_//\\________________________________________________________________________
_\\__T_A_T_I_C___L_I_N_E________________________________________ April, 2001
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\\//__ Monthly Scene E-Zine ________________________________ 205 Subscribers
_____________________________________________________________________________


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  Table Of Contents
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     Opening:
           Message From the Editor
           Letters From Our Readers
     Features:
        Crack Intros
        Ambience 2001 Party Report
        Psycle -- New Release & Notes
     Columns:
        Music:
           The Listener -- Music by Nagz, 4t thieves and Gun Purist
           Retro Tunage -- "Beast From Inside" by Cube
        Demo:
           Screen Lit Vertigo -- Stigma by Emotive (party-version)
        General:
           Scene Sense: -- The Mod vs. MIDI Sequencing (and MP3)
           Editorial -- Honesty in Music
           Link List -- Get Somewhere in the Scene
        Closing:
           Credits

--=--=--
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  Message From the Editor
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
  It is of my regret to inform you that we are going to be short one
  member of our staff from this issue on.  Gekko, who has written for us
  ever since Demojournal ceased circulation, is going to be parting from
  us.  The feature article on "Crack Demos" in this issue will be his
  last.  We wish him luck in the future, and hope that he might pop in and
  write us every once in a while.

  In other news, we have a pretty decent issue this month.  Seven is back
  with his party reports (the boy loves demo parties) as he reports on
  Ambience 2001.  He also reviews the winning demo from Ambience in Screen
  Lit Vertigo.  Tryhuk has also given us some good reviews on music, new
  and old this month in both of his columns:  Retro Tunage and The
  Listener.  Then, you got the editorials from myself and PsiTron.

  Read up, and enjoy.

                --Coplan


--=--=--
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  Letters From Our Readers
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  -=- Letter from Dilvish -=-
  Hi Coplan,

     Just because a new OS will not be a viable option for a while does
  not mean that the scene should ignore alternatives.  A lot of us are
  very unsatisfied with the popular OS, and some of us have the skills to
  work on a BETTER alternative for everybody.  I think I mentioned in an
  earlier response in this debate that an OS capable of real-time
  streaming, signal processing, and performance-oriented networking would
  not cause a sacrifice in performance for database applications or
  word-processing.  We could use it, and end users could eventually
  migrate for FREE, if they chose.  Will we try to force it?  Certainly
  not.  Will we lie down and do nothing, pretending that the popular
  choice is "good enough" for us, just because it's "good enough" for
  end-users?  No way.

     Scene coders know how to make sexy interfaces, slick graphics, killer
  audio, cool effects, and make things skinnable.  (Look at Sonique if you
  need an application example).  That's the UI stuff that will win over
  the average Joe.  In the mean-time, it will take literally years of work
  to create an OS that could compete with Windows in usability or
  performance.  Using Linux as a base might give us a big head-start, but
  the hardware support issue will probably not solve itself for a few
  years yet, and Linux, though it's improving every day, is not quite
  there yet on many other fronts.  However, Linux is open source, and many
  of us will be happy to hack away at it until it seems like the ONLY
  option for the demoscene.  Already, there is headway being made with
  things like the ALSA project, and the recently proposed driver
  standardization (which may or may not catch on with manufacturers).

     The bottom line is, the debate is not over.  Many of us are not
  satisfied, whatever popular opinion says, and thanks to the growing
  strength of the open source movement, we may have the last word in the
  end, whether the rest of the scene comes in late in the game or not.  I
  suspect that we won't have the support of the rest of the scene until we
  have made tremendous strides, and it would be silly to cling to Windows
  any longer.  Personally, I think it's long overdue.

                --Dilvish

--=--=--
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  Crack Intros
  By:  Gekko
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

     Let us start by going back to where the scene has come from. I am
  hesitant because I do not know how much you, the readers, have heard
  about this. Several of you know all this, and there are n plus one
  articles and internet pages about the origins of this little community.
  Still, to be sure, the best is if I start from the basics, and make up
  my own version of The Story.

     If you know at least as much about computers that you are reading
  this article, you must also know that there are computer games, which
  are not free, of course, and there are illegal groups of programmers who
  spend their free time on removing the copy protection and making these
  freely available to anyone. They are the 'crackers' and their community
  is called the 'warez scene'. This movement can be dated back to about
  the early 1980s, and to the ancient computers Commodore 64 and Atari.
  Probably these times are not that far from today and us after all, and
  there are many of you for whom this was the motivation to get involved
  in the scene. At least in my case it was a C64 and around 1992 where the
  initiative came from.

     In the early days these crackers were of course proud of being able
  to overcome the tricks the game developers devised against them. This is
  why they wanted to sign their names in the programs. This 'sign' was
  soon developed to a short show of their name with a souce of video
  effects and music. This was displayed before the game itself begun,
  there comes the name 'introduction', or in a short form, 'intro'. To
  compare to something from 'real life', these were similar to the logo of
  the media companies that we can see before a movie begins.

     To turn back to technical details, these effects had to be somehow
  squeezed into the game program itself, where there was hardly any empty
  place left. This is where the size limitation comes from. Later on, some
  of the programmers realized that they had more fun with working on these
  effects than with cracking or playing the games - because this activity
  is creative. You can express yourself in this in a way - yes, you can
  even call it 'art', even if some of the people would look blankly at you
  if you do so. These programmers were to be called 'coders'. The warez
  scene itself had a competitive spirit, the best was the one who could
  crack the hardest protection, the one who could deliver the most
  programs. This was where the idea came from that a competition ('compo')
  could be held for these intros, too. The goal was to make it as
  spectacular as possible. To make them comparable, a common size
  limitation was set for the entries to these competitions. This was
  different for each machine, now on the PC the 64 kilobytes limitation is
  the most common. That is, your goal is to write a program that can not
  exceed 64 kilobytes in size, and it has to show as spectacular graphics
  and has to play as good music as possible. At this point, the name
  'intro' had not too much sense anymore, since it was not to introduce
  anything, but the name stuck. At least this way we can trace the story
  back easier.

     The other idea was to abolish this size limitation and make a program
  that demonstrates all what the programmers could force the computer do -
  this would be a demonstration, a so-called 'demo'.

     The people who create these demos and intros are the members of the
  'demo scene'. Hardly any of them have connection with the 'warez scene',
  these two communities gradually splitted. In these days the motivation
  of someone to become a demoscener has usually nothing to do with
  cracking, it is rather about programming, computer graphics or music.

     We the demosceners know how the story of the demos and intros
  continue up to today. But most of us do not know about how the other
  path went. The computer game companies, not surprisingly, did not stop
  the production of games after the creation of the demoscene, and the
  warez scene lived on. I do not want to write their history, my only
  concern now is their intros. The name of these was from then on crack
  intro or 'cracktro', to distinguish it from a demoscene intro.

     Nowadays on the PC these intros are not anymore that markable to the
  people who play pirated games. They are not inserted into the game
  itself but included as a separate program - if the user wants to know
  what that could be, he starts it, otherwise it remains unnoticed. There
  is also a new kind of program - the installer. This is a small
  application which helps the user set up the pirated game onto the
  computer. This is usually very much like an intro (has a logo of the
  group and music) but it also has practical application apart from
  showing who the author was.

     How does a cracktro look like, then? It is similar to a demoscene
  intro (if this helps), but the old features of intros are kept most of
  the time. We can see old school logos and music - those which remind one
  to the works before the early 1990s. Graphics-wise this means graffiti
  type logos and fonts and simple effects like starfields or text
  scrollers. Old school music of the warez scene and the demoscene is
  'chip music'. This style is the imitation of the sound which could be
  made by the old sound synthetiser chips. The intros look like this
  probably because of the nostalgy of the crackers, and they also signal
  the fellow-feeling on the scene: "we have roots" and "we belong
  together". They are very similar to old school intros on the demoscene.

     This is time I named a few groups. If you became interested, you can
  get their intros over the internet (see the list of URLs in the end of
  the article). There is Razor 1911, Fairlight and Myth; all these were
  active from the mid-1980s up to today. There are quite a few spectacular
  intros by these groups. To name an influential crack intro coder, I
  would choose Hetero of Razor 1911. Interestingly, Razor 1911 and
  Fairlight have demo divisions, too. The members of these make no illegal
  work but create demos for demoscene parties. Class is a newer group, but
  probably the most active one these days. They have very spectacular
  installers. Xpression is a group that creates crack intros. It is not
  directly involved in the warez scene, that is, they do not crack
  programs. They make intros to warez scene groups on request. They are
  not involved in the demoscene either, they do not make intros for
  competitions on demo parties. There is a collection of the intros they
  made to several dozens of crack groups. There is also a site especially
  dedicated to cracktros, called Intro Zone. This is an excellent
  collection of crack intros by several groups. As a side note, I would
  like to recommend chiptune.com, where you can find a collection of chip
  musics, the old school style which is most commonly used in these
  intros.

     A warez scener might frown when reading this article, I made
  simplifications and the only aspect of the warez scene I considered are
  intros. However, if you are not into these communities, you might have
  already got dizzy by the flood of the terms and acronyms. It would have
  been pointless to get into further details. I hope I was able to tell a
  few new pieces of The Story and I could convince you that you should
  click some of these URLs below.

                --Gekko

  -=- Related Pages -=-
  Intro Zone - members.easyspace.com/erekose
  Xpression - www.xpression.org
  Fairlight Crack Division - www.flt.org
  Fairlight Demo Division - www.fairlight.org
  Chip Music - www.chiptune.com



--=--=--
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  Ambience 2001 Party Report
  By:  Seven
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

  -=- Friday, 2 February -=-

     I had some problems getting transport to Ambience, but in the end I
  just left work half a day earlier to get there. You've got to set
  priorities in your life :) The downside was that I arrived at 16:30, and
  the doors would open at 19:00. That's 2.5 hours standing outside,
  waiting in the cold, listening to the conversations of the other
  people waiting there, I noticed most of them were gamers. I didn't dare
  to walk too far away from my PC, but I found one other scener, the
  german musician: Skyrunner. At 19 o'clock, the people outside (already
  several hundreds) started to get nervous, counting down and yelling at
  the orgos etc. But it took another 30 minutes before the doors finally
  opened, and only a few people could enter at a time. That didn't prevent
  the crowd from pushing everyone towards the entrance. Suddenly I
  didn't feel as cold anymore, but on the other hand much flatter (mass
  hysteria at it's best).

     After paying the entrance fee, we could grab a lot of free goodies
  that the sponsors had dumped at Ambience: game magazines, game CD's and
  dito DVD's. To avoid this game-overkill, I went on a search for the
  demoscene areas. Area C and D, five classrooms on the first floor,
  should be our home for the next few days. But the people I met in the
  C-room told me they were freelanners, and the next room was
  already occupied by some hackers. In the D-room some German sceners had
  settled down, and so did I.

     While I had to accept the risk of being trampled in the "queue", I
  didn't accept that the same would happen to my PC, therefore I had to
  leave it outside while getting in (besides, it's too hard to carry a
  monitor, a PC case, a backpack and a sleepingbag all at the same time).
  That's dangerous, of course, and when I came back my worst fears had
  become reality: some vandal had damaged my PC!!! Luckily it must have
  been a beginner vandal, cause all he did was rip out the escape key
  from my keyboard. Still it's very annoying: I can't quit the text editor
  with which I'm typing this now (Message to the vandal: One day I'll
  find you, idiot, and you can be sure you'll have to buy me a brand new
  escape key!)

     After having installed my stuff, I tried to get the network running.
  In the meantime more german sceners arrived, among them Farbrausch and
  Smash Design. I had a little discussion with KB and other farbrausch
  members about their cheating last year ("Damn, you still remember
  that?"), and while I don't agree with their pro-cheating arguments, they
  seems to be nice guys.

     Djefke arrives too, plus I noticed the Inscene orgos in Area A, so
  there are at least a few other Belgians here. After a lot of struggling
  with the network settings, I can finally access the LAN and
  www.ambience.nl, which is were the schedules, the forum etc are located.


  -=- Saturday, 3 February -=-

     The farbrausch guys are showing some things with their own projector
  on a small screen in section D: the final version of The Product, an
  anti-quake wild demo. The website and the domain name server have been
  down for some time, but now they're accessible again. Still the surprise
  compo rules are not yet published, nor can we see which movies will be
  played at the movie theater. And the forum on the website is a nice
  feature, but it seems as though the orgos do not read it, or at least
  they don't answer any questions :(

     Skyrunner is getting tired, he wants to sleep but the deadline for
  submitting 4-channel mods is at 9:00 in the morning, and so far the
  website gives an "access denied" error when you click a submit link.
  Rather than risking to sleep through the deadline, he stays awake till
  the submit forms work.

     At 4:12, 2 out of 3 tables in our room suffer from a power failure
  (OK, actually the computers on those tables suffer). Luckily I'm sitting
  at the good table :) An organizer explains that some fuse blew up, and
  that it's *not* a good idea to let the other tables draw power from
  ours, because that would just blow up the remaining fuse. Submitting via
  the website still doesn't work, but now it's allowed to bring your
  entries to the info desk on disks or CD's.

     7:12: Awake again after a few hours of sleep. Besides the large
  sleeping hall in another building, this year there's also an auditorium
  on the first floor used as a sleeping area. We like that.

     9:18: Now its Djefkes turn to catch some sleep while I keep an eye on
  the hardware. But he returns five minutes later, the security guys had
  woken him up because he was sleeping in the hallway, which is forbidden.
  They also came to check the rooms and woke up the people sleeping under
  the tables, and confiscated a pack of cigarettes from a German scener
  who was smoking again in the classroom (It's only allowed in area B and
  the relaxation area). I support them on the smoking issue, and I can
  imagine some good reasons why it's unsafe to let everybody sleep where
  they want, but when some sceners wanted to discuss, the security crew
  just said "Hey, we don't make the rules, we're just here to enforce
  them!" That's a rather lame conversation killer :/ Luckily the orgos
  have started to answer the questions on the forum, albeit on an
  irregular base.

     12:00: the first compo (4-channel music) should start about now, but
  there's no one near the compo hall... Remembering last year's schedule
  slips, I choose not to wait and go back to section D.

     13:15: I went to the info desk to ask if they could send someone to
  the scene areas to warn when the compo starts, because the network is
  malfunctioning again. The guy at the desk said he'd try to do so. In one
  of the hallways some first-aid helpers were helping a guy who was lying
  on the floor, it seems he had had an epileptical attack or something.
  The result of staring at a screen for too long, combined with a serious
  lack of sleep? Nah, in that case there wouldn't be much people left
  standing here :)

     15:00: The new compo schedule is available, due to the problems with
  the website all compos are delayed (but we knew that already). The 4
  channel  music and the 4K intro compos will start at 4 o'clock.

     15:50: And here we go again: a local TV station has send out a crew
  to make an entertaining little report on a game/demoparty. For those who
  think that the scene is becoming mainstream: I'll only believe that if I
  don't see any TV-crew at any party during an entire year. After they had
  made some overview-shots of the room, the female interviewer (blonde of
  course) was semi-interested in Update, I guess because he had
  painted his hair green. Then she asked an organizer why there was
  rivalry between the hard-core sceners and the gamers etc etc. That
  interview took place in the doorstep of the room, so no-one could go to
  the comporoom without disturbing them. Clever, clever :/

     The 4-channel compo had some decent entries, but most were too close
  to house/gabber for my taste. There were only 2 4K-intros, both of low
  quality. a low-resolution demo about the life of a pixel, and a
  java-applet that showed one water/morph effect and a scroller in Dutch.
  That java-intro was made by Ile, and he wrote some controversial things
  (in a funny style) in that scroller: gamers should be beaten up, the
  organizers are nazis because the've stolen cigarettes from the German
  sceners etc. But the TV-crew was recording the 4K compo, and because the
  orgos clearly didn't like to have that scroller broadcasted, the intro
  was quickly interrupted :)

     Because these joke-intros didn't do the capabilities of the demoscene
  much justice, and since the TV-crew couldn't wait for the demo/animation
  compo, Please The Cookie Thing/Aardbei (the winner of last year's 64K
  compo) was shown on the bigscreen too.

     The website is up again, with a bunch of angry messages on the forum
  from freelanners complaining about the slow and unreliable network, from
  sceners complaining about the security, and on and on. I shrug and go
  get some fries and a sandwich at the cafetaria, which works flawlessly
  :)

     18:30: With half an hour delay, the animation compo starts.There are
  5 entries, the first is rECTUM cAUDA's Star Whores, which starts as a
  parody on Star Wars, but doesn't follow that theme till the end.
  Technically it's quite OK, but overal it's a typical rECTUM cAUDA prod.
  Second comes a fly-through of a nuclear reactor, which was rather
  boring, except for the impressive  modelling of the fluid moving through
  pipes. This one crashed near the end, it was shown again but with the
  same result. Must have been an corrupt upload :/ Next came a dutch
  joke-entry "Nul Vleugel", which is the literal translation of "Zero
  Wing". As you can guess, it's about "All your base are belong to us!"
  (During a mail conversation with Baxter/Green before the party, I had
  guessed that at least 3 productions would abuse that phrase. We'll see
  if I was right). The next entry was a rather boring concept-video of
  people sitting on chairs, and the last was IMHO the best one:
  Legoland/Parabyte. Yet another Lego-inspired production, about two
  little men fighting each other with cars, a buldozer, a heli,... The
  texts are a bit zany, but the animations are cool :) The graphic compos
  (handdrawn, photo-based and raytraced) followed a bit later, but the
  quality wasn't very high :/


     21:30: Before the remaining music compos start, an additional
  handdrawn and photobased picture were shown, maybe they missed the
  deadline or got lost on the web. The multichannel compo had 10 entries,
  most of them were quite enjoyable, a bit ambient/trance. According to
  Djefke, they all sounded the same, but he can't know since he left after
  the third tune or so. After a 10-minute pause, the house compo started,
  so I left. Those housetunes all sound the same anyway :)

     23:24: The house compo is over, and all remaining demo compos will
  start tomorrow around noon. The network is being replaces piece by
  piece, it seems that the fiber cables are causing problems (don't ask me
  how that's possible), and now we're getting regular UTP cables. The
  freelanners have a collective heart attack, judging from the postings on
  the forum ( "Lambience is the worst LAN-party I've ever attended!" and
  the like). Since I've a 10 Mbit card anyway, I notice only a better
  stability. Good.


  -=- Sunday, 4 February -=-

     2:27 Not much is happening. I'm leeching movies (Wallace and Groomit
  :)), but the server is under heavy load. I might as well get some sleep
  in the meantime.

     6:11 Back from dreamland, and appearently so many people are sleeping
  now that the servers are much faster :) I've to be careful not to kick
  Skyrunner in the head, cause he's sleeping under the table.

     8:11 Almost everyone is sleeping now, also under tables or in
  hallways. The security doesn't seem to care anymore: one guy walked in
  and pretended to scan the room for sleeping people, and there was this
  scener not really visible but snoring *really* loud, and the security
  guy just walked away :)

     8:42 Voting and downloading from the website works for a few
  categories, nice.

     10:56: Avoozl is searching for a bootable floppy and an anti-virus
  program that can be started from a (Dos)floppy, because Inopia's
  computer is heavily infected. We tried with F-prot, and it managed to
  clean up the mess.

     14:30: All compos have passed. There was only one 64K intro, the
  invitro for Mekka/Symposium, from Farbrausch. The demo compo followed
  next, and was fraught with problems: one demo crashed, another was
  actually live recompiled (debug version) on the bigscreen. A third one
  (Bluemchen, a joke demo by Schoko/Kekse) showed a nice setup window at
  the start, which disappeared after you pressed OK, and the rest of the
  demo was loaded, which took about ten seconds. Unfortunatly, the mouse
  pointer didn't change to an hourglass, nor was there any other
  indication that the demo was still active. So the orgos (who were
  probably a tad nervous at that point) started a second instance of the
  demo, and of course the whole thing crashed again :( After 45 minutes we
  had finally seen all 5 demos, which were from medium to low quality.


  (Rest of report written at home)

     Back in section D, the Farbrausch people had somehow found out how to
  get into the organizers preselection system, which lacked any
  protection. They messed with the settings and laughed at the stupidity
  of the organizers. A security guy noticed the commotion, and they showed
  him what was wrong. An hour later (after I had voted), we heard that the
  public voting had been replaced by jury voting because a) not enough
  people had voted and b) people had complained they could vote only for
  two of the five demos (I suppose because they tried to vote when
  Farbrausch had disabled the others).

     So we had to wait two hours longer before the prize ceremony started,
  while the jury judged the productions. In the meantime I downloaded the
  wild entries, talked with Inopia and other dutch sceners, and played
  some games of table soccer with Diver, Skyrunner and another guy whose
  name I don't remember. By sheer luck, I even managed to win one :)

     But yet another problem arose: the gamers wanted to leave Ambience.
  Normally, to prevent theft, it's forbidden to walk away with equipment
  during the demo compos and the prize ceremony. The orgos had argued with
  the gamers, but they couldn't convince them to wait till the prize
  ceremony was over. So we were told that the safety of our (the sceners)
  hardware could not be guaranteed during the prize ceremony :( As a
  compromise, it was forbidden to move PC's in the demoscene sections, and
  sceners in the other halls could bring their hardware in out hallway.

     Fed up with waiting, some sceners started to hit on the door of the
  compo hall. An angry orgo opened, and was quite surprized when someone
  sugested that it would be nicer if we could wait inside the compohall,
  watching some old demos. After consulting the other orgos, they decided
  that that would be better indeed, and so we could at least sit down and
  watch something.

     Finally the prize ceremony started. There wasn't much enthousiasm
  from the audience: hardly any applause, booing when the results for a
  gaming compo were anounced (strangely, even the gamers themselves didn't
  applaud for the winners of a gaming compo). The prizes were always a
  T-shirt, some software (often games) and (for the bigger ones) some
  hardware. Most sceners who won games threw them to the audience, much to
  the pleasure of the gamers. Skyrunner placed third in the normal music
  compo, and Farbrausch of course won the 64K intro compo. KB managed to
  throw his game in such a direction that none of the gamers could catch
  it, I'm not sure if that was on purpose or by accident :) The demo compo
  was won by Stigma/Emotive, the demo that needed a live recompile on the
  bigscreen.

     And so Ambience was over. Djefke and I said goodbye to the other
  people in section D, and we promised to visit Mekka/Symposium to see
  them again. We hopped in Djefkes car and drove back to Belgium.

     So how do I feel about Ambience 2001? Well I don't like being
  negative, but here I've no choice: the organizing sucked badly, from a
  demoscene point of view. I don't care about the network problems (which
  were caused by oversensitive powersupplies in the switches, resulting in
  massive random broadcasts, read it at www.ambience.nl), they tried hard
  to solve that. But it seems the orgos didn't learn anything from last
  year: compos were still not announced properly, people still had to wait
  way too long in a cold hallway without any indication when the doors
  would open, the security guys couldn't speak English and some were
  rather arrogant, etc etc. Add to this the low quality of the compos and
  the slow network, and you'll understand the people (sceners AND gamers)
  who say they won't visit Ambience again next year. I still had much fun
  seeing old friends again and meeting new people, but it could have been
  much better. We'll see next month if Mekka/Symposium manages to fulfil
  the expectations.

                --Seven


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  The Listener
    Music by Nagz, 4t thieves and Gun Purist
  By:  Tryhuk
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

  -=- Nagz: "Shame of Moquiwa" -=-

     After some good experience with nagz's music during last few months, I
  decided to download all his "language lab" releases. "Shame of moquiwa"
  seemed to me as a most interesting track and that's why I'm bringing it
  to you now. As I try to find and define a style of this track, I'm
  getting in a serious trouble. It has a lot out of a music of Siren,
  especially out of his songs in Unreal. In some places nagz copies some
  of his awesome leads you could hear in the mentioned game, but he also
  adds to it something of his own and makes a bit fun out of it. But that
  isn't what makes the track so special. He uses many sounds like lovely
  short saxophone, additional flutes,vocals and gives to this track a
  unique sound. Sorry but I'm not able to describe it, but if you like
  melodic music with fresh ideas, this song is something for you.

  Song Information:
    Title:  Shame of Moquiwa
    Author:  Nagz
    Release date:  2000
    Length:  3m40s
    Filename (zipped/unzipped):  ll-034.zip / ngz-mqws.xm
    File Size (zipped/unzipped):  907kb / 1.5mb
    Source:  ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/language_lab/ll-034.zip


  -=- 4t thieves: "Mists of Time, EP" -=-

     I made quite a lot of downloads in a last few days and this EP seemed
  to me as a best release to pick for you. If you take a look on it,
  you'll find out that there isn't anything special on this music, it
  doesn't contain any revolutionary ideas nor catchy leads. It is just a
  three track EP with ambient music. What I like on it are its fresh
  samples, its calm game with the sounds that doesn't necessarily try to
  be experimental and prefers rather the music itself. I think that 4t
  thieves proved by their other releases that their music is worth trying.
  If you like ambient music and 30mb are no problem for you, consider
  downloading this EP.

  Song Information:
    Title:  Mist of Time
            Mist of Time Ambient
            Trancendental
    Author:  4t thieves
    Release date:  2001
    Length:  6m39s + 8m47s + 5m19s
    Filename:  see source
    File Size:  29mb
    Source:  http://kahvi.stc.cx/audio.html
       ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/kahvicollective/
          kahvi017a_4tthieves-mistsoftime.mp3
          kahvi017b_4tthieves-mistsoftimeambient.mp3
          kahvi017c_4tthieves-trancendental.mp3


  -=- Gun Purist "Slinky Red Thing" -=-

     If I would try to roughly describe this track, I would have to use
  same words as I used for "mist of time". It is an enjoyable track,
  almost ambient, that builds on nice vocals of Tori Amos, fast but soft
  percussion and kind and memorable melodies. Upsetting and calming at one
  time.

  Song Information:
    Title:  Slinky red thing
    Author:  Gun Purist
    Release date:  07/12/00
    Length:  4m27s
    Filename:  gun-purist-slinky-red-thing.mp3
    File Size:  4.2mb
    Source:  http://www.mono211.com/content/releases/nmomp1.html

    ftp://mirror.support.nl/pub/mono/drfetid/gun-purist-slinky-red-thing.mp3

                --Tryhuk


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Psycle
     New Release & Notes
  By:  ksn
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

  PSYCLE (i know you know and like it) has a new version (1.5b1plus)

  Here's a sum up of all the improvements :

  Note:
    + is addition
    ! is bug fix

  + "twf" command added and slightly changed the Generators Bar.
  + Note playback on Machine View!
  + Mouse support (Cursor positioning and block selecting)
  + Track Soloing (Pressing S or the green light- Mute with M)
  + Added Interpolation of command parameters. The Key is CTRL+I
  + Tempo and TPB pattern commands added. They are FFxx and FDxx
     respectively
  + ".psy" extension is added automatically when saving.
  + Added posibility to change the Generator/Instrument of the Selected
     Block.
  + Added < > to change the Generator.
  + Added the missing code to the "Dec" and "Clear" buttons in the
     Sequencer.
  + Added Block Saving as a Request of Gerwin. Saves the selected block to
     a file
  + Added parameter numbering to the internal Effects (I forgot that, sorry)
     The key for the "twf" command is the same than the "twk", but pressing
     Shift
  + Block Transpose Added. Use CTRL+Q to move upwards and CTRL+A downwards
     (if french keyb conf is used, then CTRL+Q is downwards and CTRL+A
     upwards)
  ! Fixed crash when showing the properties dialog of machines with a long
     name
  ! Patched the crash bug when loading some psycle songs that use VST's.
  ! Fixed strange crash with some old songs (1.1b1?) that had a wrong TPB
  ! Fixed bug where Parameters of machines weren't shown
  ! Fixed a loss of the current directory after loading or saving songs.
  ! Changes in the "NewValue" Dialog
  ! Fixed the Machine moving bug when the Machine frame got the focus
  ! Instrument change with the arrows correctly changes the instrument
  ! TPB correctly updated when loading a song.
  ! !!!!___Changed TPB command from FDxx to FExx___!!!!
  ! Fixed bug where setting FF00/FD00 crashed psycle
  ! Fixed bug where also using twk/twf the tempo/TPB was changed
  ! Interpolation now iterpolates the full command/parameter row, not only
     the parameter part.
  ! Now trully fixed the lost of directory when loading (I fixed it when
     saving, but for some reason I didn't for loading)

  The program can be found at psycledelics as usual:
     http://www.pastnotecut.org/psycle/

                --ksn


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Retro Tunage
    "Beast From Inside" by Cube
  By:  Tryhuk
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

     When I started to write this review for the first time, I thought I
  will drop just a few lines because (as was sung in many songs) words
  loose their sense if they've been all said before. But then I forgot all
  prepared text in my work and I'm writing it for the second time and I
  think I'll make it a bit longer this time.

     I'm quite sure I mentioned this track before in demojournal as a part
  of Dee musicdisks. Of course there are more very good songs by Cube I
  can write about, but this one still stays as my favorite because of some
  unknown reason. One time I even thought to write about a completely
  different song, but I prefer being a bit repetitive and write with
  interest than to be innovative and produce crap. I think that many
  scene people also need to take it into their hearts.

     But now, let us proceed to the review. As you might guess it is one
  of those melodic songs with distorted samples and well memorable
  memories. Not by accident was Dee 2, a musicdisk with music by  Nitro,
  Teque and Cube picked as one of the best in the year 1997. Of  course it
  wasn't only Dee 2 musicdisk that came out and soon, on the  third  one
  appeared a song "beast from inside", one of cube's best  songs ever. It
  has all what a good song needs - a well designed  multilayered
  structure, very good and memorable melodies and excellent panning so all
  of the instruments remain clear and they don't get lost  under other
  sounds. I believe that used samples are rather a secondary  thing. I'm
  sure that if you would substitute them by a completely different set,
  you would still have a great song. Also transitions of the song are well
  made, they don't break the tempo and they don't loose too much of the
  power.

     Let us take a deeper look on the particular layers. Most of people
  notice from the sound of drumline that it consists out of drum loops,
  but because they're short it still gives to the author enough space  for
  variation. They are more consistent than a tracked loops and they also
  sound more realistic - nothing wrong with that. Chord progression is
  surprisingly simple - Cube opens with two tone consonance and jumps to
  classical 3 note chords one octave above. You might notice that he
  often repeats same chords in many patterns in sequence, with a change of
  only one note. Because he plays all notes of the chord with a delay and
  changes always a last note of the  chord, he creates a nice feeling
  through this simple trick. In some sequences he features a few new
  chords and works with them in the second part, but still it is a perfect
  presentation how much can be  done with a few accords.

     What left now are the leads and accompanying sounds. I think there's
  not much to say about leads, they are lovely. For the secondary melodies
  and for the ambience Cube uses many sounds, many times with very fast
  melody or with very dynamic volume (like guitars). He changes them very
  often so the song doesn't sound same all the time even when it has only
  minor changes.

     I'm afraid this article grew too much, so I'll end it up. If you're
  trying to make experimental music, don't forget that melody is what
  makes a music and let this song to be an example of this. Good night or
  what  time you have. Go and track something nice.

  Song Information:
    Title:  Beast from inside
    Author:  Cube
    Release date:  March 15, 1997
    Length:  4m16s trimmed
    Filename (zipped/unzipped):  beast.zip / beast.xm
    File Size (zipped/unzipped):  320k / 647k
    Source:  http://db.cs.helsinki.fi/~tlonnber/files/mod/beast.zip

                --Tryhuk


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Screen Lit Vertigo
     Stigma by Emotive (party-version)
  By:  Seven
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

  Found at www.scene.org
  1st place at Ambience 2001 demo compo

  System requirements:
     A recent nVidia card, resolution is fixed at 800*600.
     A heavy CPU and 14 Mb diskspace

  Test Machine: PIII 900 192MB, SB128, GeForce 2MX 32MB, Win98

  The credits:
     Code: Pleques
     Music: Crystal Score

  The Demo:
     In the (Dutch) info file, it's written that this demo was made in 3
  days, and that the author is happy with the monitor he won with it.
  We're glad for him, but it's clear Stigma is *very* unfinished: it stops
  very abruptly and the music fades out suddenly, no setup possibilities,
  9 Mb uncompressed images etc. So why did the Ambience orgos vote Sigma
  numberr one? Well, first there's the music by Crystal Score: it's a
  track with a lot of variation, it starts with a flight operator talking,
  then it uses gregorian voices, a bit later an asian flute kicks in...
  Weird, but it all fits together nicely. There's a perfect balance
  between rhythm and melody, something that matters a lot for me.

     The effects include flat-shaded mountains and psychedelic colored
  morphing blobs, complex particle systems and motion-blurred transparant
  tubes. The latter two effects look quite good, and switches to a new
  effects are synced to the music. There's also one good picture of a
  chinese man, might be handdrawn.

  Overall:
     Stigma is quite buggy. Once, it refused to start, saying there was
  something wrong in a .cpp file, and once it has changed my windows
  background image from "spread" to "centered". It's also very unfinished,
  with several effects shown twice to fill the timeframe. I would
  recommend you to wait for the final, but the author himself says in the
  info file there probably won't be one, as he thinks the demo isn't worth
  it. So, check it out if you're curious, or if you want to listen to the
  soundtrack.

                --Seven

--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Scene Sense
     The Mighty Mod vs. Malicious MIDI Sequencing (and the MP3)
  By: PsiTron
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

     For the last two months, I have given you my thoughts on OSes and
  while the arguments about them are very far from over, the one thing I
  have found about the OS war is that every single person is standing
  behind facts - facts misconstrued with opinions, that is. Thus, the
  reason no one gets anywhere is because everyone is right and wrong at
  the same time, by providing a mix of such fact and opinion. The facts,
  also are a complex mess of system configurations themselves; different
  drivers used, hardware, setup, etc. In a nutshell, my intent was not to
  piss off the editor =) and I do believe I pissed him off pretty good.
  Thus, it is time to focus on something more immediately pertinent to the
  scene - The differences in MIDI and Tracking.

     First, however, to describe the differences, one has to define what
  exactly one is referring to. For example, does the word 'Tracking' mean
  just the interface or the interface and the format (two very different
  things). Does MIDI simply mean Musical Instrument Digital Interface,
  describing the standard in which musical devices communicate; or does it
  mean MIDI Sequencing. For the scope of this article, I will concentrate
  on MIDI Sequencing (and how it has been largely applied to mp3's) and
  Tracking in general (that is in reference to both the interface and the
  format).

     In a world where software piracy is interestingly easy, one may find
  many applications on a musician's PC that may have a questionable
  origin. Thus the world of MIDI Sequencing has become a larger part of
  the 'Free Music Scene' (the combination of the 'Tracking Scene' and 'MP3
  Scene', at least for the scope of this article). Why? Versatility, that
  is why. MIDI Sequencing has the interesting capability to not only
  interface with hardware but, of course, also software. Thus one is not
  limited hardly at all to what one can create.

     With a tracker, at least ones such as Fast Tracker or Impulse Tracker
  (let us not, of course, forget ModEdit! =) one IS limited in capability.
  There is simply a finite of amount one can do with a sample before the
  module gets humongously too big (by being forced to use large wave files
  to compensate for the limitations of the tracker). Depending on one's
  intended application, of course, a tracker has many advantages. Again,
  in reference to games like Unreal Tournament (a favorite of mine, if you
  read my articles regularly =), which utilizes a modified S3M file
  format, with some IT extensions, one has the ability to create seamless
  looping songs that are capable of changing mood. In the case of Unreal
  and UT alike, quality is a bit on the low-fi side (most modules have
  only a few 16-bit samples, if any), but the size of the modules
  themselves are very small for the amount of music present (about 2 hours
  20 minutes).

     If one were to use something like an MP3, this type of versatility
  would be lost (as well as shear space) as I have not seen seamless
  looping MP3's ever without a click here or there. CD Audio is worse than
  MP3's, when speaking of looping, because the laser has to physically
  move back to the starting position of the song, though the quality is at
  its best, offering raw uncompressed streams. This is perhaps the largest
  reason the developers of Unreal decided to largely focus on MODs -
  because there is never an interruption in the music. Hearing an MP3
  click back to the loop point, or having to wait the second or so of
  silence while the CD-ROM moves back to the beginning destroys the mood
  the one is trying to create (in both a game and demo, though demos
  frequently don't repeat songs =).

     Perhaps the biggest asset to MODs when speaking of seamless looping
  is their ability to carry over effects from the end of the song to the
  beginning. If you are a looping song guru like myself, you will find
  that, if made properly, it takes quite some time to notice a MOD is
  looping at all - the strings might fade into another chord, or the loud
  blaring praxis bass you used as a sort of bridge fades out. To be fair,
  this application is best suited for games or such things that have long
  and complex, nonstop, music. It is not very necessary for the average
  musician who is not addicted to hearing a song loop seamlessly an
  infinite amount of times. Therefore, it stands to reason the most
  musicians prefer using things and methods outside of the tracker to
  achieve a better sound and cooler effects - such as MIDI Sequencing.

     However, to say the modules are dead is as ludicrous as saying the
  scene is dead. They are not - their use has simply become different. I
  still envision the module to be prevalent in demos, if one is to carry
  the demo ideal over into the musical side of it - or at least intros.
  And, surprisingly enough, FMOD (a library often used in demo and game
  applications) uses only about one-tenth the CPU power when playing a MOD
  (using interpolation, volume ramping and filtering) that an MP3 would
  use. But I have restated this all too much already - perhaps because I
  am too stuck on the tracker interface too much to notice and utilize the
  versatility of MIDI Sequencers (or, until recently, have had far too
  little HD space to work with, or I am just too damn lazy to NOT grab
  certain software off the net, like some musicians have =). I am also
  something of a perfectionist, and somewhat of an idealist. In the PC
  world, I like to see the acute utilization of hardware to replace the
  burdens that the CPU has to deal with. I am currently unaware of
  hardware MP3 decoder cards (though I am sure they may exist) which take
  the burden off the CPU, much like the good ole' GUS PnP did, or the
  EWS64 does, or how the SB Live should (but Creative did not implement
  such a thing correctly, as far as I am aware - at least not with the
  efficiency that GUS did). Regardless of how little burden MP3s have on
  today's CPU, those are still clock cycles wasted that could go to
  something like a few extra polygons.

     You will notice by now that I have been referencing MP3's a large
  amount - this is because that when utilizing MIDI and external programs,
  there are few times when the result is small enough to fit into a MOD as
  a wave. Thus MP3 offers the only other alternative (besides CDs, of
  course, but they are not near as versatile when trying to distribute
  over the net, obviously) because it would be a horrible idea to try and
  distribute files in their native format - MIDI Sequencers are not
  designed in such a way anyway. Furthermore, many musicians have used
  post-processing techniques to achieve a better sound - something which
  can only be done when the intended output is an MP3 or CD. While it is
  just as easy to distribute a MOD in the MP3 format, many songs are
  modified outside the tracker, using some sort of device that probably
  uses MIDI.

     But what does all this crap mean? Well, it means that both MIDI
  Sequencing and Tracking are not perfect. MIDI Sequencing, because of
  it's versatility cannot have a portable module format like a tracker
  does, because it largely interfaces with hardware or software plugins to
  control and reproduce the sound. Trackers, at least the current (stable)
  generation of them are limiting by allowing only certain effects and
  methods of creating and reproducing music. So what, then is the
  solution? In my opinion, a tracker has the best interface known to man
  because the interface is so unique yet versatile to use. Many
  recreations of it have had a certain twist of their own which give them
  a particular style that some musicians like, and some do not. Yet the
  main concept remains the same, and if this concept could be carried
  through into MIDI Sequencing, or, better stated, if both could collide
  into one - the music scene would be a good portion closer to perfection.
  One could, for example, utilitize the tracker interface and create a
  MIDI sequencer around it, much like zTracker has done. Unfortunately, as
  cool as zTracker seems to be, the author himself states that he does not
  wish to implement wave-based facilities into it (for the complexity
  involved). And still the problem of using such songs in a game, using
  their native file format, is still very prevalent.

     Truly the best situation is one that is portable, which is why mp3's
  are so prevalent. So, how about a tracker format that is able to utilize
  pluginable modules (not to be confused with the file format) which could
  then be used for creating effects such as reverb, echo, filtering, etc.,
  and furthermore, could be integrated into the module format itself. For
  example, if the musician wishes to use reverb, he could go grab a reverb
  plugin (or write one, for the multi-talented out there) and use it in a
  particular song, say for a demo. The same module could then be inserted
  into the player code (or perhaps the module itself - space permitting)
  of a game or demo and reproduced. It would be wonderful if the machine
  it was played on also utilized hardware mixing, again, much as the EWS
  or GUS PnP does and then one could have strictly the best of both
  worlds. And of course, one could add a plugin to interface with other
  external drivers of hardware, when necessary and when the intended
  output is an MP3 or a CD (as a plugin that interfaces with expensive
  hardware would be useless if the listener does not have such hardware =)

     Of course the problem still remains about the limitations that effect
  columns and the alpha-numeric characters that represent effects is still
  prevalent. I think that in the near future one will, in fact, find a
  more common ground among the concepts used in MIDI Sequencing and
  Tracking. Using a different, or more refined effects system would give
  trackers much more versatility that they, in recent years, have lacked.
  Having 'plugins', after all, is of no use if one is limited greatly in
  how many one can use at one time. Personally, my tracking style is such
  that I enjoy working largely in the patterns - I believe it offers a
  much more versatile (albeit less accurate) approach. Thus, personally, I
  would like to see a way in which effects could be use in greater numbers
  without adding effect columns after columns. It would be interesting to
  see if someone would expand on the idea of macros of some sort and even
  programmable machines that could be used and modified in the
  pattern-data.

     Granted such a system has not yet been developed and current trackers
  still are limited in comparison to the scope that MIDI Sequencing has,
  and surely if one just wants to make MP3's or CD's, zTracker looks very
  promising, if you love the tracker interface as much as I. But by using
  plugins mentioned, the size of modules would decrease greatly, but the
  versatility would increase providing a higher quality of playback,
  allowing seamless looping with decreased filesize. In fact, the filesize
  may be so low that the concept of distribution modules in their native
  format might become more popular (a practice that I much prefer).

     This is an idealist approach to the solution by a die-hard tracker, I
  will full well admit. Nonetheless, it is an interesting thing, a pipe
  dream it may be, that was worth mentioning. I enjoy writing such
  articles like these because, I hope, it spurs growth and thought into
  the scene when I think it sometimes lacks little or none. It pains me
  greatly to hear people say "The Scene [Demoscene or Trackerscene] is
  dead [or dying]," which of course it is not. But rather the scene is
  changing, one cannot deny - and in this midst of change, it hurts not
  one bit to propose one way the scene might change, and for the better, I
  would think since, I hope that such future trackers remain, like the
  spirit of the scene, free.

     In reality, that is largely the scope of this article. MIDI
  Sequencing is NOT cheap (not if pursued via legal means =) and often to
  achieve a good sound, good quality hardware is also needed. The main
  benefit of trackers is that many have been free, are reasonably
  powerful, and are designed in such a way that new musicians need not to
  buy out their local music store to create a half-decent sound.

     Knowing all this, what might the future hold? That can only be
  answered through speculation. MP3's are not going to go away. Nor will
  MIDI Sequencing (of course). For they both have their uses and
  applications. Nonetheless, it would be a sad shame to see the tracker
  fade away and I hope someone gets off their lazy arse and starts
  development on a new one soon. Yet if there is no demand there is really
  no point of having a product - free or not. Thus if the scene wishes to
  bask in the light of MIDI Sequencing, it will. I can say, however, that
  I believe the tracker as an interface will not fade away at all. Though,
  I would very much want to see some sort of hybrid of MIDI and Tracking
  that would allow artists to have more versatility about what they create
  and how they distribute it (in a module-like format, or in mp3 or a
  derivative).

     The scene, however, is an entity of it's own, yet we are each a small
  part of it. And thus the answer to what the scene will do lies in each
  of us sceners. What we do depicts how the scene acts.

     And perhaps that might make all the difference in the world.


                --PsiTron


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Editorial
    Honesty in Music
  By: Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

     I honestly can't picture a world without tracking.

     But that's me.

     The average computer user doesn't find this to be any issue
  what-so-ever.  In fact, I'd be willing to bet that the average demo
  coder would also be able to cope.  After all, he could rip his favorite
  song into an MP3, and stick it into a demo somehow.  Not too difficult,
  eh?

     But I'm not writing to the average computer user.  And though there
  might be a few of you reading this that are demo coders, I'd be willing
  to bet you'd still like to hear some tracked tunage every so often.  But
  I'd be willing to bet that a great majority of you are trackers of some
  sort, and share the same feelings as I...

     I couldn't picture a world without such a release of musical activity
  in  my brain.  Mind you, when I speak of tracking, I'm accounting for
  those  of you who use SoundForge ACID, or those of you who use some MIDI
  Sequencer.  I'm speaking of digital music as created on your computer
  with your software of choice.

     Granted, as I already pointed out, pulling such music creation
  systems  out of the world wouldn't change the views of many people.  But
  everyone  needs to find a good way to release themselves.  For me and
  many others,  it's through music.  I release my thoughts and emotions
  through the  (poor) music that I write.  Most of my music never gets
  heard by the  public, but that's not the point.  Yes, it's nice to see
  some of my  music heard by the public, and I like getting what little
  kudos I get  for my music.  But that's not the reason I write music.

     As is the case with many musicians, I write music because I like to.
  I  like the whole concept of creation.  I will sit and admire the
  different  stages of my tracking career from time to time.  I'll listen
  to the  crappiest tunes I've ever written and recognize the fact that
  those  tunes are less than average.  I admire the fact that I realize
  that.  I  admire the fact that I can honestly say to myself that I
  dislike a song  I wrote, and why.

     It's all about honesty.

     To others, your ego will surface.  I will never say to anyone that I
  suck.  I can honestly say to myself that I don't suck, and I expect that
  no one out there will admit that to themselves as well.  Most people
  will at most acknowledge that they need improvement.  I need
  improvement, but that's far more productive than saying "I can't do
  this, fuck it!"  The first several tracks I wrote never made it to the
  public scene.  That's fine, I didn't write them for the public scene.  I
  wrote them so that I could write a tune that was worthy of release to
  the public scene.

     The fact that I release music to the public scene has nothing to do
  with  getting commendation for my music.  Again, it's nice to get
  recognized  for your music, but that, again, is not the point.  As with
  any art, I  feel that music should be shared.  Culture, in general, is
  developed  from people sharing their ideas and their concepts.  Without
  the  sharing, one doesn't learn from another, and the conception cycle
  ends.

     It's about sharing.

     Sharing your music (or art) is serves two purposes.  For one, it
  benefits others.  Your song could very well be the reason someone else
  write another tune.  Your song might inspire that person to write the
  best tune that they ever wrote, and then the satisfaction is extended
  through the cycle.  But your song could also benefit you, as you are
  constantly striving to be better.  Others might have comments, and
  though some might not be very constructive, you occasionally find
  something useful.  Even getting a general public view of your music
  helps, as you'll start to notice patterns.  Perhaps you'll find that
  you're better at one style of music than another.  That will either lead
  you to develop that style, or try to improve the other.  It depends on
  what you set your mind to do.

     It's about you and your music, and what you think of it.  It's about
  what others think of it, and what you accept from their thoughts.  It's
  a constant cycle going 'round and 'round, and you grow as a person as a
  result.  You have a release, a faucet attached to your brain, and if you
  neglect that you're stupid.

     A world without such a release is one that would be grey, and bland.
  Aren't you glad you have your tracker?

                    --Coplan


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Link List
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

  Portals:

      Orange Juice.............................http://www.ojuice.net
      Scene.org.................................http://www.scene.org
      SceneSpot.............................http://www.scenespot.org
      CFXweb.......................................http://cfxweb.net
      Pouet.net.................................http://www.pouet.net
      Demoscene.org.........................http://www.demoscene.org
      Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
      Demo.org...................................http://www.demo.org
      Czech Scene................................http://www.scene.cz
      Hungarian Scene........................http://www.scene-hu.com
      Italian Scene...........................http://run.to/la_scena
      ModPlug Central Resources..........http://www.castlex.com/mods
      Norvegian Scene............http://www.neutralzone.org/scene.no
      Polish Scene...........................http://www.demoscena.pl
      Russian Scene..........................http://www.demoscene.ru
      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://alienprophets.ninja.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
      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
      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
      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.bentdesign.com/chill
      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
      Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org
      Fusion Music Crew.................http://members.home.nl/cyrex
      Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff
      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
      Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net
      Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi
      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
      Mo'playaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz
      Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com
      Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds
      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://tdr.scene.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
      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://wildmag.notrix.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

  IRC Channels:

      Scene.........................................ircnet #thescene
      Programming.....................................ircnet #coders
      Programming....................................efnet #flipcode
      Graphics.........................................ircnet #pixel
      Music.............................................ircnet #trax
      Scene (French)..................................ircnet #demofr
      Programming (French)............................ircnet #codefr
      Graphics (French)..............................ircnet #pixelfr
      Scene (Hungarian)............................ircnet #demoscene
      Programming (Hungarian)......................ircnet #coders.hu
      Programming (German)........................ircnet #coders.ger


--=--=--
----=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------
  Editor:          Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
  Columnists:      Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
                    Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.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
  Technical Consult: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@scenespot.org

  Static Line on the Web:  http://www.scenespot.org/staticline

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     http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/static_line


     If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware
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     See you next month!

-eof---=------=--=------=--=--
