mandag 23. september 2019

A Norwegian Hard-Of-Hearing Amiga User

Watching the sunset on my AmigaOne 500 
Welcome to my new Amiga blog after a good while. In this blog, I want to explain how it is to be hard of hearing. I was bornt hard of hearing, but it wasn't discovered by the doctors before I was 6 years old. I'm a Norwegian Amiga user since 1987. I own an AmigaOne 500 aka SAM460ex, running latest AmigaOS 4.1 FE Update 1 and Workbench Enhancer 1.5. I mostly use my Amiga for photo editing and instrumental music, using programs like GIMP and OMSS v1.03c.

In Norway these days, there are nearly 1 million of people bornt with different variants of hearing problems. Around 8000 of these are entirely completely deaf people, not able to hear anything at all, but to only FEEL sounds through vibration to their body.

Being hard of hearing is something between being able to hear and to almost being deaf. For me as well, I am almost not able to hear anything at all, without hearing aid on both ears. With them, I am able to hear normal speech and almost anything, including music. For someone to talk to me, I also need the person to have eye contact with me and for me looking at the person's face. Yes, you got it. I read lips.

But with proper hearing aid, as the ones I have, I am able to hear most things quite well. It's when I have to take them off, I only hear dark sounds. So-called bass sounds. The light sounds are almost impossible for me to hear without hearing aid.

Hopefully, you now get a better understanding of my hearing problem. I don't consider it as a handicap. Such is a typical misunderstanding from people not in the same situation. I consider it as a "gift", because it strengthens other abilities, like sense and better focus on eye contact, which is extremely important. So yes, it's a gift, and I am honoured to be gifted to become a better person that way. To be able to read people in ways that are easily underestimated, and it makes me a better person.

New Ninja Remix music painted with GIMP
You might wonder how I am able to make music with my AmigaOne 500, using OctaMED SoundStudio v1.03c, and being hard of hearing? Well, it's not impossible, and as you might realize, I have been able to make both good and not as good music since 2018 now. With these hearing aid, it's fully possible for me to do so. But of course, no one is perfect and there's always room for improvements.

I don't expect everyone to like what I do, and in terms of trying to do new Ninja Remix music on the Amiga, I know it's a very sensitive subject to touch. It's okay to dislike something, but at least it's important to show respect for people trying their best. Because we're all in the same boat when it comes to the Amiga, and I believe it's important that we unite and help lift the Amiga forward the best way we can, rather than fighting each other and destroy the remains of the Amiga. We don't want that.

The problem I had with making Amiga music is that until now, I used to release a new Amiga track every week. I realize now that it wasn't normal to rush out so fast, so after many advices from music experts still using Amiga or at least supporting the Amiga, I got new insight and realized it's better to release a new track at least every month or longer, so I will just do that from now on. I think people will better appreciate that.

Also, doing pre-announcements is something I'm not going to do anymore. Of course, it's not much of a secret to know that I'm trying to make new Ninja Remix music. That much I can tell, but no more than that. What you only need to know is that good time will be spent for each track, which could take as much as a month or longer. Such will give me better time to look for errors and to improve where things can be improved.

Hand drawn painting, as the one you see of that Ninja Remix painting, is something I am also very interested in. It's certainly not easy, and better paintings demand more time. But if you love painting, you also realize you need to spend more time, and that's also what I'll try to do. It's very cool to be able to do good painting, scan them and then edit them digitally with a program like GIMP. The possibilities are many.


Come join OctaMED Music Club on Facebook

OctaMED Music Club On Facebook
About 2 weeks ago, I created a sub-group on Facebook, called OctaMED Music Club, and it's linked to the main AmigaOS group on Facebook.

The reason for creating the new music club is that I want people to realize that OctaMED is still very powerful and flexible to use on the Amiga, and to show Amiga users the wonder of creating cool and interesting music on their Amiga, using OctaMED.

The group also allows Amiga users, whom have never touched or are unfamilar with OctaMED and want to try, to learn using any version of OctaMED, including OctaMED SoundStudio v1.03c on their Amiga, and how they can make good music by starting to learn the most used basic commands. The typical commands to start with, would be tempo setting, volume control and some of the portamento and filter effects.

In aleady 2 weeks, the club has got nearly 30 members. It's quite a decent start and hopefully more will come in time. I'm very proud to have created that club and it's another gift from me to the Amiga community. Hopefully, more people will also realize the strength of both OctaMED and Amiga together. Come join the club today! Be part of a magic world of OctaMED and Amiga music, and create something you, too! It's fun!

Well, this should end the blog from now on. Now you have a better understanding of what it means to be hard of hearing, and what I do. And now you know there is an OctaMED Music Club on Facebook, if you wish to join and learn more about using OctaMED on the Amiga. Perhaps you already are using OctaMED, and want to share your OctaMED music with us? Come join, and enjoy the fun. You won't regret it ;)

Written by
Helge Kvalheim





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