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TraxWeekly Issue 024
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/ /_/ /______/\/ \ /______/\/ \ /_____/ // \ \ / / / \
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__\ \____\ e \____\ \____\ k \ ___\ \____\ y \__________/
\____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/WW
ps: woa, a rendered askee!
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| TraxWeekly Issue: #24 | Release date: 08-27-95 | Current subscribers: 287 |
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/---------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------[ Introduction ]------------------------------/
_ _________________
/_\ \__ / (stoney askee)
____ ______ \____ ____/____________ ______
_/ \ _/ \ \ww_/ \ _/ ________/_/ _ \
__/ \/ \ \/ \/ \ / | \__ ___ ___ _______
_/ \\ \ \\ \\ | \\/ | \_ ___ __ __ ____
/___________\__\_______\________\____|______\____________\ \__\
TraxWeekly is in need of one of more columnists that can provide at least
3 articles a month for TraxWeekly. If you are interested, mail
campbell@fox.nstn.ca
There was a listserver crash this week, everything is fixed now but
if you tried to subscribe in the last 5-7 days you might have to
do it again, sorry for the trouble.
There will be no more top lists of anything in TraxWeekly, there is
not enough interest.
TraxWeekly is a little late because I was on vacation in Halifax and
didn't take my computer (:
We are hoping to get Imphobia #11 out in mid-September, if anyone
would like to make a contribution to Imphobia, you may send it
to me and I will make sure Darkness get's it in time for publication.
- Popcorn [campbell@fox.nstn.ca]
/---------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------[ Contents ]---------------------------------/
________ __________________________________________________________________
/ ____/_/ __/ \ __/ / _____/ \ __/ __/ ___/__
< \____\ \ \\ \ \\____ __/ __/_\ \ \\____ \_____ \___
\ \ \ \\ \ \ww\ \\ \\ \ \ \ \ \__
_\________\________\\___\____\ \_____\\_______\\___\____\ \_____\_______\
Letters / Feedback
General Articles
Introducing Baygle.........................Popcorn
Differences in Age.........................GraveDigger
Rantings of a new guy to the scene ........DennisC
Ripping....................................Mhoram
Food for Tracking..........................Ryan Cramer
In Review..................................Necros
Group Columns
Kosmic.....................................Maelcum
Closing
Distribution Sites..........................Neurosis
TraxWeekly Subscribing/FTP/WWW Info.........TraxWeekly Staff
Group Members...............................TraxWeekly Staff
/---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------[ General Articles ]----------------------------/
...---===[ Introducing TraxFilez ]===---...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Baygle is now know as TraxFilez, and has over 200MB of files for DCC:
All Assembly '95 releases [/asm95]
All Kosmic '94 and '95 releases [/music/kosmic]
All released songs from Necros [/music/necros]
All released tunes from FM [/music/fm]
All songs by Jogier [/music/jogeir]
All songs by Heatbeat [/music/heatbeat]
All songs by Dr. Awesome [/music/awesome]
PURE releases [/music/pure]
All Jazz tunes from Aminet [/music/jazz]
All Rock tunes from Aminet [/rock]
All TraxWeekly issues [/traxweekly]
My favorite demos and music [/classic]
Incoming directory [/incoming]
The machine TraxFilez is running from is connected via Ethernet to a
T1, so speeds should be very good. Thank you to Ryan Cramer for
the machine and drive space.
To get access to the bot's file area:
1. Type /msg TraxFilez hello if you haven't already
2. /dcc chat TraxFilez
3. Wait while the login information scrolls by
4. /msg =TraxFilez .files
5. If you need any help with commands, /msg =TraxFilez help
*If you upload a file, please use the desc command to put a description
on the file! An example of this command is:
desc realize2.zip New song by Necros / FM
If any groups or artists would like their releases on the filebot,
please mail popcorn at campbell@fox.nstn.ca
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-[ Differences in Age ]-----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Differences in Age GraveDigger
When you were younger, you parents answered your questions differently. A
different tone of voice was used, and different answers were given. Almost
as if they were different people way back then. Were those gray hairs there
10 years ago? Weren't dad's glasses thinner back then?
Compare the answers to these same questions from the time you were 10 to the
time you were (or are, or will be) 16:
Question 10 yrs. 16 yrs.
"Where's the doctor's office?" "Come with me, "Here's the phone
we'll find it." book, you find it."
"What channel is the football "Check in the TV "Shouldn't you be doing
game on?" guide." your homework?"
"Can I have a snack?" "Sure. There's some "You already ate all
cookies in the the cookies! There's
kitchen." no snacks left."
"Can I go to Joey's house?" "Be home in time for "Shouldn't you be doing
dinner." your homework?"
So you see, the patterns emerge. You get older and your parents develop a
shadow of skepticism. "Is my child ready for the real world?" They ask
themselves. "Maybe if I treat them more harshly, they wll be better
prepared." And they begin to stop doing everything for you. Either you will
then pick up the additional responsibilities, or you will start to develop
some bad habits.
They enforce strict rules on you. They tell you that you spend too much time
on the computer, phone, in front of the TV, with friends, and so on. But to
you, of course, it's no fair. They're wrong and you're right. And even so,
you really *are* right, but not for long.
And then, a magical event comes along to change everything. That event? High
school graduation. Never again are you bound in chains. For me, the escape
has finally arrived, and I've never felt so much freedom in my life.
So there you are, free from the chains that held you in school ever since you
were knee-high. But you have to be careful; a direction not chosen is a
direction not traveled. Without a destination, you make no journey.
At this point, life becomes a chain reaction of goals: choosing goals, and
pursuing them. Actually achieving them depends on how well you accomplish
the first two steps.
You might move into your own place. Now, you can set the rules. No curfew.
Have as many friends over as you want to. This is great!
Then, a lady friend meets you in the front of a church wearing a white dress
and you can hear her biological clock ticking through her dress, and echoing
off the back walls of the church. What could it mean? You are going to have
your own children?!
And the cycle begins again, with you on the flip side. Everything looks a lot
different this way, no? Now you know where all of your parents' money went.
Now you know why they pushed you in school. Because now, after its all over,
it really does matter. Someone will (hopefully) pay you a salary because of
how well you did. (Of course, this mainly pertains to college, but high
school really is part of college.)
Always remember: how old you are is not how smart you are; how old you are is
how old you act.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-[ Rantings of a new guy to the scene ]-------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, if this actually gets into TraxWeekly, I'd better explain why the
heck an unknown dude is typing all this in, so here goes.
I'm Dennis Courtney, who has no handle and has been in this deplorable
state for quite some time now. I've always wondered where people get
their handles, as some things I'm sure people don't just think up.
Anyhow, I'm currently going over a list of suggested handles (some of
which are quite interesting), so expect to see "Dennis Courtney"
disappear in a few weeks. Until then, you'll find me on #trax as
dennisc.
"Ah!" You say now as my nick rings a bell (maybe, but if not, this
paragraph doesn't have a point so please assume it does). Yes! I'm one
of those guys you see hanging out at #trax at odd hours, lurking
relatively silently, emitting an occasional "woop." "Hmm," you think (I
know this because I've been very good at mind reading today), "so what
the hell do all those people *do*? I mean, at any given hour there are
a few people on #trax, about 5 of whom are talking with the rest just
sitting there. What's the deal on those guys?" you no doubt wonder.
Well, the deal's like so: I'm not quite a tracker yet, primarily because
it's not my big aspiration, but that's not the point- if I'm on #trax
I'd better have a damn good reason so here it is. I do think of myself
as a tracker in the larval stage: sure, I've made a few tunes, with my
own samples even, but nothing sounds good enough to be distributed...
"If only MORE beginning trackers felt this way," you are probably
thinking, and that's true: people often start releasing stuff too soon,
which can either make people stars for bursting on to the scene or make
people pariahs for abusing the privilege of using a tracker. So, I'll
stay perfectly silent in most tracker things, thank you... what those
other silent guys are doing the world may never know.
[rumors that Dennis Courtney has been invited into Epinicion on account
of the above paragraph are greatly exaggerated]
So if I don't track, what *do* I do? I mean, certainly this
music-demo-etc scene can't be attracting people who don't make the
stuff, right? Well, yes, I don't think the scenes have much mass-market
appeal, and I'd like to keep it this way- but here's what I do:
Coding: maybe. I have full command of the basic family, and can read
pascal, C, and asm (a skill developed when writing QBasic plasma
routines :) I'm learning asm, but I dunno how good I'll be. Tracking:
no releases yet... I've said enough about this, don't you think?
Drawing (Graphicianing?): no. Organization/PR/etc: This, maybe... I'm a
big diskmag addict and like writing/publicizing so this is maybe where I
fit in. There has to be a place in the scene for someone with no talent
to speak of, right?
But enough about an interview with myself. If you're like me, you don't
want this crap in a TW column... you want me to bust out some k-rad
tracking tips and recipes and stuff. So here's Dennis Courtney's basic
tracking, just to redeem the first few paragraphs of self-indulgent
blabbing...
- Never ever use vibratos unless you sure as heck no what you're doing.
The vibrato is an effect that can either put the finishing touches on a
realistic lead or doom your melody to failure. This happens a hundred
times: I grab a file from somewhere. I fire up cubic player, get into
the groove of the song, dig the chord progression, and then the melody
kicks in. The first part's always going to sound realistic, and it'll
be going along and then OH SHIT VIBRATO FROM HELL STRIKES! And the song
is ruined for eternity. "Vibrato" is a funny word, by the way. A while
back on #trax when people were suggesting phrases for "coed naked
tracking," I thought up "vibrato: it's not what you think it is." Cool,
huh? :) "Don't forget to switch into protected mode" was my favorite,
though... who came up with that?
- Slow portas should be avoided. I just don't like 'em.
- Weird, 1 bpm tunes are cool unless I'm trapped in some kind of time
warp... Try not to make a song sound like a style using speed only. If
you do, be sure to replace the "trance" or "ambient" in the song desc
with "sedative" or "delete me." Same goes with 255bpm songs... I can't
enjoy the fast and hard stuff, but my brain's slow to process sensory
info, and I don't dig the whole rave/techno scene to begin with, so I'm
not one to tell... Next tip!
- Never ever rip from Second Reality. On second thought, try not to rip
from any moderately well known song... I was somewhat shocked when Big
Jim's MC3 entry used some samples that sounded like they were from
mellow-d's "essence." Same with the Nemesis tune... the boom - clunk -
boom boom boom - clunk thing sounds like a sample in some Necros song,
"Eternity" or some such... Note I do not hate these songs (I wouldn't
notice this if I didn't listen to the stuff all the time, would I?), it
just took a while to adjust to a new song using an old sound... Other
sounds to avoid are those rezonant basses and that one cymbal (you know
what I'm talking about... every tune of 1995 has it!) I think more
songs should take advantage of voice samples, not as lyrics or poetry or
anything, but more of just an added sense of unrealism... Sort of a
garbled mumbling or whispering that's incoherent can sound REALLY neat
if applied correctly. Back to ripping- this is self-evident for any
experienced tracker, but if you're experienced you wouldn't be reading
tracking tips from an unknown, right? (unless of course my flowing prose
is just too engrossing to stop reading... hmm..) Okay, the big thing
for beginning trackers is NEVER EVER EVER take all samples from a
song... It's been said a hundred times but people still do it. I was
on some site somewhere and I saw an s3m by a guy I'd never heard of, so
I figured I'd download it, and lo and behold, each sample was from
Purple Motion's "When the Heavens Fall".. and the song was so much in
the same style that it sounded like a bad beta-version of the PM tune.
Those tips weren't entirely original, were they? Well, if I do become a
TW columnist, hopefully you'll see some more interesting stuff now that
the obligatory is out of the way. Until next time (cross your fingers
everyone), Here's to TraxWeekly, writing columns, music tips, and the
subtle art of tracking!
Dennis Courtney * dennisc@community.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-[ Ripping ]----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before I begin, I'd like to say that I'm really honored to be the newest
regular columnist for TraxWeekly. I'm looking forward to doing what I
can to contribute to Trax and the scene as a whole. I'd really like
your help; if you have any ideas for future articles, or just want to
shoot the breeze please feel free to e-mail me at niespodj@neonramp.com.
I'm really interested in doing some reviews, interviews, and any other
type of informative material. If you come across a hot new tune, or a
great new music program, please drop me a line and let me know about it.
I promise that I'll personally check out anything that is submitted - I
don't care if it's a song, music disk, program, web page, etc. I'd
really like to use this column in the future to introduce new talent and
to spread the word on anything new and exciting.
To get the ball rolling - I'd like to take a survey of what you think
are the Top 10 tracked tunes of all time. E-mail me your personal list
and I'll compile all of the results and post them in a future article.
Sounds like fun!
For this week's article, I'd like to talk about the dreaded 'R' word.
No, it's not "Rape". It's not "Religion". It's not even "Rap". I'm
talking about "Ripping". This is probably one of the most controversial
subjects on the tracking scene, and I'd like to talk a little about it.
Specifically, ripping samples.
Many people have different opinions on this subject. Some feel that
it's perfectly OK to rip samples from someone else's tune and to reuse
them. Others feel that everyone should make their own samples and
believe that all ripping is wrong. I'd venture to guess that most
people are somewhere in between.
Whether they admit it or not, everyone has ripped samples at one time or
another. The first thing I did when I discovered Mod Edit a few years
ago was figure out how in the world to make music with this exciting
program. The second thing I did was start ripping samples to build up a
personal library. My guess is that almost all new trackers, in their
excitement, start ripping samples until their hard drive is full. Being
new to the scene, they are unaware of the potential ethical dilemma they
are placing themselves in.
Six months down the line, the new composer releases their first tune,
and can't wait to hear the feedback from the other musicians.
Unfortunately for this new composer, one of the samples they used in
their song is a blatant rip from one of the big musicians on the scene.
To make matters worse, this new composer doesn't give credit to the big
musician for using the sample. The bigshot gets upset, and flames the
hell out of the new composer. Ouch. As a result, the new composer gets
fed up and quits the scene after just one release.
Has this scenario happened? Not to my knowledge; but it wouldn't
surprise me if it did. Ripping samples is a hot subject - those who
sample their own instruments tend to get very upset when someone rips
them, especially if they don't give credit back to the originator.
Where do I stand on this issue? Let me do my best to explain.
Personally, I believe that sampling is more difficult than actually
writing music. It takes a lot of patience and care to make good
samples. Many people don't have the proper equipment, knowledge, or
time to make their own samples.
I'd much rather spend my time writing music than sampling. I'm married,
have a 5 year old son and a 1 month old daughter, work a full time job,
and am a senior in college working towards my Computer Science degree.
What little spare time I get I try to work on some music. If I spent my
free time making samples I'd never get to compose anything. I'm sure
that there are many others in the same situation as I am.
With that said, I'd like to state that I still believe that ripping
samples can be wrong. I probably have about 50 meg of samples that I've
ripped over the years - and I have no idea where they came from. I have
no intention of deleting these samples and starting over. But, from
this point forward, I plan on doing two things. First, I am going to
start making some samples. I feel it's an obligation - I've borrowed
samples for long enough, and it's time to start "giving back" to the
scene. Second, when I do rip a sample, I am going to make sure that I
save the name of the author with the sample so I can give them credit
when I reuse it. I know that many people on the scene already do this,
but I believe that most do not.
So, in conclusion, I believe that each musician on the scene has their
own individual responsibility to try and make their own samples. If
they can't, for any reason, they should go out of their way to credit
the original owner of any samples that are borrowed. I'm sure that many
of you out there will disagree with me one way or another, but I feel
that this solution is a fair compromise for all involved in the music
scene. Coders routinely borrow code from one another and give the
appropriate credit. I see no reason why musicians should be any
different. If you borrow it, give credit to the original author! If
you sample it, don't get mad if someone rips it - take it as a
compliment. If you recognize one of your samples in a tune and they
don't give you credit, bring it to their attention - NICELY. No need to
flame the hell out of some rookie who doesn't know any better.
I'm looking forward to your comments - send me some e-mail if you agree,
disagree, or have your own opinion to share. I'll be sure to publish
some responses in a future article. Until then, track on!
- Mhoram
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-[ Food for tracking ]---------------------------------------[Ryan Cramer]--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
_____BEEF, its what's for dinner
This week's featured dish: "Kung Pung Chow Ping Mooshoo Pao Rice"
This is a dish for when your tracking, and you need some extra energy.
Its damn easy to make, and it tastes kinda good too. I find its exactly
what I need when I need some energy. This is a man's dish too, this
isn't the kind of shit that you'd see some chick cooking.
This portion will serve four skinny ass computer dorks, three chicks,
two hungry tracking folk, or one moderately hungry man. This dish can
also be put into the fridge and tastes great cold.
_____Ingreedientez
1 cup of medium or long grain rice.
- Get the medium grain rice for more stickiness, or the long grain
rice for less stickiness.
1 package of Smoked Sausage.
- The package that you will want should include about four dick
lengths worth, which is two large pieces of sausage. You can find
this anywhere. If you are a fat ass, go ahead and get the full fat
sausage. However, if your concerned about your health, I'd suggest
picking up the "Healthy Choice Smoked Sausage" which also
tastes very good, and only has 1.5 grams of fat per serving.
WARNING!! If you have chicks in yer house, don't leave the
sausage sitting in the frigerator within sight. Girls are very
resourceful.
...and thats all, I told you this was a man's dish...
_____How Tew K00K It Up and Stuff
Lets start out with the sausage. Pull out a knife, and "Bobbit" the
sausage into pieces about 1/2 inch thick. You will only need to use
one large link of sausage for this, which should be half of what your
package included. Once you got it all chopped up and shit, set it
aside. You can give the other piece of unused sausage to your
girlfriend, but don't expect much the rest of the day.
Bring two cups of water to boil in a pan. When selecting a pan, get
one that has a cover so that it can be covered up. To bring the water
to boil, I'd suggest using the HIGH heat for best results. However,
don't put the cover on yet!
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
| ADVERTISEMENT: |
| |
| You can get lots of |
| chicks with Weber gas |
| grills. Buy one. |
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Once your water is all boiling and shit, pour one cup of rice into the
boiling water. Add a dash of salt if you want to, although its not
really necessary.
Reduce the heat to low, and now add your sausage pieces into the
pan on top of the rice. Try to even the sausage out so that there are
little pieces of it just about everywhere. Now put the cover on the pan
and let it all cook on the low heat for 18-20 minutes. You can burn
things on the stove while your waiting.
|-| <- Sometimes some steam will come off the top.
-------------
| | <- This is a pan filled with rice and sausage
| |
| | <- This should be all cooking 'n stuff.
\-----------/
FIRE <- Its kinda hot down at this part. You can stick
FIRE your hand in there and pull it out kind of fast
without getting burnded. Its kinda cool. I like
to burn things in there sometimes too. I once
melted a GI-Joe army guy down there.
After all of this has been cooking for like 18 minutes, you can turn
off the heat and let it cool off a bit. Pull off that cover and smell
it, its good. If you are a man, go ahead and eat it straight out of the
pan and enjoy it. While I usually recommend using your bare hands to
eat, this time I'd suggest using a fork because this shit is really hot
and you can get burned easily by using your hands to eat it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE FOLLOWING IS A PAID ENDORSEMENT:
If yer not a sissy, buy some BULL's Smelly Ass Barbeque Sauce, its the shit!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Enjoy your food. And I should also credit the original author of this
recipe who is my roommate at college. He makes this for breakfast.
Don't forget to turn off the stove, or it will hurt when you touch it.
Ryan Cramer / Renaissance - rcramer1@osf1.gmu.edu
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____ - I N -
| _ \ _____ __________ __ -+ [ * IN REVIEW * ] +-
| |_) )| _\ \/ /| || _\ \/\/ /
| / | _ \ / | || _ \ / A Bi-Weekly spotlight of what's new and
| |\ \ |__ \/ |_||__ \/\/ notable on the scene.
|_| \_\
_____________________________________________________________________________
+ Week of August 28th, 1995 +
Hi there. Welcome to our first week of In Review, where we cover the
best and not-so-best of the new music stuff out this week. ASM95 has
just passed and there is a lot of new music material out to be looked
at. This week we'll cover some of the more notable releases.
- Necros / Five Musicians
necros@axs.net
_________________________________________________________________________
"Catch that Goblin" - Skaven / FC (.S3M) Rating: [******+...] (6.5)
_________________________________________________________________________
This is a surprisingly strange orchestral ditty that managed to win the
ASM95 multichannel competition. It resembles a cross between the end
credits music to Second Reality, and Danny Elfman's Beetlejuice soundtrack.
It is very short, only about 2.5 minutes long, and is very uptempo, silly,
and full of sound effects. The music technically is quite decent, Skaven
manages to pull off the 'crazy symphonic' sound which has been so typical
of soundtracks such as the Simpsons theme, Edward Scissorhands, etc..
however personally I do not think it is worthy of being a compo winner.
Once you get past the 'cuteness', the song is a bit trite (not something
you'd keep around for too long). I don't really know why it got the
overwhelming majority of votes (perhaps because it screams THIS IS A SKAVEN
SONG, VOTE FOR ME?) but in any case, it's one to check out, but not to move
to your songs/keep directory.
_________________________________________________________________________
"Respirator" - Zodiak / Cascada (.XM) Rating: [********+.] (8.5)
_________________________________________________________________________
Our second song is also an ASM95 entry, this time by Zodiak of Cascada.
Zodiak has been long known for his use of guitar riffs and rock grooves to
create memorable songs. This one is quite a good little piece. It is very
reminiscent of old lush 80's music, with a very well done (and heavily
echoed) guitar lead, backed up by sparkling synth pads. The only fault with
this tune is that the song structure is a bit bare; there are only 2 main
sections to the piece which are repeated multiple times. However the sample
quality is good, the grooves are very catchy, and overall it's a very nice
production. Yet, somehow, this tune didn't even make it to the final
15-song cut at ASM95. I wonder what was in the jury's minds this year.
_________________________________________________________________________
"Distance" - The Zapper! / Force Ten (.S3M) Rating: [*******+..] (7.5)
_________________________________________________________________________
'Distance' is from Zapper, a fine Montreal native, and leader of the music
group Force Ten. It's quite an interesting song. The main theme is built
upon two very nice sounding extended samples (from a Mr.Big CD) which set
up the main chord change for the rest of the piece. After a few patterns
kick in, the rest of the orchestration comes in, drums, fretless bass
(really really nice too), organs, etc, to create a very nice modern rock
groove. I first heard this song at the little Mini-Impulse party, and at
first I thought it was a CD track, I could _barely_ tell that this was
tracked, quite a fine job by Zapper. However, the only downside here is the
same problem as 'Respirator' had, lack of good structure. There seems to be
a lot of repetitions of the same guitar riff (possibly because of the
extended samples being somewhat limited), which makes the tune drag in
parts. Yet still, it is something to check out. Sadly, this song got
disqualified from the ASM voting, because of the extended samples. I'm sure
it would have made top 10 easily if it had gotten a chance to get to the
big screen.
__________________________________________________________________________
"Temple of the Sun" - Yolk / Parallax (.S3M) Rating: [*******...] (7.0)
__________________________________________________________________________
This is yet another ASM95 multichannel entry, this time from Yolk of
the Amiga group Parallax. It's predominantly a breakbeat tune, with a bit
of trance-y synth pads thrown in. I found the groove to be quite nice,
simple yet very danceable. Most of the song's charm owes itself to the
wonderful sample quality, the chord pads are very nice and full of texture,
the drums are good, and the beat is solid. Grab it if you like club-style
trance-breakbeat. (Placed 7th at ASM95)
__________________________________________________________________________
"Illumination" - Cube / Dee (.MOD) Rating: [*****+....] (5.5)
__________________________________________________________________________
This was the second place winner in the four-channel competition this year,
by Cube. Pretty much, this song is what you get if you combine huge sampled
synth sequences with all of the guitar samples from Jogeir's Guitar Slinger
module. I guess it took some talent to come up with the huge riffs to
sample, but he doesn't say whether they are from his own MIDI sequences, or
from a random audio CD. Sonically, it's decent (for four channel stuff), but
it doesn't really go anywhere. And when I examined the sample set, I
realized how easy it was to create, it's just stacking big samples on top of
each other. At least the original Guitar Slinger was innovative in it's use
of riffs.
__________________________________________________________________________
"Crayfish Party" - Lizardking / Triton (.MOD) Rating: [******....] (6.0)
__________________________________________________________________________
Our final selection is 'Crayfish Party' by LizardKing, which placed third
in the ASM95 four-channel competition. This is very unlike usual Lizardking
style, which before has consisted of catchy chord progressions and deft
leads. This time he has opted to try to compose a techno-based piece, which
almost verges into industrial from time to time. The closest thing I can
think of to describe it would be to take the old 2nd_PM.S3M, and speed it up
150%, and add a more industrial edge to it. It's repetitive, somewhat groovy
in parts, but overall pretty bland techno fare. The worst part of it is when
he tries to do the Purple Motion-style fast siner synth riffs on top of the
techno beat. It just doesn't work, and almost ruins the feel. Worth taking a
listen if you are a fan of techno, but otherwise, skip it.
Well, that's it for this week. If you have any other song that you think needs
reviewing here, send them along to necros@axs.net.
cheers,
Necros / Five Musicians / Legend Design
necros@axs.net
ftp: dragon.axs.net /pub/demos/songs/necros/*.*
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\ / / . ... ... ````` ......
/ _/ ___/_____________.__...:::::::.:::::::. ::::: .:::::'''' +
/ \ \ _ \ ___.::::::: :::: :::::: .::::: ::::::
/ /\ \__\_\ \____ \ `::::: :::; :::::'.::::::.::::::. ..:. .
/_____/ \_____________________\..::::; ``` :::::::::::::;:::::::::::::;
: : \ \___.._ ......:;:::: __ _ ``:::::::``` ```:::::::``
: : \___..__.. .::::::::::: __._ . . . (WW) .
. .:............ .. . ``````` .+ . .
: : +
... .... ...... a constellation of stars!
Kosmic News and Views for August 27th, 1995
========================================---
Well, what's new? Not a whole lot. I'm looking for employment, so if you're
an employing type, look at http://harmony.wit.com/~kosmic/resume/
and drop me a line. Coming soon.. well, more of the same i guess.
New Releases
=========---
These are the latest releases since last we did this column in TW21:
78 Macrocosm ................ ChuckB ........ 16 .S3M - 8m:44s - 130 - 8/02/95
(K_MACRO.ZIP) - Great acid trance/dance song by Chuck.
79 Orange Skies ............. Lord Pegasus ... 6 .S3M - 5m:55s - 150 - 8/03/95
(K_ORANGE.ZIP) - Melodic trance & house. perfect to chill out to.
80 WorldWide Slack (remix)... Mental Floss .. 15 .S3M - 6m:30s - 96 - 8/17/95
(K_SLACK2.ZIP) - "Dubbing Sir Slack" remix of ChuckB's song. Superb.
81 Progress ................. The Hacker ..... 6 .MTM - 3m:42s - 160 - 8/17/95
(K_PROGR.ZIP) - Classically structured song reminiscent of Steve Reich.
82 Wanderlust ............... Leviathan ...... 9 .S3M - 3m:17s - 106 - 8/22/95
(K_WANDER.ZIP) - Jazz/rock, 4th place veteran entry in Music Contest 3.
83 Plastik Ganja ............ Zake .......... 16 .S3M - 2m:36s - 162 - 8/22/95
(K_PLAST.ZIP) - Acid-jazz with a jungle beat, Zake's debut Kosmic release.
84 Missing Time ............. Basehead ...... 16 .S3M - 9m:29s - 125 - 8/23/95
(K_MTIME.ZIP) - Mysterious-sounding progressive house track.
85 Babylon .................. Phoenix ....... 12 .S3M - 5m:04s - 77 - 8/24/95
(K_BABYLO.ZIP) - Mellow progressive rock, Phoenix unplugged?
86 The Freakmaker ........... Lurch and Maelcum. .MTM - dunno - dunno
(K_FREAK.ZIP) - industrial noise
werd to alot of new releases. phoenix releases stuff now, not me.
Also there's a bunch of new wav-format recordings of kosmic songs now on
kosmic.wit.com in /kosmic/songs/95/wav
for all the non-tracker people out there with fast internet connections.
They're 16-bit 22khz stereo WAV files compressed with IMA's ADPCM
algorithm. If you have Win95, (or Win 3.11 with Microsoft's compression
drivers loaded) they'll play in mediaplayer.
How do you like that spiffy centered text? Coming soon, a new song from
Nemesis, and whatever else we cook up.
Kosmic Web Site update
===================---
I'm still hacking away at KosmicWeb 2.0, the soon-to-be-live (hopefully)
all-new Kosmic web site. Kosmic is now looking for people with _advanced_
experience creating and maintaining WWW pages; ie someone who is going to
be able to implement some search engines, automatically updating pages etc
with CGI, PERL, etc experience. Candidates should send email to
kosmic@harmony.wit.com
Here's the August 15th Kosmic report by GooRoo:
Kosmic Green Report for August 15th, 1995
======================================---
Well, Assembly '95 is over and done with and now we have to go back to our
normal daily lives. However after watching our ASM demo entry
"Little Green Men", people can't seem to stop talking about it!
It seems now that every time I enter IRC and join #trax, there are
people with LGM, people looking for LGM, people wondering where their LGM
is, people chasing LGM, and people being chased by LGM.
Here's an example of what I saw tonight on #trax:
<Daredevil> maelcum:Is your little green man tracking
songs yet?
* Daredevil can't get enough of his Little Green Man
<sirrus> everyone say hi to my personal spirit Brande
<PeriSoft> personal spirit?
<sirrus> i guess hez my little green man
<psibelius> LGM is da shiat. =)
<Ms_Saigon> gooroo: they're not made of lime jello are
they?
<BarryE> mmmmmm...lime jello
<VladD> Do YOU have a little green man?
<Daredevil> vlad: EVERYONE has a green man... man
<Spacetop> I got a green man.. :) ehehe
<ErisE> DD: Eye have no green man just a purple parrot
<fLuGrMy> eye've been invaded by a LGM.
<BarryE> Gooroo: now look what you've done!
<Kneebiter> erise: purple is cooler than green.
* Ms_Saigon wishes her LGM would help her track
* Daredevil puts his Little Green Man in a cool dry place...
<Daredevil> later
*** Daredevil has quit IRC (Connection reset by peer)
<VladD> I'm gonna go chill wit' my little green man.
Kosmic Top Ten List
================---
TOP TEN PLACES TO PUT YOUR LITTLE GREEN MAN
10. In an S3M
9. Use it as a doorstop
8. WIN95
7. Congress
6. In OJ's bronco
5. In Judge Ito's beard
4. In all the places "you put yer weed in'
3. In Red DYe to PISS HIM OFF!%$@#!%$@
2. On a pedestal at the altar in your closet.
1. In a jar next to your purple-headed warrior collection
- GooRoo
---
that's it for now.
- Maelcum
kosmic@kosmic.wit.com
http://kosmic.wit.com/~kosmic/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-[ Epinicion Column]--------------------------------------------------------
___ _______ _____________ ______ ______ _______ ______ _______ ___________
| // \\ \\_____) \\_____) \\_____) \\ \\ |
: / o \ o \ \ \ \ \ \ o \ \:
// _____// / \ : / \ _____/ \ / : \.
\\_______/ _//______\\_|__//______\\_____//______\\_____//____| /:
: \\____\\ ______________________________ oT /___//|
|________________________// e p i n i c i o n \\________________|
New songs this week include: "Visions of Rain" by Zeus which placed 8th
in the Music Contest 3 Rookie division; "The Remembrance" by Psibelius
which placed 32nd in the MC3 Veteran division; "Seeds of Desire" by
Blackwolf, which placed 19th in the MC3 Rookie division; "My Fairytale
Arbor of Light" and "Gladrow Happiness" by Alphabitz; and "Shadow's Run"
by KXmode.
New Members this week include Dodger (C9425527@cc.newcastle.edu.au),
Calvin (calvin@vestnett.no), and Streetwize (jlowe@wtl1.demon.co.uk).
Epinicion is now up to one hundred-seven members.
The September musicdisk is well under way. Thanks to the following for
their current contributions: Aradia, Ng Pei Sin, Red King, River, Zalt,
and Zoner. All members as well as guests are encouraged to help in what
we hope will be Epinicion's best release yet.
NOTICES:
All of Epinicion's 1995 releases can be found at kosmic.wit.com in
/kosmic/epinicion. Server problems have temporarily downed the WWW server
here as well as Epinicion's home page. We are working in the problem,
and sorry for the inconvenience.
Psibelius (Gene Wie)
Epinicion Founder
gwie@owl.csusm.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-[ Distribution Sites ]-----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
BBS System Name Country/State Phone Number System Operator
|---------------------|---------------|------------------|------------------|
Mindflux Australia +61-2-416-2513 Force Format
Velvet Demosite Belgium +32-3-3851594 Sleeping Dog
AltConn BBS Brazil +55-11-816-2031 Herman Fuchs
Hack / Ploddt Canada 902-625-5920 Popcorn
Beats per Minute Canada 418-660-8137 Populus
Our World Canada 416-740-4346 b0b
Cyber Web Italy +39-331-310641 ArachniD
TH Rijswijk BBS Netherlands +31-70-3401534 Raymond Dijkxhoorn
The Digital Dream New Zealand +64-7-856-1376 Black Friday
MultiMedia GS Singapore +65-252-1220 Lee Teck Chee
The Portal Sweden +46-26-196363 Coyote & Cyanid
Sound & Vision U.K. +44-181-288-8444 Rob Barth
Aethelwulf Utopia United States 309-862-4918 Quarex
Synthetic Amusement United States 410-795-8526 Sirrus
|-------------------|---------------|------------------|--------------------|
* Distribution Site Applications ->are<- being accepted at this time. *
Send all requests to Neurosis at neurosis@unix.gcomm.com!
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-[Closing]------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For questions and comments, you can contact the TraxWeekly staff at:
Handle Address Area
----------- ------------------------ -------------------
Claim claim@ikaros.pei.edu Graphics
Dragunov dragunov@info.polymtl.ca WWW Page
GraveDigger digger@ftp.cdrom.com Co-Editor
Mhoram niespodj@neonramp.com Columnist
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White Wizard No internet access ASCII Art
You can also contact Hornet at:
Handle Address Area
----------- ------------------------ -----------------------------------
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Floss norg@cyberspace.com Music Contest 3 coordinator
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Ior jroth@coyote.csusm.edu columnist
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/---------------------------------[ End ]------------------------------------
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:
until next week! (=
.. ... .. ....... ............... .................:..... .. .
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_____ __ __ _ _
|_ _| _ __ ___ _\ \ / /__ ___| |_| |_ _
| || '_/ _` \ \ /\ \/\/ / -_) -_) / / | || |
|_||_| \__,_/_\_\ \_/\_/\___\___|_\_\_|\_, |
|__/
Popcorn [Chris Campbell] / TraxWeekly Editor / Hornet / Imphobia
http://kosmic.wit.com/~kosmic/traxweek/popcorn/
