(These articles all appeared in DemoNews issue 89, May 7 1995 -
 only the NAID compo songs were taken from the second article)

=---------------------------------------[NAID: Its About Time]--[GraveDigger]-=

 It's about time.

 The North American Demo Scene has had tremendous talent for quite a long
 time. Enough to hold a demo party. Enough to hold such an event that would
 be a fine presentation of everyone's hard work. Even though it always seems
 to us that Europe holds all of the "good" coders, graphicians, and
 musicians. They display their talents several times throughout the calendar
 year at various demo parties at equally varying party sites. But despite
 these facts, there is talent on this side of the puddle.

 Even though Europe has had all of the major demo parties up to this point
 in time, with tens of thousands of watts of stereo sound equipment, and
 large screens where demos and intros are shown, its about time North
 America had a taste of the fun.

 Finally, a demo party. Some 700 North Americans gathered together under one
 roof for two days of competitions, raving, coding, composing, drawing, and
 just having fun. It's about time we had our moment in the spotlight. About
 time our songs were cranked out on a 15,000 watt amplification system.
 About time our graphics were flashed on the big screen to the
 partygoing-audience. And about time our intros and demos were played in
 this makeshift theater as the crowd of onlookers applauded and cheered for
 the same things that we have all secretly loved to witness on our bedroom
 computers for so many years.

 But this was different.

 Everything being witnessed in the compos was new. Brand new. And we were
 the first to witness it. It was our time, right then and there. Just like
 an "authentic" European demo party. These productions were not downloaded
 from an FTP site. They were not transported via floppy disk from a friend's
 house. In fact, a lot of these productions were just a few hours beyond
 their final completions. I believe that all of the intro entries were
 completed on-site. And many were probably just *started* that weekend, too.
 This stuff was *hot*.

 And now; long last, the NAID partygoers come to realize the significance of
 the event. No better way to cherish the demo scene than to dress it up and
 take it out in style.

 North America has earned it, and after all is said and done, it must also
 be said, the party crowd couldn't have acted in any more of a respectable
 way. I heard no reports of fights, severe injuries, stolen property, or
 anything that would otherwise cause others to not enjoy themselves. This
 crowd was a mature, honest, and fun-loving bunch. Perhaps some foolish
 things were done, but only because of the high energy level that people
 were experiencing.
  
 People were patient as technical bugs were worked out of the system. They
 patiently waited for the final results at the end of the event. They
 happily applauded the winners, and they thoughtfully encouraged those who
 did not win.

 One person comes to mind with that last thought. Necros, the winner of the
 music competition, showed his maturity and respect for others with his
 awards speech. He offered words of encouragement, and he pointed out the
 underlying comraderie that we all shared; that no one man is better just
 for winning a competition, and that talent is a common asset among us all.

 North America has not only held a demo party, but it was a grand success;
 so much in that aspect that another one has already been talked about and
 the organizers are starting to get back to work.

 And after the big screen at NAID was taken down, after the speakers were
 switched off, and after the last classroom-for-sleeping was locked shut, I
 must say that North America deserved it. Here's to all the fun times (and
 not- so-fun times) we all had in planning, organizing, attending, and
 eventually leaving NAID. And let's all hope that we can pull it off again
 next year.

 -Brett Neely gd@ftp.cdrom.com

=------------------------------[Review of Several Compo Songs]--[GraveDigger]-=

 _____ASCENT.S3M by Necros / Five Musicians, Psychic Monks, Legend Design

 This song took first place at NAID 95.

 "I feel that music is the art which can best express the emotions which flow
  within us," Necros once told me. "It conveys something bigger than it is."

 And with that, lets get our binoculars and watch the ascent of his cloud
 eagle.

 A very gentle intro, it begins with a clean arpeggiated guitar layering the
 rhythm chords and a pan flute taking the lead. The flute does not at any time
 feel limited by the rows and patterns that it is tracked on. Often using two
 and up to four channels to echo the flute lead, its depth can be felt. Often
 an instrument can feel very boxed-in by the tracker, but this is not the case
 here.

 At 0:17, a gentle percussion background is added. A low ride cymbal is
 played on off-beats and a kettle drum is played on an alternating beat
 pattern.

 At 0:37, a very catchy chord change is executed on the 16th row into a
 pattern. A chord change on the first row is nothing new of course, but this
 change is offset, and stands out more. Also at this point, the percussion
 accompaniment gets more aggressive.

 At 0:58 into the song, indian chants are introduced into the song. This is a
 nice touch, giving the song a very "real" feel to it; something Necros has
 made popular in the past, with songs such as "Realization" I and II. Also,
 around this point in the song and again at the end of the song, a looped
 bird-chirping sample is used which highlights the concept of the eagle.

 I have but two complaints for this song. The drum loop used throughout much
 of the song is too aggressive for my liking. The crashing hi-hat is a
 distraction to the peaceful melody and the snare could be a little more
 recessed. And the ending comes too quick; another two patterns to gently
 take away some of the instruments and perhaps leave the listener with a
 variation of the melody fading out would have made a nicer ending, in my
 opinion.

 And unfortunately, the flawed looping of his chord sample can be heard as it
 fades out in the final seconds of the song. With Scream Tracker though, there
 is no easy way to get a good loop out of a sample. Sometimes you just have to
 be lucky.

 But the ending is a nice finish, and the song also had to fit within five
 minutes for the compo, which it did with seven seconds to spare.

 Upon winning, Necros addressed the audience with a very mature speech. His
 words of encouragement were just a small reflection of the maturity of the
 entire party crowd.

 I wouldn't have voted for any other song to win first place.

 _____CANTFAKE.S3M by Basehead / Five Musicians, Kosmic
                                           
 This song finished in third place at NAID 95.

 It has also stirred up a bit of controversy (among one composer in
 particular, but no names here) due to the content of its samples. This song,
 along with Necros's "Ascent" and "Bass" use samples with more than a single-
 play note in them. ("Ascent" having the indian voices and "Bass" having the
 original synth and guitar samples). And what is the problem here? I hear no
 complete song-segments, just *individual* instruments that contain a melody.
 And the song it was sampled from has not been recreated, it has been
 glorified. You will hear that Basehead has a background melody and a
 percussion accompaniment going. I don't think that was the idea of the
 original composer of Basehead's flute, guitar, and sax samples. Therefore,
 I see no problem with it.

 Basehead uses a "swing" effect throughout the song, an effect he uses often.
 This is executed by changing the pattern on every row between two numbers
 that average out to the tempo desired. This is a nice effect to give a
 tracked tune a more lively feel.

 As composers continue to surpass the limits of the machine, the products of
 the demo scene carry on with a force too powerful for many old-school demo
 freaks. This brings us to the question "What is acceptable?" The answer:
 You just have to decide for yourself.

 -Brett Neely gd@ftp.cdrom.com


=---------------------[First Place Graphic at NAID was ripped]--[GraveDigger]-=

 It is with great disappointment that I have to inform everyone that the
 graphic that won first place at NAID was ripped. However, this fact must be
 made known and the details made clear to prevent a reoccurrence.

 Ever since its first appearance on the screen, there was speculation as to
 the origin of the picture. With such high quality detail, it was doubted that
 the work was an original piece of art.

 This prompted a thorough and lengthy investigation and questioning of the
 artist. Of course, the artist told a great tale of how he painted the
 picture. He told us that he had a toy robot that he used as a still-life
 model for his picture. He described the shading techniques that he used. And
 several times, he said "I do not have a scanner."

 There were clues. File dates of the "beta" pictures and the finished work
 were all within a few days. The finished picture itself said "157 hour
 project" on it. When seeing that, I thought, "Wow, that's a lot of time to
 spend drawing." The wire-frame beta picture had specs of other colors on it.
 Daredevil, upon seeing this, said "It looks like he used a graphics program
 with a 'Hollow-out' function on it."

 But there were more clues. White Noise loaded the finished picture into a
 graphics program. "That's a weird looking line there," he pointed out, noting
 a line with a strange angle. He zoomed in on that, and said something like
 "A scanner wouldn't draw a line like that."

 All along, the judge who worked in the field of computer graphics said "I
 don't care how it was made, this is a true work of art." This judge also
 handed the "artist" his business card.

 Unfortunately, the picture was decided to be original and was allowed to take
 first place. Originally, it went without debate among the three judges as
 the top graphic, even before the investigation.

 Then a couple days ago, I got mail from Snowman telling me that the picture
 was ripped, and he sent a UUEncoded copy of the original gif. Sure enough,
 there's the same robot featured in the winning picture. And it's 99% like
 the ripped picture.

 I would like to see this artist banned from all future graphics competitions
 at NAID, or any other North American competition. What he did was a false
 representation of someone else's work, and it can *not* be tolerated. There
 are other entries that were hand-created that should have won the prize that
 this cheater won. And as a judge of that graphics competition, I feel
 personally responsible, though maybe I shouldn't. And I feel sorry for all
 of the other entrants who worked so hard on their art.
 
 I hereby invite you to email me with a request for a copy of this UUEncoded
 gif. I will have it online for the next couple of weeks and will send every
 request a copy of the file and the articles relating to it. I hope to also
 get a copy of the NAID graphic to include. I will process all requests as my
 time dictates, so please be patient. To the three people who already mailed
 a request to me: please mail me again, I lost your addresses. My email
 address is below.

 -Brett Neely gd@ftp.cdrom.com