Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
01 Issue 01
===============================================================================
Issue #1 (ARTICLE SECTION) . 0000 11 .
April 7, 1995 . 00 00 11 .
. 00 00 11 .
01 is a weekly newsletter for the demo scene. . 00 00 11 .
It is produced by the group HORNET at the site ftp.cdrom.com. . 0000 11 .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribers: 391 | Last Week: 0 | Change: +391 | Size: 36,500 bytes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-CONTENTS-
==[Section]=========[Article Name]=================[Author]==================
Introduction 01 CGM
General NAID Concerns White Noise
The South African Demo Scene Maverick
Review of Trax Weekly GraveDigger and CGM
Mail Room Trackers for the Blind? Scott Rutkowski
Look Ma', No Scrollers Proton
Music Interview with Leviathan GraveDigger
Tracking Tips I (reprint) GraveDigger
Closing How to Subscribe HORNET Staff
===[Introduction]==[01]==[Christopher G. Mann]=================================
Squirrels are fascinating creatures! Spring is upon us, and I have taken
to watching these little animals scamper to and fro. Here in Akron most of
the squirrels are grey, but back in my home town they were usually black or
brown. Regardless of their color, they all have one purpose: locate and
gather food. Its a rather simple objective, one that countless generations
of squirrel families have done and will continue to do.
Yesterday I was coming home from school and I saw the remains of a bloody
squirrel that had been ripped to shreds by a passing car...
It appears that even simple objectives can easily be foiled.
The purpose of DemoNews was to provide weekly scene coverage for over 1300
readers. Many people scampered to provide articles to this end, and for 86
issues the staff of HORNET succeeded to a certain degree. In early March,
a late model Ford.cdrom.com came barreling toward DemoNews, threatening to
scatter our family of columnists to the four winds. Fortunately, we were
able to get off the road in time and regroup.
What you are reading at this very moment is a newsletter called "01". It
is the result of several weeks of careful planning and preparation. The
name "01" is one of those symbolic things. 0 and 1. True and false. Black
and white. On and off. Its all a contrast of polar opposites. Keeping to
its namesake, "01" will attempt to incorporate a diverse and varied set of
articles each week. These will take the form of: reviews, interviews,
reports, etc.
01 is here and now, so read on...
_____Overview
In this issue, we have several interesting articles.
Jeff, HORNET's public relations representative, took a journey to meet the
organizers of the NAID demo party. He has some concerns, and for everyone
planning on attending NAID, this is a definite must read.
Maverick has taken a fairly in-depth look at the South African demo scene.
The underlying message is that SA is really blossoming in ability, and we
should start seeing more and more from them in the future. This article
is somewhat in contrast to Denthor's articles.
GraveDigger and Christopher have written a nice review of Trax Weekly. TW
is a new newsletter produced by the guys on #trax. For those readers
without 'net access, #trax is a place where demo freaks from around the
globe gather and talk about the demo scene. Once almost considered a
rival, Trax Weekly is now seen as a friend and companion of 01.
Our mail room contains a couple interesting mails received by the HORNET
administration. One concerns a visually-impaired user trying to make his
way in the music scene. The other is a general commentary on the use of
scrollers and credits in demos.
GraveDigger brings up the end of this newsletter with two superb articles.
First is an interview with Leviathan, whose popularity has increased quite
a bit in recent times. Second is a reprint of "Tracking Tips Part 1." The
"Tracking Tips" series was originally intended for DemoNews, but there
obviously were some complications with that. :)
All in all, there should be a wide enough variety of information in to hold
your attention for some time.
===[General]==[NAID Concerns]==[White Noise]===================================
As I walked into the CEGEP where in only two weeks from now a crowd of
computer fanatics is going to shower down, I couldn't help but be totally
excited by what I was going to do. I was going to meet the minds behind it
all. Known as Veritech Knight, Khan and a few others, I had no idea what
they could look like.
But why was I going to meet them? Pure curiosity, I guess.
Sitting down with Spelljammer, old friend of mine, I eagerly await their
arrival.
When I do meet them, I am quite surprised. Khan pulls up a chair in front
of the bench where I am sitting, right next to the ADEPT, the computer
technique students association, and looks at me. With his curly puffy
head, he reminded me of "Higher Learning"'s black guru, played by Ice Cube.
The same calm, stern look. The same passion behind his eyes.
He then starts telling me about the whole NAID project and his eyes light
up: sponsors (Subway, Techno-TV, EBSCO, Advanced Gravis), the stereo
(borrowed to the provincial student shows organization - it should rock us
out of our socks), the band (Public Enema, acid-jazz band)... and the lack
of sold tickets.
This is where the story sound less glamorous. The showdown's in a little
more than 2 weeks, and almost no one bought tickets! Probably most of you
intend to buy them at the door, but since nobody reserved their tickets,
the guys are left with not much to show the CEGEP's administration as
planned entries.
In short, they don't have much weight cause they lack reservations.
Boys and girls out there, at least let them KNOW you're coming! Either by
mailing naid@ebsco.com or by buying your tickets by mail. The guys are
feeling very lonely right now, and they have no clue how their party will
turn out. 1100 places surely ain't a small number, and they intend to make
it grand.
On another note, I grabbed a copy of Concordia University's student paper,
and what did I find? <drumroll> A critic of Public Enema, the band that
accepted to play at NAID! The review was raving on and on about
originality and great sound. A must-see, they claim.
It's up to you to find out.
NAID - The Apraxia Factor 95 is just at hand.
ARE YOU READY?
===[General]==[The South African Demo Scene]==[Maverick]=======================
OR
[Why there's more to the SA scene than]
[looking out of Denthor's bedroom window.]
Yeah, yeah you all watched CNN last year and saw the amazing transition
from the cruel, evil apartheid regime to the free, democratic and _new_
South Africa. So far, so not-so-bad. I can't say good yet because by the
time I've typed this article, 15 cars will have been stolen at gunpoint
within a 40km radius of where I sit.
Yup, crime is a problem, and I'm a fast typist. So is redistribution of
wealth. Taxes are higher than Sweden (sorry to offend those Finnish
readers!) but without the services. But then again in winter the sun
actually still COMES UP! So we have our problems but on the whole give me
Africa any day......
There's the context. Now the message. The demo scene is _highly_ active and
thriving in SA. Just to give you some idea of what's happened and what's
happening:
- Dexterity 94. SA's equivalent of Assembly. Big screen, big sound system,
chaotic organization but a great time had by all visitors and entrants!
Entries not really up to the standard of Europe's yet (do people code in
the USA? Oh yes, Tran), but getting there mighty fast.
- Explosive 94. Small demo party held at my place. Bit of a tight squeeze
but _excellent_ 4kb, 64kb, graphics and music entries. This was an
interesting party because there were no prizes yet all of the groups
really pulled out the stops to get their entries in. Also a lot of the
scene guys (no gals yet) were able to meet each other and exchange ideas
and stuff.
- Dexterity II. Coming soon (July at last check). Promises to be bigger,
better and louder than ever before. It will be held over two days in a
Johannesburg community center with all the usual PC compos and also
hopefully the more esoteric compos (such as modem-throwing) and some
ray-traced movies. Buy your flight ticket now!!!!
- Association of SA demo groups formed. This organization has really taken
off. We have managed to get an ftp site, sponsor support locally,
_possibly_ a local spot at SA's equivalent of Comdex, an ad-magazine and
a couple of get togethers. If you want SA distribution sites for music,
demos, groups etc. these are the guys to get hold of. Well, more
precisely me. My handle and e-mail are at the end.
What's different about the SA demo scene?
Way down here at the bottom of Africa things can get a little depressing.
The only distributors of Advanced Gravis are a bunch of idiots in Pretoria
who provide no support and who pulled out of last year's competition with
MINUTES to go to the event. (By the way, it IS a conspiracy that no-one has
sent Denthor a GUS. I bought mine in London on a business trip as I
couldn't afford to pay for one locally - get the picture yet?) Sound
Blasters are expensive by rest-of-the-world standards and decent PCs are
just out of the reach of most guys.
Yet, SA programmers continue to pump out loads of good code using almost
nothing in some cases. Others like Denthor teach the rest of the world how
its all done with his tutors. Some guys are actively writing games (smart),
others are writing demos (cool but not quite as smart), and I think I must
be the only guy in the African continent to have paid for my C compilers!
And all of this in just over a year and a half, really - quite a meteoric
sort of rise. I would be interested to hear of similar scenes in previously
isolated countries such as those in the former Eastern Block.
So we don't have the experience but we do have the talent. Internet access
is on the rise here too -which means I spend too much time on IRC (Hi to
all madmen on #trax and #coders - you know who you are!) but also that we
have access to all cool demos as they are released on HORNET (that really
excellent ftp site - plug, plug). So all the local scene knows and worships
guys like Psi, Purple Motion, all of EMF, the guys from Nooon, Prime,
Skaven, Necros, the Imphobia Authors, Majic 12, and everyone else because
we have seen and heard all of their work.
This turned out to be a problem at the first Dexterity because _too_ many
of the demos shown there had ideas that came from international demos (If I
see another tunnel I'll throw up!). However at the next party, most of the
effects were original.
Look out for some good SA stuff trickling onto the international scene in
the next few months.
The demo scene is followed by more people here than you might think. When
that masterpiece from Assembly 95 hits the ftp sites, spare a thought for
all of us down here eagerly waiting for several things:
1. Have FC released anything at Assembly 95?
2. Did it win?
3. If no to 1. above, will they release anything ever again?
4. Will I ever have enough money to fly to Helsinki for a weekend?
5. Will .FLIs be banned in demos?
Have a better one.
(Hey Grant, drop me a line - we can still be friends ;-) )
Maverick/Serenity - paul@systems.co.za OR paulf@is.co.za
phone : +27 - 11 - 882-3991 (GMT + 2 hours)
work : +27 - 11 - 789-1808 (GMT + 1 hour)
mobile: +27 - 11
SA demo ftp site : sademo.systems.co.za
_Don't_ flame me because of problems here. Windows NT does NOT conform to
the ftp RFC. Any complaints about the quality of this site should be
directed to bgates@microsoft.com :-)
===[General]==[Review of Trax Weekly]==[GraveDigger and Christopher G. Mann]===
For approximately three years, the demo scene had a newsletter entitled
"DemoNews." Starting out as a text file of just under 2k and maxing out at
112k, it grew proportionally to the demo scene itself. It had listings of
uploads at the demo FTP site, interviews with people in the scene, and
other articles revolving around the world-wide PC demo scene. However, this
newsletter was discontinued somewhere in the late days of February 1995.
The reason: it was a time for change.
During HORNET's month-long hiatus, the IRC #trax community gave birth to a
new weekly newsletter, entitled "Trax Weekly." Headed by Populus and
Nemesis, the latter having disappeared mysteriously before the first
newsletter issue could be released, the newsletter was loaded with
informative articles, interviews, group news, album reviews a-la Karl, and
other interesting tidbits such as IRC logs of interesting people. :)
As the first issue of Trax Weekly began to cascade past my screen, the
large "Trax Weekly" ASCII (done by White Wizard) caught my eye immediately.
Here was a newsletter that would not let itself go unnoticed.
There have been three releases to date, and every issue has featured an
interview, if not two. The third issue had a really nice interview of the
new tracker-band, FM (Five Musicians). Unfortunately, Purple Motion was not
present for the interview, but the other four musicians provided some
insight into their new and unique union of talent.
The size of Trax Weekly continues to increase, starting at 40k, then 43k,
and maxing out at 64k this week. Part of the reason for this large filesize
is the rather large ASCII logos and article headers that are included in
the newsletter. Perhaps this is a bit too flashy for such a new production,
but one form of art deserves another.
But, as the Chinese yin-yang theory would have it, the good must co-exist
with the bad. Unfortunately, Trax Weekly has been found to have several
spelling errors each week, and although the newsletter's editor is French-
Canadian with English being a second language, a simple spell-check each
week would result in a more perfected newsletter.
Also, one thing that bothered us about Trax Weekly issue 3 was that three
article sections were incomplete. At first, the release of the newsletter
was delayed in order to fill those spots (with expected articles from three
different people), but eventually the wait was ended and the newsletter
released. We would think that an article section without any articles
should simply not be printed instead of putting the article header and
including the line: "Unfortunately, (they) haven't given me any articles or
contributions."
Another problem with the newsletter is that we find it difficult to read.
The paragraphs in some articles could fill my entire 80x25 text display,
and then some. This results in difficult-to-read articles. It would result
in a better appearance, in my opinion, to subdivide large paragraphs into
bite-size chunks.
One very nice Trax-Weekly feature that HORNET's newsletters are starting to
use is the "Introduction" section. This part of the newsletter is sort of
an overview of the entire issue, highlighting points about each article.
After we read the first issue of Trax Weekly, we definitely decided this
was something we wanted to do as well. And it became so.
The staff has gotten off to a good start, and it is hoped that their
newsletter will continue to be produced. They are fortunate to have such a
large and dedicated following. This is a strong point that should help
them to continue functioning at and above par level (and hopefully to
expand in the future). Every new production (such as Trax Weekly) has a
few bugs to be worked out before a routine settles in, so we make our few
criticisms very lightly. :)
Just for the record, Trax Weekly and 01 are not in competition. Rather,
Trax Weekly focuses purely on the musical aspect of the demo scene. 01
offers broader coverage at the cost of less music-related articles. The
editors of the two newsletters (CGM from 01 and Populus from Trax Weekly)
are on very good terms and frequently exchange ideas and humor.
Trax Weekly had been presented to the demo scene before the HORNET release
of the new three-part newsletter. Trax Weekly also earned a spot on the
former DemoNews mailing list server. Therefore, with Trax Weekly and
HORNET's newsletters, it is evident that the demo scene shows no signs of
slowing down any time in the near future.
From the staff at HORNET, we send our thanks and appreciation to all those
helping with the Trax Weekly newsletter.
===[Mail Room]==[Trackers for the Blind?]==[Scott Rutkowski]===================
Hi, my name is Scott and I am a visually impaired user. My question is, I
am heavily in to .mods and wonder if it's possible to use a tracker to
compose .xm files? The problem is, all the trackers seem to be very
graphical and are not text based.
Is it possible somehow to have some kind of program where you can use your
left and right arrows and when you move them, you will hear the notes that
the cursor moves over? I have a similar thing on my lap top which was
specially made for the blind.
Do any of the trackers allow you to play notes on the computer keyboard to
enter them in and you will hear each note as you play it. Just curious
about this because I am tired of listening to other .mods and .s3m files
and would like to make my own.
If anyone can help on the above request, please mail to
scottr@ion.apana.org.au
Thanks a lot.
===[Mail Room]==[Look Ma', No Scrollers]==[Proton]=============================
Nobody likes a complainer, including myself, but we all have our moments,
and this is apparently mine. I've been interested in the demo world for a
few years now, downloading any new demos I could find, making serious
attempts to understand and follow the progress of the demo scene simply
because I liked the direction the scene was going, but after nearly 2 years
of demo hunting, I've got one complaint about something that nearly ALL
demo's do, which I personally find redundant, boring, tiresome, and even a
bit annoying.
The ridiculous text scrolling, speaking of meaningless nonsense, boasting
about how excellent the particular group is, come on! With the release of
Second Reality, Future crew set a whole new standard for the demo world,
and from what I've seen, nobody even comes close to equaling their level
of production skill. The way they leave all that greeting crap for the end
is simply marvelous!
Sure, I like to hear what the authors of a particular demo have to say, but
nine times out of ten, their petty babble simple destroys the graphical
wizardry that they seem to have gone to such lengths to create. Perhaps
some groups should pay a little more attention to composition than
flattering themselves by boasting about how great their vector graphics
are. I feel there are a lot of potential masterpieces around, but they
all, in my opinion, get shot down by this plague of meaningless text.
Thanks for listening, and I hope all who read this will take accept this as
constructive criticism, not a blatant slam on the demo scene, because I
really think there are a lot of potentially excellent demos around...
Thanks for listening.
Proton - proton@firefly.prairienet.org
===[Music]==[Interview with Leviathan]==[GraveDigger]==========================
Leviathan is a musician in Renaissance and the Kosmic Free Music
Foundation. He lives in Illinois, "a bit south of Chicago." He's 15 years
old and in 10th grade.
In real life, he goes by the name of Andy Carlson. He is a musician on and
off the computer, boasting a collection of instruments and equipment that
would make some garage bands jealous.
In late January, he joined Kosmic and released his first tune under that
group, titled "Dust to Dust." It is a realistic-style module, similar to
the styles of guitarists Eric Johnson and Joe Satriani. Requiring 20 hours
of work, the song could just as well be another song on the radio, which
can't be said about most tracked music available today. It's smoothness and
realistic sounding instruments make it one of the highest-quality products
to ever come out of Scream Tracker.
In Trax Weekly Issue #1, "Dust to Dust" ranked first in a reader's poll of
new music, beating out second place by far.
The majority of this interview took place on IRC on 02-28-95, between 12
and 1 am. Thus, both of us were surrendering much-needed sleep for school
the next morning in order to hold this interview. The interview was
originally intended for DemoNews issue 86, but due to the fact that 86 was
the last issue, it was to be kept small and to-the-point. Thus, we present
01's first interview.
LV = Leviathan [Renaissance/Kosmic] d2@mcs.com
GD = GraveDigger [Defiance/HORNET/DDT] digger@freeside.scsd.k12.ny.us
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
GD: How's it goin?
LV: Pretty good..
GD: First, give us a brief description of yourself..
LV: Hmm.. Tough question..
GD: Well, I know you play drums..
LV: I'd find it hard to live without music.. I play guitar, drums, and
bass, as well as a bit of keyboard.. I've been tracking for 15 months,
but I had experience with music a while before that..
GD: Have you ever taken lessons on any of the instruments that you play?
LV: Well, not directly.. I played trumpet in band for 4 years, and learned
basic theory like scales through there, but nothing extremely
complicated.. I taught myself on the rest of the instruments.
GD: Were you influenced by other musical family members?
LV: My dad has played guitar for quite awhile.. The guitars, amp, and
recording stuff are all his.. The bass and drums are mine..
GD: What do you have in the way of "recording stuff" that you use?
LV: Nothing too fancy.. A Logitech Alex effects processor, and a Tascam
Portastudio 8-track, plus a Bose power amp, and an extra 8-channel
mixer..
GD: "Nothing too fancy"?! Might not be fancy to you, but I'd kill for some
of that equipment!
LV: Heheh.. Well, I'd always love to have access to some DAT equipment.. ;)
GD: Yes, DAT equipment would be nice indeed. :)
What kinds of soundcards do you have?
LV: I have a GUS and a PAS16..
GD: How and when did you get involved with the Demogroup, Renaissance?
LV: Well, I suppose I'll have to track my history in the groups I've been
in to answer that question..
I started out as "Necromancer" in the ansi group "Visual Insanity,"
releasing 3 .669s and 3 .MTM's through them. While it wasn't anything
huge, it was my first true group experience, and gave me something to
start with..
GD: I think a lot of people miss the fact that they should start out small,
and work their way up..
LV: Yeah, I see a lot of people on #trax getting discouraged that they're
not in a big group at first.. People need to take the time to get
good..
Maybe 3 months after I joined Vi, I started irc'ing..
GD: Ahh, IRC. The evil of all evils. :)
LV: After Vi split up, I was in Union for a short period of time, but had
really lost interest in the ansi scene.. So, I decided to start a demo
group with my good friend Nemesis.. We had a gfx artist, had plans, had
a name (Mist), and were looking through coders.. But that was all
stopped when Nemesis came to me with news that Ren was looking to be
all music, and he and I were accepted into Ren.. And then, a few days
ago, I also joined up with Kosmic..
GD: When was it that you were accepted into Renaissance?
LV: Hmm.. I can't remember exactly, since we kept it quiet for awhile. ;)
Somewhere around August of 1994.
GD: And now you're in Kosmic.. and still working with Ren?
LV: Correct.. I have big plans in both groups.. ;)
GD: Glad to hear that! I'm sure many will be looking forward to what you
have planned.
It's getting closer to April 15th. Are you going to be at NAID?
LV: Unfortunately, I can't make it to NAID, but will be competing, doing a
dual-tune with Nemesis.
GD: Ahh, good luck to you, then.
LV: Thanks.. It's somewhat difficult to get to Canada when you can't
drive..
GD: It must be. :)
I've heard you mention before that a composer should get the main idea
of a song written first, and write the intro last. Is this a method you
regularly use when composing?
LV: I've started using it lately.. Before, I'd write the intro, and then
continue on.. It's much better to write the intro last, because the
intro should be a simple reflection of the song.. The song shouldn't
reflect the intro.. When you write the intro first, you limit yourself.
GD: That's an interesting way of explaining it. I've never thought that way
before..
LV: It's just a personal belief.. ;)
GD: Is there any one tracker program that you like best?
LV: I like ScreamTracker 3 best.. I would really love it if ST3 had the
features that FT2 has, but I really don't like FT2's interface..
GD: Which features about Ft2 would you like to see in ST3?
LV: Definitely the whole instrument sections (volume & panning envelopes,
split keyboard), ping-pong looping, and a good sampler.. Also, MIDI
input..
GD: That brings me to another question. With all of those instruments
available to you, do you record a lot of your own samples?
LV: I'm getting into sampling a lot more lately.. "Wish" had about half
original samples.. I sample a lot from my Roland E-15, and just started
sampling guitars and basses..
GD: What software do you use for recording samples?
LV: FT2..
Drums are by far the most difficult to sample, though..
GD: Why is that?
LV: Drums are extremely hard to mike correctly to begin with. It's very
hard to get the proper sound, especially since striking a drum pushes
air towards the mic.
GD: Shortly after joining Kosmic, you released your first tune under
Kosmic, "Dust to Dust." It was, in my opinion, a very welcomed change
to the world of tracked music. Where did you get the influence for that
song?
LV: I had a lot of influences both inside and outside the tracking "scene"
for that one.. "Realization" (by Necros) is an obvious comparison..
It's hard to narrow down the influences.. I suppose that a lot of
things sort of influenced me to stay away from writing stuff of the
demo music-genre, and so I came up with "Dust to Dust".. Also,
"Forever" by Basehead started out as an influence, particularly with
the acoustic guitar.. I had the electric piano in and everything.. But
the song took on a lot of changes.. I took the acoustic and made it
electric, added the hammonds.. Really only the beat and chords stayed..
GD: I saw your note in the instrument list for "Dust to Dust" about your
never wanting to be forced to write demo-music again..
LV: Yeah, I will write demo music by choice, but when I wrote earlier
stuff, I felt pressured to make more synth-type stuff to make it more
appealing. But that's just plain stupid; I mean, it's stupid to change
what you intended just to make it more appealing.
GD: Definitely agreed on that one. :)
LV: So I really just let "Wish" and "Dust to Dust" flow, and did as I
wanted, and I definitely will continue to do it that way..
GD: "Dust to Dust" differs, however, from PM's "Pore" and Zodiac's
"Reflector" (competition songs from Therapy'94) in that it just uses
single-note guitar samples, and not sampled guitar riffs.. I personally
think it is more creative to make a song from the bare minimums, as you
have done, than to patch in guitar patterns.
LV: Right.. I'm really not against or for sampled guitar riffs, though.. I
just feel that a single guitar sample gives you a lot more freedom
rather than a sampled riff.. It's just like drum loops vs. sequenced
drums.. You have a lot more freedom with just basic samples.
GD: Exactly.. good example..
Who are your musical influences, either through radio, or a soundcard?
LV: I'll start with non-trackers.. Rush, Smashing Pumpkins, Live, Pearl
Jam, Yanni, Nin, Walt Mink, Swervedriver, Dave Matthews.. Tracked:
Necros, Basehead, Skaven.. Hmm.. it's hard to think.. I've just drawn
from so many different styles and sources.. I really got a lot of the
chord theory I use from watching what Nec does.. He pioneered chord
layering for us.. ;)
GD: Necros has definitely been a positive influence on the scene..
You've mentioned to me that you have big plans for the future. What
lies ahead for Leviathan?
LV: Well, as I said before, I'm doing a tune for NAID with Nemesis, and
also hope to do a tune for MC3.. I've got a tune on the Hardcode
musicdisk (whenever it comes out), and will be continuing to release
single modules through Renaissance and Kosmic..
GD: How do you decide which group to release which song under?
LV: It'll just be arbitrarily..
I'm also working on game music for Hyper Image Productions.. The music
is for a Jaguar game called Hover Hunter.. I'm hoping to get some good
MIDI equipment, and put a CD together within 2 or 3 years.. That's a
long-term project, though.. ;)
GD: That's great, hope it works out for you. Are there any greets that
you'd like to send out?
LV: Just the usual, to Usul, who started me out a while back, to Guitar for
getting me a GUS and just bein' cool, and to Renaissance and Kosmic..
I'd do individual greets, but I always forget to greet people, so I
won't bother trying.. ;)
GD: Do you have anything to add before we close?
LV: Just quick thanks to everyone who have given me feedback and advice..
And advice to all aspiring trackers out there: don't be afraid to ask
for help, and don't be afraid to start at the bottom..
===[Music]==[Tracking Tips Part I: Adding Echo Effects]==[GraveDigger]=========
This is the first in a series of articles on tips for PC music composers.
It will be a regular feature in 01's "Articles" section for as long as I
have something new to contribute to it.
You may have seen this originally printed in DemoNews.085, but it would be
uncouth to start a new newsletter and pick up an old column from where it
left off.
The concepts for this column have been derived from viewing others' tracks,
along with my personal experimentation. I do not take sole credit for any
of the ideas presented here, and would also like to thank the many
musicians who have influenced me along the way (it would take forever to
name them all).
This first column will cover the aspect of using echo effects to create a
more lively tune. Echo can be a very effective way to add depth and
dimension to your music, making it more natural-sounding, while removing a
dull, two- dimensional sound.
In these columns, I will use examples which will be similar to what you
would see if you were tracking in FC's Scream Tracker 3. If you are not
familiar with ST3, please refer to the basic guide below:
... .. .. ...
123 4^ 5^ 67^
1 - The note (A, B, C, D, E, F, G)
2 - Accidental (# if sharp, - if natural)
3 - The octave (0 - 7)
4 - The instrument number (01 - 99)
5 - The note's volume (0 - 64, default used if none specified)
6 - Effect symbol (See the ST3 docs)
7 - Effect parameter (See the ST3 docs)
An example row for one channel would be:
C-4 01 32 ...
This would play instrument 01 at a volume of 32, on the note C in the 4th
octave, with no effect.
Now, moving on, what you basically do with echo effects is re-sound the
note you want echoed, in a lower row in the pattern, and at a reduced
volume. Depending on the length of the sample and the speed/tempo of the
song, you may want to put the echo notes in a separate channel so it does
not cut off the previous note.
If you want the note echoed once, you should sound it at half of its
original volume. How many rows down into the pattern you place it is
basically up to you, and you may want to experiment to see what generates
the best effect for your music. Here is a pair of examples:
| Channel 1 | Channel 2 | | Channel 1 | Channel 2 |
| | | | | |
|C-4 01 64 ...|... .. .. ...| |C-4 01 48 ...|... .. .. ...|
|... .. .. ...|C-4 01 32 ...| |... .. .. ...|... .. .. ...|
|... .. .. ...|... .. .. ...| |... .. .. ...|C-4 01 24 ...|
In both examples, the volume of the intended echo note is half of the
original. In the first example, a short delay is created by skipping one
row in the pattern. In the second example, a longer delay is created by
skipping two rows.
This is just a basic example, and by experimenting some with it, you will
be able to create a nice echo effect which will give your tune a bigger
sound.
Be sure to catch the next in the "Tracking Tips" column, which is about
Octave Doubling.
===[Closing]===================================================================
There are three public newsletters produced by HORNET:
demuan-list Listing of new files on ftp.cdrom.com /pub/demos.
This is really the home-base list. If you subscribe
to only 1 of newsletters we offer, make it this one.
demuan-article You are reading this right now. This newsletter has
timely articles dealing with many aspects of the
demo scene.
hornet-news HORNET News is an informal newsletter. There are
editorials, opinion columns, and humor dealing with
many aspects of the demo scene.
_____How to Subscribe
1. Start an e-mail to: listserver@oliver.sun.ac.za
2. Type in "blahblah" as the subject. The listserver does not read
the subject line, but I do not know what will happen if you
leave it blank.
3. On the first line of the body of the mail, write:
subscribe demuan-list YourName OR
subscribe demuan-article YourName OR
subscribe hornet-news YourName
In place of "YourName", use your real name or handle. Your name
can be 1 or 2 words long.
4. Send it.
The listserver will automatically look at the return address of your
mail. _That_ address is where newsletters will be sent to.
Example:
subscribe demuan-article Christopher Mann
THE FOLLOWING IS NOT CORRECT:
subscribe demuan-article r3cgm@dax.cc.uakron.edu
_____The End
Thanks for reading Issue #1 of 01 Article Section...
E-mail should be directed to:
jeff@ego.psych.mcgill.ca - general questions and comments
r3cgm@dax.cc.uakron.edu - newsletter related
digger@freeside.scsd.k12.ny.us - music related
===============================================================================
