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Wrap

Text File | 1995-05-16 | 43KB | 778 lines

. _| : _____ ______________ |___| _ _______/ 9 /\___________________________ / ____________/ /\__\ _ _______/____/_____________________________ / / _________ \/__/ ______\ 9 \_____________________________ / / / `_ . .~ \____\/ _ __ ___ / / / _____ . _ \ __ ___ _/__/\ / / / / /\ _ __ __\__\/ _/__/ / ____/ /__\_________________________________ _____ ___ _ / 9 /\/ /___ __________ _ ______ _ ___ \/ /\ / 9 / /____/9 \ \ / /\ / __/\ / /\ \ \ / \ /____/ / / \ / \/ /_ \___/___/ \ \_/___/ / \_/ / / \ ___\ / /_/ /______/\/ \ /______/\/ \ /_____/ // \ \ / / / \ / / \ \ \ \_\ \ \ \_\ \ //____/\____\/ / / / / / \______\/ \______\/ \_____\/ \ \ \ \ / / / / \____\/\____\ / / / / _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ / / / /__/ w /\___/ /\___/ e /\___/ /\__ / l /\___/ /\____/ / / __/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/________/ / __\ \____\ e \____\ \____\ k \ ___\ \____\ y \__________/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/WW ps: woa, a rendered askee! - TraxWeekly Issue #9 - 05/11/95 Release --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ Introduction ]---------------------------------------------------------- _ _________________ /_\ \__ / (stoney askee) ____ ______ \____ ____/____________ ______ _/ \ _/ \ \ww_/ \ _/ ________/_/ _ \ __/ \/ \ \/ \/ \ / | \__ ___ ___ _______ _/ \\ \ \\ \\ | \\/ | \_ ___ __ __ ____ /___________\__\_______\________\____|______\____________\ \__\ Here again for issue 9. This one is pretty Music Contesty. I got floss to write a bit on it since he's the one running it. And GraveDigger shot me another one by mail. Necros did a reply article on PeriSoft's bit in the last issue. Psibelius as always enlights us with an article continuing on the same subject that PeriSoft started. Which was originaly, ripping, etc. Charlatan did his first bit for us, he did a text on the importance of FILE_ID.DIZs on bulletin boards. This is a point of view that I share 100% since I run a music board. K8to did his first contribution by doing a last minute interview with mister NAID 2nd place, Maelcum. And as always some columns. White Wizard gave me more ascii logos, and he redone the "end". I got mail about asciis that could be divided into two groups. First, a couple of people sent me mail about removing the asciis. Their arguments were that it made the newsletter too big. Second, others complimented the asciis and congradulate WW work on them. Personaly, I think that this newsletter without pics would make it dull and pukable (new word). Imagine it, it would have no atmosphere and no life. It would be a simple text. WW is doing a very good job, and I really enjoy having them in TraxWeekly. And, the size difference between pics or no pics is unnoticible. Also, it gives the newsletter some structure and it's more easy to know what starts when. The advertisement section isn't being used to it's full potential. I haven't refused an ad yet. So I encourage you to use it. TraxWeekly is on the World Wide Web! Officially, the official sites are: http://www.partek.fi/traxweek AND http://kosmic.wit.com/~kosmic/traxweek Partek is in Finland and Kosmic is in the US. So choose the URL nearest you. This page is maintained by Dragunov. TraxWeekly has an internet address to contact Popcorn or myself. It is: t-weekly@direktor.voima.jkl.fi .. Subscriptions are available now, and can be done in this matter: If you want to subscribe to TraxWeekly mail to: listserver@oliver.sun.ac.za And put in the message body: subscribe trax-weekly [your real name] If you want to unsubscribe to the list mail to the same address and write: unsubscribe trax-weekly TraxWeekly is also available on ftp.cdrom.com/demos/incoming/news/ or /demos/news/traxw/ Well, already time to open your eyelids and stop snoring cuz the show is about to begin... - Populus populus@llc.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ Contents ]-------------------------------------------------------------- ________ _________________________________________________________________ / ____/_/ __/ \ __/ / _____/ \ __/ __/ ___/_ \____\ \ \\ \ \\____ __/ __/_\ \ \\____ \_____ \__ \ \ \ \\ \ \ww\ \\ \\ \ \ \ \ \_ _\________\________\\___\____\ \_____\\_______\\___\____\ \_____\_______\ 1. Music Contest 3 - Floss 2. Music Contest 3 - GraveDigger 3. Samples, Lameness, Preconceptions, and Fluffy Bunnies - Necros 4. Defending Base: Original Music - Psibelius 5. Everything You Need To Know About FILE_ID.DIZ - Charlatan 6. Interview (Maelcum) 7. Epinicion Column 8. Kosmic Column 9. Distribution Sites --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ 1. Music Contest 3 ]---------------------------------------------------- by floss [kfmf] Dear readers of Trax Weekly, Populus got on IRC one night, where all things happen grow and all, and asked me to write an article. I didn't have the slightest idea what to write an article on regarding the music scene at the time, and he refused to give me a topic. Whether this is in an effort to make us think harder, or so his political standpoint on all articles *coughPeriSoftcough* remains anonymous, that is yet to be seen. However, after throwing a few ideas around, we agreed that I would write something regarding the thing that Christopher G. Mann (snowman) asked me to take over (dumped on me) which is none other than Music Contest 3. (referred to as MC3 from now on because I'm lazy.) So what exactly is MC3, why has there been three of them, why in lords name did it end up in my hands, and why is it good for the music scene in general? Well, I'm gonna tell you. Here's how it all got started. Christopher, cigar smoker extraordinaire, music lover and tracker, and all around neat guy, decided that a music contest would be a neat idea. Finland had them, Europe in general had them, why couldn't we. They also had demo parties where the music contests were happening. There had been few North American artists entering the contests due to the astronomical costs of flying to one of those many European countries. (unless you're like ior and khyron and can go to Finland, Canada, and Floss's house) So what did he do but organize a music contest himself. However, this was no ordinary contest. This was one that could be done in the privacy of your own home, without having to pay the expences of foreign hotel charges, demo party tickets, and export beer. What would you know, it worked. There were entries that were from all over the world that entered this contest, and all in all it turned out really well. Well enough that there was a SECOND one, and you'll never guess what they called it. Well, maybe you will. You're bright people out there. MC2 was about as big a success as the first one, with only one small difference: it was HUGE in comparison. 31 total Veteral entries (of which I was one of them woohoo) and a bunch of Rookie entries as well. The whole contest was a success with Markell Moss, Krystall (MC's winner), and Khyron walking away with the top 3 slots of fame. Another good thing that came out of the contest was the creation of the Escape CD, which is something I HIGHLY recommend you get your hands on if you don't already have it. The audio portion itself is well worth the cheap price, and the data section is crammed full with more demos/music/gfx than you can hold a blowtorch to. In this contest, we have something that I feel works out a lot better than people give it credit for. That is the double division of the entries. Some of them go into the Rookie division, where those musicians who don't think they have all that much experience (or just don't want to compete with bigger names) can enter and see what they've got, more often than not learn a thing or two about tracking, and make some strong comebacks for the next years contest. As for the veteran division, I'm not sure that there is much to be said, other than the judging criteria is much stricter, and the competition is much more intense. Both divisions have their strong points, and both are a pleasure to listen to more often than not. Which division are you going to enter? That is up to you to decide, there is no specitic qualification. However, if you've had very little experience tracking a song of some sort, then chances are you might want to try your stuff in the Rookie division. Goes both ways tho, where if you have a lot of experience and feel you have something to strut, then Rookie just might not be the place for you and you might want to consider the Veteran way. The choice is yours. So now we have two music contests behind us, and the future ahead. MC3 is now in the works, the info files have been released, and things are looking really good. As I write this article, the total number of entries is somewhere around 20 people. This number is increasing daily, along with the promise of some more well known entrants like Necros, Epeius, Ryan Cramer, and others planning on giving this thing a shot. Things are looking really good and I cannot WAIT to see the results of it. The big plus this year over the previous contests is the plugging of the anonymity of the entrants. The judges will not know who wrote the songs they are judging. This ensures the fairness of all entries, and each composers shot at the top is just as equal as the others. Names are not going to win this contest, music is. On the prize list is the sequel to the excellent Escape CD, and this one is called Freedom. I've been in contact with Dan Wright over this CD, and I can tell you know that I plan to order at least one, if not more, of these things. The line up is looking very promising and, like last year, audio versions of the higher placing songs will be on this CD, as well as many other goodies, demos, musics, gfx, text files, batch files, directories, whatever. I don't even own a CDRom drive, but the audio portion is well worth the estimated cost of $8 per CD, in my opinion. The top three positions of the Veteran division and the top Rookie song will all get a free copy of this CD as a prize. The top three Veteran places will also receive trophies of some kind or another. As far as deadlines, the entryforms and songs must be entered by June 20th. For those of you who have already sent in the applications for entering the contest, be patient. The last few workings of the number system are going into place and chances are you will get your number close to the same time you get this article. For the voters, your ID number will come as soon as the deadline for the music has passed, and the songs are set into different groups for voting packages. If you have any other questions, scan through the mc3rules.txt file. Chances are it has all the information you will ever need regarding the contest. However, if there is something you still have a question about, please feel free to email me something at norg@cyberspace.com. Please give me a day or two at the latest to get back to you, as my final two weeks of this quarter are coming to a close and I have to pull some serious miracle to ensure passing a certain class. (: Good luck to all entrants, Rookie and Veteran alike, and good ear to all judges. As things progress, I'll talk to Populus about having an update every week or every other week. (obviousley it won't be as long as this one was, much to your probable relief. (: ) See you on IRC or in email. George Nowik / Mental Floss Floss of KFMF / Epinicion Baygle Dawh Pro-Duck-Shins '95 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ 2. Music Contest 3 ]---------------------------------------------------- By GraveDigger (Brett Neely) gd@ftp.cdrom.com Music Contest 3 is fast approaching, and many people seem excited to be entering a song or serving as a judge for the contest. It seems that with all of the enthusiasm surrounding the event, it should turn out to be a nice sequel to Music Contests 1 and 2. Things are different this time around. A unique system has been developed to allow all music entries and all judges to remain anonymous, only named by a six-digit numbering system. The organizers have put forth a lot of effort to provide the contest with such a system, and hopefully it will cause everything to be fair. I have confidence in it. From a personal standpoint, I have made some observations and would like to share my thoughts on recent happenings pertaining to the upcoming contest. It is my hopes that everyone will understand where I am coming from and share a common belief in the strength of integrity. Unfortunately, I have heard of a couple instances already where a composer planning to enter MC3 has broken a rule and allowed others to hear their song. It is rather disappointing. Though it may seem a minor thing, this is a breach of the anonymity system that took a great deal of work to develop on the part of the organizers. How so? If an entrant's song is played for a judge before the contest, the judge may remember the song while judging and think to themself, "Oh, this is so-and-so's song." One of the problems in past contests of this type is that some composers get scored just depending on who they are, and not on the quality of the music. And the organizers have attempted to clear all possibilities of such a reoccurence in this contest. I am asking each and every one of you who is involved with MC3 in some way to please follow all of the rules. The rules were set for a reason. With the music scene growing so rapidly in recent times, such a contest must be executed with high standards. To ensure a successful competition, I'm asking all of you to just follow the rules. The rules are simple. I'm going to follow them, and everybody should. Keep this saying in mind, "United we stand, divided we fall." Best of luck, GD. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ 3. Samples, Lameness, Preconceptions, and Fluffy Bunnies ]-------------- by Necros / FM / Legend Design asega@ic.sunysb.edu After reading Perisoft's quite, umm, illuminating article in tw #8, I felt perhaps the other side needed some addressing. I used to be a person that never used "looped sampl. No drum loops, no no guitar riffs, nothing. I was happy in my little siner-synth based world, composing little intricate ditties, and spreading them out to lots of fun FTP sites. I showed these little ditties to my friends, and they thought they were great and all, but they kept on saying, "This sounds like video game music." Good video game soundtracks notwithstanding, this is not an ideal one aspires to. Therefore I set off on a quest to make music that sounded more like "real" music, that is, stuff one hears on most commercial CD's. This, however, turned out to be a very difficult enterprise. Firstly, it is hard to find very clear sounding instruments that sound realistic enough to work in the music. Secondly, one finds out the sad fact that some instruments are simply DAMN HARD to get to sound even recognizable when sampled. Some of my favorite 'non-samplable' instruments are: - real sounding violins/violas - decent distorted electric guitars - accordions / harmonicas (although I came close to the latter) - trumpets/cornets/trombones So therefore I thought, "Well maybe I can sample a riff off of a CD and use it in a tune." After thinking about this a minute, I realized, "Wouldn't this be unfairly ripping off other people's songs?" So, caught at an impasse, I turned on the radio and began flipping around. I was listening to a local college station when something caught my ear. It was quite a unique song. Someone had taken what sounded to be a classic Monk-ish jazz piano riff, including the 'scratch-pop-pop-click-hiss' of the original analog record, totally messed with it, taking snippets of it and re-arranging them, and layering other melodic riffs on top, and underwrote the entire affair with a totally rockin' dub hip-hop loop. I was caught aback. Here was a song, using what some would term as "ripped" samples, which was a) not even vaguely similar to the original, and b) a thoroughly excellent and professional tune. So thus I became a loop junkie. Given, it is very easy to overuse them and end up ripping off the main elements of the song you grabbed the loop from, but with a bit of talent and feel, it is not hard at all to come up with something which is both original and different. I disagree with those who would say that using any sort of a sampled riff is piracy. In fact, I would say that it is a very difficult and respected task to use samples in new and creative ways. I would also say this to my fellow musician Perisoft: You ripped on the NAID compo tune that Basehead entered, claiming that it was 35% ripped from CD samples. My question is this.. If you hadn't gone through in ST3 and played each individual sample, would you have known (or cared) that they were loop snippets? I know for a fact that most of the audience didn't. It may not be as technically impressive as a tune where all of the riffs are tracked, but then again, it is far harder than you think to get riffs to work well like Basehead did. Perhaps you should try it first before you dismiss it as simple and unoriginal. :> In any case, no disrespect to anyone. Airing out stuff like this is good for the scene. Andy necros / FM / LD --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ 4. Defending Base: Original Music ]------------------------------------- article by psibelius [acid.epinicion.lotsagroups] After reading several articles in the last TraxWeekly and 01 news- letters, I thought I'd toss my opinion into the pot. =) It seems a number of people are freaking out over the subject of "originality" in the mods they create and see others create. Here's my totally biased viewpoint (for the 99999999999th time in a row =)...and please remember, these are only opinions of an average guy. If you disagree with anything, then disagree with it and leave it at that. Anyways... As long as a song sounds good to me, and as long as it doesn't contain 90 second long samples that play out a songs entire melody, then I don't mind. I really do detest mods that are nothing more than recordings of people playing their instruments. So theey record a 90 second wave file then chop it into 40 pieces to put it into a mod. WOW. What a great accomplishment. I bet anyone could create a great mod then. Sample a talented musician and call it your 'own' because you 'tracked' it. A complete load of BS. I'm really glad the rules for Music Contest 3 frown upon extended length samples. Everyone ought to write it themselves, piece by piece. Specifically concerning Basehead's NAID, song "Can't Fake the Funk," I'd have to say his piece is as original as most things get. The addition of the flute samples and others only ADD to the atmosphere Base creates in his song. It isn't ripping. He's simply utilizing the best resources he has in order to make the melodies HE wrote sound BETTER. And doesn't it seem logical that considering how good a musician base is, if he didn't use that flute sample in the first place, he would have found a good flute and written it anyways??? That's why some people use drum loops right? To not have to track something that's been done and beaten to death? To make the already tedious job of writing a song faster? Getting a song done in time for a compo??? Suffice to say, if I see another mod like Walkaway (Stargazer/Sonic) win a trackmusic compo, I'm gonna puke (No offense to sg here, I like his mod really much, and his friend's guitar playing is nice too =)... -psibelius [tw] gwie@coyote.csusm.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ 5. Everything You Need To Know About FILE_ID.DIZ ]---------------------- by Charlatan / Epinicion (deslip3@server.uwindsor.ca) One day I decided to leech everything in ftp.cdrom.com's /incoming/music directory (there were around 100 files there). After downloading them, and putting them up on my BBS, I noticed that at least 1 out of every 5 files didn't have a FILE_ID.DIZ, or the FILE_ID.DIZ that was included with the file wasn't done properly. For those of you who don't know what FILE_ID.DIZ is, it's a text file describing what the file is. It makes it easier for users and SysOps to upload files to BBS'es without describing what the file is. (And beleive me, as a SysOp, I've seen some pretty bad descriptions done by users.) You can create your own FILE_ID.DIZ by loading up any text editor and entering a description of your file. Keep in mind that the text in the FILE_ID.DIZ _MUST_ be under 45 columns. If you use more than 45 columns, your description will be cut off on some BBS programs, and it won't look too good. Try to keep your description in the FILE_ID.DIZ under 10 lines. Users hate long descriptions, especially if it fills the whole screen. (It gets annoying when you're listing a lot of files.) For music files, you _SHOULD_ include the name of the composer, the file format (S3M, XM, etc.), the name of the song, and the style of the song (be specific!). If you want, you could include the length of the song (patterns, time, etc.), and a small logo of your group, or whatever. Make your FILE_ID.DIZ descriptive, and attractive. Users won't download a file if they don't know what it is. For a good example of a FILE_ID.DIZ, check out any releases from Kosmic. They do things right. :) If you have any questions or anything, email me... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ 6. Interviews ]--------------------------------------------------------- . . . .. ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ___ ___.___________ ________ . _______ / \ _______ :___| ___\__.___ _ /________\_____ | _. _\______/_ \ /______ __\ . / \ / ____/ __ ____/ |__:___. _ _ _____/ \ /_______ . | . / \/ _/ \ | /. |/ __/ (- -) /__ \WW : | ./ \ \ . \ : / . | \ oO / \ | | \ ._________\ \ : \ . / . | O \ / |___|____\ /. /__________\ |______\ /___._|_______/_/\__/________\/ \/ . /______| \ / . . \/ . =============.=================================.======================== . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... .. . . . . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[ Interview with Maelcum ] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - It was a litle last minute, so I hope it meets eveyrone's expectations. It's a little more 'maelcum' oriented as opposed to 'trax' oriented than the average interview, but I think it'll be alright. -k8to Interviewer . k8to [Kosmic] . rodman@wizvax.net Interviewee . Maelcum [Kosmic] . moddan@ritz.mordor.com. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - k8to - Well, let's start out with the boring but somewhat necessary question, what is your scene and real name and what group/s are you a part of? Maelcum - i'm maelcum of "the Kosmic Free Music Foundation" or Kosmic for short. i'm also in Epinicion, Underground Gabber Source and i think that's it. Maelcum - oh, i'm also the coordinator of Exceedingly Great Grooves, a musicdisk releasing label k8to - Kosmic and you have both been a part of the digital music scene for a long time, can you give us a little history of the group? Maelcum - well, kosmic started as "Kosmic Loader Foundation" in the fall of 1992. it was founded by myself and one other guy with the original intention of it being a group like ACiD, iCE etc. a vga loader and ansi group but i quickly got distracted by tracker music with the release of modedit 1.0 and we became a music group instead then i guess in the very beginning of 1993 or maybe a little before Inspekdah Deck (then known as Venom) joined the group and the rest is history (always wanted to say that : =)< k8to - I'm sure an exhastive list of the members of kosmic would be a bit much, but for posterities sake, who was originally in the boat with you? Maelcum - well, pretty much our lineup until i guess late spring of 1994 was Venom, Lurch, and myself with one or two other guys sandwitched in their somewhere the group was mostly Venom (ID) and myself were responsible for most of the releases until 1994 though. k8to - As well as being the founder of Kosmic, I also understand you hold the (prestigious?) position of being the most prodigious known tracker haveing created a thousand mods or so, where do you draw your inspiration for your work? Maelcum - mostly from the music i listen to, music has always been a pretty important thing for me, although i didn't start to make it much until i discovered tracking i had a had a little expeirience with making music with samplers in a studio while i was in high school, but it was pretty inaccessible to me at the time, beacause an 8-bit sampling keyboard was like $3000 then. k8to - What music do you listen to? Do you have any certain artists that have greatly influenced you? Maelcum - i listen to an awful lot of music of many different styles. when i was growing up it was alot of what is now considered 'alternative' music - the Cure, Siouxie and the Banshees, Depeche Mode, New Order, Ministry, Front 242 and i've always been a big fan of U2, The Police, Men at Work. probably the biggest noticeable influences on my work are groups like the Orb - fellow techno and ambient makers, William Orbit, Autechre, Irresistable Force, etc. k8to - Getting a little more into the technical side, what pograms/tools do you use in the process of creating your mods, and also do you have any certain way you go about assembling a piece? Maelcum - i use programs like Goldwave 2.1 and CoolEdit to create my samples, usually from compact discs i own, or from videotapes etc. then i put together the music with MMEDIT, the infamous tracker from Renaissance. it's far from perfect, but to me the most important function of the software is to stay out of my way and give me as direct a path to the music itself as possible. None of the other trackers really do that for me. The way I make a song varies greatly. lately, it's just been alot of 'doodling' - just sitting down and fooling around until i get something that works, sometimes i get inspired by a single sound or something too. k8to - What current projects do you or kosmic as a whole have cooking right now? Maelcum - well, not a whole lot actually. i'm working to get EGG 3 (entitled "Feelin' Groovy") out the door some time around the end of the month. i'm probably going to be involved with at least one thing for assembly 95, but i don't know yet whether it will be a kosmic production. the next step i see for kosmic is basically to keep doing what we've been doing so well, while increasing awareness of it and getting a bigger audience. k8to - You also have had a number of rather large projects come out of wraps recently. There was a recent musicdisk entitled "Half Baked" only a month or so ago I belive, a demo, of all things to come from a musicgroup, entitled "Flight", which took third at NAID, and I hear you have a new CD out. How do you feel about all these projects? Did they all go well from you perspective? Maelcum - well, yeah, i'm pretty happy with how everything has come out. we were quite happy to get 3rd place at naid for flight. Gooroo did a really nice job on it, and all the music came out really good, so we felt it was a great first demo. The musicpacks have unfortunately received pretty lousy response, but i myself really liked the stuff that was on them, and since we're doing this for fun, and not to sell something, that's all that really matters. Maelcum - Riku Nuottajarvi (IQ of Kosmic) and I have a new CD out. we're releasing under the name FTZ and the album is called "Nothing Is True". it was an interesting new experience to make a CD, because alot of people who never really considered what we were doing seriously take it a little more seriously when it's in the common format of a CD. And it sounds great too, so everyone should order one! :) the sales thus far haven't been exactly stellar, and it's a shame because unless they do pick up we probably won't be able to do more. it's rather expensive compared to putting a new song up for ftp. k8to - I can personally vouch for it with my own unbiased opinion :) Maelcum - :) k8to - It really was cleanly done. Maelcum - yet another satisfied customer. I don't know if these plugs are allowed, but if anyone out there is interested in ordering from our little record label, Area 51 records, you can ftp to kosmic.wit.com /kosmic/area51/ and get the area51.txt file for full info, or visit the Area 51 web site at http://kosmic.wit.com/~kosmic/areawww/area51.html <end of shameless plug :) k8to - In my past experience with you, you have come across as very anti-music industry as it stands today, what with the slogan on the Kosmic WWW site 'The real underground music archive on the internet!' and more severe versions in the past. More recently however, you have expressed some misgivings on the necessity of working with the established channels. How do you stand on this right now? Maelcum - well, doing a CD has opened up my eyes quite alot. it basically comes down to a decision by the artist: do i want to go it alone and risk my own money, time and effort on getting my music out, or do i give that responsibilty to an established record company in exchange for a large part of my potential benefit? after doing the former it's alot easier to see why many artists opt for the latter. i still have alot of problems with the mainstream recording industry. for example, my brother is in a rock band signed to Benson Music Group, a label from Nashville. on their promotional packages for radio stations alone, they spent over $20,000. for what their studio time to make the record cost, i could have equipped three or four entirely functional studioes with all the gear i would need to make literally dozens of records. it just doesn't make much sense to me. part of it is i am sick of the attitude of alot of people in the industry that these are 'necessary' costs - that you've gotta spend that kind of money to make alot of money. i frankly can't see why. to me the only thing that counts is the end result, and throwing alot of money at bad music doesn't make it any better to my ears. actually, in a way i'd like to be known as the "Robert Rodriguez" of music - Rodriguez is the guy who made a film called 'el mariachi' - despite doing it on a $7000 budget in a time when a typical movie costs -millions-, it turned out just as good as most expensive hollywood movies. columbia, the major motion picture studio, noticed this, and has signed him to a contract. now he's got bigger budgets of course, but even now he's only spending like 1/20th of what everyone else spends, and making films just as good. He's proven that it's a myth that money makes a good film. i'd like to show that the same is good for music. k8to - Closely related, where do yourself headed? Do you plan to continue a music career? Maelcum - yeah, i'm probably going to stick with music, since it's been a pretty good thing for me so far. but there's so many other areas out there that really interest me - really exciting stuff, so i don't know. i've always like photography for example, and i'm really interested in the digital photography field. that looks like it could be very innovative. sadly in the end it's going to come down to whatever makes the money. unless things change drastically, music isn't doing that for me. k8to - That pretty much wraps up the interview, if you have anything you particularly like to mention, feel free to take the reins. Maelcum - nope, just want to say thanks to those out there who have supported Kosmic and myself. keep the email (and hopefully the music orders!) coming! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ 7. Epinicion Column]------------------------------------------------------ ___ _______ _____________ ______ ______ _______ ______ _______ ___________ | // \\ \\_____) \\_____) \\_____) \\ \\ | : / o \ o \ \ \ \ \ \ o \ \: // _____// / \ : / \ _____/ \ / : \. \\_______/ _//______\\_|__//______\\_____//______\\_____//____| /: : \\____\\ ______________________________ oT /___//| |________________________// e p i n i c i o n \\________________| We have NO new releases this week. As the end of the academic school year nears, we have other things to concentrate on. But be sure to watch for the 'Otherness' Musicdisk being released at the end of May. Most songs currently submitted are being placed into the disk. Also, guests wanting to release their work in 'Otherness' are welcome. Please send all songs via filemail/uuencode to gwie@coyote.csusm.edu or find me in IRC and DCC your song to me. Newest members this week include Airon an Alien2 in the music department, and Kato in Epinicion's PR department! The latest member count gives us a dramatic SEVENTY-THREE members. =) Epinicion will always be growing, to accomodate all persons, regardless of skill, race, religion, etc...=) Epinicion releases as well as new work from numerous other groups can be found at ftp.cdrom.com /.21/demos/incoming/music. Our musicdisk(s) can be found at kosmic.wit.com /kosmic/epinicion. But as always, it is easiest to DCC this week's new files from us on IRC. Be sure to check out our new (and very underdeveloped =) world wide web homepage! Using Netscape or some other equivalent, http://www.csusm.edu/public/gwie/epi.html. To those thinking of joining Epinicion, or wanting to know more about our philosophy: You need not be great to join Epinicion. You need only to aspire to be great. I quote from "Synners," a novel by P. Cadigan: "We do what we do and we do it because we can." Damn straight. If you are a dedicated person striving to become better, then email us. And join us. We're here for YOU, the musician. So if you think you have what it takes, don't bother waiting. Join Epinicion NOW. Psibelius (Gene Wie) Epinicion Founder gwie@coyote.csusm.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ 8. Kosmic Column ]-------------------------------------------------------- . . .:.........:.. ... . + _:_______ : . + . . \ /__:__ . . . + . .:::. . \ / / . ... ... ````` ...... / _/ ___/_____________.__...:::::::.:::::::. ::::: .:::::'''' + / \ \ _ \ ___.::::::: :::: :::::: .::::: :::::: / /\ \__\_\ \____ \ `::::: :::; :::::'.::::::.::::::. ..:. . /_____/ \_____________________\..::::; ``` :::::::::::::;:::::::::::::; : : \ \___.._ ......:;:::: __ _ ``:::::::``` ```:::::::`` : : \___..__.. .::::::::::: __._ . . . (WW) . . .:............ .. . ``````` .+ . . : : + ... .... ...... a constellation of stars! 'Ello there. Nothing extremely exciting has happened to Kosmic lately, so I'll run down the basics. Latest release: "Modern Society (Pheared Society Remix)" MTM by Maelcum 5/3/95, 4m36s (ftp://kosmic.wit.com/kosmic/songs/95/k_msoc.zip) Coming soon (already maybe?): debut Kosmic release by Quarex. EGG 3 ("What Musicdisk Player?") is 3 meg and growing. Submit if you must, to moddan@ritz.mordor.com. "Nothing Is True", the new CD by FTZ (Maelcum and IQ) is now shipping. 68 minutes of incredible music, one of the tracks ("Hitchhiking Reticulan") took second place in the NAID '95 music compo! Check out AREA51.TXT, included with any recent Kosmic release, to order. Nothing to do with Kosmic, but I thought I'd mention that I'm assembling a musicdisk of all-new four-channel music. Everybody is welcome to submit. Its purpose is basically show off what musicians used to 16 channels now can pack into four. Email me at vossa@rpi.edu for details. And finally.. Top Ten reasons Quarex was accepted into Kosmic! 10) Figured it was time to fill the void Tranzik Toffee left behind. 9) Who else could do "Soulless ]I["? 8) Figured anybody with an "x" in their nick could get in. 7) Hadji was unavailable at the time. 6) Affirmative action regulations require it. 5) He makes MTM's. Maelcum makes MTM's. What a coincidence! 4) Because he asked _politely_. 3) Karl-Nerd was taken. 2) "Quarex-style" was the only type of music we weren't doing. 1) One word: "Pork". - Phoenix [Kosmic] - vossa@rpi.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ 9. Distribution Sites ]------------------------------------------------- -BBS System- -Country- -Number- -Sysop- ___________________________________________________________________________ | Beats per Minute | Canada | (418)660-8137 | Populus | | MultiMedia GS | Singapore | (65)252-1220 | Lee Teck Chee | | Velvet Demosite | Belgium | +32-3-3851594 | Sleeping Dog | | CybeR WeB | Italy | +39-0331-310641 | Mattia Scotti | | The Portal | Sweden | +46-26-196363 | Coyote & Cyanid | +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If you wish to become a distro site for TraxWeekly, please mail your information to Popcorn at campbell@fox.nstn.ca (and not to populus@llc.org) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ End ]------------------------------------------------------------------- . :: ::: : . ..... ..............................:::.................:.... ::: : :::: : .::::. .:::::.:::. ..:::: :::: : :: :: ::: .:: :: :: WW:::: : ::. :: ::: .:: :: .:: :::: : :::.::. ::: .:: .:: .:::::... :: :::.. ... ..: ... ..:::::::::::::::: .:: .::::::: :::::::: ::::::.. ::: ::: ::: : until next week! =) .. ... .. ....... ............... .................:..... .. . :