Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
TraxWeekly Issue 071
______\____
Issue #71 | \\ \ ______ - T R A X W E E K L Y -
|: \/ | the music scene newsletter
| | _______
________ __________ _______ ______| /
._\ __|\ ._ // _. \\ | /
| | |/ _/ \| \_ _/.
|_______|_____/ \_____\___._/ |_____|
sTZ!/sE . \_____/ |______|
_______ | ________
____\ /__________ ________ ____ ______ _____ \ /___
._\ \ \\ _. // _. // |/ // |___\__ / /_
| /\ \ \|__/ \|__/ / __/. | /___ \_
|____________/_______________________\______|_________._/ ______/
. |______\
| |
|___\\____/\ :| Founded 12 March 1995
\ \_______|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| TraxWeekly Issue #71 | Release Date: 12 Sep. 1996 | Subscribers: 819 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
_____ It's that time of the week
_:__ / | again, to quickly download and
| \/ | spend a large amount of time to
/\ _________ ______ ________ _______ peruse TraxWeekly, the music
/ \\ \\ \_\ _ \\ \ scene newsletter. =)
/ \ \ / _/ / _/. \
/______\___/ /_______|_____\____|_______/ This week, Gryzor presents us
/___\ sTZ!/sE . with some of his opinions on
| /\__|_ the Amiga scene, and provides
|_____/ : some specultions about its
future. In light of the recent
Music contest, Domine gives us an excellent perspective on the reasoning
behind the innate urge in all of us to "track." "Realism in tracked music"
is into its second week, with responses from a number of our fellow #trax
-ers. And maybe its time for another TraxCulture, eh? =)
Many thanks to Snowman for correcting a small problem with the subscriber
numbers on the listserver for us, our current subscriber list is nearing
one thousand! Let's keep'em coming...also...
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The HORNET Archive at ftp.cdrom.com has revised its
directory structure. AudioFile, DemoNews, TraxWeekly, and other related
scene publications are now found in /pub/demos/incoming/info. Please note
this change, those of you who ftp these publications.
Thanks for being with us, and enjoy the issue!
Gene Wie (Psibelius)
TraxWeekly Publishing
/-[Contents]----------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------/
Letters and Feedback
. 1. Letter from Pedro Cardoso
_ _:_______ General Articles
| \ __ 2. The Amiga Music Scene..........Gryzor
| \\/ ____ 3. Realism in Tracked Music.......#trax-ers
| sTZ!/sE \ / | 4. Why do we track?...............Domine
: \/ | 5. Demoscene Psychology...........Ganja Man
_____ _______ ________ _____ ______ ________ ______ _____
/ _/___\ \\ \\ \_\__ |\ \\ \_\ _/___
/ \ \_ \ \ / _/ /___| \ / _/_____ \
\__________/______/___/ /______|____________/ /_______| /_______/
. /___\ /___\
| /\
|_____/ \ __ | Closing
\\/ \\ Subscribing
\ \ Contributions
\_____|_ _ TraxWeekly Staff
:
.
/-[Letters and Feedback]----------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------/
--[1. Letter from Pedro Cardoso]--------------------------------------------
From pcardoso@mail.telepac.ptTue Sep 10 11:14:20 1996
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 96 14:34:11 EDT
From: Pedro Cardoso <pcardoso@mail.telepac.pt>
To: gwie@mailhost1.csusm.edu
Subject: traxweekly
Hi,
Let me introduce myself. I'm Garfield of the portuguese group Radioactive
Design. I came 6th in the rookie division at the MC4, not that bad for
my first try outside Portugal. I was reading Traxweekly the other day when
I saw you crying out loud for contributions from non-North Americans.
This is my try at the damn thing. :)
We have a still small but growing demoscene. The scene in here is not a
very big one because of a number of reasons, but the two most important
reasons for this are a) Phonecalls are prohibitly expensive and so only a
minority has modem, and even fewer have internet access and because of
this most people who do something are isolated from everyone else. Hell,
even in my own group I am the only to have a modem and internet access.
Reason b) is that no big scene can be formed when most people only know
how to load up Doom/C&C or whatever. I said "most" because as always there
is no rule without exceptions.
The other musician in my group, Shaka, is a quite talented guy, but like
most of the people around here when they listen to the latest Necros' or
whatever's latest module they most always give up because they think they
never can match Necros talent. I've listened to some of Necros earlier work
after listening to his recent stuff and I tought: "whoa! are we talking
about the same Necros here?". His first work sucked, just as everyone's
first try at tracking.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/-[General Articles]--------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------/
--[2. Some words about the Amiga Music Scene]---------------------[Gryzor]--
After reading Psibelius' "The State of the Scene" article in TW #70,
I thought that I could write some words about the Amiga Music Scene, thru
my own experience...
Well, as most of you may know, I'm an French Amiga user (and lover ;)
since '88. Musician since I found out this marvellous Soundtracker in '89,
- was it Soundtracker v1.0 by The New Masters? or by Unknown of Doc...? -
I gradually left my composing activities and came to programmation in '93,
releasing Pro-Wizard (a module ripper/converter) and was reduced to compose
only ONE or TWO mods per year(!) which made me feel quite bad about myself,
not being able to find inspiration anymore...
The main reason was of course: the lack of motivation due to the four
channels of Protracker. Being composing 4chn-mods for 5-6 years, I felt I
had reached the limit of my own style of compositions. Maybe this was also
due to the fact that I hadn't the patience to search for some good samples
anymore (I never had any synth or else...). Well, of course, some new 8chn
trackers appeared on Amiga (like StoneTracker, Art of Noise, Symphonie...)
but either they were very buggy, or not very system-friendly, or too heavy
to use... Since the Amiga audio-hardware remained the same (*4* channels),
each tool had to mix the 8+ tracks, taking a lot of CPU-time, and even if
we forget these drawbacks, I would have created some mods in a very rare
format, impossible to play on PC's, for instance...
That's why I think this is one reason for the fading of the Amiga Music
Scene. And what would you do to solve this problem? To bring back your
motivation? ==> Buy a GUS card (with a PC around ;) and start learning
how to use ScreamTracker, ImpulseTracker or FastTracker-2! Obviously...
Then, you'll be able to play around with 16-32 channels, 16 bit samples,
44Khz, and live again! ;)
I know some friends who followed this way, like Oxbow/Scoopex,
Clawz/Oxygene, and many other ones (like myself in some months, hey! ;)
But I also know some other friends who prefered to come to MIDI composing,
those like Blue Silence, who owns lots of equipment, synths, mixing table,
and plays around with the excellent Bars & Pipes Pro (still on the Amiga).
Finally, some other (lucky?) ones like AudioMonster and Moby got the chance
to work in a game-company, writing musics and sound-fx for games, so, like
Moby said to me some months ago, when you spend 8 hours a day on composing
musics (not mods, of course) and sound effects, you don't feel like using
your Protracker (or even your FT2 on PC) when you come back home, to go on
composing modules. Very understandable, indeed...
And very finally, because of the situation of the Amiga, the crisis
hitting this great computer, there is no new "generation" of composers,
or just a few ones, like Muffler maybe, Heatbeat's brother ;) but this is
sure, the (tracked) Music Scene is now more on PC than on Amiga. You just
find some new Amiga productions at each huge party, but between partys...?
Nothing!
Let's hope than the new Amiga models (if there are some...) will bring
some great audio characteristics (but we'll have to wait for the new tools
taking advantage of this...). Did you know that the GUS card was planned
for the Amiga, at the very beginning? Yes... but these idiots at C= didn't
want it (!!) *sigh*
So, OK, maybe I don't know every Amiga composer, of course some of the
"old" ones keep on composing 4chn modules (like Virgill, Dizzy..) but this
is just a minority, as far as I know...
When you see what you could do with those PC trackers (and the great GUS),
you can't resist! ...even if you dislike the PC OS... <:-)
Gryzor - gryzor@club-internet.fr
-=( Mods Anthology )=-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--[3. Realism in Tracked Music]--------------------------------[#trax-ers]--
Our second week of coverage on the "realism" trend in tracker music brings
you various opinions from music scene memebrs and how they view this debate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Over the years, I've heard the music go from completely computer-sounding
to almost realistic. It seems that the trend nowadays in tracked music
is moving to that of realism. However, nobody can accurately reproduce
real instruments EXACTLY, because the sheer number of data you'd need for
the correct sounding sample would be in the gigabytes. Last I checked, I
only have eight MEGS of memory on my sound card, and even that is alot
compared to most of the stuff out there. When I set out to write a piece
that sounds quasi-realistic, I do not attempt to make the song sound as
if it were an audio CD of Chopin. However, I DO attempt to make it sound
as little "digital" as possible. Keep in mind that samples are just
that--SAMPLES of real-life instruments that are chopped up into little
tiny pieces. Most S3M songs are still 8-bit, 22khz samples. This means
(for those of you that don't remember how a WAV file is made) that the
sound is captured 22 thousand times every second. Keep in mind that in
"real-life" instruments, there is no khz to the ear. The sound is a
CONTINUOUS wave passing from the source to the listener.
In conclusion, I think that tracked music can ATTEMPT to be realistic if
the composer so desires, but leave the actuall realistic instruments to
the actuall realistic music.
--Behemoth
behemoth@vv.cta.com
----------
Okay, here's my $0.02 USD =)
"Realism" is intrinsically impossible in a tracked medium, because it
requires replication of every quirk about an given instrument, like a
sax squeaking because the reed split, or whatnot. This is not possible
without incredibly complex mixing algorithms that would not lend itself
well to realtime playback.
On the other side of the coin, impossibility has never stopped anyone
from trying, or at the very least faking it. One needs look no farther
than the C64 demo scene to see that. "realism" cannot be done, but it
can be faked (as some music, such as "greynote.s3m" by necros, shows).
So, in summary:
Is 'realism' possible? no. Can it be faked? yes. Is it wrong? Depends.
Done correctly it will work just fine. Done incorrectly, it will ruin
your tune. Caveat Emptor(sp?)
--GBlues / grey
nathan@otp.com
----------
Here is my point: Depending on the music, realism is very important.
FI, Classical really needs real sounding instruments. Come to think of
it, I don't think I have ever heard a good sounding Classical
MOD/S3M/whatever.
But, when you look at Techno, realism doesn't matter one bit. Sometimes
what you are looking for there, is the ability to do things that couldn't
be done in real life. If it doesn't sound real, does anybody care (at
least of those who like techno?).
So, what is my over all opinion? Make the instruments that you use sound
real, or close enough, or use cool sounding synth sounds. A really fake
instrument just trashes everything (except in the case of techno).
-=> Alan Robinson
robinson@juno.com
----------
Greetings,
I wanted to make 2 comments about 2 articles in the last TraxWeekly.
#1
On the subject of realistic-sounding music, I don't know if it really
matters how "realistic" MODs sound. A lot depends on the type of music.
Techno songs use synthesizers. Thus, if a MOD is made that doesn't use
samples from a specific synthesizer that "real" songs are made with, is it
not "real"?
Music is too subjective for this to even be an issue. All music is is a
bunch of sounds which envoke an emotion or feeling. Noone really knows how
the human brain works. Therefore, noone knows what makes a good song.
Whether the instruments are real or not doesn't make any difference.
On a related subject, it is technically possible to exactly reproduce any
sound. All sound is is waves in the air, and devices can be made to
reproduce those waves exactly. I'm not saying that MODs are capable of this
but some equipment could do it. In the future, maybe MODs could advance to
be able to have higher quality sound.
#2
This is sort of related to the first topic. Another article dealt with the
popularity of MODs, and "should we leave computer generated music to MIDI
people". I scream a defiant "No!" If you're reading this, you're probably
either a tracker yourself or you listen to MODs frequently. I encourage you
to not give in to MIDI or acoustic/commercial/"real" musicians. We MOD
enthusiasts are the future!
With advocates like Music Trackers International, our infulence is sure to
spread. And I want to one day start a radio station that plays only MODs. I
know we can do it. Keep tracking, and we will win in the end. One day, MODs
will be as common a word as CDs.
-Mark aka Raphael
markf@netpath.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--[4. Why do we Track?]-------------------------------------------[Domine]--
So MC4 has come and gone by a few weeks now. I thought it was a
marvelous idea on the part of the contest organizers to make the judges'
comments on every song available to the public. I perused the comments
on the songs I had listened to, and of course to comments on my own
entry, with great curiosity. I heard one theme echoed throughout many of
the MC4 comments: namely, that when you're tracking a song for a compo,
it is important to remember that you need to keep the judges interested
and make sure to track something original to get their attention. Though
I cannot doubt the truth in those words, they didn't set well with me
for some reason. Although many other factors influenced my decision,
reading some of the comments eventually sparked my ambition to write
this very article. I suppose it's all about some things I've observed in
the scene, feelings I've had, and some unanswered questions I've
discovered in the process. At any rate, it got me thinking about why we
track. That question is the focus of my thoughts here.
Do you approach writing for a compo differently than for your other
tracking endeavors? There is the allure, in almost any competition, of
being in the virtual spotlight after winning...having your name thrown
about on IRC for a couple of weeks, and having messages from crazed fans
posted to newsgroups and to your inbox asking where they can "d/l all
yer kewl tunes!" Perhaps. :) Many compos have prizes and, while I'm
grateful for generous sponsors who take a chance with the tracking
scene, I am almost glad that prizes are usually not so fabulous that
they overshadow the aforementioned benefits of winning a compo.
I always thought it was quite amazing that the "scene" was so unlike the
corporate world of music. My parents were both professional musicians
until...well, until there were three kids to feed :) Some of the lousy
deals that they were forced to be involved in while they were still
recording I know still happen today. In the "industry" as opposed to in
the "scene", you write and you play what the public wants to
hear...because it makes you more money. So you're composing for someone
else and, if fame is too alluring, then there is little _you_ left in
your music at all. In the 50's and early 60's, most pop stars rarely
wrote their own music. People who knew what the public wanted wrote the
music and handed it to a fabricated identity to perform.
The word "musician" implies an intimate connection between the music and
the person behind it. What do you have when a musician is composing
music strictly for someone else? The music ceases to be in its' rightful
place as a part or a piece of the musician. This brings us back to why
we track. Is it vain to say we should compose first and foremost for
ourselves? I say no. I believe no music is more genuine than the music a
composer writes about how he is feeling at that moment; or the music
that results from a composer simply sitting down at her computer to
experiment with rhythm and tone for her own enjoyment. There is no music
more sublime than that with which its' author is most pleased.
If you're writing _for_ a compo, you're writing _for_ the judges or
_for_ a winning spot. If you're sitting down and thinking to yourself,
"I'm going to track something _so_ different and _so_ unique that I'll
win for sure"...maybe you will win. But has the music departed from its'
rightful dwelling place within the musician? There's always room for
genuine explorations and experimentation to achieve a unique sound that
everyone will remember; that's how the scene grows. But do you do it for
you, or for everyone else to notice and maybe to vote for, for being so
unique? Should your style be any different when you write for a compo
than for your everyday compositions? It's _you_ who enters a compo...not
merely your song. A song might need more than just catching someone's
attention for a few minutes. A song has truly won, at least in my eyes,
if it makes itself at home in C:\MODS :)
Do we track to win? Do we track to be famous? Do we track for ratings?
Do we track for fulfillment? I must admit that I don't know the answer
to the question this piece originally posed, namely, "Why do we track?"
And so that leaves something for you to think about...because I know,
perhaps, why I track...now, why do you?
please comment if you'd like...
Domine / Xanthas
<domine@ugcs.caltech.edu>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--[5. Psychology of the demo-scene]----------------------------[Ganja Man]--
A few weeks ago I read an article in #tw on the use of handles in the demo
scene. The article argued that handles were now completely useless in the
demo scene, and that we should just use our real names. Looking at it from
this article's point of view, this seems a completely logical path to take.
But I think I have discovered the *real* reason why us trackers cling to our
handles.
What is the average age of someone in the demo scene? 16? 17? 18?
Whatever the average age, one thing is certain; most are in the throws of
adolescence. Now take a look at the stereotypical computer user. What
both groups have in common is that both groups, either consciously or
unconsciously are overly worried about what other people think of them.
As a tracker, when you release a tune, you almost don't admit to it. You
don't sit someone down and say 'listen to this' (well, I do, and I'm sure
others do, but not in a big way. You only do it with those whose opinions
you trust, not with just anyone from the general public). You upload the
tune to an ftp site. When people listen to the tune, they don't know who
you are, they don't even know your name. If they think the tune is crap,
they think 'that ------------ is the worst MOD writer ever'. If they like
it, they think 'f--- that ------- rules'. As a MOD writer, I am sure most
of us feel (unconsciously) that the comment isn't really aimed at them,
just at their handle. Add to this the fact that the person making the
comment has never even met you, and it makes the comment seem altogether
less valuable. I believe it is for this reason that handles are still used
in the demo scene; because most of us (subconsciously of course) couldn't
handle the criticism. Well, that's my view anyway.
Ganja Man [LoK]
ad021@dial.pipex.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/-[Closing]-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------/
__\___
| \\ \ ___:_
| \/ | sTZ!/sE
____ ______ ______ _____ /\ _________ _____
/ _/___\ /__\ \\ _/___/ \\ \\ _/___
/ \ \_ / \_ \____ \ \ \ / \ |
\_________/_______/_____//______/____\___/ /_________|
. /___\
_|__/\ |
: \___\\__|
\
TraxWeekly is available via FTP from:
ftp.cdrom.com /demos/incoming/info (new issues)
ftp.cdrom.com /demos/info/traxw/ (back issues)
To subscribe, send mail to: listserver@unseen.aztec.co.za
and put in the message body: subscribe trax-weekly [name] (NOT address)
To unsubscribe, mail same and: unsubscribe trax-weekly (in message body)
Contributions for TraxWeekly must be formatted for *76* columns,
must have a space preceding each line, and have some measure of
journalistic value. Please avoid the use of high ascii characters,
profanity, and subjects not proper for public discussion.
Contributions should be mailed as plain ascii text or filemailed
(MIME/UUE only) to: gwie@csusm.edu before 11:00pm PST (North
America) every Wednesday.
TraxWeekly does not discriminate based on age, gender, race, political
preferences, religious preferences, or eliteness.
The staff can be reached at the following:
Editor: Psibelius (Gene Wie)..............gwie@csusm.edu
Staff: Atlantic (Barry Freeman)..........as566@torfree.net
Benjamin Krause...................orogork@cs.tu-berlin.de
DennisC (Dennis Courtney).........dennisc@community.net
Fred (Fred Fredricks).............fred@paracom.com
Kal Zakath (John Townsend)........jtownsen@sescva.esc.edu
Kleitus (Seth Katzman)............skatzman@global2000.net
Mage (Glen Dwayne Warner).........gdwarner@cvn70b.vinson.navy.mil
Mick Rippon.......................rip@hunterlink.net.au
Trifixion.........................trifix@orion.polaristel.net
Zinc (Justin Ray).................rays@direct.ca
Reporter: Island of Reil (Jesse Rothenberg).jroth@csusm.edu
Graphic Contributors:
Cruel Creator . Stezotehic . Squidgalator2 . White Wizard
TraxWeekly is a HORNET affiliation.
Copyright (c)1995,1996 - TraxWeekly Publishing, All Rights Reserved.
/-[END]---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------/
. : .
\ . ____
\ . / / |
_ __\ /_____ / | [ T H E E N D ! ]
| \/ |
________ _____ ______ ______ ________ _________
\_ \_\ _|___ \__ | __\__ |\ \\ _ \
| _/ \ \ /___| / /___| \ / / /
|______|_____/____/_____\ \_____________/ /_________/
. /___\
| | sTZ!/sE
| __ /\ |
: \// \____|__ _ _
|_____/ / \
' \
