(These articles all appeared in TraxWeekly issue 6, April 20 1995 - I edited the IOR interview a bit to make it more coherent. -Phoenix) -[ x. The Demo-Party, NAID ]----------------------------------------------- Writer: Populus I thought about writing my first article actually. I never thought of myself as someone that has anything to say (maybe true), but heck! I got a newsletter! I went to NAID (North American International Demofest). I went by my own means: I drove to Montreal. I invited my friend The Specialist on the ride. I also brought Blue Angel Dream (hey the trunk is pretty big!). After packing up we hit the road and drove off to NAID. I finally arrived at the party place. There, I wanted to meet most of the people who I knew were coming. I recognized Mosaic (from his mugshot ;) and went to say hello. CCCatch was there and he almost hugged me ;). I remember this cuz they were the first people I met over there. I caught up with our ascii maker, White Wizard, and met all the local guys. I met in general most of the people I wanted to. Zapper, Snowman, Necros, Basehead, Mosaic, CCCatch, Maelcum, Diablo, Mental Floss x 2, Dragunov, Laserlore and others. I must have forgotten someone, but hey, I'm human. Then, after doing all the handshakes, I handed my tune to the guy on the console. I know I did more than that, but I really don't remember. The music compo started and I was really dissapointed with the sound system. Every tune sounded simply bad. And it was long, there were 72 tunes or so. I left after like 30 ;). The Specialist heard the intro deadline was extended to midnight, so he join with Razmaid (a local demo group) to complete a boschted up intro. He worked with them for 3 hours, and they worked for 6 hours in all. They finished 3rd place ;). Not bad at all. Meanwhile, I watch Dragunov work with the TraxWeekly Web Home Page. It's great BTW. I hatched up on #trax also to check out my friends who didn't make it over there also to say hello. After The Specialist finished his intensive work with the other coders, we dragged Dragunov (funny expression) to the car and drove to Draggy's appartement. I was funny how Drag had a way with piles. Everything was a pile. He needs a metal detector to find his keys ;). Also, Drag's brother broke his bed and was really mad ;). We went to a closet and got a matrisse. We could deduct after removing the large mass that Drag's collection of empty beer bottles was hidden ;). We installed it on the floor and The Specialist immediatly reserve the thing (grrr). I won a night with Drag's sofa! It was okay, but I forgot a my cervical column on it. But, I don't blame Drag. He's in the army, and they are thought to sleep on rocks ;). Fear Dragunov. I got up (The next day!) and realized that we overslept and could be late to see our sucky intro. So I woke up everybody and they rush to my car. I did a bit of speeding, or some would say : a normal montrealer's driving. We got there on time. We watched the intro and were ashamed (keep in mind we didn't know our standing then). I did stuff, but I really don't remember. But, I know I watched the demo compo which was very impressive. I didn't know we could do demos on this side of the ocean, I was wrong. Then after lot's of waiting, the final ceremonies arrived. The NAID people talked to everybody. I really respect them. This kind of party is pretty hard to have. And it was probably hard to convince the school it was a good idea. Then they introduced Snow (Christopher G Mann) to all so he could do his speech. He talked about being proud of what we accomplished in North America by competing here at NAID. He was right. We are good enough to take on the world. They began to tell the results. They told everybody that since there was few people who listened to all the songs, they took away the public voting. So they was a forth place who had a prize like the others. Mosaic of Renaissance was called as forth place. He looks like a pretty mean guy. But, I talked to him before and he's great. Then, Basehead was called up for 3rd place. He looks kinda goofy and sleepy (maybe the ride to montreal), but he's also a great dude. Second place was taken by Maelcum of Kosmic. Everybody was surprised with this for the good reason of Maelcum's music is destined to a minority. He doesn't do popular songs, and his song was 2nd. I was very happy for Maelcum who never got real musical recognition. First place was givin to Necros. Some were surprised, since his song sounded really shitty on site. It seemed very ordinary and typical of him. I learned that I was wrong by relistening it at home. To all I congradulate for their extra effort which was rewarded. I was really tired after that. I was time to leave. I picked up Dragunov and The Specialist to drive Drag to his appartement in Montreal. TS and me drove back to NAID to pick up Blue Angel Dream, White Wizard and Kermit. I stopped at Tim Horton's for WW who wanted to eat. He shared the donuts with us, but kept one all the way back home to Quebec. The three new passengers sat in the back of the car. It was wild, we were all tired as hell, and kept doing bad jokes. I had fun, but Kermit and WW still owe me gas money ;). That's it, I guess. As you could see, I don't have a great ability for remembering things. I got the essential, that's the important part. - Populus populus@llc.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ 2. Social Tendencies of PC Musicians ]---------------------------------- Written by: GraveDigger gd@ftp.cdrom.com With help from: Phoenix vossa@rpi.edu White Wizard wwizard@biko.llc.org Being at NAID, the three of us observed several unique and characteristic tendencies of those who compose music on a PC. We would like to share our interpretation of these events with the TraxWeekly readers. First, you could find just about everything you'd need to know about composer's culture by hanging out in the Kosmic/Renaissance room for 10 minutes. You might witness people stumbling in the door, drunk out of their mind, and passing out on the floor in front of you. You might see a well-known composer sitting at Scream Tracker, loading "ST3.SET" into the instrument list. You might see C.C.Catch arranging a row of desks and falling asleep on top of them. Ms. Saigon was the only one who had a cot in the room, and Basehead took no fear to the pink sheets and pillowcase, and claimed the spot for a short time until the bed's owner returned. Soon after, a pillow fight emerged, involving Necros, Basehead, and Ms. Saigon. (Who won? They may all tell a different side to that. =) Then, you could stroll out into the hallway and go to the park-bench setting. You will find a few people lying on the benches, getting some sleep away from the noise of the late-night Kosmic folks who happen to be blasting their music. Among these park-bench'ers you will find Daredevil, who is quite upset at the fact that Kosmic people were up late playing music, preventing him from getting any sleep. Walking down the hall towards the main party room, you will walk past various people; walking, running, or crawling in all directions. You will pass the "high-tech" payphones that have a neat text scroller "en francais." And there you are, at the main party spot. You will see CPU's and keyboards on the tables in the side room, with musicians storming around the keyboards to produce lovely sounds, or in some cases, thunderous percussive rhythms. Musicians are seen tracking and editing music, and playing it for others. And all throughout the weekend, musicians are seen eating the food provided (read: sold) by Subway, drinking high-caffeine beverages, and getting a sugar fix to last them "just a little while longer." The composers seemed to be a neat bunch, in living and in composing. Aside from throwing away their garbage after eating, their carefully-placed notes on multiple channels of an S3M or MTM show their strive for excellence. All notes must be lined up, and fall at the correct place. And collectively, a certain kind of magic tells these notes to express the emotions of its creator; to re-live a moment in time that has since passed. These are the people you see on IRC. In real life, most of them actually seem quite normal. They dress normal, talk normal, and act normal. Really, you ask? NO, NOT REALLY! :) Ok, enough of the Tostitos commercial. These people are all pretty much down-to earth. And it's the actual event of meeting these people that allows one to see what it means to be different but still normal. Nobody there was on a high cloud, nobody seemed like a crazed maniac. Well, ok, maybe Maelcum did seem to lose it at times. :) The crowd was very mature yet very fun-loving. This should assure everyone that it should be fairly easy to find a place to hold NAID 1996, assuming that it does become a reality. There will be no memos sent out saying "Those demo people were awful! Make sure they do not come back!" Over fifty composers contributed music to the competition, and the organizers decided that none would be left out. This meant six and a half hours of music. Unfortunately, by the last song, the only people left were those at the console and the judges. But, it's only fair to let people do as they choose. A great weekend has passed, and history has been made. Some great music was written and released as a result of this event. At the end of it all, the winners were announced and they were well received by the audience. And though it might have seemed a bit predictible, you can talk to _all four_ of the winners on IRC. :) So dial up your Unix system, log on, check your mail, and hop on IRC. And there is where you can witness the social tendencies of PC musicians for the time being, for NAID 1996 is at least a year away. -- (do not reply to this email address, reply to above-mentioned only. thanks =) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ 3. NAID: From a distance ]---------------------------------------------- Writer: GraveDigger Well, here we all are, back home again. Sitting behind our computers. Experiencing the aftershock of NAID. For those who went, it was a truly great experience. For those who could not make it, they will soon see the NAID report (or reports) which will hopefully capture a small piece of the event which will let them see and feel what it was like. And they will download the entries in the compos to see all of the fine talent that was present this weekend in Montreal. Hunderds, if not thousands of pictures were taken by various people and several hours of video were shot. This also includes the TV coverage that was present for most of the two-day event. Several things were completed on-site as well; demos completed, songs finished, intros fine-tuned, and graphics beautified. "Pisstro" started out as just a routine of the man urinating, and was soon accompanied by music and completed in time for the intro compo. Three musicians, two of who were Necros and Basehead, wrote a tune in the back of the Kosmic room. The Surrounders locked themselves in their room in order to complete their compo contributions. People played their musical instruments. Floss had brought his bass guitar, and there definately was not a shortage of synths. There was also live music at various times during the weekend, including "Public Enema," a funk/jazz band. People slept in classrooms on hard floors, they ate Subway food, drank high-caffeine beverages, consumed alcohol, took Advil to cure their hangovers, and repeated the process the next day. What an event! It was amazing. For me, meeting everyone that I have known for however long I've known them was a rewarding experience. Matching faces and personalities with names is a very significant and solidifying thing for this scene. I do hope that this party has influenced others as it has me, to further get involved with the scene, to stay in contact with everyone, and to hopefully attend an equally enjoyable event next year. I would like to also admit that I did not shower all weekend, and I really hope I did not offend anyone as a result of this. :) The North American demo scene has so much talent, as we were able to all witness this past weekend, and I hope to see more and more fine productions from the many participants in the compos. I would like to also tell anyone who was in the Kosmic room this weekend that I found a gold-plated phono plug adapter in the room on Monday morning. If it is yours, please email me with your address and I will mail it to you. .. GraveDigger .. Hornet .. gd@ftp.cdrom.com .. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -[ The NAID Music Compo: Opinion Interviews ] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Here are a few opinions on the North American International Democompetiton's Music Competition: Island of Reil, who attended, and Mosaic, who placed 4th with his song 'Tears.' Interviewer . Psibelius [TraxWeekly Columnist] . gwie@coyote.csusm.edu Interviewee . Island of Reil [Epinicion] . jroth@coyote.csusm.edu Interviewee . Mosaic [Renaissance] . cccatch@escape.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Okay, please start by teling our studio audience your name, age, groups, personal, info, naid status, etc... Okay... I'm Jesse Rothenberg, AKA Island of Reil, or ior on IRC. I'm 16 years young, I'm in Epinicion. eeyore? That related to winnie the pooh in any way? No... That's "eye-oh-are." personal info, naid status? Hmmm... I went to NAID... A lot of people saw me there.... It was fun, although I didn't go for the party. Bet they noticed you needed a haircut eh? =) ahahahaha... Well... Actually, most people didn't mind... It seemed to me that nearly everyone there needed a haircut as much or more than I did. :) Okay, spew the info about naid will ya? What exactly would you like to know about NAID? There is a lot to tell... Organization, Compos, People there... Well, why don't you tell us about the oh-so-popular scene peoples. And what they really look like outside of IRC. =) hahahaha... Okay. There were a lot of American scene people there, which is the reason I went. Let's see: Necros, CCCatch, Mosaic, Snowman, Basehead, Maelcum, DareDevil...BTW, that was in no particular order. :) Who made the biggest impression on you? The biggest impression... Hmmm... That's a tough one. A lot of people there completely amazed me, not at all like I expected, but then again, a lot of people looked like I thought they would... But the biggest impression came from someone that was different. who? I guess... I would have to say... Necros. why? When he was called for the first place music compo award... (oh... and he didn't like his song too much) ... he accepted, it, and then gave a little speech to the audience. "little speech?" Don't get me wrong... Not a speech like "Thank you so much, you like me, you really like me!"... No... Nothing like that. It was actually a very good thing to say, especially from someone who is as popular as he is... So what did he actually say? It seemed heartfelt ... the basic idea that it carried was that he respected all the people that competed, becuase they actually DID compete. No matter if their song was good or bad, they went up there, and had the guts to submit it, and then even have it listened to by the entire audience! But I don't think anyone expected him to say that... Which is why it made such an impression (and not just on me :) okay, the usual stuff then. =) Did anything neat or unusual happen you'd like to share with our studio audience? =) Neat or unusual. Well... The entire party was a little unusual. There were some strange things to pass the time away, like an "American Gladiators contest. AHAHAHAHAHA. Needless to say, I didn't go. I don't go to a demoparty to go swimming. Any computers get tossed into the olympic sized pool? hahahaha... No... I don't think so... IT was a long walk from where the computers were. :) The entire music compo was a bit strange. A bit long? The fact that they actually played all 65 songs (or however many there were) ... ugh... Was it that bad? Did a lot of the entries suck or something? Sitting there for 7 and a half hours listening to tracked music... Can get a little ... uhhh ... repetitive. :) There were a lot of Spartacus (Basehead) rips ... With the drum solo at the end ... Except they were nowhere near as good as Spartacus. A lot of attempted Purple Motion (still) ... and even more techno... So basically, a lot of the competiton music was unoriginal? Yes. I quote Mosaic (Renaissnace), who won 4th place in the music compo: "I can't believe they squashed me between 2 techno toons!" Mosaic's song was very good... And different. IT did stand out from the lot. Kind sucks eh? Mosaic's tune rocks...as I've heard. =) Yeah... Another amazing thing was that CCCatch actually tracked a song for the competition! The Sloth Tracker himself! (No offense, Ken! =) "The Sloth Tracker." Is this Kenny's new nick or what? =) hahaha... Well... Just a little something that seems appropriate. :) But, then again, I think he tracks a little more than I do... soooooo Yes, well, I understand tracking one song every six months is kinda slow. =) Bah. Go away. I track more than that. I did a whole 5 last year. :) That brings me to another complaint. They actually announced who tracked the song during the compo. Bad move. So you think it came out to be a popularity contest? Yes. It was a popularity contest. "And the next song is by Necros" organizee organizers had played each without announcing the composer's name? Do you still think the top 4 would still be the top 4 if the organizers had played each without announcing the composer's name? Yes. The actual placement didn't have to do with the votes by the audience. But it was a mistake anyway. But the way they announced CCCatch's song was funny. :) "And the next song is Modern Society, by Kenny Choo (that's how they pronounced it)" ... . It was strange... So you think some of the unknown people that wrote good songs may have been discouraged? Yes. Definitely. People did cheer for the good songs when they were over... But considering that some songs were cheered for before they even started... Last question: Do you think the organization at NAID was better than that at assembly'94? No. Far from it. The people at Assembly '94 knew what they were doing. They had experience. In a way, you can't blame the organizers of NAID, becuase it IS their first time...But there were a lot of people there that had experince they could have asked. There were about 3 or 4 people that had gone to Assembly '94 (me being one of them) that they could have asked... And there were even people that had been STAFF at Asm '94...There were also 1 or 2 people that had gone to The Party 4. And one of the people that went to TP4, and one of the people that went to Asm '94 were supposed to be NAID staff... But weren't. :-/ Well, thanks for your time....do you have any greets or anything you'd like to say? Like hi to your mom, your cat, or someone/something? Final Comment: More is more. Less is less. More is better. Twice as much is good too. Too much is not enough, unless it's just right. that's it? And for greets? Hmmm... I don't really want to greet anyone, becuase then I'll leave people out... But I just want to thank Epeius for letting me stay at his place before NAID, and all the people that have given me the chance to show that just because you start small, doesn't mean that you aren't good at something or another. And that's about it. :) ohh, epinicion philosophy here. =) ahahaha.. you noticed. :) :) okay, well, thanks for the interview...now pHEAR mE and get outta here. =) hahaha... Nah. You're the one to be doing the phearing around here. :) And thank YOU for the interview. :) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - And now, we skip to a brief chat with Mosaic of Renaissance. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - What is your opinion of the music compo? Hmmmmmmm. I felt the compo was cool, except that i don't think the names of the authors should be released. A tune should be judged on the technical (effort it takes to make it) and how it sounds to the public...its hard enough to compete against the best, without being stereotyped before even starting. Like people cheering before the songs even started? Yeah.. like a standing ovation before the song even started. =) That does not RULE. =) I did however like the judges and the way they handled things, and not falling into that category of general demo music, but also choosing originality. Did you enjoy the music compo? Yes, the music compo was cool, except that I had like a hangover from the day before, when me and Necros went out drinking, had like 11 shots and 5-7 pitchers of 32 ounce beer. =) I was actually just hoping to hear CC's tune, since he was the only one left after a while, cuz my head was pounding so bad... So I heard. =) Did ior come with you guys? And you guys didn't let a 16 year old kid get blasted did you? =) ahaha nope...just me and necros. =) And this guy ALEX actually, but he didn't drink much. =) NAID was so tiring...and I had to sleep on the ground...and CC slept on 3 desks put together. =) Imagine his back now. =) You guys didn't bring sleeping bags or anything? - [We are briefly interrupted]- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - No Amtracker, No Mosaic song, No Maelcum song, No Kenny Song. Man, F--- DAT! I"M OUTTA HERE! -Ryan Cramer [Renaissance] - [We resume] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - But the damn canadian hotels...sh--...$75 for holiday inn and you have to check out by 12:00p.m. no matter what time you checked in. That blows my NAIDS. Can I quote you on that? =) sure. =) "THAT BLOWS MY NAIDS." Aahhaah... NAID RULES. EXCEPT, I WISH THE CHECK WAS ACTUALLY $100 IN THE U.S. =)