Preview
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_\\__T_A_T_I_C___L_I_N_E________________________________________ April, 2001
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\\//__ Monthly Scene E-Zine ________________________________ 205 Subscribers
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Table Of Contents
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Opening:
Message From the Editor
Letters From Our Readers
Features:
Crack Intros
Ambience 2001 Party Report
Psycle -- New Release & Notes
Columns:
Music:
The Listener -- Music by Nagz, 4t thieves and Gun Purist
Retro Tunage -- "Beast From Inside" by Cube
Demo:
Screen Lit Vertigo -- Stigma by Emotive (party-version)
General:
Scene Sense: -- The Mod vs. MIDI Sequencing (and MP3)
Editorial -- Honesty in Music
Link List -- Get Somewhere in the Scene
Closing:
Credits
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Message From the Editor
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It is of my regret to inform you that we are going to be short one
member of our staff from this issue on. Gekko, who has written for us
ever since Demojournal ceased circulation, is going to be parting from
us. The feature article on "Crack Demos" in this issue will be his
last. We wish him luck in the future, and hope that he might pop in and
write us every once in a while.
In other news, we have a pretty decent issue this month. Seven is back
with his party reports (the boy loves demo parties) as he reports on
Ambience 2001. He also reviews the winning demo from Ambience in Screen
Lit Vertigo. Tryhuk has also given us some good reviews on music, new
and old this month in both of his columns: Retro Tunage and The
Listener. Then, you got the editorials from myself and PsiTron.
Read up, and enjoy.
--Coplan
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Letters From Our Readers
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-=- Letter from Dilvish -=-
Hi Coplan,
Just because a new OS will not be a viable option for a while does
not mean that the scene should ignore alternatives. A lot of us are
very unsatisfied with the popular OS, and some of us have the skills to
work on a BETTER alternative for everybody. I think I mentioned in an
earlier response in this debate that an OS capable of real-time
streaming, signal processing, and performance-oriented networking would
not cause a sacrifice in performance for database applications or
word-processing. We could use it, and end users could eventually
migrate for FREE, if they chose. Will we try to force it? Certainly
not. Will we lie down and do nothing, pretending that the popular
choice is "good enough" for us, just because it's "good enough" for
end-users? No way.
Scene coders know how to make sexy interfaces, slick graphics, killer
audio, cool effects, and make things skinnable. (Look at Sonique if you
need an application example). That's the UI stuff that will win over
the average Joe. In the mean-time, it will take literally years of work
to create an OS that could compete with Windows in usability or
performance. Using Linux as a base might give us a big head-start, but
the hardware support issue will probably not solve itself for a few
years yet, and Linux, though it's improving every day, is not quite
there yet on many other fronts. However, Linux is open source, and many
of us will be happy to hack away at it until it seems like the ONLY
option for the demoscene. Already, there is headway being made with
things like the ALSA project, and the recently proposed driver
standardization (which may or may not catch on with manufacturers).
The bottom line is, the debate is not over. Many of us are not
satisfied, whatever popular opinion says, and thanks to the growing
strength of the open source movement, we may have the last word in the
end, whether the rest of the scene comes in late in the game or not. I
suspect that we won't have the support of the rest of the scene until we
have made tremendous strides, and it would be silly to cling to Windows
any longer. Personally, I think it's long overdue.
--Dilvish
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Crack Intros
By: Gekko
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Let us start by going back to where the scene has come from. I am
hesitant because I do not know how much you, the readers, have heard
about this. Several of you know all this, and there are n plus one
articles and internet pages about the origins of this little community.
Still, to be sure, the best is if I start from the basics, and make up
my own version of The Story.
If you know at least as much about computers that you are reading
this article, you must also know that there are computer games, which
are not free, of course, and there are illegal groups of programmers who
spend their free time on removing the copy protection and making these
freely available to anyone. They are the 'crackers' and their community
is called the 'warez scene'. This movement can be dated back to about
the early 1980s, and to the ancient computers Commodore 64 and Atari.
Probably these times are not that far from today and us after all, and
there are many of you for whom this was the motivation to get involved
in the scene. At least in my case it was a C64 and around 1992 where the
initiative came from.
In the early days these crackers were of course proud of being able
to overcome the tricks the game developers devised against them. This is
why they wanted to sign their names in the programs. This 'sign' was
soon developed to a short show of their name with a souce of video
effects and music. This was displayed before the game itself begun,
there comes the name 'introduction', or in a short form, 'intro'. To
compare to something from 'real life', these were similar to the logo of
the media companies that we can see before a movie begins.
To turn back to technical details, these effects had to be somehow
squeezed into the game program itself, where there was hardly any empty
place left. This is where the size limitation comes from. Later on, some
of the programmers realized that they had more fun with working on these
effects than with cracking or playing the games - because this activity
is creative. You can express yourself in this in a way - yes, you can
even call it 'art', even if some of the people would look blankly at you
if you do so. These programmers were to be called 'coders'. The warez
scene itself had a competitive spirit, the best was the one who could
crack the hardest protection, the one who could deliver the most
programs. This was where the idea came from that a competition ('compo')
could be held for these intros, too. The goal was to make it as
spectacular as possible. To make them comparable, a common size
limitation was set for the entries to these competitions. This was
different for each machine, now on the PC the 64 kilobytes limitation is
the most common. That is, your goal is to write a program that can not
exceed 64 kilobytes in size, and it has to show as spectacular graphics
and has to play as good music as possible. At this point, the name
'intro' had not too much sense anymore, since it was not to introduce
anything, but the name stuck. At least this way we can trace the story
back easier.
The other idea was to abolish this size limitation and make a program
that demonstrates all what the programmers could force the computer do -
this would be a demonstration, a so-called 'demo'.
The people who create these demos and intros are the members of the
'demo scene'. Hardly any of them have connection with the 'warez scene',
these two communities gradually splitted. In these days the motivation
of someone to become a demoscener has usually nothing to do with
cracking, it is rather about programming, computer graphics or music.
We the demosceners know how the story of the demos and intros
continue up to today. But most of us do not know about how the other
path went. The computer game companies, not surprisingly, did not stop
the production of games after the creation of the demoscene, and the
warez scene lived on. I do not want to write their history, my only
concern now is their intros. The name of these was from then on crack
intro or 'cracktro', to distinguish it from a demoscene intro.
Nowadays on the PC these intros are not anymore that markable to the
people who play pirated games. They are not inserted into the game
itself but included as a separate program - if the user wants to know
what that could be, he starts it, otherwise it remains unnoticed. There
is also a new kind of program - the installer. This is a small
application which helps the user set up the pirated game onto the
computer. This is usually very much like an intro (has a logo of the
group and music) but it also has practical application apart from
showing who the author was.
How does a cracktro look like, then? It is similar to a demoscene
intro (if this helps), but the old features of intros are kept most of
the time. We can see old school logos and music - those which remind one
to the works before the early 1990s. Graphics-wise this means graffiti
type logos and fonts and simple effects like starfields or text
scrollers. Old school music of the warez scene and the demoscene is
'chip music'. This style is the imitation of the sound which could be
made by the old sound synthetiser chips. The intros look like this
probably because of the nostalgy of the crackers, and they also signal
the fellow-feeling on the scene: "we have roots" and "we belong
together". They are very similar to old school intros on the demoscene.
This is time I named a few groups. If you became interested, you can
get their intros over the internet (see the list of URLs in the end of
the article). There is Razor 1911, Fairlight and Myth; all these were
active from the mid-1980s up to today. There are quite a few spectacular
intros by these groups. To name an influential crack intro coder, I
would choose Hetero of Razor 1911. Interestingly, Razor 1911 and
Fairlight have demo divisions, too. The members of these make no illegal
work but create demos for demoscene parties. Class is a newer group, but
probably the most active one these days. They have very spectacular
installers. Xpression is a group that creates crack intros. It is not
directly involved in the warez scene, that is, they do not crack
programs. They make intros to warez scene groups on request. They are
not involved in the demoscene either, they do not make intros for
competitions on demo parties. There is a collection of the intros they
made to several dozens of crack groups. There is also a site especially
dedicated to cracktros, called Intro Zone. This is an excellent
collection of crack intros by several groups. As a side note, I would
like to recommend chiptune.com, where you can find a collection of chip
musics, the old school style which is most commonly used in these
intros.
A warez scener might frown when reading this article, I made
simplifications and the only aspect of the warez scene I considered are
intros. However, if you are not into these communities, you might have
already got dizzy by the flood of the terms and acronyms. It would have
been pointless to get into further details. I hope I was able to tell a
few new pieces of The Story and I could convince you that you should
click some of these URLs below.
--Gekko
-=- Related Pages -=-
Intro Zone - members.easyspace.com/erekose
Xpression - www.xpression.org
Fairlight Crack Division - www.flt.org
Fairlight Demo Division - www.fairlight.org
Chip Music - www.chiptune.com
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Ambience 2001 Party Report
By: Seven
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-=- Friday, 2 February -=-
I had some problems getting transport to Ambience, but in the end I
just left work half a day earlier to get there. You've got to set
priorities in your life :) The downside was that I arrived at 16:30, and
the doors would open at 19:00. That's 2.5 hours standing outside,
waiting in the cold, listening to the conversations of the other
people waiting there, I noticed most of them were gamers. I didn't dare
to walk too far away from my PC, but I found one other scener, the
german musician: Skyrunner. At 19 o'clock, the people outside (already
several hundreds) started to get nervous, counting down and yelling at
the orgos etc. But it took another 30 minutes before the doors finally
opened, and only a few people could enter at a time. That didn't prevent
the crowd from pushing everyone towards the entrance. Suddenly I
didn't feel as cold anymore, but on the other hand much flatter (mass
hysteria at it's best).
After paying the entrance fee, we could grab a lot of free goodies
that the sponsors had dumped at Ambience: game magazines, game CD's and
dito DVD's. To avoid this game-overkill, I went on a search for the
demoscene areas. Area C and D, five classrooms on the first floor,
should be our home for the next few days. But the people I met in the
C-room told me they were freelanners, and the next room was
already occupied by some hackers. In the D-room some German sceners had
settled down, and so did I.
While I had to accept the risk of being trampled in the "queue", I
didn't accept that the same would happen to my PC, therefore I had to
leave it outside while getting in (besides, it's too hard to carry a
monitor, a PC case, a backpack and a sleepingbag all at the same time).
That's dangerous, of course, and when I came back my worst fears had
become reality: some vandal had damaged my PC!!! Luckily it must have
been a beginner vandal, cause all he did was rip out the escape key
from my keyboard. Still it's very annoying: I can't quit the text editor
with which I'm typing this now (Message to the vandal: One day I'll
find you, idiot, and you can be sure you'll have to buy me a brand new
escape key!)
After having installed my stuff, I tried to get the network running.
In the meantime more german sceners arrived, among them Farbrausch and
Smash Design. I had a little discussion with KB and other farbrausch
members about their cheating last year ("Damn, you still remember
that?"), and while I don't agree with their pro-cheating arguments, they
seems to be nice guys.
Djefke arrives too, plus I noticed the Inscene orgos in Area A, so
there are at least a few other Belgians here. After a lot of struggling
with the network settings, I can finally access the LAN and
www.ambience.nl, which is were the schedules, the forum etc are located.
-=- Saturday, 3 February -=-
The farbrausch guys are showing some things with their own projector
on a small screen in section D: the final version of The Product, an
anti-quake wild demo. The website and the domain name server have been
down for some time, but now they're accessible again. Still the surprise
compo rules are not yet published, nor can we see which movies will be
played at the movie theater. And the forum on the website is a nice
feature, but it seems as though the orgos do not read it, or at least
they don't answer any questions :(
Skyrunner is getting tired, he wants to sleep but the deadline for
submitting 4-channel mods is at 9:00 in the morning, and so far the
website gives an "access denied" error when you click a submit link.
Rather than risking to sleep through the deadline, he stays awake till
the submit forms work.
At 4:12, 2 out of 3 tables in our room suffer from a power failure
(OK, actually the computers on those tables suffer). Luckily I'm sitting
at the good table :) An organizer explains that some fuse blew up, and
that it's *not* a good idea to let the other tables draw power from
ours, because that would just blow up the remaining fuse. Submitting via
the website still doesn't work, but now it's allowed to bring your
entries to the info desk on disks or CD's.
7:12: Awake again after a few hours of sleep. Besides the large
sleeping hall in another building, this year there's also an auditorium
on the first floor used as a sleeping area. We like that.
9:18: Now its Djefkes turn to catch some sleep while I keep an eye on
the hardware. But he returns five minutes later, the security guys had
woken him up because he was sleeping in the hallway, which is forbidden.
They also came to check the rooms and woke up the people sleeping under
the tables, and confiscated a pack of cigarettes from a German scener
who was smoking again in the classroom (It's only allowed in area B and
the relaxation area). I support them on the smoking issue, and I can
imagine some good reasons why it's unsafe to let everybody sleep where
they want, but when some sceners wanted to discuss, the security crew
just said "Hey, we don't make the rules, we're just here to enforce
them!" That's a rather lame conversation killer :/ Luckily the orgos
have started to answer the questions on the forum, albeit on an
irregular base.
12:00: the first compo (4-channel music) should start about now, but
there's no one near the compo hall... Remembering last year's schedule
slips, I choose not to wait and go back to section D.
13:15: I went to the info desk to ask if they could send someone to
the scene areas to warn when the compo starts, because the network is
malfunctioning again. The guy at the desk said he'd try to do so. In one
of the hallways some first-aid helpers were helping a guy who was lying
on the floor, it seems he had had an epileptical attack or something.
The result of staring at a screen for too long, combined with a serious
lack of sleep? Nah, in that case there wouldn't be much people left
standing here :)
15:00: The new compo schedule is available, due to the problems with
the website all compos are delayed (but we knew that already). The 4
channel music and the 4K intro compos will start at 4 o'clock.
15:50: And here we go again: a local TV station has send out a crew
to make an entertaining little report on a game/demoparty. For those who
think that the scene is becoming mainstream: I'll only believe that if I
don't see any TV-crew at any party during an entire year. After they had
made some overview-shots of the room, the female interviewer (blonde of
course) was semi-interested in Update, I guess because he had
painted his hair green. Then she asked an organizer why there was
rivalry between the hard-core sceners and the gamers etc etc. That
interview took place in the doorstep of the room, so no-one could go to
the comporoom without disturbing them. Clever, clever :/
The 4-channel compo had some decent entries, but most were too close
to house/gabber for my taste. There were only 2 4K-intros, both of low
quality. a low-resolution demo about the life of a pixel, and a
java-applet that showed one water/morph effect and a scroller in Dutch.
That java-intro was made by Ile, and he wrote some controversial things
(in a funny style) in that scroller: gamers should be beaten up, the
organizers are nazis because the've stolen cigarettes from the German
sceners etc. But the TV-crew was recording the 4K compo, and because the
orgos clearly didn't like to have that scroller broadcasted, the intro
was quickly interrupted :)
Because these joke-intros didn't do the capabilities of the demoscene
much justice, and since the TV-crew couldn't wait for the demo/animation
compo, Please The Cookie Thing/Aardbei (the winner of last year's 64K
compo) was shown on the bigscreen too.
The website is up again, with a bunch of angry messages on the forum
from freelanners complaining about the slow and unreliable network, from
sceners complaining about the security, and on and on. I shrug and go
get some fries and a sandwich at the cafetaria, which works flawlessly
:)
18:30: With half an hour delay, the animation compo starts.There are
5 entries, the first is rECTUM cAUDA's Star Whores, which starts as a
parody on Star Wars, but doesn't follow that theme till the end.
Technically it's quite OK, but overal it's a typical rECTUM cAUDA prod.
Second comes a fly-through of a nuclear reactor, which was rather
boring, except for the impressive modelling of the fluid moving through
pipes. This one crashed near the end, it was shown again but with the
same result. Must have been an corrupt upload :/ Next came a dutch
joke-entry "Nul Vleugel", which is the literal translation of "Zero
Wing". As you can guess, it's about "All your base are belong to us!"
(During a mail conversation with Baxter/Green before the party, I had
guessed that at least 3 productions would abuse that phrase. We'll see
if I was right). The next entry was a rather boring concept-video of
people sitting on chairs, and the last was IMHO the best one:
Legoland/Parabyte. Yet another Lego-inspired production, about two
little men fighting each other with cars, a buldozer, a heli,... The
texts are a bit zany, but the animations are cool :) The graphic compos
(handdrawn, photo-based and raytraced) followed a bit later, but the
quality wasn't very high :/
21:30: Before the remaining music compos start, an additional
handdrawn and photobased picture were shown, maybe they missed the
deadline or got lost on the web. The multichannel compo had 10 entries,
most of them were quite enjoyable, a bit ambient/trance. According to
Djefke, they all sounded the same, but he can't know since he left after
the third tune or so. After a 10-minute pause, the house compo started,
so I left. Those housetunes all sound the same anyway :)
23:24: The house compo is over, and all remaining demo compos will
start tomorrow around noon. The network is being replaces piece by
piece, it seems that the fiber cables are causing problems (don't ask me
how that's possible), and now we're getting regular UTP cables. The
freelanners have a collective heart attack, judging from the postings on
the forum ( "Lambience is the worst LAN-party I've ever attended!" and
the like). Since I've a 10 Mbit card anyway, I notice only a better
stability. Good.
-=- Sunday, 4 February -=-
2:27 Not much is happening. I'm leeching movies (Wallace and Groomit
:)), but the server is under heavy load. I might as well get some sleep
in the meantime.
6:11 Back from dreamland, and appearently so many people are sleeping
now that the servers are much faster :) I've to be careful not to kick
Skyrunner in the head, cause he's sleeping under the table.
8:11 Almost everyone is sleeping now, also under tables or in
hallways. The security doesn't seem to care anymore: one guy walked in
and pretended to scan the room for sleeping people, and there was this
scener not really visible but snoring *really* loud, and the security
guy just walked away :)
8:42 Voting and downloading from the website works for a few
categories, nice.
10:56: Avoozl is searching for a bootable floppy and an anti-virus
program that can be started from a (Dos)floppy, because Inopia's
computer is heavily infected. We tried with F-prot, and it managed to
clean up the mess.
14:30: All compos have passed. There was only one 64K intro, the
invitro for Mekka/Symposium, from Farbrausch. The demo compo followed
next, and was fraught with problems: one demo crashed, another was
actually live recompiled (debug version) on the bigscreen. A third one
(Bluemchen, a joke demo by Schoko/Kekse) showed a nice setup window at
the start, which disappeared after you pressed OK, and the rest of the
demo was loaded, which took about ten seconds. Unfortunatly, the mouse
pointer didn't change to an hourglass, nor was there any other
indication that the demo was still active. So the orgos (who were
probably a tad nervous at that point) started a second instance of the
demo, and of course the whole thing crashed again :( After 45 minutes we
had finally seen all 5 demos, which were from medium to low quality.
(Rest of report written at home)
Back in section D, the Farbrausch people had somehow found out how to
get into the organizers preselection system, which lacked any
protection. They messed with the settings and laughed at the stupidity
of the organizers. A security guy noticed the commotion, and they showed
him what was wrong. An hour later (after I had voted), we heard that the
public voting had been replaced by jury voting because a) not enough
people had voted and b) people had complained they could vote only for
two of the five demos (I suppose because they tried to vote when
Farbrausch had disabled the others).
So we had to wait two hours longer before the prize ceremony started,
while the jury judged the productions. In the meantime I downloaded the
wild entries, talked with Inopia and other dutch sceners, and played
some games of table soccer with Diver, Skyrunner and another guy whose
name I don't remember. By sheer luck, I even managed to win one :)
But yet another problem arose: the gamers wanted to leave Ambience.
Normally, to prevent theft, it's forbidden to walk away with equipment
during the demo compos and the prize ceremony. The orgos had argued with
the gamers, but they couldn't convince them to wait till the prize
ceremony was over. So we were told that the safety of our (the sceners)
hardware could not be guaranteed during the prize ceremony :( As a
compromise, it was forbidden to move PC's in the demoscene sections, and
sceners in the other halls could bring their hardware in out hallway.
Fed up with waiting, some sceners started to hit on the door of the
compo hall. An angry orgo opened, and was quite surprized when someone
sugested that it would be nicer if we could wait inside the compohall,
watching some old demos. After consulting the other orgos, they decided
that that would be better indeed, and so we could at least sit down and
watch something.
Finally the prize ceremony started. There wasn't much enthousiasm
from the audience: hardly any applause, booing when the results for a
gaming compo were anounced (strangely, even the gamers themselves didn't
applaud for the winners of a gaming compo). The prizes were always a
T-shirt, some software (often games) and (for the bigger ones) some
hardware. Most sceners who won games threw them to the audience, much to
the pleasure of the gamers. Skyrunner placed third in the normal music
compo, and Farbrausch of course won the 64K intro compo. KB managed to
throw his game in such a direction that none of the gamers could catch
it, I'm not sure if that was on purpose or by accident :) The demo compo
was won by Stigma/Emotive, the demo that needed a live recompile on the
bigscreen.
And so Ambience was over. Djefke and I said goodbye to the other
people in section D, and we promised to visit Mekka/Symposium to see
them again. We hopped in Djefkes car and drove back to Belgium.
So how do I feel about Ambience 2001? Well I don't like being
negative, but here I've no choice: the organizing sucked badly, from a
demoscene point of view. I don't care about the network problems (which
were caused by oversensitive powersupplies in the switches, resulting in
massive random broadcasts, read it at www.ambience.nl), they tried hard
to solve that. But it seems the orgos didn't learn anything from last
year: compos were still not announced properly, people still had to wait
way too long in a cold hallway without any indication when the doors
would open, the security guys couldn't speak English and some were
rather arrogant, etc etc. Add to this the low quality of the compos and
the slow network, and you'll understand the people (sceners AND gamers)
who say they won't visit Ambience again next year. I still had much fun
seeing old friends again and meeting new people, but it could have been
much better. We'll see next month if Mekka/Symposium manages to fulfil
the expectations.
--Seven
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The Listener
Music by Nagz, 4t thieves and Gun Purist
By: Tryhuk
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-=- Nagz: "Shame of Moquiwa" -=-
After some good experience with nagz's music during last few months, I
decided to download all his "language lab" releases. "Shame of moquiwa"
seemed to me as a most interesting track and that's why I'm bringing it
to you now. As I try to find and define a style of this track, I'm
getting in a serious trouble. It has a lot out of a music of Siren,
especially out of his songs in Unreal. In some places nagz copies some
of his awesome leads you could hear in the mentioned game, but he also
adds to it something of his own and makes a bit fun out of it. But that
isn't what makes the track so special. He uses many sounds like lovely
short saxophone, additional flutes,vocals and gives to this track a
unique sound. Sorry but I'm not able to describe it, but if you like
melodic music with fresh ideas, this song is something for you.
Song Information:
Title: Shame of Moquiwa
Author: Nagz
Release date: 2000
Length: 3m40s
Filename (zipped/unzipped): ll-034.zip / ngz-mqws.xm
File Size (zipped/unzipped): 907kb / 1.5mb
Source: ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/language_lab/ll-034.zip
-=- 4t thieves: "Mists of Time, EP" -=-
I made quite a lot of downloads in a last few days and this EP seemed
to me as a best release to pick for you. If you take a look on it,
you'll find out that there isn't anything special on this music, it
doesn't contain any revolutionary ideas nor catchy leads. It is just a
three track EP with ambient music. What I like on it are its fresh
samples, its calm game with the sounds that doesn't necessarily try to
be experimental and prefers rather the music itself. I think that 4t
thieves proved by their other releases that their music is worth trying.
If you like ambient music and 30mb are no problem for you, consider
downloading this EP.
Song Information:
Title: Mist of Time
Mist of Time Ambient
Trancendental
Author: 4t thieves
Release date: 2001
Length: 6m39s + 8m47s + 5m19s
Filename: see source
File Size: 29mb
Source: http://kahvi.stc.cx/audio.html
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/kahvicollective/
kahvi017a_4tthieves-mistsoftime.mp3
kahvi017b_4tthieves-mistsoftimeambient.mp3
kahvi017c_4tthieves-trancendental.mp3
-=- Gun Purist "Slinky Red Thing" -=-
If I would try to roughly describe this track, I would have to use
same words as I used for "mist of time". It is an enjoyable track,
almost ambient, that builds on nice vocals of Tori Amos, fast but soft
percussion and kind and memorable melodies. Upsetting and calming at one
time.
Song Information:
Title: Slinky red thing
Author: Gun Purist
Release date: 07/12/00
Length: 4m27s
Filename: gun-purist-slinky-red-thing.mp3
File Size: 4.2mb
Source: http://www.mono211.com/content/releases/nmomp1.html
ftp://mirror.support.nl/pub/mono/drfetid/gun-purist-slinky-red-thing.mp3
--Tryhuk
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Psycle
New Release & Notes
By: ksn
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PSYCLE (i know you know and like it) has a new version (1.5b1plus)
Here's a sum up of all the improvements :
Note:
+ is addition
! is bug fix
+ "twf" command added and slightly changed the Generators Bar.
+ Note playback on Machine View!
+ Mouse support (Cursor positioning and block selecting)
+ Track Soloing (Pressing S or the green light- Mute with M)
+ Added Interpolation of command parameters. The Key is CTRL+I
+ Tempo and TPB pattern commands added. They are FFxx and FDxx
respectively
+ ".psy" extension is added automatically when saving.
+ Added posibility to change the Generator/Instrument of the Selected
Block.
+ Added < > to change the Generator.
+ Added the missing code to the "Dec" and "Clear" buttons in the
Sequencer.
+ Added Block Saving as a Request of Gerwin. Saves the selected block to
a file
+ Added parameter numbering to the internal Effects (I forgot that, sorry)
The key for the "twf" command is the same than the "twk", but pressing
Shift
+ Block Transpose Added. Use CTRL+Q to move upwards and CTRL+A downwards
(if french keyb conf is used, then CTRL+Q is downwards and CTRL+A
upwards)
! Fixed crash when showing the properties dialog of machines with a long
name
! Patched the crash bug when loading some psycle songs that use VST's.
! Fixed strange crash with some old songs (1.1b1?) that had a wrong TPB
! Fixed bug where Parameters of machines weren't shown
! Fixed a loss of the current directory after loading or saving songs.
! Changes in the "NewValue" Dialog
! Fixed the Machine moving bug when the Machine frame got the focus
! Instrument change with the arrows correctly changes the instrument
! TPB correctly updated when loading a song.
! !!!!___Changed TPB command from FDxx to FExx___!!!!
! Fixed bug where setting FF00/FD00 crashed psycle
! Fixed bug where also using twk/twf the tempo/TPB was changed
! Interpolation now iterpolates the full command/parameter row, not only
the parameter part.
! Now trully fixed the lost of directory when loading (I fixed it when
saving, but for some reason I didn't for loading)
The program can be found at psycledelics as usual:
http://www.pastnotecut.org/psycle/
--ksn
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Retro Tunage
"Beast From Inside" by Cube
By: Tryhuk
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When I started to write this review for the first time, I thought I
will drop just a few lines because (as was sung in many songs) words
loose their sense if they've been all said before. But then I forgot all
prepared text in my work and I'm writing it for the second time and I
think I'll make it a bit longer this time.
I'm quite sure I mentioned this track before in demojournal as a part
of Dee musicdisks. Of course there are more very good songs by Cube I
can write about, but this one still stays as my favorite because of some
unknown reason. One time I even thought to write about a completely
different song, but I prefer being a bit repetitive and write with
interest than to be innovative and produce crap. I think that many
scene people also need to take it into their hearts.
But now, let us proceed to the review. As you might guess it is one
of those melodic songs with distorted samples and well memorable
memories. Not by accident was Dee 2, a musicdisk with music by Nitro,
Teque and Cube picked as one of the best in the year 1997. Of course it
wasn't only Dee 2 musicdisk that came out and soon, on the third one
appeared a song "beast from inside", one of cube's best songs ever. It
has all what a good song needs - a well designed multilayered
structure, very good and memorable melodies and excellent panning so all
of the instruments remain clear and they don't get lost under other
sounds. I believe that used samples are rather a secondary thing. I'm
sure that if you would substitute them by a completely different set,
you would still have a great song. Also transitions of the song are well
made, they don't break the tempo and they don't loose too much of the
power.
Let us take a deeper look on the particular layers. Most of people
notice from the sound of drumline that it consists out of drum loops,
but because they're short it still gives to the author enough space for
variation. They are more consistent than a tracked loops and they also
sound more realistic - nothing wrong with that. Chord progression is
surprisingly simple - Cube opens with two tone consonance and jumps to
classical 3 note chords one octave above. You might notice that he
often repeats same chords in many patterns in sequence, with a change of
only one note. Because he plays all notes of the chord with a delay and
changes always a last note of the chord, he creates a nice feeling
through this simple trick. In some sequences he features a few new
chords and works with them in the second part, but still it is a perfect
presentation how much can be done with a few accords.
What left now are the leads and accompanying sounds. I think there's
not much to say about leads, they are lovely. For the secondary melodies
and for the ambience Cube uses many sounds, many times with very fast
melody or with very dynamic volume (like guitars). He changes them very
often so the song doesn't sound same all the time even when it has only
minor changes.
I'm afraid this article grew too much, so I'll end it up. If you're
trying to make experimental music, don't forget that melody is what
makes a music and let this song to be an example of this. Good night or
what time you have. Go and track something nice.
Song Information:
Title: Beast from inside
Author: Cube
Release date: March 15, 1997
Length: 4m16s trimmed
Filename (zipped/unzipped): beast.zip / beast.xm
File Size (zipped/unzipped): 320k / 647k
Source: http://db.cs.helsinki.fi/~tlonnber/files/mod/beast.zip
--Tryhuk
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Screen Lit Vertigo
Stigma by Emotive (party-version)
By: Seven
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Found at www.scene.org
1st place at Ambience 2001 demo compo
System requirements:
A recent nVidia card, resolution is fixed at 800*600.
A heavy CPU and 14 Mb diskspace
Test Machine: PIII 900 192MB, SB128, GeForce 2MX 32MB, Win98
The credits:
Code: Pleques
Music: Crystal Score
The Demo:
In the (Dutch) info file, it's written that this demo was made in 3
days, and that the author is happy with the monitor he won with it.
We're glad for him, but it's clear Stigma is *very* unfinished: it stops
very abruptly and the music fades out suddenly, no setup possibilities,
9 Mb uncompressed images etc. So why did the Ambience orgos vote Sigma
numberr one? Well, first there's the music by Crystal Score: it's a
track with a lot of variation, it starts with a flight operator talking,
then it uses gregorian voices, a bit later an asian flute kicks in...
Weird, but it all fits together nicely. There's a perfect balance
between rhythm and melody, something that matters a lot for me.
The effects include flat-shaded mountains and psychedelic colored
morphing blobs, complex particle systems and motion-blurred transparant
tubes. The latter two effects look quite good, and switches to a new
effects are synced to the music. There's also one good picture of a
chinese man, might be handdrawn.
Overall:
Stigma is quite buggy. Once, it refused to start, saying there was
something wrong in a .cpp file, and once it has changed my windows
background image from "spread" to "centered". It's also very unfinished,
with several effects shown twice to fill the timeframe. I would
recommend you to wait for the final, but the author himself says in the
info file there probably won't be one, as he thinks the demo isn't worth
it. So, check it out if you're curious, or if you want to listen to the
soundtrack.
--Seven
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Scene Sense
The Mighty Mod vs. Malicious MIDI Sequencing (and the MP3)
By: PsiTron
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For the last two months, I have given you my thoughts on OSes and
while the arguments about them are very far from over, the one thing I
have found about the OS war is that every single person is standing
behind facts - facts misconstrued with opinions, that is. Thus, the
reason no one gets anywhere is because everyone is right and wrong at
the same time, by providing a mix of such fact and opinion. The facts,
also are a complex mess of system configurations themselves; different
drivers used, hardware, setup, etc. In a nutshell, my intent was not to
piss off the editor =) and I do believe I pissed him off pretty good.
Thus, it is time to focus on something more immediately pertinent to the
scene - The differences in MIDI and Tracking.
First, however, to describe the differences, one has to define what
exactly one is referring to. For example, does the word 'Tracking' mean
just the interface or the interface and the format (two very different
things). Does MIDI simply mean Musical Instrument Digital Interface,
describing the standard in which musical devices communicate; or does it
mean MIDI Sequencing. For the scope of this article, I will concentrate
on MIDI Sequencing (and how it has been largely applied to mp3's) and
Tracking in general (that is in reference to both the interface and the
format).
In a world where software piracy is interestingly easy, one may find
many applications on a musician's PC that may have a questionable
origin. Thus the world of MIDI Sequencing has become a larger part of
the 'Free Music Scene' (the combination of the 'Tracking Scene' and 'MP3
Scene', at least for the scope of this article). Why? Versatility, that
is why. MIDI Sequencing has the interesting capability to not only
interface with hardware but, of course, also software. Thus one is not
limited hardly at all to what one can create.
With a tracker, at least ones such as Fast Tracker or Impulse Tracker
(let us not, of course, forget ModEdit! =) one IS limited in capability.
There is simply a finite of amount one can do with a sample before the
module gets humongously too big (by being forced to use large wave files
to compensate for the limitations of the tracker). Depending on one's
intended application, of course, a tracker has many advantages. Again,
in reference to games like Unreal Tournament (a favorite of mine, if you
read my articles regularly =), which utilizes a modified S3M file
format, with some IT extensions, one has the ability to create seamless
looping songs that are capable of changing mood. In the case of Unreal
and UT alike, quality is a bit on the low-fi side (most modules have
only a few 16-bit samples, if any), but the size of the modules
themselves are very small for the amount of music present (about 2 hours
20 minutes).
If one were to use something like an MP3, this type of versatility
would be lost (as well as shear space) as I have not seen seamless
looping MP3's ever without a click here or there. CD Audio is worse than
MP3's, when speaking of looping, because the laser has to physically
move back to the starting position of the song, though the quality is at
its best, offering raw uncompressed streams. This is perhaps the largest
reason the developers of Unreal decided to largely focus on MODs -
because there is never an interruption in the music. Hearing an MP3
click back to the loop point, or having to wait the second or so of
silence while the CD-ROM moves back to the beginning destroys the mood
the one is trying to create (in both a game and demo, though demos
frequently don't repeat songs =).
Perhaps the biggest asset to MODs when speaking of seamless looping
is their ability to carry over effects from the end of the song to the
beginning. If you are a looping song guru like myself, you will find
that, if made properly, it takes quite some time to notice a MOD is
looping at all - the strings might fade into another chord, or the loud
blaring praxis bass you used as a sort of bridge fades out. To be fair,
this application is best suited for games or such things that have long
and complex, nonstop, music. It is not very necessary for the average
musician who is not addicted to hearing a song loop seamlessly an
infinite amount of times. Therefore, it stands to reason the most
musicians prefer using things and methods outside of the tracker to
achieve a better sound and cooler effects - such as MIDI Sequencing.
However, to say the modules are dead is as ludicrous as saying the
scene is dead. They are not - their use has simply become different. I
still envision the module to be prevalent in demos, if one is to carry
the demo ideal over into the musical side of it - or at least intros.
And, surprisingly enough, FMOD (a library often used in demo and game
applications) uses only about one-tenth the CPU power when playing a MOD
(using interpolation, volume ramping and filtering) that an MP3 would
use. But I have restated this all too much already - perhaps because I
am too stuck on the tracker interface too much to notice and utilize the
versatility of MIDI Sequencers (or, until recently, have had far too
little HD space to work with, or I am just too damn lazy to NOT grab
certain software off the net, like some musicians have =). I am also
something of a perfectionist, and somewhat of an idealist. In the PC
world, I like to see the acute utilization of hardware to replace the
burdens that the CPU has to deal with. I am currently unaware of
hardware MP3 decoder cards (though I am sure they may exist) which take
the burden off the CPU, much like the good ole' GUS PnP did, or the
EWS64 does, or how the SB Live should (but Creative did not implement
such a thing correctly, as far as I am aware - at least not with the
efficiency that GUS did). Regardless of how little burden MP3s have on
today's CPU, those are still clock cycles wasted that could go to
something like a few extra polygons.
You will notice by now that I have been referencing MP3's a large
amount - this is because that when utilizing MIDI and external programs,
there are few times when the result is small enough to fit into a MOD as
a wave. Thus MP3 offers the only other alternative (besides CDs, of
course, but they are not near as versatile when trying to distribute
over the net, obviously) because it would be a horrible idea to try and
distribute files in their native format - MIDI Sequencers are not
designed in such a way anyway. Furthermore, many musicians have used
post-processing techniques to achieve a better sound - something which
can only be done when the intended output is an MP3 or CD. While it is
just as easy to distribute a MOD in the MP3 format, many songs are
modified outside the tracker, using some sort of device that probably
uses MIDI.
But what does all this crap mean? Well, it means that both MIDI
Sequencing and Tracking are not perfect. MIDI Sequencing, because of
it's versatility cannot have a portable module format like a tracker
does, because it largely interfaces with hardware or software plugins to
control and reproduce the sound. Trackers, at least the current (stable)
generation of them are limiting by allowing only certain effects and
methods of creating and reproducing music. So what, then is the
solution? In my opinion, a tracker has the best interface known to man
because the interface is so unique yet versatile to use. Many
recreations of it have had a certain twist of their own which give them
a particular style that some musicians like, and some do not. Yet the
main concept remains the same, and if this concept could be carried
through into MIDI Sequencing, or, better stated, if both could collide
into one - the music scene would be a good portion closer to perfection.
One could, for example, utilitize the tracker interface and create a
MIDI sequencer around it, much like zTracker has done. Unfortunately, as
cool as zTracker seems to be, the author himself states that he does not
wish to implement wave-based facilities into it (for the complexity
involved). And still the problem of using such songs in a game, using
their native file format, is still very prevalent.
Truly the best situation is one that is portable, which is why mp3's
are so prevalent. So, how about a tracker format that is able to utilize
pluginable modules (not to be confused with the file format) which could
then be used for creating effects such as reverb, echo, filtering, etc.,
and furthermore, could be integrated into the module format itself. For
example, if the musician wishes to use reverb, he could go grab a reverb
plugin (or write one, for the multi-talented out there) and use it in a
particular song, say for a demo. The same module could then be inserted
into the player code (or perhaps the module itself - space permitting)
of a game or demo and reproduced. It would be wonderful if the machine
it was played on also utilized hardware mixing, again, much as the EWS
or GUS PnP does and then one could have strictly the best of both
worlds. And of course, one could add a plugin to interface with other
external drivers of hardware, when necessary and when the intended
output is an MP3 or a CD (as a plugin that interfaces with expensive
hardware would be useless if the listener does not have such hardware =)
Of course the problem still remains about the limitations that effect
columns and the alpha-numeric characters that represent effects is still
prevalent. I think that in the near future one will, in fact, find a
more common ground among the concepts used in MIDI Sequencing and
Tracking. Using a different, or more refined effects system would give
trackers much more versatility that they, in recent years, have lacked.
Having 'plugins', after all, is of no use if one is limited greatly in
how many one can use at one time. Personally, my tracking style is such
that I enjoy working largely in the patterns - I believe it offers a
much more versatile (albeit less accurate) approach. Thus, personally, I
would like to see a way in which effects could be use in greater numbers
without adding effect columns after columns. It would be interesting to
see if someone would expand on the idea of macros of some sort and even
programmable machines that could be used and modified in the
pattern-data.
Granted such a system has not yet been developed and current trackers
still are limited in comparison to the scope that MIDI Sequencing has,
and surely if one just wants to make MP3's or CD's, zTracker looks very
promising, if you love the tracker interface as much as I. But by using
plugins mentioned, the size of modules would decrease greatly, but the
versatility would increase providing a higher quality of playback,
allowing seamless looping with decreased filesize. In fact, the filesize
may be so low that the concept of distribution modules in their native
format might become more popular (a practice that I much prefer).
This is an idealist approach to the solution by a die-hard tracker, I
will full well admit. Nonetheless, it is an interesting thing, a pipe
dream it may be, that was worth mentioning. I enjoy writing such
articles like these because, I hope, it spurs growth and thought into
the scene when I think it sometimes lacks little or none. It pains me
greatly to hear people say "The Scene [Demoscene or Trackerscene] is
dead [or dying]," which of course it is not. But rather the scene is
changing, one cannot deny - and in this midst of change, it hurts not
one bit to propose one way the scene might change, and for the better, I
would think since, I hope that such future trackers remain, like the
spirit of the scene, free.
In reality, that is largely the scope of this article. MIDI
Sequencing is NOT cheap (not if pursued via legal means =) and often to
achieve a good sound, good quality hardware is also needed. The main
benefit of trackers is that many have been free, are reasonably
powerful, and are designed in such a way that new musicians need not to
buy out their local music store to create a half-decent sound.
Knowing all this, what might the future hold? That can only be
answered through speculation. MP3's are not going to go away. Nor will
MIDI Sequencing (of course). For they both have their uses and
applications. Nonetheless, it would be a sad shame to see the tracker
fade away and I hope someone gets off their lazy arse and starts
development on a new one soon. Yet if there is no demand there is really
no point of having a product - free or not. Thus if the scene wishes to
bask in the light of MIDI Sequencing, it will. I can say, however, that
I believe the tracker as an interface will not fade away at all. Though,
I would very much want to see some sort of hybrid of MIDI and Tracking
that would allow artists to have more versatility about what they create
and how they distribute it (in a module-like format, or in mp3 or a
derivative).
The scene, however, is an entity of it's own, yet we are each a small
part of it. And thus the answer to what the scene will do lies in each
of us sceners. What we do depicts how the scene acts.
And perhaps that might make all the difference in the world.
--PsiTron
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Editorial
Honesty in Music
By: Coplan
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I honestly can't picture a world without tracking.
But that's me.
The average computer user doesn't find this to be any issue
what-so-ever. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that the average demo
coder would also be able to cope. After all, he could rip his favorite
song into an MP3, and stick it into a demo somehow. Not too difficult,
eh?
But I'm not writing to the average computer user. And though there
might be a few of you reading this that are demo coders, I'd be willing
to bet you'd still like to hear some tracked tunage every so often. But
I'd be willing to bet that a great majority of you are trackers of some
sort, and share the same feelings as I...
I couldn't picture a world without such a release of musical activity
in my brain. Mind you, when I speak of tracking, I'm accounting for
those of you who use SoundForge ACID, or those of you who use some MIDI
Sequencer. I'm speaking of digital music as created on your computer
with your software of choice.
Granted, as I already pointed out, pulling such music creation
systems out of the world wouldn't change the views of many people. But
everyone needs to find a good way to release themselves. For me and
many others, it's through music. I release my thoughts and emotions
through the (poor) music that I write. Most of my music never gets
heard by the public, but that's not the point. Yes, it's nice to see
some of my music heard by the public, and I like getting what little
kudos I get for my music. But that's not the reason I write music.
As is the case with many musicians, I write music because I like to.
I like the whole concept of creation. I will sit and admire the
different stages of my tracking career from time to time. I'll listen
to the crappiest tunes I've ever written and recognize the fact that
those tunes are less than average. I admire the fact that I realize
that. I admire the fact that I can honestly say to myself that I
dislike a song I wrote, and why.
It's all about honesty.
To others, your ego will surface. I will never say to anyone that I
suck. I can honestly say to myself that I don't suck, and I expect that
no one out there will admit that to themselves as well. Most people
will at most acknowledge that they need improvement. I need
improvement, but that's far more productive than saying "I can't do
this, fuck it!" The first several tracks I wrote never made it to the
public scene. That's fine, I didn't write them for the public scene. I
wrote them so that I could write a tune that was worthy of release to
the public scene.
The fact that I release music to the public scene has nothing to do
with getting commendation for my music. Again, it's nice to get
recognized for your music, but that, again, is not the point. As with
any art, I feel that music should be shared. Culture, in general, is
developed from people sharing their ideas and their concepts. Without
the sharing, one doesn't learn from another, and the conception cycle
ends.
It's about sharing.
Sharing your music (or art) is serves two purposes. For one, it
benefits others. Your song could very well be the reason someone else
write another tune. Your song might inspire that person to write the
best tune that they ever wrote, and then the satisfaction is extended
through the cycle. But your song could also benefit you, as you are
constantly striving to be better. Others might have comments, and
though some might not be very constructive, you occasionally find
something useful. Even getting a general public view of your music
helps, as you'll start to notice patterns. Perhaps you'll find that
you're better at one style of music than another. That will either lead
you to develop that style, or try to improve the other. It depends on
what you set your mind to do.
It's about you and your music, and what you think of it. It's about
what others think of it, and what you accept from their thoughts. It's
a constant cycle going 'round and 'round, and you grow as a person as a
result. You have a release, a faucet attached to your brain, and if you
neglect that you're stupid.
A world without such a release is one that would be grey, and bland.
Aren't you glad you have your tracker?
--Coplan
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Link List
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Portals:
Orange Juice.............................http://www.ojuice.net
Scene.org.................................http://www.scene.org
SceneSpot.............................http://www.scenespot.org
CFXweb.......................................http://cfxweb.net
Pouet.net.................................http://www.pouet.net
Demoscene.org.........................http://www.demoscene.org
Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
Demo.org...................................http://www.demo.org
Czech Scene................................http://www.scene.cz
Hungarian Scene........................http://www.scene-hu.com
Italian Scene...........................http://run.to/la_scena
ModPlug Central Resources..........http://www.castlex.com/mods
Norvegian Scene............http://www.neutralzone.org/scene.no
Polish Scene...........................http://www.demoscena.pl
Russian Scene..........................http://www.demoscene.ru
Spanish Scene............................http://www.escena.org
Swiss Scene..............................http://www.chscene.ch
Archives:
Acid2.....................................ftp://acid2.stack.nl
Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl
Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de
Hornet (1992-1996)........................ftp://ftp.hornet.org
Scene.org..................................ftp://ftp.scene.org
Scene.org Austra........................ftp://ftp.au.scene.org
Scene.org Netherlands...................ftp://ftp.nl.scene.org
Swiss Scene FTP...........................ftp://ftp.chscene.ch
Demo Groups:
3g Design..............................http://3gdesign.cjb.net
3State...................................http://threestate.com
7 Gods.........................................http://7gods.sk
Aardbei.....................................http://aardbei.com
Acid Rain..............................http://surf.to/acidrain
Addict..................................http://addict.scene.pl
Agravedict........................http://www.agravedict.art.pl
Alien Prophets...................http://alienprophets.ninja.dk
Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl
Astral..............................http://astral.scene-hu.com
Astroidea........................http://astroidea.scene-hu.com
BlaBla..............................http://blabla.planet-d.net
Blasphemy..............................http://www.blasphemy.dk
Bomb..................................http://bomb.planet-d.net
Broncs..................................http://broncs.scene.cz
Byterapers.....................http://www.byterapers.scene.org
Bypass.................................http://bypass.scene.org
Calodox.................................http://www.calodox.org
Cocoon..............................http://cocoon.planet-d.net
Confine.................................http://www.confine.org
Damage...................................http://come.to/damage
Eclipse............................http://www.eclipse-game.com
Elitegroup..........................http://elitegroup.demo.org
Exceed...........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~exceed
Fairlight.............................http://www.fairlight.com
Fobia Design...........................http://www.fd.scene.org
Freestyle............................http://www.freestylas.org
Fresh! Mindworks...................http://kac.poliod.hu/~fresh
Future Crew..........................http://www.futurecrew.org
Fuzzion.................................http://www.fuzzion.org
GODS...................................http://www.idf.net/gods
Halcyon...........................http://www.halcyon.scene.org
Haujobb..................................http://www.haujobb.de
Hellcore............................http://www.hellcore.art.pl
Infuse...................................http://www.infuse.org
Kilobite...............................http://kilobite.cjb.net
Kolor................................http://www.kaoz.org/kolor
Komplex.................................http://www.komplex.org
Kooma.....................................http://www.kooma.com
Mandula.........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula
Maturefurk...........................http://www.maturefurk.com
Monar................ftp://amber.bti.pl/pub/scene/distro/monar
MOVSD....................................http://movsd.scene.cz
Nextempire...........................http://www.nextempire.com
Noice.....................................http://www.noice.org
Orange.................................http://orange.scene.org
Orion................................http://orion.planet-d.net
Popsy Team............................http://popsyteam.rtel.fr
Prone................................http://www.prone.ninja.dk
Purple....................................http://www.purple.dk
Rage........................................http://www.rage.nu
Replay.......................http://www.shine.scene.org/replay
Retro A.C...........................http://www.retroac.cjb.net
Sista Vip..........................http://www.sistavip.exit.de
Skytech team............................http://www.skytech.org
Sunflower.......................http://sunflower.opengl.org.pl
Talent.............................http://talent.eurochart.org
The Black Lotus.............................http://www.tbl.org
The Digital Artists Wired Nation.http://digitalartists.cjb.net
The Lost Souls...............................http://www.tls.no
TPOLM.....................................http://www.tpolm.com
Trauma.................................http://sauna.net/trauma
T-Rex.....................................http://www.t-rex.org
Unik........................................http://www.unik.de
Universe..........................http://universe.planet-d.net
Vantage..................................http://www.vantage.ch
Wipe....................................http://www.wipe-fr.org
Music Labels, Music Sites:
Aisth.....................................http://www.aisth.com
Aural Planet........................http://www.auralplanet.com
Azure...................................http://azure-music.com
Blacktron Music Production...........http://www.d-zign.com/bmp
BrothomStates.............http://www.katastro.fi/brothomstates
Chill..........................http://www.bentdesign.com/chill
Chippendales......................http://www.sunpoint.net/~cnd
Chiptune...............................http://www.chiptune.com
Da Jormas................................http://www.jormas.com
Fabtrax......http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/fabtrax/home.htm
Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org
Fusion Music Crew.................http://members.home.nl/cyrex
Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff
Ignorance.............................http://www.ignorance.org
Immortal Coil.............................http://www.ic.l7.net
Intense...........................http://intense.ignorance.org
Jecoute.................................http://jecoute.cjb.net
Kosmic Free Music Foundation.............http://www.kosmic.org
Lackluster.....................http://www.m3rck.net/lackluster
Level-D.................................http://www.level-d.com
Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net
Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi
Mah Music.............................http://come.to/mah.music
Maniacs of noise...............http://home.worldonline.nl/~mon
MAZ's sound homepage..................http://www.maz-sound.com
Med.......................................http://www.med.fr.fm
Mo'playaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz
Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com
Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds
Noise................................http://www.noisemusic.org
Noerror.......................http://www.error-404.com/noerror
One Touch Records......................http://otr.planet-d.net
Park..................................http://park.planet-d.net
pHluid..................................http://phluid.acid.org
Radical Rhythms.....http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/merrelli/rr
RBi Music.............................http://www.rbi-music.com
Ruff Engine................http://members.xoom.com/ruff_engine
SHR8M......................................http://1st.to/shr8m
Sound Devotion................http://sugarbomb.x2o.net/soundev
Soundstate.........................http://listen.to/soundstate
Sunlikamelo-D...........http://www.error-404.com/sunlikamelo-d
Suspect Records........................http://www.tande.com/sr
Tequila........................http://www.defacto2.net/tequila
Tempo................................http://tempomusic.cjb.net
Tetris....................................http://msg.sk/tetris
Theralite...........................http://theralite.avalon.hr
Tokyo Dawn Records........................http://tdr.scene.org
Triad's C64 music archive.............http://www.triad.c64.org
UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub
Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk
Wiremaniacs.........................http://www.wiremaniacs.com
Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm
Programming:
Programming portal......................http://www.gamedev.net
Programming portal.....................http://www.flipcode.com
Game programming portal...............http://www.gamasutra.com
3D programming portal.................http://www.3dgamedev.com
Programming portal......................http://www.exaflop.org
Programming portal............http://www.programmersheaven.com
Programming portal.....................http://www.freecode.com
NASM (free Assembly compiler)......http://www.cryogen.com/nasm
LCC (free C compiler).........http://www.remcomp.com/lcc-win32
PTC video engine.........................http://www.gaffer.org
3D engines..........http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html
Documents...............http://www.neutralzone.org/home/faqsys
File format collection...................http://www.wotsit.org
Magazines:
Amber...............................http://amber.bti.pl/di_mag
Amnesia...............http://amnesia-dist.future.easyspace.com
Demojournal....................http://demojournal.planet-d.net
Eurochart.............................http://www.eurochart.org
Heroin...................................http://www.heroin.net
Hugi........................................http://www.hugi.de
Music Massage......................http://www.scene.cz/massage
Pain..................................http://pain.planet-d.net
Scenial...........................http://www.scenial.scene.org
Shine...............................http://www.shine.scene.org
Static Line................http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
Sunray..............................http://sunray.planet-d.net
TUHB.......................................http://www.tuhb.org
WildMag...............................http://wildmag.notrix.de
Parties:
Assembly (Finland).....................http://www.assembly.org
Ambience (The Netherlands)..............http://www.ambience.nl
Dreamhack (Sweden)....................http://www.dreamhack.org
Buenzli (Switzerland)......................http://www.buenz.li
Gravity (Poland)............http://www.demoscena.cp.pl/gravity
Mekka-Symposium (Germany)...................http://ms.demo.org
Takeover (The Netherlands).............,http://www.takeover.nl
The Party (Denmark).....................http://www.theparty.dk
Others:
Demo secret parts....http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula/secret.txt
Textmode Demo Archive.................http://tmda.planet-d.net
Arf!Studios..........................http://www.arfstudios.org
#coders..................................http://coderz.cjb.net
Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express
Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub
Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net
Doose charts...............................http://www.doose.dk
Freax................................http://freax.scene-hu.com
GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net
PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained
Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org
IRC Channels:
Scene.........................................ircnet #thescene
Programming.....................................ircnet #coders
Programming....................................efnet #flipcode
Graphics.........................................ircnet #pixel
Music.............................................ircnet #trax
Scene (French)..................................ircnet #demofr
Programming (French)............................ircnet #codefr
Graphics (French)..............................ircnet #pixelfr
Scene (Hungarian)............................ircnet #demoscene
Programming (Hungarian)......................ircnet #coders.hu
Programming (German)........................ircnet #coders.ger
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Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
Psitron / Tim Soderstrom / tigerhawk@stic.net
Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk
Seven / Stefaan VanNieuwenhuyze/ seven7@writeme.com
Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / vojtech.tryhuk@worldonline.cz
Technical Consult: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@scenespot.org
Static Line on the Web: http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
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See you next month!
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