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Demo News 087
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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
|
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<CONTENTS>
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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? <drumroll> 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..
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