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Static Line 27
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_\\__T_A_T_I_C___L_I_N_E_____________________________________ November, 2000
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\\//__ Monthly Scene E-Zine ________________________________ 175 Subscribers
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Table Of Contents
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Opening:
Message From the Editor
Letters From Our Readers
Features:
Building a Digital Orchestra -- Introduction
Subtractive Synthesis -- The Basics
The Root -- Jason Chong (Jase)
Columns:
Music:
The Listener -- Music from Various Artist
Retro Tunage -- Subsonica by various
Demo:
Screen Lit Vertigo -- Persistent by Wipe & Ukonx (final version)
Intro Watch -- Fuzzion
General:
Editorial -- Welcome the New Scene!
Scene Dirt -- News & Rumors
Link List -- Get Somewhere in the Scene
Closing:
Credits
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Message From the Editor
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Wow, this is an exciting issue. I'm sure you will agree.
The Root is back with its next writer. This month, Jase (Jason
Chong) guest writes and tells us about his scene experience. Dilvish
is back with his next mini-series. He will, over the next few months,
fill us in on some details about making realistic orchestral music.
Setec is also back with an article about Subtractive Synthesis, just
for all of you who wish to develop their own samples.
Some minor notes about regular columns. As I have had problems with
my keyboard this month, this whole issue was thrown together today. I
haven't had the time to do a song review this month. Psitron was also
unable to send in an article this month, but he will be back next time.
Don't worry, the e-mail from Dilvish didn't scare him away.
Until Next month.
--Coplan
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Letters From Our Readers
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-=- Letter from Eino Keskitalo -=-
Shattered Skye had pretty much the something I look for in music;
thanks for bringing it to my knowledge! And heaven thank Seven for ever
getting better. <cough>
Okay. See you,
--Eino Keskitalo
-=- Letter from Dilvish -=-
I'd like to respond to PsiTron's first article. It didn't bore me,
and it got a response, so he must be doing something right. I think his
confusion is due only to his limited perspective, though. I would
officially like to offer myself up for public persecution by stating
that I absolutely believe 100% in MP3 music in the demoscene. I also
believe at making money at it. Here's why:
I don't know about the rest of you, but I have always been a musician
first. Art always comes before technique. Period. Sometimes part of
the art is to take on challenging mediums - such as the chiptune, that
he loved to mention. In those cases, that is great. More power to you.
I don't think there's a true scener alive that doesn't appreciate the
power of a well tracked chip tune. When I think, "oh my god, that's
only 4 channels!" or "all those killer sounds are the same sample!?" I
am very impressed.
I think what he's failed to consider though, is that trackers are not
all coders - and even those of us who do both are not primarily
concerned with optimizing for sample size, or staying within strict
channel limitations. We are concerned primarily about making high
quality music, and using whatever tools we have at our disposal to do
it. The tracker has been an old, and dear friend to me for about 11
years now, but I must admit, my copy of Impulse Tracker is beginning to
show it's age. I can't apply a correct sounding reverb to anything, or
EQ my channels, or apply DSP effects. Instruments are great, and
impulse tracker has many advanced sampler options available, but, no
matter how hard I try, it will not load my gigabyte Yamaha C7 grand
piano multi-sample for my classical solo, I can't modulate filter
settings with an LFO, and I can't set different samples up to respond to
different velocities. Oh, and I can't record my live techno
performances in impulse tracker, either.
Should I be expelled from the scene, simply because my tracker has
become "part" of my toolset, rather than the whole toolchest? It
startled me the other day to hear a total newbie spouting this
holier-than-thou, "oldskool rulez" attitude. I was tracking when he was
5 years old, and he thinks he can tell me that I'm a traitor to "the
scene", because yes, I track and release MP3's. I like to mixdown my
tracks on the 32 bit, 24 channel hardware mixer I spent my hard-earned
money on, and get a truly professional sound for work that has to
measure up to professional standards. Should I be stomped on for making
my living at what I have devoted my life to since I was very young?
I sell my music, too, and make a profit. I've even done commissioned
work. With all this bad publicity about traxinspace pulling in a little
money for their hard work, I have to wonder - do you, the
holier-than-thou kids who want to tell us how to release our music,
whether or not we have a right to pay our rent with it, or anything else
about how we should run our lives - do you want to grow up and shampoo
carpets to pay your rent when you could be tracking instead? When it
comes time for you to make that choice - do what you love to survive, or
merely survive - what choice will you make? I don't regret mine for a
moment.
In short, if you have a problem with MP3's - don't release them. If
you don't think it's right to make money from art - keep it a hobby.
Don't try to tell us we're doing something wrong if we don't agree.
Chances are, you'll just get laughed at, cause these attitudes are
cliche, passe, and altogether washed out - remember that when you're
pushing that floor buffer.
--Dilvish
-=- Letter from Noise Music's George Marinov -=-
We at noisemusic reduced our staff to 5 musicians - shawnm, androo
(stote), t.wilton (astradyne), esem (stereoman) and mikael altemark. we
are currently doing some group reorganisation too.
In the meantime you might want to check the following urls
www.mp3.com/newobjectives (our mp3.com mirror)
www.mp3.com/future-eater (unreleased cuts by stote)
www.mp3.com/stereoman (rare & unreleased cuts by esem)
Andreas saag and pinku vaaty have been signed and therefore their
releases are taken out tobias wilton is soon to be signed to groovetech,
esem is a forthcomming defocus artist and also will be releasing music
for merck. while trying to keep up at our previous pace we experience
server difficulties and other problems. we are still doing everything
possible to bring you quality intelligent electronic music.
--George Marinov (esem) of Noise Music
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Building a Digital Orchestra
Introduction
By: Dilvish
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About a year ago, the editor of Static Line mentioned to me that it
would be nice to have a series of articles describing the process of
simulating a real orchestra electronically. Since then, I have been
researching related topics off and on. This series is the result. I
quickly found that I had been very naive on the subject. It's aspects
span the full breadth of music theory, orchestration, instrumentation,
wave physics, and digital signal processing. Much of the information
contained here will be applicable to many other areas of music
production, and perhaps even your fundamental view of the world around
you.
This series may include interviews on the subject with working
composers, as well as a catalogue of technical subjects ranging from
mathematics and tuning, to conducting and dynamics.
At the outset of this work, I went around asking people if they thought
it was possible to simulate the sound of a real orchestra using nothing
but a computer, and a consumer level soundcard, such as the Sound
Blaster Live. Typical responses ranged from "Yeah, right," to "No.
Performance is an art that can't be programmed." Considering the
development of technology in the last twenty years, though, I would have
to disagree.
Nearly everyone is familiar with the sounds of General MIDI coming from
their PC's multimedia speakers. Most have heard MIDI renderings of
classical music on them. It is hard to find anybody though, who would
say that the quality rivals that of a real orchestra. For many, the
"computer music" sound is quickly associated with cheap FM synth horns,
or sampled crash cymbals that just fizzle. This doesn't have to be the
case. Both technology and our understanding of electronic music have
come a long way in two decades.
It is now common to hear high quality electronic orchestra sounds in
television and movie trailers. Many movie scores also feature
electronic orchestral sounds, in addition to real strings. Several
popular composers use them to "beef up" real orchestra sounds. If a
personal computer were capable of realizing the sound of a real
orchestra, you could download a 120k notation file and hear the
professional sound of a real orchestra in your computer room rather than
endure yet another rendering on the same General MIDI soundset. Amateur
and professional composers alike would greatly appreciate having access
to the sounds of a real orchestra at their fingertips, so that they
would no longer have to imagine what their music will sound like if it
were actually played. Another advantage for a professional musician is
that they could produce low budget movie and television scores for a
fraction of the cost of hiring a full orchestra with a recording crew.
Unfortunately, simulating a real orchestra is not as simple as it may,
at first, sound. Modern music synthesis technology takes advantage of a
process called sampling. The idea is that you record a single note from
the real instrument, and then play it back at different pitches.
Typically, there are only one or two samples to represent the entire
range and scope of each instrument. The problem here is that real
instruments are capable of producing a huge range of sounds. Louder
sounds produce an entirely different set of formants than softer sounds
(typically, the number and amplitude of formants are increased, thus
changing the over-all timbre of the sound in dramatically noticeable
ways). Additionally, playing technique also affects timbre. Thus, a
single sample of any given instrument is not sufficient to represent its
full capabilities. We know this instinctively, so we perceive it as
"fake" when we hear it, which is largely responsible for the
recognizable "computer music" sound.
The solution to that problem might seem easy enough: simply record a
sufficient number of samples to represent the full scope of the
instrument in question. However, this is not yet a practical solution
for every situation. For several years now, professional sampler
manufacturers have been endlessly expanding the storage capacity of the
medium on which they store their samples. Nearly every modern
professional sampler supports multi-samples, and sound programmers have
taken good advantage of it. There now exists a single multi-sample set
of a Yamaha C7 grand piano that is a full gigabyte in size (see note 1).
In addition to the problems with sampling, there are many other
considerations to be made when attempting to simulate a real orchestra.
Special attention has to be paid to the techniques used for playing each
particular instrument. For instance, most of the instruments in an
orchestra are purely monophonic, meaning that they are incapable of
sounding more than one note at a time. In addition, brass instruments
move between notes with a perceptible portamento effect when notes are
slurred. A realistic playback engine must "know" about the parameters
required to simulate each instrument being played. In subsequent
articles, I plan to go into extensive detail on the characteristics of
each of the common orchestral instruments, including their playing
techniques, and how they are used in orchestration.
Another issue to consider is the room. Any good professional musician
can tell you that the room is actually part of the instrument that needs
to be considered in producing a good tone. A beautifully crafted violin
can either bring tears of joy to the eyes when played in a great concert
hall, or tears of agony when played in anechoic chambers. Reverb is
the term used to describe the effect of the many echoes that bounce off
the walls around the room until it eventually fades out. Bouncing wall
reflections create a phenomenon known as standing waves. What this
means is that the echo waves color the source wave by amplifying it in
places where the waves correspond, and attenuating it in places where
the waves are at odds with each other. This effect can be visualized by
dropping something in a bathtub, and watching how the waves bounce off
the sides and interact with each other.
The room I am currently sitting in has a reverb time of about .6
seconds, resonates strongly at D#4 (622 hertz) and creates a notable
resonant peak at about A#4 (approximately 466 hertz). I determined this
by clapping my hands and listening. If I was at home with my FFT enabled
dual channel Impulse Response (IR) analyzer, I could go into much
greater detail about how this room would affect the sound of an
instrument. The main point is that the effect is not subtle. We are
simply very accustomed to hearing it every day, and our brain interprets
it mainly as localization information. This how you know where a sound
is coming from when you hear it.
A good orchestra simulation should paint a mental image of the room that
the virtual orchestra is playing in. The positions of each player
relative to the position of the listener should be taken into account.
It is possible to create such a simulation with existing signal
processing technology. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any reverb plugins
yet that would allow you enough control to do so.
As I have demonstrated, there are many parameters that must be
considered to accurately reproduce the sound of a real orchestra. The
human body is a very complex machine, but it is still a system with
parameters, which follows the same physical laws that a computer
follows. Today's computers are capable of analyzing and modeling very
complex data quickly. I believe that it is possible to nail down the
parameters that make orchestral music what it is, and reproduce it
electronically - but the task is not simple. Many volumes can be
written on the subject, whose aspects range from the elementary laws of
wave physics, to state-of-the-art psychoacoustics, not to mention
instrumentation and conducting technique, dynamics, and the little
articulations and "mistakes" that put the feeling in music. It's all
just math in the end, and computers are very good at math.
-=- Notes -=-
1) When we speak of sample-based instruments, a gigabyte is very
large. My entire computer hard drive is capable of storing less than 20
gigabytes, total. And that is a lot. That's about 20 times larger than
the largest hard drives in 1990. Typically, single sample sizes range
from about 600 bytes up to about 5 megabytes. A gigabyte is
approximately 200 times larger than that. Even today, most of the
currently available hardware samplers are incapable of using a single
multi-sample that large. For more information about the GigaPiano and
other gigabyte instruments, see http://www.nemesysmusic.com/.
-=- Vocabulary -=-
Anechoic Chamber
A room designed to absorb all sound, and produce no reverb. The
effect is that if you are not in a direct line of sight with the sound
source, you cannot hear it at all, since there are no sound reflections
bouncing off the walls to reach you. Such a room would add absolutely
nothing to the sound of a musical instrument, and makes a good
demonstration of how reverb colors the sounds we hear.
Cent
A division of note pitch. There are 100 cents between each tone in
the 12 tone equal tempered scale.
Color
Color is the over-all quality or timbre of a single wave. Chords are
actually transmitted in a single wave that contains the frequency data
of all of the sound sources, and thus, when spoken about in most music
theory courses, color is a combination of chord choice, movement, and
the individual timbre of each sound source.
Cycle
A wave travels in a curved line that moves from its center upward to a
peak, downward to a valley, and then returns to center. The full path
is called a cycle. The speed or frequency of these cycles determines
pitch.
Formants
Resonant frequencies that give a tone (or instrument) its color by
amplifying specific partials. Each instrument has its own particular
set of formants that help define its unique sound. For an in depth look
at how formants apply to instrument use, see "Relating Tuning and
Timbre": http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/~sethares/consemi.htm
Fundamental
The lowest frequency of a sound. It is also the frequency
that we derive our perception of pitch from.
Frequency
The rate at which something occurs. In music, frequency is measured
in Beats Per Minute (BPM), cycles per second (hertz), and cents.
General MIDI
Roland established the GENERAL MIDI standard in 1992 with the
introduction of the Roland Sound Canvas series. The idea was to provide
a standard set of 128 instrumental sounds from which to choose from.
Previously, a part written for piano might have played back on a
different computer with a bassoon sample. The specification was written
to ensure that the instrumentation would remain the way the composer
intended it to sound, no matter what hardware or software the end user
happened to possess. General MIDI was adopted very quickly, and has
revolutionized the way the public sees computer music.
Golden Section
A mathematical ratio (phi) represented by an irrational number
(1.618033989...), found to be a repeating theme in nature, as in the
formation of the solar system, the galaxies, the spiral shells of
animals, and, of course, music (in the harmonic series, chord theory,
structure, and rhythm). A more detailed explanation can be found here:
http://evolutionoftruth.com/goldensection/neophite.htm.
Harmonic Series
The natural order of partials. The series may be determined by
calculating for k=1 to infinity, 1/k. Close analysis of the nature of
this series will reveal many patterns that relate to the Golden Section.
Hertz
A measurement of the frequency of a wave in cycles per second.
MIDI
The Musical Instrument Data Interchange format. MIDI is an open
specification established by the music industry in the early 1980's to
allow musical equipment from different manufacturers to communicate with
each other. Part of the MIDI specification includes a file format now
generally referred to as MIDI files.
Partials
Frequencies that are added to the fundamental (perceived pitch) to
produce color in a tone. The content of partials for a single vibrating
object is determined by the series of ratios: 1:1, 2:1, 3:2, 4:3, 5:4,
and 5:3 respectively in a pattern known as the harmonic series.
Portamento
The effect of sliding between one note and the next.
Sampler
A musical device that uses and manipulates samples to produce music.
Sampling
The process of recording a single note from a real instrument, so
that it can be played back at different pitches by music software to
simulate the playing of the real instrument.
Slurring
Moving from one note to the next without a break between the notes.
Timbre
Tone quality. Determined by the number and amplitude of the formants
present.
Tone
A vibration perceived as sound, represented by a musical note.
Wavetable
A collection of stored samples in memory from which the playback
engine gets its wave data.
Wave
A sound wave. Sound travels through a medium (such as air) by
vibrating tiny particles, causing a chain reaction that results in a
wave. The process well demonstrated by observing ripples in a pond.
--Dilvish
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Subtractive Synthesis
The Basics
By: Setec
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-=- Introduction -=-
Howdy. It has been ages since my last contribution to this great
magazine. Unfortunately I have been so preoccupied lately that I really
have not had the time to put something proper together. So what is this
then?
Well it is an introduction to the basics of one form of synthesis,
properly the most well-known; subtractive synthesis. This is the form
of synthesis that makes up all those retro Roland synthesizers; the
TB-303 being the most known example (but also counting the Junos,
Jupiters, etc). It also couples with sampling in a lot of modern sound
modules such as the brand new Roland XV models, the E-Mu Proteuss series
and well, just about any other all-purpose sound module.
So why would you wanna know how it works? And why is something like
this interesting in a "tracker" world? Well the thing is, if you know
this theory properly you will be able to create any kind of sound or
instrument that you like - within the obvious boundaries of subtractive
synthesis. You will no longer need to adapt your music to suit your
samples. This process can be reversed so that you can mold your sounds
to suit whatever mood you are trying to create via your music. And this
is a tremendous inspiration.
It is also my belief that more and more trackers are starting to buy
"real" music gear, mainly synthesizers. And while you could just do as
your average Bob and stick with the presets on the synth, this is just
plain dumb. You are buying an extremely versatile instrument (hopefully)
and if you are not taking advantage of this, you are wasting money.
And besides, you look seriously cool when you tweak all those knobs!
=)
-=- Waveforms and formants -=-
The building blocks of subtractive synthesis are - not taking in
account the synthesizers that couple subtractive synthesis with sampling
- basic, simple geometric waveforms. Waveforms are what you see when you
load a sample in SoundForge, CoolEdit, FastTracker or whatever program
you use to view and edit your samples. Usually with sampled sounds these
are quite complex waves, with no obvious geometric shape. These
"building blocks" of subtractive synthesis are different. The most
commonly used shapes are the triangle, square and saw waveforms. My
talent at ascii-drawing is non-existent so let us just agree that these
waveforms look exactly as their name implies, the saw waveform gradually
extending from -1 to 1 (on the y-axis of a waveform), then dropping
instantly to -1 and rising again. Other common waveforms are sine, super
saw (a lot of saw waveforms slightly detuned from each other) and noise.
So. Having made your choice of a basic waveform the synthesizer is
now able to continuously loop this waveform over and over. In other
words, you have now successfully produced a truly annoying buzz! This is
not exactly the most interesting sound in the world. Mostly because that
the partial shape of such a sound is quite dull. Partials? Now what is
that? I have actually spoken of this in a very old article I wrote for
this very same magazine. But to recap ...
Any sound - if it consists of a definable pitch (not noise) - is made
up of a fundamental frequency and any number of partials. These partials
are multiples of the fundamental frequency and can be either harmonic
(integer multiples) or inharmonic. So contrary to the common belief (of
some people, anyway) when you hear a certain note played on a keyboard
you are not only hearing a single frequency, but rather an entire
spectrum of frequencies. This is also sometimes called the "color" of
the sound or the "brightness". If a sound contains lots of partials it
will appear "bright" in sound. A bass is not a very bright instrument
(usually) whereas brasses contain a lot of partials and hence appear
"bright" to the human ear.
Returning to our building blocks, each of these have distinct partial
structures. Generally speaking, sharp corners create partials. So a sine
wave consists ONLY of the fundamental frequency. No partials at all. The
square wave is a little more interesting in that it contains every other
harmonic partial of the fundamental at decreasing volume. Saw waveforms
have especially rich partial structure and this probably explains why
they are most commonly used.
-=- Filters -=-
Okay, so I managed to drift quite far into that. Drawing attention to
our buzz-sound from before, how do we make it more interesting? How do
we alter the partials/overtones of such a sound? Enter the wonders of
filters...
Filters basically do one thing - they take a sound and they remove
certain partials. Filters are probably the most important part of sub-
tractive synthesis. Without filters we are stuck with that dull annoying
buzz. With them, however, we have a very strong way of molding our
sounds.
A standard synthesizer will most likely consist of a single filter
with three different modes of operation; high pass, band pass and low
pass. The theory behind how these filters work is too complex for this
article, but understanding what they actually DO is easy. Quite simply a
high pass filter allows only partials above a certain frequency(the
cutoff frequency) to pass, a low pass filter does the exact opposite and
a band pass filter allows only a certain band (duh!) of frequencies to
pass. Not exactly hard to grasp, is it? So what this means is that we
are able to take our buzz saw waveform and turn it into a bass, simply
by applying a low pass filter with a cutoff frequency set low. And the
same buzz can be turned into a moscitto-like sound using a high pass
filter. All of this needs to be heard though, so grab your synth - if
you are fortunate enough to own one - or load one of the many free
software synthesizers out there and start playing with the cutoff knob
and the filter types.
Okay. So altering the cutoff frequency of a set filter type is nice
and all, but how do you make that wellknown squelchy bass-sound? Well,
this is where the resonance setting comes into play. This is also a
setting that will be adjustable on all synthesizers out there, and with
good reason. What it does is that it creates a "peak" around the cutoff
frequency, it amplifies the frequencies surrounding that point. It is
not exactly easy to explain how this actual sounds (besides the obvious
refference to a 303 bassline) so once again - go play! Most desent
synthesizers will be able to set the resonnance high enough for the
filter to go into self- oscillation. This occurs when the freqency at
the cutoff point is amplified so much that it "takes over" as the
fundamental frequency. If used properly (and subtlely!) this can be an
interesting effect. Just do not overdo it, it really hurts the ears.
If you have a fairly good synthesizer you will probably notice that
it also has some sort of switch between -12dB/Oct and -24db/Oct (and
possibly others) in the filter section. What this alters is the
steepness of the filter. See, a filter cannot exactly "cut" frequencies
above or below a certain threshold that exact. There will be some sort
of slope extending beyond the cutoff frequency, where some of the
frequencies can still be heard, although at lower amplitudes. The -12dB,
-24dB switch determines the steepness of this slope. So at -12dB the
frequencies above or below the cutoff point are attenuated by 12dB per
octave.
Once more, this setting has a musical value that is hard to describe.
So try choosing a saw waveform, set the filter at low pass and choose a
cutoff frequency that is somewhat average. You should be able to tell
the difference between -12dB and -24dB per octave then.
-=- Envelopes -=-
This article is already much larger than I had anticipated. It seems
I cannot help it. So I hope some of you are still with me, because this
is where it really gets interesting.
If we look at what we are able to create now, we have come quite far
from where we started. But it is still only quite dull sounds that will
evolve from a syntheziser consisting only of what I have described so
far. One thing that we still have not touched is change over time.
Change in partial structure, amplitude and pitch. One of the most
important things that make us able to distinguish one instrument from
the other is exactly that; change over time. This is where envelopes
help.
An envelope can be viewed as a waveform as well. Usually it is made up
of four settings, Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release. The waveform that
these make might look something like this:
/ \
/ : \
/ : \ god, i suck at this.
/ : \
/ : \
/ : : - - - - - - - - <--- Sustain level
/ : : :\ _
/ : : : \ _
/ : : : \ _
<-- attack time --><- decay ->- - - - - - - - <-release ->
time time
I hope this diagram makes SOME sense.
Okay, so now we have yet another shape. What is it good for? Well, if
we apply values ranging from 0 to 1 on the y-axis on such a shape and
then link it to the filter cutoff frequency ...voila! We now have a
sound that changes its frequency content over time. Marvelous. The same
obviously goes for linking an envelope to the amplitude (the most
obvious choice) and the pitch.
If all of these elements are combined we now have quite an interesting
sound in our hands ...or at least we can have. With all of these tools
you have a tremendous amount to say in how the instrument will sound.
And this is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It is not at all easy
to begin with, learning what to alter to get a specific sound. It all
comes with practise, but I hope that articles such as this one helps
you. I know that it has helped me a lot to know such theory. And I
really hope that this article has helped you as well. The thing is, I am
not sure how "basic" I need to keep it. You may have found this article
to be way to simple, or it may have all seemed difficult to grasp. I am
very uncertain as to whether additional articles on the subject of
synthesis should be simpler or if they should be more advanced. As of
now I am thinking of making the next article a little more practical and
less theoretical. So instead of just describing how subtractive
synthesis works, I will try to show how to create different sounds with
it. But this all depends on the feedback.
So as always, you - the reader - eventually has the say in where
these articles go. Let me know what you want to read about, what you
would like to learn. It is not limited to being about subtractive
synthesis only, I could cover FM synthesis and other forms of synthesis
as well. I am not an allknowing oracle of synthesis theory but I do
believe that I know my fair share of it.
At least I know how to emulate a TB-303 ...;)
-=- Notes -=-
I am hoping to make this a series of articles that will appear from
time to time with different subjects of synthesis theory. However, I
want to know what YOU wanna read about. So mail me at
jesped@post.tele.dk and let me know what the next article should cover.
Also make it clear which level it should be in. Easier or more advanced
than this one.
By the way, I own a Roland JP-8080 synthesizer myself, a marvellous
subtractive synthesis beast in the new breed of analogue wannabe synths.
I also have the luxury of having a Roland JV-1080 and a Yamaha FS1R
stacked on top of eachother, the former being a sound module (well, THE
sound module I guess) that couples sampling with subtractive synthesis.
The Yamaha FS1R is an entirely different story. It uses Frequency
Modulation synthesis along with a new method called Formant Shaping. But
I am gonna have to save those two for later articles ...:)
--Setec
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
The Root
How They Got Involved
Sponsored By: Tryhuk
By: Jason Chong (Jase)
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I had always been and still am interested in making music on a
computer. Ever since my first Apple 2 days, through the first
SoundBlaster to now, I've always been looking for a way to express
myself musically on a computer. It all started with my classical
background. You may have read elsewhere I started violin when I was 7
and piano later on and advanced quite far with it. At the end of my
high school years I bought an electric guitar and self taught myself (I
just wanted to play all the Guns'n'Roses Appetite for Destruction
stuff). However I couldn't output stuff satisfactorily on a computer
until I discovered MIDI and mods.
It started when I went to university in '92 where I first discovered
the internet. This was kewl!! Downloading from ftp and fsp sites (the
web had not taken off at all back then). I learned first about MIDI and
after persuading my dad to buy me a Turtle Beach Multisound, I released
a few midi tunes to the internet. I remember getting my first fan
email, some guy who wrote orientalish MIDIs. I was stoked - people were
downloading and listening to my stuff! However, I felt constrained by
the limited number of sounds on MIDI. Then one day I downloaded Panic
by Future Crew and discovered the demo scene.
From there I experimented with mods. My overall output was not very
much because I probably took too long to write each tune. People have
also commented that I composed in many various styles. My musical
tastes were so varied that I hadn't really finished exploring each style
yet. However with my classical background, I was most happy with my
orchestral output.
To tell you the truth, I would have loved to be part of one of the
larger music groups like Kosmic or been invited to join FM. But I
didn't and I would partly blame my lack of output for this. It took a
while for me to write tunes - a lot of planning and "optimisation" took
place for each one. Each week I downloaded many mods which were quickly
put together and you can see it in the tracks - I'm not saying that
these were bad or anything, but I guess I took a lot of pride in my work
and wanted to make sure everything I did tried not to sound like it was
done on a computer. Of course my girlfriend (now wife) at the time
always thought that it still sounded computerised.
I did get invited to join Oxygen, a demo group based in my city
(Perth, Australia). However, not much happened from that. Looking back
I think that it doesn't really matter - I mean, the quality of your
composing output doesn't really depend on whether you're part of some
group or not (although they can encourage you, etc), it's what you can
do yourself.
So why did I stop tracking? One reason is that one day my sample
collection, which I had taken tons of hours to compile from various
sources and sorted into my own categories, got blown away in '96 with a
hard drive crash. Without a sample collection, without a decent
synthesizer, I knew it would be ages to rebuild a similar sort of
collection and that was really offputting. Also, the amount of free
time to spend composing was gone. '96 was my last year at uni with an
honours paper to write. That meant the end of mucking about. I started
full time work at a large international engineering company the
following year ('97) and work life is very different!! My whole day got
turned around - basically starting and ending 4 hours earlier (7am -
11pm instead of 11am - 3am). The year after that ('98) I got married
and that ended even more late night netting.
Nowadays, once in a while, I check to see what's happening in the
scene. I sometimes keep in touch with some previous trackers. I know
quite a few other trackers that were active in my days have pursued
professional music careers in mixing, game/movie music composing, etc.
I really admire them for that because I would love to have done that.
However, I already chose engineering over professional
violinist/musician as my career (for the more stable and possibly larger
salary) and I would definitely have to study/work elsewhere (Sydney but
probably overseas) to get enough demand or that sort of market. Maybe
in my mid life crisis I might experiment :)
So many things have changed - attitudes towards tracking, the number
of composers, mod related web sites, hornet, windows demos, trackers and
players, signal to noise ratio :). By attitudes, I've noticed that the
old days of trying to make the mod as small as possible in file size are
gone. Also, the emphasis on sound/sample quality is much more but the
filesize restrictions helps a lot. Similarly, the old days of
"optimisation" so that you would use as little channels as possible
seems to have gone. I remember when people first started to be
interested in mp3s and some people in the scene (and I was one of them)
just didn't want to know about it - releasing music in an mp3 form would
mean that people can't see the effort and technique you put into the mod
- it was not elite :). They were also too big in filesize (back then!).
However, mp3s have taken off so much now that you'd get many more people
listening to your stuff if it's an mp3.
And that is what I found most rewarding, knowing that thousands of
people have listened to my music and enjoyed it. The positive feedback
I got through email, although was a good ego booster, spurred me on to
write more.. and I still get the occassional one now (after they've
searched around for my new address) and this brings a smile to my face.
So what's been happening since then? I got married to Su-Lyn (vocals
on Call Me an Angel), I have a 17 month old daughter (Tallulah) and my
wife is expecting a second baby in early Feb next year. I've also
stopped using my PC except really for budgeting and netting. Ever since
Su bought me a Playstation last Christmas, I've been hooked (especially
Tony Hawk 1 and 2!!). Also I've redirected all my spare money into home
theatre and DVDs. I'm still a software engineer at the same engineering
firm since I graduated but the work environment there is really good.
Coming home to my daughter smiling and wanting to play with me is better
than receiving a whole ton of fan email :)
Lately I was asked if I wanted to contribute to the Merregnon
project. I couldn't refuse - especially since it was going to be
orchestral based and the other big names involved in the project. I
knew I hadn't tracked seriously for nearly 5 years - there were new
trackers available, even on windows. I didn't have any samples, I still
had my old Yamaha synth and my old Awe 32. I was out of it. But with
some perseverance in MIDI, help from Fabian and some encouragement from
my wife, I managed to do two orchestral tunes. Who knows, if it gets a
good response I might start composing again!!
--Jason Chong
jchong@iinet.net.au
http://www.iinet.net.au/~jchong/
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The Listener
Music from Various Artist
By: Tryhuk
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-=- Lifetime -=-
-=- -- El mobo & plug-in -=-
This fine track won mp3 compo at this year's LTP. Because I think
that previous LTPs had the best music releases out of all parties, I was
really hot on this track. As you would expect, it is a guitar track. To
be more exact, it's a track with electric guitars, bass guitars and some
percussion. I heard some of his tracks that are available on his web
site (www.elmobo.com), but I like this one best. It left me with an
impression of a life jammed track, a track that doesn't sound too
calculated and sounds good thanks to talented of musicians. It one
moment it reminded me even on Pink Floyd.
Song Information:
Title: Lifetime
Author: El mobo & plug-in
Release date: aug. 2000
Length: 5m20s
Filename: moby-lifetime.zip
File Size: 6.09MB
Source: ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2000/ltp4/mp3/moby-lifetime.zip
-=- High -=-
-=- -- Astropolis -=-
It is a winning song of asm00 mp3 compo, so I was curious how good
it will be after the experience out of the previous ('99) multichannel
compo. Although it is a pop song and builds on certified procedures, I
wasn't disappointed. One has to admit that it is well done, with nice
details. The author of the song didn't slip down to heavy powerful
sound in the guitar parts, he rather let them play at a decent volume in
the background, and this way he let the lead be heard with very good
vocals. Other positive thing is that you can hear it many times and
don't get completely bored.
I also heard top ten multichannel entries and there was no entry that
would I completely dislike, so try them also.
Song Information:
Title: High
Author: Astropolis
Release date: aug 2000
Length: 3m57s
Filename: high_up_.zip
File Size: 5.39MB
Source: ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2000/assembly00/mp3/high_up_.zip
-=- Diskothequa luv -=-
-=- -- krii -=-
Nice comments from users voting on tokyo2051.org resulted in my
download of this song. For those who don't know, you can now vote on the
tokyo website for your favorite song and this way help to others to get
the best releases.
Style of the song is house, but it's rather that light style that vic
does, not that heavy repetitive beat that you usually hear. Even
being a house track, its drumline isn't simple at all, it is very
evolved and particular sounds overlap well with other instruments
(bassline, chords, leads) and form a very solid track. One might call
it an energic summer disco song with no really special or significant
moments, it rather builds an atmosphere, makes minor changes on it, like
a wind on a calm water surface. But that doesn't mean that the song is
boring, it's full of small details that keep the song living.
Song Information:
Title: Diskothequa luv
Author: krii
Release date: oct 2000
Length: 6m50s
Filename: tokyo2051-krii-diskothequa_luv.mp3
File Size: 6.5MB
Source: http://www.tokyo2051.org
-=- One turn 5 remix -=-
-=- -- Vic & Xhale -=-
This song stole my heart immediately. It is a remix of an older
miasmah release, which was originaly a minimalistic trip hop song. Vic
woke it with a completely new technique with really great vocals and a
bunch of instruments with interesting chord progression and well made
tempo changes which give to the song a good swing. If you like vocal
tunes it's must have, because I haven't heard vocals that good in a
scene song for quite a long time.
Song Information:
Title: one turn 5 remix
Author: Vic (original by xhale)
Release date: aug. 2000
Length: 3m41s
Filename: mia11_vic_oneturn5_remix.mp3
File Size: 3.56MB
Source: http://www.miasmah.com
ftp://scene.org/pub/music/groups/miasmah/mia11_vic_oneturn5_remix.mp3
--Tryhuk
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Retro Tunage
Subsonica by various
By: Tryhuk
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Music disk "Subsonica" belongs among my favorites. It consists of 7
electronic tracks, but thanks to skills of all musicians, every track is
original and recognizable. I think that just dropping the names here
says a lot: Mellow-D, Skie, Hunz, gd, Stinger, Darkwolf, kxmode. As you
see it's an elite company. I'll try to describe individual tracks (in no
order):
Geek - very "blur" track. It opens with mechanical sounds with strong
echoes to evoke a feeling of empty space and into this a thin voice
calls "mami". Songs starts to gather rhythmical elements and samples
typical for experimental "blur" series. It fits very good with other
tracks that MD made at the time and thanks to his "mami" it is a very
recognizable and memorable song and one of my favorites here.
Beyond ]|[ sigma - I have heard only a few tracks by skie, but this
one is, IMHO, her best. Again, it is a distinct track, with melody made
on non-melodic samples, excessive use of bass drum which can create a
very good effect when you know how to use it (see lush by orbital), but
it can also completely destroy the song. This fulfills the first case,
IMHO. As a complete thing, it is rather an ambient song with some good
points, but there's nothing you could really remember - a part of lead
or chord transition.
Surface Tension - In some points similar to songs of skie and
stalker, but compared to "beyond ]|[ sigma" it is more lighter and
melodic. It also has something from the music of 80ties, especially
Jarre. Not everyone will like it, but I think that it is Darkwolf's
best song (out of the stuff I heard of course) and it's worth checking.
Sages - Most of Stinger's releases belong to house or ambient music,
often mixing both genres in a new form. Similar way of crossing genres
can be found also in music of stereoman and basehead, but all three
produce very different result. Song "Sages" is specific by a repetitive
bass line that plays on the place of bass drum and because rest of the
percussion are brighter instruments, whole track sounds very light.
Background sounds are in a style of dune (you can also find stinger's
ambient releases under nick kaamos/soma) and piano works here on the
place of lead.
s.n.i.f.f. - This song brought me to music of gd and although I like
also other his tracks, this one is still my favorite. It is again an
electronic ambient experiment with melodic elements, light percussion
and important bass line, similar to previous songs, but with its own
sound, maybe more happy and playful.
The Temple Gates - as you would expect in a case of song by Hunz, it
is my favorite out of this musicdisk, though it's not his best. Whole
song builds on an ethnical sound, which is evoked by a fast played
guitar with bold cuts. Together with hunz's style of leads it makes an
interesting creation. Simple, but works.
The Syndicate - by kxmode isn't exception and its rough description
would be same as in the case of previous tracks and so I won't try to
produce here another crappy text and I leave your opinion on you. Just
listen.
As you see, whole disk contains tunes, that are worth downloading and
thanks to a wide variety of good artists, I believe that you find here
songs that you will also like. I like "Geek" by mellow-d the best.
Song Information:
Title: subsonica
Author: various
Release date: 09 dec 1996
Length: over 35 minutes
Filename (zipped/unzipped): sub01.zip | many
File Size (zipped/unzipped): 2MB | 4MB
Source: ftp://us.hornet.org/pub/demos/music/disks/1996/sub01.zip
--Tryhuk
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Screen Lit Vertigo
Persistent by Wipe & Ukonx (final version)
By: Seven
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Found at www.scene.org
1st place at aRTS2K
System requirements: 350 MHz, 64MB RAM, DirectX, 3.5 MB HD, Win9x
(May have problems with NT).
Test Machine: PII 350 64MB, SB16, TNT2 M64 32MB, Win98
The credits:
Code: Belette, Dax, Deemphasis, Kor, Tsr
Graphics: Dax, Gol, Unison, Kisscool
Music: Dax, Unison
The demo:
As was stated in the info-file, I had to change the "512" to "640" in
the overground.ini file before the demo would run. I was a bit
disappointed at first, because the demo started rather boring: a
transparent green ball rotates with a distorted perspective and flashes
from time to time. Philosophical text fragments and sentences are
shown stategically on top of this, in a white font and different letter
sizes. How original (yawn).
Luckily, more interesting effects are added on top of this in the next
parts: weird tunnel variants, radial blur, horizontal shivering screens,
waving water etc. These are most of the time combined with various
semi-transparent pictures, of a Japanese girl with a dragon tattoo, gray
design objects, a grinning graffiti-style face with a cigarette with
fire effect. Also the texts have more varied subjects: slogans like
"WIPE: enough said, let the coding begin" or "Destiny is not a matter of
chance but a matter of choice", and a part of a food receipt is shown in
the background :) The greets are in pure danish design, but otherwise
it's hard to link the demo with a specific style The music is in mo3
format, which is a mod whose samples are MP3-compressed. It starts very
ambient, with slow, echoing bells and ploinks, but adds more and more
emphasis to the rhythm section. The echoing lead disappears in the
second half of the tune, leaving just the percussion, but it still
sounds quite relaxed. The info file explains (in French only) that all
the samples are recorded at home. Respect for that, and also for the
good synchronizing with the effects.
Overall:
The info file also mentions that this demo was made in only two weeks,
and it was designed at the partyplace. The resulting style has a certain
charm, but some people will dislike it. Personally I think the beginning
could have been stronger, while other effects are too hard to notice. It
took me some time before I saw the burning of the cigarette, or the
rotating star-thing behind the Persistence logo. But the duration of the
effects is short enough, the overall feeling is OK and the music ties
everything together well. Worth checking out.
--Seven
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Intro Watch
Fuzzion
By: Gekko
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The intro corner is a bit special this month. The topic is not an
intro but a group which has created a lot of intros lately.
Our subject is Fuzzion. This group is from Spain; it is a merge of
several smaller local groups (Savage, DSK, MCD). Besides making intros
they have other releases, too, of course, and they are the organizers of
the BCN party. Maybe nowadays they are the only Spanish demo group which
is known abroad.
There are a lot of members - 20 or so - so I won't list them all. The
most active ones appear to be SML (music), BP (code), Ufix (code), Trace
(gfx). Their homepage is www.fuzzion.org, all their releases can be
downloaded from there. There is a group info-file attached to the
releases, you can find all the little details there.
First of all, what to download? My choice:
DaCube 2 - 64k, Arroutada 7, 1999
http://fuzzion.planet-d.net/prods/svg_dcb2.zip
DaCube 1.5 - 64k, Fallas 2000
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2000/fparty00/in64/dcb15.zip
Style - 4k, Mekka 2000
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2000/mekkasymposium00/in4k/style.zip
Primperan - 64k, Xuntas 2000
http://fuzzion.planet-d.net/prods/primp_pv.zip
Once Again - demo (128k), Xuntas 2000
http://fuzzion.planet-d.net/prods/fzn_oa.zip
BCN 2000 invitation - 64k, LTP4, 2000
http://fuzzion.planet-d.net/prods/bcn00invf.zip
These are intros, so the downloads will only take a few seconds.
They are for DOS, with the exception of BCN 2000 invitation (Windows).
Fuzzion made four 4k intros so far. The first two are Pukamuka (what
a name:) at Satellite 1999) and Style (Mekka 2000). Both are simple
intros with raycasting and a little music. I like the latter because
(you guessed it:) it has style. It is a flight in simple 3d scenes with
fake-bugs (the screen and the music gets noisy). The other two are
Despeich and Xperience (both were released at Euskal 8, 2000). These are
not good, they resemble 1996 intros with their plasma effects and ugly
computer generated palettes. The latter is a bit better because it has
music and some design. There was one more 4k by them, Fuzzby. In fact it
is a diskmag and it is a joke on Wilby (the 4k diskmag). From their 4k-s
I would only recommend Style to be downloaded.
The bigger intros are much better. In these they have the space to
show their art. They have a special minimalist style which I like a lot.
One kind of their intros are the wilder ones. I would put DaCube2,
DaCube1.5 (64k-s) and the Style (4k) into this cathegory. In these there
is a small story or poem and good minimalist effects. The music is
usually a fast, loud and raging house music.
The rest of their intros are different. They have a calm abstract
mood. The music is usually an ambient tune.
Primperan (64k, Xuntas 2000) is a very good intro. Its theme is
medicine. Don't expect a story though and a lot of texts are in Spanish.
The effects are so fine - little pills falling in a box, DNS, particles,
and so on. This intro could have been a winner at a bigger demo party,
too!
Once Again (Xuntas 2000) was entered in the demo compo, but it is
only 128 kilobytes. It is a gloomy little green dentro. It is playing
with simple squares, pentagons, etc and a lot of good effects are made
up of these.
The BCN 2000 party invitation (LTP4) has reddish colors and a few
transparent triangle effects. It's short and plain but it looks fine. By
the way, the final version has a secret part, too. Just look into the
EXE with Notepad to find out how to get it...
These were the works of Fuzzion. These guys have style and original
ideas, they are doing a good job.
--Gekko
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Editorial
Welcome the New Scene! and
By: Coplan
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A lot of people are probably going to dislike my views in this
article. Please try not to be so critical of what I say. What I speak
of is how I truly see the scene in the next few years. With every
society (and the demoscene can be considered one), traditions change.
I'm not suggesting that the methods of the demoscene need to change.
Rather, I am suggesting that it might not be worth fighting the change.
In the future of the scene, I see artists not only working with the
traditional sample packs. I have seen a lot of percussion samples, and
string samples that have been around forever. Today I saw a new song
out that included a timpany sample that I swear is the one from "2nd
Reality", and even then, I thought I heard that sample around somewhere.
These old samples are starting to become a bit out-dated, and people are
starting to realize this. People are taking quality much more to heart
anymore. 8-bit samples don't seem to cut it anymore. With higher
bandwidth and the ability to tranfer larger files, people are useing 16
bit samples at the highest resolution they can handle. I have friends
in the scene that have been experimenting with alternative sources for
samples. Rack mount midi-synth devices, piano-like keyboards with built
in synthesizers, and the ability to download kurzweil samples for your
own use are all indicitive of where the samples are heading. Some have
sampled from these devices, and turned them into great mods. Other have
composed in MIDI and released their MP3s. The point is that sound is
much more important than method anymore.
I have seen computer setups with what I like to call a "wall of
computer and audio electronics". People are no longer useing cheap
two-way pc speakers that plug into the back of your sound card. Some
people, like myself, have hooked up their computers into external
amplifiers which were meant for high quality home audio. It makes a
huge difference with what you hear -- and in turn, what you write.
Before I got a good stereo system hooked up to my computer, I
personally used too much base. Base is good, but not if you can't hear
the lead. Well, my music has evolved with this new audio spectrum, and
I write much more balanced music. But the same is true for sample
quality as well. People are able to pay much more attention to what
comes out of their speakers. That timpany may have sounded good on your
old two-way speakers, but it sounds crappy through amplified 3-way
speakers and a powered subwoofer.
Impulse Tracker was, and still is, a great tracking program. But it
is very soon reaching it's peak. DOS is something that is starting to
fade into the depths of MS-OS Hell. Windows ME still has a DOS Prompt,
but the Windows Whistler (due out sometime late next year) doesn't look
like it will support it. Whistler will be based on an NT kernel, and
if anyone has tried to install IT on an NT machine, you know what i'm
talking about. But the scene isn't about IT as a program anymore, just
the format. There are plenty of windows based trackers out there:
ModPlug Tracker, Buzz, and so on. Maybe one day, IT 3 might actually
exist. Maybe some of these trackers will start to support higher end
audio features, like 128-bit sampling, or MIDI input, or Dolby Digital
Surround Sound.
Is the scene going to go commercial? I don't think so. One of the
things that keeps the scene alive is the fact that people can write
their music without buying new programs all the time. Yes, trackers may
start writing their music to be released on commercial CDs. Let's just
hope that they will remember who helped them, and they might donate some
of their profits to the writers of the freeware programs that they used.
Perhaps these software writers should write a clause: If you sell any
of your music generated useing this software, you must register and buy
this software. I have seen some soft-synths that request that you send
them a copy of your music or even a CD if you use their program to
generate your samples. To me, this is logical. To the artist, this
should seem just as logical. In basic economic theory, the coder might
have every right in the world to charge you for his program if you
release a commercial version of your song -- one that was generated
useing his program. If all he asks for is a copy of your song, that
doesn't set you back much, it's worth it. And any artist in this
situation should recognize this, and make every effort to keep the
software writers happy.
Everyone in the scene has their own website it seems. I don't see
that the concept of the music/demo group is dead. It just isn't nearly
as tight as it used to be. After all, those who release their music
through TiS, United Trackers or (soon enough) SceneSpot, they belong to
a larger group. Sure, the group isn't about them, but the concept of a
group in the first place was to get individule recognition. The reason
that model worked was because people based their downloads on the
group's reputation. One might say that TiS, UT or SS might prevent
this, but it doesn't. If there is an internal rating system, one might
find a reviewer that they like...and only download songs that the
reviewer likes. The sites might even start to regulate the music that
gets posted, requiring a given quality level. Then, we're right back to
the group concept at a macro level. It could happen.
What is in the future of the scene? One shouldn't worry so much.
The world has a way of working things out and keeping enough people
happy. The scene isn't a dictatorship, you can do what you wish while
you're here. But the scene will evolve depending on what the majority
of the people want to do. Maybe if you participate, you might find you
don't dislike it nearly as much as you thought.
--Coplan
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Scene Dirt
News & Rumors
By: Coplan
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-=- Crytek Studios Looking for Programmers -=-
Crytek has been putting up news all over the place that they are
looking for programmers. They do a lot of work with commercial games,
and it might be up your alley.
http://www.ojuice.net/view_article.asp?id=1569
http://www.crytek.de/hp/jobs.htm
-=- Imphobia Domain Questions -=-
Some scene hater apparently registered the imphobia.com domain.
Unfortunately for us, the imphobia.com domain is used to promote a porn
site. THIS IS NOT DARKNESS' SITE. The website totes a few anti-scene
prhases and such. Read the Orange Juice article for more information:
http://www.ojuice.net/view_article.asp?id=1570
-=- Extended Mind Logo Competition -=-
Starting today and ending November 20th, Extended Mind is having a
logo competition. Maximum size is 640x480, 32bit color. Pictures
should be sent to stonda85@hotmail.com. No prizes have been announced.
--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.
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Link List
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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
<*> Fuzzion.................................http://www.fuzzion.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
Azure...................................http://azure-music.com
Blacktron Music Production...........http://www.d-zign.com/bmp
BrothomStates.............http://www.katastro.fi/brothomstates
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
LackLuster.....................http://www.m3rck.net/lackluster
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
http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
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
--=--=--
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Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
Gekko / Gergely Kutenich / mont@tar.hu
Louis Gorenfeld / gorenfeld@vrone.net
Psitron / Tim Soderstrom / TigerHawk@stic.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: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@scenespot.org
Static Line on the Web: http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
Static Line Subscription Management:
http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/static_line
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@scenespot.org).
See you next month!
-eof---=------=--=------=--=--
