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                                                      |
        DemoNews Issue #100 - August 31, 1995         | Subscribers  :  1525
                    -------------                     |   Last Week  :  1480
     DemoNews is a newsletter for the demo scene.     |   Change     :   +45
 It is produced by Hornet at the site ftp.cdrom.com.  | Archive Size : 1032M
    Our demo archive is located under /pub/demos.     |   Last Week  : 1002M
                                                      |
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                                  <CONTENTS>
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

           Uploads

           Articles

             Introduction................................Snowman
             Assembly '95 Report (Part 1 of 2)...........Ior
             Pornography at Assembly '95?................Multiple Authors
             "Growing Up in the Scene" Reply.............Nick Majeran
             Bug In Fast Tracker v2.04...................Duggy
             What's Hot, What's Not......................Anonymous
             Upload Reviews..............................GraveDigger
             What is REAL Music?.........................Tomi

           Subscribing

           Closing Comments

=-[Uploads]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

=----------------------------------------------------------[File Information]-=

 All files listed below are on ftp.cdrom.com or one of its mirrors.

 Ratings are completely subjective and do not necessarily reflect opinions
 of the demo scene in general.

 ftp.cdrom.com too slow?  Try our mirror at ftp.luth.se.  You may even
 upload to this site under /pub/msdos/demos_upload.

 All files moved to /dev/null imply that the file was deleted.

 Demos marked [n/a] generally mean that we couldn't get them to run at all.

=-------------------------------------------------------------[Demos:General]-=
Location /demos/alpha/1995        Size Rated Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------=
/b/bland.zip                        59 ***   Bland by AE (textmode intro)
/c/cma_gion.zip                     62 ****  Gustation by Camorra (get this)
/e/e_lisa.zip                      976 [n/a] Lisa by Eclipse
/f/fruityfn.zip                     69 [n/a] Fruit Cake
/p/p-skufin.zip                    630 [n/a] Skumle Planer by Purple (bugfix)
/r/rpdentro.zip                    300 **    The Real Dentro by Red Power

Assembly '95 Demos

/j/jfight.zip                     1917 ***+  10th Fghting 4 Somethng by Japotek
/m/msqmyst1.arj                   1212 **+   11th [1/2] Mystery by Masque
/m/msqmyst2.arj                    591 **+   11th [2/2] Mystery by Masque
/d/demfever.zip                    500 ***   14th Fever by Deus ex Machina
/f/ftj_love.zip                   3080 ***+  DSQ. Divine Booty by Plant

=--------------------------------------------------------[Demos:Non-Reviewed]-=
Location /demos/alpha             Size Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------=
/bbs/t/tfc.zip                      10 Intro for The Forbidden City BBS
/bbs/t/tfc2.zip                     13 Intro for The Forbidden City BBS
/bbs/t/tfcintro.zip                180 Intro for The Forbidden City BBS

=-------------------------------------------------------------[Music:General]-=
Location /demos/music             Size Rated Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------=
/disks/g-i/ha-light.zip            840 **+   Zauber Light by Hades/PR
/disks/g-i/hellb2.a??             2884 ***+  Hellbound v2 by Primal
/songs/mod/m-r/overkill.arj        185 **    Over Kill by Cj Dib             
/songs/mtm/k_progr.zip              27 **+   Progress by The Hacker/KFMF
/songs/s3m/a-c/adchains.zip        134 ***   Broken Chains by Artful Dodger
/songs/s3m/a-c/add-of-v.zip        297 **    Dreams of Vasec. by Artful Dodger
/songs/s3m/d-f/dman-kka.zip        205 *     ? by Alex
/songs/s3m/d-f/es-scase.zip        221 **    Steve Case has. by Evil Seed
/songs/s3m/d-f/funk.zip             73 *     Funkadelic by The Magician
/songs/s3m/g-i/hazard.zip          129 ***   Hazard by Beaner/acid
/songs/s3m/j-l/k_babylo.zip        165 ***+  Babylon by Phoenix/KFMF
/songs/s3m/j-l/k_mtime.zip         373 **+   Missing Time by Basehead/KFMF
/songs/s3m/j-l/k_plast.zip         188 ***   Plastik Ganja by Zake/KFMF
/songs/s3m/j-l/k_slack2.zip        219 **+   World Wide Slack (remix) by Floss
/songs/s3m/j-l/k_wander.zip        257 ****  Wanderlust by Leviathan/KFMF
/songs/s3m/m-o/mirage2.zip         179 ***   Mirage 2 by Beaner
/songs/s3m/m-o/mo-nobig.zip         85 **    No Big Deal by Mondo
/songs/s3m/m-o/outofsha.zip        149 *+    Out..Shadows by Master of Darkness
/songs/s3m/p-r/raveon.zip           71 *+    Rave..School's Out by Phil Richard
/songs/s3m/s-u/ss-theme2.zip        62 *     Theme II by Drive
/songs/s3m/s-u/surfer.zip          159 **    Catch tha Wave by Lord Jon Ray
/songs/s3m/s-u/syn_sun.zip         175 ***   Sun (dawn remix) by Synergist
/songs/s3m/s-u/taz-sbr.zip         298 *     Southbound Rotterdam by Taz
/songs/s3m/s-u/tazvshad.zip        315 +     Taz vs. Hadji by Taz
/songs/s3m/s-u/teo-lfrn.zip        113 ***+  Life's Run by Teo/Fatal Rage
/songs/s3m/s-u/therise1.zip        325 **    The Rise by Trainspotta
/songs/s3m/s-u/tm-anymo.zip        165 ***+  Anymotion by AsYntote
/songs/s3m/s-u/tm-estat.zip        383 ***   Estate by AsYntote
/songs/s3m/s-u/tm-voxln.zip        221 ***+  VoxLand by AsYntote
/songs/s3m/s-u/tribes.zip          160 *+    Tribes of Africa by Wild Side
/songs/xm/a-f/aplayboy.zip          88 *     Atomic Playboy by Tackle
/songs/xm/a-f/apocalyp.zip         211 ****  Apocalypse by Meat
/songs/xm/a-f/brie.zip             110 **    Beware of the B. by Tackle
/songs/xm/a-f/cyclfire.zip         518 ***+  Cycles of Fire by Scirocco
/songs/xm/a-f/easyattk.zip          47 **    Easy Cheese Att. by Tackle
/songs/xm/g-l/goudavil.zip          36 **    Escape from Goudavile by ???
/songs/xm/g-l/leppaker.zip         126 ****  Leppakerttu by Tuksu   
/songs/xm/m-r/pretzel.zip           40 *+    Microwave Pretzel by Tackle
/songs/xm/s-z/si-burn.zip          449 ****  Burn My Guitar by Sikamikanico
/songs/xm/s-z/steak.zip             99 *+    Steak Knife by Spitz
/songs/xm/s-z/violence.zip         941 **+   Violence by Noiseman
/songs/xm/s-z/viv-stmb.zip         299 **+   Sturmbraut by Vivid
/songs/xm/s-z/vo-sput.zip          214 ***   Sputnik by Voyager
/songs/xm/s-z/wdogrvng.zip          29 *     Weiner Dog's Revenge by Tackle
/songs/xm/s-z/westerng.zip         258 **    Western Grill by Magic Fred...
/songs/xm/s-z/worst.zip             11 -     Worst by Anonymous
/songs/xm/s-z/zgp-gkom.zip         432 +     Gotta Keep On Moving by Nuke
/songs/xm/s-z/zgp-pp95.zip         128 +     Pure Passion 95 by Nuke

=--------------------------------------------------------[Music:Non-Reviewed]-=
Location /demos/music             Size Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------=
/programs/converters/cmc101.zip     40 Chronos Module Converter 1.01 by Chronos
/programs/players/m4w220sx.zip    1904 Mod4Win 2.20 Full Ver. by Jens Puchert
/programs/players/m4w220sl.zip     674 Mod4Win 2.20 Lite Ver. by Jens Puchert
/programs/rippers/s3srip.zip         8 S3SRip S3M Samp Ripper by Tomas Lehuta

=----------------------------------------------------------------------[Code]-=
Location /demos/code              Size Rated Lang Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---- ----------------------------=
/graph/water/hq_water.zip          370 ****  A  P Water source of Heartquake
/graph/voxel/ign_land.zip           23 ****  A C  Voxel source of Heartquake
/sound/omega060.zip                 60 ***+    C  SB AWE32 MOD Player w/src
/demosrc/phro.zip                  294 ****+ A  P Source to phro, 2 min. intro

=------------------------------------------------------------------[Graphics]-=
Location /demos/graphics          Size Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------=
/ASM94/smeagol.zip                  65 Smeagol (final version) by Paranoids

=-------------------------------------------------------------[Miscellaneous]-=
Location /demos                   Size Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------=
/hornet/demonews/dn_1of1.099        47 DemoNews #99
/hornet/traxw/traxweek.023          57 TraxWeekly #23
/news/nadd_u03                    1432 New Age Demo Database - Upgrade 3

=-[Articles]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

=---------------------------------------------------[Introduction]--[Snowman]-=

 This is the 100th issue of DemoNews!  Since September 24th 1992, we have
 tried to provide the demo scene with a centralized area for files and
 information.  I won't start going into what changes we've seen over the
 past 3 years (save that for the September 24th 1995 issue).  This also
 happens to be the first week that we exceed 1500 subscribers.

 I spent much time thinking what we should do for the 100th issue.  Should
 we get a couple big interviews?  Should we put a fancy ASCII banner at the
 top? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I didn't want to
 do any of these things.  And so we present to you a perfectly normal issue
 of this newsletter. :)

 Here are some general infobits to chew on:

 1. We are moving from a .txt based file-description system to a 00index.txt
    file in each subdirectory.  I have been writing utility programs to
    automatically convert DemoNews file listings to the 00index.txt format.

 2. The TraxWeekly subscriber list was accidentally lost and restored from
    backup.  It was kind of odd watching the number of subscribers to this
    newsletter drop from 280 to 3 in one day.  :)

 3. We are currently designing a "DemoNews Assembler".  This program will
    create issues of DemoNews with standard text input files (header blocks,
    articles, file listings).  This should reduce the workload of putting an
    issue together, which also means that DemoNews might actually start
    coming out every week (instead of the 10-14 days we're averaging now).

 4. Starport, probably the _most_ famous demo BBS of all time, has shut
    down. This also means that the nice music archive at
    ftp.mpoli.fi:/starport is gone.  Shed a tear for this loss.

 5. People are very unhappy with the MC3Final.exe being so late.  I
    understand this.  I have sent out 5 alpha versions within Hornet, and
    the project is moving along steadily (although slowly).  I am very
    inexperienced as a coder and this project is almost out of my ability.
    The project will be completed (ain't gonna pull a Composer's
    Competition) but it might be another week.  :(

 6. Stairway to Heaven BBS has been including many annoying BBS advertise-
    ments in .zip files.  One in particular is called "        .sth".  If
    you are a sysop at STH, please try to use a more standard method of
    saying that the file came from your board (like a .zip file header or
    something).

 Well, have fun and read on.

 Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com


=----------------------------------[Assembly '95 Report (Part 1 of 2)]--[Ior]-=

 _____Introduction

 Hi ... Well ... this was supposed to be the onsite Party article, but the
 computer I was typing it on disappeared half-way through, and I couldn't
 find it again... So you are all stuck with this recollection of the party 2
 weeks later :) And sorry, there are no times on this, but oh well! :)

 _____Wednesday, 9 August 1995

 On Wednesday, around midday, I went to the party place with Mellow-D. We
 walked around the building for a while, trying to figure out where the
 entrance was (the tram stop we got off on was on the other corner of the
 complex). We finally saw a sign "Assembly '95 ->" and there was much
 rejoicing.

 After following the arrow down a hill into what looked like a
 garage/loading zone/construction zone, and walking to the farthest door, we
 went in, and were amazed. Right in front of us were rows after rows after
 rows of empty white tables, with white walls surrounding them. Right above
 the farthest tables were the "bleachers."

 This site was much more impressive than it was for most of the people at
 the party, because at this time, there was no dividing wall between us and
 the RopeCon area, so the space was about 150% as large as what we finally
 ended up with.

 After this shock, we were approached by a few security people because we
 didn't have the wristbands to show that we really belonged in there. So, we
 ended up walking around, and waiting outside for most of the time, until
 Pehu finally showed up (he was out for lunch) and gave us our wristbands.

 Finally, we were able to go over to the organizers area, and look at the
 setup. The sound board was gigantic, with about 24 independent input
 channels. Also there was the video mixer, a synth (I have no idea why :),
 and one computer.

 We (Mellow-D and I) had to drive Pehu's car back to Mellow-D's apartment so
 that we could pick up his computer. We got back, and as we were setting it
 up, they lowered the big screen (even larger than all 3 of last years
 combined, or so it seemed) and switched the Video Projector Source to a TV,
 unfortunately, the sound system wasn't hooked up at this time, so we could
 watch, but there was no sound :)

 The only people that I saw that arrived there a day early were the guys
 from @. Eventually, we went home to sleep.

 _____Thursday, 10 August 1995

 Finally, the big day arrived. Mellow-D and I woke up early, and took a tram
 over to the site so we could get there about 2 hours before it started. We
 wanted to test the sound system out, but it was still unconnected. So,
 instead, we walked around, and watched the fair people put up the dividing
 wall between us and the RopeCon area.

 We also explored the Play 1995 area, which was nothing but a few video game
 machines, a Nintendo booth, and a few pinball machines. We went back, and
 watched the fair staff set up the dividing wall between the organizer's
 booth and the rest of the party (otherwise we would have been inundated,
 and overwhelmed :).

 There was still no sign of the sound guy, and the doors were going to open
 in 30 minutes. So I stepped outside, and looked around so I could see the
 lines. Both of them (the one for people with pre-bought tickets, and the
 one for people who needed to buy their tickets) were immense. The camera
 crew was walking around and interviewing people in the Pre-Bought Ticket
 line.

 I squeezed back inside about 10 minutes before the doors opened, to see
 that the sound guy had just arrived, and was finally hooking up the
 speakers and sound boards (although he was scarce at the beginning of the
 first day, he was always there when we needed him throughout the rest of
 the party). He finished just as the doors opened, and Mellow-D and I tested
 the speakers with the theme song to Little Green Men (Phoenix/Kosmic, 9th
 Place Demo).

 Everything was fine. Within 30 minutes, the volume wars had started. People
 from opposite ends of the hall were booming at each other at the loudest,
 most obnoxious music they could find :) Of course, by increasing the master
 volume on the sound board, the organizer's booth could drown them all out
 (and those peripheral satellite speakers were a blessing :)

 As the day wore on, the hall slowly filled up, but it was clear that just
 as many people would show up on Friday. Later that day, I was asked to show
 something on the big screen, and I played a lot of well known (And not so
 well-known) productions. However, after 4 or 5 hours of this, I was more
 than a little ... bored ... Of course, there were people to talk to, but I
 wanted to get out. I finally managed to.

 A bit later, the remaining ASM '94 CD's went on sale (about 150 of them)
 and promptly sold out. Some people started going to sleep.

 _____Friday, 11 August 1995

 Friday came, and even more people showed up. Sometime this day, a big
 projection of white letters showed up on one wall ... "EMF" ... hmmm ... I
 wonder if they could have been there ;) On this day, I finally managed to
 meet some of my old friends: Jake, Henchman, Gore, Lord Cyrix, etc; some of
 my IRC friends: Simm, MoominG, Sandman, OC, Prism, Skaven, etc; and some of
 my new friends: Zodiak, Arjan Brusee, Xtoto, etc. And this is a VERY SMALL
 listing of the people I talked to :)

 Later this day, deadlines came, and the back info booth became crowded,
 like a herd of frantic animals seeing the first watering hole in 15
 kilometers. Even in the inside, people were running around, making sure the
 disks were labeled properly, put on the right computer, in the right
 directory, and finally, in the right box. Around this time, I was asked if
 I would like to be on the 64k Intro Jury. Naturally, I accepted :)

 When I went back to the main hall, people were already showing off their
 productions, Nooon attracted a fairly large sized crowd every time they
 showed their demo, Stars: Wonders of the World. As you all SHOULD know,
 this demo went on to win 1st Place.

 A bit later, I went back to the back info booth, and helped run the various
 computers up the stairs to the necessary jury rooms. I pity the 32 Channel
 Jury, because they had to listen to 225 songs, which took more than 5
 hours. However, the jury was quite large, and it must have been
 entertaining, if nothing else :)

 In an hour or so, I went to the right room for the intro jury, and met the
 rest of the jury. There were about 9 of us total. The jury was interesting,
 although those seats got hard after a while. Some of the intros were sure
 to not make the final cut: There was a 7k intro there, and also any intros
 with no music.

 Of course, when we saw Stickman's World, ALL of us cracked up, and that
 intro was sure to make it to the final cut (it ended up 2nd Place). We were
 all pretty impressed with Drift, and were certain it would end up high (1st
 Place). Eventually, the jury ended, and we all went our separate ways.

 _____Conclusion

 Well ... that's the end of Friday, and I'm sure all of you people are
 getting pretty bored reading this, since I can't think of anything that is
 really really really funny to say, so ... I Think I'll end this here, and
 finish it next week. So, until then, Don't Panic :)

 Island of Reil <ior> / Hornet - jroth@owl.csusm.edu


=--------------------------[Pornography at Assembly '95?]--[Multiple Authors]-=

 [taken from comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos newsgroup]

 > > Well,  at least one friend of mine got infected by this _15xx virus, and
 > > though we didn't exactly try to hunt it down, it seemed to come from a
 > > c64s package somebody put on the partynet. That's our guess anyway, since
 > > quite a few of the .exe's in that dir were infected, and he had only run
 > > one of them...
 >
 > I see that nobody took that no-pirating warning too seriously then. :)

 Well, I wouldn't say that :)  Hellfire was shut down for an hour or two,
 because the organizers were informed that there was pirated software and
 child-pornography on the server. We removed the offensive material, 20
 games, 5 programs and 5mb of child-porno, and we were running again ;-)

 Anyway, they then wanted all pornography removed, but we refused to remove
 anything which was not illegal. The net-info at Assembly was leeching tons
 of stuff from Hellfire, and the net-organizers has all the porno and most
 of the NPD when the party ended ;-))

 Kvantti Piikkisika and Vinding Christensen


=---------------------------["Growing Up in the Scene" Reply]--[Nick Majeran]-=

 Hello Snowman,

 Your editorial in Demo News #99 started out with a number of good
 intentions, but ended up alienating me in some sort of strange way.

 According to "Growing Up in the Demo Scene," it would appear that I am
 entering my early `adulthood' stage in my demo scene existence.  However, I
 have not found a clear-cut purpose for my being in the scene.

 Is it enough just to enjoy the scene, to be a fan?  I asked myself this
 question, and let it swim through my mind for a bit.  Does this mean that
 since I have no purpose, that my demo life has been wasted?  This question
 also popped up.  I soon realized that this ratiocination that I was putting
 myself through was become much too philosophical, and quickly purged it
 from my mind.

 Sometimes thoughts like this come out, and are quite disturbing for a few
 minutes.  Then I remember how much entertainment the demo scene has
 provided me.  I will still continue to enjoy demos, tracked music (although
 Necros response was right on the money), graphics, and any other products
 the scene produces.

 I've been in the scene for 2 years myself, the first demo that I saw was
 CD2, and soon after that I saw Second Reality, and became absolutely amazed
 with what I saw.  These were the BNA (before net access) days; and I
 frantically tried to get my hands on anything that I could.

 When I moved away from my friends who started their scene growth, I gained
 net access.  I believe that the first issue of DN that I picked up was 33,
 or somewhere around there, (I've had a hard drive crash since then) and
 soon I realized that I had only scratched the surface. I grew as DN did; I
 saw the newsletter increase in size, as I saw the free space on my hard
 drive dwindle as I picked up more demos...and a GUS somewhere along the
 way.

 I suppose what I am trying to say is this: keep up the good work on DN but
 be careful when writing articles that speak to the whole "family."  Even if
 we are all "related" then some of the more distant cousins might feel
 slighted if they feel like they don't belong in the family as well...

 Nick Majeran - stilgar@megumi.unm.edu


=----------------------------------------[Bug In Fast Tracker v2.04]--[Duggy]-=

 [taken from comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos newsgroup]

 Ok this problem is with FT release 2.01 and latest 2.04.

 Problem:

 This bug will crash the system and drop u out to dos, dump looks like this:

 FATAL ERROR: (0D) General protection fault at 3089:27F5

                                                          SS:[SP+2C] = 2B539698
 EAX = 00000000  ESI = FFFF064F                           SS:[SP+28] = 00000210
 EBX = 00000000  EDI = 001460B8                           SS:[SP+24] = 1C1B9302
 ECX = 00000003  EBP = 0001FFD4  Flags = --1------11-     SS:[SP+20] = 0000000A
 EDX = D39903CE  ESP = 000092D6         (ODITSZ-A-P-C)    SS:[SP+1C] = 01600038
                                                          SS:[SP+18] = 92FA0000
 CS = 01B0: Base = 00044D40, Limit = 0000FFFF,Type = 009B SS:[SP+14] = 042000E5
 DS = 00E8: Base = 00064A60, Limit = 0000D86F,Type = 0093 SS:[SP+10] = 00E800AE
 ES = 0030: Base = 000A0000, Limit = 0000FFFF,Type = 0093 SS:[SP+0C] = 00F01107
 FS = 07C0: Base = 00165710, Limit = 0000064F,Type = 0093 SS:[SP+08] = 01B01066
 GS = 0030: Base = 000A0000, Limit = 0000FFFF,Type = 0093 SS:[SP+04] = 92F06090
 SS = 0018: Base = 000722D0, Limit = 00009FFF,Type = 0093 SS:[SP+00] = 06400010
                          ^           ^
                          |___________|
                            |
                            |
                 Should be space here before this letter here

 I've had to edit the page above a little to avoid word wrap, but it's still
 the same (I removed a few spaces shown above).

 How to crash Ft2:

 Ok load a mod you have done before, nice to load Amiga .MOD file cos they
 have patterns but they are all the same length.

 Once loaded make a new pattern, e.g. if last pattern was 15 make a new one
 called "16". Ok now as this pattern is new use the shrink button and the
 down arrow to make its length to 8 on the scale, go half way down the
 pattern and just put any note there.

 Now here's the fun bit. Decrease the value in the top left box (the order
 window) so that pattern 16 becomes 15 (remembering you made a 16 and it's
 still in ram). Go to the end of the order of patterns and click INS again
 and use the arrows to go up or down till you get to the pattern you made
 (16 in this example) when it does, FT will crash to dos like above.

 If you really can't do this I can send you a mod with 15 patterns.  You
 will never be able to make 16 because as soon as you go through the
 patterns pressing the up arrow key you'll get to 16 (which I made) and FT2
 will crash.

 Now the fix 8)

 Load the effected mod you have made that can't be edited (you can't add any
 more patterns). When I say load, I mean load it into a hex editor. Near the
 front of the .XM file is a list of patterns in the order they are played.

 Change one the patterns into the problem one i.e. if you had problems with
 making a pattern 16 find another pattern number like for instance 12 and
 edit it so it becomes 16.

 Loading this mod back into FT2 will be ok, and you can now edit the mod
 without a crash.

 That's it (PHEW).

 Duggy - x10864@bradford.ac.uk


=---------------------------------------[What's Hot, What's Not]--[Anonymous]-=

 I report the pulse, not agree with it...

 What's Hot                   What's Not
 ____________________________ _____________________________

 Orange, Halcyon, Xtacy,      Future Crew, Triton, Cascada
 Jamm, Nooon, Complex

 Necros, Basehead, Mellow-D   Purple Motion, Skaven

 Force Ten, Epinicion         KFMF

 Phong shading                Gouraud shading

 Environment mapping          Texture mapping

 .XM                          .S3M

 262,144 colors               256 colors

 Watcom C                     Pure ASM


=---------------------------------------------[Upload Reviews]--[GraveDigger]-=

 _____Introduction

 Several months ago, when the decision was made to add reviews of new uploads
 to the DemoNews weekly upload listings, I was selected to take care of the
 music reviews because at the time I had been (and still am) maintaining the
 music archive.

 _____The Reviewers

 Finding it impossible to review all the new uploads myself, I decided that
 a team of four people would review the new music, while I would dedicate my
 time to the archive maintenance. Finding interest was easy; a message was
 sent on the DemoNews mailing list asking for people to review uploads. I
 had a lot more responses than I had positions, and regrettably, I was not
 able to respond to every request.

 Having made an initial selection, I met four new people. Eventually, as time
 went on, several reviewers came and went, at times feeling overwhelmed at the
 amount of time and effort required of such an assignment. Mixed in with my
 attempts to assure that the ratings were accurate with the general opinion of
 the demoscene, it has been a difficult task.

 This article serves several purposes. First, I want to thank all of the
 people who at one time or another did music reviews. It provides the readers
 of Demonews with a quick guide to what's hot and what's not. Currently, our
 four reviewers are TSR, Bluenova, Daedalus, and Krystall.

 Also, I have to thank Diablo, who has been a tremendous help in keeping this
 operation organized as it continues to expand beyond its originally perceived
 limits.

 _____Deleting Music

 And now, a plan that will go in action very shortly. As the months ramble on,
 we are constantly running out of space on the FTP site. To combat this
 problem, we have decided to enforce a new policy.

 Any song upload that does not receive a rating of *** or higher will be
 deleted after one month.

 As I can see it, the policy can work two ways, such as the flip of a coin.
 You call it.

 Heads: People will get pissed off that their songs are being deleted from the
 FTP site. You lose.

 Tails: People will try to improve their music skills so that their songs can
 be among the few that will be allowed to stay on the site. You win.

 _____Conclusion

 Our goal is to provide everyone with the best collection of demo-related
 files that we can with our current quota. We hope that you will see this
 change as a benefit to the entire site, because it will allow the site to
 continue to serve its users for several more months.

 Your questions or comments to this new policy are welcomed. I'm sure that
 some people won't like it, but we simply can't afford the disk space very
 much longer. We have enjoyed approximately six months of luxury when disk
 space on the site was no problem.

 And keep in mind: if you think this is bad, just think back to when the old
 ftp.eng.ufl.edu demos archive had only 400mb!

 GD / Hornet - gd@ftp.cdrom.com


=-----------------------------------------------[What is REAL Music?]--[Tomi]-=

 [taken from comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos newsgroup]

 _____Introduction

 OK, I'm writing to this thread because it's the stupidest on this group for
 a long, long time. I won't be quoting anybody in particular, but just
 commenting on the stuff and ideas popping up in this thread.

 Trolling aside, it seems that one of the arguments is that there is such a
 thing as "real" music as opposed to "not real", for instance computer or
 electronically music. I think this is a) totally ridiculous and b) drivel.

 Like many arguments, this one seems to boil down to some definitions: What
 is music, what are instruments?

 _____What are Instruments?

 Some of you claim that tracker instruments (samples) aren't real
 instruments. This is obviously true if we expect them to perfectly
 reproduce the sound of some acoustical instrument. No synthesizer is going
 to do a perfect job of that. But then we should also remember that nobody
 has, for instance, a perfect grand piano which other grand pianos could be
 compared to.

 And so we have to use a certain set of particulars (such as the case, the
 frame, the strings, hammers etc.) to define what a piano is like and how it
 should sound. After this, we might be prepared to call a synthesizer
 simulation of a piano a piano, because it fulfills the same practical
 purpose as a "real" acoustical one.

 So it's really up to the composer to decide whether a synthesizer patch or a
 tracker sample can be called "a piano" or some other instrument.

 Now even if you won't call any simulations by the same names as the
 original acoustical tone-generators (instruments :) ), there is no reason
 why any sound-generating element shouldn't be called an instrument. Heck,
 beer bottles become instruments when played rhythmically with a stick (yet
 I don't believe the random clinking of the bottles in a bag could
 reasonably be called music)!

 My definition of an instrument is that it is a tool or method for creating
 a sound to be part of a piece of music.

 _____What is Music?

 Now we obviously bump into the definition of music, which was in fact the
 other problem in this thread. All the same, I think we all have a fairly
 good idea of what music is, and I at least am willing to include quite a
 wide variety of different sonic experimentation as music, depending on what
 its creator wants to call it. If he calls it music, then maybe it is music,
 even if not in the traditional, clear-cut (rhythm/tempo/
 tones/timbres/melody/harmony) sense.

 I used to be annoyed by modern artists for pushing out all kinds of stuff
 "any kid could make" as "art". Well, perhaps I am still, but now I'm
 willing to let them call it art if they like, and the only thing I decide
 for myself is whether I like it or not and whether it has anything to say
 to me. Which of course doesn't mean it might not seem quite different to
 somebody else.

 All the same, our understanding and language does have the terms "art" and
 "music", so I'm certainly not saying that these terms are empty and
 meaningless. Also I will not agree that just *anything* can be music.

 For one thing, my definition of music does include sensing it with your
 ears :) So please let's use the word music in its general meaning (like the
 signals on records and audible in concert halls) and not nitpick about it.

 _____A Musician and his/her Instruments

 So my point is that if a musician decides to express his musical motions
 with a tracker, then his instruments are samples. If he decides to do it
 with MIDI, his instruments are patches or whatever, often made from
 samples. If he does it with a violin, then the violin is his instrument,
 and I don't think many would disagree with me on this one. Whatever the
 generators sound like, if the composer decides to use them, they are his
 instruments.

 _____Categorizing Music

 I would certainly say that any piece composed on a tracker is as real as it
 can be. A different issue is whether a tracked *version* of some original
 piece is the *same* as the original. It probably isn't; rather, it's a
 *different version*.

 But it still resembles the original in some ways, and by some standard can
 be classified with the original. But I don't think it's a issue of being
 "real" or not. Original works don't have this problem in the first place.

 Another problem seems to be categorizing computer music.

 The first point to understand is that a category of things that are
 different from each other yet resemble each other in some way must have
 limits, but the limits must be far enough apart to allow more than one
 specimen in the category. We would get nowhere fast if all our categories
 only had one particular in them...

 I'm sure you'll find lots of music (whether it's computer music or not),
 which will either not fit in any existing category or else will fit in
 several, the latter being more likely (everybody is influenced to a degree
 by somebody else).

 To decide whether a module is techno or not, you'll have to get a
 reasonable definition of what techno is, and not from your own head.
 Categorizing also depends on the viewpoint. I'm pretty sure few people
 would put Mozart and PM in the same category, but from the point of view of
 beating two stones together for a groovy comp, I suppose Mozart and PM
 would fall neatly into the same category (with their melody+harmony+
 12-note octave etc.).

 Some would say "any loser can learn to play/track" with an instrument or a
 piece of software.  Well, I guess so, if you don't care about what you get.

 I've played the piano for almost 10 years and tracked + sequenced for a few
 years, and even so I don't think other people think much of my music. And
 some people really are almost completely unmusical in the creative sense,
 although they enjoy listening to music (this is probably more complicated
 than what I say), so that they couldn't really learn to play any instrument
 or sing.

 _____What is REAL Music?

 As for the quality of modules, I think some of the modules I've heard blast
 many professional songs away completely *musically*. Now read carefully...
 I mean that to my mind, and in my opinion, the music itself is much better
 made and meaningful than the song on the CD ("real").

 Sound quality in terms of noise, frequency response or distortion caused by
 simplified interpolation, for instance, are a completely different issue.
 Then there are some in-between points, such as using one piano sample
 instead of a multi- sampled and velocity-to-filter-routed synth grand
 piano.

 If a musician wants an instrument to sound more or less like an acoustic
 piano, I'd prefer that he'd use such a sound, and as good a version of it
 as possible.

 At the same time, the timbres in a piece of music make it that piece, and
 large alterations in the timbres will make it sound wrong when you're used
 to some other version.

 This happened to me with Star Wars. I'd listened to a Timewarp track
 (Cincinnati Pops Orchestra w/ Eric Kunzel) of the end credits score for
 dozens of times, and when I heard the original London Symphony Orchestra
 version, I though it was wrong somehow, or at least different. It was
 definitely the same score and even the same version, but not quite the same
 after all.

 Perhaps I'd better not start talking about interpretations...

 _____Conclusion

 This post was rather a ramble, but please folks, don't bicker over this
 subject like kids. Yes, MIDs, MODs, recordings and live performances are
 all *real* music. I'll be pleased to read all challenges and flames!

 Tomi Joy - tjoy@uiah.fi


=-[Subscribing]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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=-[Closing Comments]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 Next week we should have some good Assembly '95 coverage.  Watch out!

 For questions and comments, you can contact Hornet at:

   Handle       Address                   Area
   -----------  ------------------------  -----------------------------------
   Dan Wright   dmw@inca.gate.net         Freedom CD coordinator
   Floss        norg@cyberspace.com       Music Contest 3 coordinator
   GraveDigger  gd@ftp.cdrom.com          columnist, file mover, musician
   Ior          jroth@coyote.csusm.edu    columnist
   JsNO         jsno@amigar.apana.org.au  coder
   Meriadoc     meriadoc@xs4all.nl        columnist, coder
   Popcorn      campbell@fox.nstn.ca      editor (TraxWeekly)
   Ryan Cramer  rcramer1@osf1.gmu.edu     columnist
   Snowman      r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com       organizer, editor (DemoNews), coder
   Stony        p.vanmun0@hsbos.nl        graphician
   Trixter      trixter@ftp.cdrom.com     coder, web master, file mover


..........................................................End.of.DemoNews.100.




