.Start.of.DemoNews.087......................................................... ______/\___________________________ __ ________________ ___ /\_______ \____ \ ________ _ _ ______ \ / \| \ ________ | \/ ______/ / | \ _) \ \_/ \ | \ / \ \ _) \ | \______ \ / | \ \ | \ | \ / \ \ /~\ \ / \ \_____ /_______/___| /________/ \____\_____/_______/_________/________/ \_____/ |____/ | DemoNews Issue #87 - March 26, 1995 | Size : 39,475 ------------- | Subscribers : 1340 DemoNews is a weekly newsletter for the demo scene. | Last Week : 1296 It is produced by Hornet at the site ftp.cdrom.com. | Change : +44 | =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Uploads Articles NAID Concerns...............................White Noise The South African Demo Scene................Maverick Review of Trax Weekly.......................GD and Snowman Trackers for the Blind?.....................Scott Rutkowski Look Ma', No Scrollers......................Proton Interview with Leviathan....................GraveDiger Subscribing Closing =-[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. =---------------------------------------------------------------------[Demos]-= Location /demos/alpha/1995 Size Rated Description =-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------= /0-9/16tro.zip 71 *+ 16tro by Natas of Lithium (inftro) /0-9/1teddemo.zip 291 ** Eastside DemoGroup from Utah. SB. /c/chrome.zip 117 **+ Enter Chrome, by PolterGeist /f/_faces.zip 582 **+ Faces, slideshow demo by Rex Death /f/first.zip 41 *+ Some group's first intro /a/angel1.zip 1452 ****+ [1/3] Project Angel by Impact Std. /a/angel2.zip 1462 ****+ [2/3] Project Angel by Impact Std. /a/angel3.zip 976 ****+ [3/3] Project Angel by Impact Std. /a/ass_ii.zip 156 *+ Prj. assult present A-Men Juhla95 /b/bkillers.zip 64 * Bit Killers present "KeEeWl intro" /c/cheeze2.zip 202 [n/a] New demo by Cheeze Prod. GUS /c/corom.zip 9 * BBS Intro for Corom Productions /d/dimensio.zip 1049 ***+ Dimension, 5th place TP94 f.rel. /e/eintro.zip 14 * BBS Intro for Eclipse by ZigZag /i/ichiban2.zip 88 * Rex Deathstar presents BBS Intro /o/orange12.zip 571 ** Womb Womb Womb, Orange disk. GUS /p/puajjj.arj 1029 **+ Puajjj, by Ispania. /r/rtmx20.zip 667 [n/a] Italian Bad Boys with RTMX20 /t/teletro.zip 18 * Teletro BBS Intro (Fiction) /z/zeroamen.zip 280 *** Zero, from TP94. GUS or silence =--------------------------------------------------------[Demos:Non-Reviewed]-= Location /demos/alpha Size Description =-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------= /a/anarchy!.zip 153 BBS Intro Anarchy by Rex Deathstar /a/asylum!.zip 28 BBS Intro Asylum by Rex Deathstar /r/religion.zip 219 Religion, by Xtacy. GUS /r/rosetro.zip 95 ROSETro. GUS/SB/SBPro /s/sr1gwp.zip 1464 Super Reality presents a demo /k/kk_one.zip 1000 First Place at UC95? GUS/VGA /w/wintro.zip 288 Winter Intro by Pure Resistance (SB) /x/xorgasm.arj 563 Xorgasm, TP94. final release =-------------------------------------------------------------[Music:General]-= Location /demos/music Size Rated Description =-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------= /disks/1995/e/epi-tml1.zip 1255 **** [1/3] TimeLine by Epinicion /disks/1995/e/epi-tml2.zip 1260 **** [2/3] TimeLine by Epinicion /disks/1995/e/epi-tml3.zip 1226 **** [3/3] TimeLine by Epinicion /disks/1995/f/fits11.zip 770 **** Various Fire in the Soul /disks/1995/k/k_half1.zip 1381 *** [1/3] HalfBaked by KFMF /disks/1995/k/k_half2.zip 1356 *** [2/3] HalfBaked by KFMF /disks/1995/k/k_half3.zip 793 *** [3/3] HalfBaked by KFMF /disks/1995/m/maz-bob1.zip 950 ** [1/2] Bob by Mazurka /disks/1995/m/maz-bob2.zip 992 ** [2/2] Bob by Mazurka /disks/1995/m/melvin.zip 1559 ***+ Various Melvin /disks/1995/r/rain3mus.zip 1284 ** Techno RAIN music pack /disks/1995/s/sw-insmn.zip 1744 **** Various Inseminoid /disks/1995/t/t-trnsit.zip 1820 *** Various Twilight Transit /disks/1995/v/vampyra.zip 1109 ****+ Various "Vampyra" songs /songs/1995/midi/s-sm01.zip 5 *** Chinese Folk Mei Siu Nui Jin Si /songs/1995/mod/a/angelmod.zip 693 **** (Demo rip) Project Angel /songs/1995/mod/r/rds_easy.zip 97 ** Techno Easy Dream /songs/1995/mod/s/swampmix.zip 77 *+ Techno Swamp Mix /songs/1995/mtm/d/dm-mstry.zip 112 *+ Demo Music Mystery Story v0.9 /songs/1995/mtm/e/epi-help.zip 84 *** Techno Helpless Hope /songs/1995/mtm/g/gtrain.zip 250 * Industrial Gabber Train /songs/1995/s3m/b/bluebird.zip 143 ***+ Ambient Flight of..Bluebird /songs/1995/s3m/b/bluewing.zip 133 ** Ambient Blue Wings /songs/1995/s3m/b/bn-mirag.zip 209 **** Demo Music Mirage /songs/1995/s3m/c/chaos.zip 324 ** Techno 'Da fuck? /songs/1995/s3m/c/club-had.zip 52 ** Techno Club Mix /songs/1995/s3m/d/dafu.zip 482 ** Techno Chaos /songs/1995/s3m/d/ddt001.zip 100 **+ Demo-style KnockTest/WallOut /songs/1995/s3m/d/deci-had.zip 142 *** Techno Decision /songs/1995/s3m/d/desolat.zip 85 ****+ Realism Desolation /songs/1995/s3m/d/djking.zip 213 **** Techno/Dance DJ King Techno /songs/1995/s3m/d/dstp-had.zip 71 **+ House music Don't Stop /songs/1995/s3m/d/dy-eutha.zip 108 **+ Ambient Euthanasia /songs/1995/s3m/e/epi-aeur.zip 119 *** Demo-style AeuroNautik /songs/1995/s3m/f/fatal.zip 92 *** Demo-style The Fatal Song /songs/1995/s3m/f/fina-36.zip 102 **+ Ambient Job 36 /songs/1995/s3m/i/imlate.zip 159 ***+ Piano I'm Late /songs/1995/s3m/i/inmydrms.zip 243 **+ Ambient In My Dreams /songs/1995/s3m/i/iz-wtmg.zip 208 ** Remix WelcomeToMyGroove /songs/1995/s3m/j/j-curds.zip 130 * Industrial Curds and Whey /songs/1995/s3m/k/k-dust.zip 140 ***** Leviathan Dust to Dust /songs/1995/s3m/m/mechattk.zip 173 *** Techno MechaAttack /songs/1995/s3m/m/mystical.zip 269 * Trance Mystical Shit /songs/1995/s3m/n/nightran.zip 101 ***+ Jazz Night Train Jazz /songs/1995/s3m/n/nin_love.zip 940 * Techno Get Down,Make Love /songs/1995/s3m/o/office.zip 157 *** Demo Music Office Fever /songs/1995/s3m/p/peac-had.zip 138 *+ Techno Peace and Loveism /songs/1995/s3m/p/profound.zip 122 ***+ Industrial Profound /songs/1995/s3m/r/realize2.zip 208 ****+ Realism Realization II /songs/1995/s3m/s/sur-acd.zip 104 **+ Techno [N/A] /songs/1995/s3m/s/sky_armx.zip 732 **+ Techno Armageddon Remix /songs/1995/xm/a/aby_wild.zip 107 **+ Techno Wild ABY /songs/1995/xm/b/b13-0009.zip 189 **** Techno/Rave Nimbus /songs/1995/xm/b/b13-0010.zip 208 *+ Industrial Influx /songs/1995/xm/b/b13-0011.zip 650 ** House music This Is My Time /songs/1995/xm/b/blind.zip 124 *** Ambient/Tranc Blind /songs/1995/xm/c/c_pak03.zip 369 *+ Techno/House Flare /songs/1995/xm/m/mld-tday.zip 151 ****+ New Age Tuesday /songs/1995/xm/r/raverain.zip 390 ** Dance Rainy Day re-mix /songs/1995/xm/p/perturbs.zip 81 ***+ Ambient Perturbations =--------------------------------------------------------[Music:Non-Reviewed]-= Location /demos/music Size Description =-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------= /programs/players/at_0300.zip 100 AweTrack (for AWE32) by Thor /programs/players/dmp400.zip 326 Dual Module Player v4.0 /programs/players/xtcp_040.arj 46 XTC-Play (GUS-only) (beta) /programs/samplers/cool134b.zip 702 Sample editor Cool Edit v1.34b =----------------------------------------------------------------------[Code]-= Location /demos/code Size Description =-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---- ----------------------------= /sound/soundss3.zip 384 Sound System Source Release 3 =------------------------------------------------------------------[Graphics]-= Location /demos/graphics Size Description =-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------= /pictures/mk-art_c.gif 398 Picture by Mr. Krinkle /pictures/mk-srp_l.gif 392 Picture by Mr. Krinkle =-------------------------------------------------------------[Miscellaneous]-= Location /demos Size Description =-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------= /parties/misc/fallas95.zip 141 Fallas Party 95 Invitation SB/GUS /parties/misc/g95invit.zip 409 The Gathering 95 Invitation /parties/tp/1994/tp4_rep.arj 1457 [1/2] The Party 1994 report, KLF /parties/tp/1994/tp4_rep.a01 163 [2/2] The Party 1994 report, KLF =-[Articles]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =----------------------------------------------[NAID Concerns]--[White Noise]-= As I walked into the CEGEP where in only two weeks from now a crowd of computer fanatics is going to shower down, I couldn't help but be totally excited by what I was going to do. I was going to meet the minds behind it all. Known as Veritech Knight, Khan and a few others, I had no idea what they could look like. But why was I going to meet them? Pure curiosity, I guess. Sitting down with Spelljammer, old friend of mine, I eagerly await their arrival. When I do meet them, I am quite surprised. Khan pulls up a chair in front of the bench where I am sitting, right next to the ADEPT, the computer technique students association, and looks at me. With his curly puffy head, he reminded me of "Higher Learning"'s black guru, played by Ice Cube. The same calm, stern look. The same passion behind his eyes. He then starts telling me about the whole NAID project and his eyes light up: sponsors (Subway, Techno-TV, EBSCO, Advanced Gravis), the stereo (borrowed to the provincial student shows organization - it should rock us out of our socks), the band (Public Enema, acid-jazz band)... and the lack of sold tickets. This is where the story sound less glamorous. The showdown's in a little more than 2 weeks, and almost no one bought tickets! Probably most of you intend to buy them at the door, but since nobody reserved their tickets, the guys are left with not much to show the CEGEP's administration as planned entries. In short, they don't have much weight cause they lack reservations. Boys and girls out there, at least let them KNOW you're coming! Either by mailing naid@ebsco.com or by buying your tickets by mail. The guys are feeling very lonely right now, and they have no clue how their party will turn out. 1100 places surely ain't a small number, and they intend to make it grand. On another note, I grabbed a copy of Concordia University's student paper, and what did I find? A critic of Public Enema, the band that accepted to play at NAID! The review was raving on and on about originality and great sound. A must-see, they claim. It's up to you to find out. NAID - The Apraxia Factor 95 is just at hand. ARE YOU READY? =----------------------------------[The South African Demo Scene]--[Maverick]-= Why there's more to the SA scene than looking out of Denthor's bedroom window. Yeah, yeah you all watched CNN last year and saw the amazing transition from the cruel, evil apartheid regime to the free, democratic and _new_ South Africa. So far, so not-so-bad. I can't say good yet because by the time I've typed this article, 15 cars will have been stolen at gunpoint within a 40km radius of where I sit. Yup, crime is a problem, and I'm a fast typist. So is redistribution of wealth. Taxes are higher than Sweden (sorry to offend those Finnish readers!) but without the services. But then again in winter the sun actually still COMES UP! So we have our problems but on the whole give me Africa any day...... There's the context. Now the message. The demo scene is _highly_ active and thriving in SA. Just to give you some idea of what's happened and what's happening: - Dexterity 94. SA's equivalent of Assembly. Big screen, big sound system, chaotic organization but a great time had by all visitors and entrants! Entries not really up to the standard of Europe's yet (do people code in the USA? Oh yes, Tran), but getting there mighty fast. - Explosive 94. Small demo party held at my place. Bit of a tight squeeze but _excellent_ 4kb, 64kb, graphics and music entries. This was an interesting party because there were no prizes yet all of the groups really pulled out the stops to get their entries in. Also a lot of the scene guys (no gals yet) were able to meet each other and exchange ideas and stuff. - Dexterity II. Coming soon (July at last check). Promises to be bigger, better and louder than ever before. It will be held over two days in a Johannesburg community center with all the usual PC compos and also hopefully the more esoteric compos (such as modem-throwing) and some ray-traced movies. Buy your flight ticket now!!!! - Association of SA demo groups formed. This organization has really taken off. We have managed to get an ftp site, sponsor support locally, _possibly_ a local spot at SA's equivalent of Comdex, an ad-magazine and a couple of get togethers. If you want SA distribution sites for music, demos, groups etc. these are the guys to get hold of. Well, more precisely me. My handle and e-mail are at the end. What's different about the SA demo scene? Way down here at the bottom of Africa things can get a little depressing. The only distributors of Advanced Gravis are a bunch of idiots in Pretoria who provide no support and who pulled out of last year's competition with MINUTES to go to the event. (By the way, it IS a conspiracy that no-one has sent Denthor a GUS. I bought mine in London on a business trip as I couldn't afford to pay for one locally - get the picture yet?) Sound Blasters are expensive by rest-of-the-world standards and decent PCs are just out of the reach of most guys. Yet, SA programmers continue to pump out loads of good code using almost nothing in some cases. Others like Denthor teach the rest of the world how its all done with his tutors. Some guys are actively writing games (smart), others are writing demos (cool but not quite as smart), and I think I must be the only guy in the African continent to have paid for my C compilers! And all of this in just over a year and a half, really - quite a meteoric sort of rise. I would be interested to hear of similar scenes in previously isolated countries such as those in the former Eastern Block. So we don't have the experience but we do have the talent. Internet access is on the rise here too -which means I spend too much time on IRC (Hi to all madmen on #trax and #coders - you know who you are!) but also that we have access to all cool demos as they are released on HORNET (that really excellent ftp site - plug, plug). So all the local scene knows and worships guys like Psi, Purple Motion, all of EMF, the guys from Nooon, Prime, Skaven, Necros, the Imphobia Authors, Majic 12, and everyone else because we have seen and heard all of their work. This turned out to be a problem at the first Dexterity because _too_ many of the demos shown there had ideas that came from international demos (If I see another tunnel I'll throw up!). However at the next party, most of the effects were original. Look out for some good SA stuff trickling onto the international scene in the next few months. The demo scene is followed by more people here than you might think. When that masterpiece from Assembly 95 hits the ftp sites, spare a thought for all of us down here eagerly waiting for several things: 1. Have FC released anything at Assembly 95? 2. Did it win? 3. If no to 1. above, will they release anything ever again? 4. Will I ever have enough money to fly to Helsinki for a weekend? 5. Will .FLIs be banned in demos? Have a better one. (Hey Grant, drop me a line - we can still be friends ;-) ) Maverick/Serenity - paul@systems.co.za OR paulf@is.co.za phone : +27 - 11 - 882-3991 (GMT + 2 hours) work : +27 - 11 - 789-1808 (GMT + 1 hour) mobile: +27 - 11 SA demo ftp site : sademo.systems.co.za _Don't_ flame me because of problems here. Windows NT does NOT conform to the ftp RFC. Any complaints about the quality of this site should be directed to bgates@microsoft.com :-) =--------------------------[Review of Trax Weekly]--[GraveDigger and Snowman]-= For approximately three years, the demo scene had a newsletter entitled "DemoNews." Starting out as a text file of just under 2k and maxing out at 112k, it grew proportionally to the demo scene itself. It had listings of uploads at the demo FTP site, interviews with people in the scene, and other articles revolving around the world-wide PC demo scene. However, this newsletter was discontinued somewhere in the late days of February 1995. The reason: it was a time for change. During HORNET's month-long hiatus, the IRC #trax community gave birth to a new weekly newsletter, entitled "Trax Weekly." Headed by Populus and Nemesis, the latter having disappeared mysteriously before the first newsletter issue could be released, the newsletter was loaded with informative articles, interviews, group news, album reviews a-la Karl, and other interesting tidbits such as IRC logs of interesting people. :) As the first issue of Trax Weekly began to cascade past my screen, the large "Trax Weekly" ASCII (done by White Wizard) caught my eye immediately. Here was a newsletter that would not let itself go unnoticed. There have been three releases to date, and every issue has featured an interview, if not two. The third issue had a really nice interview of the new tracker-band, FM (Five Musicians). Unfortunately, Purple Motion was not present for the interview, but the other four musicians provided some insight into their new and unique union of talent. The size of Trax Weekly continues to increase, starting at 40k, then 43k, and maxing out at 64k this week. Part of the reason for this large filesize is the rather large ASCII logos and article headers that are included in the newsletter. Perhaps this is a bit too flashy for such a new production, but one form of art deserves another. But, as the Chinese yin-yang theory would have it, the good must co-exist with the bad. Unfortunately, Trax Weekly has been found to have several spelling errors each week, and although the newsletter's editor is French- Canadian with English being a second language, a simple spell-check each week would result in a more perfected newsletter. Also, one thing that bothered us about Trax Weekly issue 3 was that three article sections were incomplete. At first, the release of the newsletter was delayed in order to fill those spots (with expected articles from three different people), but eventually the wait was ended and the newsletter released. We would think that an article section without any articles should simply not be printed instead of putting the article header and including the line: "Unfortunately, (they) haven't given me any articles or contributions." Another problem with the newsletter is that we find it difficult to read. The paragraphs in some articles could fill my entire 80x25 text display, and then some. This results in difficult-to-read articles. It would result in a better appearance, in my opinion, to subdivide large paragraphs into bite-size chunks. One very nice Trax-Weekly feature that HORNET's newsletter is starting to use is the "Introduction" section. This part of the newsletter is sort of an overview of the entire issue, highlighting points about each article. After we read the first issue of Trax Weekly, we definitely decided this was something we wanted to do as well. And it became so. The staff has gotten off to a good start, and it is hoped that their newsletter will continue to be produced. They are fortunate to have such a large and dedicated following. This is a strong point that should help them to continue functioning at and above par level (and hopefully to expand in the future). Every new production (such as Trax Weekly) has a few bugs to be worked out before a routine settles in, so we make our few criticisms very lightly. :) Just for the record, Trax Weekly and DemoNews are not in competition. Rather, Trax Weekly focuses purely on the musical aspect of the demo scene. DemoNews offers broader coverage at the cost of less music-related articles. The editors of the two newsletters (Snowman from DemoNews and Populus from Trax Weekly) are on very good terms and frequently exchange ideas and humor. Trax Weekly has earned a spot on the DemoNews mailing list server. Therefore, with Trax Weekly and DemoNews, it is evident that the demo scene shows no signs of slowing down any time in the near future. From the staff at HORNET, we send our thanks and appreciation to all those helping with the Trax Weekly newsletter. =--------------------------------[Trackers for the Blind?]--[Scott Rutkowski]-= Hi, my name is Scott and I am a visually impaired user. My question is, I am heavily in to .mods and wonder if it's possible to use a tracker to compose .xm files? The problem is, all the trackers seem to be very graphical and are not text based. Is it possible somehow to have some kind of program where you can use your left and right arrows and when you move them, you will hear the notes that the cursor moves over? I have a similar thing on my lap top which was specially made for the blind. Do any of the trackers allow you to play notes on the computer keyboard to enter them in and you will hear each note as you play it. Just curious about this because I am tired of listening to other .mods and .s3m files and would like to make my own. If anyone can help on the above request, please mail to scottr@ion.apana.org.au Thanks a lot. =------------------------------------------[Look Ma', No Scrollers]--[Proton]-= Nobody likes a complainer, including myself, but we all have our moments, and this is apparently mine. I've been interested in the demo world for a few years now, downloading any new demos I could find, making serious attempts to understand and follow the progress of the demo scene simply because I liked the direction the scene was going, but after nearly 2 years of demo hunting, I've got one complaint about something that nearly ALL demo's do, which I personally find redundant, boring, tiresome, and even a bit annoying. The ridiculous text scrolling, speaking of meaningless nonsense, boasting about how excellent the particular group is, come on! With the release of Second Reality, Future crew set a whole new standard for the demo world, and from what I've seen, nobody even comes close to equaling their level of production skill. The way they leave all that greeting crap for the end is simply marvelous! Sure, I like to hear what the authors of a particular demo have to say, but nine times out of ten, their petty babble simple destroys the graphical wizardry that they seem to have gone to such lengths to create. Perhaps some groups should pay a little more attention to composition than flattering themselves by boasting about how great their vector graphics are. I feel there are a lot of potential masterpieces around, but they all, in my opinion, get shot down by this plague of meaningless text. Thanks for listening, and I hope all who read this will take accept this as constructive criticism, not a blatant slam on the demo scene, because I really think there are a lot of potentially excellent demos around... Thanks for listening. Proton - proton@firefly.prairienet.org =-----------------------------------[Interview with Leviathan]--[GraveDigger]-= Leviathan is a musician in Renaissance and the Kosmic Free Music Foundation. He lives in Illinois, "a bit south of Chicago." He's 15 years old and in 10th grade. In real life, he goes by the name of Andy Carlson. He is a musician on and off the computer, boasting a collection of instruments and equipment that would make some garage bands jealous. In late January, he joined Kosmic and released his first tune under that group, titled "Dust to Dust." It is a realistic-style module, similar to the styles of guitarists Eric Johnson and Joe Satriani. Requiring 20 hours of work, the song could just as well be another song on the radio, which can't be said about most tracked music available today. It's smoothness and realistic sounding instruments make it one of the highest-quality products to ever come out of Scream Tracker. In Trax Weekly Issue #1, "Dust to Dust" ranked first in a reader's poll of new music, beating out second place by far. The majority of this interview took place on IRC on 02-28-95, between 12 and 1 am. Thus, both of us were surrendering much-needed sleep for school the next morning in order to hold this interview. The interview was originally intended for DemoNews issue 86, but due to the fact that 86 was the last issue, it was to be kept small and to-the-point. Thus, we present 01's first interview. LV = Leviathan [Renaissance/Kosmic] d2@mcs.com GD = GraveDigger [Defiance/HORNET/DDT] digger@freeside.scsd.k12.ny.us ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- GD: How's it goin? LV: Pretty good.. GD: First, give us a brief description of yourself.. LV: Hmm.. Tough question.. GD: Well, I know you play drums.. LV: I'd find it hard to live without music.. I play guitar, drums, and bass, as well as a bit of keyboard.. I've been tracking for 15 months, but I had experience with music a while before that.. GD: Have you ever taken lessons on any of the instruments that you play? LV: Well, not directly.. I played trumpet in band for 4 years, and learned basic theory like scales through there, but nothing extremely complicated.. I taught myself on the rest of the instruments. GD: Were you influenced by other musical family members? LV: My dad has played guitar for quite awhile.. The guitars, amp, and recording stuff are all his.. The bass and drums are mine.. GD: What do you have in the way of "recording stuff" that you use? LV: Nothing too fancy.. A Logitech Alex effects processor, and a Tascam Portastudio 8-track, plus a Bose power amp, and an extra 8-channel mixer.. GD: "Nothing too fancy"?! Might not be fancy to you, but I'd kill for some of that equipment! LV: Heheh.. Well, I'd always love to have access to some DAT equipment.. ;) GD: Yes, DAT equipment would be nice indeed. :) What kinds of soundcards do you have? LV: I have a GUS and a PAS16.. GD: How and when did you get involved with the Demogroup, Renaissance? LV: Well, I suppose I'll have to track my history in the groups I've been in to answer that question.. I started out as "Necromancer" in the ansi group "Visual Insanity," releasing 3 .669s and 3 .MTM's through them. While it wasn't anything huge, it was my first true group experience, and gave me something to start with.. GD: I think a lot of people miss the fact that they should start out small, and work their way up.. LV: Yeah, I see a lot of people on #trax getting discouraged that they're not in a big group at first.. People need to take the time to get good.. Maybe 3 months after I joined Vi, I started irc'ing.. GD: Ahh, IRC. The evil of all evils. :) LV: After Vi split up, I was in Union for a short period of time, but had really lost interest in the ansi scene.. So, I decided to start a demo group with my good friend Nemesis.. We had a gfx artist, had plans, had a name (Mist), and were looking through coders.. But that was all stopped when Nemesis came to me with news that Ren was looking to be all music, and he and I were accepted into Ren.. And then, a few days ago, I also joined up with Kosmic.. GD: When was it that you were accepted into Renaissance? LV: Hmm.. I can't remember exactly, since we kept it quiet for awhile. ;) Somewhere around August of 1994. GD: And now you're in Kosmic.. and still working with Ren? LV: Correct.. I have big plans in both groups.. ;) GD: Glad to hear that! I'm sure many will be looking forward to what you have planned. It's getting closer to April 15th. Are you going to be at NAID? LV: Unfortunately, I can't make it to NAID, but will be competing, doing a dual-tune with Nemesis. GD: Ahh, good luck to you, then. LV: Thanks.. It's somewhat difficult to get to Canada when you can't drive.. GD: It must be. :) I've heard you mention before that a composer should get the main idea of a song written first, and write the intro last. Is this a method you regularly use when composing? LV: I've started using it lately.. Before, I'd write the intro, and then continue on.. It's much better to write the intro last, because the intro should be a simple reflection of the song.. The song shouldn't reflect the intro.. When you write the intro first, you limit yourself. GD: That's an interesting way of explaining it. I've never thought that way before.. LV: It's just a personal belief.. ;) GD: Is there any one tracker program that you like best? LV: I like ScreamTracker 3 best.. I would really love it if ST3 had the features that FT2 has, but I really don't like FT2's interface.. GD: Which features about Ft2 would you like to see in ST3? LV: Definitely the whole instrument sections (volume & panning envelopes, split keyboard), ping-pong looping, and a good sampler.. Also, MIDI input.. GD: That brings me to another question. With all of those instruments available to you, do you record a lot of your own samples? LV: I'm getting into sampling a lot more lately.. "Wish" had about half original samples.. I sample a lot from my Roland E-15, and just started sampling guitars and basses.. GD: What software do you use for recording samples? LV: FT2.. Drums are by far the most difficult to sample, though.. GD: Why is that? LV: Drums are extremely hard to mike correctly to begin with. It's very hard to get the proper sound, especially since striking a drum pushes air towards the mic. GD: Shortly after joining Kosmic, you released your first tune under Kosmic, "Dust to Dust." It was, in my opinion, a very welcomed change to the world of tracked music. Where did you get the influence for that song? LV: I had a lot of influences both inside and outside the tracking "scene" for that one.. "Realization" (by Necros) is an obvious comparison.. It's hard to narrow down the influences.. I suppose that a lot of things sort of influenced me to stay away from writing stuff of the demo music-genre, and so I came up with "Dust to Dust".. Also, "Forever" by Basehead started out as an influence, particularly with the acoustic guitar.. I had the electric piano in and everything.. But the song took on a lot of changes.. I took the acoustic and made it electric, added the hammonds.. Really only the beat and chords stayed.. GD: I saw your note in the instrument list for "Dust to Dust" about your never wanting to be forced to write demo-music again.. LV: Yeah, I will write demo music by choice, but when I wrote earlier stuff, I felt pressured to make more synth-type stuff to make it more appealing. But that's just plain stupid; I mean, it's stupid to change what you intended just to make it more appealing. GD: Definitely agreed on that one. :) LV: So I really just let "Wish" and "Dust to Dust" flow, and did as I wanted, and I definitely will continue to do it that way.. GD: "Dust to Dust" differs, however, from PM's "Pore" and Zodiac's "Reflector" (competition songs from Therapy'94) in that it just uses single-note guitar samples, and not sampled guitar riffs.. I personally think it is more creative to make a song from the bare minimums, as you have done, than to patch in guitar patterns. LV: Right.. I'm really not against or for sampled guitar riffs, though.. I just feel that a single guitar sample gives you a lot more freedom rather than a sampled riff.. It's just like drum loops vs. sequenced drums.. You have a lot more freedom with just basic samples. GD: Exactly.. good example.. Who are your musical influences, either through radio, or a soundcard? LV: I'll start with non-trackers.. Rush, Smashing Pumpkins, Live, Pearl Jam, Yanni, Nin, Walt Mink, Swervedriver, Dave Matthews.. Tracked: Necros, Basehead, Skaven.. Hmm.. it's hard to think.. I've just drawn from so many different styles and sources.. I really got a lot of the chord theory I use from watching what Nec does.. He pioneered chord layering for us.. ;) GD: Necros has definitely been a positive influence on the scene.. You've mentioned to me that you have big plans for the future. What lies ahead for Leviathan? LV: Well, as I said before, I'm doing a tune for NAID with Nemesis, and also hope to do a tune for MC3.. I've got a tune on the Hardcode musicdisk (whenever it comes out), and will be continuing to release single modules through Renaissance and Kosmic.. GD: How do you decide which group to release which song under? LV: It'll just be arbitrarily.. I'm also working on game music for Hyper Image Productions.. The music is for a Jaguar game called Hover Hunter.. I'm hoping to get some good MIDI equipment, and put a CD together within 2 or 3 years.. That's a long-term project, though.. ;) GD: That's great, hope it works out for you. Are there any greets that you'd like to send out? LV: Just the usual, to Usul, who started me out a while back, to Guitar for getting me a GUS and just bein' cool, and to Renaissance and Kosmic.. I'd do individual greets, but I always forget to greet people, so I won't bother trying.. ;) GD: Do you have anything to add before we close? LV: Just quick thanks to everyone who have given me feedback and advice.. And advice to all aspiring trackers out there: don't be afraid to ask for help, and don't be afraid to start at the bottom.. =-[Subscribing]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= _____How to subscribe to DemoNews #1 E-mail to listserver@unseen.aztec.co.za (any subject line will do) #2 On the first line in the body of the mail, write: subscribe demuan-list FirstName LastName Examples: subscribe demuan-list Christopher Mann subscribe demuan-list Snowman subscribe demuan-list r3cgm@dax.cc.uakron.edu <---- WRONG!! The listserver will automatically take the return address of your mail. That address is where newsletters will be sent. You can not specify an alternate address. #3 Send it _____How to UNsubscribe to DemoNews #1 E-mail to listserver@unseen.aztec.co.za (any subject line will do) #2 On the first line in the body of the mail, write: unsubscribe demuan-list Do not specify any address or name when you unsubscribe. 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