. founded march 12, 1995 _| : _____ t r a x w e e k l y # 77 ______________ |___| _ _______/ /\___________________________ / ____________/ /\__\ _ _______/____/_____________________________ / / _________ \/__/ ______\ \_____________________________ / / / `_ . .~ \____\/ _ __ ___ / / / _____ . _ \ __ ___ _/__/\ / / / / /\ _ The Music Scene Newsletter __ __\__\/ _/__/ / ____/ /__\_________________________________ _____ ___ _ / /\/ /___ __________ _ ______ _ ___ \/ /\ / / /____/ \ \ / /\ / __/\ / /\ \ \ / \ /____/ / / \ / \/ /_ \___/___/ \ \_/___/ / \_/ / / \ ___\ / /_/ /______/\/ \ /______/\/ \ /_____/ // \ \ / / / \ / / \ \ \ \_\ \ \ \_\ \ //____/\____\/ / / / / / \______\/ \______\/ \_____\/ \ \ \ \ / / / / \____\/\____\ / / / / _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ / / / /__/ w /\___/ /\___/ e /\___/ /\__ / l /\___/ /\____/ / / __/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/____/________/ / __\ \____\ e \____\ \____\ k \ ___\ \____\ y \__________/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/ \____\/WW ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | TraxWeekly Issue #77 | Release date: 14 Nov. 1996 | Subscribers: 883 | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Introduction]------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ Welcome to TraxWeekly #77! Bongo Jongo, Spessartini, and Neon Hunter have collaborated on a very excellent article covering the composition of chip tunes. Those of you ready for yet another music compo should check out the information for Nebulosity. Generic Blues brings us another traditional "starter deck" for musicians, and DJ Kike has a few things to say about Disc Zine. Up for download (since nov 8) is the Future Crew tribute disk, featuring covers and remixes of this scene legend's music. Up for another midterm in the next week, so I don't really have much to give you tonight, except a quote: "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Gene Wie (Psibelius) TraxWeekly Publishing gwie@csusm.edu /-[Contents]---------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ ________ _________________________________________________________________ / ____/_/ __/ \ __/ / _____/ \ __/ __/ ___/_ < \____\ \ \\ \ \\____ __/ __/_\ \ \\____ \_____ \__ \ \ \ \\ \ \ww\ \\ \\ \ \ \ \ \_ _\________\________\\___\____\ \_____\\_______\\___\____\ \_____\_______\ General Articles 1. A Chip Off the Block......................... Bongo Jongo, et al. 2. Nebulosity................................... Nebula 3. General Tracking Tips........................ Generic Blues 4. DiscZine..................................... Enrique Dubois Advertisements Future Crew Tribute Disk Closing Distribution Subscription/Contribution Information TraxWeekly Staff Sheet /-[General Articles]-------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ --[1. A Chip Off the Block]--------------------------[Bongo Jongo, et al.]-- The Progress of Chip Theory in Musical Tracked Chip Tunes and How it Affects You, the Modern Tracker in Today's Modern Tracker Culture and Era by Bongo Jongo, Spessartini and Neon Hunter Part 1/4 This is part of our four installment contribution to the Traxweekly mag, attempting to educate you in tracking chip tunes, and in fact, any other type of music. If you have any further questions, contact us at: modsquad@juno.com This week we will cover drums, lead, samples, charts, tracker specifics and some theory as well. CHIP MUSIC THEORY: CHAPTER 1 First off, there are 5 different types of chip songs... 1) Amiga 3-Channel 2) New-School XX Channel 3) Shit Music 4) Non-Chip Samples (i.e. a piano sampled down) 5) Adlib Music Today, I will be teaching you on writing type 1 of the chip music... (1 being Amiga-3 channel) You have you kind of, know the flow, and know if the "chips" mix. Rules of thumb for chip-picking: 1) Dont pick shitty samples! 2) If its over 5k, nuke it a little 3) Pick cool chips. 4) Pick on a full stomach, while half asleep/intoxicated 5) If its too big, cut down on size. 6) You can always pick big perc's and just clip'em 7) Do not pick chips that suck. 8) If it is too big for your taste, reduce the size. Ok, now that we've thrown that down the shit-hole, time for some more learning. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- XXX Commandments of Chip-Making I. Use arpeggios every other note or for mult's of 32 rows II. Put notes only in the note spaces III. Put numbers only in the number spaces. (Sometimes you can put numbers in the letter spaces) IV. Put letters in the letter spaces. V. Pick an instrument(s) before you start tracking (chipping) VI. Dont write stuff that sounds like shit. VII. Write stuff that sounds cool. IIX. Make sure only notes are in the note spaces. IIX. And not in the sample spaces. X. Chip you little bastard, chip, chip some more. XI. Never trust your gut feelings. XII. If it sounds bad, your not trying hard enough. XIII. If it sounds good, cool, but probably suck anyways. XIV. If it doesnt sound good, you suck a fuckin nutsac. XV. NOTES ONLY IN THE FRIGGIN NOTE SPACES! XVI. Follow chart "1A" to see what notes sound good together. XVII. Follow chart "1B" to see what notes DONT sound good togher. XIIX. Fuck the music theory. XIX. If the chip sample sounds good, convert from PC<>AMIGA. XX. If your music shit still sucks, read the rest of this fuckin manual. XXI. Music is an art, not an industry, so treat it that way. XXII. Music should be heard, not looked at, so do not worry what the "structure" of the song is (in channels) looks like XXIII. Listen to other's music or anything to inspire you. XXIV. Dont listen to shit music to inspire you. XXV. PUT NOTES, ONLY, IN, THE, NOTE, SPACES! XXVI. Eat a banana (chiquita preferably) before tracking XXVII. Tracking only works when you have a VGA monitor. XXIIX. If you are current having a writers block, eat a dick, bitch. XXIX. If are having troubles and whinem suck my dick, bitch. XXX. Stop doing that, you'll go blind. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- QUICK REFERENCE fCHART ARPEGGIO: Major: J-36, Minor: J-25, Sus-2: J -39, Sus-4: J-45 Add-9: J-F2, SusMaj: J-G2, SusMin: J-Q4 PORTAS: Gxx TO NOTE, Exx DOWN, Fxx LOCKS YOUR COMPUTER, DONT DO IT. VOLUME: Down: X01, Up: NO COMMAND, Cut: TILDE (~) --------------------------------------[----------------------------------] CHIP MUSIC THEORY: CHATPER 2 , DRUMS 00 |C4-01 64 .00|C4-02 64 .00|C4-04 64 Q03| If you drum patterns look 01 |..-.. .. .00|C4-02 64 .00|..-.. .. .00| anything , or remotly 02 |..-.. .. .00|C4-03 64 .00|C4-04 64 .00| close to this , as if, 03 |..-.. .. .00|..-.. .. .00|C4-04 24 .00| maybe if you twisted the 04 |C4-01 64 .00|C4-02 64 .00|..-.. .. .00| whole thing around to 05 |..-.. .. .00|C4-02 64 .00|C4-04 24 .00| a new fucking thing, 06 |..-.. .. .00|C4-03 64 .00|C4-04 64 .00| and redoo the whole god 07 |..-.. .. .00|..-.. .. .00|..-.. .. .00| damn thing , and dont 08 |C4-01 64 .00|C4-02 64 .00|C4-04 24 .00| even know what your drum 09 |..-.. .. .00|C4-02 64 .00|C4-04 64 .00| pattern is , and dont 10 |..-.. .. .00|C4-03 64 .00|..-.. .. .00| really care , but it 11 |..-.. .. .00|..-.. .. .00|C4-04 64 Q03| looks kind of close to 12 |C4-01 64 .00|C4-02 64 .00|C4-04 24 .00| it, like , it could be 13 |..-.. .. .00|C4-02 64 .00|C4-04 64 .00| the same, but its not, 14 |..-.. .. .00|C4-03 64 .00|..-.. .. .00| kind'a like a face you've 15 |..-.. .. .00|..-.. .. .00|C4-04 64 Q03| seen before, but havent, : : : : then your drums suck and [_BASS DRUM__]_HIHAT(O/C)_]_SNARE LINE_] you need to redo them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MORE STUFF ON DRUMS: 1) When you arpeggio drums, they sound like shit, so dont do it. 2) Put drums almost ALWAYS, on every 5'th row. and alternate inbetween. 3) Place drums where think they should go, but dont place them there, place them where you REALLY think they should go. 4) BANG BANG BOOM BANG TISSH TSEEEEE BOOM BANG BONG (best drum loop) 5) BOOM REST BOOM REST TA REST BOOM TA BOOM TA BOOM REST TA REST BOOM REST (2nd best drum loop) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHIP MUSIC THEORY: CHATPER 3, THE LEAD 00 |C-4 01 .. A05|C-4 02 .. GEF|C-6 01 64 J47| If your actual LEAD 01 |A#3 01 20 .00|C-4 02 .. G00|... .. 00 .00| sounds remotely 02 |D#4 01 .. .00|C-5 02 .. G00|... .. 64 J00| like this one, 03 |F-4 01 20 .00|C-4 02 .. G00|... .. 00 .00| yer doing pretty 04 |F#4 01 .. .00|C-4 02 .. G00|D#6 01 64 J37| good! 05 |F-4 01 20 .00|C-5 02 .. G00|... .. 64 J00| 06 |A#3 01 .. .00|C-4 02 .. G00|... .. 00 .00| cuz this song rocks! 07 |F#3 01 20 .00|C-5 02 .. G00|... .. 64 J00| 08 |C-4 01 .. H81|C-4 02 .. .00|A#5 01 64 J37| 09 |... .. .. K05|D#4 02 20 .00|... .. 20 J00| 10 |... .. .. K00|A#3 02 .. .00|C-6 01 64 J47| 11 |... .. .. K00|D#4 02 20 .00|... .. 20 J00| 12 |D-4 01 .. G3F|C-4 02 .. .00|D#6 01 64 J47| 13 |... .. .. HA4|D#4 02 20 .00|... .. 20 J00| 14 |F-4 01 .. G05|A#3 02 .. .00|D#6 01 64 J37| 15 |... .. .. K05|D#4 02 20 .00|... .. 20 J00| CHIP LEAD 1 CHIP LEAD 2 CHIP LEAD 1 \ samples that you use / MORE STUFF ON WRITING LEADS: 1) cdrom.com has it all 2) agv@aol.com will forward --> ax@bios.net and will fix you're lanky ass 3) NEVER RIP LEADS 4) just do it. (~nike~) 5) impulse tracker, nuff said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER 4, SMALL TIPS AND HINT ON PUTTING SONGS TOGETHER: When putting the stuff together, try not to repeat patterns that much of course unless its the chorus or a bridge or sumpin. If you do have to repeat patterns, repeat them in multiples of 3 or odd numbers. That will make it better for our ears and stuff. When you repeat stuff alot, the song starts to get boring, and boring real fast if its pretty much just the same old thing, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Follow the charts that we provided you and use them as guidance. You want to always double check if one effect sounds good or another one sounds bad or something. Overuse of effects sounds like shit. Use effects when you want to, but half that time that you want to. Volume sliding is da mothafuckin bomb, use it alot this is the one effect that makes or breaks the song muthafucka, use it, and use it a lot. I personally barely ever use arpeggios on purcushin, but really,it is unnessasssary when you can just do a vibrato of FF on it. Use the vibrato more than arpeggio on percusion, and remember to look at the actual chart when you are using arpeggios to make chords. Chords backup the song,use chords in one channel, and dont put percushin inside of them cuz it sounds like shit, man, sounds like shit. DO NOT GET AN AMIGA IF YOU WANT TO MAKE "TRUE CHIP MUSIC"... This may result in loss of hair, eyesight, and poor hearing. Amigas emit a certain radiation (GAMMA RAYS) and will kill you over long exposures of time. If you have an AMIGA or a COMMODORE, send it to P.O. Box 38142. This is your last warning, do not run or even get near a running (or even a not-running) AMIGA or COMMODORE 64/128! You must obey the FCC rule Compliant 16.04 Alliteration 4/5 Section 5 Part 6.24, Chart F, Paragraph 3, Sub Paragraph 4, Sentence 6: "Any person attempting to create music under the legal limit age set by the govern- ment, 13, will be arrested. All computer/music equipment found will be immediatly taken and bashed with a 'Kentuckyville Slammer' wooden base ball bat, and the remains will be burnt at the 'Clairmont Computer Chunk Fire Burner' in San Diego, California." Here is a "K" Chart So You Can Judge your song based on how many K's your chip song is (from 1 "*" star to 10 "**********" stars): 1-5k......... *******+ 6-10k........ ******** 11-20k....... ********** 21-50k....... *******+ 51-100k...... ***** 101k-1024k... ** 1025k+....... + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER 5, A SECOND OPINION ON LOOKING AT SAMPLE WAVES. here are some more sample waves to pick your samples with: _________________________________________________________________ |\ /-\ | | | | | /--\ /----\ | | | | | | | | | /------\ _____________| | | | | | \___/ \________/ \_______/ | | | | \--/ | | \_/ | |_______________________________________________________________| _________________________________________________________________ | | | | | | |----------------------/-------\----------------\-----------/---| | | | | |_______________________________________________________________| _________________________________________________________________ | | | | | | |/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/| | | | | |_______________________________________________________________| _________________________________________________________________ | | ||-------| |---------| |-----------| |------| | | | | | | | | | |_______| |________| |________| | |_______________________________________________________________| -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER 6: THE EFFECTS QUICK-REFERENCE CHART For your help writing S3M files here is a list of the S3M commands. Be sure to memorize them all for ease of use. D01 Turn volume down slowly D04 Turn volume down quickly E01 Turn note down slowly E04 Turn note down quickly F01 Turn note up slowly F04 Turn note up quickly J47 Make a major chord J36 Make a minor chord A03 Set song to fast speed A09 Set song to slow speed G3F Set tracker to CGA mode G13 Set tracker to VGA mode K00 Turn all volumes down slowly L00 Turn all volumes down quickly XFF Set channel to right speaker X00 Set channel to left speaker S01 Back up your mod S00 Restore your mod H83 Fast vibrato H38 Slow vibrato B02 Cut to next pattern B03 Cut two patterns ahead T45 Make it go at 33 RPM TFF Make it go at 75 RPM T70 Make it go at 45 RPM Q03 Quit and save ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER 7: NOTES THAT SOUND GOOD WITH EACH OTHER: A sounds good with C# D# E E# F F# G G# A# sounds good with C C# D# E F F# G G# B sounds good with C# D# E F F# G G# A C sounds good with D# E F F# G G# A A# C# sounds good with E F F# G G# A A# B D sounds good with F F# G G# A A# B B# D# sounds good with F# G G# A A# B B# C E sounds good with G G# A A# B B# C C# F sounds good with G# A A# B B# C C# D F# sounds good with A A# B B# C C# D D# G sounds good with A# B B# C C# D D# E G# sounds good with B B# C C# D D# E F ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER 8: NOTES THAT DONT SOUND GOOD WITH EACH OTHER: A doesn't sound good with G# A# B A# doesn't sound good with A A# B B doesn't sound good with A A# C C doesn't sound good with A# B C# D C# doesn't sound good with B C D D# D doesn't sound good with C D D# E D# doesn't sound good with D D# E E doesn't sound good with D D# E# F F doesn't sound good with D# E E# G G# F# doesn't sound good with E# F G G# A A# G doesn't sound good with F G# A A# G# doesn't sound good with F G# A A# B That ends this installment of The Progress of Chip Theory in Musical Tracked Chip Tunes and How it Affects You, the Modern Tracker in Today's Modern Tracker Culture and Era. Next week, we will cover picking and rendering samples, getting Elvis to help you in composing, and some tracking Deep Thoughts. Love, Bongo Jongo, Spessartini, Neon Hunter modsquad@juno.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --[2. Nebulosity]-------------------------------------------------[Nebula]-- News 10/31/96 http://www.center-nebula.com/nebulosity Table of Contents: A. Welcome Messages (2) B. Rules C. Entry Forms A. Welcome: Greetings, fellow musicians (or shall I say artistic engineers of the auditory dimension?)! Let me offer my warmest welcome to you to Nebulosity I. "Who am I?," you ask. Well my name is Saurin, but I am known in the scene as Mysterium, the co-chairman of Nebula. A nebula, simply put, is a place where stars form, and it is fitting that we hold a contest, through which new talent can be discovered! However, before I get into the details of this contest, let me tell you about Nebula. Some of you may recognize Nebula as the "music group from the scene," others of you may know us as "those guys who make CDs," still many of you may identify Nebula as "that company that does graphics." Well, all of these are true, but they hardly reveal the true scope of Nebula. We are a company based in Houston, Texas with branches in Austin, Phoenix, and Germany. We sell and repair computers and their components, we construct homepages, sell internet accounts, design graphics and logos, do magazine layouts, write custom software, design games, and most importantly we compose music. Early in the summer of 1996, we released our first album "First Contact: Kawaiis from Outer Space," designed to test our popularity in the real market. Thanks to people like you, we plan to soon virtually sell out our entire stock of 1000 CDs, but of course we still have plenty in stock and would not mind if you bought one! We are offering the CD for only $8.99! Now that the first CD is a success, we are continuing our publishing by producing a double CD set entitled "Parallel Dimensions," a joint project with Landslide. We hope that this endeavor demonstrates the untapped potential of tracker music! If any of you are in the Philadephia area on November 2nd, we invite you to the Philadelphia Music Conference where we will be maintaining a booth, as well as having music on their limited edition demo CD, and may perform live at a featured club. In addition to our CDs, we are also co-producing an international music magazine called "Lone Star: Texas International Music Magazine" with Maya Records. This magazine will showcase and highlight Texas music as well as the international flavor, while providing exclusive reviews on CDs and concerts around the world! So now that you know more about Nebula, let me talk to you about music. Music is ethereal. Music is celestial. Music is global. Music is life. Without music, our world would turn into a mundane, drab rock that drifts through the universe on a seemingly endless and routine trek, but fortunately, we do have music and it energizes our lives. Music allows us to better understand our fellow humans, for music is colorblind. Music allows us to communicate with others, for music is the universal language. Music allows us to express ourselves without hindrance that other media may provide, and we embrace music for these reasons. Through this contest we encourage the birth of a multitude of forms and styles of music^Wbe it contemporary, classical, or radical. So this brings me to the contest: Nebulosity. Recently many music competitions have risen, but few have met the demands of true contest. Nebulosity will, hopefully, surpass the other contests in both its magnitude and caliber^Wand thanks to people like Advanced Computer Systems (http://www.phoenix.net/~advcs) for donating the prizes and Zapper of Force Ten for allocating the necessary FTP space, we are confident that Nebulosity will become the gold standard for future Internet music competitions. Now, undoubtedly, many of you are pondering just what types of music does Nebulosity cater to. To answer this question let me explain that Nebulosity accepts and in fact encourages all types of music from jazz to metal to dance, but we advocate the use of tracking. Now just what is tracking? While many of you have heard of the popular MIDI format, many of you may not have heard of the shadowed Tracker formats. Tracker files are essentially equal to MIDI files, but where MIDI files are quite popular, Tracker files tend to be the underground favorites. These files work on the same concepts as MIDI files and are made using programs such as Scream Tracker, Digitracker, Fast Tracker II, and Impulse Tracker. If you have never tried to create a tracker file, I strongly urge you to download these freeware and shareware composers and test them out--I guarantee that you will not be disappointed, for where MIDI requires special sound cards and wav tables, tracking requires at least the most mediocre of sound cards (including the original Soundblaster)--although I do suggest that you have a 16 bit soundcard (that's correct--no wav table needed!). So now that you are armed with the knowledge of tracking and how to make it, you should enter Nebulosity. If you are still confused about tracking, I suggest that you visit #trax on irc.another.org. Remember that its not important whether you win or lose, but that you grow from your experiences so you can kick butt in the next competition! Saurin Shah a.k.a. Mysterium saurins@phoenix.net http://www.center-nebula.com/mysterium nebula@phoenix.net http://www.center-nebula.com Welcome II Wow, I get to write one of those nifty "welcome to the compo" letters. I feel so special. :) Welcome to the first Nebulosity! Nebulosity is (as you are probably wondering) a music competition put on by Nebula. "Well," you question yourself, "what with MC4 and all, why Nebulosity?" Nebulosity is our answer to the generally poor showing of techno songs in MC4. More generally, we wanted to create a competition where different musical styles would be judged separately. Imagine having to compare "Canon in D" with "It Takes Two (Rob Base & EZ Rock version)." Each is a classic in its own genre, but can not be judged fairly when put into context with the other. By splitting up the entries in Nebulosity into categories based on style as well as those based on musician skill, we hope to have created a competition that will be fair and accurate to all entrants. Compose anything you like! Pretend to be Vanilla Ice if you want (although I would _STRONGLY_ advise against it). There is one major stipulation to your composition, however. We have decided to require that no song contain profanity. We realize that this is like spitting on, trampling, tearing, crushing and burning the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but we have our reasons. First, this is a family event. Try to keep that in mind when composing (do you want your little brother or sister parading around the house screaming. "BIIIIIIIIIIIIATCH!" ?). Secondly, in MC4 (sorry for picking on you guys so much. We really do respect and appreciate what you do for the scene every year), the suggestive language in some songs was misunderstood by some of the judges. We want to avoid the possibility of this happening in Nebulosity. If you're confused _AT_ALL_ about the profanity factor of a word, don't use it. If you simply MUST, we have compiled a list of words that will be grounds for disqualification. Email the info address below for a copy of this list. I've been composing on the scene for six years now (oh no, the mushy reminescent paragraph). Back in 1990 I started composing four-channel MODs using MODEdit 2.0. I didn't even know how to create my own samples. "The Scene" has been a tremendous part of my musical upbringing, from the first time someone actually acknowleged one of my songs to this year's realization of one of my dreams: a CD with my songs on it. All of us here at Nebula owe a great deal to this delightful sub-culture, and Nebulosity is our way of giving back. We want to give everyone the opportunity to shine in front of the crowd. To be the girl who becomes Prom Queen. To be the guy that scores the winning touchdown with his prom queen girlfriend cheering him on. To be the guy that bangs the prom queen that night while Mr. Touchdown is busy celebrating his victory by drowning himself in brain-damaging debauchery. Everyone has a chance to be the best here. If you win or lose or whatever, you stood up to the challenge and conquered the biggest fear of all: yourself. Wow. That sounded like an Army commercial, Mr. Rogers episode, motivational seminar, and Penthouse letter all at once. Shoot me, please. Special thanks is due to all those who made this competition possible. Big props to Advanced Computer Systems (http://www.phoenix.net/ ~advcs and advcs@phoenix.net) in Houston, Texas, USA for donating the grand prize. Thanks also to Force Ten for giving us the use of vast amounts of storage space on which to store the entries. Everyone else who is a part of this, thank you! We sincerely appreciate your efforts to bring this mess to a succesful fruition. Wish us luck. :) Taylor Pakula a.k.a. Tek (hey, Hammer dropped his MC, I dropped the DJ.) B. Rules I. Definitions - Particapants are those people entering a module into the contest. - Judges are those people that will rate and judge the modules. - A Judge may be a Participant, but will not be able to judge his or her own song. II. Participant Rules and Deadlines 1. Must be in on or before deadline (jan 31st 7 pm US Central). No exceptions will be made. 2. Must be your original, unpublished music. composer is held accountable. Unpublished music in regards to this competition is that music which has not been entered in any other music contest and/or released to the public before this contest. 3. Participant may enter only one song and one category. the categories are: Advanced Spacefarer: (1) Techno (2) Melodic (3) Other Apprentice Spacefarer: (1) Techno (2) Melodic (3) Other 4. Participant must provide us with information that we ask for. This information will be found on the application to submit your song. 5. Participants may not be a member of Nebula. 6 Must sign acceptance contract of prize if win. Prizes to be given are in the following order: (a) One Grand Prize to the overall winner of the Advanced Spacerfarer category (b) Three runner-up prizes: One to the top winner of each category (Techno, Melodic, Other) in the Advanced Sparefarer group. However the grand-prize winner will not receive this prize. One to to the overall top winner of the Apprentice Spacefarer (c) The top two winners of each category (Techno, Melodic, Other) in the Advanced Spacefarer group and top two winners of Apprentice Spacefarer Level may be included on a future Nebula release. Nebula reserves the right to decide whether and when the piece will be used. 7. The following module formats are permitted: - S3M/STM (Scream Tracker x.x) - XM (Fast Tracker 2.x) - IT (Impulse Tracker x.x) - MOD (many programs used) - 669 (Composer 669) - MTM (Multi-Tracker) Songs not following the formats above will be disqualified. 8. File may be no larger than 1.5 MB uncompressed. 9. Files must conform to our naming rules, these are: [xx][yy][z][###].ZIP xx = N1 (for Nebulosity One) yy = AP/AD (AP for APrentice Spacefarer, AD for ADvanced) z = M, T, or O (for Melodic, Techno, or Other) ### = This will be the 3 digit reg. number assigned by Nebula 10. Ariel Gross, Saurin Shah, and Asif Ali of Nebula reserve the right to disqualify any person for ANY reason III. Judging Rules 1. Judges are chosen by Nebula and must sign Judging Contract 2. Judges may NOT enter the contest. 3. Nebula reserves the right to change rules at any point. 4. All updates and rule changes will be available on the homepage and through the newsletter. It is the participant's and judge's responsibility to check the rules. 5. All entries must: a. follow the naming presets as noted above. b. have NO information about the entrant except for song title. ABSOLUTELY NO WRITING will appear in the song or the participant will be disqualified. c. be compressed with PKZIP (C) Pkware 6. Judges may NOT make themselves known to anyone but other judges. 7. There will be no obscenity contained in the music file. This will be a family event, not merely for the scene. The song must fit the FCC for radio broadcasting. C. Entry Forms Music Application for Nebulosity -please answer after the colons- (Song Info) Title of Song : Format : Advanced or Apprentice: Melodic, Techno, or Other: Size Uncompressed (in bytes) : Requested Listening Program : Comments to Judges : : : : (Composer Info) Real Name (First Last) : Handle : Primary Affiliation (May name only ONE): Email Address : Home Address : : City/State/Country : Zip Code : Phone Number (include extension) : Age : Sex (M/F) : (after you have completed this txt file, please send it to asif@netropolis.net and , he will then assign you a name for your file and you will make the song that name and the zip that name and upload it to our ftp site) Judge Application for Nebulosity -please answer after the colons- Real Name (First Last) : Handle : Primary Affiliation (May name only ONE): Email Address : Home Address : : City/State/Country : Zip Code : Phone Number (include extension) : Age : Sex (M/F) : Why would you make a good judge : : : (after you have completed this txt file, please send it to stalker@primenet.com) ---Nebula----http://www.center-nebula.com--- Nebulosity Music Compo http://www.center-nebula.com/nebulosity ------------nebula@phoenix.net-------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --[3. General Tracking Tips]-------------------------------[Generic Blues]-- Below are listed (in no particular order) what I consider the ten most important tips to a beginning tracker who wishes to improve. 1.) Do not, under any circumstances, release your first tune. For one thing, any tune toted as being "mY fIrSt eVeR tuNe!@" will be automatically ignored by the rest of the scene (except for those who don't know better). 2.) Before you start to write music, learn your tracker of choice thoroughly. Wether it be Impulse Tracker, Fast Tracker II, or even the now-archaic Scream Tracker 3.x, your music will benefit from complete knowledge of the program. The best way to do this is to print out the tracker's documentation (note to FT2 users -- if you didn't get ft2.doc when you downloaded FT2, you're using an outdated version. Get the latest version from ftp.cdrom.com), and then practice using each function until you can use them without much thought. Again, this is probably the most important of all the tips, so I'll repeat myself. LEARN YOUR TRACKER THOROUGHLY. 3.) Listen to other people's music, find the styles you like, then analyze those songs and determine what it is that makes them good. See techniques in action then add your own personal flair to them. Experiment with it. 4.) Track what you like! If you're into hardcore techno, track techno. If you enjoy R&B, track it. Certain styles are easier to track than others, but even the simplest of music can be difficult to track without inspiration. 5.) Get a second opinion. Sure, your newest tune may sound like a master- piece to _you_, but chances are someone with a bit more, um, emotional detachment from the piece can give you some constructive criticism. Of course, you should also be able to differentiate between constructive criticism ("Ack! Bb/F!") and downright rude comments ("Quit tracking"). Ignore the rude ones, pay attention to the useful ones. Always remember that it is YOUR tune, not theirs, and you can leave a section in the song if you want to. 6.) Track in spurts. Sure you hear about people who can track a great song in one sitting, but they've also got years of experience on you. Track a bit, let it sit a day or two, and come back to it with a fresh mind. Chances are you'll find some small way to improve the song, get inspired to add a whole new section, or hear a slightly out-of-tune sample.. which brings me to the next tip.. 7.) TUNE YOUR SAMPLES. The easiest way to kill an otherwise great tune is to leave your samples untuned. There are several ways to do this, but unless you have experience tuning instruments by ear, just route your line-out from the soundcard into a guitar tuner, play C-4, and adjust the C4spd (or sample tuning in FT2) until it's tuned. Do this for all your samps (percussion excluded), and if nothing else everything will be on-key :) 8.) Choose good samples! If you, er, borrow samples that start with "ST-01" in the sampletext of the original .MOD, chances are you're using 8-bit 8khz samples. As far as quality goes, you'll do just fine with 22khz 8bit most of the time. You can either make them yourself (via the sampler on your soundcard), borrow them (i.e. rip) from other composers, or use premade samples designed for synths (i.e. Kurzweil(sp?), GUS Patch, or SoundFont). 9.) When you've tracked a few songs and feel comfortable releasing some- thing, announce it everywhere possible within the bounds of nettiquette. I.e. don't go spamming USENET and mailing lists, but offer it on IRC, send it in for evaluation by TraxWeekly's staff (are they still doing this?), put it on ftp.cdrom.com, and announce it on your www page (if you have one). [Editor's Note: Yes, we're still reviewing. Like it matters. Send us songs and we will.] 10.) Lastly: track for yourself, not for others. If your goal is fame, you may be in for a rude awakening. Tracking is not a get-rich-quick scheme, it is not a profession (except for the lucky few who get contracts with game companies), it is an artform. Treat it as such. Until next time... Generic Blues / grey nstrong@delsplace.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --[4. DisC Zine]-------------------------------------------------[DK Kike]-- Hello from D.J. KiKE okay, some news about that zine and trackers team ..... --------------------------[ thE Zine ]-------------------------- Right now we're just a common name and a website, but more activity is coming. The DisorderCow zine is in the future going to arrange compos, workshops and exchanges. But first it needs writers - and readers :). I'm not really that much an expert on marketing webpages, so I'd appreciate if you all could spread the adresses to both the zine and the DiSC HP around as much as possible. ----------------------------[ be In DiSC ] ------------------------ What we need from you in order to put you up on our pages is: *A codesheet (Basic info about you - full name, age, occupation, location, email and if available, a www adress to your HP.) *A personal profile, where you tell a little about yourself and your music. (Plain text please) See the pages at www.arosnet.se/users/ming/disc2.htm and you4ll see what I mean. *A small photo (not required) *At least one release. Either mail it to thedisc@geocities.com, or give me the url to where it is uploaded, since I'm low on space.:( Very well, that's all about the DiSC. News will be sent through mailing list when news exists. And a post-bot is also soon activated, where you write with a specific subject, and get your message posted on Usenet, WWW, and our mailing list(s) at once. ----------------------------[ Writing ... ]----------------------- If ya want to in the zine. Sure. Go right ahead. Mail us anything. As long as you follow these simple guidelines: *If you write an article, pleez make it fill up at least one screen on a normal browser. *Include your email (If I don't know it) *If you write an article about something, please include URLs to as many of the peole and places you are talking about. *If you write a rewiew, include a link to the song or software it is about. *Too much Off-topic articles will not be published. (but we're quite liberal :) *Telegrams (small notices of news) may not be more than 100 words. *Mail both text and pictures to my swipnet adress. Part from that. Write whatever you want to. :) ------------------------[ Conntacccts ]------------------------- Ok so, Thanx For Your Attention .... and you can also visit ... : -DiSC------------------------------------- http://www.arosnet.se/users/ming/disc1.htm -DisorderCow------------------------------ http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/6360/ -DJKiKe----------------------------------- http://www.geocitites.com/paris/4604/ See Ya Later D.J.. KiKE (edubois@lander.es) -------------------------------------------------- DJKiKe - Enrique Dubois - EMAIL dubu@thepentagon.com DaNcE MuSiK 4EVeR MODULES RULEZ!! visit... www.geocities.com/paris/4604 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Advertisments]----------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Future Crew Tribute Disk" Finally! It's here! The Future Crew Tribute Disk! Yes, you've been hearing rumours about this for MONTHS. It has been in the works for almost a year now, finally released November 8, 1996. I advise you all to get this excellent pack of music. It consists of brand new covers and remixes of future crew songs by Atlantic, Daedalus, Elemental, Necros, Scirocco, Siren, and zinc. There are two ZIPs to download, FC-TRIB1.ZIP and FC-TRIB2.ZIP. Both can be found on ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/incoming/music/disks/. Get this fine disk today, and push it to number one on the Top Ten Downloads! You won't regret it. - zinc / rays@direct.ca ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /-[Closing]----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ TraxWeekly is available via FTP from: ftp.cdrom.com /demos/incoming/info (new issues) ftp.cdrom.com /demos/info/traxw/ (back issues) To subscribe, send mail to: listserver@unseen.aztec.co.za and put in the message body: subscribe trax-weekly [name] (NOT address) To unsubscribe, mail same and: unsubscribe trax-weekly (in message body) Contributions for TraxWeekly must be formatted for *76* columns, must have a space preceding each line, and have some measure of journalistic value. Please avoid the use of high ascii characters, profanity, and subjects not proper for public discussion. Contributions should be mailed as plain ascii text or filemailed (MIME/UUE only) to: gwie@csusm.edu before 11:00pm PST (North America) every Thursday. TraxWeekly is released over the listserver and ftp.cdrom.com every Friday at 10:00am PST (North America). TraxWeekly does not discriminate based on age, gender, race, political preferences, religious preferences, or eliteness. The staff can be reached at the following: Editor: Psibelius (Gene Wie)..............gwie@csusm.edu Staff: Atlantic (Barry Freeman)..........atlantic@arcos.org Benjamin Krause...................orogork@cs.tu-berlin.de DennisC (Dennis Courtney).........dennisc@community.net Fred (Fred Fredricks).............fred@paracom.com Kal Zakath (John Townsend)........jtownsen@sescva.esc.edu Kleitus (Seth Katzman)............skatzman@global2000.net Mage (Glen Dwayne Warner).........gdwarner@cvn70b.vinson.navy.mil Mick Rippon.......................rip@hunterlink.net.au Trifixion.........................trifix@orion.polaristel.net Zinc (Justin Ray).................rays@direct.ca Reporter: IOR (Jesse Rothenberg)............jroth@csusm.edu Graphic Contributors: Cruel Creator . Stezotehic . Squidgalator2 . White Wizard TraxWeekly is a HORNET affiliation. Copyright (c)1995,1996 - TraxWeekly Publishing, All Rights Reserved. /-[END]--------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------/ :: ::: : . ..... ..............................:::.................:.... ::: : :::: : .::::. .:::::.:::. ..:::: :::: : :: :: ::: .:: :: :: WW:::: : ::. :: ::: .:: :: .:: :::: : :::.::. ::: .:: .:: .:::::... :: :::.. ... ..: ... ..:::::::::::::::: .:: .::::::: :::::::: ::::::.. ::: ::: ::: : until next week! =) .. ... .. ....... ............... .................:..... .. . :