_//\\________________________________________________________________________ _\\__T_A_T_I_C___L_I_N_E_____________________________________ September, 1999 __\\_________________________________________________________________________ \\//__ Monthly Music E-Zine __________________________________ 85 Subscribers _____________________________________________________________________________ --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Table Of Contents ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Opening: Message From the Editor Letters From Our Readers Columns: The Zen of Tracking -- The Hidden Power in Creative Blocks Screen Lit Vertigo -- "Solids of Revolution" by the Alpha Millenium Crew (party-version) Call to Keyboards -- Wrapup: MP3 vs. MOD New Topic: "Spread the word" or "Keep it in the family" Advertisment: Sodium Spray -- The intro Server Closing: Credits --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Message From the Editor ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Wow, even though we're lacking a few columns, this is a big issue. Thanks to all that have been getting involved in my new column -- Call to Keyboards. It's really great to have our own little debate here in this magazine. We're growing, and it's thanks to all of you guys. Unfortunately, there is no song review this week. Tough times yield for drastic measures. In case anyone cares, I am starting a new job in three weeks, and I have several projects at my old job that I am expected to finish up. Essentially, I got 5 weeks of work in 3 weeks. I'm also moving back to Philadelphia over the next few weeks. So, I'm up to my head. But, I still bring you Static Line. What's new? Well, SeaEye of Immortal Coil has helped me to create a new website for Static Line. It is still in the works, but should be in order over the next few weeks. Stop by in a few weeks to check it out. http://www.ic.l7.net/statline Well, I gotta get this posted, and get back to work. So I will let the table of contents speak for itself. See you in 2000! --Coplan --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Letters From Our Readers ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- -=- Letter from Puolikuu -=- ] of staticlines 13-15 [ Bizarre'99 (#13) Seven's partyreport reminded, that the sceners probably all around the world have one thing experienced or to experience in common: demoparty. Good partyreports remind me of the times I've been to a party, which is nice by itself but leads me to thinking we're really _sharing_ something here, be it a "community", or a magnificent manifesto of the Great Spirit of Art itself or just a detail of this world. Fun anyway. [quote from #14's In Tune] > completion. Even in the most basic song, the listener must feel as > though the song is complete. There is a song by Pink Floyd that simply > ends by the singer singing "Time is up, the song is over, thought I'd > have something more to say..." and then the song essentially ends. > This is what I call a dropped ending. And that is the only thing I I personally think that the lyrical content of that song gives the feeling of completedness (ugh), or maybe the lack of it and the power of this words (over me that is) just hits me. Don't have the album for reference here.. and can't remember the song very well, it's on Dark Side of the Moon anyway, isn't it? [Late entry for "Call to Keyboards (Re: Tracking Unions) I agree with Seven.. feedback for feedback, it's a strange matter, but we all need motivation, and with this free scene society (which includes not getting paid) moral support, inspiration and guidance are what we've got to give. Anyway, sending feedback on an article sounds unprobable, as it seems that even for a module feedback, if any, comes from people you personally know, or if you ask it. Or me. ;-) Well, at least I try to inform people I've heard their stuff and if something came to my mind while listening to it. And yup, those tracking unions sound quite good, but I hit an annoying obstacle with Trax in space myself - "Puolikuu already exists in TiS". Make room for identity crisis.. --Puolikuu / tempo'pkbrp eino.keskitalo@purkki.mbnet.fi -=> Reply from Coplan: Good to hear from you again, Puolikuu. I like your view of the demoscene. I think it's good to think of the entire scene as a family, or a piece in the big celebration of art. When people look back, the scene used to be considered a musical underground of sorts. But, I think that anymore, that doesn't apply -- and if people continue to look at it that way, they may not get what they intend to out of the scene. The Pink Floyd song? You are correct, that is from the Dark Side of the Moon Album. All you people out there that havn't heard it yet, you might want to go pick up a copy -- it's worth it. --Coplan --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- The Zen of Tracking The Hidden Power in Creative Blocks By: Dilvish ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- The world around you is all inside you. Your experiences of taste, touch, smell, and hearing are all electrical and chemical responses that take place inside your mind. Everything around you is a product of your imagining. The images you see are your constructed version of reality - they are patterns that you created, given only an input of various light frequencies, mixing and interacting in much the same way that sound waves mix and interact to form music. Any time you perceive something beautiful - you are perceiving the beauty in you - your response to a bunch of light or sound stimulus. When you see something ugly in the world around you, the "ugliness" in it is merely the negative response that you construct for it. It is merely ugliness in you. Have you ever tried to shut off your mind? To stop it from thinking? To stop images from flashing through your head, or sounds from echoing through your consciousness? It may sound simple enough, but it really is not a very simple task. The moment you think you've done it, you realize that in thinking you've accomplished your goal, that, in itself is a thought. And when you delve even deeper, and manage to quiet your mind, you might become aware that the emptiness you have achieved is "something" in itself - and your mind is not truly empty. Your creativity is so overwhelming, it is quite impossible to silence it - even if you don't consider yourself a creative person. A creative block is actually a wonderful thing... creative blocks are the potential for creative streaks. It is when you hit the limits of your dreams and imagination that you break the limits, and truly grow. The silence and emptiness of a creative block should be understood, and treasured. In it, you will find that you are more than a musician - more than an artist, or a person merely "doing" something. You are alive, and growing. It is affirmation that there is life after creative death. At those times, you might find an opportunity to develop your manual skills, or your grasp of chord theory. When your mind is empty of fresh ideas, it may be a very good time to go over your scales and your exercises, and develop your ability to play the music effortlessly when the music returns to you. In doing so, you develop a trait known to the Chinese sage as wu wei - doing without doing. It is the state you reach when you have practiced and polished your skills to the point that it is absolutely effortless. You no longer have to concentrate on what notes you play, or how your fingers move across the strings or keys - they simply move themselves in perfect time with your will and emotion. That is what they mean when they say "he does not act, but through him, all things are accomplished". Non-action does not mean non-doing.. it means doing without doing - knowing without knowing. Development of your skills and your talents to the point that they become automatic. Creativity, too becomes a matter of wu wei eventually. When you encounter those "creative blocks", and you are empty of ideas - if you have properly trained your body - you will find yourself with the ability while in this state of emptiness to sit down at your instrument, and begin to play, without planning it out - without hearing it in advance - the sounds just spring into being through you. They are instantly transformed from the Potential of Emptiness, to Manifestations in Music. It is in these states that the best songs are written. Let that creep into your head the next time you encounter a creative block. --Dilvish P.S. If you find my ideas interesting, and want to learn more about my philosophy, feel free to visit "the philosophy of One". There you'll find introspective poetry, links to enlightening books, and various articles about how to see more in the world than your average Joe: http://cooltext.com/dilvish/philosophy/index.html --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Screen Lit Vertigo "Solids of Revolution" by the Alpha Millenium Crew (party-version) By: Seven ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Found at www.scene.org 2nd place at Dreamhack'99 non-accelerated System requirements: Nothing mentioned, but I think the power of the CPU is more important than the amount of memory. Something like a PII with 16 MB of mem. And remember to unzip with winzip, for the long filenames, as this is a Win9x demo 7.5 MB HD Test Machine: PII 350 64MB SB16, Win98 The demo: I quote the info-file: "This demo was made in an effort to combine studies and scene-life, and represents the near impossibility to do so." And, to be honest, this is indeed a very unfinished production :) First you can choose to see it in full-screen DirectX, a window or double-sized window. You have to press a, b or c, the buttons on the screen does not work. Then it starts with two scrolling backgrounds in space, with the title, "Dreamhack'99" and such things. It looks good, but it's interrupted by reading from the harddisk, and by a static picture that looks like some control-screen from a nuclear reactor. Then a text tells about Tellius IV, a planet that's the final refuge of humankind. The camera zooms in on the planet, from which a small spaceship escapes, seconds before the planet explodes. At first I didn't understand much of this story, but when I took a look at the pictures in the data-directory, things got clearer. There are several versions of the reactor-control screen, each one giving more alarming messages. But alas, due some bug the first one is show multiple times. You can find also some pics from a missing part, where the shuttle takes of from it's base (the reactor?). Anyway, the demo continues with the shuttle flying between asteroids and stars. At this point the story is given up, because the following parts are just unconnected effects. In addition, the music changes from a dark, symphonic tune with military-style drums to a happy-go-lucky demotune with funky synths and bells. Not exactly the kind of music you associate with the end of the world :) The effects include a standard tunnel, a picture of a green-haired girl with motion-blurred particles over it, some polar effects and the good old vectorball-snake, this time with transparent globes. Of course there's some 3D too, like a kind of ball with flares hovering over an infinite checkerboard, but the engine seems to have problems with finding the edges of the polys, so you can see ugly scars here and there. The backgrounds and the logos look quite good and colorful, they are mostly photoshopped but we know that pixelers are hard to recruit nowadays :-/ The demo ends rather suddenly, with a short and repeating upscroll. Overall: Another quote from the info-file: "It is, however, our first demo and we hope it will not prove too embarrassing in the future." I'm afraid that a first production is almost always embarrassing when you look back on it, except when you never improve your skills :) And there's indeed a lot of room to improve: optimizing the code, fixing the 3d-engine's edge-bug, improving the timing for the windowed view (which is not really enjoyable now :( ), removing unused files from the data-directory (the music is included zipped and unzipped, the pictures), and writing a loader for pictures with random dimensions (a 320*200 pcx-file for a 10*10 particle is quite a waste). But of course there are already some good points too. The music and the pictures are more then enjoyable, and there are some original design-touches, like the zooming and rotating ring of circles. I hope that the final will fix most of the bugs, those are probably the result from lack of time. --Seven --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Call to Keyboards Wrapup: MP3 vs. MOD New Topic: "Spread the word" or "Keep it in the family?" By: Coplan ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- -=- Introduction -=- Ooo, I think I hit a soft spot. I got a lot of response to this one, almost within a few hours of publication. I have three replys that I think you all should check out. I've reformated this colum slightly -- but only in the way that I respond AFTER the letters now. I think it'll make more sense. For my response look for "What do I think:" after all the letters. -=- Wrap Up -=- Steve Gilmore's Reply: As ever, a very good Static Line just thudded into my mailbox, and here I am typing away on a subject I seem to have been discussing for at least a year. I tend to hang out mainly on the MOD newsgroups, MODplug and United Trackers forums and - on the odd occasion - on the myriad #trax-a-likes on IRC. In short, I get around. Maybe not as much as some sceners, but I'm not as able as some sceners... Anyways, the MP3 vs MOD argument has been a-wailing and a-shreiking away in these places for all this time, all to absolutely no avail. MP3 is here to stay folks, shun it at your peril! Pretty much everyone I've spoken to who tracks all say the same thing. They may release MP3's where necessary or release in *both* formats. I am not, let it be said, talking about 400k MODs here. Although if you have a 400k track that you can tweak with DSP and release as an MP3 - why not? If you are releasing for an audience, you surely *have to* try and reach as great a number as possible. I am making larger MODs now, simply because the technology is much greater. I'm also releasing on MP3 to catch that bigger audience out there blissfully unaware of the scene and it's talent. Why, because I'm a raving egomanic (yep..hee hee) Actually, no. Because having spent the last 10 years totally immersed in the MOD culture, I want to spread the word as far as possible. This is a wonderful scene we have here. Sure, it's not particularly happening in some sectors, but in others its positively bursting at the seams. And the talent around cannot be believed... Grasp the nettle of MP3, it could be this scene's next big step - at least as far as the musical side of tracking goes.. I have a general question for all readers of Static Line, just as a mental exercise. How many trackers are there on MP3.com? I know some are, because I know them. I know some are because I know of their work. There are probably loads more. Why then is there no 'MOD' category on MP3.com? And why are trackers not making themselves known on the MP3 forums? I'm sure a MOD thread would attract some attention. These are busy boards.... Keep up the good work on the 'zine.... --Steve Gilmore rebriffr@netcomuk.co.uk Wayfinder's Reply: I don't like it when people make an mp3 out of a module just because they don't want their samples ripped. I guess that's because i frankly don't care if anybody uses my samples or not - if anything, i feel proud when i notice it. I don't go looking in others' modules for unmarked ripped samples ("No source on samples #13, #14 and #21.. got that written down officer?") and I don't exspect anybody does. I seldomly give credits to where I got the sample from (well, I don't rip a lot anymore, I do have certain sample quality standards that sample CDs often meet and ripped samples often don't) and if somebody uses a sample I made, well, fine for them.. as long as they don't rip my songs, I won't complain. Sample ripping is IMHO not really a valid point. I mean.. it's just samples! The file size thing was the reason for my (few) mp3 releases. But it's not like I wouldn't give out the tracked file if someone asked me. Plus I got all the benefits of not having to tell non-scene people a) what Impulse Tracker is and b) that WinAmp is not cool to play the tunes in, and c) where they can get IT ("What? A DOS program?!") or sonique to play the file right (doesn't always work since sonique isn't perfect either). Also, you'd be surprised at the amount of "sceners" (especially in europe) who refuse to install IT on their hd or listen to .ITs, or those with totally outdated versions. My guess is that out of 10 random sceners only 5 hear the .IT as it's supposed to sound. When I release an mp3, it's all of them. It's different with ft2, granted, cause there's better support for it in winamp (and everybody has winamp) Promotion to non sceners.. well, promote to non-sceners as much as you can ;) I guess they'll be more receptive when you don't tell them to get another piece of playback software when they already have a media player, AND winamp. Honestly, telling someone (over IRC possibly) how to download, install and properly configure a tracker and how to play a song with it is not what I want to do in my free time (that's one thing Coplan didn't mention - when they agree to download a player, you're stuck with them :D). I rather give out an mp3 that they can just doubleclick on. Less stress for me and them. When it's possible, I try to release both tracked file and mp3, but with a 4 meg .IT and a 4 meg MP3, i'll only release one, and now take a guess which. MP3 releases will become inevitable for me, since I have rising standards in sample quality (-> size) and something that hasn't been mentioned in your article: I wave write the single tracks (or better: instruments), process them with fx etc and assemble them in a multitracker, forming a .WAV file that is noticably different from a "clean" diskwrite of the song. Post-processing will become the main reason for mp3 releases after a while, but for now it's file size first for most people. > Non-scene exposure? Call me stubborn, but if anyone wants to listen > to scene music, they're either in the scene, or should be. And if Uhm, no. That's a stupid statement. What about the neighbour who got internet access this week? What about your relatives in france who want to hear what you did? What about your friends, people who like your music but have nothing to do with the scene otherwise? People who don't even know that there IS a scene and just like your music? What about game developers you accidently meet online? (ok, so that's not exactly representative ;) What about the record labels (maybe you'd be using a CD there, but it's the same principle..)? Please excuse my long-wound sentences. --Sebastian (Wayfinder/KFMF/Vacuum) wayfinder@ber.netsurf.de Mikpos' Reply: Hey, mikpos' keyboard here. A lot of people seem to think that distributing tracks in tracked formats will keep alive that warm, fuzzy scene feel. I'm of the people that think that the scene is in the intensive care unit right now, and in fact has only a marginal chance of survival. The death of the BBS scene (before any BBS sysops flame, let me say -- if you're still running a local BBS: cool! if only there were more like you), the death of mpoli.fi, the death of Hornet Archives, and perhaps more than anything else, the "retirement" of most of the old skoolers seem to point to the death of the scene. Scene.org is fantastic (traxinspace is quite a different matter, though), and I hope it stays alive, but it's just not quite enough. Real demogroups (the kind where you could talk to you coder face to face!) are being replaced by "cyber" demogroups and tracking unions. Newbies are coming on the scene (it seems at an alarmingly low rate) without any sense of the history of the scene...we can't fully rely on them to inherit the scene when they've never fully experienced it. I think it's fairly well accepted that the biggest (if not the only) problem killing off the scene is the globalization of the scene; or rather, the de-localization of it. Frankly, if you're one of those that's going down with the figurative ship, fighting tooth and nail to keep the scene feel alive, then I don't think there's anyone that can criticise your motives. But the file format songs are distributed in is such a tiny detail that it certainly can't be expected to do much. The methodology of the scene (and consequently distribution) is the problem. The Internet was fine for the scene at the beginning -- suddenly I could get Skaven releases within hours of their release, not weeks (speaking from a small-city North American perspective). The Internet and the scene do not need to be mutually exclusive, but some effort needs to be exerted to recreate the local scene. As is with most industries (especially technical ones), the explosion of the Internet has changed it too fast. We have to remember that the SID and MOD formats, and all their descendents, were created for practical purposes. MP3 now is more practical than tracked formats in some aspects: it can be smaller; it plays roughly the same on all players; it can be streamed; post-processing can be applied. Tracked formats also still have quite a number advantages: they're usually smaller; coding a player is relatively simple; wavetable cards can be used; they can act as a learning tool -- the pattern and sample data is there in the open; and they can be synced easily in games and demos. The last reason I think is reason enough for the tracked formats to survive in one form or another. You have to remember that tracked formats were almost exclusively written for games, demos and cracktros in their infancy. The scene has changed tremendously in five years, and the number of musicians is way out of proportion relative to the numbers of coders and visual artists. Every demo would have to have dozens of songs and every game would have to be cracked hundreds of times in order for all of these songs to be "put to use". If people aren't writing songs for demos, they're probably writing them to be listened to. If that's the case, the major advantage of tracked music is no more. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; it's just the way things go. If you think it's a problem, changing your file format probably won't help things much. The MP3 format makes sense in a lot of cases where the sole purpose of the song is for background listening. Tracked formats make sense where syncing (or small filesizes) are important. Using IT instead of MP3 WILL NOT save the scene. Ever. If you want to save the scene, find some sceners in your area, buy some beer, and have some fun. That guy that sits beside in class has a C64? Your neighbour's kid is learning Pascal? Go to his house, whip up some dancing vector balls, and write some horrible music to go with it. Distribute the source on your local BBS. You may not be pulling out a couple thousand polys a second; you may be considered the lamest person in the tri-state area; you definitely won't win anything at any prestigious Scandanavian demoparties; graphic rumours will start about you and your new "friend" having wild gay butt sex. If memory serves, that's what the scene's all about. If you even get one laugh out of it, it'll be far more rewarding than posting your MP3s on your website. --Mikpos mikpos@home.com What do I think: Well, I got to be honest...I'm stubborn. I am still a big fan of the MOD based formats (MOD, XM, IT, etc), and though I'm a little more accepting of the MP3 format, I guess I'm still not happy with its presence -- at least not in the methodology that many trackers use it for. But, I'm one of those guys "going down with the figurative ship," as Mikpos would say. So, I guess I really don't have any choice but to accept it as best as I can. One thing I'm still steadfast with -- release for size and expansion -- not to protect your samples. Now, onto the new topic. -=- New Topic: "Spread the word" or "Keep it in the family?" -=- Okay, this topic is derrived from your responses to the MP3 vs. MOD topic. What the hell do I mean? First, let me explain the topic, then I'll share my views. Spread the word: There is the belief that people need to expand their listening audience -- and the release through formats such as MP3 can help this. To save the scene ('cause it growing weak), one must spread the word to non-sceners. Keep it in the Family: The demoscene is MOD music and hardcore code! Anyone outside the scene can listen, but they just won't understand. Therefore, many believe that the old purist approach (MOD formats) are the best where possible, and could care less if its easy for the outsiders. What I am about to say probably wouldn't come from my mouth a month ago. I'll admit, the feedback from many of you has swayed my opinions about this. First, let me say that the scene is, in fact, in trouble. Maybe not nearly as much as one would think, but it is in trouble. I sit here and think about the times of old, when I first got into tracking. I got into tracking before I had internet access. I was some BBS visitor and I happened to download a Necros Tune ("Ice River"). I was hooked. So, then I strived to find out more about the format, and a tracker was born. Well, apparently, it isn't like that anymore. The scene is much more accessible to non-sceners these days. We have people coming in by the hundreds, and oldskoolers going out the same door. But why? The concept is still the same -- someone discovers the scene and becomes a part of the scene. "Lamer" is the term given to a new preson in the scene. Just because they can't track now, doesn't mean they can't track later. And contrary to popular belief, there isn't a higher ratio of lamers to experienced trackers. We're not getting over-run, there's plenty of room. The fact that they're coming in by the hundreds is a good thing. The more people that try it, the more will stick around. I will still make an effort to help those who want it...as many else will. As they become more active, the scene become more healthy. More resources, more servers, more communication. More feedback! The scene expands. But Guess what?!? Your best friend's little sister doesn't know about the scene until she gets to taste it. How will she taste it? Well, hopfully, she'll download a mod player and play a tune she downloads. But lets be real here. Out of 100 computers, I would say maybe 15 of them have a mod player installed. But maybe 85 of them have MP3 players installed (it's a big fad right now, I might even be low in my guess). Well, guess what? She's more likely to download the MP3. So, this brings me to the final answer. I say "Spread the Word!" The scene needs help. Who knows...maybe the guy that downloads one of your tunes gets so involved in the scene that he'll offer a huge network system just for the scene (if you're that type of person, drop me a message, we'll talk -- I'll manage the system). Imagine what that could do to the scene! I'm talking the next Hornet here. But that person has to get hooked on the scene first. The scene isn't dead -- but we gotta send up the signal flares. You're opinions here, please. --Coplan --Coplan --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Advertisment Sodium Spray By: Coplan ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- From: "frank studhel" http://www.angelfire.com/sd/sodiumspray Sodium Spray is a new intros server serving exclusively 4kb and 64kb entries which have already been submitted to demoparties. Currently you can chose to download over 200 of the latest intros, with just 1 click. Thank you. --Zilco/Sodium Spray --=--=-- ----=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------ Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan.ic@rcn.com Assistant Editor: Subliminal / Matt Friedly / sub@plazma.net Web Manager: Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan.ic@rcn.com Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com Seven / Stefaan / Stefaan.VanNieuwenhuyze@rug.ac.be Virt / virt@bellsouth.net Staff Writers: Louis Gorenfeld / gorenfeld@vrone.net Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk SiN / Ian Haskin / sin@netcom.ca Technical Support: Draggy / Nicolas St. Pierre / draggy@kosmic.org Jim / Jim Nicholson / jim@kosmic.org Static Line on the Web: http://www.ic.l7.net/statline ftp://flerp.scene.hu/scene/DiskMag/StaticLine To subscribe to the Static Line mailing list, send an e-mail message to "majordomo@kosmic.org" with "subscribe static_line " in the message text. You will then be asked to confirm your addition to the mailing list. Expect a new issue during the first weekend of each month. To unsubscribe from the mailing list, send an e-mail message to "majordomo@kosmic.org" with "unsubscribe static_line " in the message text. Your subscription will then be removed. If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware that we will format your article with two spaces at the beginning and one space at the end of each line. Please avoid foul language and high ascii characters. Contributions should be mailed to Coplan (coplan.ic@rcn.com). See you next month! -eof---=------=--=------=--=--