*DISS_ARTICLE A BEGIN

                       Issue 1, Volume I

 Featured Music for this Issue: "Spatial Distortion" by Necros/PM


Welcome to the first issue of Dissonance, the PC music scene mag. In
this first issue, we have some wonderful articles by many active
people in the PC demo/music scene. We will take a look at many
interesting topics, including music theory, Scream Tracker 3,
sampling techniques, and our featured interview with Peter Hajba,
better known as Skaven of the Future Crew. Enjoy these and all our
other penetrating journalistic masterpieces :)

                            - Necros of The Psychic Monks
                              Editor in Chief, Dissonance magazine
                              asega@ic.sunysb.edu

And now for the Dissonance staff:

        ú ú ú    Dissonance Staff/Contributors    ú ú ú


   Position              Name                     Internet
úÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄú
 Editor-In-Chief      Necros/PM            asega@ic.sunysb.edu

 Submissions Editor   Chuck Biscuits/iCE   chuckb@paxnet.com.au

 ANSI Art             Aphex Twin/iCE

 Contributors         Shadow Hunter        jsp@cs.wustl.edu

                      Ozone

                      Skaven/FC

                      Diablo/KLF           bs3n@andrew.cmu.edu

                      Syntax Error/iCE     pbiondic@mailer.fsu.edu

Thanks for Likuid Krystal/PM for his font routines.

DSIK Music System, the DSM Format, and the associated code was
created by and is Copyright (C) 1994 Pelusa/PM. All rights reserved.

Background music, font, and main interface routine coding was done
by Necros/PM.

Special thanks to ChuckB/iCE for all his help, and also to the many
people who helped us beta test. Also special thanks to all the
contributors and all the readers.



*DISS_ARTICLE A END
*DISS_ARTICLE B BEGIN

                ú ú ú ú ú  "It's Out!!"  ú ú ú ú ú

While many people were waiting for Extreme's XTracker and Triton's
FastTracker 2, something interesting happened. Psi/FC for some
strange reason decided to suddenly release ScreamTracker 3. This,
while being a joyous and happy event, was greeted with some
consternation by many people. Why? Unfortunately he has also decided
not to support it. So the question is: Is it bug-free enough to be
usable? That is something you'll have to experiment with yourself,
but here are a few guidelines that will help.

There are many bugs lurking in the background of ST3, and some of
them have no readily explicable cause. One of my favorites is the
wonderful "Magic Lines" bug, which occurs every once in a while,
especially after you have been using it for a while. Little short
while lines appear in certain of the font characters on the screen.
This is most noticeable in the main playing screen (F5) and in the
pattern editor (F2). There is no way around this except to exit and
return.

ST3 also has a tendency to lock up at strange times, often when you
are low on disk space or memory. Be careful and save often. I mean
it. BACK UP YOUR SHIT!

NEVER EVER use the approximate length function while a song is
playing!!!!!!! It corrupts patterns! Only use it after stopping the
mod with F8.

Unfortunately the 8 track .MOD save routines are seriously screwed
up too. Don't rely on ST3 to save in 8 track extended MOD format
correctly because it won't. Of course, when you can save as an .S3M,
why even bother? ;)

The color setup in the config screen doesn't save either - so don't
bother configuring the colors perfectly to your satisfaction because
there is NO way to save them (it's hardcoded into the program).

Alright, now some cool tricks and stuff to use in the Pattern
Editor:

- Remember ST3 makes echoes and such VERY easy by use of the
  copy/offset commands. First write a melody line in one track, and
  select it with ALT-L (it should turn blue). Next get to a free
  track, move to the top of it with the Page Up key, and hit ALT-P
  to paste it. Now to create the echo, move it down (via the Insert
  key) 2 or 3 rows. The only thing left is to lower the volume.
  Select the new track with ALT-L and use ALT-J to lower the volume
  to about half of the volume of the first track. Voila, instant
  echoes.

- To test out complicated chords and such, try moving to the
  beginnning of a row's note field and hitting '8'. It will play the
  current row without playing the entire pattern, and is good for
  checking that multi-track melodies and stuff play the right notes
  at the same time :)

- Keep in mind that hitting F8 will kill all output (for those
  annoying looped samples).

- ST3 thankfully supports multi-effect commands. One of the more
  useful ones is KXX (vibrato and volume slide). It keeps the
  current vibrato going while doing a volume slide in whichever
  direction pleases you. Example:

    C-3 01 40 ---   <- lead note
    D-3 .. 52 G05   <- now start porta (bend) up a step
    ... .. 58 G05   <- keep bending up, increase volume
    ... .. 62 G05
    ... .. 64 H81   <- start the vibrato
    ... .. .. H82   <- vib a little deeper
    ... .. .. H00   <- keep it going (will vib at H82 again)
    ... .. .. K02   <- now do a downward vol slide WITH vib going
    ... .. .. H81   <- ease up a bit on the vibrato
    ... .. .. K02   <- keep doing slide AND vib
    ... .. .. D02   <- now kill the vibrato and just vol slide down
    ... .. .. D02   <- etc...

The cool thing about ST3 which makes this possible is that it
includes a separate volume row. This is REALLY useful for fading in
instruments. To do this, select an area (with ALT-B to mark the
beginning, and ALT-E to mark the end), put the start volume in the
first marked row, and the end volume in the last marked row, and hit
ALT-K. Poof! You have a nice interpolated slide! (sure beats
figuring it out in your head...)

Anyways, have fun with it (at least until something even better
comes out) ;)

                                                - Necros/PM

*DISS_ARTICLE B END
*DISS_ARTICLE C BEGIN

I don't think I have ever written an article for anything,
especially a digital magazine.  Well, I met Necros through IRC and
we have been talking for a while now about music, sound, and other
things.  When he said he was writing this new digital magazine, I
jumped at the opportunity to have my name distributed worldwide, and
my mailbox flooded. :)  This article is about real sound, digital
sound, and how to make your own sounds, all of which will definitely
irritate your relatives if you see them often enough.
        
The first thing you have to know about sound is that it always
travels in waves, with compressions and expansions.  A pressure vs
time graph of the most basic wave yields a sine wave, and takes the
following shape: (and hence is called a function of the time domain)
 
                               y = sin (t)

+1.           .....
a .         ....    .....
m .     ...              ....
p .  ...                     ...
l  ...                           ..
i 0--------------------------------ã------------------------------2ã
t .                                   ..                          ..
u .                                     ...                     ...
d .                                        ...             ....
e .                                            ....   .....
-1.                                               .....
          t i m e - - - - - >
 
This wave repeats every 2 * pi, so it has a period of 2.  This
means that at 3pi, the wave will be at the same point as in pi,
because it is a repeating function.
 
By altering the formula for the wave to be, say, y=sin(2t), the
period is halved and the frequency is doubled.  There's a little
formula that states F=1/T, where F is frequency and T is the period.
The standard amplitude for a wave is 1, that is, it ranges from -1
to 1. By making the wave equation y=2 sin(2 * t), the wave has an
amplitude of 2, which means that it ranges from -2 to 2, and has a
period of 1 second, and a frequency of 1 hertz.  For future
reference, phase is just some number added to the part of the
equation inside of the sin() function.  Phase simply alters the
starting point of the wave so that it is some other value than 0 at
time 0, so the phase shifts the wave right or left. Confused?  No?
Good.

  [editor:

  If you are confused, here's the basic algebra behind it:

    y = a sin(b*x+c)

   (This ^^ equation is the general form for a SINE curve.)

  The components of the equation, and what it all means, breaks down
  to:

  Amplitude   = a           Phase Shift = -c
                                          ---
  Period      = 2*pi                       b
               ----
                b

  The units for pi () is either radians, degrees, or whatever.
  Since we're talking pi, which is 3.14159..., that's a measure in
  radians (pi radians = 180 degrees), so you'd usually work in
  radians on your graph.

  That's high school algebra folks, hope you didn't sleep through
  that. :) Back to ShadowHunter's fine words :)]

This is all really nice, but how do you represent a real instrument,
like a violin, with one wave?  Well, there is no practical way to do
that. What we can do is represent it with many waves, all at a
different frequency and phase. With an infinite amount of waves
added together, you get an accurate representation of a violin's
waveform, and thus the sound. Now is the part where the digital
world of sampling and computers comes into the picture.
 
With the advent of sound cards, and digital acquisition devices,
people can do recording and sampling at home, often using these
samples in digital music (for example, the ancient .MOD
specification).  This introduces problems such as picking the
correct sampling rate.  This guy named Nyquist stated (accurately, I
might add) that the maximum frequency recordable with a sampling
device is the sampling rate/2.  This makes sense, because a wave
that is cyclical cannot be represented in an area that is too small
for one cycle.  Therefore, there is a tradeoff between sampling
rates and quality.  Too low of a rate will yield a horrible sounding
piece of audio that is very small in length, while too high of a
rate will yield a high quality sample that is very large.  Anyway,
back to waves...
 
If you have a complex signal of n bytes in length, because of the
Nyquist sampling theorem, this signal can be represented by n/2
waves whose frequencies range from samplingrate/n to samplingrate/2
in equal steps. So 64 bytes can be represented by 32 waves, each
with different phases, amplitudes, and frequencies.  If you want any
more information on this subject, look up Baron Jean-Baptiste-Joseph
Fourier or the Fourier Transform in a library.  There is a variant
of this called the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) that was figured out
in the 60s and is a LOT faster, but I don't have the time, energy,
or resources to explain that now. :)
 
[editor: Basically, the FT/FFT will change data from the time domain
as we saw above, to the frequency domain, where you have frequency
at the bottom of the graph, and amplitude going up the side.  It is
very useful for doing equalisation and other effects]

So there you have it, the complete guide to digital audio and waves.
I think that maybe in my next installment, if Necros would allow it,
I'll cover digital effects, like flange, echo, distortion, and more.
Those are really neat and they are easy to implement, especially in
.MODS... like having 2 identical tracks and running a 411
(protracker) effect on one gives you a flange. I just couldn't
resist giving away a tip. :) I hope somebody out there enjoyed
reading this article, and I'd appreciate any feedback you might
have, as well as future ideas or algorithms for hall reverb (PLEASE
HELP ME THERE!).
 
                                      Keep on making noise, kids!
 
                                                   - ShadowHunter

*DISS_ARTICLE C END
*DISS_ARTICLE D BEGIN

        A basic guide to underground sample recording
                 on a budget by ChuckBiscuits
------------------------------------------------------------------

For those of us without thousands of dollars of electronic music
equipment, sampling can be, well, a real bitch.  Our samples come
out as being low quality, noisy, and more often than not being
totally unusable. However there is yet hope!  With even rank
equipment, you can create reasonable quality samples that you can
use in your modules until you purchase better sampling equipment.
Please note that this guide is aimed at the intermediate level - you
are expected to have a basic knoweldge of sampling, sample rates,
bandwidth, the sampling theorem (j/k), and related topics.  For a
beginner, just play around a bit, or read on, I'll try to make this
pretty easy to understand.  And yes, like those annoying
"environmentally concious" bitch reporters on television, we're
sampling to a budget.  Kiddies with rich parents who bought them a
Korg Wavestation O1/WDF or a Turtle Beach MultiSound card, or
similar, need not read this, as you can have a professional sound
engineer come around to your place and setup your private studio for
you <grin>.

The first step to improving your samples is looking at your setup.
Okay, lets take my setup as an example.  The equipment I have is the
following:

      - A 386dx/40 machine, with a 245meg drive
      - A SoundBlaster 1.05 card
      - A Gravis Ultrasound Revision B card
      - Various other home made equipment for my guitar setup
      - A crappy $15 radio shack cardiod microphone
      - An inexpensive bookshelf stereo system with CD player,
        ample auxiliary input/output plugs, and a decent
        filtering amplifier (one of the more important parts).

This setup at first seems pretty non-budget - it's got some more
expensive equipment in there sure, however all of that equipment is
off-the-shelf stuff, and can be picked up very cheaply. Look through
your setup, and assess what you want to do with it.

You want to sample from real life sources (e.g. acoustic
instruments, voices) - fine, that's where the microphone comes in.
It does NOT have to be some ultra-high-quality Shure microphone
(Shure mics are the best IMO), as it will simply outperform the
sampling equipment, and as we're working on a budget it's just
overkill.  A cheap $5 mic is too cheap - this generally means the
sort of thing you could pick up at one of those cheapo stores that
sell nothing but Chinese-made goods and those "unauthorised" bootleg
albums.  However, something in the $25 or so range (that's
Australian dollars, I'm an aussie) from Radio Shack or some other
dorkstore can do you proud.  The "realistic" brand that Radio Shack
sells are not too bad.  The type of microphone you want to buy IS
important. If you're recording the source up real close, then a
uni-directional microphone which will pickup sound from only
directly in front of the mic will be a good choice, and so will a
Cardiod microhpone.  A cardiod mic picks up sound in a heart-shaped
type pattern, with the top of the heart being behind the mic
pointing outwards past the front of the microphone. An
omni-directional mic picks up sound from anywhere around the
microphone (front or back), and are good for micing rooms or groups
of instruments.  They are, however, generally more expensive for the
same quality, and are more likely to pickup stray noise.
Soundproofing is not really an issue here as it is too expensive to
do even with crap like egg cartons (which doesn't REALLY work that
well anyway - it does more to keep sounds in than out).

So, with a uni-directional mic, mic in front of and around the same
height as the source, with a cardiod, mic from ABOVE the source
pointing down.

The next thing to consider is of course the sound card.  My
SoundBlaster 1.05 is useless for sampling.  Most Creative
(labs/technology) cards will not give you professional results, even
the SB16.  There is a reason for this. They are junk firstly, and
secondly they are not shielded in ANY way from RF noise from the
computer. You have a video card and power supply, among other
things, in that machine that will usually exceed Class B FCC
requirements, and that is, surprisingly enough, going to impact
quite alot on your sampling! In the SB 1.05, it makes things a royal
pain in the butt. Hence the GUS you'll also notice in my setup.
However there's bugger all samplers for the GUS, which is a pain.
I'll come to that later.

[ Ed. - 'bugger all' = Australian slang for 'hardly any'. :) ]

How to make your samples rock -----------------------------

Cutting down RF noise is important.  If you listen to even high
quality samples done on say, a SoundBlaster Pro, you'll notice hum
in the background. This is the dreaded radio frequency interference.
If your setup was like mine, and there's a fire-hazard type
situation down the back of your machine with 10 odd cables, and
about 8 amperes loaded on a 10 ampere circuit that has to supply the
whole household, then you are shit out of luck unless you move the
thing. So the first step is to minimize the electric field intensity
- move all other cables away from the ports on the back of your
sound card.

Secondly, get an RF choke.  This is a neat little sucker that fits
around your cables going into the sound card, and, incidently
enough, can be purchased (or stolen) from those boffins down at
Radio Shack. I have no idea how much they cost, and if you want me
to quote a catalogue number, then you really should get out more.
This will go over your cable/cables (depending, as you may have
guessed, on how many you obtain), and should cut down a bit of RF
noise.  This may range from a little to alot depending on how lucky
you are, and how much noise there was to start with.

Third step, cut down on cabling.  My guitar setup is a perfect
example of this, as are a lot of other peoples' guitar setups who
have lots of pedals. I have about 5 effects pedals lined up to one
another in a long thin box, all connected by short patch leads.
These patch leads are all pretty well insulated I guess, but nothing
beats a single, well insulated, lead.  Obviously in my guitar setup
this is not possible, but it proves a point - the more cables you
have, the more likely your RF noise problem will be worse.  Spending
$20 or $30 on cables is not such a bad thing, even if this is just a
hobby.

Fourth step, test it!  Get some piece of software that'll let you
check the line input levels on your card with 'live' input. That is,
sampling software basically.  Set it to 'passthru' mode or 'analyse'
or some junk like that. Just get it to be replaying and sampling at
the same time (have both the input and output DACs open) - you'll
hear a slightly worse (on SB cards) representation of what your
output will sound like. On the GUS, things'll pretty much sound like
what you will be hearing from this analyse mode. Jiggle the cables
round a bit, play with moving them around, stuff like that, you'll
find a setup that works well for you before long.

The next step is, of course, sampling, and I'll get onto sampling in
my next article, focusing on firstly general principles and rules to
good sampling, and then I'll focus on sampling a different group of
instrument each week!

Until then, happy mod writing and sampling!

Chuck Biscuits, iCE / DiE.

*DISS_ARTICLE D END
*DISS_ARTICLE E BEGIN

Many musicians have asked for a source of basic info about some of
the theory behind music itself. It is possible to be a very good
composer without knowing any of this, but it is nice to know a
little bit of the workings and fiddly things that make songs sound
the way they do.

First off, a bit about notes and harmonics and such. When you play a
'C' note on a tracker, what quality about it gives it the title of
'C'? The answer: the frequency. Music is, in a sense, applied
physics, and the properties of waves, specifically frequency and
amplitude, play a big part in the characteristics of sound.

Let's assume you play an 'A' note on a piano. The resulting output
looks something like this (if viewed thru an oscilloscope):

-         xxxx                  xxxxxxx                   xxxx
-      xxx    x                x       x               xxx    xx
-    xx        x              xx        x             x         x
----x-----------x-----------xx-----------x-----------xx----------x
-                xx       xx              xx       xx
-                  xxxxxxx                  xxxxxxx
-
    I ------ wavelength -------I  (frequency = 2 *  / wavelength)

(okay so my art skills are a bit lacking :))

Anyways, this is a visual representation of the sound the piano
makes. The piano causes the air between it and you to compress back
and forth at a certain rate. This makes your eardrum vibrate and
makes your brain perceive the sound. Now the 'rate' at which the air
vibrates depends on the note you play. If you play a higher note,
the air vibrates faster. If you play a lower note, the air moves
more slowly. Musicians have decreed the standard for a concert
middle 'A' note on a keyboard to be 440 Hz (this means 440 complete
back/forth cycles per second). An 'A' note an octave above that
would have a frequency of exactly double that, or 880 Hz. We
perceive an octave to be a nice-sounding relation to the original
note, because their frequencies are in a simple integer ratio. In
fact, many of the common harmonies that we use are simple integer
ratios of each other:

            -- Interval --           -- Frequency Ratio --

         C - E  (major third)               4 : 5
         C - G  (fifth)                     2 : 3
         C - C' (octave up)                 1 : 2

Now, unfortunately, this is all nice and clean in theory, but when
it comes to designing an actual instrument, there is a problem. One
has to be able, on a piano, to play music written in many different
key signatures. That is, a C-G interval must be the same in ALL keys
(i.e. D-A, E-B, F#-C#). This is impossible to do with the 2:3
frequency ratio without a LARGE amount of extra keys on the piano.
The compromise instrument makers use is to use what is called 'equal
temperament'. This means that all the half-steps are in the same
ratio to each other. Thus given a note on the keyboard and a
frequency, the frequency of any other note can be given by the
formula:

                           (number of half steps in between / 12)
    new freq = old freq * 2

For a full octave (12 half steps), this evaluates to exactly twice
the original frequency, as it should. But for a fifth (7 steps), it
evaluates to about 1.4983, slightly less than the 'perfect fifth'
ratio of 1.50. The result is that some notes on a piano are slightly
out of tune, but they will be equally good (or bad) in any key. Bach
and many other composers actually wrote songs for a 'tempered' piano
or clavier, one which is tuned to a specific key. The benefit is
that songs played in that key sound very much wonderfully in tune,
but songs played on a 'tempered' instrument in the key that the
instrument is not 'tempered' in sound rather awful.

Ok, well, enough basic sound crap. Now on to more interesting
applied stuff :)

Now onto something a bit more interesting, chord theory. Most of you
have screwed around with chord samples and such found in many
modules (including my own). They consist of usually three notes in a
single instrument, playing together in harmony. You've probably also
seen them called 'Major' or 'Minor' or maybe even 'Arrested'. But
what does all of this mean?

A simple chord (or triad) is just three notes playing at the same
time. The name of the chord depends on the intervals between the
notes. Here are some common ones.

Name         Intervals (half-steps)       Example (in the key of C)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
     Major Chord           0,4,7 (0 is C)         C - E - G
     Minor Chord           0,3,7                  C - Eb - G
     Arrested (Sus4)       0,5,7                  C - F - G
     Sustained 2nd         0,2,7                  C - D - G
     Diminished            0,3,6                  C - Eb - F#

There are also chord with four notes in them:

     Seventh               0,4,7,10               C - E - G - Bb
     Major Seventh         0,4,7,11               C - E - G - B
     Minor Seventh         0,3,7,10               C - Eb - G - Bb
     Add 2                 0,2,4,7                C - D - E - G
     Ninth                 0,4,7,14               C - E - G - D(hi)

Note that all of these chord can be both TRANSPOSED and INVERTED.
Transposed means simply you can play it with a different base note.
For example a D Major chord would be D, F#, A (using the 0,4,7
half-step theorem for figure it out). Inverted means that the chord
notes can be in a different order. A C Major chord, 1st inversion,
would be E - G - C (high). Inverted chords are basically the same as
the originals, but have a different sound to the the differently
emphasized harmonics.

Now that you know all these cool chords, you have NO excuse to keep
writing that same old techno crap with that cheesy chord pad :)

But how can this help you in your song-writing? That is the hard
part. Unfortunately you simply have to play around with chords to
learn how each sounds in a song. Majors are typically happy chords,
and Minors and usually darker and more depressing. Major Sevenths
are happy but folk-ish, and Minor Sevenths are usually used to add
texture to a line where a regular Minor is not full enough.
Sus2/Sus4 chords are usually used as leadoff chords into Majors or
Minors.

Now you can get neat effects by combining some of these. For
example, try playing a C minor and an Eb major together... the
resulting heavy C Min7-ish chord is nice and full, and would sound
nice as a beginning chord :) You can, of course do lots of neat
chords like this, but since explaining which ones sound good and
which ones sound bad requires a lot of theory and a lot of just
plain playing around with it, i'll give you some of my favorites to
try out...

(note, these can be transposed to whatever base chord you want just
by shifting both chords up the same number of half steps... in these
examples however i will use C as the base chord for clarity.. also
note they should be played in the same octave as each other)

 First Chord   Second Chord     Equivalent            Notes
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 C minor       Eb major         Cmin7       deep, very minor-ish C
 major         E minor          Cmaj7       restful, pleasant
 C major       G major          Cmaj7+9     very powerful harmonics
 C major       C sus2           Cadd2       striking major chord
 C minor       Eb sus2          Ebsus2/C    nice minorish blend


The hands-down best way to get a grasp on chord theory is, quite
frankly, to get your hands on some sort of keyboard and start
plinking away. It makes it much easier to experiment with harmony,
since plugging these things into a tracker is a real bitch unless
you know what you want ahead of time. :D

Anyways, more on this stuff in the next issue (my fingers are
getting tired).

                                              - Necros / PM

*DISS_ARTICLE E END
*DISS_ARTICLE F BEGIN

              A Hitchhiker's Guide to Creating Samples
              ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
                             by Ozone

    If you haven't read so already, read Chuck Biscuits' guide to
recording samples - this is meant to be a 'continuation' of his
article, so to speak. This guide will (hopefully) explain the actual
process of recording a sample and mungling with it so you can get
the highest quality possible.

  So looking at my equipment here, I have:

   -  A 486dx2/66, with a 500mb HD.
   - A Gravis UltraSound card w/1MB RAM & a 16-bit rec daughterboard.
   - A $100 Pioneer tape deck and a Sony D-33 Discman.
   - One of those k-rad Audio/Video selectors which allows me to
     switch recording from the tape deck or the Discman (but not
     both!).

    This setup looks pretty non-budget too, but it could easily be
done with much less computer power, and a cheapo Taiwanese XYZ CD
Player. The setup looks pretty much like this: (I love doing ASCII
art!)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
       Setup to record from CD -> Sound Card, and to record Sound
              Card output to a tape deck, via an amplifier.

         ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
         ³ Discman :) ³
         ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁ Line Out Ä> Line In ÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
         ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂ Vid/Aux <ÄÄ Line Out ´ Sound Card ³
         ³ Amplifier Ã CD In                ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
         ³           Ã Tape Rec ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ> Rec ÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
         ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁ Tape Monitor <ÄÄÄÄÄ Play ´ Tape Deck ³
                                                ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

    Setup to record from either tape or CD, and to record soundcard
          output to a tape deck, via an amplifier. (MY SETUP!)
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂ Rec <ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Tape Rec ÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ Tape Deck Ã Play ÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿                    Tape Monitor ´       ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ            ÀÄ> Source 1 ÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿   ³       ³
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿           ÚÄ> Source 2 ´ Input Selector ³   ³ Ampl- ³
³ Discman :) Ã Line Out ÄÙ            ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ   ³ ifier ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ                               Output        ³       ³
                     ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂ Line In <ÄÄÙ           ³       ³
                     ³ Sound Card ³                  CD In ´       ³
                     ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁ Line Out ÄÄÄÄ> Vid/Aux ÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
--------------------------------------------------------------------

    Alright, so let's get down to some sampling. Hooking up your
input source to the Line In on your sound card, grab some software
that can test whether anything is coming through or not. Usually the
software that comes with your card will do fine.

    Once you've made it through that step, we come to one of the
most vague parts of all: finding some decent sampling software.
(Un)fortunately, depending on how you look at things, most of the
decent software is available for Windows. Here's a quick list of
some good software I've tried:

    DOS:- Advanced DigiPlayer (SB)
          Blaster Master (SB)
          Ultra Amender (GUS)

    Windows:- Goldwave
              CoolEdit

    OS/2:- Digital Audio Applet

    If you love using Windows, by all means use Goldwave and/or
CoolEdit. However if you're like me and much prefer DOS, I highly
recommend Advanced DigiPlayer. If you have a GUS and can't get it to
work, or you have the 16-bit daughterboard, see the GUS section
later on.

    Now you have two choices for sampling: sampling from within your
sample editor, or sampling with an external sample utility and
importing it into your sample editor. I use the second method,
however silly it may seem, because since I have a GUS, I find that
the PLAYFILE utility gives me higher sample quality than going
through SB emulation and eg sampling within Blaster Master. There is
an easy way to test which is suitable for you; first sample with
your sample editor, then sample with an external sampling utility.
Now load both of them into your sample editor, and compare them.
Whichever turns up the higher quality sample (less noise, more bass,
etc) is the method your should use.

    Now tell yourself WHAT you want to sample. Say you want to
sample a really cool drumloop you've heard in a song. First, you
have to find an isolated drumloop. What this means is that there has
to be a drumloop by itself; there cannot be any instruments playing
at all while the drumloop is playing. Why? If you want to use the
drumloop in one of your songs, then the instruments sampled with it
can be heard too, which ain't good since it'll probably clash with
your theme. While this may seem obvious, you'd be surprised at the
number of people who never think of this. So unless you're a rich
bastard and have a mixer, find an isolated sample.

    Now ask yourself another question: what sampling rate should I
use? If you are sampling for use in a business presentation where
you have about 5GB of disk space for multimedia, then by all means
sample at 44KHz 16-bit stereo. (Although then I have no idea why
you're reading this). On the other hand, if you're sampling this
drumloop for use in a MOD, then sample at around 16KHz 8-bit mono.
Unless you're got a beta of FastTracker 2.0, in which case give me
your address so I can come around and beat the living crap out of
you, or you're using UltraTracker, 16-bit samples can't be used in
MODs. (Yet..)

    Sampling rate is a very important aspect. Most people say that
sampling rate should be based on what kind of sample it is. For
example, if you're dealing with a synth instrument, it doesn't need
to be higher than about 11KHz. If you're dealing with a drumloop,
that should be sampled with at least a rate of 16KHz. However, I
generally follow the idea that sampling rate should follow how often
the sample is used in your music. If you sample an instrument at
11KHz and use it all the way through, then it will give the
impression that the MOD isn't high quality. However, sample that
instrument at 22KHz and the module might sound a hell of a lot
better, in exchange for a slightly bigger (a couple of K) size.
However, don't be stupid and think that 'Oh, I'm only gonna use this
drumloop a couple of times, I should sample it at 8KHz!' If that is
the case, sample it at around 16KHz; drumloops need that sort of
quality even if it's only being used a couple of times. For this
example drumloop, I'll assume it will be the main loop of my new
MOD, so I'll sample it at 22KHz. You really shouldn't go much higher
than that.

[ed: There are differing viewpoints on the samplerate you should
     use, which Chuck Biscuits will go over in the next issue]

    So now we know what we want to sample (an isolated drumloop) and
the sampling rate (22KHz), we are ready to sample it. Now suppose
this isolated drumloop is about 3'11" (3 minutes 11 seconds) into
the song. Set your CD player (or tape deck or whatever) just before
it occurs; about 3'09", and pause it. This is because you don't want
to miss the beginning of the sample. Now instruct your software to
begin sampling, then unpause it. When this great Prodigy drumloop
has finished playing, tell your software to stop sampling, then stop
the CD player.

    Now you have the actual sample sitting on your HDD, load it into
the sample editor if it's not already. Remove the beginning of the
sample where the drumloop hasn't started yet - you can almost always
identify the start of a drumloop with a bassdrum, and bassdrums have
a huge volume, so the start of the sample might look something like
this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------
       Ý                           Ý                            Ý
       Û                           Û                            Û
       ÛÛ  Ü      Ü  Ü         Ü   ÛÛ           ÜÜ              ÛÛ
 Ü     ÛÛÝ ÛÛ   ÜÛÛÛ ÛÛ   ÜÛ   ÛÛ  ÛÛÝ Û   ÜÛ   ÛÛÛ   ÜÛ    ÞÜ ÜÛÛÝ
ÛÛÜÛ   ÛÛÛ ÛÛÛÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜÛÛÛÜÛÜÛÛÛÜÛÛÛ ÛÛÜÛÛÛÜÛÜÛÛÛÛÜÛÛÛÜÛÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛÛÛÜÞÛÛÛÝÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÝÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÝ
ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ
ÛÛß ß ÞÛÛÛÝÛÛÛßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛßÛÛÛÝÛÛßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛßÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÝ
Ûß     ÛÛÛ ÛÛÝ   ÛÛÛÝÛÛÝ   ÛÛÛÛÛÛÝ ÛÛÛ ÛÝ   ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÝ   ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛßÛÛÛ
       ÛÛÝ ÛÛ    ÞÛÛ ÛÛ    ÞÛßÛÛÛ  ÛÛÝ Û    ÞÛßÛÛÛÛ    ÞÛßÛßÛÛ  ÛÛÝ
       ÛÛ  ß     Þß  ß     Þ   ß   ÛÛ       Þ   ßß     Þ     ß  ÛÛ
       Û                           Û                            Û
       Ý                           Ý                            Ý
       * (1)                       *                            *
 The waveforms with the asterisk under them are distinct bassdrums,
 with the (1) next to the asterisk being the start of the sample.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

    Then remove the end of the sample, after the drumloop is
finished. My method of doing this is to play the sample with the
looping option turned on. If the sample loops smoothly without a
click at the end or the beginning, you have a near-perfect sample.

    What's that you say? Only near-perfect? We haven't quite
finished yet. Now we have to make the sample sound as loud as
possible without getting distortion, usually called maximising. Some
sample editors have a button that does this, but as always, machines
will never be able to outperform a human at this job. What we want
to do is to get the majority of the sample in the 80% volume range,
and have the loudest sections of it clipped, at around 120%. So for
this drumloop, the bassdrum might have to be clipped majorly in
order for the rest of the sample to get within at least 60% of the
volume scale.

    After you've done that, congratulations! You hopefully should
have a sample that not only sounds great, but is high-quality as
well. From here, there are a number of paths you can take. You might
want to use this sample in your MOD right now, or you have want to
jiggle around with some special effects, like reverb, echo etc.

GUS Section ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

Firstly, congratulations for buying the best sound card in the
world. Yes, I know the friggin' [Turtle Beach] MultiSound is better,
but if you have one of those you really shouldn't be reading this.
The GUS is undoubtedly the most different card available on the
consumer market, which can lead to problems.

    Sampling software for the GUS is pretty scarce at the moment;
there are a couple around such as Ultra Amender which are integrated
sample editors, but these are generally not on par with current SB
editors. And if you have a 16-bit recording daughterboard, the only
recording utility available is PLAYFILE. Only time will allow the
card to mature and have a more expanded software berth.

    The best bet at the moment is to go with Windows software; some
of these editors are excellent, such as Goldwave. The GUS drivers
for Windows do a great job. However, if you hate Windows like me,
there aren't many options left.

    I have a 16-bit recording daughterboard, so I have even fewer
options. However, I found a way out of the situation: I use PLAYFILE
to record a sample, and use Advanced DigiPlayer (ADP) to edit
samples. However, many people have complained that ADP doesn't work
on their system. Here are the settings I use:

    C:\GUS\MOD\ADP> megaem -roff -p

      (I don't think the -p is necessary, but I need it because I
       have an UltraStor SCSI controller).

    C:\GUS\MOD\ADP> emuset -l

    C:\GUS\MOD\ADP> digiplay

    These work fine for me. There are a couple of problems with this
method, the greatest is that playing the sample cuts off before it
reaches the end. This can be fixed by having the loop option on,
although it should be on by default anyway. You will get used to the
looping sooner or later. Another problem is that there are usually
clicks during the sample playback, but this goes away once the
sample looping begins.

Other Comments ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

You might want to try sampling and editing sounds at 16-bit, then
when you've finished editing it, downgrade the sample to 8-bit.
While I'm not a fanatic of this method, Maelcum swears it's clearer
than sampling at 8-bit; and you only have to look at his sample
quality to believe this.

    If you are doing alot of drumloops in MODs, try using sample
offsets to reduce the size [ i.e. use parts of the drum loop to mix
and match together to create varied beats from one loop - Ed.]. This
is very hard to explain, but have at Chuck Biscuits' CB-HAWK.S3M
module to see how this idea works.

*DISS_ARTICLE F END
*DISS_ARTICLE G BEGIN

Today you get to read about the somewhat mysterious, but highly
talented Inspekdah Deck from the KLF.  He is very hard to get a hold
of - even Maelcum, president, can't even get him, so it goes without
saying that this interview was not really easy to get.  I figured
he'd be a good subject because not too many people (including me)
know anything about him.  This is not only the first time I've
interviewed him, it's the first time I've ever talked to him, so
take it for what it's worth.  I found him to be a very good
interviewee with a lot to say.

                                                - Diablo/KLF


D:  What got you interested in music in general?

ID: I dunno... When I was about 11 years old, I got one of those
little Casio keyboards.  I started playing around with it.  The
music you hear on the radio - I played along with it and suddenly I
just started getting it.  Later on, I've just been playing
keyboards.  It's like this talent just came to me, I dunno.  I catch
any tune in about 1 second now.

D:  Did you ever take lessons? ID: Never.

D:  Do you understand keys and stuff? ...like when you hear an E
flat major scale, can you tell what it is?

ID: You can play mostly any key... mostly on piano, I can tell you
what it is.  It's like instict now.

D:  What kind of music got you interested in composing?

ID: Mostly stuff on the radio.  I used to hear it and think, "I
could make something like this."  The music I hear at parties now -
it always fascinates me, "how do they do this and get it out there?"
I want to make my own music... and also get it out there, like on
the radio.  The music right now that I like is house music.  I lost
my touch for techno and all those.  Ambient - I just don't like
those as much.  See, I DJ and the house music is always there.

D:  Are you a good DJ? :-)

ID: Yeah.  Haha...  I've seen a whole bunch of little DJs who come
up from nowhere...  In DJing, I really scratch the rap.  Rap is
alright, but when it comes to house, I like to mix a few records and
play them at the same time... You get so psyched once it works.
That's like the beauty of computers - you can make your own mixes,
anything - and keep them good.

D:  Do you compose mostly MIDI now?

ID: My life is getting very busy for some reason and I haven't had
time to even compose music...  So I turned to MIDI because what I'm
doing now is recording samples onto the computer and playing them
via the keyboard.  I have a whole bunch of equipment here and
...I've recorded a few tapes and sent them to a few record
companies.  One of them accepted mine, except they told me to do
another tape with better sound quality.

D:  Did you send in another one yet?

ID: Not yet.  I'm still looking for the best songs because this is
the opportunity of a lifetime.

D:  When you do mods, does it take you a long time or is it just
kind of a flow thing and in an hour you're done?

ID: At first it took forever to do one mod.  I had to rip off other
mods (for samples).  As I got better, I started noticing that
sampling itself is a whole other world.  Sampling is harder than
making mods.  You have to get the right sampling rate and stuff...
making mods is just playing it at the right time.  It'll probably
still take me a week (to make a mod).  To make the mod itself, it'll
take me maybe 2 hours.  "Cougar Story II", that one took me 4 hours
to 5 hours.  It took me one week in reality because I had to record
the samples, I had to find them - that's what takes a long time. I'm
trying to make one now - the only problem is that there's a special
way to make it scratch.  When you DJ you're actually screwing with
samples - speeding them up.  I could try doing that with my
modeditors, but the only problem is that they're too slow.  I have
to find a modeditor that can speed up and slow down samples really
quick...

D:  So things like MMEDIT don't really cut it then?

ID: It has so far but once you want to be more original it doesn't
let you be.  I stopped there, and that's why I went to MIDI.  I have
a whole new world.

D:  When did you join KLF?

ID: ...it had to be a year and a half ago.

D:  And you've kept up with the fast pace of releasing mods?

ID: Actually now I've stopped, but I know Maelcum and I - we used to
race.  We'd see who could release the most mods in a week or a
month, we just went crazy.  I know we have over a few hundered
released so far.

D:  I know one of the "requisites" of KLF mods is that they have to
be at least (exaggeration) 500K, except for Maelcum's chiptunes...
He made one of those last night in like 5 minutes.

ID: Yeah, it's like when I hear him, sometimes I'm talking to him on
the phone with him speaking and he's just making a mod right there.
...You're usually not gonna find me on the computer when I'm home.
I'm always working, lifting weights, you name it, swimming.  I'm
just out enjoying life.  Computer is like real old.  It's just for
winter.  You can't go outside then.

D:  What got you interested in KLF?

ID: I used to run my own group - it was... ABC (Another Bad
Creation) and I used to do a lot of ANSi drawing.  Maelcum was in
the KLF with one other guy and I was asking Maelcum if he wanted to
join my group.  He said, "why don't you join my group?" because he
had all these connections.

D:  Did you make music before that or were you just an ANSi artist
at first?

ID: At first I was an ANSi artist.  The first mod that I released
was the first one I ever made.  It's not too bad really... looking
back at it, it is, but when I first (released) it, I know that
everyone liked it, even Maelcum.  But that's the equipment that they
had back then.

D:  I guess now there's a lot of competition...

ID: Not really.  If you really think about it, the biggest mod group
that I've seen now is that Cosmic and they really have one set
music.  They do techno.  If you look at KLF, we have everything,
trance, we have house, slow, fast, you name it.  We just try to
like... you know, everyone likes a certain song we do.  If you ask
anyone, they always (like) a song that we made.

D:  I know one comment Maelcum has made about other mods is, "It
sounds like computer music."  I know (IMHO) his songs don't, and
yours either.

ID: That's a good compliment.  If you look at it, most songs that
people do are very repetitious, there's really no breaks in the
song.  They use samples that are computer made - techno sounds.
When you go into the vocals and other sounds, you're using more
"real, live" things.

D:  What is your favorite music module (MOD/MTM/S3M, etc.)

ID: It was one of them that Maelcum released a long time ago.  He
took music from a toilet paper commercial, with heaven music, and
Maelcum put this beat to it.  I forgot what it was called.  It just
amazed me, it sounded so good.

D:  Is there anything you'd like to add?

ID: Yeah, there's a little thing.  Trancentral II - I'm possibly
gonna put it down because I don't have time.  I'm looking for a new
BBS local to me (908) that could run Trancentral II, convert their
BBS to Trancentral II.  I'm running a new BBS system that's giving
me problems that I don't have time to fix.

Anyone who might be interested in Trancentral II can call it at
(908) 882-0723.  Any sysop who is in the area who has the time/money
to run a board should consider it, since it would bring in a lot of
callers automatically.

L8ah from Diablo, and as Deck would say, "Paice!"

*DISS_ARTICLE G END
*DISS_ARTICLE H BEGIN

                    [ Dissonance Magazine ]

 Featured Interview: Peter Hajba a.k.a. Skaven of the Future Crew

                                         
[Ed.: For this article, we interviewed Skaven of the Future Crew (a
very cool dude) and got his comments regarding many aspects of both
his music and the PC scene. I hope you find it interesting. :)]

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Necros: Could you perhaps start off by relating how you first got
        into the demoscene?

Skaven: I think the real start for me was when I purchased Scream
        Tracker from Sami Tammilehto ( Psi, that is ). I
        experimented with it and made lots of not-too-good modules.
        Then I found a bug in it, and decided to phone the author.
        We made friends, and began swapping modules - and later I
        visited him. This was just the start.. so let's move to Q
        II.


Necros: What circumstances surrounded your joining of the Future
        Crew in 1992? How did you meet the members?

Skaven: First off, I was asked to become the beta-tester of the
        upcoming Scream Tracker III. Whlist testing it, I also
        learned to use it. :) So, I made some modules that made a
        positive impression on Gore. He asked, if I could possibly
        make some music for the Unreal demo - and I thought that
        hey, why not. That actually meant, on the same, that I
        became a member of Future Crew. I met the rest of the gang
        the first time around Assembly'92. Before joining FC, I
        seeked to join EMF (Electromotive Force, back then known as
        "Gremlins"), but they didn't take me cuz I was so shitty.
        Are FC's standards really so low? :)


Necros: I'd like it if maybe you could share a few personal details
        with us and our readers. How long does it usually take per
        song? What kind of working conditions do you prefer
        (morning, afternoon, night? right before the compo?) Do you
        have lots of expensive keyboard equipment? Are you a secret
        sample-ripper? :)

Skaven: It's quite difficult to say how long it takes for me to
        finish a song. It might be, that I compose it inside my head
        for a week, then put it into tracker format in a couple of
        hours. Or I might begin to improvise and make a song from
        scratch in a few hours. Or I might leave it there for weeks,
        MONTHS, even, and then continue it. It depends a lot. When I
        work on a song very intensively, I prefer no kind of
        interruption, peace and quiet. If my neighbor begins to play
        the piano THEN, I usually let out a few rather ugly words.
        :) The time of the day makes no difference, rather it
        depends on my current mood. Sometimes I feel like making
        music when I don't have the opportunity to. My equipment?
        Really cheap. Officially I don't have a synthesizer. I _do_
        have this old Casio CZ-101, but as it sounds ALMOST as good
        as AdLib, you can guess why I prefer not to use it. :)
        That's why I usually just rip the samples and mutilate them
        beyond recognition with Advanced Digiplayer. But I do
        occasionally make a sample or two, but I hesitate doing it,
        because my computer lies in one room, and the HIFI equipment
        in another; I'll have to move the entire computer to the
        other room temporarily. That certainly means some extra back
        ache... Of course, if I get rich n famous n stuff ( doesn't
        everyone want to? ) I'll buy some serious equipment. :)


Necros: Your info files always state that you are Music/GFX. Judging
        from the limited pics that you have released (in demos and
        such), you seem to be quite talented, but is art still a
        priority with you? Or are you strictly music now?

Skaven: No, I'm not strictly a musician. Actually I started drawing
        much earlier than making music, and it was my primary offer
        when joining FC, too. But it looked like Gore liked my music
        more than my art. So I was FORCED to do music. Hrmph. A
        wasted talent. :) I DID get to draw the fish in FISHTRO,
        though...


Necros: Give us your thoughts about your fellow-FC-competitor, Jonne
        Valtonen (Purple Motion/FC). :)

Skaven: He's a great talent, his songs give me these jolts of
        pleasure no other songs can give. Handles techniques, drums
        and mixing very well. And, having good musical background,
        he will certainly be famous someday - if he already isn't. I
        have noticed that he can avoid the mistakes I tend to do,
        and vice versa. If our skills were somehow fused, we'd make
        a superb musician! :) We tried cooperating once (ie. making
        a song together) but it didn't work out so well. A pity. But
        hey, we'll try again.


Necros: Your music has a very definite style to it. You seem to
        favor large orchestral settings rather than using sine
        synths and such (as PM does). Most people seem to agree that
        they in fact like that style a whole lot, and it is a
        welcome change from the typical Amiga-style demo music. Tell
        us a bit about your approach to music. Do you have any
        formal training, or has your style developed entirely on the
        PC?

Skaven: No formal training; no musical background. But my neighbor
        plays the piano all the time, you can call that 'musical
        background noise'. :) My approach to music has always been
        weird. At school, while everyone else listened to pop and
        rock, I listened to the weirdest types of synthesizer music
        one could find. I was a musical pervert, so to speak. :)
        Jean Michel Jarre was among my favourites, then I ran into
        Tangerine Dream and such stuff. Yes, my style has developed
        entirely on the PC. The only live instrument I played before
        that was a jewish harp (U know, this small iron thing you
        hold against your teeth, makes this "boingy boingy" sound),
        so I learned everything about music by experimenting with
        Scream Tracker. Having not chosen music at school, I even
        lacked the correct terminology. But I now accept the fact
        that using a tracker can certainly teach you to understand
        music. At least it taught me to.


Necros: Chaotic Mind was one of the better musicdisks ever to be
        released (even better than my own). Are you still fond of
        the songs in it, and are you pleased with the quality of
        work it contains?

Skaven: It was, just like most musicdisks, a collection of unused
        stuff. But the stuff had been collected from a very long
        time span. Yes, I'm quite pleased with the results, and
        judging the comments I've gotten from it, I guess I DO have
        a reason to be. :)

   
Necros: Are there any PC musicians (past or present) that you look
        to for inspiration?

Skaven: As the PC music scene is still very young, there were no
        real great talents out there when I started making music -
        so I took inspiration from the great Amiga composers, such
        as Fleshbrain, Dr. Awesome and Uncle Tom. Nowadays, I get
        inspired by Purple, and of course you. I like your songs
        very much; they have a nice build!


Necros: Out of all of the songs you have done, what are your
        favorites? And why?

Skaven: This is a difficult question. It depends so much on the
        mood. Sometimes I feel like all my songs suck, and that
        anyone could compose a better tune than me, while some other
        time I might listen to my OWN songs for hours, just because
        they sound so good. But I cannot really say which of them
        would be my fave all of the time. They all have their good
        and bad sides.


Necros: In your opinion, is the PC music scene something you are
        going to stay with for a long time? Or do you have other
        plans? What is in the future for you?

Skaven: I have no eye deer. Maybe I'll go on making music like this:
        not considering it my main duty, but as a hobby, and a way
        to earn a few extra bucks. :) I have sorta big plans, but
        the life has proven me that you cannot really plan your
        future. So I just tag along with life and see what happens.
        Everything is possible. I could even find myself on the Moon
        next year. :) What comes to the near future, I am planning
        to step to the graphics side for some time. I am already
        drawing animated sprite characters for an upcoming
        Bloodhouse game called "Benjamin and the Alien Incident".
        The upcoming Chromatiks III musicdisk should also feature my
        graphics.


Necros:  On a final note, are there any closing thoughts you'd like
         to mention? Anything I missed or forgot to talk about?

Skaven: *ahem* Hey dudes! Watch Tiny Toons! :) (to keep this outside
        my reputation: the MUSIC in the series is pretty good!)


Necros: Thanks for your time. I hope that our readers (and the
        multitude of aspiring PC musicians out there) have gained
        something from talking to someone with such a unique talent
        and sense of style as yourself.

Skaven: *blush* gee. :)

Necros: :)

                                                         5 July 1994

*DISS_ARTICLE H END
*DISS_ARTICLE I BEGIN

               rUmoRs aNd OtHeR aSsOrteD NoNsEnSE
             --------------------------------------

welp, with the coming of the great and powerful AsSeMblY 1994 there
are many rumors floating around (as is to be expected). here is some
of the crap that we've been hearing.

believe this garbage at your own risk :)


- ST3.03? Could it happen? Does it contain effect fixes? Does it
  support PAS16? Will it have panning? Will it make your waffles for
  you? Could it be the best thing since sliced bread?

- could it be? an iCE musicdisk? with many world-wide composers on
  it? and an interface coded by Renaissance? nah.....

- and speaking of Renaissance, word has it that they are going to
  shake up their lineup pretty soon :) look for some new members to
  join the group.. heck maybe you'll even see a demo soon... umm or
  maybe not..

- will there ever be a US demo party? will there ever be a US music
  party? rumor has it FC is thinking about something interesting in
  that genre..

- hmm i'd like to get my hands on FT2 sometime too. however i've
  heard that a beta of it is in the hands of some special Euro
  musicians. maybe someday it'll find it's way to the States :)

- i heard a weird story from a hot-dog vendor in Times Square that
  Purple Motion used to be in 2-Unlimited. hmm it would explain
  his fascination for weird 'techno'... ;P :)

- and most of all, i hear a rumor that there will be a Dissonance
  Issue #2 very soon, and that you should send in some articles,
  or else i will go to your House and beat the bloody hell out of
  You and Force you to Listen to BAD Remixes of Michael Bolton
  Tunes and THRUST old Adlib Cards DOWN your STUPID THROATS and
  PLAY YOU EVERY LAME MOD ON AMINET UNTIL YOUR BRAIN BECOMES A
  THICK OATMEAL-LIKE MESS THAT SCREAMS FOR MERCY!

  .. umm.. or something like that.









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        [ -= Submitting an article for Dissonance Issue #2 =- ]

    - Do you have a bitch about our articles, and want to set us
      straight?

    - Do you have an interesting article related to the PC music
      scene, and want to share your ideas with the rest of the scene?

    - Do you just want to have people read your great article while
      listening to fantastic music like the song you're listening to
      now (assuming you have a sound device which is supported by
      DSIK) - Necros' "Spatial Distortion"?

    - Want to plug your demoboard or musicboard and have an ascii
      logo you can send us to do just that?

    - Do you have a quick comment, idea or question?

  Well, you're in luck!

  Send your articles to me, Chuck Biscuits, email:
  chuckb@paxnet.com.au, and we'll take care of the rest!

  If you're unsure about if the subject involved in your article has
  already been covered, mail either myself or Necros, and we'll make
  sure you don't unnecessarily duplicate material.

                                                - Chuck Biscuits
                                                  Submissions Editor

















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*DISS_MAGAZINE END
