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cRu|________\ | | Issue #48
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September, 2003 || / \ \__/ / / /___// |
292 Subscribers World Wide | /___/ \ / / __/_ / |
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Table Of Contents
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Opening:
Message From the Editor
Features:
Party Report -- Evoke '03
Party Report -- Pilgrimage '03
Key Signatures
Reviews:
Music:
In Tune -- "Trickster" and "Mirrorpeople"
On The Sideline -- "Ninth" by Polygon Ring
The Lineup -- Monthly Music Listings
Demo:
Screen Lit Vertigo -- "El Bourrrinas" and "Red Line"
Opinion / Commentary:
Coplan's Eyes -- Keep It Simple Stupid
Link List: Get Somewhere in the Scene
Closing: Staff and Contact Information
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Message From the Editor
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Greetings, and welcome to the September issue. Ciaran is still on
vacation, so I will be your editor for this issue. It has been another
eventful month. The bad news is that Cloud beat Sephiroth on the
gamefaqs.com 2003 character battle. The good news is that we have a great
issue this month.
Seven went to three parties in the last four weeks, so he has been a bit
swamped for time. This month we are including some unpublished demo
reviews that were done some time ago. Seven gives his apologies that this
month's reviews are not the latest and greatest. The great part is that
after all that partying, he had enough energy to write reports. This
month we'll report on Evoke, and next month we plan to report on Buenzli.
We're also including Secnuop's Pilgrimage party report, my review of
"Ninth" by Polygon Ring, and an article by Dilvie about musical key
signatures. On the same tone, Coplan wrote commentary about keeping
things simple while composing songs.
One last thing.. Vince says he hasn't been getting much feedback on The
Lineup. The Lineup is a great resource, and it's great to have someone
like Vince scouring the net for good modules. Consider dropping him a
line, a little bit goes a long way.
Enjoy,
--Ben Collver
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Party Report
Evoke '03
By: Seven
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I had actually planned not to go to Evoke, as I would be going to Buenzli
the next week with Djefke, and three demo parties in one month is a bit
too much of a good thing. But a friend of Djefke was going to marry
during the Buenzli weekend, so he decided to go to Evoke instead, and
invited me along. After hesitating a day, I thought "Why not? What good
are money, sleep and sanity if you can't recklessly abandon them for a
good party?" :)
-=- Friday 22 August -=-
DJefke picked me up at the Berchem train station with the car from his
work (free transportation! Yeah!) The trip to Cologne, Germany was
uneventful, except that we almost missed the right exit due to babbling
too much. We illegally parked the car near the entrance after driving
around the block three times without finding a better place, and went
inside the party building to find some empty seats.
21:02:
I've installed myself temporarily next to SCA, on half an empty place at
the corner of a table. The party place is packed, there are hardly any
seats left, let alone two next to each other. Djefke went to the orgos to
ask for extra tables. We've already met Fred/Calodox, Steeler/BP orgos
and Unlock/Pain who were enjoying a beer outside, and Steeler who is also
an Evoke organizer and told us we could enter now and pay later, when the
party would open officially.
That happens a tad later: everyone has to go back outside, and stand in a
queue to get a ticket and (more importantly) a vote key. There's a
combination ticket deal for Buenzli which is 5 Euro cheaper than separate
tickets, so I decide to get one of those. The orgos have been quite
thoughtful, they have provided flyers with a plan of the party place and
its surroundings, with shops, bars and fast food joints marked on it, and
the local bus schedule is shown at the entrance so even people without
cars can easily go on a shopping/drinking spree.
I move my stuff to the small hall connecting the main hall and the
entrance, where the orgos have installed some extra tables. Djefke went
moving his car to the parking space, which is no less than 2.5 km way from
the party place :( Outside, I get to know some new people, such as Leia
and Wayfinder/Farbrausch. I've recently found a web site with his old
Azure stuff, which I really liked since I discovered it at Nectarine, so
it was great to meet the man in person. :) He tells me Farbrausch may
release something at Evoke, otherwise they'll wait till State Of The Art
(in December in France), in which case it will be much better finished.
:)
22:15:
The opening ceremony is over: it started with a theme song with cheezy
vocals about Evoke Z003 (pronounced Zoo-thousand-and-three), everyones
favorite monkey meeting. The main orgo enumerated all the special extras
at Evoke, such as 2 music workshops, a barbecue compo, a remix compo etc.
He also asked to sit with 3 people at each table, in order to alleviate
the lack of seats a little. That will probably make the overheated room
even more hot, a problem we don't have in our cozy little hall. :)
23:35:
Since the improvised tables had no switches, I went to the orgos to get
one. This was more complicated than I expected, I had to sign a rental
agreement and they asked me to give them my ID card, but in the end my
social security card was acceptable as well. They claimed this is the
usual way of getting switches at major parties, but most parties I've been
to had switches pre-installed :-/ Anyway, the small hall has access to the
party net now, which is nice because the dutch sceners Shifter/TPB, Warp,
Skrebbel/Green and Turismo have just arrived and sit here as well.
-=- Saturday 23 August -=-
00:26:
We've been barbecuing on the roof of the party place, but this is less
outlandish than it seems. :) A short description of the party place is in
order: Evoke takes place in an old fort in the middle of a park. The
entrance hall is connected to the small hall (more like a room) where
maybe 10 people are sitting. It's connected with a T-corridor, if you
turn right you're in the dark sleeping hall, which is probably used by
schools as a gym because it has lots of equipment installed. If you turn
left, you're in the main party hall, which looks rather cave-like without
any windows and a rounded ceiling. The (rather small) big screen is on
the far end, and on the left and right are the organizer rooms and the
toilets respectively. There are couches here and there, and even a soccer
table and pinball machine in our room. If you go outside and around the
building, there is a huge staircase to the roof, which has the form of a
cross, with a statue of an eagle on a pillar in the middle. Around this
pillar, several groups of sceners are boozing, barbecuing and generally
having a good time. Djefke is discussing the various kinds of Belgian
beer with the dutch Lowres orgos. As usual, Djefke has brought an ample
supply of Jupiler with him, plus some Rodenbach, while I've chipped in
some Kriek and Hoegaarden.
Inside, Crest is running his classic demo show, at the moment The Good,
The Bad & The Ugly/Surprise!Productions is playing. Shifter is showing
the winners of Assembly'03 to Leia and an organizer on his laptop, and for
every demo in the top-3 there is someone who doesn't like that demo! Well,
I guess tastes differ, also in demos. :)
3:09: DJefke, Skrebbel and Warp have decided to make a bad demo. :) In
case this surprises you, the dutch scene has a long and proud tradition of
making the most horrible demos, preferably with bad techno music (Check
the Soepkip series sometimes). Djefke asks if I can do some code, which I
decline at first as I don't have my tools with me, but then I realize I
copied my code directory to my laptop for Assembly, including fmod and SDL
etc, so maybe I can lend a hand.
3:58:
I've converted some old software-rendered effects to SDL, and they run
mightily fast on my P4 2.6GHz (originally written for a P2 450 :) ).
Unfortunately, even though they are several years old and not very
original, Skrebbel considers them too good for the demo he envisions. I
suppose the demo will really redefine "bad" if that's true. :)
5:22:
People are sleeping everywhere, Shifter has found himself a quiet place
under the pinball table but others are using the couches, or the floor
with or without mattresses. I think I'll do the same, yawn.
9:49:
I'm back awake. A bad point for this party: there ae only 2 toilets and 2
urinals for over 200 people, so you've to wait often :( I went outside for
some fresh air, people are still sleeping outside in the park and on the
roof.
11:24:
I'm not claiming that the sanitary provisions at Evoke are primitive in
any way, but here's a copy-pasted news entry form the evoke.net web site:
"Shower" at the entrance
------------------------
Sat, 10:32: If you have the desire to take a shower, there is a garden
hose in front of the entrance which you can use.
12:56:
I missed half of the ANSI/ASCII compo, either my clock must be off or the
compo started too soon. There were 7 PC entries, followed by 8 Amiga
ones. I don't know enough about it to judge the quality, though.
Downside to small hall: cannot see when the compo starts, but seems to
follow schedule more or less.
14:52:
A big downside to sitting in this small hall is that we cannot hear the
compos start. :( Often we don't notice a compo is running until a very
good entry draws a loud applause. And waiting in the main hall is not an
option, as the schedule isn't being followed very much. All this to say
that I missed most of the tracked music compo. :/ It's a good thing we
can get them from the FTP server when the compo is over.
I just went shopping for food and drinks, when I came back I saw there are
still new people arriving! One of them asks if he can attach his wireless
base station to our switch, which is no problem. You can see more and
more of those little boxes with their twin antennas at demo parties, soon
UTP cables will be really oldskool. :)
16:02:
The 4k intro compo is over, a mere 2 hours behind schedule. :) None of
the 6 entries were really spectacular, but overall they were OK. Calodox
had one that looked really great, with lots of transparent orange
particles, but it had no sound. Instead, the introduction shown on the
big screen before the entry said "First interactive intro: add your own
music". And one of the orgos gladly obliged, adding an a capella sound
track that was quite good, and got a big applause from the audience.
17:09:
The barbecue compo is about to start, Shifter is doubting wether he'll
compete but it turns out that the orgos will "judge" (read: eat) the
results, not the competitors. So Shifter decides he'll fill his stomach
some other way. :)
18:20:
The multichannel compo is being played right now, but Djefke, Warp &
Skrebbel are still working on their low-fi joke demo. About the only
effect they have morphs particles from one line-art picture to another, so
they need some pictures made from 23 straight line with the last one
connecting to the first.
Using my extremely limited graphic talents, I drew a cow-head and a
giraffe on paper for them, then go back to the music compo. Skrebbel is
proud on his idea to use an uncompressed wave-file for the music, because
"compression causes quality loss" and also a bit to enrage the people on
Pouet who have to download it by modem.
19:35:
The demo deadline is in 25 minutes, Skrebbel is frantically debugging his
particle effect. He forgot the intro compo was only one hour before the
deadline, so he lost some time there. :) There were 3 64K entries, the
ones from Razor 1911 and Cubalid7 were about equally good.
20:45:
6 Wild demos were shown, and seldom has the winner been clearer
beforehand. The last entry, "Egon + Doenci"by Aenima was an incredibly
professionally animated story about a guy and his cat visiting Mars. It
reminds me a lot of the clay-animation of Wallace & Grommit, except that
Egon + Doenci doesn't uses spoken words.
22:32:
Djefke and I went for a pizza, and thus missed the graphics compo. :(
I meet Kojote/Sueno again, who was at Assembly as well. He has the bad
luck that his music entry was the only one that wasn't preselected, and
the orgos didn't warn him at all. He's obviously in a bad mood due to
that, and goes on enumerating the bad points of Evoke. I agree he has a
point with some of them (parking space too far away, not enough room to
watch the compos, sleeping hall too small and noisy,...)
There's a party outside in the park, and the Dutch and Swiss sceners are
trying to crash it. :) The organizers of it say it's a private party, but
Shifter argues it's in a public location, so anyone should be allowed to
it.
-=- Sunday 24 August -=-
0:11:
The OGG Vorbis compo is still busy (MP3s are still allowed, but it's nice
to see people recognize the superior (and free) format). The Farbrausch
guys are still working on their demo (waaay after the deadline), and I'm
fascinated by the amazing tool Chaos demonstrated at his Assembly seminar.
1:07:
The console demo compo is over, I'm sure that "Green Cheese"/Haujobb &
Kolor & Park was the best of the 3 entries. Everyone is waiting for the
demo compo, but the orgos warn it is 1 hour delayed...
2:42:
To fill the time, the Breakpoint video "Boozed over the limits" is shown,
it consists mostly of Bronix puking (yuck), on the "Oh fortuna" sound
track. Leia thinks it's hilarious, especially since Bronix himself
directed the video!
No less than 11 demos were shown, without preselections. Tpolm made a
stylish ninja demo, I heard it was actually entered at the Assembly but it
wasn't selected, a shame. Smash design made another 3d camera flight,
this time of an entire neighborhood. Shops, parks, office buildings,...
everything is modeled really detailed, but there's no-one walking around
in it, which makes it feel very empty. At the start they added a joke
about Elitegroups Kasparov, see if you get it. Farbrausch demo is less
good than I expected, and not all scenes I saw them working on are in it
(I remember a bomber plane that would have supplemented the submarine
nicely).
Since there are no preselections, even the joke-demo is shown (Hete
Dansactie II/Groen, watch it at your own risk), and they even managed to
submit the original Hete Dansactie demo, which is over 4 years old and has
been "released" on 6 parties so far. :)
Various people are using my laptop to vote, before they go to sleep. You
could in fact vote right after each compo, but an annoying point is that
you need to re-enter your vote key every time.
8:30:
I can't find my backpack when I wake up, but it turns out someone moved it
to the other side of the room and everything is still in it. Phew, that
was a bit of a panic. :/
9:59:
The voting deadline is extended to 11:00. I've talked a bit with
Wayfinder about MP3 players, and how it would be nice if OGG Vorbis
support became more mainstream. He burned me a CD with some of his songs,
including the normal version of Record Royale, which I have been looking
for after getting the short version from the Azure releases. Thanks a
lot, Wayfinder!
11:54:
I got the last XL Evoke T-shirt, first it seemed only small sizes were
left but the orgos found one more hidden somewhere. XXX also gave me an
coffee mug for the Kriek beers I stored in Scamps fridge for him.
12:30:
There's still no prize ceremony, it has been delayed till 13:00 (and the
voting was extended once more till 12:10). Skrebbel is showcasing his
collection of bad demos, and I'm giving the remaining beers away.
15:02:
The prize ceremony is finally over! The results were a bit surprising here
and there, Tpolm placed only second with Smash Design getting first. Egon
+ Doenci got more point than all the other wild demos combined. Cubalid7
got 7 points more than Razor 1911, and thus walked away with one of the
high-end PCs Intel had sponsored for the demo and 64K compos (hyper-
threading P4 3GHz, 1 GB DDR RAM, 200 GB HD, Radeon 9800 etc etc). IMHO
The pocketPC demo (Green Cheese) had a higher quality than the first 64K
intro, so the 2nd PC should have gone to that compo. On the other hand,
their prize fitted better with the "console" category: a modded XBox with
a 80GB HD, with an Amiga emulator and a large archive of Amiga demos
preinstalled.
Shameless name-voting causes Hete Dansactie II to reach the 7th place,
which only shows the makers of the demos that ended lower were fair enough
not to vote on their own productions.
The results were shown using the Breakpoint system, with rising bars for
each production, with one refinement: for the top 3, the bars paused a
while whenever one ran out of points, so you had some time to see which
productions remained in the running.
There was also a special newcomer award, given by Digitale Kultur. This
is an organization set up by some German sceners to promote and help the
demo scene. It went to Cubalid7, they got 100 Euro and Tobi said this
money should enable them to quit their school and jobs and go make demos
full-time. :)
Next were the usual thank-yous, to the sponsors and everyone who helped.
The sponsors were very positive to Evoke, the Intel guy was surprised
something like the demo scene existed, and they would sponsor Evoke again.
And the Native Instruments guy who did the music seminars (about Native
Instruments software) had learned what a tracker was and how Buzz worked
:)
Everyone is packing, I have to wait for Djefke to get the car. After
stuffing our possessions back into the car, we hang out a little longer
outside in the sun, with the dutch guys and Leia and her friends,
reluctant for the party to stop. The ride back home went without a hitch,
as far as I know as I was sleeping.
I think Evoke was a nice party, although it had its share of problems,
most of which were caused by the location. There were far more people
than expected, but the orgos promised they would find a larger location
for next year. The schedule wasn't kept very well, and I missed quite a
few compos but I could get them from the FTP server before voting, which
is nice. But the best part of Evoke for me were the people, I saw more
old friends again at Evoke then at Assembly which was 20 times its size.
Greets to everyone I met there, see you again on another party!
--Seven
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Party Report
Pilgrimage '03
By: Secnuop (secnuop at yahoo dot com)
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-=- Friday 8 August -=-
My flight arrived into Salt Lake City around 10:30PM. I had some
tentative plans to meet up with Sylphin/Suboptical when I arrived, but it
turned out that it took a while to get a shuttle bus to the hotel so I
basically just ended up crashing as soon as I got to the hotel. Not a big
deal since the hotel I got was way out in the boonies, and I had no
transportation downtown (no plans to get to the party place either, hrmm).
It took a while to fall asleep in an unfamiliar environment, plus Utah is
an hour ahead of California, so I was attempting and failing to fall
asleep even earlier than normal. I set my alarm for 7:00AM and got as
much sleep as I could.
-=- Saturday 9 August -=-
Both the first and last day of Pilgrimage! The party was officially
supposed to begin at 8:00AM. I figured I'd be somewhat fashionably late,
so I was about right on schedule when I left the hotel just before 9:00AM.
The taxi fare was $15 to get downtown from the hotel. Mental note for
next time - pay a couple of extra bucks for a hotel nearer to the party
place.
The actual party place was pretty much optimal for the number of people
that attended. It was at the Metro Learning Center Campus of the Salt
Lake Community College, in basically the middle of downtown Salt Lake
City. Interestingly I had to convince the taxi driver that there really
was a part of the community college downtown. If I didn't write the
address down I have no idea where we would have ended up!
On entering the "lobby" of the Metro Learning Center Campus there was a
sign welcoming Pilgrimage attendees and directing us up to the second
floor to Salons 3, 4, and 5. So, I took the elevator up and found a the
Pilgrimage welcome desk. The welcome desk had a sign-in sheet and some
literature about the demo scene (including an original copy of the demo
scene Wired article). Sylphin and TFinn/dc5 arrived about exactly when I
did, and we set up in the salon nearest to the lobby. Each of the salons
had a projector, four rows of tables, and enough seating for six people
comfortably at each row. I sat down and opened my laptop to check my
email and we hit the only real major technical difficulty of the party.
Apparently, even though the Metro Learning Center was equipped for
wireless Internet you needed to be a student with an account to get on the
wireless LAN. Oh well. Wired it is, I guess...
I guess now would be as good a time as any to mention that I have been to
demo parties before. In 1997 and 1999 I attended the Spring Break demo
parties in San Diego, California. The Spring Break demo party in 1997 was
my introduction to demos. In 1999 I was convinced that I was going to
enter a demo into the compo, but I pretty much completely underestimated
the amount of time it would take to make a demo (even after a bunch of
rendering routines and effects were already completed). So this time, I
resigned to myself a few weeks before the party that a demo just wasn't
going to happen and decided that I was going to concentrate more on the
social aspects of the party this time around, since that's what I regret
not doing so much of in 1999. If Pilgrimage 2004 happens I've convinced
myself that I will have a demo to enter, done before the party starts, so
hopefully in 2004 I'll have the best of both worlds!
One of the coolest things about Pilgrimage were the various talks that
were scheduled throughout the morning. I managed to make it to four of
them.
In the first, Russ Christensen gave a talk about a project he worked on in
school where he designed his own game console (and wrote Tetris and Space
Invaders clones for it). It made me wish I was still in school so I had
time for wacky projects like it.
The second talk was on programmable shaders by Thant Tessman. Thant works
for nVidia in their "tech demo" group. Even though I knew most of the
information he presented it was a pretty good talk. I just wish his
presentation used non-nVidia specific OpenGL extensions for those of us
with ATI cards.
The third talk was given by David Notario, also known as
mac/xplsv^threepixels.
David's talk was probably the one I was most interested in, since in it he
described threepixel's 'Studio' demo framework. His talk was awesome, and
gave me a bunch of good ideas to work on in the next few months. I figure
if I can do a third of what he's done I'll have a demo that's at least
competitive for next year. Very inspiring.
Somewhere during the morning Dan was interviewing people asking them a few
questions about their experiences in the demo scene. I of course was lame
and couldn't even think up three words that I associate with the demo
scene. Can I retroactively say "awesome electronic art"? Sure beats what
I said (I think it was something about lack of sleep - how telling).
After a quick break for lunch at the local 'Crown Burger' (think
cheeseburger plus pastrami - the ultimate heart attack on a plate) Dan
from Fusecon gave the final talk of the party. It was basically a slide
show and comments on his experience at the Breakpoint demo party in April.
It was interesting to compare and contrast his experiences with the ones
were were all having at Pilgrimage. We clearly have a long way to go
before we get a European-sized party in North America (not that that's a
bad thing!). We'll also probably need to have the party in a different
state than Utah if we're going to have a beer truck. <grin>
Overall all of the talks were excellent and I'm disappointed I couldn't
make some of the others.
I spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out, taking pictures, and
watching demos. Sylphin took over one of the salons and played a bunch of
demos that I hadn't seen in years. For example, I had almost completely
forgotten about Replay's 'Fall Equals Winter'. We also tried to keep a
connection to AssemblyTV, since the Assembly demo party was going on
simultaneously in Finland. We managed to catch a bit of the wild compo,
but eventually the quality just got too bad and we had to disconnect.
Next year I'm going to try to bring my oldskool demo machine (DOS + GUS)
to watch some of the classic old demos. The Mindcandy DVD does a pretty
good job representing demos that just can't be run on Windows PCs, but
there are just too many good 1990s demos to fit onto one side of a DVD.
Not to mention good intros, which aren't on a DVD at all! Still, the last
few major modern demos have been pretty darn impressive. We watched 'The
Popular Demo' several times and each time I notice something else that's
just plain awesome.
Somewhere along the line we decided to try out the video postcard software
that had been donated to the party. The basic plan was to film some
professional looking video clips, send them over to Assembly, and hope we
could get on AssemblyTV. I don't know if we ever actually sent anything
anywhere, but if nothing else it'll be amusing to see next year. I
managed to grab mine on my USB drive before I left as a nifty souvenir
also.
Sometime during the afternoon we hit our second technical difficulty of
the day. We discovered that it wasn't possible to share files across the
network. Though this makes sense in an academic setting (where that last
thing the community college wants is their students transferring MP3s on
their network), it makes submitting compo entries somewhat difficult.
Luckily campus IT didn't block FTP ports, so we were able to set up an FTP
server to submit compo entries.
Over the course of the evening I was very impressed with the number of
entries in all three compo categories. When the compo deadline was
reached at 8:00PM there were already four demo entries, four graphics
entries, and six music entries, and two groups were still frantically
trying to finish their demo! To allow the two groups to finish the compo
deadline was extended by an hour. After all, it wouldn't be a party if
the compos all started on time, would it?
Finally around 10:00PM the judges had screened each of the entries and it
was time to vote! The organizers used a pretty unique voting system, but
I think it worked out pretty well. Basically, each attendee had a total
of ten points to distribute in each compo, and judges had a total of fifty
points. The points could be distributed however the voter wished them to
- all ten points could be given to one entry, or they could be distributed
among several (or even all) entries.
First up was the graphics compo. All four entries were pretty good, and I
think I gave points to each entry. Next up was the music compo. Again,
each of the entries were pretty good. Last was the demo compo, which was
the compo I was most interested in.
I don't think I remember the demo order exactly, but one of the first
demos was 'Fastmade', by 'Tres Beats'. I really liked this demo in a
party setting. The sound track was upbeat and the demo was entertaining.
About all I didn't like was the color scheme. Second was 'Charged', by
'OTM'. This was one of the two demos that were being worked on right up
to the last minute, and unfortunately it crashed midway through the demo.
Still, it was pretty neat, and I'll definitely download the final version.
Next was 'K-Wak' by 'k-rad' and 'dc5'. Another very cool demo. It was
pretty obvious that either this or 'Fastmade' was going to win. Next was
a 16 byte (that's right, no typo) demo from the Northern Dragons, and a
4Kb intro also from the Northern Dragons. The 4K intro was technically
very impressive, but it's difficult to judge a technical feat like it in
the same context as a full-blown demo production. I guess the only
solution is to have enough entries such that intros can have a category of
their own. Last was 'CursesDemo' by 'dc5'. It's a NetBSD demo, though I
assume it'll compile on any OS that has the curses library. The music was
played through a separate computer. Overall it brought back fond memories
of the dc5 Spring Break 99 demo, where they hummed the music.
While the votes were being tallied we all congregated in a fourth salon
where Nullsleep/8bitpeoples was entertaining all party goers with a live
set of Gameboy tunes. It fit the mood perfectly and gave everyone a
chance to hang out for an hour or so. You can download his live set on
his web site: http://www.8bitpeoples.com/nullsleep.
Finally, Legalize announced that the results were tallied and were ready
to be announced! First, though, there was a bunch of free stuff that was
raffled off. I don't remember the details of all that was given away but
ATI donated a bunch of stuff, including five Radeon 9800 Pro graphics
cards (three of which were given as first prize in the compos and two of
which were raffled away).
The graphics results were announced first. Bruce won third place with his
hilarious 'DemoWoman' picture. Clarissa won second place with 'Ronnas',
and Oman won with his 'Wrenchman vs. Mothman' picture. This was the one
compo where my opinion really differed from the results. I liked the
fourth place picture, 'In Tolerance We Trust' by Fred. Oh well.
The music results were announced second. Though I had the ordering
slightly different, my votes went to the three productions that eventually
won first, second, and third. Mr. Moses won first place with his nifty
island tune 'Ipanema Sands', Nullsleep won second place with 'Her Lazer
Light Eyes', and ChaoticOne and Troll won third place with 'Embraced'.
The music talent was pretty good, and I liked a lot of the songs that
didn't win also.
Finally, the demo results were announced. As expected, 'K-wak' won first
place and 'FastMade' won second. 'CursesDemo', the dc5 text mode demo won
third place. Cool. I was a bit surprised that the Northern Dragons 4Kb
entry didn't place higher, but I guess that just goes to show that it's
tough to rank 4Kb intros in the same context as full-blown demos. It
didn't help that the demo didn't run on the compo machine, but I still
thought it was pretty cool.
Just before midnight Legalize raffled off the final Radeon, thanked all of
us for attending (though we really should have been thanking him for
organizing such a successful party), and we left the Metro Learning Center
and Pilgrimage 2003.
Before leaving several of us made plans to meet up for a Pilgrimage
afterparty at Troll and ChaoticOne's hotel room a few blocks from the
party place. ChaoticOne and Obsidian went out to try to find some ladies
while myself, Troll, Dilvie, and Dilvie's girlfriend went out to obtain
some of the local fermented malt beverages. I thought that Sylphin and a
few others were going to meet up with us as well but we never managed to
cross paths with them again that night.
At the afterparty Obsidian continued working on a song he began in the
waning hours of Pilgrimage, and Troll, ChaoticOne, and Dilvie helped out
to make a four-person collaboration that was, as I quote, a "total mind
fuck". Cool. We even had some plans to do an extremely ghetto post-
Pilgrimage demo, though the unfortunate realization that Troll's laptop
had no OpenGL drivers and that my laptop had no sound code put a damper on
these efforts. I was also starting to feel the effects of the four hours
of sleep I had the night before and the realization that I was going to
need to be at the airport for a flight out early Sunday afternoon. Man,
I'm getting old.
Interestingly we also discovered that Darwin and a few of the other
Pilgrimage guys were staying in the hotel room next door. They were
driving back to Oregon the next day so they weren't too eager to join in
the festivities, but it did lead us to dub the Sheraton the unofficial
hotel of Pilgrimage 2003.
Finally around 4AM we decided to call it a night and I got a ride back to
my hotel from Dilvie and his girlfriend (Marcy?). I finally fell asleep
around 5AM.
-=- Sunday 10 August -=-
I woke up just in time to catch the end of the continental breakfast, made
it to the airport on time, and typed up most of this party report before I
got back to Sacramento mid afternoon!
Thanks (in no particular order) to...
All of the Pilgrimage organizers, especially Rich (Legalize) and Adam for
their awesome work organizing the party.
All of the Pilgrimage sponsors, including ATI, Microsoft, FuseCon, and
Serious Magic for the prizes and giveaways, and XMission for hosting the
web page and donating money to secure the party space.
All of the Pilgrimage speakers for their excellent talks. Thanks
especially to Mac for giving me ideas and inspiration for next year.
Troll and ChaoticOne for hosting the unofficial Pilgrimage afterparty.
Dilvie and Marcy (?) for driving me back to my hotel in the wee hours of
the morning. Next year I'll get a hotel downtown!
I'll see ya at Pilgrimage 2004!
--secnuop/Ingenuiti Productions
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Key Signatures
By: Dilvie
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
A lot of musicians received formal training in music starting at a very
young age. For them, the foundations of written music were probably
drilled into their heads long ago. I learned music by ear. I've had very
little formal music training. As a music major, my lack of training has
been a major handicap in college. I suspect many trackers and self-
trained electronic musicians may be in the same boat.
One of the first obstacles to overcome when you set out to learn music
theory is the process of memorizing a total of thirty key signatures. Key
signatures tell you about the pattern of half steps and whole steps that
make up the harmonic framework of a passage of music. This tonal
framework is technically called a Mode. There are actually seven
different modes, but the majority of modern music is centered around only
two: Ionic and Aeolian (Major and Minor).
Like all other aspects of music, key signatures are based on mathematics,
and where there is math, there's a shortcut.
Eventually, you will probably memorize all the keys. Until then, all you
need to remember is a simple sequence of letters: B E A D G C F. This
sequence represents the order that flats are displayed in the key
signatures: Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, and so on. The reverse represents the order
that the sharps are displayed in the key signatures: F#, C#, G#, and so
on.
7
b 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 number of flats in the key
B E A D G C F
5 4 3 2 1 0 6 # number of sharps in the key
7
The key of C Major has no sharps or flats. The key of G has one sharp.
If you start on the sharp end of the sequence, you'll see that the sharp
in the key of G is F#. D has two (F#, C#), A has three (F#, C#, G#), E
has four (F#, C#, G#, D#), B has five (F#, C#, G#, D#, A#), F# has six
(F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#), and C# has seven (F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#).
All of the flat keys, with the exception of F have flat in the name. The
flat keys are F (Bb), Bb (Bb, Eb), Eb (Bb, Eb, Ab), Ab (Bb, Eb, Ab, Db),
Db (Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb), Gb (Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb), and Cb (Bb, Eb, Ab,
Db, Gb, Cb, Fb).
Don't worry. You don't have to memorize all of that to know your key
signatures. All you have to remember is BEADGCF, or its reverse, FCGDAEB.
From that simple sequence, some easy math trickery can reveal every one of
the thirty keys. Picture a number line from -7 to 7. Negative numbers
represent the number of flats in the key. Positive numbers represent the
number of sharps in the key. Remember that C has zero sharps or flats,
and that F has one flat, and G has one sharp.
-7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Cb F C G D A E B C#
Let's take a closer look at what we have here. Look at where the C's are:
Cb has seven flats (-7 on the number line). C has zero sharps or flats,
and C# has seven sharps (+7). This principle can be used to find all of
the flat and sharp keys. To find Db, simply subtract seven from 2 (-5).
Db has five flats. To find F#, simply add seven to -1 (the key of F has
one flat). F# has 6 sharps.
This same number line can help you find minor keys as well. To find the
minor key signature, simply subtract three. G minor has two flats (G has
one sharp. 1 - 3 = -2).
[Flat -7] <-- [Natural] --> [Sharp +7]
|
|
v
[minor -3]
In addition to these simple calculation methods, there are a couple of
neat tricks that will help you to identify written key signatures. To
identify a written flat key, the key name (if it is major) will be the
second to last flat in the signature. For example, the key of Bb has two
flats. The second to last flat in that signature is Bb (Bb, Eb). The key
of Ab has 4 flats. The second to last flat in that signature is Ab (Bb,
Eb <Ab>, Db).
To identify a written sharp key, look at the note represented by the last
sharp, and raise it one step. For example, in the key of C#, the last
sharp represents B#. One step above B# is C#.
Now that you know the tricks of the trade, how about a little practice?
The best way to learn key signatures is to drill. If you don't,
everything you've just read will fade out of your memory very quickly.
Head on over to <http://www.musictheory.net/> and take a look at the
trainers. You'll find one called the key trainer. Start by configuring
the keys you want to practice. You can select major or minor, 4 different
clefs, and the keys you want to work on. Start with three, and add two
more when those three start to get too easy.
Switch off major and minor, and rotate through the various clefs until
you've become the king of key signatures. If you're a serious musician,
you'll be glad you did. One day you will need to communicate with other
musicians in writing. The language for doing just that has evolved over
thousands of years. Today, written music is an elegant way to record your
musical ideas for future generations. It's also the best way to let other
people take a crack at playing the music you write.
--Dilvie
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
On The Sideline
"Ninth" by Polygon Ring
By: Ben
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
This month I am going to introduce "Ninth" by Polygon Ring. The comments
in the instrument list classify this song as experimental/intelligent drum
music, released in December 2000. It is unsurprising that the first notes
in this song are drums, and a smooth pad begins the progression that
carries the song at a leisurely pace.
I like the relaxed tone of this song, it isn't too demanding to listen to.
Since there is no given story behind this song, it's easy to make one up.
I could imagine a solitary VW bug weaving along a 2-way highway that
follows a small river through a coastal mountain range in June. It could
be just after a brief rain storm, and the sun could occasionally sparkle
off blooming plants. In this scenario the song's title could be taken
from the milepost the car was seen driving past. But that's enough
fantasy for now.
The drums are crisp, but remain fairly static in about 3 variations of the
a single theme, with a couple well timed percussive pauses. The melody is
formed mainly by pads and echoing staccato instruments that sound somewhat
like a harp with a stereo delay. Taken as a whole I found it a full and
mildly upbeat sound. The ending could be improved, it is only a little
better than cutting abruptly into silence. The drums stop, then the tempo
winds down and the pads pitch bend into fading dissonant tones.
There is a lot of music circulating called experimental or intelligent
drum music. Though some IDM lacks structure, "Ninth" is pleasantly
melodic and lighthearted. The person(s) behind Polygon Ring know better
than to take their music too seriously, and found good results.
Song Information:
Title: Ninth
Author: Polygon Ring
Length: 7:06
File Size: 871k
Source: http://polygonring.hypermart.net/music/ninth.zip
--Ben Collver
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
In Tune
Music from Nightbeat
By: Coplan
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
-=- "Trickster" by Nightbeat -=-
There's an old mod by Jogeir called "Guitar Slinger". Nightbeat's song
reminded me of this song. There's just as much skill demonstrated in
Nightbeat's talent. And being compared to Jogeir, I would imagine, is
nothing to be ashamed of.
"Trickster" is an acoustic guitar and flute piece. It's got a bit of a
folk music feel to it. It's basically only got four instruments: An
acoustic guitar, an acoustic base guitar, drums and the flute. But it's
simplicity is what draws me to Nightbeat's music in the first place.
I must point out that this is a true Impulse Tracker module. This is
important for two reasons. First is the fact that all the guitar riffs
are sampled, and pieced together much in the same way that the classic
trackers, like Jogeir and Necros, did. It's a very difficult style to
perfect, and it can be very limiting at times. Not limiting to the sound,
but limiting to what you can do with the song. So it's very common that
this technique results in a broken sound, or a poorly written song. This
is not the case with "Trickster", and I admire the song for that reason.
Second of importance is the fact that with a module, there is no post-
mixing as you might find in an MP3. Any echos or room noise that you
would hear in this song were written right into the song. Every detail
has been accounted for, and this song sounds like a bunch of guys in a
studio. It sounds that good!
So all technical observations aside, lets get down to the music.
Throughout most of the song, the flute takes the spotlight. It's the lead
instrument, and Nightbeat has presented us with quite a good tune. That
is not to say that the guitars are forgotten. They are as essential to
the song as the flute. They're the first and last instruments that you
hear. The opening is clean and simple. The song itself provides a very
warm feeling. Unfortunately, I was not 100% happy with the closing. I
thought it a bit too abrupt. However, with the live performance feel of
the song, this would likely be a very appropriate ending. This is a great
song, and I recommend a download for some easy listening.
Song Information:
Title: Trickster
Author: Nightbeat
Release date: 7/27/03
File Size: 2.7 MB / 3.2
Source: http://w1.314.telia.com/~u31445974/mods/nb_trickster.zip
-=- "Mirror People" by Rain -=-
I picked up this track on recommendation from Novus. It's a guitar rock
song, so you already know my admiration for the skill required to do such
a song. Throw on top of that the fact that Rain uses a distorted guitar
as his lead. That makes things even more difficult. But as I just went
through discussing why guitar modules are difficult to work with in the
"Trickster" review, I won't drag that horse out again.
Rain seems to have a very good ear for some FX in his songs. He's thrown
in a couple of FX samples like blips, a car starting and Rain (which I'm
curious if he put it in there because of his alias). These bits are not
essential to the song. I think the song stands on itself. But they
definately add to the song. The rain, in fact, even changes the feeling
of the song a bit. Up until the rain came in, I figured this song for a
happy song. But I'm thinking it's a bit more of a blues song with a bit
of a modern edge.
As I said, I was really impressed with the guitars. I think the lead
guitars (both the distorted guitar and the clean guitar lead) are well
written. The leads are catchy and fun. I imagine they'd be fun to play
if you were a guitarist. But nevermind that. The rhythm guitar's role
wasn't overlooked, either. The guy isn't playing the same damn thing
throughout the song. The rhythm guitarist (I say this figuratively...it
is a module, after all) changes things up every once in a while. He ebbs
and flows with the leads. The percussion is simple, but very appropriate.
There are a couple of really good riffs, but otherwise the drums never get
any splotlight. As I said, this is appropriate, and I don't mean this to
sound like a negative comment. Rock tunes typically require the drummer
to be a bit more subdued. The percussion style in this song is very
similar to what you'd find from Mick Fleetwood, of the mainstream band
Fleetwood Mac. The percussion in this song lends its hand in creating the
overall mellow feeling of the song.
After hearing this song, I'll be adding this to one of my playlists. I
realize that this song isn't for everyone. But if you're a tracker, you
can definately learn a lot from this song. As mellow rock songs go, this
should be classified as one of the better tunes. Especially in the world
of the demoscene. The song file isn't that large, all things considered,
and it would be worth a download.
Song Information:
Title: Mirror People
Author: Rain
Release date: 8/25/03
File Size: 1.5 MB / 2.9 MB
Source: ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/sands/rain/rn-mpp.zip
--Coplan
"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 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 using the addresses
found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached to e-mail
without first contacting us. Thank you!
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
The Lineup
By: Novus
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Welcome to The Lineup! Every month, I scour through the hundreds of new
releases on the scene's major archive sites to find the best new music,
saving you the trouble of having to download 20 instant-delete songs to
find 1 that's worth keeping.
The feedback has dried up in the past few months, and my ego is feeling
neglected. C'mon people! Tell me what a great job I'm doing! (Or what a
lousy job I'm doing too. My ego may be inflated, but it's also honest.)
Whether it's positive or negative, send all feedback on The Lineup to
vince_young@hotmail.com.
In the meantime, you may consider the following 16 tunes to be the best
tracks of August 2003:
-=- THE BEST OF THE BEST -=-
"World #204" - Graff - light rock
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2001/addictanniversary01/mmul/world204.zip
-=- THE REST OF THE BEST -=-
"Acid Maintenance" - Keith303 - dance
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/artists/keith303/k303main.zip
"Checksum Error" - Breakthru - pop
http://www.users.ch/portela/breakthru/xm/brk_chk.zip
"Discovery" - Temezo & T-Tracker - dance
http://www.modarchive.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi/D/discovery_fk.xm
"GravTune" - Robert Gravener - pop
http://www.modarchive.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi/G/gravener1.it
"Ice Peak" - Turkanen - pop
http://www.mbnet.fi/~eska/t-ice2k3.it
"Idolatry" - Gargoyle - pop
http://www.tunestore.de/songs/idolatry.zip
"Kjelsaas By Night" - Neon - trance
http://home.no.net/zoolmods/ne-kbn.zip
"L'envol" - Xenon - fantasy
http://www.novusmusic.org/songs/envol_8.zip
"Mirror People" - Rain - light rock
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/sands/rain/rn-mpp.zip
"Mystified" - Aitrus - ambient
http://www.modplug.com/mods/nrdetail.php3?session=&detailno=10798
"No Surrender, No Retreat" - Speci - trance
http://www.mbnet.fi/~special1/files2001/spc-nsnr.zip
"Road To Sunset" - Butch - pop
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/artists/butch/b_sunset.zip
"Trickster" - Nightbeat - fantasy
http://w1.314.telia.com/~u31445974/mods/nb_trickster.zip
"West Song" - Butch - fantasy
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/artists/butch/b_west.zip
"You Are My Sky" - Speci - dance
http://www.mbnet.fi/~special1/files2001/spc-yams.zip
Latez!
--Novus
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Screen Lit Vertigo
"El Bourrrinas" and "Red Line"
By: Seven
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
-=- "El Bourrrinos" by Marshals -=-
(party-version)
Found at www.scene.org
1st place at the Synthesis party 2003.
System requirements:
CPU: P4 1.6GHz prefered (may work on P3/Athlon @ 500Mhz)
3D: NVidia GeForce4 ti prefered (may work on GeForce2/3 ti, ATI Radeon 8500+
(tested on GeForce 32 mx with few loss of speed)
Mem: 256Mb RAM prefered (may work with 64Mb)
Soundcard external or integrated SB compatible
Windows, 5MB HD
Test Machine: P3 900 640MB, Gamesurround III, Radeon 8500 LE 64MB, Win98
The credits:
code: Woid
music: Celsius
graphics: Isobel, Zone, Yannus Stark
The demo:
The category this demo belongs to is clear from the very first second: El
Bourrrinos is a house/techno type demo, with all visuals synchronized to
the pumping bass of the soundtrack. I don't like extremely repetitive
music, but at less than 4 minutes and with some variation here and there,
it's bearable :) Now, the visuals: imagine a white dice floating in the
air, with disconnected red feet and hands (think Rayman), and a huge grin
on its face. Take four of these and you have the inhabitants of this
demo, whose sole purpose in life seems to be to dance to the music, and to
run around in a landscape filled with simple houses, a few clouds and many
booming speakers. For the rest there are no graphics, and almost no
effects: some zooming, a horizontal blur suggesting speed, and the blue
fog that is too dense in the second part of the demo. The syncing is
precise but simplistic: every movement and camera switch is synced to the
main beat.
Overall:
Very simple, but not bad if you like this kind of music. The little cube-
men are kinda funny, and the design of their world is very consistent:
rounded cubes, and low-poly versions of everything else. The animation is
quite good, although there are a few places where it is noticable that
sprites are used (ugly difference, IMHO). So if you like techno music,
make sure you you get this one.
-=- "Red Line" by Condence & Mandarine -=-
(party-version)
Found at www.scene.org
2nd place at the Equinox 2003 democompo.
System requirements: Nothing listed, so these are the obvious ones: Windows,
7MB HD, a 3D card.
Test Machine: P3 900 640MB, Gamesurround III, Radeon 8500 LE 64MB, Win98
The credits:
Code: Norecess, Jylam
Gfx: Mikl, Fra
Music: Med, Redribbon
The demo:
If you expect the next cooperation between Condence and Mandarine to be
similar to the funny Superjam Superheroes, you'll be disappointed. Red
Line is a short 3D-demo without a real story, although the visuals follow
a theme: small cities in eastern and western style, in a uniform grey and
blue colorscheme overlayed with a noise-effect. The only other color is
the bright red from a strange rocket and a giant blimp, plus some
twitching red lines in the sky (that remind me of the Intense Pattern
demo). I first assumed it was an anti-war demo, but then I became
confused by the presence of a alien robot, something that looks like a
flying taxi and a futuristic restaurant with an evil-looking micky mouse
balloon. There's a small but annoying visual bug, maybe only on Radeon
cards: the two triangles of the noise-effect don't always connect
perfectly, leaving a black diagonal line over the whole screen. The
credits are staggered over the whole demo, always accompagnied by a low-
color retro science-fiction image: an astronaut firing a gun, or a brain
with tentacles in a bowl.
According to its ID3 tag, the genre of the MP3 soundtrack is blues, but it
sounds more like pop to me: energetic, fast percussion, a couple of vocals
that are repeated ("Oh Baby", "Cant't get my lover") etc. Granted, my
musical knowledge is very very limited :) The speed of the music is
reflected in the fast camera movements and changes of the 3D scenes.
Overall:
Red Line is quite a strange beast. It has consistent design, simple 3D
objects, nice graphics and a soundtrack that doesn't quite fit, except for
the rhythm. It is less than 2 minutes long, but it left me wondering
about its meaning for much longer. Recommended if you like weird demos.
--Seven
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Coplan's Eyes
Keep it Simple, Stupid!
By: Coplan
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
A very strange thing happened the other day. I woke up, and had a song
idea. Now you wouldn't appreciate me for a true artist of any medium if I
didn't first tell you the details. It was 4:30am. I was dead tired. I
was still a bit hung-over from the night before (forgot to drink my water
before bed). It was dark, and there was nothing more I wanted then to
fall back asleep. I went to the bathroom, grabbed a drink of water and
some medication for the headache, and wandered back into my bedroom. And
it hit me -- a song idea. That need for sleep was now secondary to my
need to complete a song, and I think this was it.
So I slapped on my headphones so as not to wake anyone. I turned on my
computer and my synths and starting diddling on the MIDI controller.
Before I knew it, I had a very rough sketch for a song laid out complete
with some chorus and some background instruments. I even had some
percussion mapped out. And wouldn't you know it, it was then....11:30am?
I had been working on this damn thing for 7 hours? Talk about losing
track of time. Thank goodness it was a Saturday. So I let myself fall to
sleep and I'd wake in the early evening. I ate something, and then sat
down at my computer. Now any wise musician knows that he can't hack
together a song (including the final mix-down) in one day. It's good to
listen to it over and over again. But before I do that, I like to listen
to other music to get in the frame of mind. Considering the type of song
I had sketched out, I decided to listen to some old 'scene music. After
about a dozen or so songs, I went back on a nostalgia trip through my own
music collection.
Back when I was a young tracker, maybe only 15 years old with only a year
or so experience, I would write songs as fast as I could think of them.
Even today, I'm still very nimble when I'm jumping around in Impulse
Tracker. I can map out a whole song without even hitting play once.
Rough, but I know the way the tracker works THAT well. Almost all my
songs were using the same speed/BPM, and I grew to a point where I was not
limited by the program. I was only limited by my ideas. And back then, I
had a lot of time to think of new ideas. I would release a song every
week or two. I would start a new song almost every day. Last count on my
hard drive, I have over 240 incomplete songs. Some are two or three
patterns long. Others are nearly finished, although these are far less
common. These days, I'm lucky to complete 4 or 5 songs a year or start
one every other week. Time, as always, is an issue. I don't have as much
time for my music as I used to. But I think the problem now is that I've
sort of become so engrossed in the details and the quality of the sounds
in my song that I have often failed at completing a song idea before I
start concerning myself with how the piano sounds. But I'm not upset with
myself for that. Some of my friends are, as they'd like to see me release
more often. But I have a lot of fun messing with the details. If its
only for me, so be it. But the fact is, there are less songs coming out
of my computer over the last couple of years.
I'm not concerned.
So with this thought in mind, I decided that the other song could wait.
It's roughed out in Cubase. All I really had to do was some tweaking and
some mixing and post-mixing. The idea, once written down, will never be
forgotten. So I loaded up my old legacy application: Impulse Tracker. I
pulled out some of my old favorite samples, and started doodling with my
ears. I forgot all that I had learned the past couple of years about
sound quality, and just let my mind free. And wouldn't you know it?
Another song just popped out of nowhere. So that's how I used to do it.
And when I returned to Cubase to listen to that ditty I had written
earlier, I didn't like it anymore. Yes, the instruments were beautiful,
and the sound quality was about 300 notches higher than anything I
could've gotten out of IT (even with good samples). But the song...it
sucked! I'll probably release it some day. I've put a lot of work into
it, and it is mixed well. It's not the most terrible thing I've written,
and I haven't released anything in a while. But I will likely keep things
simple the next time I have a song idea. I've learned from my recent
observations in Impulse Tracker that the tune is sometimes more important
than the sound quality. And within the world of MIDI, it's easy to fix
the sound quality later.
How stupid I was! I should have been thinking about the song all along.
--Coplan
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Link List
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Portals:
SceneSpot (Home of Static Line).......http://www.scenespot.org
CFXweb.......................................http://cfxweb.net
Czech Scene................................http://www.scene.cz
Danish Scene..............................http://demo-scene.dk
Demoscene.org.........................http://www.demoscene.org
Demo.org...................................http://www.demo.org
Diskmag.de...................................http://diskmag.de
Greek Scene............................http://www.demoscene.gr
Hungarian Scene........................http://www.demoscene.hu
Italian Scene...........................http://run.to/la_scena
<*> Kahvi.....................................http://www.kahvi.org
ModPlug Central Resources..........http://www.castlex.com/mods
Noerror.................................http://www.noerror.org
Norwegian Scene........................http://www.demoscene.no
Orange Juice.............................http://www.ojuice.net
Planet Zeus..........................http://www.planetzeus.net
Polish Scene...........................http://www.demoscena.pl
Pouet.net.................................http://www.pouet.net
Russian Scene..........................http://www.demoscene.ru
Scene.org.................................http://www.scene.org
Scenergy on-line (8bit)............http://www.scenergy.natm.ru
Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
Spanish Scene............................http://www.escena.org
Swiss Scene..............................http://www.chscene.ch
United Trackers.................http://www.united-trackers.org
Archives:
Acid2.....................................ftp://acid2.stack.nl
Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl
Aminet.....................http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/~aminet/
Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de
Hornet (1992-1996)........................ftp://ftp.hornet.org
MOD Archive..........................http://www.modarchive.com
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://www.alienprophets.dk
Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl
ASD....................................http://asd.demoscene.gr
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
Dc5.........................................http://www.dc5.org
Delirium..............................http://delirium.scene.pl
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
Inquisition....................http://inquisition.demoscene.hu
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
Outbreak................................http://www.outbreak.nu
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
Skrju.....................................http://www.skrju.org
Spinning Kids......................http://www.spinningkids.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.chillproductions.com
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
Fairlight Music.....................http://fairlight.scene.org
Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org
Fusion Music Crew.................http://members.home.nl/cyrex
Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff
Hellven.................................http://www.hellven.org
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
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
Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net
Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi
Mo'playaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz
Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com
Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds
Moods..............................http://www.moodymusic.de.vu
Mstation.....................http://mstation.org/software.html
Nectarine Demoscene Radio................http://scenemusic.net
Noise................................http://www.noisemusic.org
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.sunlikamelo-d.com
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://tokyodawn.org
Triad's C64 music archive.............http://www.triad.c64.org
UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub
Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk
Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm
Programming:
3D engines..........http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html
3D programming portal.................http://www.3dgamedev.com
Documents...............http://www.neutralzone.org/home/faqsys
File format collection...................http://www.wotsit.org
Game programming portal...............http://www.gamasutra.com
LCC (free C compiler).........http://www.remcomp.com/lcc-win32
NASM (free Assembly compiler)......http://www.cryogen.com/nasm
Programming portal......................http://www.gamedev.net
Programming portal.....................http://www.flipcode.com
Programming portal......................http://www.exaflop.org
Programming portal............http://www.programmersheaven.com
Programming portal.....................http://www.freecode.com
PTC video engine.........................http://www.gaffer.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
Jurassic Pack...........................www.jurassicpack.de.vu
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://www.wildmag.de
Parties:
Assembly (Finland).....................http://www.assembly.org
Ambience (The Netherlands)..............http://www.ambience.nl
Buenzli (Switzerland)......................http://www.buenz.li
Dreamhack (Sweden)....................http://www.dreamhack.org
Gravity (Poland)............http://www.demoscena.cp.pl/gravity
Mekka-Symposium (Germany)...................http://ms.demo.org
Pilgrimage (Utah, US)..............http://pilgrimage.scene.org
ReAct (Greece).............................http://www.react.gr
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
Csound-tekno e-mail list......................................
............http://plot.bek.no/mailman/listinfo/csoundtekno
Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express
Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub
Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net
Everything tracking..http://zolaweb.com/Zola/trax/tracking.htm
Freax.....................................http://www.freax.hu/
GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net
Mod-Radio.....................http://www.back2roots.org/Radio/
PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained
Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org
#trax e-mail list.............................................
.............http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/trax
Underground Mine.............http://www.spinningkids.org/umine
IRC Channels:
Graphics.........................................ircnet #pixel
Graphics (French)..............................ircnet #pixelfr
Music......................................irc.scene.org #trax
Music.............................................ircnet #trax
Programming.....................................ircnet #coders
Programming....................................efnet #flipcode
Programming (French)............................ircnet #codefr
Programming (German)........................ircnet #coders.ger
Programming (Hungarian)......................ircnet #coders.hu
Scene.........................................ircnet #thescene
Scene (French)..................................ircnet #demofr
Scene (Hungarian)............................ircnet #demoscene
Zx-spectrum scene..................................ircnet #z80
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-=- Staff -=-
Editors: Ciaran / Ciaran Hamilton / staticline@theblob.org
Ben / Ben Collver / collver1@comcast.net
Staff Writers: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Dilvie / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@dilvie.com
Novus / Vince Young / vince_young@hotmail.com
Psitron / Tim Soderstrom / tigerhawk@stic.net
Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk
Seven / Stefaan VanNieuwenhuyze/ seven7@pandora.be
Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / vojtech.tryhuk@worldonline.cz
Vill / Brian Frank / darkvill@yahoo.com
The Watcher / Paul-Jan Pauptit / sprout@zonnet.nl
The current issue of Static Line can always be found on the Web at:
http://staticline.scenespot.org/issues/current_issue
Static Line Subscription Management:
http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/static_line
If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware that
we will format your article to 76 columns with two columns at the
beginning of each line. Please avoid foul language and high ASCII
characters. Contributions (Plain Text) should be e-mailed to
(static_line-owner@scenespot.org) by the last Friday of each month. New
issues are released on a monthly basis.
See you next month!
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