ooooo a a o48888P"""78 8b. ,p q8 88a 48K 8 ,poo888ooP' ,oo88o o' q. d8b d888b 78888oooo. dP' `888' d8"' `88 `8888888q 48b 48P' `88 `""""8888 Y88 ,8' 88 d88 7 d88P d8P 8oo oo88 V88. `88o. ,o888 88 Y88b Y88. ,8D / / `5488888"' `78b. `"88888'`8o q888 `88m `Y88888P / / 8888 / / \------------------------- 88 8D --------------------------------/ / \ \---------------- o ,d888888 ----------------------------------/ \ \ August `888 888 888 \ \ 1999 888 `"' d8888oo, \ \ 888 `888' Y88P,d888b. dP' `88 70 \ \ 888 q8b 88P 8888'`888 88b,,,,, 88 Subscribers \ \ 888888 7b 88' 888' `88 88'`"""78P ---------------\ \ 88 88888b dP ,88. 88; 88, 78b, .,p --------------------\ 7888P 88888P ,8888b. a888. a888 `888888P' ascii by: ZXPKNOBB --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Table Of Contents ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Opening: Message From the Editor Letters From Our Readers Columns: In Tune -- Wayfinder's "Secret Service" Monthly Software Review -- Massiva X.044 The Zen of Tracking -- Out of Tempest Depths (with poem) Screen Lit Vertigo -- "Sonic Vertex" by d'oH (party-version) Features: Music Etiquette Inscene '99: A live report Closing: Credits --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Message From the Editor ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- We got a huge issue for you folks. Bigger than the average (in fact, our third largest to date according to file size). We got a full rack of articles for you, and then some. Rather appropriate considering this is our anniversary magazine. It's official, everyone.... WE'RE 1 YEAR OLD! Meanwhile...as I type this I'm in between homes. I'm living at a friend's house...but by the time most of you read this, I'll have moved to my new apartment in Virginia. Leesburg, Virginia for those of you who are in the states. I'm glad that this is a big issue...because revisions and formatting gave me a lot to do while I am here with nothing else to do. But I've made a keen observation (okay, not that keen) -- there aren't often many guest articles from writers outside the magazine. If you have something to say, send it along. Worst that is going to happen is that I won't print it. Nothing that revisions couldn't fix. =) Well...moveing on to the stuff you actually care about: This month's issue of Static Line. First of all, I have a new co-writer for my "In Tune" column. Everyone know's Setec...well now you get to read his views on music. First on the block is a tune by Wayfinder titled "Secret Service." Next on the review list is a review of Massiva X.044, a midi sequencer that trackers may find interesting. Check out Louis's column for more information. Dilvish is back this week with some Zen for you. Not only do you get a complete article, but included this month is a poem that many of you will enjoy. I wrote an additional article this month detailing some common views on Tracking Ettiquite, a must-read article for the newbies out there. And finally, we have one of our article barons, Seven, cranking out the steam for you with two articles. In his regular column this month, Seven reviews the work of d'oH: a demo titled "Sonic Vertex." Then, as if that isn't enough, he provides us with a live report from the Inscene '99 demo party. --Coplan --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- In Tune Wayfinder's "Secret Service" By: Coplan and Setec ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- First of all, let me reintroduce Setec. You all know him, he's written many articles for us in the past. Well, now he's my partner for 'In Tune.' Expect some very interesting columns here in the future. Needless to say, Setec and I have very different views. =P Anyhow...this month we're reviewing a song by Wayfinder titled "Secret Service." The song took 7th place at the Mekka/Symposium '99 Multi channel Music Compo. You can attain the song from the Kosmic Website, but I recommend grabbing the file from our website...as it may be easier for you to find. Oh, just a quick note before I begin. I normally try to get ahold of the artist before I review their works before a public audience. However, for reasons that prevent me from doing so, I haven't a way to contact Wayfinder. If it was a surprise to you, Wayfinder, I appologize. Meanwhile...enjoy the review. -=- Coplan -=- First of all, I must warn everyone...I am temporarily living at a friend's house (see message from the editor). This affects my review in two ways. First of all, I'm useing my friend's stereos system. It's one of these high-end Kenwood stereo's of which I don't have access to the rest of the time. The other is the fact that I don't have a real desk here, and I'm uncomfortable typeing here. This only means that it has taken me several days to complete this review. I appologize if it appears choppy. On with my review. The intro to the song struck me as odd. I don't like the phone (if that's what it is), but I do like everything from when the lion roars. The introduction is a little rough around the edges up until this point. Then in comes the brass riffs (high, low, high, low, so on). Setec didn't like this so much (from what I understand, anyhow), but I'd have to disagree. This part, though unique and unnecessary, is rather invigorating to me. Then, you got that really awesome base riff (bass guitarists like my roomate may like the riff a lot). In my opinion, the intro ends at order 7 when the boy comes in and says "It's about peace and love...." A good transition, though I question what it's transitioning to. I like the synth strings in the background at this point...they help to tie the other instruments together and still empasize the chord progression. In order 14, we get our first use of the brass samples for anything other than the baground lull. This is also the first time we can hear the quality of those samples. Frankly, I'm dissapointed in the quality. On the other hand, brass samples are very hard to use and very hard to create good samples (usually, you need about 10 samples just for that instrument). I'll give Wayfinder a lot of credit though...he uses them very well throughout the song. Then, we get the flute. I have to agree with Setec...this is the best flute sample I've ever heard (got a copy on my hard drive already). At first, the flute has a very good role...but it tends to be repetative. Don't worry, that all changes in order 17 where it gets a little more funky and rich. Unfortunately, at order 20, it falls back to the same-old riff. It rises again in order 17 (point for the good). We should see a lot more variety like this in songs -- even in dance music. There is yet another really good transition starting at order 27. It ends with that kid saying "it's about peace and love...." Once again, however, I'm not sure what it's a transition to. I would've liked to have seen some movement changes as well. Oh well, it is a dance song...gotta keep the beat up so as not to confuse people. The fadeout at the end of the song isn't so bad as one would think. Keep in mind this is a dance peice...and it is set up to be faded into another dance tune. Though slightly uneventful, it is justified. Overall, I liked the tune. Stylistically, it is unique. Yah, I agree with Setec that it can get repetative (copy and pasted a lot) but I don't think that it denies too much of the character in the song. Whether it was intended as a dance song or not...it is. It's a great tune to dance to. My roomate and I were danceing to it last night (of course we did hold a bit of a party, and had a few beers in us) and we had a lot of fun. Wayfinder will be happy to know that I have a few friends that want more of your stuff. Kudos. --Coplan -=- Setec -=- Well, this being my first review for Static Line I guess I should warn you that my reviews tend to get a little chaotic. So bear with me. Okay. "Secret Service" by Wayfinder. First thing that stroke me about this tune was the rather awkward intro. It just sounds bad to me and the general quality of the samples seemed to low compared to the rest of the track. It slowly builds into a very very nice groove, though. I have always had a thing for phased guitars and the ones used here are very nifty. These are complemented by a steady bass and a rather genuine beat (unfortunately). A little more work on the percussion might have benefitted the piece greatly. I am just not too fond of these simple bass drum to clap beats. With the obligatory open hihat in between. If you are gonna go with this you need to spice it up with at least a few upbeat snare strokes or something similar. Next comes an extremely well executed transition that brings in some nice strings, kept firmly in the background of the mix. Then, unfortunately, it all goes down when those god awful brass samples are brought to life. Damn -- those things really bite my ears. Dump those few patters though and Wayfinder introduces what is probably the nicest single flute sample I have ever heard. I would have sworn the flute lead consisted of sampled snippets from a real player. I went to find out and found a single sample. Amazing. Looking closer at the flute tracks I was stunned at how few - well, none - effects were used to accomplish such a great sound. There is a reminder for you; it is not always nescessary to flood your tracks with effects. The tune continues with some flute solos and ends up in a rather dull volume ramp down closing. Never do these unless it really fits the track. It is quite possibly the most boring and generic way to round off a tune. Experiment a little more! Don't look at the ending as just a matter of wrapping up the piece. It is a part of the tune, it needs just as much work as the main part of the tune. Unfortunately it is rare to see a very well built closing in tracked music. People tend to forget the importance of endings. Don't forget that it is the last thing the listener hears before passing judgement to your tune. So you had better make sure he gets a good impression. Surprise him, do something that was never expected. And damnit, this sort of volume slide is what we all expect. *Yawn* The tune leaves me with a sence of disappointment. It could be a great piece if a little more effort had been put into introducing a b-part that differed from the main part. It seems like it just builds into a groove and keeps on going with it, instead of venturing beyond it. Again this is about surprising the listener, doing something unexpected. This tune just has too much of a copy and paste feel to it. It is still worth a listen though. At least to dig those flute leads, they are excellent. --Setec Song Information: Title: Secret Service Author: Wayfinder Filename (zipped/unzipped): fdg-010.zip / way-ss16.it (IT 2.14) File Size (zipped/unzipped): 1.3 MB / 1.4 MB Source: http://www.kosmic.org http://pigforce.warande.net/fridge Alternate: http://ic.l7.net/statline/current.html "In Tune" is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general rating system. Coplan's and Setec's opinions are not the opinions of the Static Line Staff. If you have heard a song you would like to recommend (either your own, or another person's), We can be contacted through e-mail useing the addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you! --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Montly Software Review Massiva X.044 By: Louis Gorenfeld ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- I realize that this is a magazine focusing on trackers, but I felt this program deserved some attention. It is a MIDI sequencer, but is filled with keyboard controls and shortcuts which make it slightly faster and easier for people who do not own a MIDI-capable synthesizer. In addition, it supports AWE and SBLive! effects such as filter sweeps, EQ, and Sound- fonts. It has a number of functions you can perform on patterns. One makes it easy to draw out a simple repeating drum pattern or bassline (you set when the notes hit, and it sticks it in). Another quantizes the notes in a special way so that they sound a little more natural (groove quantize). The MIDI in support is decent, and will quantize the notes as you play them (togglable). It also features a lead-in and metronome (what doesn't?). Surpisingly, editing is pretty good: You create chunks of music of different sizes (like patterns) that you can pick up and move around easily. There does not, however, seem to be a way to fuse patterns together. You can also name parts of your song so that you can go to a pull-down menu to skip around easily. For example, you could mark the bridge of your song so that if you want to edit it, you can just skip right to it. However, even with these advantages over most sequencers, several problems make this program fall very short of its full potential. One drawback is that it is yet another piano roll styled editor, and this makes keyboard control a bit clumsy (though it is precise). At least the author made it easy to set velocities of notes: there is a chart underneath the piano roll, and all you have to do is click and drag the volume of the note you want to change. Another major problem (and the biggest I feel) is stability. When using the AWE's output, the program crashed three times in a half-hour. Not only did it crash the program, but forced a reboot. This never happens with other programs on my system. It later stopped crashing (after I stopped clicking on the event list button), but even then it corrupted some graphics in memory when I exited the program much the way certain old DirectX 1 games did. If the author fixes the bugs, this could be a great program for synth-less people who want to write webpage music and get sick of people complaining about not having ModPlugin for their platform (you know who you are!). In an hour I was able to write about a minute of a done song with just the computer keyboard. So far this is the best free MIDI program I have seen: it is easy to learn, fast to use, and precise. Now if they'd just get some of those bugs nailed. Rating : 3/4 Requirements: Windows 95, GMIDI soundcard (preferrably not FM), MIDI keyboard nice to have but not necessary. Lots of spare time. Homepage : http://home.c2i.net/jaase/massiva.htm --Louis Gorenfeld --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- The Zen of Tracking Out of Tempest Depths (with poem) By: Dilvish ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- -=- A Poem -=- Out of tempest depths and rising mists the pains of life, and death, and hell will shift sorrows take a different form amung the found the pains and anguish come around what is lost is always found for those who search it out footfalls echo through the empty halls centuries of dust have staled air and walls so many live their lives and never see the simple, quiet truth - eternity but when you knock, the doors begin to swing spirits, with your soul, begin to sing the son, once lost and dead, returns again and pain, the fated calf, again is slain those who watch and never truly see will search throughout their lives and never be the holy spirit that their spirit made to live on earth, and thrice deny the grave as mighty Peter thrice denied the Son but in the end, the heart in Peter won life could never live without an end but he who ends will soon begin again echos and reflections never cease and he who makes a choice will always be the father of that choice eternally -=- Zen -=- Too many people ignore their spiritual being. Many actually deny it's existance and live a purely temporal life. As musicians, we cannot afford to do that. Without spirit, you may attain skills - you may even express and convey emotion - but you will never, no matter how hard you try, or how long you live, reach the everlasting depths of spiritual expression. You will never escape your body and return to sing of life beyond the mortal veil. You will never share the visions and the blessings reserved for the faithfull. As you develop spiritually, you will begin to understand what our existance is about. You will begin to understand what you should really be doing with your life. You'll stop wasting it away chasing after bigger and better toys that only make you smile until you take them for granted. I must warn you, though. Spiritual development is not a lazy work. You have to actively search out and ponder great truths compiled by others over the centuries. You'll have to decide what you want to believe, and share the knowlege you find with others. The spirit worlds are not a solitary place. Without insights and feedback from other people, you may never find your way. As you begin to comprehend eternity, you will see many things you knew all along, but never understood. It's like seeing in 3D for the first time. The world around you will come to life. You will have a much deeper understanding and apreciation for your fellow man, and, the best part is, you will learn to create on a level you never before imagined. I can't begin to tell you what to study, or what to believe, but I can tell you that the more you read, the more you will understand. Do not make the mistake of assuming that any one religion has and exclusive on spiritual insights. I have learned a lot from Budhism, the Bible (particularly the ministry of Christ and his established church, as well as Isaiah and Revelations), Native American religion, Celtic religion, and, more than anything, the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which has provided me with some very profound inspiration in the area of understanding the eternities, and at the same time, reminded me that eternity might be infinately complex, but it can always be reached through the most simple means. The path to understanding is built on just a few concepts, but it's very easy to lose your wasy. Here are some things to keep in mind: The universe is built in layers from everlasting to everlasting. That means there can be nothing more important than anything else. Remove any link, and the chain is broken. Eternity is constructed much like tightly woven fabric stretching infinately in every direction. Everything depends on everything else. You can see this very clearly in studying nature, and astronomy. If we hope to succeed as a race (the human race), and excell as individuals, we should emulate this construction socially. We should bond together tightly and take advantage of each others' unique gifts. To get along enought to do that, we need to fill ourselves with the spirit of charity. Charity is a wholy selfless act. It is the purest form of love. It is everlasting patience with each other. It is a deep desire to understand and fullfill the needs of our fellow man, while enduring and forgiving trials of friendship without complaint. If we as a race can master charity, there is realistically no limit whatsoever to the great things we can accomplish together. If we could all come together that way, our mortal veil would be lifted forever. We would all share a collective knowlege and understanding never before dreamed of. Imagine the music we could make then. Music without substance would cease to be. I paint a very idealistic picture. We all know there are people out there who couldn't care less about unity or understanding. People more concerned about buying their next quarter-pounder with cheeze than understanding or striving for happiness. That doesn't mean that you as an individual can't be happy. When you fill your own heart with love, patience, and understanding, and begin to look at pain and tradgedies as great opportunity to learn and appreciate joy that much more, you will gain the strength to rise above any storm. --Dilvish --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Screen Lit Vertigo "Sonic Vertex" by d'oH (party version) By: Seven ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Found at http://popsyteam.rtel.fr/VIP 2nd place at VIP'99 System Requirements: Sure: 2MB HD, Midas-compatible soundcard, VGA-card Guessed: 8 MB RAM, any Pentium. Test Machine: PII 350 64MB SB16, Win98 in dos-mode (BOOTGUI = 0) No problems under dos or windows (dos-box). The Demo: Hmm, a 256-color demo. We don't see that very often today, and it is almost always a sign that this is the first demo of a new group. Too bad there is no info-file included (except the VIP-entryfile), so I'm only 85% sure my little theory applies here. The effects are rather simple ones: a rotozoom, fire, a particle-starfield-tunnel, a julia-fractal... The timing of the effects is OK, except for the tunnel (takes WAY too long), and the fire with particles (too short. Maybe it looks interesting because it's too short :)). And they seem to like Homer Simpson, as you can guess from the group-name and the effects: Homer on a rubber pillar, or Homer surrounded by donuts. These Homer-textures are, together with the credit-font, the only pictures, and I'm not sure if they are drawn or ripped. Points for originality: the joke in the beginning (A really ugly-colored rotating texture, with "Do you feel sick? It's our feeling too!"), and the mirrors used with the fractal. Takes far less CPU-time and does still looks good. Bad point: not everyone in the world speaks French, I thought English was standard language for messages in demos? The Music: Really typical demo-music: 70% percussion without being techno, with a catchy tune is repeated in several variations. Maybe it's a bit too repetitive, but I think it's the best part of this demo. Synchronization is very limited, and at the end the music is just cut of instead of faded out. Winamp shows that almost 50 seconds are not played, so I suspect there will be an additional part in the final version (hey, I know party-coding is awful :)). Overall: Despite its second place at VIP, it's not very interesting. Feel free to ignore it, or at least wait for the final version. For the die-hard demo fans, it's only 700 KB zipped, and it runs like charm, so go ahead and check it if you're curious. --Seven --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Music Etiquette By: Coplan ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Welcome to the demo-music scene, a place where you can freely create music to your liking useing samples of your choosing. Just be a little careful if you'd like to make and keep friends in this scene. This month, I expect many of you "newbies" to the scene to learn something new. I've seen an aweful lot of songs out there with blatent sample rips, and things like that. Here are a few pointers... CREDIT ALL SAMPLES: This one should be plain old common sense! It is with me, as it is with almost any song writer. You grab a sample from a Skaven tune, according to most of his music text, he wouldn't care so long as you credit the sampler. This is true with most trackers. The point is, if you didn't create it, it should have someone else's name written on it. You wouldn't want someone playing your song and claiming they wrote it would you? I rest my case. CREDIT SAMPLES PROPERLY: Okay, so I'm hitting the samples thing a bit hard. But it is something that is a big problem these days; people just aren't creating their own samples. To make things worse, there are so many millions of samples out there that it's difficult to keep track of them all. Chances are, the samples from the song written by another tracker may not all be entirely created by him either. Hopefully he has credited his samples properly, because if he has, you'll want to write THAT name on your samples list. For example, I have one song that I created with samples that I got from Word Macro. However, Word Macro has credited those samples to Skaven...so, I write Skaven next to the sample. On occasion, it's also acceptable to write "unknown" or "???" next to the sample. Be honest, you don't know where you got the sample...so don't credit someone who doesn't necessarily deserve the credit. COMPLETE INFORMATION OF ORIGINAL WORKS FOR REMIXES: There are several remixes of original songs out there. There's nothing wrong with that, it's an art form that is difficult to do (if you've never tried a remix, trust me on this one). However, it would be nice to see ALL the information given from the original track. Now I'm not saying you should include the dedications or the message about how he likes to play strip poker with his cats. That's useless to the listener. On all remixes, you should include the following information from the original work: The author's name (alias and real if given), e-mail address of author, the filename of the original work (compressed and expanded), your source (where you found it on the 'net), and of course the original name if you change it slightly. It is entirely unfair to not list the source and filename, because then the listener can't fairly judge if you did a good job or not. Sometimes, people remix commercial tunes. In this case, one should list the band name, the song name, the album name and if possible, the publishing company. That isn't courtesy, that's copyright law! On an unrealted note, if you remix something that is less than 7 years old, without rights (which you must purchase from the publisher) you can not legally accept money for your tune. This includes compilation CDs such as archives. There may be acceptions for non-profit organizations, but I don't know that off the top of my head, and isn't worth the research right now. Just realize that you'll have to complete the research if you would like to get money for your tune. MENTION CONTRIBUTIONS: So you jump on #trax and one of us reviews your unfinished work. When it's finished and released, I'd expect to see a short message of thanks to that person listed in the song. This may even hold true even if you didn't use any of the feedback...simply because it's time given to you. A simple mention such as "Thanks for the feedback, Susie Cream Cheese." INCLUDE CONTACT INFORMATION: Plain and simple, include your e-mail, ICQ number, AOL Instant Messenger ID...anything that will allow others to contact you. This is for your benefit. I can say that I've turned down three tunes this month simply because I don't know how to get in touch with the artist. This is in part what spawned this article. Plain and simple, if you don't include this information...it's only YOUR loss. WEBSITES -- DON'T FORGET FILE SIZE AND STYLE: Most people are good with listing the author of a given track on their websites. However, an awful lot of you forget to list the file size and the style of music it is. I'm lucky to have a fairly fast modem. But not everyone is so lucky. File takes to long to download? Most people will say "Screw it," and move on. This brings us to why you list the style. Maybe this person really likes orchestral music, and your peice is orchestral. If the file size is too large for that person to download, if you have it labeled as orchestral, he may download it at a time where he doesn't need the bandwidth (like when he sleeps). Consider it a way to let listeners know what to expect so they don't curse you in the long run. On a similar note...make sure it's labeled properly. Don't know? Ask someone else. REVIEWS -- ASK, DON'T COMMAND: I don't like to consider myself a snobby reviewer. In fact most people who I've reviewed for will agree with me. However, it is really difficult to enjoy reviewing a song that someone sent me that is well over 4 MB, and the person includes a message such as "review this...." This has happened on more than one occasion! Most of those got trashed. It's only polite to ask someone if they could review your song first...then send it. This is especially true for e-mail, because many ISPs have a size limit on what it'll accept as an attachment. To prove that I'm not being a jerk...I have reviewed a couple Obsidian Dream songs that was well over 3 MB simply because they asked before sending. SHARE YOUR WORK, AND EXPECT OTHERS TO DO THE SAME: Someone reviews a song for you, they may ask you to do the same in the future. If you have the time, I'd suggest doing so. First off, it'll help you to learn by analyzing their song. But most importantly, it'll keep the door open with welcome mat in place whenever you want another review. No time? Simple explain that you don't have time, and offer to give it a listen at a later date. LISTEN TO YOUR OWN WORK: Before you unleash it unto the world, make sure that your song fits your standards as well as standards commonly accepted by the better part of the scene. This hold true when you ask for opinions of your work. After all, we like to hear good things about our music, and why not comb through it ourselves first to increase chances of hearing good things? Well, that should cover most of the bases. If I've forgotten anything, please send me a message. For the most part, this can be common sense. Practice these techniques, and I garuntee you'll make and keep friends in the scene (barring that you don't screw up some other way -- I wouldn't recommend fire-bombing a demo party). --Coplan --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Inscene '99 A live report By: Seven ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- -=> Editors Note: The times in this report are given in military time. To convert to conventional time, subtract 12 (if greater than 12) from the first number. For example: 20:36 is the same as 8:36pm (pm because we had to subtract 12). If your value is 00:31, then the time is officially 12:31 am. I hope this clears things up a bit. On a different note, I assume Seven refers to "Murphy," the guy who created "Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." You'll see what I mean. --Coplan -=> Note from Seven: [Notes in brackets were added after the party.] FRIDAY: ------- -=- 20:36 -=- After about 1:30 hour driving, we [Baxter/Green and I, Seven] have arrived at Wilsele-Putkapelle, and thanks to the route-description with photos, we found the partyplace in no time. Upon arrival, about 40 people where already present. It's the first time Inscene is being held, there are 85 reservations, so there will probably between 100 and 150 people. [Later it turned out to be between 70 and 80] Let's hope it will be cozy :) All my equipment survived the journey, the only thing not working is my brand-new Ethernet card as I hadn't bought cable yet. I expected this to be for sale at the partyplace (from sponsors), and one of the organizers said this will be the case tomorrow, but they will make a UTP-cable for me after they finish setting up the net. Nice guys. Hmm, they are announcing something about a coupling cable they need for something, and if someone could lend it to them. The problem is that we're sitting at the back, the soundsystem is playing techno with a tunnel-effect on the bigscreen (cool but a bit boring), and behind us people are testing their speakers, so we can't really hear what they say. OK, I'm going to try finishing my 4K. -=- 21:27 -=- Hmm, I've underestimated the influence of music on coding :) But there's some improvement, first they were playing child-tunes ("Kabouter Plop" etc), now it's rock. The effects shown on the bigscreen are Winamp-plugins. I don't use it very often, so I didn't recognize it (Shame on me). Half an hour ago, someone tapped on my shoulder with the words (I quote) "Hey, assembly god, can you give me the source of a waitretrace?" I suppose he was joking :). He wanted to make a 4K, and as I can stand some competition, I gave it to him (and of course I've not much to fear from someone who doesn't know a waitretrace ). Almost everyone is either playing hard music or games. SATURDAY: --------- -=- 1:16 -=- More people have arrived, and there has already been a food run (organizers go for the food [mainly pizzas] you ordered), and the opening ceremony has happened (1 hour delayed). Not many people. A DJ is doing a live performance: house/techno, not really my style. I'm having trouble with lots of nasty, hidden bugs in my code. -=- 3:21 -=- That DJ is still performing, and one guy on the next table with large speakers is playing techno too, so I keep my headphones on, while trying to add some more stuff to my 4K. Most of the bugs seem to be dead. Baxter is browsing the net. The French-speaking guy next to me is playing a hunting game, with really cute rabbits and Bambi-style deer, you have a zoom on your gun so you can target them and see them explode. A bit sick. It's allowed to test the entries. I'll make use of that. -=- 3:34 -=- The rules for the surprise compos have been announced: for graphics and ansi, you must draw something about chickens, coca-cola & dioxins (three things Belgium is famous for :)). For the music, you have max 4 channels, max 8 samples, and 1 or 2 must be very strange. For the coding, you must make a random effect (except a fire) in 256 bytes. They also said the compo-machine had a harddisk-crash (Murphy strikes again), but it will be fixed soon. Hey! Silence! [People decreased the volume of their speakers when the orgos wanted to say something or when there was a compo, and after the event, it took some time before everyone increased the volume again] Let's try to extend the music a bit [The intro of the music in my intro :)] -=- 6:22 -=- The silence didn't last very long :-/ Music is deafening, as usual. Three guys with professional cameras and heavy spotlights are walking around, filming the room and sleeping sceners under the tables. When asked, they said they where from the VRT, one of Belgium's national television stations. Too bad they couldn't say when the program would be broadcasted. Late in the evening, I hope, and with a warning for the sensitive watchers :). When I gave my entry to the organizers for testing, it turned out that the compo-machine did not have a VESA2-compliant videocard on board, and Univbe didn't recognize the chipset (it's one of the newer 3D-cards). So they will swap the gfx-card. Murphy didn't seem to like the organizers, as they have also had a defective CD-ROM, in addition to the HD-crash. Baxter is watching avi's from the net, old wild-demos mostly. There is one very impressive from Orange. When I've finished that damn 4K, I have to check these out. [Too bad I never found them...] -=- 8:42 -=- The music-compo has started. Everyone has lowered the volume of their speakers, so the music is actually audible. Some pretty good tunes, really. The TV-crew has taken some interviews (fortunately not with me, phew), and is sitting at a table, looking very tired. I guess they aren't used to skipping a night sleep :). -=- 11:16 -=- 'Real Reality' by Never was shown on the bigscreen, and it was great! People applauded several times during the demo. The TV-crew has left. They have probably enough material for their freakshow. The ansi & ASCII competitions had each only two entries, which were rather poor. The guy at the projector made some funny remarks about "the excellent quality." Damn I'm feeling tired. But guess what? My 4K was a bit too large! But after compressing it with Jibz's Apack, I had 800 byte free! I'll have to fill the space somehow... -=- 16:32 -=- A hard-disk throwing compo has been held, with an old HD that weights 4 KG. Someone managed to throw the thing over 9 meter far. [At the prize ceremony Space (one of the main organizers) said it was 10 meter and a few cm] Corona & Andromeda (both from Green) have arrived too, and are currently working on an entry for the surprise coding compo. Too bad it's been a long time since they have worked in assembler: they were wondering why "xor ax, ax int 16" didn't work. When I said interrupts numbers are hexadecimal (16H), Andromeda asked if that made any difference :D. The organizers are making another pizza run, too bad we had bought french fries ten minutes before [Hungry & not enough patience.] The music competition has just started, but windows crashed after 10 seconds. They try again with a DOS-player. -=- 21:53 -=- Oops. I totally forgot about this report. Was busy doing other things, like eating, coding and trying to stay awake. Not easy. The film "The Matrix" was shown on the bigscreen, really cool, unless you try to concentrate on something else. The music competition had only five entries, quite logical due to the low number of attendants [at least we had a chance to listen to all tunes, what would be different if it was a party with +1000 people and 50 entries]. The 4K-intro compo should start in a few minutes, if the schedule is kept. I didn't managed to fill all space in my intro, as it kept crashing whenever I changed something. I'm glad that I'm finished with it, and I started browsing the net with my brains at zero (as if someone notices the difference :)). SUNDAY: ------- -=- 00:14 -=- The 100Kb game compo took place, with two decent entries and one 100% batch-file driven ascii-game :) Compos are already more than 3 hours delayed. Hmm, the ray-trace compo passed, and the graphics should follow in ten minutes. There's techno played on the main soundsystem. Most people are browsing the net or working, I see no gamers anymore. -=- 1:25 -=- The graphics & the 4K-intro are passed. The good news is that I'll have the first place! The bad news is that there where no other entries. Damn! I sure would have liked some competition. But hey, I'm happy it didn't crash or something. -=- 3:48 -=- There where 2 not-very good 64K-demos, and one "wild" entry, which was basically a slideshow of wild animals. It seems few people are willing to spend time in making a quality entry for a small party. After that, we became sinners, outcasts, criminals: we played Quake at a demoparty (Hey, it was at night! Nobody saw us! They were all sleeping!!). The one and only demo (Magnus Effect/Aspirine) was a Linux-demo using OpenPTC, so it is difficult to know how good it is. According to the Linux-fanatic DJefke, who is sitting behind us, demos can do more under Linux than under Windows. I don't know and I don't care, I'm going to catch some sleep. -=- 9:12 -=- Up & awake (more or less) again. There's not much to do, I suppose I have missed the surprise graphics. Lots of people are sleeping, one guy is even laying on his sleeping bag in the parking lot outside the partyplace. Feeling hungry, let's get breakfast (breakfast = anything you eat after you've been asleep, regardless what it is and of what time it is). [ The coding compo was skipped because there was a virus on the compo-machine, probably infected when the orgos booted from a submitted disk -- Murphy strikes again]. -=- 13:30 -=- Not much new, except that Baxter & I didn't know the deadline for the voting (prolly asleep when they announced it) [Indeed], and so I filled in the votesheet for nothing (yes, good old voting on paper). -=- 15:20 -=- The prize ceremony is happening, and since this is a small party, almost everyone who competed did win :). The combination of the facts that some people competed in several compos, and that every winner gets a T-shirt & some software, leads us to the conclusion that some people will get enough T-shirts for the rest of the year. (one guy got 5 T-shirts, which he put on over each other :)). For the demo-compo, they are currently trying to show it again. Ok, it's running now. I'm not gonna describe it now, as I will review it. Hmm, it has an extra part at the end that wasn't shown the first time. [It wasn't until I was at home that I realized that I can't run a linux demo. And it wouldn't be fair to describe it by memory, as my memory is not really in good shape.] -=- 16:56 -=- When the makers of Magnus Effect got on stage to collect their prizes, they had the occasion to say something. One of them said: "Thank you all for playing games and watching porn during the party, and listening to MP3's instead of creating an ass-kicking demo." I agree with their statement: winning is nice, but it's less exciting if you're the only participant. Space said they will organize Inscene again next year, and everyone cheered. After that, people started to pack up. Baxter & Corona are playing Half-Life, and there are about 25 people left at the moment. Someone thinks this is a reason to play techno REALLY loud. [When we were waiting for Corona's father to pick him up, one of the orgos asked if we wanted to help empty the remaining beer-supply. We accepted :) We talked a bit about what we thought of the party (small but very nice) and what they would do different next year (start organizing sooner and with more people, 3 men with the help of a few friends during the event is just not enough). After that, we drove home. As conclusion, I think Inscene was very good for a first-time party. The network was fast, there where no power failures (according to Appel/Ecolove, if that had happened, only half a table would have had no power, 1 table = 12 meters), and the number of entries was not that bad. If there would have been 10 times more people, making it a medium-sized party, we would have had 50 tunes, 10 4k-intros, 20 64k-intros and 10 demos, which is about average. I hope it will be bigger next year, without losing the quality it already has. I'll be there anyway! --Seven --=--=-- ----=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------ Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan.ic@rcn.com Assistant Editors: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@where.are.u.com Subliminal / Matt Friedly / sub@plazma.net Web Manager: Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan.ic@rcn.com Calvin French / frenchc@cadvision.com Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com Louis Gorenfeld / gorenfeld@vrone.net Seven / Stefaan / Stefaan.VanNieuwenhuyze@rug.ac.be Staff Writers: Acell / Jamie LeSouef / jlesouef@melbpc.org.au Darkheart / Zach Heitling / darkhart@san.rr.com Psychic Symphony / psychic@esoterica.pt 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://demo.cat.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---=------=--=------=--=--