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\) \ . ._____________________. _/ \ : . | :::::: .::: | \_ oO _ \ | . | :: :: | `~ \ \ |_____ : | :::::: :: | _____________________\____| / | | . :: :: | __\__ ____ \ _ \ | / | | / :::::: :: | | | / / _| _\ / | `/--------------------' | | \ \_ \__ | _ \___________|_________/___ ___ __ _ _ : | \___ / | |___/__________|________/__ ___ _ __ _ _ . |___| \ /___|___| | / ___.______ / / ____ |______/_______ ___ __ _ _ _ . /___/ /_____________| /______| / : / ____/ ____/ ____/ |_ / / : / | /\ / ___/ ___/ / __/_ / ::::| / | \ | \ \__ \_ _/:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: | |____\______/\_____/ |___/_____\ | |___|asciidoneby:WW/RZM\___| |___| Issue Number: #31 | | : | Release Date: 10/19/1995 | : t r a x w e e k l y . : Current Subscribers: 382 | . the music scene newsletter | : . . /-[Introduction]------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ _ _________________ /_\ \__ / (stoney askee) ____ ______ \____ ____/____________ ______ _/ \ _/ \ \ww_/ \ _/ ________/_/ _ \ __/ \/ \ \/ \/ \ / | \__ ___ ___ _______ _/ \\ \ \\ \\ | \\/ | \_ ___ __ __ ____ /___________\__\_______\________\____|______\____________\ \__\ "Bonjour, et bienvenue!" Hello, and welcome to TraxWeekly #31! This week, Trixter of Hornet brings to light a few important topics we've failed to discuss in the past, especially where the origins of the music scene are concerned. Currently, we are searching for a columnist that is involved in and can write about the Amiga. If you or someone else can fill that position, please contact us. Faces in the Crowd features interviews with Luv Kohli, Vicious, and Fred. Joining FITC temporarily this week helping with interviews is Dynamic Harmony. As requested by a number of people, TraxWeekly will not publish any more articles concerning conficts between people, groups, on IRC, etc. As pointed out, "...TraxWeekly is a music mag." There is no need to publicly air arguments and comments that should be best left to private email. Please be patient with us. The new staff here at TraxWeekly is in the process of restructuring the newsletter for YOUR benefit. Suggestions and the like are welcome. Please encourage your friends to subscribe to TraxWeekly! This little newsletter is developing nicely, but we would *love* to see the kind of spread Hornet's other excellent newsletter, DemoNews gets. =) Psibelius [TW] gwie@owl.csusm.edu /-[Contents]---------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ ________ _________________________________________________________________ / ____/_/ __/ \ __/ / _____/ \ __/ __/ ___/_ < \____\ \ \\ \ \\____ __/ __/_\ \ \\____ \_____ \__ \ \ \ \\ \ \ww\ \\ \\ \ \ \ \ \_ _\________\________\\___\____\ \_____\\_______\\___\____\ \_____\_______\ Letters and Feedback Letter to the Editor.................................Trixter Letter to the Editor.................................Nestor Matas General Articles 1. Demo Music or Real Music?.........................Skarlet Shrike 2. TraxNet...........................................SoftLord Faces in the Crowd Interview with Luv Kohli.............................DennisC Vicious...............................Master of Darkness Fred..................................Dynamic Harmony Group Columns 1. Aim Higher 2. Epinicion Productions 3. eXtreme Terror Corps Closing Distribution Subscription/Contribution Information TraxWeekly Staff Sheet /-[Letters and Feedback]---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ --[Letter to the Editor]-----------------------------------------[Trixter]-- From trixter@mcs.comFri Oct 13 16:23:36 1995 Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 00:46:20 -0500 (CDT) From: Trixter / Hornet <trixter@mcs.com> To: Gene Wie <gwie@mailhost2.csusm.edu> Subject: Re: TW letters? Dear Editor: I always enjoy reading TraxWeekly; it continues, to paraphrase Basehead, a facet of "one of the last bastions of hobbiest programming", and I always find it entertaining and informative. I certainly hope that your task as new editor only gets harder, as it means better issues for the reader. However, I have noticed a limited view in two recent articles by Mhoram ("Exploring the Past") and Vector ("Vector's World"); I also have a comment on the whole Popcorn/IOR reponses. Forgive this if it sounds like nitpicking, but I felt I had to write. The first issue I have is probably due to the young history of the PC music scene, but Mhoram's article fails to reach back far enough for truly great music. His oldest song listed is Fruit of the Loom (1992), but many great tunes existed before that. Also, he mentioned Adlib ROL files as a possible starting point for modern scene music, but that really isn't true; Norman Lin's MODEdit was really the starting point in 1991. Again, it is probably due to the youth of the PC music scene (it has only been in existance for 4 years). I also have some notes for some of the choices he made: - BODY BLOWS wasn't a KLF release, it is the title tune ripped from the Amiga fighting game "Body Blows". :) Much of their music is done by By0rn Lynne (also known as Dr. Awesome), but I don't know if that particular tune was composed by him. - Bombastic Jazz is, if I remember correctly, a tune from Nuke when he was with Anarchy. Nuke is another Amiga musician; straight Protracker. I don't think he's active anymore (I lost track of him when he switched groups), but he has also easily produced over 40 works, and most of them are inspired, like JORDANJA.MOD (Jordan Jazz). - Troubled Journey is by core design ltd, and they (he? I never found out) have done some other excellent tunes; all less than 100K, and all worth downloading. Also, I'd like to add VDL.MOD to his list. I don't know who composed it, but the musical ideas are just as stunning as how well (technically) the tune is tracked. I will send this mod to anyone who wants it, I love it that much. :) I just hope someone can tell me the name of the composer... Moving on: Vector's World is a fun column to read, but I noticed an alarming trend in his article "10 most meaningful tunes of all time": They are all *PC scene musicians* (with the possible exception of "heartbeat"; I think he meant to write "heatbeat", who's tracked well over 40 tunes). While #trax and TraxWeekly are mainly populated by PC 'scener's, they wouldn't exist at all (or would be warped, like MIDI or something) if it weren't for the Amiga. Many talented people slaved away with a basic set of 20 instruments (no home user had a sampler in 1987) for over three years, learning to make do with 4 tracks, and they did so in Europe, and on an Amiga. So, I guess I'm saying, "don't exclude Euro musicians from your thoughts." They were the real pioneers. Finally, I am slightly frustrated about the whole Popcorn/IOR situation. While it directly relates to the management of #trax and the magazine, it does not belong in the magazine itself. Do the petty differences and technical details of who has access to an IRC channel belong here? I could be wrong, but I thought TraxWeekly was a magazine about *music*. Despite these differences, I look forward to every issue of TraxWeekly, so keep up the excellent work. And hey, you didn't celebrate your own 30th issue anniversary, so happy anniversary. :) -- Jim Leonard (Trixter / Hornet) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --[Letter to the Editor]------------------------------------[Nestor Matas]-- From nestor@peloncho.fis.ucm.esTue Oct 17 19:30:39 1995 Date: Sun, 15 Oct 95 23:19:44 -0500 From: Nestor Matas <nestor@peloncho.fis.ucm.es> To: Gene Wie <gwie@mailhost2.csusm.edu> Subject: Some trax weekly feedback :) -- [ From: Nestor Matas * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] -- Hi Psibelius! I want to congratulate you for your work with the trax weekly publication. I've been reading it for two months now and I've learnt a great amount of stuff about the scene and its stars, but (here come the inevitable 'but') I miss one thing that was what really made me look for trax-weekly even under the stones when I hadn't Inet access... that was the tracking tips section thing... coz trax-weekly should support that kind of things... teaching newbies how to track better would improve the level of the computer tracked songs in general, and there's no doubt that's a good thing. It will be nice to see that amazing tips again, and sure I'm not the only one. POTXOKI ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Articles]---------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ --[1. Demo Music or Real Music?]--------------------------[Skarlet Shrike]-- Demo Music OR REAL MUSIC!?! Part 1 Weekly Reviews on Demo Music or Real Music. Well, I have been around a while, And I now Write REAL music for Marching Band and for Concert band With a company called Rubank Inc./Hal Leonard Publishing Corperation. It is a Simple little thing called, They wouldn't accept my tracked music, so I told them that I would have 3 songs ready in a week.. They liked them and it was that easy. But my concern now is... Should I devote my time to making Demo Music or Real Music. Demo Music is only good if you are on the scene. Oooohh.. Aaaaah.. You are ereet! woO0Oow! Real Music is only good if you want "money" and "popularity". Hrm.. I don't know what to choose.. But I would like some1 to point out more suggestions for my next article on "demo Music Or REAL MUSIC?!?" Send Comments or questions to Skarlet.Shrike@dcn.com Skarlet Shrike Dark/Daskmig/Epi ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --[2. TraxNet]--------------------------------------------------[SoftLord]-- Hi. It's me, SoftLord. Some of you may know me from #trax, or perhaps the official MC3 and ASM95 pages (http://kosmic.wit.com/~kosmic/mc3/ and http://kosmic.wit.com/~asm95/, respectively). The reason I'm writing this article, besides introducing myself, is to let y'all know about an idea i had. It's called TraxNet. TraxNet started a couple of months ago when i decided that it would be nice for the music scene to have a home on the Internet. Not only just for the large groups (KFMF, Epinicion), but for smaller groups and artists (FITC kind of people). So, being a go-getter (yah right ;) ), i went ahead and registered traxnet.com. I mentioned it on #trax, and people seemed excited about the idea. Well, here we are, 2 or 3 months later, and it's just sitting there. Doing nothing. I have space for web stuff, and some ftp stuff (though i was planning basically to link to cdrom.com and luth.se for the files if they were on there). I just don't seem to have the time, the energy, or the initiative to get the thing started. That's where you people come in. I need Artists, HTML programmers, and representatives from groups who would like to take part in this to contact me with their information. I wanna see this thing flourish, but I'm working on other projects as well. Time for you to help! Of course, I'll have final say in who gets in and who doesn't, but I'm pretty lenient and it'll mainly go by how much space i have left :). I guess you need an Internet account previously, because traxnet.com isn't set up for giving out e-mail addresses. I will be busy with school and all, but I'll try to work on this in my non-existent free time. E-mail me at softlord@traxnet.com for more information or if you wanna get your group online! I'll probably get flooded with messages, but hopefully I'll get back to each and every one of y'all. See ya on #trax (I'm on as SoftLord (duh)) --SoftLord http://www.lightning.net/~softlord/ Founder, TraxNet ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Faces in the Crowd]------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ [NEW ASCII LOGO BY WHITE WIZARD NEXT WEEK] News .................................. Staff Interview ............................. DennisC with Luv Kohli Interview ............................. Mdark with Vicious Interview ............................. Dharmony with Fred Reviews ............................... Mdark -===================================================================- N E W S -===================================================================- Well the big news, or rather the big question this week is: WHERE IS JTOWN? The unfortunate demise of his computer has apparently gotten worse and thus the rest of the staff has had to put everything together this week. Also Dynamic Harmony, a former interviewee of FITC, took over Atlantic's place as an interviewer for JUST this week, and we would like to send our thanks to him. He may also be joining the staff, and thus increasing the amount of interviews weekly. As for the Reviews this week, due to a combination of not enough quality AND quantity of uploads to ftp AND the recent busyness (is that a word?) of Mdark, we could not meet our quota of about four songs per week. We hope you enjoy this weeks FITC interviews, and hopefully (once again) things will be back to normal next week. - Staff -===================================================================- I N T E R V I E W S -===================================================================- ---====[ Faces In The Crowd <> Interview #10 ]====--- Interviewer: {DennisC} = DennisC / FITC <> dennisc@community.net Interviewee: {LuvK} = Luv Kohli / Empyrean <> ??? ............................................................................. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DennisC - For starters, what is your name/handle/affiliation if any? LuvK - Ok. Well, my name is Luv Kohli (real name), and I don't have an alias. I am a co-founder of the group Empyrean, which currently consists of only two members, the two original co-founders. :) DennisC - Luv? Sorry, I bet you get that a lot :)... who's the other founder? LuvK - Actually, I do get that a lot. :) The other founder is my brother, Manu. DennisC - cool... how long have you been tracking? LuvK - I have been tracking for about a year now. Actually, I started earlier than that, but only started releasing about a year ago. DennisC - wow... what sort of styles do you do? (ugh I know music is hard to classify but... :) LuvK - It is relatively difficult to say what style I track, since I try to vary my style often. I am simply trying to expand my horizons and experience all possibilities. Generally, however, my music tends to be of a sorrowful nature. DennisC - do you have a "real" music background? any non-tracked influences you'd like to mention? LuvK - I have no experience playing any musical instruments (unless you count the recorder from elementary school <g>). Regarding non-tracked influences, I suppose I like groups like Metallica, Rush, and several others depending on my mood at any given time. :) LuvK - However, the styles of those groups do not necessarily appear in my music. DennisC - wow... who are your tracked influences? LuvK - Hmm.... Tracked influences.... There are so many that it is impossible to list them. I suppose I could list the standard "Necros, Purple Motion, Skaven, C.C.Catch, Ryan Cramer, etc." bit. :) Of course, they have influenced me, but generally every piece of tracked music I hear influences me in some way or another. DennisC - what do you consider to be your strengths? (ie percussion, chord progs, etc) LuvK - Definitely not chords.... :) I seem to be getting better with drums, though. My melodies, unfortunately, seem to be relatively nonexistant. My music usually tends to sound more like background music. DennisC - cool... welll, onto other things, what do you think of the #trax scene? LuvK - There's not really much that I can say about it. I suppose I find it interesting to see how trackers develop, etc. Not sure what to say. I'm still kind of new to #trax. DennisC - what is your first impression... I know my first experiences left me thinking, "*these* people track the music I know and love?" :) LuvK - That was exactly my first impression. Actually, I used to use AOL (have a new provider now), so initially I hated everyone that had anything to do with #trax, mainly because I was banned. I still think that many people on #trax can be hasty in their actions, and not think things through completely. The people in #trax usually don't talk about tracking, it seems. It's more of a place to hang out. DennisC - true... what do you think about the music scene in general? or even the American music scene? is it as bad as some people thing? DennisC - think even ? :) LuvK - No, I don't think that it is as bad as people think. It all depends on the different tastes that people have. Lately it seems that music is being geared more toward one direction, so that it does not encompass everyone's views on music. DennisC - hmm... are you into the demo scene as well? if so, what are your views on that? LuvK - Yes, I'm into the demo scene. I think that it was better a few years ago, when FC and other groups released demos that actually fit in with the music perfectly. Now, demos seem to lack design (many may argue against this), and can get repetitive. The demo scene is still interesting, though. DennisC - when you first started releasing, did you feel the scene was very welcoming to new 'faces in the crowd,' as it were? :) LuvK - Well, when I first started releasing, there was no way for me to tell, since I didn't have any real means of finding out. The only people that I could get reactions from were those that I knew locally and were not part of the demo scene "elites." DennisC - do you think the scene has gotten worse since then? LuvK - It has improved and worsened at the same time, in my opinion. For example, the tracking scene seems to allow more "new faces" these days, with the invention of groups like Epinicion and AIM Higher. However, as I mentioned before, the demo scene seems to be getting less involved with design, and more with the display of routines. DennisC - hmm... back to tracking, how did you get your start with a tracker? LuvK - Actually, I don't really remember. One day I must have figured out what a .MOD file was and played it in a modplayer, and then found MODEdit v2.00. :) I then went up the ranks of trackers with MODEdit v3.00, Whacker Tracker, the original FastTracker, and now ScreamTracker v3.21. I might try FastTracker II some time, but I just need to get used to the interface. LuvK - I think I just thought it would be interesting to try making some music, so that pushed me in this direction. DennisC - when you start a new tune, what is the first thing you do? do you do it pattern by pattern, or start with the beat, or... LuvK - I can't really say, since I seem to start differently each time. Sometimes I try to have a melody in my head beforehand, but then I lose it. I suppose I try to put down some sort of beat, but not sure.... <g> DennisC - where would one find your releases? LuvK - Unfortunately, there is no official distro on the internet. Empyrean's main distribution site is location in Virginia, USA. The BBS is called The Dream City, and its phone number is (703) 914-9131. All Empyrean releases can also be found on Ryan Cramer's board (Data Connection <not exactly sure what the name is now :)>). Other releases may be scattered about here and there. I know for a fact that at least one of them was recently put on ftp.cdrom.com DennisC - have you gotten any feedback from people who like your music? a common complaint is that people are unwilling to listen to something unless it's by a big name or gets ******* in demonews... :) LuvK - I've gotten some feedback on my songs, but mostly from people in my local area. For the song that was put on ftp.cdrom.com, Beyond Chaos (BEYONDCH.ZIP), I received email from someone that I did not know complimenting me on my song, but I never got another reply from him after I responded. :( That's about all of the feedback that I've gotten, though. DennisC - if you could change something about the music scene, what would it be? LuvK - Hmm.... I would probably make it so that no one "rejected" another from the scene simply because they thought a certain piece of music wasn't good. Everyone should be able to accept that people have to start learning somewhere. :) DennisC - well, just on the generic topics, what are your positions on (a) sample ripping, (b) ST3 vs FT2, and (c) the OJ verdict? :) LuvK - (a) I think sample ripping is ok, as long as the person it is ripped from does not mind and a good effort is made to credit them. For example, I have a lot of samples, but I do not know where most of them came from (a mistake that I made earlier). From now on, I will try to keep a record of the people that the samples came from, etc. (b) I find ST3 easier to use, for me. However, FT2 has some superior features, and has really nice sound quality. I simply can't get myself to use FT2 at this point. (c) The OJ verdict again? <g> Well, I knew that the jury would not say that he was guilty. As to the truth of the verdict, I cannot say. :) DennisC - neat... well, any other random comments to shout at the scene? LuvK - not really. :) LuvK - how original. <g> DennisC - well, I guess that's it... :) LuvK - ok, thanks for the interview. :) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---====[ Faces In The Crowd <> Interview #11 ]====--- Interviewer: {Mdark = Master of Darkness / AIM Higher <> maz@io.org Interviewee: {Vicious} = Vicious / VSL / AIM Higher <> mike.kameka@realm.tor250.org ............................................................................. = Interview conducted on Wed Oct 18 @ 7:30 PM EST ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- mdark - ok, this week we'll be interviewing a local guy from T.O, and well... I'll let him introduce himself... vicious - Hey there kidies .. The name's Vicious and i have a small Toronto based dance group by the name of V.S.L . Weve been around since like april 95 but were just starting to get some recognition. mdark - hmm. a small dance group you say. and how many people would that be about 5? 10? are they any other notable musicians that we might wish to know for future reference :) vicious - Well there's currently 14 members in V.S.L .. I have rookies comming to me everyday wanting to join so the group is growing at a high rate. All of the V.S.L members are fairly good trackers but of cource we have our veterans like Pariah , E , d.j. XL .. These guys are among the best i've ever seen . mdark - so you appreciate the works of the other members of the group, which is always important. BTW that is quite a LARGE group believe it or not. Most of the people I've talked to only have three or four members in their group, in fact ender my last interviewee was the sole composer in his group. Now, you are the founder of V.S.L are you not? So could you explain to us what the symbolism of V.S.L is? vicious - We'll it's pretty simple actually . We all compose different styles of music . Variety is our main goal and bassically V.S.L stands for Variety's the Spice of Life . Simple but it works. The group is large but i would say that only 4-5 of us make commercial quality tracks. mdark - I see. So you have your main core of musicians then, and your developping ones :).. As for the name, I'm curious. I know you are a dance group, but when you say variety is your main goal, it makes me wonder if it's possible that you'll ever have a 'demoish' type composer in the group? vicious - Very unlikely that will ever happen . When i say variety i mean a large variety of dance styles . From euro dance to hard core hip-hop . We cover the whole dance flava . mdark - I see. Fair enough. Now, I take it you compose mostly... what type of dance? vicious - We'll i play around with euro dance alot but my background is HOUSE. I am currently working on a disk which will be all house based. Not that commercial crap people call house but the true underground house sound. Simple ,repititious, but you can dance yer ass off to it . mdark - yeah kind of like rave music (for me personally). Ok jut one more quick comment on the demo music. While you don't compose it, you do accept it as another style right? You don't 'shun' demo music like alot of people shun your style of music in favor of demo? vicious - Hell no , demo is a unique style of music and i do appreciate GOOd demo . Demo is much harder to create that dance but my final goal is to go commercial and well demo music wont get me a record deal. mdark - Some would beg to differ, but I'm more curious about why you are here in faces of the crowd. Did you hear about it from somebody, read it in traxweekly, or do you have something to say to everybody in the scene out there? Something that you've felt either good or bad for awhile now perhaps about the scene? vicious - Well actually i do have a few thoughts that i must say . !'st of i dont understand why people make such a great deal about sample ripping. Did the original sampler of the sample not steal it from a keyboard? Do you think Korg or Roland would be happy to find out we stoled the instruments from there machine's . Hell no , they spent alot of money creating there own sounds and we steal them so how can we get pissed whan someone steals one of our samples. House music was born from stealing. It all started out as old disco trax redone with a faster harder digital beat . Sample ripping is and will always be a major part of the dance scene. Take it as a compliment when someone 'borrows' one of yer samples. It must have been pretty good if it's worth stealing . mdark - you bring up a very good point, and I don't think I've quite looked at it from that perspective - mostly because of the people I've learned to compose from always say 'rip this' but DON'T 'rip that'. In other words if it's a big-named person don't rip it. I don't agree with this philosophy. Taking everything you've said into account, the one thing that I'd have to say is i'd expect you to somehow give credit to the person who's sample it is. When possible. It just shows a sign of respect. In some instances of course this is nearly impossible to do because you might get them in a sample pack or something or off of a CD (in which case they'd sorta be yours anyways). The second thing is i think if somebody's used a REALLY reconizable sample (i.e. Skaven's BLAST in the 2nd reality song) in the EXACT SAME FASHION, i personally believe that's wrong. Finally, i think that there's TOO much of a big deal about ripping. I say WHO REALLY CARES. I mean we are all in this to make the best damn music we can, and lets face it some of us JUST DON"T have the ability to sample our own sounds, so how else are we going to get stuff to compose with? :) vicious - I agree with you exactly . Originality is the key , if you use a sample from a popular track than use it in a unique way . Be creative with the tools you have . I my self can't create my own sample's since my GUs ACE can't sample , it has no recording abilities . But i have purchased sample cd's in the past and i will continue to do so because im not usually happy with other people's sample's anyways . I prefer 16 bit 44khz sample's. There much cleaner. mdark - WHen ripping you do seem to always (unexplainably) lose some fine-tuning and quality for some reason. Now I haven't even asked how long it has been you've been composin or if this is even your first group :) vicious - We'll ive been composing fro about a year now and i started out in MAZURkA , they let me go because they said i was holding the group back so i joined a small Toronto based group by the name of DDT. This group never went very far and it bassically went under . Then i was gonna go back to MAZ but i have different idea's about the scene and i decided to start my own group. I had a small collection of musicians back then and 90% of the releases were mine . Like 28 mine and 2 from the other 2 members . Then people started E-mailing me wanting in V.S.L and it seems there's alot of good talent out there that we just dont notice . mdark - yeah from personal experience (i.e downloading everything for the reviews of FITC ) I've noticed that to be true. Just because you are on #trax doesn't mean you are the only musician on the world who is good :)... And of course being from AIM Higher, I see and hear new stuff everyday anyways from my members :). now is V.S.L the only group you are in right now? Or perhaps you do projects on the side? vicious - Well im currently a member of AIM Higher and i intend to make a few less comercial tracks under that label . I do like to compose mellow pieces and "shhh dont tell anyone but i have a couple demo tracks in the works also" This is where i can release the other style's of music i like . mdark - ahh I see. I think (and I've done this recently as well) that when you broaden your horizons to other styles of music, you can only learn from the experience. Even if what you do isn't the best out there, you learn what's what about that particular style. I've done everything from just fooling around with percussion, to house (recently) to dance, to some stupid guitar solo, and now I'm mostly trying ambient/demo. So I'm used to and indeed LIKE everything :). And I think that's what being in two groups is about. I mean I don't understand some of these guys who are in 4 or 5 groups. My question is WHAT'S THE POINT? I mean sure I might one day say like to join VSL, but that'd only be if I want to release my dance stuff with you. Not if I just wanna join for the fun ot if. So what you are doing is very admirable, and I think it's something that the scene should see more of. ANd heck if you compose alot of music, why not? :) So with all this music stuff in mind, and all your ideas and views, what exactly ever inspired you to start composing? vicious - We'll it's all due to MOBY of Anasthasia . I love this guys music and i used to E-Mail this guy to death . Bassically brown nosing him . One day he said " Why don't you give it a try " . At first i was thinking " what the hell do i know about music but " But then i started to listen to music in a different way . I found my self studying it and learning from it . I then put what i had learned to work and well i keep improving every day . I dont consider myself all that great , when i compose i compose for myself and i dont really care what others think . I'm my biggest fan . the though of someone else liking one of my tune's is a bonus. mdark - hah. That's the same way I felt. Which actually brings me to my next question oddly enough. I've noticed some HONOURABLE soul has recently started uploading mass quantities of your music to the internet. Now I'm curious if you have gotten and response or if not from anybody outside of toronto, from people INSIDE toronto. vicious - Well my net account has run out so i havent had the chance to see what people think en quite a good response from the Toronto scene. I actually had some guy offer to pay for a high quality cassette of the disk. People seem to like our stuff so we'll continue to release music and keep our little gathering of fans happy . Even if we do some day go commercial i wont forget my roots , i will always be in the P.C. music sceene . This is where i started and i cant just ditch the people who have supported us for a little cash .. mdark - Well I think that is a pretty good note to end on. Now i must thank you for your time here tonight. I must admit, you taught me a few things - or at least new ways of looking at them. I hope your words of wisdom spread across the continents :)... Is there any final comment you wish to make... shout outs to da crew perhaps? :) vicious - Well bassically i want to tell all the young trackers out there . DONT give up on yer dreams . If you do that they dont have a chance of happening , but keep working hard and hey who know's .. Maybe one day the prez of sony records will call you up and say " hey man you music is awsome , come down to my office and let's talk" . It could happen . Remember to keep dreaming and it may come true , you never know . mdark - the future. What a scary concept :). Ok, thank you once more for your time, and best of luck with all your musical endeavours, and especially with the possibility of getting your stuff released some day on a CD. vicious - Thanx for having me , and dont worry bout the CD thing . I wont stop till my dream comes true . mdark - how fitting. a DJ's dream :). Ok folks that's all she wrote. Until next time, same bat station, same bat channel :) <*> Where You Can Get Vicious' Tunes <*> Vicious releases through VSL and AIM Higher. These releases can be found on the HORNET archive ftp.cdrom.com and its mirrors. Unfortunately until recently not of VSL's or vicious' music had made it to FTP. Most of these songs will be in the following directory /demos/incoming/music/songs/xm/ If they are not, they will soon be uploaded. All of VSL's and vicious' music is released with the prefix V-filename. Also look at the recent vsl-dj disks for Vicious' songs. Here is a list of SOME of vicious' releases: V-DOKTOR1.ZIP "Witch Doktor: Moveit Mix" - XM V-DOKTOR2.ZIP "Witch Doktor: YourBody Mix" - XM V-TNIGHT.ZIP "Tonight - Lyric Test" - XM V-BREAK.ZIP "Breaking Free" - S3M V-CANYOU.ZIP "Can You Feel My Love" - XM V-DAWN.ZIP "At The Break Of Dawn" - XM V-DREAM.ZIP "Day Dreaming" - XM V-ESCAPE.ZIP "Escape from Ya Brain" - XM V-EURO.ZIP "Da Euro-Grooves" - XM ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---====[ Faces In The Crowd <> Interview #12 ]====--- Interviewer: {D} = Dynamic Harmony / Mazurka / AIM Higher <> dharmony@io.org Interviewee: {F} = Fred / Ink <> ............................................................................. = Interview conducted on Tue Oct 17 @ 5:30 PM EST ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- D> Hey everyone out in trax-reader land, I'm here with fred doing a quickie interview. F> heya heya D> So fred, tell us a little about yourself... Name, affils... F> welp, name's fred (of course) and right now i'm in a little group called iNK (we just came out with our first pack a couple days ago!)... D> congrats :) F> thanks... D> Umm, where is INK? or are they a spread out group? Where are you from? F> well, iNK is a group outta Kansas, they're mainly an artist group, but they wanted to start doing demos, needed musicians, listened to my stuff, liked it, etc etc...i live in Hampton, Virginia... D> Hmm... What was the song that got you in with them? F> well, it was the song that i get the most compliments from, "Bawal"... D> Ooh, ahh :) I've heard that one :) But I didn't receive it right... D> Only static. D> Okay... Umm... What was your first mod? F> My first one that i really wanna admit to was one called "Funkbeat", i remember writing that thing at a friend of mine Progenitor's house. I was runnin back and forth between his room and the living room yelling "is it cool?? huh? is it? is it??" he said it was like i was on a crack...:) D> Hehe :) D> Umm, what was the MOD that inspired you to trak? How did you start? F> i think the first mod i ever heard was one called "godzilla", don't remember the author (not the moby one)...i think that along with a few others i downloaded on my Tandy Sensation were the ones that inspire me, i didn't know that you could track, because the only thing that'd run on my sensation was mod4win, so i couldn't see what was going on. Then progenitor showed me Scream Tracker and i went crazy from there...:) D> When exactly did you start tracking? And when did you produce your first "Decent" mod? F> well, i started tracking exactly in March of 1994. My first "decent" mod would probably be one called "Relax at Ion Plus". That was the first time i got "good" compliments on a tune... D> when did you produce "funkbeat" and "Relax at Ion Plus" ? F> well, i'd say funkbeat was done around May of 1994 and ion plus about November of 94...i sort of slacked off at the beginning of 1995... D> What kind of musical background do you have? Do you think it helps? F> i was a music major in a local college (Christopher Newport University) for about 2 semesters, dropped out (lack of fundage)...plus i've been playing piano since i was six, learned other instruments on my own, and played drums in high school. I do think it helps out a lot, although there ARE a lot of "naturals" out there that just amaze me... D> I know that when I compare my first MODs to other firsts, I find them more... Lets say "on key"... :) What were your firsts like? F> my first one tunes were absolutely horrible. I hated them all, but i still have them on my machine for some strange reason. I'd say my first ones were more experimenting with the tracker then anything "musical"... Before funkbeat, i was writing these piddly little things that were completely embarassing, but after that and the "semi-decent" compliments i got, i went crazy. I was pumping out about 1-2 tunes per day. I think that was my nickname for a while... D> Yeah, I still have "DAN-1.s3m" on my HD. :) F> :) D> When did you start getting more global with all the #trax and stuff? F> just recently actually...about a month ago, i sort of tentatively joined #trax to see what was going on. Then about 2 weeks ago, i distributed my first tune ("Bawal") and it sorta went uphill from there...:) D> Wow, so you're relatively new to the decent-tracker-level :) F> basically, yea, I think it was just a recent development of my style to actually slow down and work on my tunes then crank them out just to please myself into thinking that i'm putting out a whole bunch of tunes. D> Its not quantity, its quality :) F> most definately...:) D> What kind of music do you like to track? F> well, my style has changed a lot over the past year, it used to be the fast "demo-ish" style, but has changed within the last few months to a slower style... D> Do you find people like the slower stuff more than your demoey stuff? F> i think it all depends on the individual's taste. The two tunes i released "net-wide" are "Bawal" and "Farewell"...bawal is the neo-classical/demo-ish tune and farewell is a slowed piano type tune. I get compliments from both sides...:) D> What kind of artists influence you in and outside of the tracking scene? F> inside the scene, there are a lot of them. I always listen to as many tunes as i can comin out of it (not to say there's not a lot of crap out there...:), but i'd have to say my biggest influences were and are skaven and necros. Love they're styles. As far as outside, i listen to the radio CONSTANTLY, so i'm always getting ideas from that whenever i drive around...my biggest influnce outside would have to be U2, they're my favorite...:) D> Okay, lets get into more simple, irrelavent Qs. (To ease my thinkload) :) F> :) D> If a tree falls in the forest, and no ones around to hear it, could you sample it? F> i can't sample crap. I've tried and tried. I'm no good at it..:) plus the fact i don't have anything to sample with, so i mainly rely on ripping (which is harsh, but at least i credit the samplers)...:) D> Oooh! What do you think is the line between ccheesy-ripping and ripping? F> the most obvious would be when you've got these dummies out there that leave the original sample name in their sample list. I couldn't believe it when i saw this once guy's tune that still had "purple motion" in the sample name. Unbelievable, i mean, yea, i guess that's a credit, but i prefer leaving a sample credit list. And using UNIQUE samples is a little cheezy... D> Hehe, that pisses me off... You see it there and it says "For The EGG3 Music Disk" Or something like that :) F> exactly! D> What exactly do you mean by unique? F> well, you've got those samples out there, like, Purple Motion's looped techno beat, that get overused. I think i've heard that one in at least 30 different tunes. it's a unique sample that everyone and their brother knows the origin of... D> Haha :) Okay enough about sampling :) F> :) ok... D> What music/noise is playing in your background? F> right now, there's a commercial on the radio...:) but, i'm listening to a classic/new rock station here in the area...FM99 WNOR...:) D> I love classic rock... Queen, Zepplin... But also the new stuff :) (NIN...) How about you? F> same here, i'll listen to anything!! that is, of course, except country, i just can't stand that stuff...:) D> Hey whaddya know... A match :) I like everything but country :) F> cool, that stuff just isn't considered music to me. Bunch of twangy nasal musicians, complaining about life, but, i digress... D> :) Over here right now, the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack is playing. F> i love that stuff, Pulp Fiction is a favorite of mine, along with the soundtrack... D> Kewl.. D> I think we've wasted enough space... Wanna say anything? F> :) F> well, just wanna say hi to everyone i know and have met in #trax, benzel, spotz, pfister, kmg, smeghead, basehead, leviathan, dodger, mercure, etc, etc...and to my local friends primetime, roo, and witch doctor...hey everybody!!! D> Well thats it! Bye everyone! F> thanx... D> Bye :) You can find fred's latest stuff at: ftp.cdrom.com .21/demos/music/songs/s3m/1995/f/fred-bwl.zip ftp.cdrom.com .21/demos/music/songs/s3m/1995/f/fred-fwl.zip ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -===================================================================- S O N G R E V I E W S -===================================================================- In this section we will suggest some songs available on ftp.cdrom.com that might otherwise be ignored or perhaps lost due to the lack of regonition of the composer. Remember these are the sole opinions of the staff of the FITC publication and are of course a matter of personal taste. Thus we will not actually rate the songs, but suggest the ones we think you'd like to hear most. We listen to most new music uploads to ftp.cdrom.com. Keep in mind, we can only download as much as time permits. If you feel that your song was worthy of being mentioned in this publication, by all means mail one of us and bitch. We'll justify our selections a little, but again, it's primarily personal taste. "Timeless Lullaby" by Mozart of Continuum Email: jreardon@cygnus.rsabbs.com Style: Demo/Orchestral Format: S3M Found: /demos/incoming/music/songs/s3m/timignif.zip Released: 10-06-95 "Tranquility Within" by Vicious of VSL Email: mike.kameka@realm.tor250.org Style: Dance/Ambient Format: XM Found: /demos/incoming/music/songs/xm/v-trnqil.zip Released: 08-07-95 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Group Columns]----------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ --[1. Aim Higher]----------------------------------------------------------- More Unification ---------------- Unification, our second disk, has been out for a week now, and we've gotten some positive feedback on it thus far. Check it out if you havn't, it's on ftp.cdrom.com in the \demos\incoming\music\disks\ directory. We're already working on our next disk, which will be Unification: Volume 2. The aim with this disk is to have the music top the first volume by helping our members progress. So far things are going quite well. The player which we intended on releasing in volume 1 should be included in this upcoming disk. Several trackers have already volunteered their efforts towards doing guest songs. If you'd like to contribute in this way, send some email to either mdark (maz@io.org) or myself (as566@torfree.net).. you don't have to be an experienced musician, you merely need some recognizable tad of ability (so that you're music isn't blatently painful). We would certainly appreciate anything you could do. We've had one release since the disk - "Tranquility Within" by Vicious of V.S.L. Vicious is a dance/techno composer who has not yet gained a lot of noteriety, but who's music has an excellent commercial quality of sound. Vicious has joined our roster, and we hope to help him develop his music however we can. - atlantic [neophyte, aim higher, traxweekly] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --[2. Epinicion Column]----------------------------------------------------- ___ _______ _____________ ______ ______ _______ ______ _______ ___________ | // \\ \\_____) \\_____) \\_____) \\ \\ | : / o \ o \ \ \ \ \ \ o \ \: // _____// / \ : / \ _____/ \ / : \. \\_______/ _//______\\_|__//______\\_____//______\\_____//____| /: : \\____\\ ______________________________ oT /___//| |________________________// e p i n i c i o n \\________________| New songs this week include "Schwa (Soul Traveller)" by Szalemandre. Epinicion released it's sixth music disk, "BLT" earlier this week, featuring 42 songs by countless numbers of excellent musicians. You can find "BLT" on our ftp site, listed below. Preparations for the Epinicion annual Holiday Music Disk are under way. Members and guests alike, please submit your holiday tunes to Psibelius at gwie@owl.csusm.edu (mime or uue), or via IRC-dcc. NOTICES: ALL of Epinicion's 1995 releases can be found through ftp at: kosmic.wit.com /kosmic/epinicion. The Web Page is now up! http://www.csusm.edu/public/guests/gwie/epi.html New interface, new graphics, a new look. Psibelius (Gene Wie) Epinicion Founder gwie@owl.csusm.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --[3. eXtreme Terror Corps]------------------------------------------------- -= X . T . C =- eXtreme Terror Column [we still need a cewl ascii ;] Hi! And welcome to the second edition of the extreme terror column, i am your host Ch:ilm, welcome .. ;-) (late show or tonight show? mail me! :-). About This ========== Extreme Terror Corps is a Dutch techno group. We release stuff from Hardcore to Techno, from Rave to Ambient. We're rather new to the international scene, but we're coming on strong .. :). What i would like is lotsa email from you. Please drop me a note to say what you think of me, my group, TW, internet or this column. I really need feedback cause that's the only way to improve stuff and keep in touch with YOU. So if you want to write me please do, there's only a few things i like better than a full mailbox! ;-) (and programming isn't one of them). Rumours ======= there have been rumours that we are about to change the name of the group, well, all i can say is that i cannot deny nor acknowledge that .. ;-) so i guess you're gonna have to draw your own conclusion ... maybe y'all will know more in a couple of months. New Stuff ========= DANOIZE I've heard work of a (beginning) hardcore composer called DANOIZE, you can leech his work from ftp.cdrom.com in the XM directory. Two of his files are called DANOIZE.ZIP and DANOIZE2.ZIP. He is rather good, so if there is anyone out there wanting to support him, leech the files and mail him: danoize@iaehv.nl Check out #rave and #gabber on IRC ... he's there all the time. (And mention my name or he won't know what's happening to him :-). SPIRITUAL MINDWORKS is the name of the most talked-about remixproject right now, 12 composers have remixed i like to move it and the disk is currently being packed. Only 50% of the songs have been finished but we hope to release it some- where next week, say before november 1st. If you want more info you can mail me, or download the file ftp.cdrom.com/.21/demos/incoming/music/info/smx-inf2.zip. SMX-INF2.ZIP contains English info also (opposed to smx-inf1 which contained only dutch info). The info in the files has also been updated so if you want to belong leech it (now! :-). EXTREME TERROR DISTRO-SITES =========================== We search HQ's in all non-european countries exept Brazil. If you're interested leave mail to outlandm@netland.nl so we can contact you. Other HQ's are (distro's not listed): WHQ: dATURa Demoralize +31-77-3872195 {World HQ} DHQ: EOH XtreeMaN +31-2159-37816 {Dutch HQ} SHQ: APOCALYPSE SkuNK +41-93317171 {Swiss HQ} GHQ: GOLDEN IMAGE BriAn +49-603945756 {German HQ} BHQ: AYRES BOARD AyrEs +55-2143-92170 {Brazil HQ} http://www.netland.nl/~outlandm/xtc.html (under construction!) ftp://ftp.uniserve.com/pub/gamesnet/xtc (may not be up yet) My board is SL1210 Ch:ilm +31-43-363 8243 and +31-43-363 1724 Sorry for the adds here but it had to be done .. ;-) Greetz ====== Much respect goes to PRaNCe, PHoNC(ie), Deniax, Extasia & danoize. And my dear friends Sascha & Arno (packet: cb0sas@bb8bbs.lb.nld.eu). U2 fans out there be sure to connect my dear friend JINX's homepage: http://www.iaehv.nl/users/jinx/ He has had over 50,000 hits in a couple of months and is voted Yahoo best site!! If you dig U2 you dig this one! Closing words ============= If you wanna talk to me about anything, DO write me: outlandm@netland.nl I wanna thank the TW staff, all downloaders of our files and YOU! May the music be with you. Ch:ilm/XTC^dBd signing off... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Closing]----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ TraxWeekly is available via ftp from ftp.cdrom.com /pub/demos/incoming/news (new issues) ftp.cdrom.com /pub/demos/news/traxw/ (back issues) TraxWeekly is also available via WWW from http://kosmic.wit.com/~kosmic/traxweek http://www.partek.fi/traxweek To subscribe, send mail to: listserver@unseen.aztec.co.za and put in the message body: subscribe trax-weekly [your real name] To unsubscribe, mail same and: unsubscribe trax-weekly (in message body) Contributions for TraxWeekly must be formatted for *76* columns, must have a space preceding each line, and must be readable and understandable. Contributions should be mailed as plain ascii text or filemailed (MIME/UUE only) to: gwie@owl.csusm.edu before 6:00pm EST (North America) every Wednesday. TraxWeekly does not discriminate based on age, gender, race, political preferences, religious preferences, or eliteness. For questions and comments, you can contact the TraxWeekly staff at: TW Editor: Psibelius (Gene Wie).................gwie@owl.csusm.edu Columnists: Island of Reil (Jesse Rothenberg)....jroth@owl.csusm.edu Mhoram (John Niespodzianski).........niespodj@neonramp.com Graphics: White Wizard (...)...................aac348@agora.ulaval.ca WWW Page: Dragunov (Nicholas St-Pierre)........dragunov@info.polymtl.ca FITC: Atlantic (Barry Freeman).............as566@torfree.net FITC: DennisC (Dennis Courtney)............dennisc@community.net FITC Editor: Jtown (Kal Zakath)...................jtownsen@scscva.esc.edu FITC: Master of Darkness (Todd Andlar).....maz@io.org TraxWeekly is a HORNET affiliation. Copyright (c)1995 TraxWeekly Publishing, All Rights Reserved. /-[END]--------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ . :: ::: : . ..... ..............................:::.................:.... ::: : :::: : .::::. .:::::.:::. ..:::: :::: : :: :: ::: .:: :: :: WW:::: : ::. :: ::: .:: :: .:: :::: : :::.::. ::: .:: .:: .:::::... :: :::.. ... ..: ... ..:::::::::::::::: .:: .::::::: :::::::: ::::::.. ::: ::: ::: : until next week! (= .. ... .. ....... ............... .................:..... .. . :