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TraxWeekly Issue 072
______\____
Issue #72 | \\ \ ______ - T R A X W E E K L Y -
|: \/ | the music scene newsletter
| | _______
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|___\\____/\ :| Founded 12 March 1995
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| TraxWeekly Issue #72 | Release Date: 20 Sep. 1996 | Subscribers: 830 |
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_____ Starting this week, TraxWeekly
_:__ / | is now moving to a Friday
| \/ | release date. It is getting
/\ _________ ______ ________ _______ difficult for myself and the
/ \\ \\ \_\ _ \\ \ rest of the staff to take off
/ \ \ / _/ / _/. \ from our work during the middle
/______\___/ /_______|_____\____|_______/ of the week to put together the
/___\ sTZ!/sE . newsletter. So, the best solu-
| /\__|_ tion was to bump it one day
|_____/ : forward.
This week mainly consists of articles from numerous scene participants on
the concept "Realism in Tracked Music." What is *your* opinion about the
status of tracked music, and how do you think it fits in to the "regular"
music scene?
*** 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 the publication.
Thanks for being with us, and enjoy the issue!
Gene Wie (Psibelius)
TraxWeekly Publishing
/-[Contents]----------------------------------------------------------------
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Letters and Feedback
. 1. Letter from some dude...
_ _:_______ General Articles
| \ __ 2. The Realism Thang..............Sturm
| \\/ ____ 3. Realism in Tracked Music.......#trax-ers
| sTZ!/sE \ / | 4. Composing Whole Modules........Sir Nick
: \/ | 5. Advertisement: The ARK
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|_____/ \ __ | Closing
\\/ \\ Subscribing
\ \ Contributions
\_____|_ _ TraxWeekly Staff
:
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/-[Letters and Feedback]----------------------------------------------------
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--[1. Letter from some dude]------------------------------------------------
Attensiones TraxWeekly riedorantes:
Oyanado! Jungajo lon mia 'Scream Tracker' mon, es junamo orlando! Mia
Pentium conantato tria moebo puen sisso-sisso. Nan, es nan compuendo ye
amora. Pues, 'Impulse Tracker' es milo garante! Es mia favour itendo
worlao! Oge es grandt mia tracker ov koneiro lon mias oy.
Soy oneiro! Impulse Tracker rooleis!
- zincinado / rays@direct.ca
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/-[General Articles]--------------------------------------------------------
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--[2. The Realism Thang]-------------------------------------------[Sturm]--
Realism is not impossible in tracked music. It just depends on your
definition of "real". What is "real"? Just because a sax lead
doesn't have a squeak from a breaking reed, it doesn't mean it's not
real! If you can experience it, it must be real.
If you have a guitar lead in a mod, who says it's not realistic? It's
possible to put loads of different effects on a "real" guitar sound,
so it no longer sounds clean. (wah wah, distortion, fuzz) Is that
then no longer a real sound?
A mod may sound the same every time you play it, but SO DOES A CD!
Mods aren't meant to be live music, you can't expect a different
"performance" every time.
Basically what i'm saying is that a mod sounds real, just like a hard
techno tune sounds real, just like a classical symphony sounds real.
It's all music. And unless i'm mistaken, music is REAL.
About the MC4 issue
===================
Almost all of the comments on my tune were "too boring". Okay, i can
live with that. If i go back and listen to my tune, i can understand
how judges may consider it boring, but the thing is, it was supposed
to be!
I really didn't want to make a demo tune, i think they're too cliche
and just plain boring. I _could_ have - just invent a cheesy melody
around the same notes as a Purple Motion tune, throw H81 commands in
all over the place, and reuse some old bassline from a Skaven tune.
But i didn't.
And i won't next year either. I made my tune for myself. It wasn't
meant to be fun or interesting for the judges, it was supposed to be
triphop-y ambience. Which it was (imho :) <---
M4V-LITA.IT
It must be great to win a compo (i've entered enough TTs without
result :\) but how do you feel if you win a compo after writing a tune
which isn't your own? If i forced a demo tune out, and won MC5, i
still wouldn't have a feeling of satisfaction.
So composers everywhere: PLEASE write your own stuff, and don't be
scared to try something different from the norm. _Some_ judges will
appreciate it (i marked every demo tune down about 10 points) most
won't, but at least YOU will be happy with it. And if you win then,
you'll really feel you've achieved something great.
Oh yeah, and this is the reason why there should definitely NOT be a
time limit on tunes!!! If a composer is really writing their own
style, they may need 10 minutes. As a judge, it's your responsibility
not to mark a tune down for the length. Some people really NEED a
build-up and wind-down. Even two tunes of the same style of music can
enormously vary in length - i've seen ambient tunes from 4 minutes to
60!
Handles
=======
Why do we use handles? It's not because we're scared of people
criticising us (nice try Ganja :) It's coz of tradition! It all
started with people wanting to make a statement without being arrested
- taggers (ie: graffiti artists) These identified you to fellow
taggers, as well as cops - "We've got to arrest... erm... 'Hotrod'...
ahem"
This tagname thing (like so many others... [sniff] i want my 303)
went digital in the mid-80s. Hackers became crackers, who became
coders, then "demo-guys" :) Now it's simply the norm to use handles
in the scene.
Of course, it could be a far simpler reason: Professional musicians
use "handles" too - they're way easier to remember than names. Hell,
who's gonna remember "Richard D James", it's a bloody boring name -
but "Aphex Twin" sticks in your head better.
Just my $0.06 on the last few #tw articles...
Sturm/Explizit (but not afraid to call myself Alex Cavaye!)
sturm@dds.nl http://huizen.dds.nl/~sturm
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--[3. Realism in Tracked Music]--------------------------------[#trax-ers]--
We continue our coverage of people's opinions on the concept of "realism"
in tracked music.
-----
> 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.
I'm not a composer, i'm a coder.. but this is nonsense =) This may be true
for some creeps using 22 khz 8 bit samples. But:
If you use a 44100 hz sample, its Nyquist frequency (that's the highest
frequency a sample can reproduce EXACTLY (More details in a book on the
Fast Fourier Transform or on Digital filters)) is at 44100/2 = 22050 hz.
Now, what's the maximum frequency the human ear can notice? 20000?
Decreasing with the age..
There are some aspects why samples may not sound like real instruments, but
the DIGITAL NATURE of samples does NOT make it lose any information.
The ear can NOT exceed a "sampling rate" of 20000. You eardrum can not
move faster ;) A 44100 hz sample, 16 bit, is *crystal clear*. (If didn't
sample it the *hold*the*mic*i'll*play*the*guitar*-way).
Hope I made maself clear.. (just bored =)
> 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.
Do not bet on it. This is only the case for realtime replay. (Or for
today's computers. If our soundcards could do digital filtering in
realtime, we would all .. let's say .. be *quite* astonished by the sound
realism of PCs ;)
brn <brain@eleet.iddc.via.at>
(p.s. Maybe your ears are better.. and you have a higher "sampling rate" =)
-----
ABOUT REALISM OF TRACKED MUSIC
I've read of the debate regarding realism of tracked music and I want to
spend some words about it. When I track a song, my first point is not to
create something that sounds more "real" as possible (that's why some
people say that my tunes aren't even music at all >:) ), but something that
is exactly what I "hear" in my mind. Who cares if what I imagine is a Syn
Brass and not a real Brass?! (or a real bra? AGH!!!!). The main thing is
that you wanted to use that &$(&"!# SynBrass... Surely, this will let you
say "My song was intended to be unreal", if someone criticizes your work,
but is your coscience to release only what you feel is done well, what
correspond to your aim... Can we consider tracked music another music style
then? Surely not, but I think that Hard Rock and Tracked Hard Rock f.e.,
could be two different styles... All I ask, is that you all listen to MODs
without enjoying them only for their closeness to "real sound", but above
all for the feelings they give. I think that now great composers'll hate
me and lamers/remixers/sh*tcomposers will love me... This is not bad, just
because the last three categories comprehends 99.9% of the whole scene, and
I'm in them.... >8)
It-Alien NAPODANO@INOPERA.LOGNET.IT
it-*.zip files (XM) on cdrom.com
-----
I found it rather interesting to read some of the comments on "REALISM IN
TRACKED MUSIC"... The age old battle continues that's for sure. But, either
I'm missing the point (which is possible, since I don't actually track
music myself, but rather enjoy listening to it), or perhaps those that
track are?
The true fact of the matter is the inherent size of files and the true
usable file size that one can have for their releases modules (in any
format, MOD, S3M, MTM, XM, etc. etc.). The average person (and yes, its the
average person these modules should be made for) should be kept to a size
so that someone with say, either a SB16, SB32PnP, SB32AWE, ProAudio
Spectrum, UltraSound, etc that is straight from the box, can listen to it.
If everyone complains all the time that the tracker (or trakker) scene
doesn't get enough credit; then it is up to those that participate in the
scene to help create interest in the products that are created. (sidebar:
the Adlib sound card didn't go way of the DoDo bird for nothing).
If I can't listen to the sound file on either my SB32Pnp, Pro Audio, SB16
or GUS (1mb) I just don't worry about it. And when my users on my BBS
(P-U-L-S-E) download a track they can't play because its too big, then
they get mad and complain about the trakker (the person that is, not the
type of module), in a public message forum and that tracker ends up getting
slammed publicly, as does the entire tracker environment.
(I say all this because, I only run a BBS and don't track, and it is those
that run BBS, Web sites, FTP sites, etc that actually propagate the music
to the masses that get to hear the jeers or cheers regarding each tracked
module).
Enough with the small talk, I still think that most people are forgetting
the technical side of things, an I'll only point out the facts :
Telephone Sampling Rate 8khz
Radio Sampling Rate 16 - 22khz
Average sample in a MOD 22khz
Compact Disc Sampling Rate 44.1khz
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) 48khz
The nearest feasible sound to that of the human ear is basically the DAT
tape at 48khz. Compact Disc at 44.1khz is very close to real sound and is
difficult to tell the difference when using decent equipment,... But for
those that build modules and record the samples at 22khz+/- are far from
what the human ear can detect as being real and/or fake.
Until such a time as someone develops a NEW format for trakking that can
efficiently compress true Digital sound (44.1khz) to a usable size, we
will only get sounds that attempt to be real, but are yet so far away from
reality.
(and yes, although the newer trackers and formats can handle 44.1khz
samples, the size of the final file is far larger than what that average
person can realistically handle on their system)
I will say this, Trackers (Trakkers) don't give up hope, keep on tracking
and people will keep listening, but cut the battles with each other; help
build the tracking scene and if you really want to battle something, battle
technology and be the first to come up with a real trackable module format.
-= Cheers =-
Purple Haze
spesant@direct.ca
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--[4. Composing Whole Modules]----------------------------------[Sir Nick]--
I was writing a module (well, .it -file to be accurate) the other day and
tried to put the patterns into some order. The patterns were absolutely
magnificent, yet I couldn't get the song in whole work. I've done
tracking for some six years now, starting with st225, continuing
with couple of st3 versions, and now finally the Impluse Tracker, and
all of these, as well as I guess all the other trackers available, deal
with note data in blocks of only few bars.
This feature of the trackers seems to affect the structure of tracked tunes
quite heavily. Everyone who has done even a bit of tracking (hey, why do
you read this magazine if you haven't?) knows how easy it is to copy one
pattern over and over again and work out some minor modifications for each.
For the intro part we make some random noise or maybe just the plain chords
or drumbeat of this basic pattern we just invented, slowly filling in more
instruments during the next couple of orders. Then a couple of orders with
the maximum mayhem and in the middle the same pattern again without drum
track this time, ending with a long snare fill, and back again to the
original pattern, then the same pattern raised by whole step etc.
Sounds monotonous? Precisely! For example, there was a tune in Abducion'96
music compo beginning with a piano part, that was very beautyful and
composed with great skill. But then, the musician-fellow apparently
had run out of patience (or time?), and the same four-bar piano part
was repeated all through the song. If he had kept it up for, say, four
more bars and then repeated it, the song could have been in my personal
top five, but now the rest of the song was so anesthetical that I
almost fell asleep and naturally didn't vote it.
So, what's the point? Maybe we should pay more attention to the overall
layout of our tunes. Maybe it should be good idea to work out a chord
diagram or some kind of structure plan before getting on with the
actual tracking. Well, this doesn't exactly apply to techno tunes, but
everyone knows how to write them anyway... ;) I know it's painful to
have for example a chord progression spanning over two patterns and try
to edit the latter pattern alone. Is there need for yet another module
format, something like the .mid is today? I'm afraid writing a tracker
or a player for it would be technically more complicated, but surely
somebody has the spare time... (And if someone became fascinated about
the idea, I could explain more later.)
Sir Nick / Deck Blasters
(Niilo Sirola)
nsirola@pop.fipnet.fi
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--[5. The ARK]--------------------------------------------------------------
The ARK is a music station launched into hyper space to support and
enhance the Creative sparks in individuals and companies that are
often neglected in the rush to fill the potential of new technologies.
http://www.arkangel.com
The Heart of our site is THE MUSIC SESSION BUREAU (MSB) which is a
interactive site for Musicians, Producers, Programmers,
Songwriters, Engineers, DJ's and Vocalists.
(http://www.arkangel.com/MSB/)
The Bureau Law Scrolls offers legal advice for Artists entering
into Record, Publishing and Management Contracts, to help stop them
from getting ripped of ( as is often the case). The Info was provided
by one of London's top Law firms.
(http://www.arkangel.com/law/)
WebSTAGE is a site for Happening bands and Artists,
(Some of which are signed and some are not.)
Including Skylab (http://www.arkangel.com/webstage/skylab/),
Datatak,(http://www.arkangel.com/webstage/datatak/)
with lots more coming soon.
There is separate section for Labels (http://www.arkangel.com/labels/)
including L'attitude, Zane records,(http://www.arkangel.com/labels/zane/)
and Ronin records and other Production Co's .
Other sections that will be open soon are;
The Curve(http://www.arkangel.com/curve/) which is a tutorial Site.
We also have a Music mall section for Vendors/Retailer Ad's,
(http://www.arkangel.com/musicmall/) and a Studios Site
with some Studio's brochures. (http://www.arkangel.com/studio/)
We also have various resources like GM/GS midi tables
(http://www.arkangel.com/arkhgms.html) ect via our expanding 'Help' pages.
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| \/ | sTZ!/sE
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/ _/___\ /__\ \\ _/___/ \\ \\ _/___
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\_________/_______/_____//______/____\___/ /_________|
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TraxWeekly does not discriminate based on age, gender, race, political
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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.
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