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Table Of Contents
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Opening:
Message From the Editor
Letters From Our Readers
Columns:
In Tune -- Wayfinder's "Secret Service"
Monthly Software Review -- Massiva X.044
The Zen of Tracking -- Out of Tempest Depths (with poem)
Screen Lit Vertigo -- "Sonic Vertex" by d'oH (party-version)
Features:
Music Etiquette
Inscene '99: A live report
Closing:
Credits
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Message From the Editor
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We got a huge issue for you folks. Bigger than the average (in fact,
our third largest to date according to file size). We got a full rack
of articles for you, and then some. Rather appropriate considering this
is our anniversary magazine. It's official, everyone....
WE'RE 1 YEAR OLD!
Meanwhile...as I type this I'm in between homes. I'm living at a
friend's house...but by the time most of you read this, I'll have moved
to my new apartment in Virginia. Leesburg, Virginia for those of you
who are in the states. I'm glad that this is a big issue...because
revisions and formatting gave me a lot to do while I am here with
nothing else to do. But I've made a keen observation (okay, not that
keen) -- there aren't often many guest articles from writers outside the
magazine. If you have something to say, send it along. Worst that is
going to happen is that I won't print it. Nothing that revisions
couldn't fix. =)
Well...moveing on to the stuff you actually care about: This month's
issue of Static Line. First of all, I have a new co-writer for my "In
Tune" column. Everyone know's Setec...well now you get to read his
views on music. First on the block is a tune by Wayfinder titled
"Secret Service." Next on the review list is a review of Massiva X.044,
a midi sequencer that trackers may find interesting. Check out Louis's
column for more information. Dilvish is back this week with some Zen
for you. Not only do you get a complete article, but included this
month is a poem that many of you will enjoy. I wrote an additional
article this month detailing some common views on Tracking Ettiquite, a
must-read article for the newbies out there. And finally, we have one
of our article barons, Seven, cranking out the steam for you with two
articles. In his regular column this month, Seven reviews the work of
d'oH: a demo titled "Sonic Vertex." Then, as if that isn't enough, he
provides us with a live report from the Inscene '99 demo party.
--Coplan
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In Tune
Wayfinder's "Secret Service"
By: Coplan and Setec
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First of all, let me reintroduce Setec. You all know him, he's
written many articles for us in the past. Well, now he's my partner for
'In Tune.' Expect some very interesting columns here in the future.
Needless to say, Setec and I have very different views. =P
Anyhow...this month we're reviewing a song by Wayfinder titled
"Secret Service." The song took 7th place at the Mekka/Symposium '99
Multi channel Music Compo. You can attain the song from the Kosmic
Website, but I recommend grabbing the file from our website...as it may
be easier for you to find.
Oh, just a quick note before I begin. I normally try to get ahold of
the artist before I review their works before a public audience.
However, for reasons that prevent me from doing so, I haven't a way to
contact Wayfinder. If it was a surprise to you, Wayfinder, I
appologize. Meanwhile...enjoy the review.
-=- Coplan -=-
First of all, I must warn everyone...I am temporarily living at a
friend's house (see message from the editor). This affects my review in
two ways. First of all, I'm useing my friend's stereos system. It's
one of these high-end Kenwood stereo's of which I don't have access to
the rest of the time. The other is the fact that I don't have a real
desk here, and I'm uncomfortable typeing here. This only means that it
has taken me several days to complete this review. I appologize if it
appears choppy.
On with my review.
The intro to the song struck me as odd. I don't like the phone (if
that's what it is), but I do like everything from when the lion roars.
The introduction is a little rough around the edges up until this point.
Then in comes the brass riffs (high, low, high, low, so on). Setec
didn't like this so much (from what I understand, anyhow), but I'd have
to disagree. This part, though unique and unnecessary, is rather
invigorating to me. Then, you got that really awesome base riff (bass
guitarists like my roomate may like the riff a lot). In my opinion, the
intro ends at order 7 when the boy comes in and says "It's about peace
and love...." A good transition, though I question what it's
transitioning to. I like the synth strings in the background at this
point...they help to tie the other instruments together and still
empasize the chord progression.
In order 14, we get our first use of the brass samples for anything
other than the baground lull. This is also the first time we can hear
the quality of those samples. Frankly, I'm dissapointed in the quality.
On the other hand, brass samples are very hard to use and very hard to
create good samples (usually, you need about 10 samples just for that
instrument). I'll give Wayfinder a lot of credit though...he uses them
very well throughout the song. Then, we get the flute. I have to agree
with Setec...this is the best flute sample I've ever heard (got a copy
on my hard drive already). At first, the flute has a very good
role...but it tends to be repetative. Don't worry, that all changes in
order 17 where it gets a little more funky and rich. Unfortunately, at
order 20, it falls back to the same-old riff. It rises again in order
17 (point for the good). We should see a lot more variety like this in
songs -- even in dance music.
There is yet another really good transition starting at order 27. It
ends with that kid saying "it's about peace and love...." Once again,
however, I'm not sure what it's a transition to. I would've liked to
have seen some movement changes as well. Oh well, it is a dance
song...gotta keep the beat up so as not to confuse people. The fadeout
at the end of the song isn't so bad as one would think. Keep in mind
this is a dance peice...and it is set up to be faded into another dance
tune. Though slightly uneventful, it is justified.
Overall, I liked the tune. Stylistically, it is unique. Yah, I
agree with Setec that it can get repetative (copy and pasted a lot) but
I don't think that it denies too much of the character in the song.
Whether it was intended as a dance song or not...it is. It's a great
tune to dance to. My roomate and I were danceing to it last night (of
course we did hold a bit of a party, and had a few beers in us) and we
had a lot of fun. Wayfinder will be happy to know that I have a few
friends that want more of your stuff. Kudos.
--Coplan
-=- Setec -=-
Well, this being my first review for Static Line I guess I should
warn you that my reviews tend to get a little chaotic. So bear with me.
Okay. "Secret Service" by Wayfinder. First thing that stroke me about
this tune was the rather awkward intro. It just sounds bad to me and the
general quality of the samples seemed to low compared to the rest of the
track. It slowly builds into a very very nice groove, though. I have
always had a thing for phased guitars and the ones used here are very
nifty. These are complemented by a steady bass and a rather genuine beat
(unfortunately). A little more work on the percussion might have
benefitted the piece greatly. I am just not too fond of these simple
bass drum to clap beats. With the obligatory open hihat in between. If
you are gonna go with this you need to spice it up with at least a few
upbeat snare strokes or something similar.
Next comes an extremely well executed transition that brings in some
nice strings, kept firmly in the background of the mix. Then,
unfortunately, it all goes down when those god awful brass samples are
brought to life. Damn -- those things really bite my ears. Dump those few
patters though and Wayfinder introduces what is probably the nicest
single flute sample I have ever heard. I would have sworn the flute lead
consisted of sampled snippets from a real player. I went to find out and
found a single sample. Amazing. Looking closer at the flute tracks I was
stunned at how few - well, none - effects were used to accomplish such a
great sound. There is a reminder for you; it is not always nescessary to
flood your tracks with effects.
The tune continues with some flute solos and ends up in a rather dull
volume ramp down closing. Never do these unless it really fits the
track. It is quite possibly the most boring and generic way to round off
a tune. Experiment a little more! Don't look at the ending as just a
matter of wrapping up the piece. It is a part of the tune, it needs just
as much work as the main part of the tune. Unfortunately it is rare to
see a very well built closing in tracked music. People tend to forget the
importance of endings. Don't forget that it is the last thing the
listener hears before passing judgement to your tune. So you had better
make sure he gets a good impression. Surprise him, do something that
was never expected. And damnit, this sort of volume slide is what we all
expect. *Yawn*
The tune leaves me with a sence of disappointment. It could be a great
piece if a little more effort had been put into introducing a b-part
that differed from the main part. It seems like it just builds into a
groove and keeps on going with it, instead of venturing beyond it. Again
this is about surprising the listener, doing something unexpected. This
tune just has too much of a copy and paste feel to it. It is still worth
a listen though. At least to dig those flute leads, they are excellent.
--Setec
Song Information:
Title: Secret Service
Author: Wayfinder
Filename (zipped/unzipped): fdg-010.zip / way-ss16.it (IT 2.14)
File Size (zipped/unzipped): 1.3 MB / 1.4 MB
Source: http://www.kosmic.org
http://pigforce.warande.net/fridge
Alternate: http://ic.l7.net/statline/current.html
"In Tune" is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and
singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand
your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general
rating system. Coplan's and Setec's opinions are not the opinions of
the Static Line Staff.
If you have heard a song you would like to recommend (either your
own, or another person's), We can be contacted through e-mail useing the
addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached
to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you!
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Montly Software Review
Massiva X.044
By: Louis Gorenfeld
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I realize that this is a magazine focusing on trackers, but I felt this
program deserved some attention. It is a MIDI sequencer, but is filled
with keyboard controls and shortcuts which make it slightly faster and
easier for people who do not own a MIDI-capable synthesizer. In
addition, it supports AWE and SBLive! effects such as filter sweeps, EQ,
and Sound- fonts.
It has a number of functions you can perform on patterns. One makes it
easy to draw out a simple repeating drum pattern or bassline (you set
when the notes hit, and it sticks it in). Another quantizes the notes
in a special way so that they sound a little more natural (groove
quantize).
The MIDI in support is decent, and will quantize the notes as you play
them (togglable). It also features a lead-in and metronome (what
doesn't?).
Surpisingly, editing is pretty good: You create chunks of music of
different sizes (like patterns) that you can pick up and move around
easily. There does not, however, seem to be a way to fuse patterns
together. You can also name parts of your song so that you can go to a
pull-down menu to skip around easily. For example, you could mark the
bridge of your song so that if you want to edit it, you can just skip
right to it.
However, even with these advantages over most sequencers, several
problems make this program fall very short of its full potential. One
drawback is that it is yet another piano roll styled editor, and this
makes keyboard control a bit clumsy (though it is precise). At least
the author made it easy to set velocities of notes: there is a chart
underneath the piano roll, and all you have to do is click and drag the
volume of the note you want to change.
Another major problem (and the biggest I feel) is stability. When
using the AWE's output, the program crashed three times in a half-hour.
Not only did it crash the program, but forced a reboot. This never
happens with other programs on my system. It later stopped crashing
(after I stopped clicking on the event list button), but even then it
corrupted some graphics in memory when I exited the program much the way
certain old DirectX 1 games did.
If the author fixes the bugs, this could be a great program for
synth-less people who want to write webpage music and get sick of people
complaining about not having ModPlugin for their platform (you know who
you are!). In an hour I was able to write about a minute of a done song
with just the computer keyboard. So far this is the best free MIDI
program I have seen: it is easy to learn, fast to use, and precise. Now
if they'd just get some of those bugs nailed.
Rating : 3/4
Requirements: Windows 95, GMIDI soundcard (preferrably not FM), MIDI
keyboard nice to have but not necessary. Lots of spare time.
Homepage : http://home.c2i.net/jaase/massiva.htm
--Louis Gorenfeld
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The Zen of Tracking
Out of Tempest Depths (with poem)
By: Dilvish
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-=- A Poem -=-
Out of tempest depths and rising mists
the pains of life, and death, and hell will shift
sorrows take a different form amung the found
the pains and anguish come around
what is lost is always found for those who search it out
footfalls echo through the empty halls
centuries of dust have staled air and walls
so many live their lives and never see
the simple, quiet truth - eternity
but when you knock, the doors begin to swing
spirits, with your soul, begin to sing
the son, once lost and dead, returns again
and pain, the fated calf, again is slain
those who watch and never truly see
will search throughout their lives and never be
the holy spirit that their spirit made
to live on earth, and thrice deny the grave
as mighty Peter thrice denied the Son
but in the end, the heart in Peter won
life could never live without an end
but he who ends will soon begin again
echos and reflections never cease
and he who makes a choice will always be
the father of that choice eternally
-=- Zen -=-
Too many people ignore their spiritual being. Many actually deny
it's existance and live a purely temporal life. As musicians, we cannot
afford to do that. Without spirit, you may attain skills - you may even
express and convey emotion - but you will never, no matter how hard you
try, or how long you live, reach the everlasting depths of spiritual
expression.
You will never escape your body and return to sing of life beyond the
mortal veil. You will never share the visions and the blessings
reserved for the faithfull.
As you develop spiritually, you will begin to understand what our
existance is about. You will begin to understand what you should really
be doing with your life. You'll stop wasting it away chasing after
bigger and better toys that only make you smile until you take them for
granted.
I must warn you, though. Spiritual development is not a lazy work.
You have to actively search out and ponder great truths compiled by
others over the centuries. You'll have to decide what you want to
believe, and share the knowlege you find with others.
The spirit worlds are not a solitary place. Without insights and
feedback from other people, you may never find your way.
As you begin to comprehend eternity, you will see many things you
knew all along, but never understood. It's like seeing in 3D for the
first time.
The world around you will come to life. You will have a much deeper
understanding and apreciation for your fellow man, and, the best part
is, you will learn to create on a level you never before imagined.
I can't begin to tell you what to study, or what to believe, but I
can tell you that the more you read, the more you will understand. Do
not make the mistake of assuming that any one religion has and exclusive
on spiritual insights.
I have learned a lot from Budhism, the Bible (particularly the
ministry of Christ and his established church, as well as Isaiah and
Revelations), Native American religion, Celtic religion, and, more than
anything, the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints, which has provided me with some very profound inspiration in the
area of understanding the eternities, and at the same time, reminded me
that eternity might be infinately complex, but it can always be reached
through the most simple means.
The path to understanding is built on just a few concepts, but it's
very easy to lose your wasy. Here are some things to keep in mind:
The universe is built in layers from everlasting to everlasting.
That means there can be nothing more important than anything else.
Remove any link, and the chain is broken. Eternity is constructed much
like tightly woven fabric stretching infinately in every direction.
Everything depends on everything else. You can see this very clearly
in studying nature, and astronomy. If we hope to succeed as a race (the
human race), and excell as individuals, we should emulate this
construction socially. We should bond together tightly and take
advantage of each others' unique gifts.
To get along enought to do that, we need to fill ourselves with the
spirit of charity. Charity is a wholy selfless act. It is the purest
form of love. It is everlasting patience with each other. It is a deep
desire to understand and fullfill the needs of our fellow man, while
enduring and forgiving trials of friendship without complaint.
If we as a race can master charity, there is realistically no limit
whatsoever to the great things we can accomplish together.
If we could all come together that way, our mortal veil would be
lifted forever. We would all share a collective knowlege and
understanding never before dreamed of. Imagine the music we could make
then. Music without substance would cease to be.
I paint a very idealistic picture. We all know there are people out
there who couldn't care less about unity or understanding. People more
concerned about buying their next quarter-pounder with cheeze than
understanding or striving for happiness.
That doesn't mean that you as an individual can't be happy. When you
fill your own heart with love, patience, and understanding, and begin to
look at pain and tradgedies as great opportunity to learn and appreciate
joy that much more, you will gain the strength to rise above any storm.
--Dilvish
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Screen Lit Vertigo
"Sonic Vertex" by d'oH (party version)
By: Seven
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Found at http://popsyteam.rtel.fr/VIP
2nd place at VIP'99
System Requirements:
Sure: 2MB HD, Midas-compatible soundcard, VGA-card
Guessed: 8 MB RAM, any Pentium.
Test Machine:
PII 350 64MB SB16, Win98 in dos-mode (BOOTGUI = 0)
No problems under dos or windows (dos-box).
The Demo:
Hmm, a 256-color demo. We don't see that very often today, and it is
almost always a sign that this is the first demo of a new group. Too bad
there is no info-file included (except the VIP-entryfile), so I'm only
85% sure my little theory applies here. The effects are rather simple
ones: a rotozoom, fire, a particle-starfield-tunnel, a julia-fractal...
The timing of the effects is OK, except for the tunnel (takes WAY too
long), and the fire with particles (too short. Maybe it looks
interesting because it's too short :)). And they seem to like Homer
Simpson, as you can guess from the group-name and the effects: Homer on
a rubber pillar, or Homer surrounded by donuts. These Homer-textures
are, together with the credit-font, the only pictures, and I'm not sure
if they are drawn or ripped. Points for originality: the joke in the
beginning (A really ugly-colored rotating texture, with "Do you feel
sick? It's our feeling too!"), and the mirrors used with the fractal.
Takes far less CPU-time and does still looks good. Bad point: not
everyone in the world speaks French, I thought English was standard
language for messages in demos?
The Music:
Really typical demo-music: 70% percussion without being techno, with
a catchy tune is repeated in several variations. Maybe it's a bit too
repetitive, but I think it's the best part of this demo. Synchronization
is very limited, and at the end the music is just cut of instead of
faded out. Winamp shows that almost 50 seconds are not played, so I
suspect there will be an additional part in the final version (hey, I
know party-coding is awful :)).
Overall:
Despite its second place at VIP, it's not very interesting. Feel
free to ignore it, or at least wait for the final version. For the
die-hard demo fans, it's only 700 KB zipped, and it runs like charm, so
go ahead and check it if you're curious.
--Seven
--=--=--
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Music Etiquette
By: Coplan
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Welcome to the demo-music scene, a place where you can freely create
music to your liking useing samples of your choosing. Just be a little
careful if you'd like to make and keep friends in this scene. This
month, I expect many of you "newbies" to the scene to learn something
new. I've seen an aweful lot of songs out there with blatent sample
rips, and things like that. Here are a few pointers...
CREDIT ALL SAMPLES:
This one should be plain old common sense! It is with me, as it is
with almost any song writer. You grab a sample from a Skaven tune,
according to most of his music text, he wouldn't care so long as you
credit the sampler. This is true with most trackers. The point is, if
you didn't create it, it should have someone else's name written on it.
You wouldn't want someone playing your song and claiming they wrote it
would you? I rest my case.
CREDIT SAMPLES PROPERLY:
Okay, so I'm hitting the samples thing a bit hard. But it is
something that is a big problem these days; people just aren't creating
their own samples. To make things worse, there are so many millions of
samples out there that it's difficult to keep track of them all.
Chances are, the samples from the song written by another tracker may
not all be entirely created by him either. Hopefully he has credited
his samples properly, because if he has, you'll want to write THAT name
on your samples list. For example, I have one song that I created with
samples that I got from Word Macro. However, Word Macro has credited
those samples to Skaven...so, I write Skaven next to the sample. On
occasion, it's also acceptable to write "unknown" or "???" next to the
sample. Be honest, you don't know where you got the sample...so don't
credit someone who doesn't necessarily deserve the credit.
COMPLETE INFORMATION OF ORIGINAL WORKS FOR REMIXES:
There are several remixes of original songs out there. There's
nothing wrong with that, it's an art form that is difficult to do (if
you've never tried a remix, trust me on this one). However, it would be
nice to see ALL the information given from the original track. Now I'm
not saying you should include the dedications or the message about how
he likes to play strip poker with his cats. That's useless to the
listener. On all remixes, you should include the following information
from the original work: The author's name (alias and real if given),
e-mail address of author, the filename of the original work (compressed
and expanded), your source (where you found it on the 'net), and of
course the original name if you change it slightly. It is entirely
unfair to not list the source and filename, because then the listener
can't fairly judge if you did a good job or not.
Sometimes, people remix commercial tunes. In this case, one should
list the band name, the song name, the album name and if possible, the
publishing company. That isn't courtesy, that's copyright law! On an
unrealted note, if you remix something that is less than 7 years old,
without rights (which you must purchase from the publisher) you can not
legally accept money for your tune. This includes compilation CDs such
as archives. There may be acceptions for non-profit organizations, but
I don't know that off the top of my head, and isn't worth the research
right now. Just realize that you'll have to complete the research if
you would like to get money for your tune.
MENTION CONTRIBUTIONS:
So you jump on #trax and one of us reviews your unfinished work.
When it's finished and released, I'd expect to see a short message of
thanks to that person listed in the song. This may even hold true even
if you didn't use any of the feedback...simply because it's time given
to you. A simple mention such as "Thanks for the feedback, Susie Cream
Cheese."
INCLUDE CONTACT INFORMATION:
Plain and simple, include your e-mail, ICQ number, AOL Instant
Messenger ID...anything that will allow others to contact you. This is
for your benefit. I can say that I've turned down three tunes this
month simply because I don't know how to get in touch with the artist.
This is in part what spawned this article. Plain and simple, if you
don't include this information...it's only YOUR loss.
WEBSITES -- DON'T FORGET FILE SIZE AND STYLE:
Most people are good with listing the author of a given track on
their websites. However, an awful lot of you forget to list the file
size and the style of music it is. I'm lucky to have a fairly fast
modem. But not everyone is so lucky. File takes to long to download?
Most people will say "Screw it," and move on. This brings us to why you
list the style. Maybe this person really likes orchestral music, and
your peice is orchestral. If the file size is too large for that person
to download, if you have it labeled as orchestral, he may download it at
a time where he doesn't need the bandwidth (like when he sleeps).
Consider it a way to let listeners know what to expect so they don't
curse you in the long run. On a similar note...make sure it's labeled
properly. Don't know? Ask someone else.
REVIEWS -- ASK, DON'T COMMAND:
I don't like to consider myself a snobby reviewer. In fact most
people who I've reviewed for will agree with me. However, it is really
difficult to enjoy reviewing a song that someone sent me that is well
over 4 MB, and the person includes a message such as "review this...."
This has happened on more than one occasion! Most of those got trashed.
It's only polite to ask someone if they could review your song
first...then send it. This is especially true for e-mail, because many
ISPs have a size limit on what it'll accept as an attachment. To prove
that I'm not being a jerk...I have reviewed a couple Obsidian Dream
songs that was well over 3 MB simply because they asked before sending.
SHARE YOUR WORK, AND EXPECT OTHERS TO DO THE SAME:
Someone reviews a song for you, they may ask you to do the same in
the future. If you have the time, I'd suggest doing so. First off,
it'll help you to learn by analyzing their song. But most importantly,
it'll keep the door open with welcome mat in place whenever you want
another review. No time? Simple explain that you don't have time, and
offer to give it a listen at a later date.
LISTEN TO YOUR OWN WORK:
Before you unleash it unto the world, make sure that your song fits
your standards as well as standards commonly accepted by the better
part of the scene. This hold true when you ask for opinions of your
work. After all, we like to hear good things about our music, and why
not comb through it ourselves first to increase chances of hearing good
things?
Well, that should cover most of the bases. If I've forgotten
anything, please send me a message. For the most part, this can be
common sense. Practice these techniques, and I garuntee you'll make
and keep friends in the scene (barring that you don't screw up some
other way -- I wouldn't recommend fire-bombing a demo party).
--Coplan
--=--=--
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Inscene '99
A live report
By: Seven
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-=> Editors Note: The times in this report are given in military time.
To convert to conventional time, subtract 12 (if greater than 12)
from the first number. For example: 20:36 is the same as 8:36pm
(pm because we had to subtract 12). If your value is 00:31, then
the time is officially 12:31 am. I hope this clears things up a
bit. On a different note, I assume Seven refers to "Murphy," the guy
who created "Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go
wrong." You'll see what I mean.
--Coplan
-=> Note from Seven: [Notes in brackets were added after the party.]
FRIDAY:
-------
-=- 20:36 -=-
After about 1:30 hour driving, we [Baxter/Green and I, Seven]
have arrived at Wilsele-Putkapelle, and thanks to the route-description
with photos, we found the partyplace in no time. Upon arrival, about
40 people where already present. It's the first time Inscene is being
held, there are 85 reservations, so there will probably between 100 and
150 people. [Later it turned out to be between 70 and 80] Let's hope it
will be cozy :) All my equipment survived the journey, the only thing
not working is my brand-new Ethernet card as I hadn't bought cable yet.
I expected this to be for sale at the partyplace (from sponsors), and
one of the organizers said this will be the case tomorrow, but they will
make a UTP-cable for me after they finish setting up the net. Nice
guys.
Hmm, they are announcing something about a coupling cable they need
for something, and if someone could lend it to them. The problem is that
we're sitting at the back, the soundsystem is playing techno with a
tunnel-effect on the bigscreen (cool but a bit boring), and behind us
people are testing their speakers, so we can't really hear what they
say.
OK, I'm going to try finishing my 4K.
-=- 21:27 -=-
Hmm, I've underestimated the influence of music on coding :) But
there's some improvement, first they were playing child-tunes ("Kabouter
Plop" etc), now it's rock. The effects shown on the bigscreen are
Winamp-plugins. I don't use it very often, so I didn't recognize it
(Shame on me). Half an hour ago, someone tapped on my shoulder with the
words (I quote) "Hey, assembly god, can you give me the source of a
waitretrace?" I suppose he was joking :). He wanted to make a 4K, and as
I can stand some competition, I gave it to him (and of course I've not
much to fear from someone who doesn't know a waitretrace <grin>). Almost
everyone is either playing hard music or games.
SATURDAY:
---------
-=- 1:16 -=-
More people have arrived, and there has already been a food run
(organizers go for the food [mainly pizzas] you ordered), and the
opening ceremony has happened (1 hour delayed). Not many people. A DJ is
doing a live performance: house/techno, not really my style. I'm having
trouble with lots of nasty, hidden bugs in my code.
-=- 3:21 -=-
That DJ is still performing, and one guy on the next table with large
speakers is playing techno too, so I keep my headphones on, while trying
to add some more stuff to my 4K. Most of the bugs seem to be dead.
Baxter is browsing the net. The French-speaking guy next to me is
playing a hunting game, with really cute rabbits and Bambi-style deer,
you have a zoom on your gun so you can target them and see them explode.
A bit sick. It's allowed to test the entries. I'll make use of that.
-=- 3:34 -=-
The rules for the surprise compos have been announced: for graphics
and ansi, you must draw something about chickens, coca-cola & dioxins
(three things Belgium is famous for :)). For the music, you have max 4
channels, max 8 samples, and 1 or 2 must be very strange. For the
coding, you must make a random effect (except a fire) in 256 bytes. They
also said the compo-machine had a harddisk-crash (Murphy strikes
again), but it will be fixed soon. Hey! Silence! [People decreased the
volume of their speakers when the orgos wanted to say something or when
there was a compo, and after the event, it took some time before
everyone increased the volume again] Let's try to extend the music a bit
[The intro of the music in my intro :)]
-=- 6:22 -=-
The silence didn't last very long :-/ Music is deafening, as usual.
Three guys with professional cameras and heavy spotlights are walking
around, filming the room and sleeping sceners under the tables. When
asked, they said they where from the VRT, one of Belgium's national
television stations. Too bad they couldn't say when the program would be
broadcasted. Late in the evening, I hope, and with a warning for the
sensitive watchers :). When I gave my entry to the organizers for
testing, it turned out that the compo-machine did not have a
VESA2-compliant videocard on board, and Univbe didn't recognize the
chipset (it's one of the newer 3D-cards). So they will swap the
gfx-card. Murphy didn't seem to like the organizers, as they have also
had a defective CD-ROM, in addition to the HD-crash. Baxter is watching
avi's from the net, old wild-demos mostly. There is one very impressive
from Orange. When I've finished that damn 4K, I have to check these out.
[Too bad I never found them...]
-=- 8:42 -=-
The music-compo has started. Everyone has lowered the volume of their
speakers, so the music is actually audible. Some pretty good tunes,
really. The TV-crew has taken some interviews (fortunately not with me,
phew), and is sitting at a table, looking very tired. I guess they
aren't used to skipping a night sleep :).
-=- 11:16 -=-
'Real Reality' by Never was shown on the bigscreen, and it was great!
People applauded several times during the demo. The TV-crew has left.
They have probably enough material for their freakshow. The ansi & ASCII
competitions had each only two entries, which were rather poor. The guy
at the projector made some funny remarks about "the excellent quality."
Damn I'm feeling tired. But guess what? My 4K was a bit too large! But
after compressing it with Jibz's Apack, I had 800 byte free! I'll have
to fill the space somehow...
-=- 16:32 -=-
A hard-disk throwing compo has been held, with an old HD that weights
4 KG. Someone managed to throw the thing over 9 meter far. [At the prize
ceremony Space (one of the main organizers) said it was 10 meter and a
few cm] Corona & Andromeda (both from Green) have arrived too, and are
currently working on an entry for the surprise coding compo. Too bad
it's been a long time since they have worked in assembler: they were
wondering why "xor ax, ax int 16" didn't work. When I said interrupts
numbers are hexadecimal (16H), Andromeda asked if that made any
difference :D. The organizers are making another pizza run, too bad we
had bought french fries ten minutes before [Hungry & not enough
patience.] The music competition has just started, but windows crashed
after 10 seconds. They try again with a DOS-player.
-=- 21:53 -=-
Oops. I totally forgot about this report. Was busy doing other
things, like eating, coding and trying to stay awake. Not easy. The film
"The Matrix" was shown on the bigscreen, really cool, unless you try to
concentrate on something else. The music competition had only five
entries, quite logical due to the low number of attendants [at least we
had a chance to listen to all tunes, what would be different if it was a
party with +1000 people and 50 entries]. The 4K-intro compo should start
in a few minutes, if the schedule is kept. I didn't managed to fill all
space in my intro, as it kept crashing whenever I changed something. I'm
glad that I'm finished with it, and I started browsing the net with my
brains at zero (as if someone notices the difference :)).
SUNDAY:
-------
-=- 00:14 -=-
The 100Kb game compo took place, with two decent entries and one 100%
batch-file driven ascii-game :) Compos are already more than 3 hours
delayed. Hmm, the ray-trace compo passed, and the graphics should follow
in ten minutes. There's techno played on the main soundsystem. Most
people are browsing the net or working, I see no gamers anymore.
-=- 1:25 -=-
The graphics & the 4K-intro are passed. The good news is that I'll
have the first place! The bad news is that there where no other entries.
Damn! I sure would have liked some competition. But hey, I'm happy it
didn't crash or something.
-=- 3:48 -=-
There where 2 not-very good 64K-demos, and one "wild" entry, which
was basically a slideshow of wild animals. It seems few people are
willing to spend time in making a quality entry for a small party. After
that, we became sinners, outcasts, criminals: we played Quake at a
demoparty (Hey, it was at night! Nobody saw us! They were all
sleeping!!). The one and only demo (Magnus Effect/Aspirine) was a
Linux-demo using OpenPTC, so it is difficult to know how good it is.
According to the Linux-fanatic DJefke, who is sitting behind us, demos
can do more under Linux than under Windows. I don't know and I don't
care, I'm going to catch some sleep.
-=- 9:12 -=-
Up & awake (more or less) again. There's not much to do, I suppose I
have missed the surprise graphics. Lots of people are sleeping, one guy
is even laying on his sleeping bag in the parking lot outside the
partyplace. Feeling hungry, let's get breakfast (breakfast = anything
you eat after you've been asleep, regardless what it is and of what time
it is). [ The coding compo was skipped because there was a virus on the
compo-machine, probably infected when the orgos booted from a submitted
disk -- Murphy strikes again].
-=- 13:30 -=-
Not much new, except that Baxter & I didn't know the deadline for the
voting (prolly asleep when they announced it) [Indeed], and so I filled
in the votesheet for nothing (yes, good old voting on paper).
-=- 15:20 -=-
The prize ceremony is happening, and since this is a small party,
almost everyone who competed did win :). The combination of the facts
that some people competed in several compos, and that every winner gets
a T-shirt & some software, leads us to the conclusion that some people
will get enough T-shirts for the rest of the year. (one guy got 5
T-shirts, which he put on over each other :)). For the demo-compo,
they are currently trying to show it again. Ok, it's running now. I'm
not gonna describe it now, as I will review it. Hmm, it has an extra
part at the end that wasn't shown the first time. [It wasn't until I was
at home that I realized that I can't run a linux demo. And it wouldn't
be fair to describe it by memory, as my memory is not really in good
shape.]
-=- 16:56 -=-
When the makers of Magnus Effect got on stage to collect their
prizes, they had the occasion to say something. One of them said: "Thank
you all for playing games and watching porn during the party, and
listening to MP3's instead of creating an ass-kicking demo." I agree
with their statement: winning is nice, but it's less exciting if you're
the only participant. Space said they will organize Inscene again next
year, and everyone cheered. After that, people started to pack up.
Baxter & Corona are playing Half-Life, and there are about 25 people
left at the moment. Someone thinks this is a reason to play techno
REALLY loud.
[When we were waiting for Corona's father to pick him up, one of the
orgos asked if we wanted to help empty the remaining beer-supply. We
accepted :) We talked a bit about what we thought of the party (small
but very nice) and what they would do different next year (start
organizing sooner and with more people, 3 men with the help of a few
friends during the event is just not enough). After that, we drove home.
As conclusion, I think Inscene was very good for a first-time party.
The network was fast, there where no power failures (according to
Appel/Ecolove, if that had happened, only half a table would have had no
power, 1 table = 12 meters), and the number of entries was not that bad.
If there would have been 10 times more people, making it a medium-sized
party, we would have had 50 tunes, 10 4k-intros, 20 64k-intros and 10
demos, which is about average. I hope it will be bigger next year,
without losing the quality it already has. I'll be there anyway!
--Seven
--=--=--
----=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------
Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan.ic@rcn.com
Assistant Editors: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@where.are.u.com
Subliminal / Matt Friedly / sub@plazma.net
Web Manager: Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan.ic@rcn.com
Calvin French / frenchc@cadvision.com
Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
Louis Gorenfeld / gorenfeld@vrone.net
Seven / Stefaan / Stefaan.VanNieuwenhuyze@rug.ac.be
Staff Writers: Acell / Jamie LeSouef / jlesouef@melbpc.org.au
Darkheart / Zach Heitling / darkhart@san.rr.com
Psychic Symphony / psychic@esoterica.pt
Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk
SiN / Ian Haskin / sin@netcom.ca
Technical Support: Draggy / Nicolas St. Pierre / draggy@kosmic.org
Jim / Jim Nicholson / jim@kosmic.org
Static Line on the Web: http://www.ic.l7.net/statline
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-eof---=------=--=------=--=--