/\ /· \ _____ _____. _____ _____. // \ ______ .___\_ \_ | .___\_ \_ | // .\/ _ \_ | | | |____|_ _| | |____|_ | | | | |____| ______/ \_ | ______/ | | | ¯\____ \| |____| | | |____| | |____| | | | | | | | | | | |____. |· | |· | |· | |· | | |· | | |: | |: | |: | |: | | |: | | || | || | || | ||_ | | || | | | | | | | | | \ | | | | | ¯\_______/¯\_______/|____| | \_____/| |\_______/¯ cRu|________\ | | Issue #43 |· __|__ /\ ____ ____ |: \ / __/· \__\_ \___\_ \_ _. February, 2003 || / \ \__/ / / /___// | 309 Subscribers World Wide | /___/ \ / / __/_ / | | / / / / / / // | ¯\____ /___/___/ /¯\____ //____| \/ /___/ \/ --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Tale Of Contents ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Opening: Message From the Editor Letters From Our Readers Features: Lessons Learned -- An Interview With TiS's Saurin "Mysterium" Shah Review and Response -- Final Responses Reviews: Music: In Tune -- The Lineup -- Monthly Music Listings Demo: Screen Lit Vertigo -- MFX and Condense & Mandarine and Cocoon Demo Review -- "Singing in the Rain" by SquoQuo Opinion / Commentary: Editorial -- Personal Goals Inside My Mind -- How Vill Got His Groove Back Early Dawn Reflections -- Teamwork Link List: Get Somewhere in the Scene Closing: Staff and Contact Information --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Message From the Editor ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Well, it's been yet another exciting month. My company recently transferred me to an office that is much closer to home. The upside to that is that I'll likely have more time for the 'scene. Therefore, hopefully less late issues of Static Line and more improvements to SceneSpot. I am now looking for any PHP coders that might be able to help me with SceneSpot. We're using a core system that has a pretty good community and pretty good documentation. I will still be doing a huge amount of code for the site, but I would like some help if at all possible. If you think you might be of some help, send me a message. We have a very interesting interview for you this month. Novus managed to strike up a formal interview with Saurin Shah, aka Mysterium, of Trax-In-Space. Ever wonder about his side of the story? Now's your chance to find out. Until Next time. --Coplan --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Lessons Learned: An Interview With TiS's Saurin "Mysterium" Shah By: Novus ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- When the merits and problems of a website are still being debated well over a year after its formal closure, you know it left an impact. Indeed, when it comes to Trax In Space, this may be the one aspect of the site that both its supporters and detractors can agree on. Founded in 1992 by the CyberLegion Artist's Network, Trax In Space soon became the solo project of Saurin "Mysterium" Shah, a teenaged Texan tracker with big plans. From humble beginnings -- 250 megs of songs personally reviewed by Mysterium -- TiS eventually added other reviewers in 1997 and soon swelled into the largest tracker music archive in the history of the tracking scene before its collapse in 2001. With its commercial aspects and Mysterium's goal of profitability, TiS forced us all to question how many concessions to capitalism our non-commercial music scene could make -- if any -- without "selling out." Recently, Mysterium agreed to sit down and chat with me for his first major public exposure since the collapse of TiS. Our conversation covered the rise and fall of TiS, the lessons he learned, and his advice for the scene's future. He also gave me an unparalleled inside look at TiS, providing details that most former business owners would never dream of revealing. NOVUS: In 1997, did you have any idea just how big TiS was going to become? MYSTERIUM: No, but I did have grand plans -- even then. It all really starts with my take on music, and me personally as a musician. The reason I began the TiS project at all was because, back then, very few of the established artist groups would take me. I thought I was not bad, but in reality I was a terrible musician. But I wanted a place for people like me to go and to be accepted and most important of all, to be in a place where they could become better as musicians. NOVUS: At its peak, how many songs and members did TiS have? MYSTERIUM: Approximately 45,000 musicians and over 200,000 songs. NOVUS: That's... um... way past 250 megs. :) MYSTERIUM: Way past. At our peak we had six dual-processor, server class DELL machines running this. In fact, the database machine had up to 4 processors and had the XEON CPUs. Our storage capacity, after considering the multiple-RAIDS that we had, was past 300 GB. NOVUS: How quickly did TiS grow? When you added more reviewers in 1997, did the numbers start to explode, or was it a slower growth over time? MYSTERIUM: TiS's growth started off slow, but I would say around 1998 it just exploded. You see in 1998, I had achieved a threshold needed of visibility in the scene. Still not huge, but enough where each new artist put me on an exponential growth curve. NOVUS: Kind of like critical mass, then? MYSTERIUM: Yes, exactly. There is no doubt that we were the largest scene site ever. In fact, we were listed in the top 10 music sites in the world by several of the real industry watchers. NOVUS: Quite an achievement. :) MYSTERIUM: I did not do it alone, but thanks. NOVUS: I want to come back and talk about some of the day-to-day operations of TiS in a little bit, but for now I'm going to jump ahead to the end of the story. MYSTERIUM: Ok, go ahead and jump ahead, I'll follow. :) NOVUS: A lot of people already know that TiS collapsed, although very few people, if anyone, know the hows or whys. So, in your words, and take this in what ever direction you want to... just what the heck HAPPENED anyway? MYSTERIUM: Alright, it was another critical mass situation. But you have to understand the build up, so I'll give you the punch line, but you'll have to ask me about the steps leading up to it. NOVUS: Okay, I'll follow. :) MYSTERIUM: Essentially, with six-servers and the serious amount of traffic we received (we were about half the traffic sometimes for the ISP we used), it was expensive. It actually mimics the dot-com busts. Too much cash going out, not enough coming in to support the operations. NOVUS: I've gotten the feeling not a lot of people ever realized HOW expensive bandwidth can be. MYSTERIUM: Or how much six servers can be. We also had our own dedicated T-1 and spilled over into the T-3 node of our ISP. Plus none of us had outside jobs. It took 5 people working 10 hours a day to run TiS. NOVUS: So, TiS basically was your full-time job, for you and several others. MYSTERIUM: Yes. It was our dream jobs in fact. We had a love affair with TiS, the music, and everything about it and its patrons. NOVUS: And yet you had to meet reality, which meant you had to make TiS profitable. That meant taking it in a commercial direction, which is probably where the bulk of the criticism of TiS was aimed. MYSTERIUM: Yes, but the criticism never bothered me (okay, maybe sometimes). But yes, the reality. We expanded too fast. I was a novice when it came to the real-world of business. NOVUS: If you don't mind my asking, how much did it cost to keep TiS up and running per month? MYSTERIUM: Well, we had other divisions, but TiS itself... I would say approximately $25,000 per month. I mean, we had to buy insurance, health-benefits (what if one of us became sick), our pay (though believe me it was not too much), etc. I had a responsibility to all the other TiS people to make sure that I took care of them. NOVUS: Did TiS ever break even or make a profit, even for just a short time? MYSTERIUM: It never did. But being realistic, it takes an average business 5 years to just break even. We really got going in 2000, so we still had time. NOVUS: A lot of small-business owners never realize how long it can take to get profitable. TiS had several different "profit centers:" paid memberships, CD sales, t-shirts and hats, advertising... which one of those worked out the best revenue-wise? MYSTERIUM: The best had to be the Advertising and the Paid Memberships. The Paid Memberships were my best bet, but I understood our users and knew that it had to survive for 3 more years before it would take off. I also had the scene working against me in a way. Many people were pie-eyed utopians. They wanted a commerical-free scene with the benefits of a commercial industry. And since many sceners were still in college or younger and never had a real job and had to support a family or themselves, the real world had not met them yet. About 90% of my paid memberships were from people 28 yrs and older. And I will let you in on another secret, no one knows. NOVUS: Go ahead. MYSTERIUM: TuCows wanted to buy my site in 1999. They offered me my own Ferrarri with all the insurance paid plus a ridiculous salary. NOVUS: Goodness! So, what happened there? MYSTERIUM: For the scene and to make sure that it did not become "commericial," I said no. I could have been a wealthy young man, but the music and artists meant more to me. NOVUS: Wow... that would've been nice to throw at the critics who said TiS was already too commercial. I wish I'd known that at the time. :) MYSTERIUM: Well, I did not tell people, because I wanted people to genuinely appreciate the site for what it was and not because of me. Though the site was me, and I was the site; I could not differentiate for many years. Let's just say that the salary and bonus had *many* zeroes. NOVUS: Looking back with 20-20 hindsight, would you have taken that deal if it had meant TiS would last longer? MYSTERIUM: No, that part I would not have changed. I knew AOL was courting TuCows, and TiS was meant to fight the likes of Time-Warner. NOVUS: Those are two scenarios that make trackers everywhere shudder: either AOL-Time Warner or Microsoft getting involved in the scene. ;) MYSTERIUM: It was never about the money, but I should have paid closer attention to that aspect. Now, did you also know that ModPlug and Digital Music Magazine were a part of TiS? NOVUS: I knew about DMM, but MODPlug, that's news to me, and that actually gets into one of my later questions. :) MYSTERIUM: Well lets just say that on the back-end, I was trying to unite the scene -- and there was a reason behind it. But Kim (ModPlug) was free to run ModPlug that way he sought fit; I did not want TiS to influence it at all. NOVUS: I did an availability check on the domain name traxinspace.com yesterday, and noticed you're still the owner, with Kim "Mister-X" Kraft of MODPlug Central listed as the Tech Admin. Is this leftover from when TiS was still active? MYSTERIUM: Yes, when I closed TiS (which you can ask me about later), Kim still wanted to run ModPlug, so I gave him the traffic. Kim is a great guy and a real asset to the scene. NOVUS: So that's why www.traxinspace.com was pointing to his StudioKraft side project for a while? MYSTERIUM: Yes. Kim still wanted to do this full-time, so studiokraft was his way of paying the bills. I now work for Counsumer Credit Counseling Services (CCCS; www.moneymanagement.org), a non-profit that helps people out of debt. Ironic, isn't it? NOVUS: Heh, I work indirectly for a credit counseling service myself. :) MYSTERIUM: I tell you what, this is a tongue-in-cheek analogy, but we seriously felt like the "USA" and the rest of the scene was the United Nations. NOVUS: Being a red-blooded American and suspicious of the UN, I think I get that. ;) MYSTERIUM: LOL... I guess only the american readers would get that, hehehe. Basically, we had criticism from everywhere because we were so successful (in terms of visibility, traffic, and artists). NOVUS: What was it that made you look around and finally decide to pull the plug on TiS? MYSTERIUM: A few reasons. One, I needed a job; living off of nothing and being in major debt was not a life goal I wanted to continue. Secondly, I needed a break from everything. There was a whole other part to TiS that its about time I told. Thirdly, I wanted a change and a chance to sit back and rethink my goals, and I think I finally know what I want to do. You are going to have a huge article. LOL NOVUS: That's fine, Static Line set a length-record last month, and I intend to break that single-handedly. ;) MYSTERIUM: :) NOVUS: Besides there's always the magic of the Delete key. ;) MYSTERIUM: That's true. NOVUS: So, on the second point, what's the whole other part to TiS that you need to tell? MYSTERIUM: Well if I had $25,000 outgoing a month just for TiS, and we also had DMM and ModPlug, how did we pay for it? NOVUS: Ah, I knew I'd left a question dangling somewhere. I would assume loans? MYSTERIUM: In 1999, I got my parents, their friends, and the owner of the ISP to give me $1 million to get started. Too much for a kid just out of college. NOVUS: That sound you just heard was my jaw hitting the desk. MYSTERIUM: But I had some senior help from two men who were supposed to be very experienced businessmen. NOVUS: "Supposed" to be? MYSTERIUM: Well, one of them I think is alright, but the other... hmmm. NOVUS: I've met guys like that... radio is infested with 'em. ;) MYSTERIUM: While I handled the sites, the others were supposed to raise more money and manage it. In a few months, all of the money was gone, some of it still not fully accounted for. We don't know where it went. I had a blind-eye to the financial side, because 1) I was too engrossed with the site, and 2) I trusted them blindly. I was young, just out of college, why wouldn't everyone do their job properly when i did mine well? Naive. We knew that the sites could not survive off of just $1 million; we needed more so that we could reach the critical point of profitability. Now that being said, not all the business we made were wise. We could have been much more spend-thrifty than we were. NOVUS: So, it's 1999, your investment capital is gone, and the site needs thousands a month to operate. Where did the rest of the money come from? MYSTERIUM: Well in November 1999, I raised the money. In August 2000, the money was spent. For the next few months, we all worked off our own good graces while the ISP gave us the bandwidth for free. NOVUS: Okay, so it almost lasted a year. What then? MYSTERIUM: I then found out that bills were under my name -- lots of bills. I was already in debt. It was time for a job. And time to rethink everything. Not only did the sceners not support TiS as much as I had hoped (though I could have done things better I think), but I had made a mistake in picking the people to watch the money. A mistake which cost me dearly, because my dad lost a huge part of his savings (he gave it to me to show me he believed in me) and his friends took out their anger on me and my parents. I almost went into depression, but thank goodness I did not. NOVUS: I've been there, and believe me, that's not an easy hole to climb out of. MYSTERIUM: I took at as a war scar and decided to take it easy and replan life. So we have the site getting bigger and bigger and getting real industry coverage: front page of Computer Music Journal, in Keyboard Magazine, Houston Press, and more... and even on ABC News. They interviewed me. On top of this, TiS costs too much and is not getting money, and the money behind the scenes is being spent like water. I did not give up until November 2000, when everything reached a breaking point for me personally. It was too much to have to defend myself to a group of utopic sceners (of course just some, not all) and deal with the real financial problems facing me and my closest friends -- those who worked on TiS and ModPlug. They were like my family and I felt as if I had failed them. NOVUS: So, November 2000 was when you stopped active work on the site? MYSTERIUM: Yes. Then I put it on auto for a few months. NOVUS: And when was the plug pulled entirely then? MYSTERIUM: You could say September or so of 2001. I don't remember exactly when. Just one day the site went down and I let it stay down. NOVUS: I've been told you at least had some free bandwidth towards the end, due to your domain-name registrar screwing up and improperly selling off the name traxinspace.com. MYSTERIUM: No, that's not exactly right; the ISP had put in some money into TiS and they wanted and hoped that it would turn around. The domain name fiasco was crazy. Someone in Singapore or Hong Kong was waiting to buy it... until I pressed their Australian parent with a legal fight, and then they relinqueshed. NOVUS: And that's when you got the domain back. MYSTERIUM: Yes. NOVUS: What would you say was the most unfair criticism that TiS faced while it was still up-and-running? MYSTERIUM: Basically 1) Why were we so big. 2) Why were we trying to make money, didn't we know the scene was not about that. Those were the two biggest. The first one is a no-brainer, my answer -- why not? NOVUS: Nobody ever complained about how big Hornet was. ;) MYSTERIUM: That's true. The second one should become easier to answer now. But they did complain about TiS -- even compared it to Microsoft. There were "fake" sites mocking TiS like the Microshaft and other sites. I was actually quite flattered and bookmarked those pages. NOVUS: You know you're important when people feel strongly enough about you to parody you. ;) MYSTERIUM: Yes, exactly, it was a badge of honor to have parody sites. :) You see, to help musicians become better evolves naturally to allowing people with talent and the will to succeed as a musician for their livelihood. Many people in the scene did not like that; they did not want others to succeed as musicians, which I still can't figure out why they would think like that. It's almost communist -- everyone should be subject to being failures in the public world of music as much as they are. For someone to succeed and do it for a living is just wrong. But behind closed doors, they would make music for games and commericials and so on. NOVUS: There's the USA comparison again. ;) MYSTERIUM: Yes, another USA comparison, but I can't help it. I embrace those ideals and it was very evident in TiS. NOVUS: I butted heads with quite a few people in your defense over the money issue, but even I had no true idea how much the site was costing you to run. MYSTERIUM: Thanks, I needed friends everywhere I could get them. :) It's not easy being a pioneer; I just hope I have broken the ice and made it easier for those who try next. TiS was a channel for those just beginning to become better through their peers and then to take their talent and showcase it to the world. The size and visibility meant that the world watched. The TiS Charts mattered -- they really did matter, and I know it has helped some artists. NOVUS: So, to take the question in the other direction, what was the most accurate criticism of TiS? MYSTERIUM: The most accurate was that it WAS too big (not WHY was it too big), because it grew too fast. NOVUS: So, the growth rate, rather than the size itself. MYSTERIUM: Yes, the growth rate was an accurate criticism. And that sceners would not accept TiS. That was true, but again I felt that as the sceners grew older and if they had a serious forum for their music, then as they matured as people and musicians, they would not leave TiS. The paid memberships clearly showed that I was right about that. NOVUS: A common area of criticism was the quality of the reviews, and this was the topic where I was quite critical of TiS. What did you think of your reviewing staff overall? MYSTERIUM: Thats true, too. Thanks for reminding me. :) NOVUS: No prob. :) MYSTERIUM: I thought that the reviewing staff overall was representative of the peers. The paid memberships were supposed to help those serious about music get the best reviewers. After all, it was peer reviews. The critics have only themselves to look at. We gave as much guidelines as we could. In the end, it's not us writing the reviews and bringing with us our personal experiences that make each reviewer different. NOVUS: I always saw TiS's growth as the culprit behind that: with so many songs flowing in, the only way to possibly review them all was to throw a huge team of reviewers at it. But such a huge team makes quality-control nigh impossible. MYSTERIUM: Yes, though we tried and tried and tried. It's almost impossible. I had ideas about placing some limits and such that would have helped. In fact, I know some of my ideas would have worked. But I ran out of time. NOVUS: Any advice for anyone else who wants to run a scene mega-site someday? MYSTERIUM: Yes. Watch the growth rate, be very careful. Plan out how you will spend money (whether it's your own or someone else's). Be realistic -- music may be artistic and ethereal, but there is a reality also. And don't give up or listen to the criticism; trudge ahead with what you truly believe in and make your visions happen. NOVUS: When TiS went down, a lot of good music went down with it. Is there any hope at all of recovering any of those songs? MYSTERIUM: I had hoped to recover them, but there were too many issues and we could not unfortunately. The servers were too big and no longer belonged to us since we could not pay the lease. And they were located very far from us. All that combined made it very difficult to recover the songs. I wish I could have though. NOVUS: Have you ever seen the e-mail that your right-hand man Ronald "Roncli" Clifford sent to me before TiS collapsed? MYSTERIUM: Nope, RonCli and I did not talk about TiS too much afterward. It was a mutual understanding that we needed a break -- both of us. You could send me his email or paraphrase it if you can. You have piqued my interest. NOVUS: You can read it here: http://www.united-trackers.org/2000/bbs/viewpost.asp?post_id=4509 -- He gave me permission to take it public. MYSTERIUM: No prob. NOVUS: I was going to ask what you thought of it, and at the time, I thought there was a rift between the two of you based on what he said. MYSTERIUM: He did not know the entire story. NOVUS: I'd always wondered that. MYSTERIUM: I did not tell him, because it was still going on at the time and he had already sacrificed enough. I wanted him to have an easier break from it all than I had to endure. NOVUS: A lot of what he said makes a lot more sense now in the context of this interview. Do you and Ron still keep in touch? MYSTERIUM: Oh yeah! He works at CCCS also. In fact, his cube is across from mine. :) I helped him get the job there, and he is very successful there. NOVUS: Wow, that worked out then. :) MYSTERIUM: I have no problems with anyone except the "senior staff." NOVUS: The "senior staff" being the aforementioned "experienced businessmen"? MYSTERIUM: Yes, that's correct. NOVUS: So, do you still have any leftover TiS merchandise that never got sold? MYSTERIUM: Yes. Some, I kept some for keepsakes and the rest I don't know where it is. I live in a one-bedroom apartment, so I could not take too much. NOVUS: Darn, I was gonna ask for a t-shirt. ;) MYSTERIUM: Yeah, I don't know where any of that stuff is now. If I had more room I would have taken it all. NOVUS: Would you ever consider letting someone else, like Kim Kraft or Ronald Clifford, pick up the TiS banner and try to resurrect it? MYSTERIUM: Maybe. Someone asked me recently and I said no, because one day I may want to do it again -- in a few years. I have seriously been wanting to get back into the music industry and make change. With my experience (TiS) and now work success coupled with a good education, I think I may want to become a music industry analyst. I could help the scene so much like that by bringing to light the strong sites and leaders. The battle is not over for me yet. I'm just on R&R. NOVUS: Well, don't get too sidetracked away from that... to quote Dave Matthews, "Don't lose the dreams inside your head / They'll only be there 'til you're dead." Would you ever consider being an admin for one of the scene's existing sites? MYSTERIUM: Maybe, or even an editor for a scene magazine (or contributing writer). I think that being an orator is just as important as running a site. NOVUS: Well, I know Coplan's looking for writers for Static Line... ;) MYSTERIUM: Well if I hear from Coplan, then there might be another writer for Static Line. :) NOVUS: I'll pass that along. :) MYSTERIUM: No problem. I would like to say that I hope that this sheds some light for the scene -- not for a personal benefit, but for those people who come next. NOVUS: Well, if this marks your return to the scene, I imagine we'll hear quite a bit more from you in the future. MYSTERIUM: LOL... Maybe so, maybe so. Two years off is just about right. I am putting my life on track -- going for an MBA at a top ten school and then armed with that, I plan on helping the sceners more. It's in my blood. It's like the NBA commercials -- I love this stuff. NOVUS: There's a slogan... "I love this scene!" MYSTERIUM: Exactly. :) I love this scene. NOVUS: Imagine... TV commercials with Necros and Skaven, and the Second Reality demo running in the background. ;) MYSTERIUM: Exactly, that would be something to see. NOVUS: Well, I now have a mammoth task ahead of me, copying-and-pasting this all. I really should've thought this through and expanded the log-file settings in mIRC. ;) MYSTERIUM: I have the log I think, let me see... Yes, I can e-mail it to you. NOVUS: Excellent! So, on behalf of myself, Coplan, and Static Line's readers, thank you for taking the time for this. It's hard to pick this up from reading, but we've been chatting for almost 2 hours now. MYSTERIUM: You're right, two hours. My wife is telling me too now that I am wasting her day. :))) NOVUS: Sorry if your wife is mad. Just blame me. :) MYSTERIUM: I already did blame you. :) NOVUS: Heh. ;) MYSTERIUM: Thanks for giving me a forum to tell my story. I want people to understand. NOVUS: This should help with that. Take care! MYSTERIUM: Bye! --Novus --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Your View and Response Final Responses By: Coplan ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- In the previous issue of Static Line, Issue #42 (December, 2002), I asked readers to respond with their favorite demo of all time. I got a few responses, and I will post the two cleanest responses here. -=- Response from Nauthiz -=- I'll admit, my favorite demo, Paimen by Coma, is on the MindCandy DVD, but in my defense I'll claim that I thought of it before I saw it was on the DVD. When I show my friends a few demos to give them an idea of what the whole thing is about, many of them don't see why I enjoy them so much. Usually, Paimen is what convinces them that demos are art. It was the first demo I saw that made me stop and think for a few minutes, and it has done the same to a great many people I know, too. --nauthiz -=- Response from Dilvie -=- My favorite demo of all time is the 64k Paper, by Statix & Vic. When it was first presented at a party (wired '96?), people were throwing paper airplanes all over the place (I wish I had been there). It was probably the most imaginative demo to date when it was made, and puts even modern demos (64k or otherwise) to shame. If you have not witnessed this classic bit of PC demoscene history, you need to. --Dilvie -=- Conclusion -=- I'm glad that some of you responded to these two issues of this feature column. In the future, I may return and ask again for your response. I learned a lot about my readers, and I would hope to learn more. But for now, I don't have any new challenges. But feel free to continue sending me comments about your favorite demos and music. --Coplan --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- The Lineup By: Novus ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Welcome to The Lineup! Every month, I scour through the hundreds of new releases on the scene's major archive sites to find the best new music, saving you the trouble of having to download 20 instant-delete songs to find 1 that's worth keeping. I'm proud to say that right now, The Lineup can claim a 100% customer satisfaction rating! Yay for me! :D (Never mind that I've only gotten feedback from one person so far... it was positive feedback, so 1 out of 1 customers were satisfied, which is 100%. So there.) Here's what Flamingo had to say: "Well I think mostly you've done a very good job. At least 10 of the 23 were very good tracks. I also liked that you select tunes from different genres, not only trance. All the weakest tunes were from trance genre, except self.it was marvellous. Thank you for this great music pack!" You're welcome, and glad you enjoyed it, Flamingo! And if you'd like to add your feedback about the job I'm doing on The Lineup, e-mail me at vince_young@hotmail.com. Just think of it as critiquing someone's song. ;) Static Line took last month off, but The Lineup didn't, so the following are the best tunes that were released in December and January: THE BEST OF THE BEST: JANUARY "Beyond Forever" - Crenton & Slash - demostyle http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2121 THE BEST OF THE BEST: DECEMBER "Conquest Of Farakhan" - Gopher - orchestral http://www.planetheck.co.uk/~gophers/download/gh-cof.rar THE REST OF THE BEST: "All Alone Now" - Rave-N - dance http://www.cutetrancegirls.com/ctg/song.php?id=2 "An Age May Pass" - FleshDance - fantasy http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2279 "Axiapo De Presto Estrala" - Link - pop http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=1950 "Back In The Fields" - Cooth - orchestral http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2251 "Beat F" - Phred - fantasy http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2271 "Bitter Sweet Love" - Jeva - pop http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2010 "Cherry Jam" - Reed - funk http://reed.planet-d.net/tunes/cherryjm.zip "Chaos: Tohu Vavohu" - Xavt - techno http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=1986 "Clamberdown" - Reed - celtic http://reed.planet-d.net/tunes/clamberd.zip "Clear Conscience" - DJ Attack - trance http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2255 "Codswollop" - Reed - celtic http://reed.planet-d.net/tunes/codswoll.zip "Cranberry Cruise" - Reed - funk http://reed.planet-d.net/tunes/cranberr.zip "Crimson Flight" - Little Elk - fantasy http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2072 "Cyborg At War" - Pro-Xex - techno http://data.modarchive.com/C/cybatwar.it.zip "Dancing With Birds" - Crazy Man - fantasy http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2258 "Decompose" - Spoz & Copie One - jungle http://www.subwoofer.32k.org/swf-dcom.zip "Digital Nova" - Cadra - trance http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=1882 "Disco Del Copstation" - Reed - funk http://reed.planet-d.net/tunes/discodel.zip "Dots" - Ballistique - electronica http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2037 "Echo" - Link - pop http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=1954 "Elephantism" - Reed - funk http://reed.planet-d.net/tunes/elephant.zip "Ethereal" - Dronir - fantasy http://koti.mbnet.fi/dronir/WS_ETHER.IT "Falkenna" - Link - rock http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=1951 "Fallen Angel" - Morgan - dance http://data.modarchive.com/F/flnangel.xm.zip "Flight" - Butch - demostyle http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2211 "Fugue State: Iquion Part 9" - Spoz - jungle http://www.subwoofer.32k.org/swf-iqn9.zip "Generator" - Timewyrm - experimental http://www.timewyrm.de/mod/47Generator.zip "Ghettos Of Wroclaw" - Reed - funk http://reed.planet-d.net/tunes/ghettos.zip "Halitosis" - Reed - funk http://reed.planet-d.net/tunes/halitosi.zip "In Flux" - Solo - electronica ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/hellven/hv051_-_solo_-_in_flux.zip "Inside The Sun" - Aulin & Slash - trance http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2182 "Invisible Movement" - Butch - electronica http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2191 "Ivory Tower" - Ivory - orchestral http://data.modarchive.com/I/ivtower.it.zip "Kadapoé" - Iwellius - fantasy http://www.8ung.at/iwellius/Mods/kadapoe.zip "Lake Of Sand" - DJ Keys - trance http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2083 "Last Dawn" - Argh - fantasy http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2198 "Let The Dragon Fly" - Little Elk - fantasy http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2074 "Masootm" - Phred - electronica http://cgi.ethz.ch/~phkeller/modules/masootm.zip "Mystique" - Butch - electronica http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2210 "Ninety Minute Cassette" - Chisel - dance ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/artists/chisel/dtac/ninety.zip "Orbiting Saturn" - Solo - electronica ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/hellven/hv031.zip "Rain Light Sonata: Part 1" - Crazy Man - light rock http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2257 "Rez" - Zond 3 - techno http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2190 "Savage Lands" - R6k - drum'n'bass http://lysis.audio-stream.net/unbeat/musakki%5CUB-Savagelands02.zip "Sixty-Four" - Uctumi - pop http://data.modarchive.com/U/uc-sixty.xm.zip "Sky Chase" - DJ Attack - trance http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2254 "Sky Cruiser" - Butch - electronica http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2267 "Sunday Afternoon" - Argh - light rock http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2063 "The Arpegiator: Part 2" - Herr Weltschaft - trance ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/artists/herr_weltschaft/31337%2102.zip "The Classical Triplet" - Crazy Man - orchestral http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2245 "The Quest For The Ardesy" - Xcalibur - dance http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2131 "There's No Way" - DJ Attack & J. Ferreira - trance http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2253 "Track On" - Kristjan - trance http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2206 "Turquoise" - Reed - funk http://reed.planet-d.net/tunes/turquois.zip "Ulf's Vibrator" - Edzes & Loonie - pop http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=2223 "Waterfall" - Storm - dance http://www.homemusic.cc/Songs/songs.get.php?soId=1930 --Novus --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Screen Lit Vertigo Productions by MFX, Condense & Mandarine and Cocoon By: Seven ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- -=- Various ramblings: -=- * Everyone who had still some hope left that The Party would reverse its decline from a demoparty to a LAN-party can stop hoping now. There were so little contributions that the 64K intro, demo AND wild compos had to be merged in a single compo, and even then the quality was at an all-time low. I'd rather review some demos I like. * Regrettably no reviews of Planet Loop/Mad Wizards (1st at TUM) or Raw Confessions/Cocoon (1st at SOTA) either, because they do not run correctly on my Radeon :( I'm really looking forward to patches, some 3D parts of Raw Confessions run OK and they look sooo impressive... -=- "A deepness in the sky" by MFX (party-version) -=- Found at www.scene.org 2nd place at the State Of The Art democompo System requirements: 5.3 MB HD, Win9x "a gf4 or similar for full enjoyment" (My ATI 8500 shows it just fine, and that's about as powerful as a Geforce3) Test Machine: PIII 900 640MB, SB1024, Radeon 8500 LE 64MB, Win98 The Credits: Code: Droid, Uncle-X Music: Little Bitchard, Uncle-X The Demo: If you like science fiction, you might know that the title of MFX's previous demo,"A fire upon the deep", was taken from a Vernor Vinge book. "A deepness into the sky" is the name of the sequel to the book, and MFX took it as the sequel to their demo. Nonetheless, MFX denies any relation to the book. "A deepnes in the sky" is a techno-demo that actually consist of a single big effect, that gradually becomes more complex. It starts with hundreds of tumbling cubes and beams, arranged in the form of a disk with a pillar through the center. It looks a bit like a spaceship IMO, and travels through a tunnel of solid black cubes. The music is a very monotone techno track, it slowly evolves but is always dominated by the same bassline, except for a short break in the middle. Three times per second (synced to the beat), the camera viewpoint switches, together with the form of the spaceship: the cubes are replaced by bars, the disk pulsates etc. During the course of the demo, lightning-blue streaks start to appear, first in the center of the ship, later in the disk and the tunnel itself. Also the background lightens up gradually, so the darkness at the start becomes almost a single white flare near the end. There are no logos or images, and only one texture. Overall: I'm not a fan of MFX's music, it's too droning for my taste, but the visuals are really excellent. I know cubes are boring, but in large swarms, with rounded edges and lots of little flares attached, they can still be beautiful. The bad side of this eyecandy is that it requires a pretty fast videocard... The continuous evolution grabs your attention at the start, but gets predictabel near the end: 5 minutes is a bit too long for this demo IMHO. I just realize the qualities "looks good, boring music, too long" remind me of Kasparov/Elitegroup, so if you liked that one, be sure to give this one a shot. -=- "Superjam Superheroes" by (party-version) -=- Found at www.scene.org 5th place at the State Of The Art democompo System requirements: Nothing listed. 13.5 MB HD, Win9x. Should run on any reasonable machine. Test Machine: PIII 900 640MB, SB1024, Radeon 8500 LE 64MB, Win98 The Credits: Music: Med Gfx & DemoPajaing: Ak The Demo: This 3D-less cooperation between Condense & Mandarine was a refreshening break from the usual compo stuff at State Of The Art. It's very short (under 2min30, less then Cocoons demo takes to load) but very entertaining. It's about two superheroes, Wonder Wiggy Man (Med) and Moustache Boy (Ak), who apparently protect us against evildoers. But who those evildoers are, what they want and how the heroes foil their plans is left in the dark. The effects are done with Demopajaa, a demo scripting system from Moppi Productions that let you add your own effects as plugin DLLs. All effects are old and simple: a low-res plasma, image warping, blur etc, and there's not a single 3D object in sight. But that's OK, the aim of this demo is not to impress, but to amuse. The tong-in-cheek images are the best part IMHO: the wacky group logos, the shady criminals, the various images projected by the heroes cars headlight (f.e. Spiderman holding up a sign with little hearts and the wig-and-moustache logo). The heroes themselves are shown with some short movie clips. The speed of the first part of the demo is right on: you've just enough time to read and watch everything, before the next part comes up. There's a bit of a lull during the greetings, though. The syncing with the excellent jazzy soundtrack is quite good as well. Overall: You may think that Superjam Superheroes is a joke demo, with the funny content and the simple code, but that wouldn't do this demo justice. It's quite polished and everything fits together nicely. It reminds me a lot of Mutant Poulets Projects 2/Mutant Inc (a weird graphics-intensive demo about a worldwide attack of chickens, released at LTP4). The only bad point is the size/time ratio: With an MP3 soundtrack and the short movie clips, it weigth over 13 meg, which is definately on the large size for a 2.30 min demo. But if that's no concern for you (broadband rules!), make sure you check this one out. -=- "Raw Confessions" by Cocoon (beta-version) -=- Found at http://cocoon.planet-d.net/raw/!Raw_Beta.zip (divx version: http://cocoon.planet-d.net/raw/RawConfessions_Cocoon.avi, for the people with more bandwidth than 3D-power. 85 MB) 1st place at the State Of The Art democompo System requirements: 17MB HD, Windows, Geforce3 or higher Test Machine: PIII 900 640MB, SB1024, Radeon 8500 LE 64MB, Win98 The Credits: Code: Guille, Atc Gfx: Tenshu, Nytrik, Zaac, Azo, Mr Whore, Skorp Music: Syl East, Simon Robinson The Demo: My first demoparty was Wired98, whose democompo was deservedly won by Cocoon & Syndrome with the demo Shad: a very dark metal-demo full of blood, lightning, and spare body parts. Cocoon made several more demos in this dark style, but at Takeover'01 they surprized everyone with Glon243, a funny cartoon-demo with "No more blood, and nearly no violence". But their foray into comedy seems to have been only temporary: in Raw Confessions, they unleash their inner demons once again in full force. Loading the demo takes over two minutes on my P3 900. In the meantime we can admire a reel of film showing a crucified man on a destroyed background, with half-readable text fragments overlayed. This is an accurate foretaste of what is to follow: the demo starts with a damaged living doll, crucified at one end of a large tunnel which is filled with TV's flashing messages about porn and murder at subliminal speed. At the other end, there's a large syringe aimed at a giant human eye which is embedded in machinery. As you can guess from the Geforce 3 in the requirements, Raw Confession is mainly a 3D demo. Almost all scenes are very detailed, with high-resolution textures, superb models, realistic animation, and either a very dark athmosphere or an overkill of flames, lightning and flares. Some representative scenes are a circular assembly line where human torsos are mutilated with welding torches, an old man with a swaying TV connected directly into his brain, and a little girl running away in a house full of hanged people. A few scenes with an infrared colorscheme are far less detailed (f.e. a whole stair made of a single poly and texture), probably to save GPU power for the 2D twirl effect applied to them. The music is loud and fast, some trash-metal/industrial song that fits the demo very well. The lyrics (screamed by a lip-synchronized blind zombie with a metal bar through his head) are connected with the visuals, f.e "Watch your TV and shut you mouth!" Overall: If you like the shocking style, Raw Confessions is a real masterpiece. It has solid design, high-quality visuals and a soundtrack to match. The hardware requirements are high, but that's to be expected for this kind of demo. This version works also with ATI cards, unlike the party version that needed an Nvidia board. The only glitch I noticed were two grey polygons making a spike from the TV-connection to the eye of the old man (I checked with the DivX-version and it's not supposed to do that). The _Beta in the filename suggests a final version is on the way, I hope that one will shorten the loading time. The waiting every time I rewatch it is getting boring... --Seven --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Demo Review "Singing in the Rain" by SquoQuo By: The Watcher ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Found at www.pouet.net 1st place at 0a000h 2003 System Requirements: 300Mhz CPU, 128MB ram, OpenGL 1.2 compatible 3D card supporting multi-texturing, DirectX 7+ Test Machine: PIII 700Mhz, SBLive!, GeForce 256 DDR, Win98 The Credits: Code: Hopper Design: Hopper, Bugger, Yoda Music; Hopper Additional code: Toxie/AInc Exporter Help: Avalanche ASCII Logo: Elend The Demo: One of the comments on pouet.net read: "This intro is so ugly that several parts of my body started bleeding instantly..." After this very promising remark I happily downloaded the intro, run it (and it run like a charm), and few minutes later I could only come to one conclusion: whoever made that remark, he was completely right! This intro must be one of the most ugly things I ever saw. But, I have to add, also one of the most funny, and definitely most original ideas I ever saw. I wish I could have been at the party-place when this was shown, I know this would have blown me away after 48 hours without sleep. On to the actual content: when the intro starts we see a robot (if you would have a three-year-old model a robot, it would look like this) 'walking' (well, at least his legs are animated and he is moving forward, so technically he is indeed walking) through the 'rain' (if you squint your eyes hard enough, the weird stretching texture-effect could indeed be mistaken for heavy rain-showers). More important than the graphics is the sound: we can hear a synthesized, high-pitched robot-like voice singing the lyrics of the famous song 'singing in the rain'. Speech-synthesis (singing-synthesis to be more precise), even though it is not very intelligible and it needs karaoke-style subtitles to make things more comprehensible, is (as far as I know) a novelty in 64k intro's. The fact that it doesn't sound very good is actually made into a positive feature, because music and graphics fit each other perfectly in their mutual ugliness and make this intro very, very stylish. While the song goes on and on and one, we watch the robot walking through the street, in the background random objects (just as ugly as anything else in his marvelous piece of art) move across the screen as if they are blowing in the wind... and then a 'gabber'-house-part kicks in. Although I'm not sure that the intro really needs this part, it is still quite funny to watch the robot 'dance' (the dancing is actually animated a bit better than the walking). I know there are many people out there who just don't get this intro, and think it is a disgrace that it won the competition. If you are one of them, I think you should ask yourself the following question: what do you think is the scene about? Is it about creating the perfect looking incredibly boring scene-flyby style intro's that all seem to strive to look and sound the same, or is it about originality, trying new things and having fun? I think the scene could use some more groups focusing on the latter, and SquoQuo is definitely one of them. --The Watcher --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Editorial Personal Goals By: Coplan ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- There is a certain aspect about my role within the scene, I have a lot of deadlines and goals that I strive to reach each month. These personal goals help me to keep on track, every day, every month, and throughout the year. If I did not have any of these goals that I set for myself, I'd probably have to spend some time in a padded room with straight-jacket. Goals come in two forms: A goal set upon you by another person, or a goal you set for yourself. The goals that one sets for themselves is going to be a bit more realistic, a bit more reachable, and you're most likely going to be able to keep them. When it comes to your involvement in the scene, it would be best for you to set goals for yourself, and try to keep them. If someone else trys to set goals for you, negotiate. Or offer a more realistic goal. Don't complain, simply specify why you think it's unfair (if, in fact it is). But don't be afraid to set goals that are above and beyond those that may have been set upon you. Of course, setting and having goals is important in real life as well as in any of your hobbies, including the Demoscene. In relation to the scene in paticular, you have to set goals to improve your abilities as coders, artists or musicians. Back when I was still learning Impulse Tracker, I had a goal to use one new effect for each of the songs that I worked on. I learned the program inside and out and learned what effects I liked and didn't like. Eventually, the tracking program itself was no longer my obstacle. And because of the goal that I had set for myself, I no longer am limited by my inability to use the program. So one really needs to ask oneself: What do goals really do for you, as a person? Maybe that's not really the question one needs to ask. Maybe one should better ask: What don't goals do? It might be a matter of opinion, but one that is commonly shared, but goals don't harm anyone or anything. Instead, goals put into your hands what was yours all along. If you thought something was unattainable, then you weren't setting goals for yourself. If, on the other hand, you realize that your ultimate goal is just so many steps away (so many smaller goals away), then you know what goals can do for you. I will close with this statement, and that will be all: My ultimate goal is to one day write an orchestration that can be considered an opus. I want to write the ultimate demonstration of my abilities as a musician. I want to write something that is worthy of being performed by any major city orchestra, or a philharmonic. Obviously, that goal has yet to be attained. Do I feel that it is out of reach? No. But I realize that I have many smaller goals to reach before I can consider that within my immediate grasp. But the point is that even if I never reach that ultimate goal, I will certainly have reached a long way up until that point. I will have learned a lot. I will have acheived a lot. So what do I have to loose? Nothing. Everything is ultimately within my hands. And it is yours as well. --Coplan --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Inside My Mind How Vill Got His Groove Back By: Vill ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Whump, whump, whump, whump. I can reference a few things by saying whump. Most trackers will think of their first module ever; we collectively had the greatest idea of mankind: dump the bass drum every four clicks. Brilliance ensues and cheap techno is born. Further down the line of the whumps would have to be smile-inducing click tracks. There are few things on this glorious earth that I hate more than click tracks. When trying to rock a little midi piano into my song, I feel like my computer is mocking me. HaEHAEheaeHA, you foolish human, there is no possible way your analogue mind can compete with my digital perfection. Oh, you’re off, you’re so off, that’ll never break down into 128th notes. I slam my head on the keyboard to the computer’s never-ending 120bpm chuckle. However, despair not! We have an ally, we have a friend, we have the quantize tool. Oh yes, sometimes I feel like I’m married to the little “Q” tool that bumps and slides all my midi input into Perfect Time. As all the blocks of midi input stand like soldiers in a line I lean back and smile. But what’s this? Where has the personality of my track gone? Why does it sound so… plastic? The timing is blatant and obvious to a point of distraction from the song. I am a metronome, I can count the beats of my track with my entire body, and the computer has won yet again – the groove has been sucked out of my song. One day I did something a little daring; see ladies, I am a risk taker, action just emanates from me, for I neglected to quantize my small blips into perfect time. Mind you, I played the riff relatively in time, I just decided to leave the little human errors in it. The imperfections ended up adding a human element to my song. My song actually sounds real, and I think it flows just that much better. Neglecting to make everything so perfect has not only injected the groove back into my tracks, but it has also cut down on prodction time. The less anal you are with meaningless polishing, and in this case, quantizing, the eaiser you can keep your rhythm and flow going. This is just another way I am able to keep my grip on those rare fits of creativity. As always, with all the screaming goats, vile thoughts, and ear-covering, head-thrashing goodness, I hope you enjoyed being inside my mind. --Vill --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Early Dawn Reflections Teamwork By: The Watcher ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- For the first time in years, the snow is fiercely blowing against the window of my living room, and I'm gazing to the soft white world outside, a glass of Irish Mist (one of my favorite drinks) in my hand. My mind is occupied with one of the fundamental questions of life: why has no coder ever managed to do a snow-effect that looks nearly as good as the real thing? After not being too active a demo-coder for quite some time, I finally might pick up coding as a member of a demogroup somewhere in the near future. That also implies I'll probably be doing some teamwork with other demo-coders once again. Working in a team for the first time can be a pretty scary thing. The typical newbie scene coder consists of about 95% hot air, 3% talent and 2% skill, and spends a lot more time bragging about his l33t coding-skillz than doing any actual coding (I know I did). And then, suddenly, you find yourself part of a novice demogroup and, to make things worse, people actually expect you to do some work. So you work your ass off, ripping and learning from tutorials and sources, and being still in school and having quite a lot of time on your hands, you actually manage to produce something fairly good looking, and your group's entry wins a price at some demoparty. Now that the group has gained some fame, another coder is willing to join. And the other group members expect 'their coders' to produce the technical basis for the perfect demo together. Now there is a scary thought: you will have to work closely together with someone who actually understands what you are doing. What if he sees straight through your bluff and calls your code for what it is: a collection of beginners botch, covered with a layer of swank? What if he is so much better than you that you'll become totally useless, and get kicked from the group? None of that happens of course, and you soon discover two important things about working together: 1. it is a lot of fun and 2. keeps you motivated. Although being in a demogroup in itself is a strong motivator to keep your focus on coding, nothing beats another guy doing the same stuff as you are, working on the same project, being there when you need to do some rubberducking (for those of you unacquainted with the term: rubberducking is the process of comprehensively explaining a difficult problem to someone else, with the intention of finding the solution yourself). You really don't have to do pairprogramming, staring at the computer while the other guy does his thing... the knowledge that the other guy is eagerly waiting to see your new piece of code, and vice versa, is enough reason to keep going. Although the little story above is about coding, I know the same holds for musicians. Some trackers do co-productions even though they are capable of doing far better tunes working apart. Working in a team can be very inspiring, but maybe even more important is the simple fact that you don't want to let the other down. The chances of a song getting finished improve a lot if there are two individuals are working on it. I am not sure if the same holds for doing graphics though. I can very well imagine two artists working on the same picture, but I have no idea how common that is. So here is a message to all those sceners who are still struggling on their own: find someone to work with. You will be glad you did. --The Watcher --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Link List ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- irc channels: dunno (this is gfx portal like gfxzone.org) ZpiXel ........................ www.zpixel.by.ru Portals: SceneSpot (Home of Static Line).......http://www.scenespot.org CFXweb.......................................http://cfxweb.net Czech Scene................................http://www.scene.cz Danish Scene..............................http://demo-scene.dk Demoscene.org.........................http://www.demoscene.org Demo.org...................................http://www.demo.org Diskmag.de...................................http://diskmag.de Hungarian Scene........................http://www.scene-hu.com Italian Scene...........................http://run.to/la_scena ModPlug Central Resources..........http://www.castlex.com/mods Norwegian Scene........................http://www.demoscene.no Orange Juice.............................http://www.ojuice.net Planet Zeus..........................http://www.planetzeus.net Polish Scene...........................http://www.demoscena.pl Pouet.net.................................http://www.pouet.net Russian Scene..........................http://www.demoscene.ru Scene.org.................................http://www.scene.org <*> Scenergy on-line (8bit)............http://www.scenergy.natm.ru Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de Spanish Scene............................http://www.escena.org Swiss Scene..............................http://www.chscene.ch Archives: Acid2.....................................ftp://acid2.stack.nl Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de Hornet (1992-1996)........................ftp://ftp.hornet.org Scene.org..................................ftp://ftp.scene.org Scene.org Austra........................ftp://ftp.au.scene.org Scene.org Netherlands...................ftp://ftp.nl.scene.org Swiss Scene FTP...........................ftp://ftp.chscene.ch Demo Groups: 3g Design..............................http://3gdesign.cjb.net 3State...................................http://threestate.com 7 Gods.........................................http://7gods.sk Aardbei.....................................http://aardbei.com Acid Rain..............................http://surf.to/acidrain Addict..................................http://addict.scene.pl Agravedict........................http://www.agravedict.art.pl Alien Prophets.....................http://www.alienprophets.dk Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl Astral..............................http://astral.scene-hu.com Astroidea........................http://astroidea.scene-hu.com BlaBla..............................http://blabla.planet-d.net Blasphemy..............................http://www.blasphemy.dk Bomb..................................http://bomb.planet-d.net Broncs..................................http://broncs.scene.cz Byterapers.....................http://www.byterapers.scene.org Bypass.................................http://bypass.scene.org Calodox.................................http://www.calodox.org Cocoon..............................http://cocoon.planet-d.net Confine.................................http://www.confine.org Damage...................................http://come.to/damage Dc5.........................................http://www.dc5.org Delirium..............................http://delirium.scene.pl Eclipse............................http://www.eclipse-game.com Elitegroup..........................http://elitegroup.demo.org Exceed...........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~exceed Fairlight.............................http://www.fairlight.com Fobia Design...........................http://www.fd.scene.org Freestyle............................http://www.freestylas.org Fresh! Mindworks...................http://kac.poliod.hu/~fresh Future Crew..........................http://www.futurecrew.org Fuzzion.................................http://www.fuzzion.org GODS...................................http://www.idf.net/gods Halcyon...........................http://www.halcyon.scene.org Haujobb..................................http://www.haujobb.de Hellcore............................http://www.hellcore.art.pl Infuse...................................http://www.infuse.org Kilobite...............................http://kilobite.cjb.net Kolor................................http://www.kaoz.org/kolor Komplex.................................http://www.komplex.org Kooma.....................................http://www.kooma.com Mandula.........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula Maturefurk...........................http://www.maturefurk.com Monar................ftp://amber.bti.pl/pub/scene/distro/monar MOVSD....................................http://movsd.scene.cz Nextempire...........................http://www.nextempire.com Noice.....................................http://www.noice.org Orange.................................http://orange.scene.org Orion................................http://orion.planet-d.net Outbreak................................http://www.outbreak.nu Popsy Team............................http://popsyteam.rtel.fr Prone................................http://www.prone.ninja.dk Purple....................................http://www.purple.dk Rage........................................http://www.rage.nu Replay.......................http://www.shine.scene.org/replay Retro A.C...........................http://www.retroac.cjb.net Sista Vip..........................http://www.sistavip.exit.de Skytech team............................http://www.skytech.org <*> Skrju.....................................http://www.skrju.org Spinning Kids......................http://www.spinningkids.org Sunflower.......................http://sunflower.opengl.org.pl Talent.............................http://talent.eurochart.org The Black Lotus.............................http://www.tbl.org The Digital Artists Wired Nation.http://digitalartists.cjb.net The Lost Souls...............................http://www.tls.no TPOLM.....................................http://www.tpolm.com Trauma.................................http://sauna.net/trauma T-Rex.....................................http://www.t-rex.org Unik........................................http://www.unik.de Universe..........................http://universe.planet-d.net Vantage..................................http://www.vantage.ch Wipe....................................http://www.wipe-fr.org Music Labels, Music Sites: Aisth.....................................http://www.aisth.com Aural Planet........................http://www.auralplanet.com Azure...................................http://azure-music.com Blacktron Music Production...........http://www.d-zign.com/bmp BrothomStates.............http://www.katastro.fi/brothomstates Chill..........................http://www.chillproductions.com Chippendales......................http://www.sunpoint.net/~cnd Chiptune...............................http://www.chiptune.com Da Jormas................................http://www.jormas.com Fabtrax......http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/fabtrax/home.htm Fairlight Music.....................http://fairlight.scene.org Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org Fusion Music Crew.................http://members.home.nl/cyrex Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff Hellven.................................http://www.hellven.org Ignorance.............................http://www.ignorance.org Immortal Coil.............................http://www.ic.l7.net Intense...........................http://intense.ignorance.org Jecoute.................................http://jecoute.cjb.net Kosmic Free Music Foundation.............http://www.kosmic.org Lackluster.....................http://www.m3rck.net/lackluster Level-D.................................http://www.level-d.com Mah Music.............................http://come.to/mah.music Maniacs of noise...............http://home.worldonline.nl/~mon MAZ's sound homepage..................http://www.maz-sound.com Med.......................................http://www.med.fr.fm Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi Mo'playaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds Moods.............................http://www.moodymusic.de.vu/ Noise................................http://www.noisemusic.org Noerror.......................http://www.error-404.com/noerror One Touch Records......................http://otr.planet-d.net Park..................................http://park.planet-d.net pHluid..................................http://phluid.acid.org Radical Rhythms.....http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/merrelli/rr RBi Music.............................http://www.rbi-music.com Ruff Engine................http://members.xoom.com/ruff_engine SHR8M......................................http://1st.to/shr8m Sound Devotion................http://sugarbomb.x2o.net/soundev Soundstate.........................http://listen.to/soundstate Sunlikamelo-D...........http://www.error-404.com/sunlikamelo-d Suspect Records........................http://www.tande.com/sr Tequila........................http://www.defacto2.net/tequila Tempo................................http://tempomusic.cjb.net Tetris....................................http://msg.sk/tetris Theralite...........................http://theralite.avalon.hr Tokyo Dawn Records........................http://tokyodawn.org Triad's C64 music archive.............http://www.triad.c64.org UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk Wiremaniacs.........................http://www.wiremaniacs.com Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm Programming: Programming portal......................http://www.gamedev.net Programming portal.....................http://www.flipcode.com Game programming portal...............http://www.gamasutra.com 3D programming portal.................http://www.3dgamedev.com Programming portal......................http://www.exaflop.org Programming portal............http://www.programmersheaven.com Programming portal.....................http://www.freecode.com NASM (free Assembly compiler)......http://www.cryogen.com/nasm LCC (free C compiler).........http://www.remcomp.com/lcc-win32 PTC video engine.........................http://www.gaffer.org 3D engines..........http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html Documents...............http://www.neutralzone.org/home/faqsys File format collection...................http://www.wotsit.org Magazines: Amber...............................http://amber.bti.pl/di_mag Amnesia...............http://amnesia-dist.future.easyspace.com Demojournal....................http://demojournal.planet-d.net Eurochart.............................http://www.eurochart.org Heroin...................................http://www.heroin.net Hugi........................................http://www.hugi.de Music Massage......................http://www.scene.cz/massage Jurassic Pack...........................www.jurassicpack.de.vu Pain..................................http://pain.planet-d.net Scenial...........................http://www.scenial.scene.org Shine...............................http://www.shine.scene.org Static Line................http://www.scenespot.org/staticline Sunray..............................http://sunray.planet-d.net TUHB.......................................http://www.tuhb.org WildMag..................................http://www.wildmag.de Parties: Assembly (Finland).....................http://www.assembly.org Ambience (The Netherlands)..............http://www.ambience.nl Dreamhack (Sweden)....................http://www.dreamhack.org Buenzli (Switzerland)......................http://www.buenz.li Gravity (Poland)............http://www.demoscena.cp.pl/gravity Mekka-Symposium (Germany)...................http://ms.demo.org Takeover (The Netherlands).............,http://www.takeover.nl The Party (Denmark).....................http://www.theparty.dk Others: Demo secret parts....http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula/secret.txt Textmode Demo Archive.................http://tmda.planet-d.net Arf!Studios..........................http://www.arfstudios.org #coders..................................http://coderz.cjb.net Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net Doose charts...............................http://www.doose.dk Freax................................http://freax.scene-hu.com GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org #trax e-mail list............................................. .............http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/trax Underground Mine.............http://www.spinningkids.org/umine IRC Channels: Scene.........................................ircnet #thescene Programming.....................................ircnet #coders Programming....................................efnet #flipcode Graphics.........................................ircnet #pixel Music......................................irc.scene.org #trax Music.............................................ircnet #trax Scene (French)..................................ircnet #demofr Programming (French)............................ircnet #codefr Graphics (French)..............................ircnet #pixelfr Programming (German)........................ircnet #coders.ger Scene (Hungarian)............................ircnet #demoscene Programming (Hungarian)......................ircnet #coders.hu <*> Zx-spectrum scene..................................ircnet #z80 --=--=-- ----=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------ -=- Staff -=- Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org Staff Writers: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org Dilvie / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com Novus / Vince Young / vince_young@hotmail.com Psitron / Tim Soderstrom / tigerhawk@stic.net Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk Seven / Stefaan VanNieuwenhuyze/ seven7@writeme.com Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / vojtech.tryhuk@worldonline.cz Vill / Brian Frank / darkvill@yahoo.com The Watcher / Paul-Jan Pauptit / watcher@tuhb.org Tech Consultant: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@scenespot.org Static Line on the Web: http://www.scenespot.org/staticline Static Line Subscription Management: http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/static_line If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware that we will format your article to 76 columns with two columns at the beginning of each line. Please avoid foul language and high ascii characters. Contributions (Plain Text) should be e-mailed to Coplan (coplan@scenespot.org) by the last Friday of each month. New issues are released on the first Sunday of every month. See you next month! -eof---=------=--=------=--=--