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DemoNews Issue #89 - May 7, 1995 | Size : 48,894
------------- | Subscribers : 1333
DemoNews is a weekly newsletter for the demo scene. | Last Week : 1328
It is produced by Hornet at the site ftp.cdrom.com. | Change : +5
|
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<CONTENTS>
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Uploads
Articles
X95 Results.................................The Dark Judge
The Gathering 95 Early Report...............Adept
NAID: Its About Time........................GraveDigger
How to Win a Demo Compo.....................Trixter
Tracking Tips II............................GraveDigger
Review of Several Compo Songs...............GraveDigger
1st Place NAID Graphic Ripped...............GraveDigger
Advertisements
EMF Verses Revision II......................EMF
Calgary Music Disk..........................Calgary
The Turrahan Relm...........................Turrahan
Subscribing
Closing
=-[Uploads]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=----------------------------------------------------------[File Information]-=
All files listed below are on ftp.cdrom.com or one of its mirrors.
Ratings are completely subjective and do not necessarily reflect opinions
of the demo scene in general.
ftp.cdrom.com too slow? Try our mirror at ftp.luth.se. You may even
upload to this site under /pub/msdos/demos_upload.
=-------------------------------------------------------------[Music:General]-=
Location /demos/music Size Rated Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------=
/songs/1995/mod/a/amu-blo.lha 103 ***+ Demo Music Castrated blogies
/songs/1995/mod/a/amu-chi.lha 142 **+ Trance Chilly
/songs/1995/mod/a/amu-cra.lha 94 ** Trance Craving for Madness
/songs/1995/mod/a/amu-eat.lha 540 *** Hardcore Eat this!
/songs/1995/mod/a/amu-emo.lha 172 *** Ambient Emotional Outbreaks
/songs/1995/mod/a/amu-mat.lha 62 ** Techno Maturalize
/songs/1995/mod/a/amu-mus.lha 65 **** Demo Music Mushed Potatoes
/songs/1995/mod/a/amu-rus.lha 58 ****+ Demo Music Russian Drug
/songs/1995/mod/a/amu-tir.lha 76 ** Realism Tirquise Panther
/songs/1995/mod/a/analog_f.zip 41 ****+ Ambient Analog feelings..
/songs/1995/mod/g/gcomp.zip 237 **+ Ambient Gcomp
/songs/1995/mod/g/greenj.zip 393 **+ Rave Green Journey
/songs/1995/mod/g/groovy.zip 1037 *** Realism Kilobytes
/songs/1995/mod/i/iwantu.zip 397 ** Techno I Want U
/songs/1995/mod/l/letitli.zip 158 *** Realism Let It Linger
/songs/1995/mod/m/martians.zip 125 ** Techno Martin Squale Song
/songs/1995/mod/m/monolog.zip 137 **+ Ambient Monolog
/songs/1995/mod/p/phung.zip 257 ***+ Ambient Funk Phunq Ethereal
/songs/1995/mod/s/soulrap.lzh 241 *+ Techno/Rap Soul Rap
/songs/1995/mod/u/ultimate.lzh 260 ** Ripped Akinternal (Intro)
/songs/1995/mod/w/wendel6.lzh 191 *+ Techno Wendell's Sixth
/songs/1995/mod/w/wildmcar.zip 461 **** Dance wild-mcarthur
/songs/1995/mod/w/willofth.zip 810 ** Realism will_of_the_wind
/songs/1995/mod/y/yo_space.zip 23 * Hypnotrance Space Waves
/songs/1995/mtm/i/inferno.zip 502 ****+ Ambient Inferno
/songs/1995/s3m/c/chang1.lzh 53 ** Ambient Change (Part 1)
/songs/1995/s3m/c/cl_bizar.zip 123 *** Trance Club Bizarre Remix
/songs/1995/s3m/d/d-always.zip 47 *** Ambient Always Hopeful
/songs/1995/s3m/d/daybreak.zip 61 *** Ambient Daybreak 1995
/songs/1995/s3m/d/dsp-tech.zip 326 ** Techno Technotron
/songs/1995/s3m/e/epi-orbi.zip 96 *** Trance Orbit: Vivarin II
/songs/1995/s3m/e/erj.arj 101 *+ Industrial ERJ
/songs/1995/s3m/f/fa-rflct.zip 194 ***+ Ambient Reflections
/songs/1995/s3m/h/hisprox.zip 51 * Industrial History Project X
/songs/1995/s3m/m/maz-next.zip 225 ***+ Tech/Ambient The Next Revolution
/songs/1995/s3m/n/nex-nc.zip 177 **+ Trancey Tech No Control
/songs/1995/s3m/n/nin_frag.zip 630 * Ripped Head Like a Hole
/songs/1995/s3m/n/nknothin.zip 180 **+ Ripped Nothing Else M..
/songs/1995/s3m/o/o-eastah.zip 5 ** Chiptune Chipvival
/songs/1995/s3m/p/pro-time.zip 137 **** Ambient Out of Time
/songs/1995/s3m/s/satanus.arj 36 + Metal Satanus
/songs/1995/s3m/s/sillyend.lzh 43 * Wacky Silly Ending
/songs/1995/s3m/s/smeg_poe.zip 260 **+ New Age Parliament of Eter
/songs/1995/s3m/s/stratosp.arj 235 **+ New Age Stratosphere
/songs/1995/s3m/t/thetrek.lzh 31 ** Funk-no The Trek
/songs/1995/s3m/t/tna.lzh 311 *+ Ripped The Troll & Ackley
/songs/1995/s3m/v/very.arj 106 + Metal Very Necessary
/songs/1995/s3m/z/znc-guts.zip 35 * Rock Happy Guts
/songs/1995/s3m/z/znc-sonr.zip 37 *+ Industrial Sonar Extracted
/songs/1995/xm/b/b13-0012.zip 280 *** Trance Narcosis
/songs/1995/xm/b/b13-0020.zip 195 *** Ambient In Darkness I Stand
/songs/1995/xm/c/c_bflood.zip 87 ** Ambient Brain Flood
/songs/1995/xm/c/c_nept.zip 57 **+ Hardcore Neptune's Lair
/songs/1995/xm/d/d-3-nin.zip 104 ** Trance 3 Sneaky Ninja
/songs/1995/xm/d/d-confes.zip 86 *+ Techno Confessions Part 2
/songs/1995/xm/d/d-manbhn.zip 106 ***+ Hardcore Manualbahn
/songs/1995/xm/d/d-nine.zip 151 ** Rave Nine
/songs/1995/xm/e/epi-debu.zip 192 *** Trance Epinicion Debut
/songs/1995/xm/e/extrem-2.zip 188 **+ Techno Extremia
/songs/1995/xm/f/faristol.arj 239 **+ Hardcore Faristol Escaldat
/songs/1995/xm/p/pardal.arj 90 *** Rock Pardal d'Aigua ..
/songs/1995/xm/r/residu.arj 157 **+ Rock Residu Mental
/songs/1995/xm/s/sm-weird.zip 294 **+ Techno 100% - Weird?
/songs/1995/xm/s/somera.arj 138 + Pseudo-Punk SOMERA ESCORXADA
/songs/1995/xm/s/starfall.zip 360 ***** Realism Persian Starfall
/songs/1995/xm/z/zoolook.zip 340 *** Ripped Zoolook
=--------------------------------------------------------[Music:Non-Reviewed]-=
Location /demos/music Size Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------=
/programs/frontend/ls033.zip 105 FrontEnd Lameshell
/programs/misc/putins21.zip 15 Replc.InstTxt PutInst v2.1
/programs/misc/ua20.zip 166 UltraAmender 2.0
/programs/players/midp100b.zip 62 MIDAS Module Player
/programs/players/oplay100.zip 243 OmniPlayer v1.00
/programs/players/randmod.zip 21 Randmod v2.1 by SHuffler
/programs/rippers/rip01.zip 17 Music Ripper Rip v.1.1
=----------------------------------------------------------------------[Code]-=
Location /demos/code Size Rated Lang Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---- ----------------------------=
/graph/formats/anmformt.zip 25 **** C Info on DeluxePaint .ANM
/sound/asmod09s.zip 90 **** A P GUS MOD playing, routines
/tutorial/asmvla00.lzh 16 **** A Tutorial; learning assembler
/utils/ved10.zip 80 **** VED 1.0: Vector editor
=------------------------------------------------------------------[Graphics]-=
Location /demos/graphics Size Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------=
/pictures/morph.zip 1603 A morph by The Master
/pictures/ss-smp.zip 951 A few original renders by Steve Stiles
/utils/veced300.zip 330 Vecedit v3.00 3D vector editor
/viewers/disp187a.zip 592 [1/2] Display v1.87 (EXCELLENT viewer)
/viewers/disp187b.zip 243 [2/2] Display v1.87 (EXCELLENT viewer)
/viewers/vpic61e.zip 251 Vpic v6.1e Good image viewer
=-------------------------------------------------------------[Miscellaneous]-=
Location /demos Size Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------=
/mags/f/flesh15.zip 531 Alt-1, Issue #15 by Lithium
/mags/j/jonas01.zip 5 Jonas Issue #1
/mags/j/jonas02.zip 16 Jonas Issue #2
/mags/s/slave14.zip 407 Alt-1, Issue #14 by Lithium
/mags/s/ss_spec.zip 787 Specimen Diskmag
/mags/s/suck16f_.zip 270 Last issue of Lithium's Diskmag
/masg/y/yahoo05.zip 528 Yahoo #5
/nets/nad009.zip 7 North America Demo net application
/nets/sdc_info.arj 79 Sound Distribution Channel Version 003
/nets/silver.zip 25 Silver Net Application Generator
/nets/upm-001.zip 7 UPMNet Info/Application Packet #1
/news/nadd_v10.zip 1392 New Age Demo Database v1.0
/news/nadd_u01.zip 1428 New Age Demo Database Upgrade #1
/news/nadd_u02.zip 1291 New Age Demo Database Upgrade #2
/hornet/traxw/traxweek.006 55 TraxWeekly #6
/hornet/traxw/traxweek.007 54 TraxWeekly #7
/parties/rep_p4.zip 960 The Party 4 report by Realtech
=-[Articles]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=---------------------------------------------[X95 Results]--[The Dark Judge]-=
Note: The following was taken from a posting on comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos.
Okay, the X95 pc & c64 party by Success+Focus+TRC has ended. About 280
people showed up and some nice demos were released. The main results:
Demo competition:
1. Acme
2. Abstract Concepts
3. Ground Zero
Intro competition:
1. Logic Design
2. The Clan
3. Frituur Kraam
Graphics:
1. Ricochet/Acme
Music:
1. Vic/Acme
As you can see Acme had a very good weekend :) The party was partly
sponsored by Sound Solutions, and we of the X95 organization are happy to
announce that there will be a X95 cd-rom ..
The first 2 demo's were REALLY good, esp. Acme who are bringing a lot of
style with them. Try to get those demo's !!
A full result list with points etc. will be posted by me as soon as I have
it, as I left the only copy on Tim/Success' his harddisk :(
-The Dark Judge/Focus c64 & Bonzai pc
Head of the Jury at X95
=----------------------[The Gathering 1995 Preliminary Party Report]--[Adept]-=
Note: The following text was uploaded to our site. We are just reprinting
it here. This article has been reformatted, but not changed in any way.
Gathering 1995
Held in Stavanger 11th of April - 15th of April
Preliminary Party Report
This party report contains more than just the ordinary report. It also
contains what happened inside crew and what was the reasons for all that
happened at Gathering 1995. This text is not meant to discredit people, it's
the truth.
Day 1: Tuesday 11th of April.
The party officially opened at 0:00. Unfortunately no power was available.
The power was a bit delayed, and was 99% up and running around 3:00. In
the middle of the power-failure we had a non-planned opening-ceremony.
This was extremely bad, even though some of the guys in the hall thought
it was very cool. Anyway, later that day there was announced that the
vote-disks was going to cost money... Which was as far from the truth as
it could get. One member of SHI found very convenient to get money this
way, and announced it. We thought we had problems with the funding of the
arrangement.
Day 2: Wednesday 12th of April.
The party was up and running, except for some power-failures, caused by
non-ground systems in the hall. Deadlines was to be, delayed.... We had
been delayed a whole lot, because of the power-failures. When we where
going to show them, we had problems again. We didn't have all the
equipment to show them. But finally we could start the AMIGA versions of
the Animation-competition. The PC versions and the Wild demo-compo was
now delayed by 12 hours.
Day 3: Thursday 13th of April.
Starting of the day with the PC animation competition and the Wild-Demo
competition. Which actually ran pretty smooth, considering that we still
didn't have all the equipment. Deadlines for the graphics and the two
music competitions was due. Delayed by some hours, of-course. The
presentation was to be at 03:00, but because I was asleep, it didn't
start.
Day 4: Friday 14th of April.
06:00 last turn in to the competitions. I came to the party place again
at 09:00, and started on the jury selection of the multichannel
competition. When I had my jury, we started the 4 channel music compo.
And from there we went into a room and started on the Multichannel
selection.
The graphics competition was started around 15:00, and was finished some
time later. The multichannel started late that night. In the middle, on
song number 11. We had a break, because of a hacker in the hall, which
was wanted by the InterPol. This delayed us about an hour. We ran through
all the multichannel with a million problems, concerning players to use.
After that, we were delayed an hour again, before the 4Kb PC intros could
be shown. They ran pretty smoothly. Then a delay again, and the 64Kb PC
intros were to be ran. They ran pretty smoothly to.
Then the shit started. The PC demos were about to start. We started all
up, with a lot of problems. It seemed that the RGB encoder we used, the
driver for this caused 4 of the demos to be untimed and one of them lost
the last part. So I had complaints from all over, that it wasn't correct.
That's the reason three of the demos had to be tried again. It basically
sucked. After all this crap, the AMIGA was in the spot. Which
surprisingly went pretty smooth.
Day 5: Saturday 15th of April.
The party had reached it's last day. The competitions finished up at
around 09:00. Hmm... 1 hour before prize-giving?? A little bit late
maybe.... YES. And even better, the vote-register program wasn't
finished on the AMIGA. So... The coder from Spaceballs had to finish it
up. 6 hours later it was more or less finished, without a PC version.
GoLLuM was called to do this, all SCOOP people was now home sleeping(with
a good reason...). The voting was finished later that evening. I got the
results the day after, and they were totally wrong. All the bad
productions had won, and the good ones, didn't show up on the list. This
was very strange, so at 21:00 later that night (some hours ago...) I
finished up a new vote program, and registered all the votes. I came to
these results :
PC Demo : 1st. Complex - Dope
2nd. SCOOP - Luminous
3rd. Sorrox
4th. Proxima
5th. NOD
PC 64Kb : 1st. Valhalla - Fluid Motion
2nd. Valhalla - Bibo-ergo-sum
3rd. Darkzone
4th. SCOOP - Psychadelic Mind
5th. Xenogenesis - Die Ausgeburt
PC 4Kb : 1st. SCOOP - 4KbFlight
2nd. Intro number 2
3rd. Intro number 8
4th. Intro number 3
5th. Intro number 1
Multichannel/MIDI : 1st. Jogeir Liljedahl / VD / FLT / SCOOP
2nd. Twilight Zone
3rd. Geir Tjelta / SCOOP
4th. BIG JIM / Valhalla
5th. $volkraq / GoLLuM
(The 4Kb intro list is not complete, I do not have the actual list,
just numbers).
The results above are the official PC results. The 4Kb will be fixed as
soon as possible.
For those of you who have been at the Gathering 1995, know how it went. It
wasn't exactly what you might call perfect, others have called a
disaster-area. The last one is more accurate. I admit all errors done at
the Gathering 1995, but I won't, and I mean won't admit that SCOOP did any
of them.
Thanx for showing up at the Gathering 1995, we hope to see you next year.
-Adept / SCOOP
[email protected]
=---------------------------------------[NAID: Its About Time]--[GraveDigger]-=
It's about time.
The North American Demo Scene has had tremendous talent for quite a long
time. Enough to hold a demo party. Enough to hold such an event that would
be a fine presentation of everyone's hard work. Even though it always seems
to us that Europe holds all of the "good" coders, graphicians, and
musicians. They display their talents several times throughout the calendar
year at various demo parties at equally varying party sites. But despite
these facts, there is talent on this side of the puddle.
Even though Europe has had all of the major demo parties up to this point
in time, with tens of thousands of watts of stereo sound equipment, and
large screens where demos and intros are shown, its about time North
America had a taste of the fun.
Finally, a demo party. Some 700 North Americans gathered together under one
roof for two days of competitions, raving, coding, composing, drawing, and
just having fun. It's about time we had our moment in the spotlight. About
time our songs were cranked out on a 15,000 watt amplification system.
About time our graphics were flashed on the big screen to the
partygoing-audience. And about time our intros and demos were played in
this makeshift theater as the crowd of onlookers applauded and cheered for
the same things that we have all secretly loved to witness on our bedroom
computers for so many years.
But this was different.
Everything being witnessed in the compos was new. Brand new. And we were
the first to witness it. It was our time, right then and there. Just like
an "authentic" European demo party. These productions were not downloaded
from an FTP site. They were not transported via floppy disk from a friend's
house. In fact, a lot of these productions were just a few hours beyond
their final completions. I believe that all of the intro entries were
completed on-site. And many were probably just *started* that weekend, too.
This stuff was *hot*.
And now; long last, the NAID partygoers come to realize the significance of
the event. No better way to cherish the demo scene than to dress it up and
take it out in style.
North America has earned it, and after all is said and done, it must also
be said, the party crowd couldn't have acted in any more of a respectable
way. I heard no reports of fights, severe injuries, stolen property, or
anything that would otherwise cause others to not enjoy themselves. This
crowd was a mature, honest, and fun-loving bunch. Perhaps some foolish
things were done, but only because of the high energy level that people
were experiencing.
People were patient as technical bugs were worked out of the system. They
patiently waited for the final results at the end of the event. They
happily applauded the winners, and they thoughtfully encouraged those who
did not win.
One person comes to mind with that last thought. Necros, the winner of the
music competition, showed his maturity and respect for others with his
awards speech. He offered words of encouragement, and he pointed out the
underlying comraderie that we all shared; that no one man is better just
for winning a competition, and that talent is a common asset among us all.
North America has not only held a demo party, but it was a grand success;
so much in that aspect that another one has already been talked about and
the organizers are starting to get back to work.
And after the big screen at NAID was taken down, after the speakers were
switched off, and after the last classroom-for-sleeping was locked shut, I
must say that North America deserved it. Here's to all the fun times (and
not- so-fun times) we all had in planning, organizing, attending, and
eventually leaving NAID. And let's all hope that we can pull it off again
next year.
-Brett Neely
[email protected]
=----------------------------------------[How to Win a Demo Compo]--[Trixter]-=
A Brief Warning: This article is meant for the fledgling (or confused :-)
demo group/coder, and assumes the reader has a basic understanding of demo
terms, slang, and demo effects. If you do not have this understanding, or
are a little rusty, check out the URL
"
http://www.mcs.com/~trixter/html/demos.html" before you read this article.
NAID was certainly one of the most surprising demo compos, and I was very
glad to have been one of the judges. Since NAID, I've been asked by many
of the people who entered the demo compo how they could have placed better.
Without going into a technical list of things immediately, I'll offer the
most obvious answer right now: Design.
First, let me explain this rationale. Sure, optimizing effects is
important, of course, but every year we keep hitting the upper limit of
what our PC's can do. It's getting to the point where previously original
effects are now becoming commonplace, like Gouraud shading, environment
mapping, texture mapping--even Phong shading is becoming common. We need
something *original*. We need something *different*. After all, aren't
demos really a sophisticated art form?
Design is the number-one factor that will ultimately impress the audience.
Everyone has seen 3d cubes rotating on the screen, but how many have seen
100 or so cubes slowly combining to form a larger, complex object?
Everyone's seen a 3-D ship flying through a 3-D vector city, but what would
happen if the ship flew inside one of the buildings? What would it see
inside? It's that original quality--style--that demos are missing and need
badly.
What if you already have design, but the audience or judges didn't rank
your obvious Second Reality-killer number one at the compo? Well, there's
many things that factor in a lower or higher score--follow this checklist
before you submit any demo to a compo:
- Try Bezier curves for object movement/paths. Many objects in demos today
either don't move at all, or they start/stop/turn "on a dime". Jerky
movement looks hurried; smooth movement looks professional.
- Code for faster frame rates, even at the expense of *less* objects. Use
ModeX (or a derivative) if you have to. The audience is used to seeing
stuff running in either one or two frames, which is more pleasing to the
eye anyway. While the coders in the audience might appreciate all the hard
work involved with trying to display 1000 texture-mapped polygons, the
frame rate can never go faster than about 15 frames-per-second doing
computation intensive effects. The result, no matter how optimized, has
the *appearance* of slow code, and might not please the audience.
- Make sure your demo has a consistent look and feel. Try to keep the
style of music and graphics along the same vein of style or thinking. For
example, if your demo has a techno-part at the beginning, that's fine, but
don't have the harsh, pounding techno music still playing when you display
your soothing, peaceful voxel landscape. (An exception to this would be
something like the landscape accelerating up to warp speed, where it would
match the frenzied pace of the music.)
- Try to sync the graphics to the music whenever possible. It's usually
simple to do, and heightens the overall effect considerably. Look at
Second Reality and Tome of Opticron for some examples.
- Never assume your audience won't notice anything. The audience, a pack
of demofreaks, is looking at your demo very intently for two reasons: 1.
They've never seen it before, and 2. They're going to award the best three
(or more) a prize. If you have a small flaw in your z-buffering routines,
for example, and part of a solid object goes hollow at some point during
the demo, the audience will most likely pick up on it and remember the
flaw, even if it only happens once.
- Do not rip ideas, music, graphics, or code. It doesn't matter if you are
paying homage to the original author or mocking him--do *not* rip anything.
Ripping is nothing but plagiarism, and coders in the audience who are fluent
in demo coding and demos can spot this a mile away.
- If you absolutely have to use a standard effect, do not try to emulate
the original. The audience doesn't want to see another texture-mapped
dolphin, Gouraud-shaded duck, or "Intel Outside" logo spinning and zooming.
Besides, if your effect is too close to the original, the audience might
think you ripped the code (see last point).
- Don't brag. Even if you are a widely recognized group, it might be
advantageous to wait until the end of the demo before announcing your
group. This way, the audience won't be disappointed if the demo doesn't
live up to their initial impression. (I'll explain a little further:
Let's say you're, oh, Future Crew, and you announce that fact right at the
beginning of the demo. Already, your audience has in mind all the good
connotations, feelings, and experiences associated with Future Crew. As
rewarding as that is, it's also a major strike against you, because now
you've got to beat your previous efforts, or else the audience will end the
demo feeling disappointed--because you didn't meet *their* expectations.)
Granted, some of the above might seem like common sense, but it helps to
review. Keep in mind the above knowledge when coding or designing your
masterpiece, and your 6th or 5th-place demo could place 2nd or 3rd next
time. Good luck!
Note: All my previous articles, including this one, are also available as
a formatted, hypertext documents at
http://www.mcs.com/~trixter/html/demos.html#editorials.
-Jim Leonard
[email protected]
=--------------------------[Tracking Tips II: Octave Doubling]--[GraveDigger]-=
If you have a melody line in your tune that either sounds too quiet or too
thin, you can add some extra power by using octave doubling. Octave
doubling is simply the process of sounding the same note at a higher or
lower octave. This can make your instrument more dominant and increase its
power.
Here is an example of octave doubling:
Before doubling: After doubling:
| Channel 1 | Channel 2 | | Channel 1 | Channel 2 |
|C-4 01 64 ...|... .. .. ...| |C-4 01 64 ...|C-5 01 64 ...|
When you use this technique, the volume of the instrument may become too
loud. There are two methods that I use to resolve this. First is to cut
both volumes in half, thus mixing the instrument the same loudness but
across two octaves instead of one. Example:
Before: After:
| Channel 1 | Channel 2 | | Channel 1 | Channel 2 |
|C-4 01 64 ...|... .. .. ...| |C-4 01 32 ...|C-5 01 32 ...|
Another method is to cut the volumes to still total the original volume,
but do so favoring the octave you want to be more present. The example
below favors the note in the 4th octave while adding the 5th octave note
just for effect:
Before: After:
| Channel 1 | Channel 2 | | Channel 1 | Channel 2 |
|C-4 01 64 ...|... .. .. ...| |C-4 01 48 ...|C-5 01 16 ...|
Using octave doubling can help give your tune a more dynamic sound. It can
help liven up weak-sounding instruments. There are lots of possibilities
also; you can go one octave below, two octaves in either direction, and
also use three or more different octaves for one note.
Be sure to catch the next in the series, entitled "Norman's Law." It
explains how to simplify the process of chord changes.
-Brett Neely
[email protected]
=------------------------------[Review of Several Compo Songs]--[GraveDigger]-=
_____BASS.MOD by Chris Muland / Spaceballs
This song is a 4-channel 31-sample MOD file that absolutely stretches the
limits as far as packing the instrument list. The first "sample" is actually
5 or 6 samples all compacted into one file, with the idea that sample offsets
will sound the different samples at the right time.
I have never seen this done before, so I was quite amazed at how clever a
technique it was. Maybe it's been done and I don't listen to enough old
music, but hey, this is _neat_. :)
The song uses original extended guitar and synth samples, which add a very
nice realism feel to the song. There's some things that just can't be
tracked, no matter how many effects are used.
The song is a meg in size, which will cause problems on GUS cards with less
than one meg of RAM. This is about the _only_ time that I don't regret owning
a soundblaster. :)
For a four-channel song, this is a well-designed and nicely structured song,
taking full advantage of the limits with which it must conform.
_____ASCENT.S3M by Necros / Five Musicians, Psychic Monks, Legend Design
This song took first place at NAID 95.
"I feel that music is the art which can best express the emotions which flow
within us," Necros once told me. "It conveys something bigger than it is."
And with that, lets get our binoculars and watch the ascent of his cloud
eagle.
A very gentle intro, it begins with a clean arpeggiated guitar layering the
rhythm chords and a pan flute taking the lead. The flute does not at any time
feel limited by the rows and patterns that it is tracked on. Often using two
and up to four channels to echo the flute lead, its depth can be felt. Often
an instrument can feel very boxed-in by the tracker, but this is not the case
here.
At 0:17, a gentle percussion background is added. A low ride cymbal is
played on off-beats and a kettle drum is played on an alternating beat
pattern.
At 0:37, a very catchy chord change is executed on the 16th row into a
pattern. A chord change on the first row is nothing new of course, but this
change is offset, and stands out more. Also at this point, the percussion
accompaniment gets more aggressive.
At 0:58 into the song, indian chants are introduced into the song. This is a
nice touch, giving the song a very "real" feel to it; something Necros has
made popular in the past, with songs such as "Realization" I and II. Also,
around this point in the song and again at the end of the song, a looped
bird-chirping sample is used which highlights the concept of the eagle.
I have but two complaints for this song. The drum loop used throughout much
of the song is too aggressive for my liking. The crashing hi-hat is a
distraction to the peaceful melody and the snare could be a little more
recessed. And the ending comes too quick; another two patterns to gently
take away some of the instruments and perhaps leave the listener with a
variation of the melody fading out would have made a nicer ending, in my
opinion.
And unfortunately, the flawed looping of his chord sample can be heard as it
fades out in the final seconds of the song. With Scream Tracker though, there
is no easy way to get a good loop out of a sample. Sometimes you just have to
be lucky.
But the ending is a nice finish, and the song also had to fit within five
minutes for the compo, which it did with seven seconds to spare.
Upon winning, Necros addressed the audience with a very mature speech. His
words of encouragement were just a small reflection of the maturity of the
entire party crowd.
I wouldn't have voted for any other song to win first place.
_____CANTFAKE.S3M by Basehead / Five Musicians, Kosmic
This song finished in third place at NAID 95.
It has also stirred up a bit of controversy (among one composer in
particular, but no names here) due to the content of its samples. This song,
along with Necros's "Ascent" and "Bass" use samples with more than a single-
play note in them. ("Ascent" having the indian voices and "Bass" having the
original synth and guitar samples). And what is the problem here? I hear no
complete song-segments, just *individual* instruments that contain a melody.
And the song it was sampled from has not been recreated, it has been
glorified. You will hear that Basehead has a background melody and a
percussion accompaniment going. I don't think that was the idea of the
original composer of Basehead's flute, guitar, and sax samples. Therefore,
I see no problem with it.
Basehead uses a "swing" effect throughout the song, an effect he uses often.
This is executed by changing the pattern on every row between two numbers
that average out to the tempo desired. This is a nice effect to give a
tracked tune a more lively feel.
As composers continue to surpass the limits of the machine, the products of
the demo scene carry on with a force too powerful for many old-school demo
freaks. This brings us to the question "What is acceptable?" The answer:
You just have to decide for yourself.
_____DOPE.MOD/ONWARD.XM by Jugi / Complex
The "Dope" demo was awarded first place at The Gathering 95.
The Gathering 95 gave birth to a trackdemo by Complex. And Complex
rightfully kicked off their "1995 World Domination Tour."
Jugi, the musician for Complex, wrote "dope.mod" with FastTracker 2. This
28-channel mod could only be played in a limited number of players: Fast
Tracker 2, Triton's Protected Mode Player, Cubic Player, MikMod, and
MOD4WIN.
Jugi also entered "onward.xm" into The Gathering's multichannel music compo;
a tune which is a shorter version of Dope's eight-minute-and-then-some
soundtrack.
I am going to give in-depth reviews of these two songs, pointing out the
similarities and the differences.
"Onward" starts out a bit too quickly, in my opinion. Although, it is a
shortened version of "dope.mod," and was most likely cut in order to fit into
a time limit. I also wonder if I heard Onward first, which of the two I'd
like better. The long and dramatic intro to "Dope" provides a nice intro for
the demo, as the hardware-scrolled logo glides by and the two blue phong-
shaded objects take the stage.
"Dope.mod" is everything of what a demo soundtrack should be. The very
atmosphere created by the music alone could produce the visual images that
are the result of Jmagic's coding. Not aggressive at all, this song lets you
catch a breather at what could be a spine-tingling event.
The gentle organs in the song provide a great dream-like state of
consciousness. The melody, though simple, is the strongest link in the song.
After a long interlude, the main melody kicks in. Perhaps this interlude is
too lengthy, but then again, its better not to overplay a melody. The melody
then is an effective hook for the entire song.
When the melody changes key, the shift is downward, not upward, as might be
anticipated. This is a very nice touch, with the shifted key not dominating
the entire song, but allowing the other channels to still be heard. It is a
very powerful effect. Also, with the melody in its original key, it is echoed
over four channels, but with the key change, it drops to two channels, giving
an almost reverse effect as some more-common key-change dominating tunes.
My only complaint with the dope song occurs at approximately 6:10 into the
song, when the music again shifts to a different section. In this shift, a
bass note hangs too long, and should have instead been faded or resounded
at a pitch that would match the new section.
-Brett Neely
[email protected]
=---------------------[First Place Graphic at NAID was ripped]--[GraveDigger]-=
It is with great disappointment that I have to inform everyone that the
graphic that won first place at NAID was ripped. However, this fact must be
made known and the details made clear to prevent a reoccurrence.
Ever since its first appearance on the screen, there was speculation as to
the origin of the picture. With such high quality detail, it was doubted that
the work was an original piece of art.
This prompted a thorough and lengthy investigation and questioning of the
artist. Of course, the artist told a great tale of how he painted the
picture. He told us that he had a toy robot that he used as a still-life
model for his picture. He described the shading techniques that he used. And
several times, he said "I do not have a scanner."
There were clues. File dates of the "beta" pictures and the finished work
were all within a few days. The finished picture itself said "157 hour
project" on it. When seeing that, I thought, "Wow, that's a lot of time to
spend drawing." The wire-frame beta picture had specs of other colors on it.
Daredevil, upon seeing this, said "It looks like he used a graphics program
with a 'Hollow-out' function on it."
But there were more clues. White Noise loaded the finished picture into a
graphics program. "That's a weird looking line there," he pointed out, noting
a line with a strange angle. He zoomed in on that, and said something like
"A scanner wouldn't draw a line like that."
All along, the judge who worked in the field of computer graphics said "I
don't care how it was made, this is a true work of art." This judge also
handed the "artist" his business card.
Unfortunately, the picture was decided to be original and was allowed to take
first place. Originally, it went without debate among the three judges as
the top graphic, even before the investigation.
Then a couple days ago, I got mail from Snowman telling me that the picture
was ripped, and he sent a UUEncoded copy of the original gif. Sure enough,
there's the same robot featured in the winning picture. And it's 99% like
the ripped picture.
I would like to see this artist banned from all future graphics competitions
at NAID, or any other North American competition. What he did was a false
representation of someone else's work, and it can *not* be tolerated. There
are other entries that were hand-created that should have won the prize that
this cheater won. And as a judge of that graphics competition, I feel
personally responsible, though maybe I shouldn't. And I feel sorry for all
of the other entrants who worked so hard on their art.
I hereby invite you to email me with a request for a copy of this UUEncoded
gif. I will have it online for the next couple of weeks and will send every
request a copy of the file and the articles relating to it. I hope to also
get a copy of the NAID graphic to include. I will process all requests as my
time dictates, so please be patient. To the three people who already mailed
a request to me: please mail me again, I lost your addresses. My email
address is below.
-Brett Neely
[email protected]
=-[Advertisements]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=---------------------------------------------[EMF Verses Revision II]--[EMF]-=
.########.
###########
####" ##### ###
###" #### #####
#### #### ######
#### #### #######
#### ##### ## #####
### #### ## #####
### #### # ##### .##### ### .### .####. .##### .####.
### #### ##### ######## ### ##### ######## ######## ########
### #### ##### ###" #### #### ###### ###" "### ###" #### ###" "###
#### #### #### #### ### ########### ### " #### ### ### "
#### #### #### ### ### #####""### #### ### ### "###.
#### #### #### ### ### ##### ####. ### ### "####
###. #### #### ### ### #### "#### ### ### "####
######## ##### ### ### #### "#### ### ### "####
"######## ##### ###### ### "#### ###### "####
##### #### ##### ### "### ##### "###
#### #### ####. .# ### .# ### ####. .# #. ###
#### #### ########## ### ###. .##" ########## ###. .##"
##### #### #######" ## "######" #######" "######"
##### ####
##### ####
##### ####
#####.###" - Revision II -
"#####"
After eight months of the original release, a fixed version of the
Assembly'94 winner demo, "VERSES" by EMF, has been released:
- works on Pentiums & other fast machines
- works with only 256k of GUS DRAM
- works under QEMM7/QDPMI
- added SB/SBPro support
- added volume control
The audiovisual part is 100% original.
The file is now available at:
- ftp.cdrom.com://pub/msdos/demos/incoming/emf_vrs2.zip
- cray.ap.utu.fi://pub/emf/emf_vrs2.zip
- ftp.mpoli.fi://incoming/emf_vrs2.zip
The file size is ~500k.
Check also the recently updated EMF homepage designed for Netscape 1.1+
-
http://mits.mdata.fi/~jpm/emf.html
=---------------------------------------------[Calgary Music Disk]--[Calgary]-=
.oooooo. d8b
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`88b ooo 888 888 Y88b. 888 888 888 888 888 888 888
`Y8bood8P' `Y8bod8"8b "Y888 `Y8bod88P `Y8bod8"8b d888b `Y8bod88P
.o88' .o88'
----- M U S I C --------- d88888P' ----- D I S K ----- dRASK8P'
/~~\ /~~~~~~\ /~~~~~~\ /~~~~~~~\ So, what's the big deal?
/~~~\ /~~\ /~~\ /~~\ /~~\ /~~\ We've all seen music
/~~\ /~~~~~~~\ /~~~~~~~\ /~~~~~~\ collections before, right?
/~~\ /~~\ /~~\ /~~\
/~~~~\ /~~~~~~~\ /~~~~~~~\ /~~~~~~\ Prepare for something fresh.
There have been music groups before, but we're the first /Music City/.
We'd like to announce an upcoming audio production to provide a sampling
of our ear candy. We've done MC1&2, now watch for us at NAID.
Attention NAID goers: Attending NAID? We will be distributing 70 copies
on 3.5" HD disk free! Compliments of Calgary Music & GFX Group.
........................................................................
Information:
[email protected] or Lloyd Yoon at 1:134/40 Fido
Look for us at major FTP sites soon!
=---------------------------------------------[The Turrahan Relm]--[Thrrahan]-=
__ _ _
| |_ | |_| |.-----.
| _|| _ || -__|
________ |____||_| |_||_____| _
|__. .__|.--.--.----.----./---\.| |_| |./---\.-----.
| | | | | _| _| .A. || _ || .A. | |
|__| |_____|__| |__| |_| |_||_| |_||_| |_|__|__|
.----. __
| -- |.-----.| |.--------.
| | | -__|| || |
|__|\_\|_____||__||__|__|__|
________________/-\________________
\ where music meets technology /
`---------.--------------.--------'
| 6o4 477 o639 |
`--------------'
o Demos (100+ ONLiNE) o DMPC Support
o Compos (Asm'94, The Party IV) o No Ratios, Free!
o Music Disks o 14,400 baud v32 v42b
o MiDi, Mods, S3Ms, MtMs, XMs, etc o FidoNet, IceNet, etc
o Ambience Music Crew Distro o Internet E-Mail
o Epinicion Music Prod. Distro o SoundMod v1 CD-Rom Online
o Mod 4 Win Distro o Over 900 Megs Online!
-=> The Turrahan Relm *where music meets technology* 6o4 477 o639 <=-
-=> located in Victoria, BC, Canada ; Call Today! <=-
=-[Subscribing]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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=-[Closing]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
For questions and comments, you can contact Hornet at:
Handle Address Area
----------- ------------------------ -----------------------------------
Dan Wright
[email protected] Freedom CD coordinator
GraveDigger
[email protected] columnist, file mover, musician
Snowman
[email protected] organizer, editor (DemoNews), coder
Trixter
[email protected] coder, web master, file mover
..........................................................End.of.DemoNews.089.
