yeah. We do that once a month anyway. Most of my time is devoted to school and my little girl now.

W: Okay, well I'll post a link for people so they can see your website and email you too, if you'd like.

RP: That'd be great. And I have some new music that actually made into Brett Perry's library. Brett Perry did all the Fox shows; he did That 70's Show. Through the company Taxi I was able to have some music sold to Brett Perry, and I got to talk to him in Burbank.

W: So you've had your music appear in other stuff too?

RP: Yeah, some of my music ended up Homeward Bound 2, It's Pat the Movie, The Man Next Door, and Phat Beach.

W: I see, so you've done a little bit of everything: video game music, movie music, and live performances, too.

RP: Yeah.

W: I think that's great, it means that you're working really hard for what you want, and that's wonderful.

RP: Yes, and we're gonna continue to do that. I suppose I'd better let you go.

W: All right, well I appreciate your time, and it was very nice talking to you.

RP: You too. Take care.

For those of you interested, the music he is referring to is in the "Music" tab of his website. Interestingly enough, "The Hourglass," which is reminiscent of the Land King Hall theme, is described as being like a "Stairway to Heaven." Perhaps that was the inspiration behind the "Stairway" MIDI on the Cythera Add-ons page?

Furthermore, he said he'd love to hear from fans of the music! If you want to contact him, his email address can be found under the "Contact Us" tab on his website. Note that this is currently an out-of-date email. Instead of being at "mchsi.com", his current email is at "lisco.com" but the beginning part is still absolutestudio.

EDIT: I don't know how I forgot about this, but I also found the link to that old Randy Pringle interview we'd found in the original music topic. I haven't been able to open this article in years, but after some searching, I found it had moved to here. That article actually does include a snippet from the original email Ambrosia sent him.

This post has been edited by The Wizard: 12 February 2011 - 09:23 PM

That is amazing, Wizard. Also, thanks to this topic, we now have a second page! :D

Heh! That's great Wizard. I listen to Cythera's soundtrack on my iPod all the time!

Also i think he's referring to the Led Zepplin song Stairway to Heaven.

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 13 February 2011 - 12:45 AM

Very cool! Thanks for the interview. Seems like a nice guy, though it was devastating to find out that the original midi data is gone. Hopefully someone still has it (Ambrosia staff? Gandreas?) or that there is some way to extract it out of the game. This is magical history, and it would be sad to see it disappear. Imagine running these midi files through sophisticated equipment - we could get some real nice Cythera sound that way.

Also, thanks for posting that old interview. I wonder why I never found it in my long search for Randy Pringle info. There was an unused song in there. Very, very cool! There is still more Cythera content out there.

I found his website a few years ago, and started writing an e-mail to him, but I wasn't satisfied with the letter and never dared to send it off, because I was afraid it might offend him. Don't take this the wrong way, I consider the people involved in Cythera like royalty, and therefore was afraid I was not formal enough to contact him. I might be a bit crazy, here.

I thought this might fit in this topic. Here are some descriptions of a few songs in Cythera, by Glenn Andreas:

When the Time is Right - This quaint tune greets you every time you start playing Cythera.

Space #1 - A fine tune for all kinds of exploring.

Stairway 2 no drums - The music for Land King Hall sets the tone for a mystical story.

Seldane, on 13 February 2011 - 04:48 AM, said:

Indeed, the original MIDIs would be invaluable. I tried transcribing a few of the songs in GarageBand a while back, but I never got around to completing any songs. :\

Seldane, on 13 February 2011 - 04:48 AM, said:

This is an interesting find, I wonder if anyone might care to ask Mr. Pringle if he remembers some other titles?

The music in the game is, or at least is partially, in QuickTime 'musi' format. I don't think current versions of QuickTime support 'musi' format anymore. If anyone has an OS 9 computer with QuickTime installed (i.e. a machine that's capable of playing the Cythera music in-game), you're welcome to try the files in this archive. I wouldn't have high hopes, though. If anyone has working 'musi' files to compare against, I might be able to twiddle the bits appropriately to make them play.

This post has been edited by Pallas Athene: 13 February 2011 - 03:19 PM

No worries. I am sure I can resurrect the file off my old Mac somewhere or like you say, extract it out of the game! If all else fails I can get it back by listening to it and re-producing it.

How about a new production of everything with the new audio technology?

You mentioned Stairway. In your opinion, is this the best song on Cythera? It needs the full treatment with a real guitar I have had plans to re-produce the song with my guitar playing rather than the midi guitar (or a mixture of both) for quite some time now. I would dedicate it to you guys and give it to Ambrosia to do with what they want. (Its already theirs.....yours)

This means the world to me. I am so appreciative of your dedication to this game and admiration of my music in this game. I just don't know what to say! Like Wizard and I were saying on the phone man, it's been 12 years or better since this game came out and it is practically unheard of to have software available that long.

I have some new stuff coming out so keep your eyes peeled to my site http://www.absolutestudio.net
and you will have full length versions. This site was created for my Kaplan University Web Design class and to be honest, I am not at all done with it. Broken link reports would be appreciated! For one, I need to add all this history to it immediately. I lost the old site which had Ambrosia links all over it. Sorry Ambrosia! Will update very soon!

I am in my seventh year of college. I have been in IT and design online but finally have an opportunity to do something with music. I am attending The Academy of Art for Music for Visual Media in San Francisco Online. I am going to hang on there for an AA. Then I will do some Berklee production courses.

I will be back regular. Promise!

Randy Pringle
Absolute Studio

(shortened the name a while ago)
Relatively Absolute is the name of the CD now.
Thanks all!

This post has been edited by absolutestudio: 14 February 2011 - 10:45 PM

Amazing! I never thought the day would come. Welcome to the place! You're honestly a legend to us, well, at least me. I consider the Cythera music the very epitome of video game music (and perhaps music in general). It is just so right for the game. The atmosphere in it is incredible. The melodies, everything. I just love it. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, there was another song by you available in this link. Were there other songs that you made for Cythera, that never made it into the game? Or, maybe that song was never made for Cythera in the first place? I realize not all your music was made for Cythera, so that would be understandable too.

I refuse to listen to the Cythera soundtrack when not playing the game, as I am very cautious to not get over-exposed to it. I love it, but it is very easy for me to get "tired" of music, and I never want that to happen with your Cythera music.

Anyway, once again, welcome to the site. It's been an honor to finally encounter you personally (electronically).

As Seldane said, welcome to the boards. For some reason it says you've made two posts even though I only count one, but that's completely irrelevant. Anyway, Stairway with a real guitar sounds utterly amazing. :D Having the original MIDIs to go through (and maybe mess around with if that's okay with you) would also be utterly awesome.

I sense a new Best of Cythera entry in the future…

O.O Wowev. Randy Pringle on the Cythera board? Awesome!

Welcome! :D

Personally my favourite song is definitely Kosha - so lively ^_^ Maybe it would be fun to take a favourite song poll?

This post has been edited by BreadWorldMercy453: 15 February 2011 - 10:13 AM

I dunno the Cythera world theme is so good. Just the way it builds up is perfect. And then the polyphonic woodwind instruments are also well put together, all this while holding the same emotional theme.


The Underground theme I also like a lot. First of all, it's not a typical 'cave' song that you would find in most RPGs. Second of all, I think this track really captures the feel of Cythera almost better than the others. That may sound weird but just how the music of a game adds to the atmosphere, this track really drew me in once mixed in with the why conversations were structured, and everything else that set the mood.

Heh, and I always liked that bonus Mystery City track.

Seldane, on 15 February 2011 - 02:41 AM, said:

Honestly Seldane, It is quite rewarding to hear I am a legend! I am working on that. You know it has been quite some time since I listened to some of these tracks. I took all these out of circulation and really did put them on the back burner in my mind. After downloading them today and listening to just a few, (I have to get to work here) I must say I do love some of those chord changes and see how they can be a little addicting. I would like to take some of these and give them a new production face lift with the new sounds available in today's technology. Maybe Ambrosia would get wind of that and so something with the game? Lets work on an exclusive contract! Just a thought Glenn. :} Maybe if there is enough of us out here.

I listen to my songs over and over when I am in production and if I get tired of hearing it then it is not a great. I almost never get tired of listening to my own songs however I am getting rather bored with the old and realize it is time to start creating some new. I really don't have but a handful to show the world! This is not right.

If I remember there were songs that did not make it into the game. Some did not require drums. For the most part, every song that was written for Cythera made it in to Cythera. It has been a while so I don't remember a lot of the details.

Odemia is the song I am listening to right now. I did write this on the fly for the most part. I really think this does have really nice chord changes.

There are lot of things of course I would try and make better. Musicians are their own worst critic you know.

It was sure refreshing to hear from you all. I will be checking in this thread as much as possible.

Sincerely, "Chip"

BreadWorldMercy453, on 15 February 2011 - 10:12 AM, said:

Buzzzzy, on 13 February 2011 - 06:36 AM, said:

Everything I have ever written is available to you folks. Either in this game or on the website http://www.absolutestudio.net The Add ons made available by Ambrosia are great! http://www.ambrosias...cythera/addons/

Un-Zip them and have a listen!

I can't wait to get back after work tonight and listen some more. I gotta slide! Really good to hear from you. Will be back later.

absolutestudio, on 15 February 2011 - 12:24 PM, said:

wow thanks

you're awesome

Pallas Athene, on 13 February 2011 - 03:18 PM, said:

I tried to play those in all the old OSes I had, but to no avail. Are those tracks pulled directly from the Cythera Data? If so, Glenn Andreas mentioned in this old post that the format is QuickTime Music Architecture. This article includes information about implementation of QTMA files in a program. Can that be of any help?

absolutestudio, on 15 February 2011 - 12:24 PM, said:

Welcome to the Cythera Boards, Mr. Pringle! It's wonderful to have you visiting us!

I love your idea of redoing the sound with more modern equipment; it could make for quite a listening experience. Personally, I'd be willing to pay for such a treat!

Regarding favorite tracks, there are several that I often find myself humming. Odemia is probably my favorite; I've always loved that one for some reason. Land King Hall / Stairway second; I think of Stairway as the Cythera main theme more than any other song (including the Main Theme itself). Third. . . I don't know, I like them all!

This post has been edited by The Wizard: 16 February 2011 - 01:55 AM

The Wizard, on 16 February 2011 - 01:54 AM, said:

Maybe. I'd already figured out that it was QTMA, but documentation on QTMA is pretty scarce these days and I hadn't found the article you linked. I don't have the energy to reverse engineer a music reader out of his code right now, though I do appreciate the bio at the end of the article where it claims that "[the author] experiences life at 14,400 bits per second".

Wow, welcome to the Cythera web board mr. Pringle!
I sure picked a good time to poke my head in here. I'm listening to the Cythera soundtrack right now and it brings back a lot of good memories. Like Cythera introduced me to role playing games, I think its soundtrack had a lot to do with me growing up to become quite the game soundtrack enthusiast I remember wanting to get my hands on it for ages, especially after my old Mac finally died and I had no way of playing Cythera any more. It was a good day indeed when Ambrosia let us have the music.

A new production of everything with today's audio technology sounds just awesome. I'm sure it would be very much appreciated by everyone with fond memories of Cythera – I know I would just love to hear it. And I'll be sure to check your website too!

My favorite song has got to be the Land King Hall theme, that's the one I can listen to over and over. I also love the main theme, and the Cythera world theme is also up there with my favorites. The way the song builds up and sets that eerie atmosphere, coupled with Omen's warnings about traveling at night and going too close to the shoreline... hrr, goosebumps.

Thanks again Randy for stopping by and taking the time to talk. And thanks to Wizard for sharing the interview!

This post has been edited by Rogan: 17 February 2011 - 03:58 PM

Buzzzzy, on 15 February 2011 - 06:05 AM, said:

I thought so too Buzzy, I have not even really tried it but man I can hear some guitar licks in there.
Play away! I am indeed honored. Lets fill the discussion. I want to get Ambrosia to have a peek. I am sure they come to check now and then. Cythera II anyone? Just a wild thought.

absolutestudio, on 17 February 2011 - 11:14 PM, said:

The wildest and best thought imaginable. That would indeed be a dream come true. Alas, while I refuse to give up hope, I don't think it will happen. But if the day ever comes, would you be making the music for it? Cythera wouldn't quite be Cythera without Randy Pringle.

Oh, here's another question. Before I read your interview, I always assumed you and Glenn Andreas were old friends, and that's how you got into the picture. However, that does not seem to be the case anymore. So, the question... Did you ever have any more contact with him, other than the sending of files via e-mail, taking suggestions and so on? Did you keep contact or talk about anything else? I'm just so curious. That sure is an elusive man. I consider myself his biggest fan, and yet prety much all I know about him is that he's been an Apple developer since the 80s and likes tequila.

Nice to see you again, by the way!

Welcome back, Rogan! Very good to see you! How have you been?

My favorite song is either LKH (StairWay) or the Kosha theme. But I like them all. Also, welcome back, Rogan, hope you decide to stick around at least a little while.

Hi, Rogan! Nice to know that some of our older members still drop by now and then.

Land King Hall seems to be (or is almost) everyone's favorite. What songs do you guys listen to the least? I used to listen to Catamarca rarely because I wasn't as fond of the opening part as the rest of the song, but I find myself humming it all the time and so listen to it even more now! Honestly, I can't pick a single song in the game that doesn't have a memorable melody. I've grown to love them all.

Hm, I was never a huge fan of the Pnyx or Underground themes, but that mostly has to do with the MIDI instrumentation and they both fit perfectly anyway. I used to hate the Catamarca song but I like it now.

Yeah for some reason that opening just works now.