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Static Line 24
_//\\________________________________________________________________________
_\\__T_A_T_I_C___L_I_N_E_______________________________________ August, 2000
__\\_________________________________________________________________________
\\//__ Monthly Scene E-Zine ________________________________ 137 Subscribers
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Table Of Contents
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Opening:
Message From the Editor
Features:
The Root -- How they Got Involved (This Month: Vincent Voois)
Inscene 2K Report
FLaG 2000 - European Demoscene Meeting -- Final Results
Columns:
Music:
In Tune -- Flashback: The Trax Weekly Days
Guest Song Review -- n-voice ep by dizmal
The Listener -- Music from Sense and Lime
Retro Tunage -- Blue pearl by Basehead
Demo:
Screen Lit Vertigo -- Horizon'00 double review and
"This Is" by Orion
Guest Demo Review -- Flag 2000 Demo Reviews
Intro Watch -- Flag 2000 and Inscene 2000 Intros
General:
Scene Dirt -- News & Rumors
Editorial -- Are MP3s destroying the Music Scene?
Link List -- Get Somewhere in the Scene
Closing: Credits
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Message From the Editor
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It's official! Static Line has been around for Two years. That's
right, we've been here for 24 complete issues since 1998. Thanks go out
to all the readers and of course my staff.
We got an incredible issue for you all this month. For one, we got
reviews up the...uhm...you know. Gekko out-did himself this month.
Aside from his normal intro reviews, he also did a few extra demo
reviews. Seven has three demos to review himself...so if you're a demo
fan, you got a lot to read this month.
For you music lovers, you got a whole bunch to read as well. For
starters, we have a guest review from Eino Keskitalo. Also as special
for this issue, I have included the very first "In Tune" from the Trax
Weekly days. Then there are all the tunes reviewed by Tryhuk.
Did I mention all the features this month? For starters, we got
another installation of "The Root", brought to you by Tryhuk. This
month, Vincent Voois shares his views of the scene and a bit about his
own history. We also got a party report from Seven (king of the party
reports) for Inscene 2k, and the final results for Flag 2000 (prepared
by Gekko).
Lastly, let me thank you all for your patience. My brother is now
officially moved in to Florida, and I am back from my vacation -- if you
could call it that. So, it's a week late, but I'm sure you all don't
mind.
I've been working on this for 5 hours now, and my head is spinning.
I think I'll release it to you all now.
Enjoy the 24th Issue. Thanks for keeping us around for two years.
--Coplan
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The Root
How They Got Involved
Sponsored By: Tryhuk
By: Vincent Voois
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About my involvement into the scene for as long as there was a period
that people noticed me, the steps that got me into it were quite a
loadsome before i got to the PC-scene...
My music-activities done by computer started around 1985 on a Commodore
C64, funny enough i got my fame in that scene when i wasn't active in
the C64 world anymore, since 1990 / 1991 i bought a Commodore Amiga on
which i learned using samples to compose modules.
The fact that i could use four tracks or by use of some tricks: eight
tracks (Oktalyzer) were my reasons to step over to Amiga. At that time
the PC-scene was really awful regarding the music-parts around it. A
truely good soundcard was, at most expensive level, an 8 bit soundcard
that did not even came close to half the quality and warmth the Amiga
had. The Amiga period for me was a learning stadium, I did release a
couple of mods but nothing seriously, a period not really worth
mentioning though it was important for my way of improvement. The only
four-track mod that got online was the release of Dance Booster on the
Party III in Herning (It did not make the bigscreen but was at least
made downloadable). Nice to know that the guys i looked up to on that
machine were people like Dr. Awesome (/Cryptoburners), Nuke (/Anarchy),
Dizzy (/CNCD) and a lot more people. The only two tunes from Dizzy i got
determined my way of looking at samples and how to use them totally for
the rest of my tracking career.
It was at Herning were I noticed that development of the musical
hardware for the PC improved incredibly. It did not take me longer than
a month after the Party III (Dec. 1993) in Denmark before i got a
soundcard for my 486-Dx 25 Mhz machine (a soundblaster pro clone).
Scanning the PC bbs's for decent tracker programs that did at least as
much as Protracker 3.x on Amiga, I was a bit disappointed to find crappy
DOS-trackers that were not even capable of playing the mod formats
decently IF they supported the soundblaster card (meaning: no
speaker-only output). On one BBS I was lucky and found the Future Crew's
ScreamTracker 3. Finally a music application that offered me more than I
(I'll admit: a bit arrogantly) demanded for my method of composing.
Inspired on how the Vibrants used the possibilities of the OPL3 FM chip
on the soundblaster / adlib cards even triggered me to compose a couple
of Adlib songs in Screamtracker. When I noticed the Second Reality Demo
I thought it was done by Kefrens since they made Desert Dreams II on
Amiga which was alomost the same kind of demo but definately the same
kind of music. Then I found out that it was done by the same Future Crew
and that it won a PC demo compo... :) people should have known about
Kefrens at the time :)
At the Party IV, which was the last party that I attended abroad, I
released an ST3 song, and that one of course did not make the big-screen
either. But at least I was glad to find out that they have nice girls in
Denmark :)
In 1995 my soundblaster burned out, the next soundcard that I
implemented was a Gravis Ultrasound Max, a choice merely because 90% of
the demos that I downloaded held some kind of embargo against Creative
Labs and their Soundblasters (and their clone mates). Also the second
release of FastTracker became an important issue for me that year. It
took me a couple of BBS sysops before i downloaded FT2 since i knew FT1
and that one really "sucked major" to use oldschool terms. The fact that
I downloaded FT2 (just for fun to have a very original version of
nibbles) opened a new world for me. Also a good application that made
the GUS patches a whole lot more valuable to use besides MIDI purposes.
Up to 1995 I still was busy improving my methods of composing, around
1995 i decided to make a debut attempt by joining a music-group and so
my choice fell on the group "Destiny". The majority was against my
admittance to the group with the reason that my style did not fit the
group. Okay, that decision got me somehow into Acme. AAP (group leader
Steven Ter Heide) contacted me with the request if i was intrested in
joining to supply some songs for the bigger projects. I knew a couple of
Vic's songs that I found pretty good (which later turned out to be even
not his best work when I got the rest). And to clear one confusion some
people had: I'm not Vic and Vic is not me so stop putting his name on my
music and mine on his. I had to put my focus onto Lone Ranger's
PolyTracker which was a private tracker only cirulating within the group
and a couple of the closest friends.
That also meant I had to go back to less extended possiblities.
PolyTracker is something similar to ST3 though is way more focussed on
tracking with one extra effect i have not seen in any other tracker yet
up to date (Reversed sample offset playing, this is also not explained
in the doc that describes its format). Also PolyTracker is limited to
GUS use. What Lone Ranger did to the samples is still a riddle to me,
but the way Polytracker played them and the way FastTracker II played
them was something equal to playing your music on a dolby hi-fi set
(PolyTracker) and playing the music through a tin can on a string
(FT2).
I made a couple of songs in Polytracker, the only serious
demo-implementation of my work was done in "Afrodesiac", Acme's
intension was to release it at the Party V in Denmark. I probably have
some curse over me because that particular demo did not make the
big-screen either. If you still have it, save it because it's a
collectors item, I believe not many people have a copy of it anymore.
I kept composing to compile a music-disk. I had aproximately 15
Megs of modules and only one was seriously used. I could not blame Acme
for that, the problem was that the modules were a bit too complex and
expanded to make a nice demo around. I don't mean good but just to much
CPU intensive to have something for other things. Psychologically my
mind was not very good as I lived in isolation for a very long period
(that's how I got all my inspiration). In the end of 1996 I got
online and noticed the Hornet Archive. A good chance to download the
demo's I could not get my hands on.... One of the better demo's that
caught my eye at the time was Caero (EMF / Plant). From that period
demo's only became better and better and significantly smaller and
smaller (meaning:becoming truely a worthy opponent against Amiga). Not
all demo's were there for my reach as my GUS only had 512K and my video
card was not always supported not only that, up to late 1997 i still ran
my 486 DX 25 while a P60 or P100 became minimum standards for the
Demoscene. Considering my options (my low income and my vision for the
upcoming years) made me decide to quit composing at that time and
uploading the music-compilations to Hornet instead of letting Simm or
Lone Ranger build a player around it.
So watching demos and composing music went to the background until I had
the money to upgrade to the faster standards. At least for watching
demos.
Most demos that I eagerly wanted to see, I had to wait a year or two
before I had a CPU fast enough to view them. Once I could do that, I
caught up pretty quick. It's very funny to actually "see" the evolution
of demo-creations through two years in two days :)
As composing went on....
Yes, throwing up all the music onto the Hornet Archive caused some heavy
response, for sure the goodbye message I included triggered people to
write me to reconsider that. Even current days I sometimes get a
reaction from a person asking me why I quit.
January 1997 I just could not sit and do nothing. As I viewed the
first spots of Impulse Tracker 2.10 - 2.12 I decided just to try and see
if IT 2 was suitable for me. Well, it was a good eye-opener that
supplied me the the power of necessary instrument handling without
needing to manually edit multiple tracks for the effect I wanted to
reach.
But even today I still use multiple tracks to extend effects building
up a sound environment that swirls through your head. I don't make
Hi-Fi audio-set music, I make music that sounds proper on headphones but
required more CPU power throughout the last years.
The effect of DemoNews and TraxWeekly gave me some good insight on
various trackers being busy in the PC-scene as I also learned from
Acme's personal module archives (where i got the rest of Dizzy's songs)
and I downloaded a whole smuck of modules from HA.
I entered MC5 and MC6, I did not enter them to win, but to release
some test songs wondering what the critics would say. I needed some good
criticism on my work, and I acted upon what i got returned if the
critics were objective and meaningfull.
With the ending of HA in 1998, the hunger for critics was not over,
so I entered the first couple of Groovy Compo's, having a supplied set
of samples and limitations offered a new challenge to me, I found it
pretty amusing and I enjoyed the opportunity of judging eachother's
songs on smaller scale.
With the coming of TraxInSpace -- the combination of HA and weekly or
bi-weekly tracking compos -- a continueing story for the both of them
became a fact. Next to it was actually right after HA died, the rising
of scene.org. Currently even scene.org is into financial problems
keeping the server running, like HA at the time lost it's support by
Walnut Creek and the system maintainers have no motivations to keep the
parts running....
I still enjoy the scene and now and then I pick out a track from a
musician to listen to. The modules grew in size and the limitations seem
to be vanished in the use of tricks, stereo samples (large samples) and
no less than 44Khz 16 bit if not 32 bit. The amount of people tracking
currently is so large that each style-devision has it's best performer
but are no longer the persons that rule the scene like Purple Motion /
Skaven / Necros or music groups like FM, Analogue, KFMF....
I still have some unfinished songs laying and waiting to be finished
but it will take a while before I will continue with them as I'm
currently in hibernation mode in tracking land.
I have a nice girlfriend which is about to become my wife. I have a
pretty busy job and a pretty busy life.
I did learn a couple of important things during the years when
tracking:
-Feedback upon your work is important no matter how much self-critism
you can apply on your own work. -Listen to a lot of other peoples
work, it supplies inspiration at moments when you think you went
out of it.
-Good sample / instrument arrangement and mixing can make or break your
song, as long as you don't use my mixing techniques you won't spoil
your music that quickly :)
-Never give up and think twice before uploading rather than working a
bit more on your creation.
Something that bothered me a couple of times during the past few years:
-Don't bite the hand that feeds you; I notice when archive
maintainers like TiS and scene.org have to do things to keep the
servers alive and upgradable to meet the ever increasing audience
and users, they get a lot of flame mail about going commercial.
The world of free stuff always has been an illusion but up to the
moment before it gets out of hand it is affordable and the moment when
the people can't maintain it from own funding anymore, they turn
"commercial" as most sceners call it that way... That is the moment the
archive meets its doom or its fortune depending if the users appreciate
the existance of the archive and it's background by tolerating those
measures.
Consider what your benefits have meant to you so far and how they
might benefit other artists. If you upload your work there to become
a known legend you attach a value to the service of the site but moral
support is at a certain point not enough anymore for survival. Flaming
archive maintainers for their survival techniques is pretty hypocritical
when those same people did something good to you. For sure that you
can't fix such things as soon as they're broke(n).
Good... A lot has been pinned down, not everything but globally
you're reading my complete scenical biography. There is a lot most
people don't know about me because most of the work done has been
background material for years before it was ever released and even
afterwards most pieces done would never fit into any demo-concept.
I do hope that the purpose of releasing versatile material can be
noticed as I never kept my musical styles into one corner, I tried many
styles to prevent being pushed into a corner. Hiding like a Chameleon is
what I stand for, the colours I put in front of you are more important
to notice that the shapes and contours I will always have.
--Vincent Voois
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Inscene 2K Report
By: Seven
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Friday 14 July
--------------
21:22 -- OK, I've arrived at Wilsele-Putkapelle (the partyplace) one
hour ago, so it's definitely time to start this log.
I spend last week at Baxter/Green's house, because he held a small
game/LAN party for his fellow engineer students and some informaticians
like Quasar and I. I learned quickly that I have an in-born talent to
be fragged 10 times a minute at Quake 3 and the like, so I abstained
from gaming (except tetrinet, hehe) and instead concentrated at coding
effects for a 64K intro. Too bad Baxter decided not to visit Inscene
because no one else from Green would be there. Instead, he went to the
Beach Rock festival with the other engineer students, and I had to
travel to Inscene alone and without productions, as my 64K wasn't even
half-finished (boohoo, snif, snif).
Upon entering the partyplace, I almost immediately spotted Djefke, a
hard-core Linux addict, who managed to make within 5 minutes some
derogatory remarks about my "fischerprice operating system" Windows98
:) He had installed his stuff at the back of the hall, but remembering
last year's noise level at that place, I choose a place near the
bigscreen. The Aspirine guys were there too, and just like last year
they were making a demo for the compos.
The organizers announced the first food-run: you could order pizzas,
fries and other junk food and they would go and buy it for you. Really
useful service IMHO. You could also bring stuff on CD to the
server-room to be shown on the bigscreen. As I had 2 CDs with wild
demos in my collection, I gave these to the orgos and they were shown
immediately. Legoland, Penguin Paradise, South Party, Red Dot, ...
They're all way more impressive than on a monitor, although the sound
quality was rather poor.
22:55 -- Thanks to Djefke, I had the network protocol details right in
no time, so I could start browsing. I don't like it when my harddrive
is constantly in use by other downloaders, so I tried to upload all the
things I wanted to share to the main ftp-server. Well, I wasn't the
only one who had that idea, cause uploading was snail-like slow. Later
I saw a photo on the net from the server's statistics program:
download=195.4KB/sec, upload=9753.5 KB/sec. Almost 10MB/sec upload,
that's quite some pressure for a single server :)
A Simpsons episode is shown on the bigscreen. I prefer demo-related
stuff, but I agree it's a tiny bit better than a winamp plugin or so.
Saturday 15 July
----------------
00:11 -- Now the movie Final Destination is shown. Typical horror movie
with the "which pretty teenager will die next?" theme. The network is
still very slow, I think there may be something wrong with my settings
:(. At the moment, there are about 60 people, which is less than last
year, but probably some more people will arrive today (Saturday
already).
Last year there was a TV-crew, remember? The mpeg of that TV-program
was on the server, I've watched it and it's even worse then I had
expected. Show this to your parents and they'll lock you up in your room
whenever you mention the possibility of attending a demoparty. No
explanation of demos, but instead focusing on the loud music, the
fast-food and the lack of sleep. Let me just quote the very first
sentence: "Wilsele-Putkapelle is a place-to-be for the international
computer world, thanks to the local parish hall, where about hundred
computer maniacs have gathered to beat each other in a marathon of bits
and bytes." I wonder how they would describe Assembly or The Party, with
a few thousands "computer maniacs" :)
02:47 -- The surprise-compo rules should have been announced 4 hours
ago, but when I asked the orgos, they said "Hmm? Do we have surprise
compos? OK, we'll make up some rules." It seems that, after the
organizing and build-up of the party, some orgos are so tired that
they're not 100% focused on the party anymore (although alcohol might
also have some influence :)). Well, half an hour later the rules were
online, so I could start coding. I don't like to go to a party without
any contributions, and a surprise entry is better than nothing. A
proggy that draws a circle that morphs into an ellipse... That should
not be too hard.
04:21 -- Behind me, the Aspirine crew is clearly making a surprise music
tune. The rules are: make the best possible module, using the files on
the Inscene website (HTML, gif,...) as samples. The resulting sounds very
chiptune-like, quite funny but when you hear it in 50 different
versions during 1 hour, the headache-danger is very big. Luckily, I
brought my own asprin :) (Yep, never go to a demoparty without it)
Drawing an ellipse is a little bit harder than I expected. Hmm, I
remember we've seen some formulas a long, long time ago, in another
galaxy... *think* *think* ...
05:08 -- Stupid me :) For some reason, I had the brilliant idea last
week to put my network adapter in full-duplex iso the default
half-duplex mode. Now I've switched it back to normal and voila, my
transfer rate jumps from 30KB/sec to 800 KB/sec. So the network is
indeed even faster than last year (if you've sensible settings, that
is).
Although the foodrun at 2 o'clock was announced to be the last for
tonight (next one at 8 o'clock), the orgos have decided to add an extra
"surprise foodrun". This news is received with enthusiasm by the
ever-hungry audience.
An old Apple Macintosh is used as an presence list: everyone is
invited to sign it. I like this kind of weird ideas that increase the
scenish feeling, just like the name-cards everyone got at the entrance.
07:29 -- The main soundsystem is playing some dumb housetracks, which I
can't really appreciate in my tired state of mind. I thought for a
moment that the dance-compo had started, because Impulse Tracker is
visible on the bigscreen. But that would mean that the compo has
started one hour *before* the announced time, and it will freeze in
hell before such a thing happens on a demoparty :)
Since my code is almost working (in 320*200 iso 320*240, as required),
I'll escape the noise by taking a nap in the sleeping room. See you
again within a few hours.
11:57 -- Wake up just enough to get up and walk to my PC without
crashing into walls or innocent bystanders. Djefke is taking pictures
for a party-report he wants to create (with code & music, not just a
picture-pack). I order a Pizza Hawaii for breakfast (love the food
support here), and start to look at the pile of TXT/DOC-files that
reside in the INFO/DEMO/VGA section of my HD. I have to find out whether
mode X or VESA is the smallest way to get a 320*240 mode.
On the bigscreen, they show powerpoint-slides with info about the
compos, the surprise-compos and the IP-addresses of servers. A simple
but efficient way to keep people informed. Watch and learn, Ambience
orgos!
14:24 -- Oh my god. Besides the foodruns, you can now also order
spaghetti for this evening! What happened to the "demoparty = 3 days
unhealthy food" tradition? And why can't those +1000-people parties
provide the same services? (Imagine an organizer entering the pizza
shop: "75 big pizzas of this kind, and 120 small ones of that kind, and
... :))
There were some rumors that due to problems with sponsors, there
would be no prizes, but it was announced that several Linux releases
and a harddisk were added to the prize pool. Good thing, because more
people have arrived now, so now there are about the same number of
attendants like last year (about 80).
15:01 -- The first compo (dance music) has started. There are 4 songs,
but I don't like most of them. I'm not a fan of the genre, although I'd
describe that last tune (New Millenium/Cyborg Jeff) as "above-average
quality noise". The normal music compos has also only 4 tunes, but they
range from a 36K chiptune to an 1,4 MB song with full-time vocals. Hmm,
will be hard to vote, they're all quite enjoyable...
17:46 -- Djefke has finally managed to burn his first CD at the party,
and wants to celebrate this with an Unreal-deathmatch. Of course,
rather than playing with the experts, he wants me for an easy target :)
Alas, there's something wrong with his connection and he left the CD
with the drivers at home, so we can't compare our lack of skills...
(And we can still look down upon all those lame gamers, hehe)
Fed up with non-working mode X code, I've just slapped my standard
VESA routines on the ellips-proggy, and entered that. It's now a bulky
371 bytes big, but I don't feel like optimizing it since I'll probably
be the only one to compete in the surprise code compo. No other
assembler coders can be seen when I check out the monitors...
The harddisk and XT-throwing compos are delayed due to the typical
Belgian bad weather.
18:10 -- The 100KB game compo has been held, with two entries. The first
was a small space shoot-them-up by PPP-team, with very good graphics
and an OK chiptune, but the levels clearly weren't finished. The second
was a 1155 byte TSR-program in textmode that changed the
background-colors to show a tetris-game. So you can use any monochrome
textmode utility and play tetris at the same time :)
19:30 -- The rain has stopped for a while, and the harddisk throwing
compo has taken place. I really wonder for which computer that harddisk
was designed, probably the ENIAC or so: it was at least 10*20*35 cm big
and weighted a lot of kilos. Space, one of the orgos and 2 meter tall,
threw the thing over 7 meters far just for demonstration, and no one
was able to do better. Your weak reporter got only 4 m and some cm, so
I was the 14th out of 18 competitors (clearly, the unhealthy food and
the lack of sleep had already negatively influenced my powers :)).
To my surprise, A0a/Green arrived during the compo. A0a is short for
Andromeda, if you need to pronounce it. He told me that he was actually
there as A0a/Velocity, since that Finnish group had asked him to submit
a 64K intro at Inscene, so he was now also a Velocity member. As this
was a very recent thing, he hadn't knew beforehand that he would visit
the party, and hence Baxter hadn't know it either. A0a took a chance on
the harddisk-throwing, and placed 3rd. Of course, HE was 100% rested :)
19:58 -- Oops, problem! A0a's only diskette is corrupted! And since
there's no Internet at the party, he can't download the correct
version! We asked the organizers whether there was a cybercafe in the
vicinity, but the answer was no :( Luckily one organizer has a
net-connection in his student-home, so now he and A0a are driving to
Leuven, the nearby city where that home is located.
Sunday 16 July
--------------
01:27 -- Oh oh, I've totally forgotten this log. Let's catch up: A0a got
back with a perfectly working intro (was checked on the compo machine).
Since A0a has no computer with him, we watched some Futurama episodes
on my PC, in between the compos. The graphic compos were not very
spectacular, neither the pixeled nor the raytracing compo. Two
4K-intros were shown, and the second, called Sex, was really very good:
funky adlib music, beautiful fractals, funny texts, morphing 3D objects.
In the 64K compo, there was only one entry: Dream/Velocity, and the
same happened in the demo-compo, with Life is a Bizz/Aspirine as the
only entry. If you have Linux, check that one out: it's a fake
powerpoint presentation in a real "corporate business style", about how
you can make a living by winning democompos today. It's funny and
ironic, but there are some things (like the checklist for making a
Shad-like demo) that are almost true. In the wild compo, there was
Aspirine's chiptune-disk for Linux, a text-demo in an IT module, a demo
made entirely of basic-programs and bat-files, and some weird darts
game.
Then we had a long talk with Djefke who had joined us, about MP3s and
VidX (that new movie compression format which is already very popular),
about nostalgia and the history of the Belgian scene. It seems the
Belgian groups always fall apart or become inactive before they reach
their full potential :(. Meanwhile, some good intros and demos were
shown on the bigscreen, such as Heaven 7/Exceed.
11:14 -- I've given up all hope to update this thing on a more regular
base, and I hope the same for you :) But I'll try to recover as much of
my memories as possible. A0a and I were very tired and wanted to get
some sleep, but we had ordered a pizza at the last foodrun for tonight,
so we had to wait until it was delivered. The Aspirine guys were
watching Mr. Black/Orange, so we decided to watch some demos too. My
"job" as a reviewer forces me to download a lot of demos, so I've more
recent stuff than the average scener does. After devouring our pizza
when it arrived, I went to the sleeping room but I returned to submit
my votesheet (on paper, yes). Last year I slept right through the
voting deadline, and I didn't want to do that again. A0a slept sitting
at the table, cause he had no sleeping bag with him.
Since my parents had taken the car on their holiday to Germany, I had
no transport back home. When I had learned that Baxter wouldn't go to
Inscene, I had mailed Cyberphest, one of the orgos, if he knew people
from the vicinity of Gent that had space for 1 scener + PC left, but he
had answered they would ask it to the audience at the partyplace. When I
woke up, I asked the orgos to do that, but no one from Gent was here :/
Being the cautious type, I had arranged with Baxter that I could call
him if I couldn't find transport. So I did.
In the evening, back home
-------------------------
Better finish this report before I forget all things that happened:
for an unknown reason, my CD-rom refused to run Futurama-CDs any longer,
so we were left without entertainment. Since the bigscreen hadn't been
in use for some time, I asked the orgos if we could show some demos. No
problem, they led us to the compo-pc behind the bigscreen, started the
beamer and left. So we had complete control over the bigscreen, yoohoo!
The compo machine was a P3 550, 128 MB, Voodoo 2 with 128 MB, so we
could try some heavy-duty demos. For the interested: the rotozoom at the
end of Contour/TBL has *still* a multi-second delay in it, and some
scenes in Bleam/Statix aren't very smooth either. For older demos, the
hardware overkill had some strange results: the music of Genocyd started
10 seconds later than the visuals, and suddenly was played faster to
catch up with the timing of the 3D-scenes.
Djefke had joined us, and so had Baxter who had arrived too. After
maybe one and a half our of showing demos, Space came saying that they
needed the screen for the prize ceremony. A pity, cause there were still
a lot of demos I'd liked to have seen. Control/Green, for example,
although Baxter and A0a had protested when I copied that demo from CD to
the harddisk. They are really too modest, I think :)
First the surprise music compo was held, just two tunes of which the
Aspirine one was clearly better, so there was no voting for that. The
prize ceremony wasn't very surprising, in most compos there was enough
difference in quality to know the winner beforehand. Only the
raytrace-compo ended in a par: Cyclops en D-3 had equal points, but
after talking with them, the orgos decided to give D-3 the first place
because he had worked much longer on his picture than Cyclops, whose
picture was a one-hour party production. A0a collected the prize for
Dream/Velocity. And of course, there *was* a second entry in the
surprise coding compo, which beat mine by over 100 bytes. I didn't
really care, although I was curious how the coder did that. When asked,
he showed my his code, and he had hard-coded the number of the video
mode for the compo-machine (which was allowed by the orgos).
At the end, the orgos explained the troubles with the sponsors: 3COM,
one of the main sponsors, has for some reason decided to stop the
production of the low-end equipment like hubs and switches, so they
were not interested anymore in sponsoring the party (sceners usually
don't buy the more expensive stuff).
There had not been any foodruns today, maybe because it's Sunday and
most shops are closed, and when everyone started to pack, the orgos
asked for people who had any food left, to bring it to the server-room,
because the entire crew was famishing. I had some bread and orange
juice left, so I did bring it to them, and so did some other visitors.
The reaction from the orgos was "Huh?! This works? People actually DO
bring food ?!? Thank you, thank you!" :D
After buying a party T-shirt (there were still some left, which were
sold at reduced prize), I put my stuff in Baxter's car. We said goodbye
to our friends, and drove home. Another great party was over. I've to
say that I was a bit disappointed at the start of Inscene due to the
low attendance. I had expected a big increase, say a total of 150
sceners, cause Inscene'99 had been pretty good too. But thinking about
it a bit more, I realized a lot of the specific things that make
Inscene so fun, cannot be continued if the party grows a lot. The food
support, the availability of the organizers, the possibility to show
whatever you want on the bigscreen... Also, Inscene is organized during
the summer holidays, and lots of other demoparties take place around
the same time: VIP, Horizon, Scene Event, Euskal ... So the chance of
Inscene growing too fast is small, and now I like it that way. Big
thanks to Space, Appel, Cyberphest and all other organizers for Inscene
2K, and I hope to be there again next year.
--Seven
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
FLaG 2000 - European Demoscene Meeting
Final Results
By: Gekko
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Generated with Greenroom Party Organizer Toolbox v1.0a
4 channel music
---------------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. Islands in the Sky Just 119 3
2. Dentist Pigeon Nagz 66 2
3. Country Draqla DJ Vuk 25 7
4. Nelibilo Nula 24 8
5. Arachnophilia Arachno 22 1
6. Kyrandia DJ Kabal 18 4
7. Fekete 21 Vincenzo 18 6
8. Demomodul #2. Carlos / BvT 17 9
9. Wide Open Room Xhale 13 5
Multichannel music
------------------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. A jelenben Gibson 30 3
2. Piece of Mind Stanley 27 4
3. Painful Afternoon Towerx 25 6
4. Two Hands Help Ya Just 22 2
5. Flying Drums Impulse Creator 21 8
6. Months Away Netpoet 21 1
7. Picard Mistia 20 5
8. Forfota Mistia 15 11
9. Sitaotmimatryabagorl Nagz 10 7
10. Winter Dream Phuture Kemist 7 10
11. San Pedro Cactus DJ Vuk 5 9
MP3 music
---------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. Fankadeli Project Towerx 78 3
2. Re Vil 53 8
3. Effects in the Rain Forest III. John Uram 45 5
4. Kapd be az életem! Húsdaráló Project 31 6
5. Cyberluv Mistia 31 9
6. ConGame Phuture Kemist 20 2
7. I Like Da Mjuzik Vincenzo 18 4
8. Ludas Matyi Gets Down DJ SAN Tsung 15 7
9. Sky Covex 10 10
10. Continuepolitics Avalanche 7 1
4K intro
--------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. TheFa Lite Power Rangers 48 1
64K intro
---------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. Heat Dilemma 113 4
2. 7 Minutes Aromatherapy 80 5
3. Dast Power Rangers 67 3
4. Axiom Remix Terror Opera 19 2
5. Claustrum Castrum Doloris 13 1
PC demo
-------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. TheF Power Rangers 217 2
2. Haugyjobb Astral 109 5
3. Konplex:54 fresh!mindworks 95 1
4. 6th Lenin United Force 73 4
5. E2K Digital Dynamite 31 3
Amiga demo
----------
No entries, compo cancelled.
Commodore 64 demo
-----------------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. Animetion Tempest 139 1
Commodore 64 gfx
----------------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. Lost Name Poison 100 5
2. Fear Leon 70 2
3. Hellraiser AMN 62 3
4. Battle Graal Sebaloz 49 1
5. Leon Macskája Leon 23 4
6. Violator TGM 23 6
Commodore 64 music
------------------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. In da City Vincenzo 119 2
2. Compomusic Control 78 1
3. Scream Johnny 43 3
Pixel graphics
--------------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. Windows ir 62 6
2. Lapinots Exocet 47 2
3. It Scares Me Zthee 32 5
4. Nagymamiii! Blackhand 29 4
5. Night Passion Poison 28 3
6. Jutalom Baráth Endre 5 1
Raytrace graphics
-----------------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. Petra: The Forgotten City Dob 134 5
2. Ghosts Narn 77 11
3. Rocky Road to Pichways Zmilosh 44 2
4. Ibanez GWB1 bass Gargaj 16 12
5. Vízió és mágia Lewin 15 8
6. After Death Fanatic Twins 13 7
7. Tuticool Avalon 13 3
8. My Room Dunszt 11 10
9. Revolver Shanon 10 9
10. Sandbay Magic Touch 9 6
11. Icokusima Gate Dob 8 4
12. Chopper III. John Uram 7 1
True color graphics
-------------------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. Plastik Butterfly Arn 73 5
2. One Night Partikle & Inferno 61 8
3. The last rose what I can give Blackhand 51 16
4. Yawn Inferno 43 9
5. Father Time Magicboy 41 11
6. Felnin Trotskij 26 7
7. Atrocity ir 20 12
8. Ants and Mushrooms WIZard Raist 16 2
9. Bird Baráth Endre 16 1
10. Remember Zork & Chain 15 4
11. Stage Nine Ezah 10 13
12. Cyber Hell Fraud 7 3
13. Looking for more Partikle 5 6
14. Red Bull Chain & Zork 4 10
15. Deadly Flowers Blackhand 2 14
(oil painting, scanned)
16. Destroyer Magic Touch 1 15
Wild demo
---------
Place Title Author Points Number
1. Piknik - Trailer ir 138 2
2. Exhumers Radio Exhumers 84 1
3. Party Rendered Flashing Millerson 31 3
4. Darling TV Nick (digital video) 17 4
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
In Tune
Flashback: The Trax Weekly Days
By: Coplan and Setec
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
-=- Introduction -=-
I pride myself on this column. Many of you may not know, but this
column is the reason Static Line exists at all -- at least in part. In
Tune was originally published in Trax Weekly for a few issues, shortly
before Gene Wie disappeared from the scene.
With a large void in my regular schedule, I decided to start Static
Line, and I took this column with me. The magazine has grown to what it
is today, and I'm rather proud of that. But most of all, I owe a lot to
this column. So, as a special this month, in the 24th issue of Static
Line, I am publishing the original In Tune article from Trax Weekly.
Enjoy!
-=- "Blue Flame" by Chris Jarvis -=-
(Article originally posted in Trax Weekly Issue #110)
In Trax Weekly issue #107 (maybe it was #106), Psibelius asked for
suggestions to improve the quality of Trax Weekly. In issue #108,
Psibelius published a letter from Lachlan Barclay in response to
Psibelius' request. Lachlan's suggestion (in short) was to pick out a
track every week and designate it "Mod of the Week". Out of that letter
came this column which I am calling "In Tune". On a regular basis
(weekly when I'm able to), I will review a fairly new song that I think
is worthy of some public attention. All said and done, lets move on to
our first installment of "In Tune".
This week's tune is "Blue Flame" by Chris Jarvis of Analogue. Many of
you may already have the song and not even know it. If you have already
downloaded your own copy of Impulse Tracker 2.14, you may want to check
your ZIP file a little more closely. If you haven't already, extract
CHRIS31B.IT and load it up in your own copy of Impulse Tracker. Sit
back, relax and enjoy.
When I first played this song, the first thing that I noticed was the
attention that Chris puts into his percussion. This is the one element
that is most often overlooked in the average song these days. Not only
is his percussion clean, but it follows the mood of the song. As the
song becomes more intense, so does it's percussion. On very few
accounts in this song will you find a "pre-fabricated" snare and bass
drum pattern. But look beyond the snare and base drum. Listen to the
cymbols and hi-hats. They are both constantly playing through the song.
This gives the song depth. Hear those rolls on the hi-hat near order 31?
That's a style some of you will recognize from Dave Matthew's Band. In
real time, it's a style that marks a good drummer. In the tracking
world, its the mark of a person that knows his percussion.
On a more technical observation, the key to this song's success is
Chris' choice of samples. Many of the samples were his own, sampled
from a Roland E70 synth. But what is more important is the fact that
you can't tell which samples weren't made specifically for this song.
All these samples collectivly form a perfect sample set where each
specific sample compliments each of the other samples. Chris even went
so far as to include two types of feedback. That first type (Feedback
1) can barely be heard at all in the song. But take it out, and the
trained ear (not even a well trained one at that) will notice the
difference.
All in all, "Blue Flame" is a tightly fabricated song where detail is
everything, and everything is accounted for. Those of you looking for a
new tune to study, there is much to learn from Chris Jarvis' song.
--Coplan
"In Tune" is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and
singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand
your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general
rating system. Coplan's and Setec's opinions are not the opinions of
the Static Line Staff.
If you have heard a song you would like to recommend (either your own,
or another person's), We can be contacted through e-mail useing the
addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached
to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you!
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Guest Song Review
n-voice ep by dizmal
By: Eino Keskitalo
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
n-voice ep by dizmal
released by plastik recordz - http://plkrekz.cjb.net/
size: 260634 bytes (zipped)
intro plus three tracks, format IT
-=- Editor's Note -=-
The website disclosed here returns a "Forbidden" error message. I
publish this with the expectation that the website will return to normal
standing soon. Thanks for your patience.
-- Coplan
-=-
These tracks represent the monotonous techno-thingie, being nothing
very spectacular rhtyhmically or melodically. Trick is in the quality of
sound (not meaning phwoar! it's 24-bit 44khz!): Most of the samples
sound very distorted, if not plain inverted. This results as noise, edge
and unforgiving roughness. It also sounds quite pleasing to me, being
cold and warm at the same time.
Although it's supposed to be repetetive, monotoniq as it wants to be,
there's a certain lack of sublety in transitions, resulting as a few
clumsy progressions in the beginning of track one, partially also on
track three, but it's a powerfull effect too on that particular track
(regarding the melody lines).
Although it's not as developed as I'd like it to be, the atmosphere
is right, and overall I like this trip a lot. Try it out, might be
something new for you.
--Eino Keskitalo
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
The Listener
Music from Sense and Lime
By: Tryhuk
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
I have to think on the depressive minimalism that appears in the
scene more and more often. When we hear too sweet track, we say it's
crap and this kind of stuff, but have you ever seen a person that would
say that some sad/depressive track is shit? I haven't. Of course I don't
talk about technique.
-=- Bubble blower -=-
-=- -- Sense -=-
This track impressed me by nice lead idea and it's effective use in
combination with evolved background ambience which sounds more
complicated than the lead itself. Also percussion is here only on the
place of rhythm holder and tempo manipulator, because tempo of the lead
is fast, dynamic and monotonik enough to keep the song tempo itself.
Genre is weird, background is influenced by mix of all the hip/trip hop
styles together with movie soundtrack style, in some moments industrial.
On the other hand, foreground sounds are very soft and clear and in a
way they would fit to electronic minimalism. If you're into this kind
of music, there's nothing more to be said than "try it".
Song Information:
Title: Bubble blower
Author: Sense
Release date: 2000
Length: 4m59s
Filename: sense-bubble-blower.mp3
File Size: 4688kb
Source: http://www.mono211.com
-=- Bulentoi -=-
-=- -- Lime -=-
First comparison that popped in my mind is that this song is a
"depressive electronic funk". But this description isn't exact, because
later it starts to garther minimalistic and even dnb color. Melody goes
on, then sudden change and nice chord progression comes in, proving that
author has skill to make a good normal jazz/funk track. But song goes on
in the experimental way and follows the laziness of your mind. It isn't
a track that you have to hear, but it's nice thing to listen, when you
lay on your sofa and do nothing.
Song Information:
Title: Bulentoi
Author: Lime
Release date: 21.6.2000
Length: 4m40s
Filename (zipped/unzipped): milk0084.zip / lime-bulentoi.mp3
File Size (zipped/unzipped): 4320kb / 4380kb
Source: http://milk.sgic.fi
--Tryhuk
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Retro Tunage
Blue pearl by Basehead
By: Tryhuk
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Deep and groovy bassline, dark monotonous rhythm and hypnotizing
background sounds ripped from the best CDs, that's what opens this
awesome track. "Blue pearl" is 5th track on the "Heavy Shadows" album
and it belongs among my favourite songs by Basehead.
Basehead's music can be described as a clone of ambient and dance
music with touch of jazz, deep detroit sound and other alternative
styles of dance music. This mix of styles isn't so unusual, but because
of some unknown reasons, basehead's approach stays original and
unrepeatable.
Although his tracks are quite long, it is very easy to flow away with
them and one of the main reason is his awesome and unique tracking
technique and original ideas - for example beginning and end of every
pattern (or his smaller part) has lower volume and that improves overall
dynamics of the track and it also enhances listeners orientation in the
track. Or lead instruments with no sustain, they are often echoed many
times with no volume change (but pitch can be different) and that makes
the sound more rich and it also kicks you to write a lead with more
harmonic progression, because new notes will meet echoes of the previous
with full strength. There's a lot of other tricks and interesting ideas
that can be found in this blue piece of sea and I'm not able to notice
them all nor describe. But that doesn't matter, because as you sit to a
tracker, you discover, that you are doing same things, without thinking
on it, without any analysis, your brain just takes these little tricks
that basehead has searched for so long.
It's not only excellent music for listening (but it is great to make
a 2 hour playlist of ambient music by basehead, close yourself in a
living room and watch the rain that hits windows), but it it also a
music that you can study and I think that it will take you a lot of
time to discover all tricks that bh used.
Song Information:
Title: Blue pearl (Heavy Shadows album)
Author: Basehead / FM
Release date: April 9, 1997
Length: 8m16s
Filename (zipped/unzipped): fm-hshad.zip / blupearl.it
File Size (zipped/unzipped): 1.5mb / 959kb
Source: ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/fm/fm-hshad.zip
--Tryhuk
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Screen Lit Vertigo
Horizon'00 double review and "This Is" by Orion
By: Seven
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
-=- "Time Machine" by Lettique & Friends: 1st place with 172 points -=-
-=- "Tesla" by Sunflower: 2nd place with 167 points -=-
Found at www.scene.org
System requirements:
Time Machine: 10 MB HD, a not further specified 3D card, Windows 9x.
Tesla: 8MB HD, Win32 (Win9x has this, dunno about winNT),
OpenGL-compatible 3D card (3dfx/voodoo cards do not work
because some textures are larger than 256*256)
Test Machine: PII 350 64MB, SB16, TNT2 M64 32MB, Win98
-=- "Time Machine" by Lettique & Friends -=-
Code: Lettique
Graphics: Malfunction, Kazic
Music: Archon, TowerX
3D: Lettique, Neuroup
(I hope I got the credits right, they are shown extremely short)
This demo starts with a short opening sequence of a complex leafless
tree, whose branches are lit by multicolored butterflies. A symphonic
intro tune sets the mood. A "Loading" message is shown and everything
halts for almost two minutes, during which there is little disk
activity. That probably means the demo is decompressing stuff, so the
delay can vary greatly depending on your CPU power.
The main part starts with a small earth that is surrounded by
transparent circles. The soundtrack is an energetic
house/dnb/demo-style tune dominated by the powerful percussion, with
camera switches on each beat. While the small earth rises above the
circles, the credits are shown very shortly. Then a complex machine is
shown, consisting of tubes, pillars and a large clock. Suddenly it
comes alive, with the hands of the clock turning backwards, lightning
beams moving around and the earth flying through the tubes. The rest of
the demo is basically the voyage of the globe through the time machine,
being catapulted through cylinders and carried by an Atlas-like statue.
At the end all the sub-pieces of the timemachine come together and the
earth is send to its final place in the universe. This theme with it's
carefully designed "grand finale" makes it much more enjoyable to watch
than a dumb 3D-object show.
Although it's mainly a 3D-demo, there are a few effects like motion
blur or an extreme zoom/perspective distort that bring some variation.
Also fuzzy photoshopped 2D images (for example the silhouette of a
baby) are used here and there. But the emphasis is on the 3D models and
movements. They are no stationary rooms and objects a la Shad, but
neither realistic moving persons as in The Fulchrum. It's somewhere
in-between, with lifeless objects moving together as in, hmm, a machine
indeed. The music keeps the same rhythm all over the demo, and the
syncing is done solely by changing camera positions on the beats.
Together with the very dark textures, these quick changes can make it
hard to see what's going on.
-=- "Tesla" by Sunflower -=-
Code: Yoghurt
Graphics: Saffron
Music: Radix and Lluvia
Compared to Wonder, Sunflowers previous accelerated demo, Tesla has
very little "real" 3D objects. Most of the visuals are made by what I
call texture-effects, with a lot of transparent textured surfaces that
do not form a distinct entity. For example, after a strange vertical
zoom/fold open effect with (rather ugly) horizontal lines through it,
the title is shown on a background of merged textures, each one showing
the same texture but a bit darker and at a different position,
resulting in a kind of motion-blurred look. The same effect is used
later with textures that have the same luminance but different sizes.
Moving in a spiral, these give a fractal-like image. Other texture
effects are a very good-looking tunnel made of glass fragments, and the
spirals of white boxes. "Normal" 3D objects include a tangle of almost
invisible tubes, and a large pillar out of which a face emerges. That
last part has an ugly and highly visible bug: the camera moves *inside*
the face, so you see only the pillar and a large hole.
Although there is no theme, the whole demo has a very ambient
feeling, mainly created by the transparent fuzzy look, and of course
the music with its bird samples and very slow melody lines. After the
first half, the tune changes suddenly by cutting the drumline and using
an echoing bell-like lead, which fits the streaming columns of flares
on the screen perfectly. I really like the relaxing mood of it.
Besides the flare/text/color-mix textures, there are also pictures
with recognizable objects, three of which are shown full-screen at the
end for the credits. They all have the quite recognizable
Saffron-style, blurry with sharp details here and there, which reminds
me of old paintings.
After installing new 3D drivers (again), that bug with the camera
moving inside the head is gone. So the bug was probably caused by the
old drivers, not by the coding/modeling of the Sunflower guys.
-=- Comparison -=-
As you can see from the results, there was a very close competition
between these two demos, which Time Machine won with only 5 points. I
think this is due the same principles that made Moai/Nomad win from
State Of Mind/Bomb at The Party 8: Time Machine is a real party-demo,
with impressive visuals, a fast, stirring soundtrack, and it follows a
theme with a well-defined ending. Such demos are always very impressive
the first time you see them, which is all that counts at a party.
Tesla, on the other hand, is a more relaxed demo, without a theme, and
whose mood isn't as easily appreciated after two days in a noisy hall
and not enough sleep. But they've of course the advantage of the big
Sunflower name, which always causes some amount of name-voting. All in
all, the two demos are very different, and which one you like best will
depend on your personal taste. But both of them are of a very high
quality, and surely worth checking out.
-=- "This Is" by Orion (party-version) -=-
Found at ftp.scene.org
3rd place at TakeOver 2000 democompo
System requirements: Win9x, DirectX 7, a Direct3D compatible 3Dcard
(older cards like Voodoo 1 & 2 or ATI Rage do NOT work).
3,8 MB HD. CPU or RAM not mentioned :(
Test Machine: PII 350 64MB, SB16, TNT2 M64 32MB, Win98
The demo:
This is one very fresh and original demo! Really a pleasure to
watch after all those heavy 3D/pure design demos. To start, except a
logo at the start and the end, it's almost completely black & white.
That's not just to be original or due laziness :), it really adds
something to the style. After a drawing of a cute teddy-bear fading up
on your desktop, and the usual setup box, we see some fake operating
system box on which the question "What is a demo?" is entered, while
keystrokes and a voice asking the same can be heard. The rest of the
demo consists of short parts all highlighting a specific part of a
demo, always introduced by the voice saying "This is ... code/
graphics/design/greetings/..." These quickly changing parts do not all
have the same style. There are wireframed blobby objects and little
pictograms following the Danish design trend, but there are also
hand-pixeled pictures, or a 3D-scene of a crazy man driving through a
hospital on a stretcher, with badly connected polys (in the "this is
oldskool"-part :)). Despite these different styles, the demos has a
consistent feeling due to the (lack of) colors, the speed of the effects
and the subtle use of weird humor. For example, some of the French
sentences in the demo mean "Bad luck! The valiant Father Bear has
forgotten to put on his left slipper!" or "Talk about it with your
dentist". The music has also a lot of variation (and is thus hard to
describe for me), the main theme reminds me of a idm/rock crossover with
short melodic patterns in it, but there are a lot of soundeffects and
sudden changes of style at the different parts. Unlike many other demos,
where voice-samples are used very sparingly, here the "This is"-voice is
heard frequently enough to give it a more realistic (non-tracked)
feeling.
Overall:
If anyone ever asks you "what is a demo?", show them This Is. It's
original, funny, stylish, and it actually tells something about
demos/the scene. Really great production, which has only two minor bad
points: the French text, which is not understandable for large parts of
the scene, and the very small amount of 3D scenes, taken in account
that this is a 3D-only demo.
--Seven
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Guest Demo Review
Flag 2000 Demo Reviews
By: Gekko
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
-=- "Haugyjobb" by Astral -=-
#2 in the demo compo at Flag 2000, Hungary
credits: Arpi (code), Strepto (code, 3d), Wad (3d), Towerx (music),
others
download: ?
requirements: Linux/Windows, OpenGL, good 3d card (eg. TNT2)
A Linux only entry was shown at the party, the Windows version will be
out about two weeks later only. It can even happen that this article
will be published earlier than the demo itself.
The title of the demo is a play on words, 'Ha ugy jobb' means
something like 'If it's better that way'. Haugyjobb is in fact a parody
of the demos by Haujobb. I think that I am not too far from the truth if
I say that the Mekka 2000 demo competition is the reason why this demo
was created. There Haujobb took both the 2nd and 4th places, while
Astral's demo ranked only the 12th. Of course, one has to know at least
these two Haujobb demos ('Mikro Strange' and 'Strange Feelings') to
understand the jokes in Haugyjobb.
Inferno/Haujobb said that it is the best Astral demo so far. My
opinion is the same: the music and the video is synchronized together
perfectly, there are good effects and 3d scenes, even the colors are
fine. Na
turally the jokes are there, too.
The music of 'Mikro Strange' was was a dub remake of an opera aria.
Therefore the music by Towerx is basically a woman shouting. One can't
help laughing when listening to it. The effects and 3d scenes are all
miming the ones in the two Haujobb demos. The demo begins the same way
as 'Mikro Strange' does. We are in a cave in which there are colorful
fireworks. It ends with a picture of a skull. Then there is a blob
effect: a picture of a woman is stretched on the blobs and we are flying
in and out of them. There is a similar effect in 'Strange Feelings',
this one is a bit better. The next scene is a screwed tube. We can see a
text proudly showing off with the extra complex technique which is used
to draw it, while the tube's surface is completely jaggy. Then the tube
is shown from outside and it is jerking to the beat of the music. Then a
man is flying in a tunnel and he is taking up weird poses. In another
scene a fish is swimming in a river, and just passes by a huge
fish-hook. This scene is beautiful: there are plants, the water is
waving and there is a spectacular reflection mapping effect; although
the colors could have been better. Of course it is very similar to a
part in 'Mikro Strange'. There is a scene where many frogs are spinning
over each other. Here the woman who is singing starts hopelessly
shouting and crying her aria. Things then become mixed up and abstract,
there are flashes, noises and complete chaos - exaggerating the
deranged part in 'Strange Feelings'. The final scene is a tribute to
the brain operation of the robot in 'Strange Feelings'. A man is
floating inside a big tube-shaped hall, and then there is a huge
explosion, he gets an electric shock and he takes up the shape of the
Haujobb logo figure. The end of the demo is the same as that of 'Mikro
Strange': there is a blue bitmap effect in the background while a
yellow Haujobb figure is spinning in the front. The difference is that
here his leg is in plaster...
I have seen the final version only once so far, at the party in the
competition itself. That is why it is possible that some parts may be
different or missing. To put it bluntly, I think that every scener
should watch this demo.
-=- "TheFa" by Power Rangers -=-
demo, presented at Overdoze 5, Hungary
credits: bali (code)
download: ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2000/overdoze5/
requirements: Windows, OpenGL
Overdoze 5 was held in the spring of 2000 in Hungary. It was not
a party, just a small event of about 40-50 in attendance where sceners
were watching demos together on a bigscreen. Still it had
two new presentations. The first was Volvox by Picard/Exceed, a
kind of a preview of Heaven 7. This remained unreleased, it was just
shown to the audience. The other was TheFa. TheFa has become a famous
demo in the Hungarian scene by now, but it is probably completely
unknown anywhere else. It is a simple yet very good 3d story about a
tree. Note that 'fa' means 'tree' in Hungarian. It was released under
the fake label 'Power Rangers' where the members use fake nicknames
(usually the nicks of their real christian names), so you will never
know who the author really is.. or?
-=- TheFu by Power Rangers -=-
winner of the demo compo at Flag 2000, Hungary
credits: bali (code)
download: ?
requirements: Windows, OpenGL
This demo is a sequel to TheFa (a demo at Overdoze 5). It
surprisingly won the Flag 2000 party by a very large advantage: it got
about two times as many votes as the second place.
What I don't like in it are its colors, and that every effect lasts a
bit longer than it should. What I like in it is that it is simple,
strange and original. It is quite surprising to watch it for the first
time. I decided not to describe the story in details, so as not to spoil
the fun of this. The only thing I tell is that 'fu' is the Hungarian
word for 'grass'.
--Gekko
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Intro Watch
Flag 2000 and Inscene 2000 Intros
By: Gekko
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
-=- TheFa lite by Power Rangers -=-
winner of the 4kb intro compo at Flag 2000, Hungary
credits: bali (code)
download: ?
requirements: Windows, OpenGL
'TheFa Lite' is the 4kb version of 'TheFa', a demo at Overdoze 5. It
is an endlessly looping 3d effect of a fractal tree with spinning
branches.
-=- Dast by Power Rangers -=-
#3 in the 64kb intro compo at Flag 2000, Hungary
credits: locutus (code, 3d), gabi (gfx), zoli (music), pisti (code)
download: ?
requirements: Windows, DirectX, Pentium2/400+
'Dast' is the yellow version of 'Heaven 7,' as Tomcat/Greenroom,
the main organizer of Flag 2000 said at the prize giving ceremony.
It has been put together at the party by... uhm... Locutus.
It starts with a very good pixelized 'Dast' logo, and there is a
spectacular effect similar to radial blur on it. The intro is made up of
very good raytracing scenes and effects: spheres in water, a column with
holes in it, a spherical mirror flying in a tunnel, a sphere with light
beams coming out of it and others. The music is fast and energic, the
effects are synchronised perfectly to it. The greetings part contains
other Hungarian fake demogroups only (Power Rangers is also a fake group,
but I hope you have already figured it out).
-=- 7 Minutes - Aromatherapy by Inquisition -=-
#2 in the 64kb intro compo at Flag 2000, Hungary
credits: Vic (code), Nagz (music), IR (gfx)
download: ?
requirements: DOS, GUS, VESA, 320x200 32/24/16 bpp, Pentium2/400+
'7 Minutes' is an intro with several bitmap and raytracing effects.
Some parts are very spectacular, especially on a huge movie screen. One
of these is a black and white raytracing part with reflections and a
'dirty objective' effect. Another is a sphere, from which light is coming
out. On the other hand, one must also note that there is hardly any
design: the fonts are ugly and the colors are bad in several places.
Some of the raytracing effects are quite slow. In spite of these it is a
fine intro.
-=- Heat by Dilemma -=-
#1 in the 64kb intro compo at Flag 2000, Hungary
credits: Nap (code), Brix (code), Sed (music), Ezah (gfx), Arn (gfx)
download: ?
requirements: Windows, OpenGL
This is a very colorful one. It is in a way similar to 'Pole' by
Aardbei.
The graphics are almost limited to the textures which are good; and
there is a Dilemma logo at the end which is not bad either. The music is
quite good and it gives an abstract mood to the intro. There are 3d
effects, including terrains, tunnels and morphing objects. These are not
original, still they are very spectacular. Probably the best is the last
one, a terrain with a fog which looks like a smoke.
The music and the effects are kept together, eg. the material of the
landscape flows according to the beat of the tune.
-=- Dream by Velocity -=-
winner 64k intro at Inscene 2000, Belgium
credits: hebx2 (code), chavez (music)
download: www.inscene.org, velocity.rulez.it
requirements: Windows 95, DirectX 5, 32mb ram
[review is based on the 80kb semi-final version]
Dream by Velocity was the only participant of the Inscene 2000 intro
competition.
The tune by Chavez creates a gloomy mood, the visuals (colors and
effects) support this. There is no storyline. The intro is a sequence of
3d effects, which are loosely synchronised to the music. Most of them
look fine, but neither is really original. There is, among others, a
waving wall, a morphing cube and a kind of a column or tentacle. The
intro uses software rendering, which here means that it is very slow and
the textures appear to be quite blocky.
There are little bugs and quirks everywhere (eg. we sometimes fly
through the wall, etc). These spoil the intro, unfortunately. I like
this intro, although some more time could have been spent on putting it
together.
--Gekko
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Scene Dirt
News & Rumors
By: Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
-=- KOZMIK/NEXTEMPIRE Releases Source Code -=-
KOZMIK/NEXTEMPIRE has released the assembler source code to an intro
reelased at Assembly 2k. The intro is PACMAN4K, and it took 8th at
Assembly 2k on August 3, 2000.
http://www.multimania.com/pacman4k/pac4ksrc.txt
-=- Sista Vip Looking for Wired ASM Coders -=-
Last month, they were looking for pixelers, now they're looking for
ASM coders. Will it ever end? If you can handle 32bit ASM code (No
C++), contact Looping: Sista_Vip@Yahoo.com
http://www.sistavip.exit.de
-=- Chaos Constructions 000 Party Place Changed -=-
Apparently, the CC000 has more people registered than expected. They
are expecting over 400 sceners. The party place has been moved to a new
location:
Kinoteatr voshod
ulitza Pogranichnika Garkavogo, dom 22, korpus 1.
According to Random, the best way to get there is to catch a taxi
(184-T) from Prospect Veteranov subway station.
http://www.chaosite.com/constructions/
-=- Assembly 2k graphics on GFXzone -=-
For those of you looking to get some of the GFX from Assembly 2k, you
need only to go to GFXzone. Fortunately so, because the entire
compressed package is around 100MBs.
http://gfxzone.planet-d.net/
-=- Groovy Compo returns -=-
Groovy Compo, the bi-weekly competition, is back in action. Grab some
sample packs and join in this fun competition.
http://www.ukscene.org/groovycompo/
--Coplan
Scene Dirt is a semi-regular column offering the latest tidbits of
information to its readers. If you have any bits of information that
you think should be here, contact coplan (coplan.ic@rcn.com) and offer
as much information as possible.
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Editorial
Are MP3s destroying the Music Scene?
By: Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
I was debating the other day with an unmentionable friend of mine over
ICQ (to protect his privacy, I won't disclose his name). He truly
believes that MP3s are destroying the Computer Based Music scene.
Actually, let me clarify, he specifically thinks that MP3s are
destroying the art of Tracking.
The MP3 debate is not a new one, and I have written about it many times.
The fact that it keeps surfacing tells me that it'll be in our blood for
a very long time before it either gets accepted, or replaced with a
different format. Truth be told, MP3 is not going to vanish from the
Computer Based Music Scene.
But let us consider some valid points offered by my friend:
"...the atmosphere in which you could give a song/recieve a song and
help someone with it is gone. No messages/greets either. And you
can't single out channels."
I believe the point here is that in MP3 format, one can't learn like
they do in the modular formats, such as IT, XM, S3M, MOD. This, I
admit, is true. You listen to an MP3 like you do a CD. You can't
single out one instrument, or one channel. You have to take the whole
thing for what its worth -- face value, not channel value. Messages and
Greets? With the wonderful tool of ID3, you do have some ability to
write something in your songs. No, not a 10 line greet message -- but
is it necessary? I think not.
The learning aspects aside, the MP3 format is still a very portable
and convenient method of release. I personally don't release in MP3,
because my songs are very small to begin with. If I were to release in
MP3, it would almost quadruple the size of the file. But, if I were to
have a large song, it might be to my benefit to convert the finished
product to MP3.
But my friend dislikes MP3 format as a means of modular release, because
often times effects are added to the MP3 to make the song sound much
better. These are effects that can be done (with skill) in most modular
formats. True, it is much easier to add a reverb to a jumbo sized wave
file than it is to each instrument channel in Impulse Tracker. I guess
the concept is that the skill behind the song isn't so difficult
anymore, and the skill is the root of the music.
Is not a musical ear considered skill? Adding effects and such are
minor, in my book. The finished product, effects or none, must be
pleasurable and enjoyable (if intended). It's all about the finished
product, and the finished product still remains as a computer based
music format.
I hold no secret, my platform remains as such: The Computer Based
Music Scene is what I support. Within that, I mostly support the
Tracking Scene. However, MP3 or not, if the song was created on a computer,
and it falls under my interests. Is MP3 destroying the tracking scene?
My personal belief is that it is not, rather it makes the tracking scene
that much more prestigious. If someone were to show me studio quality
music in an IT format, I'd be very impressed. I'd disect the song, and
I'd study the technique. In MP3 format, it'd just be another song to
me. But, if trackers were to release in only MP3 format, then they are
not truly trackers, just that they track as a means to develop their
music so that they can add their effects and such in their final
product: an MP3 file. So, as more people release in MP3 format, there
are less true trackers out there, and it starts to become more of a
respected artform.
But I will never review an MP3 song or judge a competition that allows
MP3s. As a critic and a judge, I'm interested in the underlying skill.
And you just can't see that with MP3. But as a music format, it is
widely accepted on my computer.
--Coplan
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Link List
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Featured Site: Tetris
http://msg.sk/tetris
Writeup By: Coplan
Browsing through Orange Juice, I discovered this site. I was a bit
confused at first! The techno trax group refers to their members as
"players" and they score the players based on how many songs they
release (I believe -- though I could be wrong). They even list high
scores! Kinda a fun site to play around on. It's well done, and you
can get some pretty good music from here though. Just be warned -- you
shouldn't visit this site when tired.
Demo Groups:
3g Design..............................http://3gdesign.cjb.net
Aardbei.....................................http://aardbei.com
Acid Rain..............................http://surf.to/acidrain
Agravedict........................http://www.agravedict.art.pl
Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl
ANDESA Soft International..................http://andesa.da.ru
Astral..............................http://astral.scene-hu.com
Astroidea........................http://astroidea.scene-hu.com
AtomiK....................................http://atomik.ini.hu
Bomb..................................http://bomb.planet-d.net
BlaBla..............................http://blabla.planet-d.net
Blasphemy..............................http://www.blasphemy.dk
Byterapers.....................http://www.byterapers.scene.org
Calodox.................................http://www.calodox.org
Chrome..............................http://chrome.scene-hu.com
CoPro.....................................http://www.copro.org
Damage...................................http://come.to/damage
Dance...................................http://dance.flipp.net
Defacto 2..............................http://www.defacto2.net
Dolops......................... ........http://dolOps.scene.hu
Exceed...........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~exceed
Fobia Design...........................http://www.fd.scene.org
GODS...................................http://www.idf.net/gods
Green.....................................http://green.dyns.cx
Grif........................http://arrabonet.gyor.hu/~rattgrif
Haujobb......................................http://haujobb.de
Hellcore............................http://www.hellcore.art.pl
IJSKAST.............................http://www.ijskast.cjb.net
Immortals..............................http://imrt.home.ml.org
Infuse...................................http://www.infuse.org
Just For Fun...........................http://jff.planet-d.net
Kilobite...............................http://kilobite.cjb.net
Kolor................................http://www.kaoz.org/kolor
Kooma.....................................http://www.kooma.com
Label zero.........................http://labelzero.pganet.com
Mandula.........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula
Monar................ftp://amber.bti.pl/pub/scene/distro/monar
Nextempire..................http://members.xoom.com/NEXTEMPIRE
Ninja Gefilus.........http://www.angelfire.com/or/ninjagefilus
Noice.....................................http://www.noice.org
Orion..............................http://orion.arfstudios.org
Popsy Team............................http://popsyteam.rtel.fr
Quad........................................http://www.quad.nl
Rage........................................http://www.rage.nu
Replay.......................http://www.shine.scene.org/replay
Retro A.C...........................http://www.retroac.cjb.net
Rhyme................................http://rhyme.scene-hu.com
<*> Sista Vip..........................http://www.sistavip.exit.de
Skytech team............................http://www.skytech.org
Sunflower.......................http://sunflower.opengl.org.pl
Suspend......................http://www.optimus.wroc.pl/rappid
Tehdas...................................http://come.to/tehdas
Tesko..........................http://www.scentral.demon.co.uk
The Black Lotus.............................http://www.tbl.org
The Digital Artists Wired Nation.http://digitalartists.cjb.net
The Lost Souls...............................http://www.tls.no
TPOLM.....................................http://www.tpolm.com
Trauma.................................http://sauna.net/trauma
T-Rex.....................................http://www.t-rex.org
Unik.....................................http://www.unik.ca.tc
Universe..........................http://universe.planet-d.net
Vantage..................................http://www.vantage.ch
Music Groups:
Aisth.....................................http://www.aisth.com
Aural planet........................http://www.auralplanet.com
<U> Azure...................................http://azure-music.com
Blacktron Music Production...........http://www.d-zign.com/bmp
Chill..........................http://www.bentdesign.com/chill
Chippendales......................http://www.sunpoint.net/~cnd
Chiptune...............................http://www.chiptune.com
Da Jormas................................http://www.jormas.com
Fabtrax......http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/fabtrax/home.htm
Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org
Fridge...........................http://www.ssmedion.de/fridge
Fusion Music Crew................http://members.home.nl/cyrex/
Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff
Ignorance.............................http://www.ignorance.org
Immortal Coil.............................http://www.ic.L7.net
Intense...........................http://intense.ignorance.org
Jecoute.................................http://jecoute.cjb.net
Kosmic Free Music Foundation.............http://www.kosmic.org
Level-d.................................http://www.level-d.com
Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net
Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi
Mah Music.............................http://come.to/mah.music
Maniacs of noise...............http://home.worldonline.nl/~mon
MAZ's Sound homepage.............http://www.th-zwickau.de/~maz
Mo'playaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz
Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com
Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds
Noise................................http://www.noisemusic.org
Noerror......................http://www.error-404.com/noerror/
One Touch Records......................http://otr.planet-d.net
Park..................................http://park.planet-d.net
Radical Rhythms.....http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/merrelli/rr
RBi Music.............................htpp://www.rbi-music.com
Ruff Engine................http://members.xoom.com/ruff_engine
SHR8M......................................http://1st.to/shr8m
Sound Devotion................http://sugarbomb.x2o.net/soundev
Soundstate.........................http://listen.to/soundstate
Sunlikamelo-D...........http://www.error-404.com/sunlikamelo-d
Suspect Records........................http://www.tande.com/sr
Tequila........................http://www.defacto2.net/tequila
Tempo................................http://tempomusic.cjb.net
<*> Tetris....................................http://msg.sk/tetris
Theralite...........................http://theralite.avalon.hr
Tokyo Dawn Records........................http://tdr.scene.org
UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub
Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk
Wiremaniacs.........................http://www.wiremaniacs.com
Others:
Arf!Studios..........................http://www.arfstudios.org
Calodox demolinks exchange.....http://calodox.planet-d.net/cde
#coders..................................http://coderz.cjb.net
Comic Pirates.........................http://scene-central.com
Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express
Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub
Demoscene.org news forum..............http://www.demoscene.org
Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net
Doose charts...............................http://www.doose.dk
Dreams2 CD.........................http://nl.scene.org/dreams2
Freax...................http://freax.scene-hu.com/mainmenu.htm
GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net
Hugi size-compo...............http://home.pages.de/~hugi-compo
Orange Juice.........................http://ojuice.citeweb.net
PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained
Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org
Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
Sunray..............................http://sunray.planet-d.net
Swiss List.................http://www.profzone.ch/vantage/list
Swiss Scene Server.......................http://www.chscene.ch
TakeOver................................http://www.takeover.nl
Textmode Demo Archive.................http://tmda.planet-d.net
Hungarian scene page...................http://www.scene-hu.com
Trebel...................................http://www.trebel.org
Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm
DiskMags / SceneMags:
Amber...............................http://amber.bti.pl/di_mag
Amnesia...............http://amnesia-dist.future.easyspace.com
Demojournal....................http://demojournal.planet-d.net
Dragon......................http://www.wasp.w3.pl/pages/dragon
Fleur................................http://fleur.scene-hu.com
Heroin...................................http://www.heroin.net
Hugi........................http://home.pages.de/~hugidownload
Music Massage......................http://www.scene.cz/massage
Planet Chartmag...........http://www.agravedict.art.pl/planet/
Pain..................................http://pain.planet-d.net
Scenial...........................http://www.scenial.scene.org
Static Line......................http://www.ic.l7.net/statline
Total Disaster...................http://www.totaldisaster.w.pl
TUHB.......................................http://www.tuhb.org
WildMag...........................http://www.wildmag.notrix.de
FTPs:
Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl
Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de
Flerp.....................................ftp://flerp.scene.hu
Scene.org..................................ftp://ftp.scene.org
Skynet archive.................ftp://acid2.stack.nl/pub/skynet
ACiD2 Archive.............................ftp://acid2.stack.nl
--=--=--
----=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------
Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan.ic@rcn.com
Assistant Editor: Gekko / Gergely Kutenich / gk@scene.hu
Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan.ic@rcn.com
Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
Gekko / Gergely Kutenich / gk@scene.hu
Louis Gorenfeld / gorenfeld@vrone.net
Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk
Seven / Stefaan / Stefaan.VanNieuwenhuyze@rug.ac.be
SiN / Ian Haskin / sin@netcom.ca
Subliminal / Matt Friedly / sub@plazma.net
Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / xtryhu00@stud.fee.vutbr.cz
Virt / virt@bellsouth.net
Technical Consult: Draggy / Nicolas St. Pierre / draggy@kosmic.org
Jim / Jim Nicholson / jim@kosmic.org
Static Line on the Web: http://www.ic.l7.net/statline
ftp://flerp.scene.hu/scene/DiskMag/StaticLine
To subscribe to the Static Line mailing list, send an e-mail message
to "majordomo@kosmic.org" with "subscribe static_line <your e-mail>" in
the message text. You will then be asked to confirm your addition to the
mailing list. Expect a new issue during the first weekend of each
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To unsubscribe from the mailing list, send an e-mail message to
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the message text. Your subscription will then be removed.
If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware
that we will format your article with two spaces at the beginning and one
space at the end of each line. Please avoid foul language and high ascii
characters. Contributions should be mailed to Coplan
(coplan.ic@rcn.com).
See you next month!
-eof---=------=--=------=--=--
