138 Samples, 728Kb of sampled sound and 563 lines of Txt. - Editorial: DanceDisk Volume 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release date: 01/01/1994; Happy New Year! Hope you'll like this disk. Got some fresh and older samples on it, modules to demostrate some tricks, and also a few lines to read. This disk is of course mostly aimed at Amiga users but also a MS-DOS version is released. (If you are reading this on your MS-DOS computer, turn to Editorial: MS-DOS) When I have enough new material a second issue of this disk will be released so send me your samples, modules and articles (general, techniques, reviews, Dance agenda, Rave reviews etc...). Let's make this disk the most kickin' DiskMag for Dance Musicians of Europe! Just send your stuff (written or on disk; Amiga, ST or MS-DOS format) to: Thijs -Fox- v.d. Vossen Past. Verhoevenstr. 20 5504 BK Veldhoven The Netherlands (Write your name and adress on the disklabel, and if I use some of the stuff that's on that disk, You will get a copy of the new issue sent to you for free!) Well that's all! Greetings go to: Sander, Mike, Sabrina, And all the lovely people at Funki Bizniz - Editorial: File Formats --------------------------------------------------------------------------- All samples on this disk are saved in raw format, except the looped ones, they are IFF 8SVX. All Modules on this disk are MOD. files. They can be loaded in any Tracker and OctaMed All Modules are PowerPackered. OctaMed and Protracker can decrunch these files while loading, However, with large Modules it is possible that there is not enough free memory to decrunch. You can then use the Decrunch program wich is on this disk to decrunch them beforehand. (or you can use your own PowerPacker program of course) All .Doc files are just plain ASCII and PowerPacked. - Editorial: MS-DOS -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Because there are also a lot of people creating music using there MS-DOS computer and because they have stolen our MOD. format, this disk is also released on MS-DOS format. Differences are: - Modules and Docs are not crunched because you have no PowerPacker. - Filenames may be different from the ones mentioned in this doc. because your filenames can only have 8 characters. - I don't know if your .WAV files are the same as raw format but there must be some programs that can do the conversion for you. If you have such a program and it is pd, please send it to me. - Articles: DSP Sound chip --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, even a year after the release of the A1200/A4000 we still now next to nothing about that long awaited 16-bit sound sampling feature while the Falcon already has a massive amount of software available (just look at that great Notator Logic). And now whe have heard rumors that CBM may let someone else take care of this! Are they stupid? Okay Commodore, this is what we want: - A 16 bit sound card wich fits into the A1200/A4000 and we'll of course like it when there will also come cards for the older Amigas. - We also want a DSP chip but *NOT* the one that's in the Falcon, The Falcon uses the Motorola 56000, which is an integer only device with no bus-mastering capability. Result, the CPU has to feed data to the DSP, which does not have it's own operating system, This is why a Falcon can only have four channels of direct-from-disk sound at a relatively low sampling frequency and no virtual channels. We want a better one, such as the AT&T 3210, which is a fully floating point unit with both bus mastering and its own pre-emptive multi-tasking, multi processor operating system. Result, one or more 3210s can be running multiple tasks at the same time as the main CPU and have acces to the same memory that the CPU does, which means you can also use FastRam to store your samples in. - We want the DSP support putted in the system software. - We want at least 8 physical sound channels, virtual channels, direct to disk recording at high speed, 16 bit A/D and D/A convertors with 64 x oversampling, maybe 24 or 32 bit internal processing and (optional)Digital In/Out support. - We want you to hurry! If you also want this, write a letter (just copy the above) to: The Technical Department. CBM (UK) Ltd. Commodore House The SwitchBack Gardner Road Maidenhead Berks. SL6 7XA ENGLAND (For the dutch readers: Er moet een postzegel van 90 cent op) - Review: VideoTracker --------------------------------------------------------------------------- With VideoTracker you can make a videoclip around a MOD. file. Every time a sample is played, VideoTracker can show an effect, being a picture, brush, anim or routine. The power of VideoTracker are the routines, with these it is possible to create special effects like scrolltexts, vectors, objects, stars or plasmas. Really special are the landscape, wave and colorgrid effects. You can indeed create some very good demos with this! Videotracke comes with 11 disks filled with examplevideos, pd-software and a developer's disk for people who want to make their own routines. The program comes in two versions, one with a hacker-type interface that is directly hittin the hardware and one that is programmed following the guideline rules. A backdraw is the manual, wich is complete, but not really easy if you are a beginner and not familiar with words as double buffering and dual bitplane. Second backdraw is that it doesn't play MED-Modules, it would be great if in a future update because OctaMed's MMD1/MMD2 file format is becoming more and more used, especially for it's great MIDI support. The most important backdraw is the price; A lot of people will find Fl 100,- (equals 50 dollars or 100 D-Mark) a lot to pay for a program (dutch piracy) and they will not register. Hey Peter!, if you make it cheaper, you would sell a lot more copies and so make more money! But besides that, VideoTracker is indeed *VERY* good and easy to use when you get the grips. AGA versions and fast 68020 routines are coming soon. Peter van Campen certainly did a hell of job! This is the way to get a copy of your own: To register send 50 dollars, 100 german marks or 100 dutch guilders AND your telephone-number and real name to: Peter van Campen Postbank 5739358 P.J. van Campen Jr. Tuinstraat 17 Telephone: +31-(0)2510-15660 1944 VT Beverwijk NO P.O. boxes ! The Netherlands You will get: 1 disk with VideoTracker with working "Save Vidule" option. 7 disks with video-examples. 2 disks with PD utilities. 1 disk with the Routine Developer Kit, with example-sources. Send with registered mail, within 24 hours of receiving. Access to the VideoTracker voice help-line, BBS file-area and mail-area. Crackers can be tracked down through routine-shuffled assembling ! - Articles: Special Announcement --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Remember a few years ago? Remeber the raves with the pumping bass, the volume at it's best, the atmosphere kicking, the people friendly and free! But then the police had to put their oar in, the government then have their say. `Turn down the music, noise pollution'. what a load of bollock's. if you`ve been to the latest raves then you'll know the score. what's going on? You pay between 15-25 quid. Queue up for about 45 minutes whilst having to put up with the old bill eyeing you up and down as if you're some sort of mass murderer. And once you've been searched and had your shoes and socks removed. You then walk into the grounds to be met by thousands of police and the music at about 2 Db's, you might as well have bought your walkman. At every rave lately the department of health and enviroment are there with their precious little toys called Db meters making sure the volume doesn't go above a certain level. for example, if you went to Universe on 13/08/93, Ressurrection on 14/08/93 or Living Dreams 6/08/93 then you'll know what we mean. All we can do is apologise to you all for the very bad sound quality, but what can we do? You can't blame the promoters because they are doing an excellent job of bringing you the best quality sound system (even though you don't get to hear it at it's best), excellent lightning, DJ's. You c an't fault them. if they did try to turn up the volume then the authorities have two methodes of getting them to turn it down. - 1 They can revoke the license and close down the party and then ban any further events by the offending organisation. - 2 Impose ridiculous fines which could be in excess of 25.000 and revoke any future licenses. Now you kow why these events are becoming more and more of an effort to go to. And why they're so quiet when you do. So there's no one left to blame but the authorities. Bollocks to the authorities, you can't stop us. We're gonna keep the dance scene strong even if the world isn't. This is your day and no one can take it away from you. The dance scene is far to big to just disappear. Respect - Liam, Leeroy, Maxim, Keith, Mike (Prodigy/Midi) This special announcement has been taken from the sleeve of the prodigy's `one love' single. I'll break some copyright laws with typing it over but I think they don't mind. In GB the situation indeed is shit, The maximum sound level, set by the Health and Enviroment Department is 102 Db, but if the volume drops below 98 Db, your people will get pissed off and ask their money back! (In fact, to reaaly get the people happy and dancing, you need at least 110 Db's) More worse, if their are buildings a mile from the site, the authorities might have to limit the sound to 92 Db to stop complaints. (Yeah right!) I hope it never get's that worse here in the Netherlands... - Editorial: OctaMed -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have used both (Octa)MED and SoundTracker/ProTracker over the last years but from OctaMed V3 I think OctaMed is far out the best. The newest version of ProTracker has loads of buttons wich refuse to work at all and how in the hell am I supposed to use that so-called 12bit option? Sorry, but I just don't like to use a program that hasn't come out of the beta-test-versions for over the last 10 updates. OctaMed can be bought from one of the following suppliers. Please note that OctaMed V5 only works with Kickstart 2.x and up, but you can easily (just open your Amiga and plug the new chip in) and cheap supply your Amiga with a 2.x Kickstart rom (ask your local shop) OctaMed V4 can run on any Amiga. OctaMed is copyrighted 1991-1993 Teijo Kinnunen and Ray Burt-Frost. OctaMed is available from the following companies: -Seasoft: 1st Floor, 80 Woodlands Avenue, Rustington, W.Sussex. BN16 3EY, ENGLAND. -Amiganuts United: 199 Taylor Street, Toowoomba, Queensland, AUSTRALIA 4350 (Note that Amiganuts United (UK) are no longer licenced with RBF Software and it is illegal for that company to supply any RBF copyrighted progs) -DevWare inc. 12528 Kirkham Court, Suite 11, Poway, CA 92064, USA. -Amisound. Kallvagen 14, S-856 51 Sundsvall, SWEDEN (V4 only at present). -L'Agora Srl C.so Vittorio Emanuel 15, 20122 Milano, ITALY. -MegaDisk Pty Ltd. P.O. Box 759, Crows Nest, AUSTRALIA 2065. -AM/FM c/o Bjørne Lynne, Schleppegrellsgt.10, 0556 Oslo, NORWAY. -J.P.C. Computers & Toebehoren. Schietboomstraat 9, B-3600 Genk, BELGIUM. -France-Festival-Distribution. 3 Rue Anatole, Fr 13220 Chateauneuf-Les-Margtigues, FRANCE. For further details, see their ads, or write enclosing an S.A.E. More suppliers may become available in your own part of the world. If not, ask your supplier to contact RBF Software at the following address. For any matters concerning distribution, sales, copyright, licencing, or such, you should contact the world copyright owners RBF Software: RBF Software 169, Dale Valley Road Hollybrook Southampton SO1 6QX ENGLAND (0703) 785680 Answerphone/Fax service line only. A freely distributable demo version of OctaMed V5 is available from many PD suppliers, including the Fred Fish collection. - Demos: MOD.BeatsDemo.PP --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This demo demonstrates you how to make a complete drumpattern using only one channel by mixing different samples together. This is far more creative than just using long sampled drumloops, because more variations are possible. (Before I get complaints about my lack of creativity, this is just an example and that's why I used such a boring, simple and overused drumpattern) Now load the module and read along (Attention: Tempo is 133BPM!): Block 0: This is the drumbeat which will be mixed to one channel. Channel 0 now has the Bassdrums, Channel 1 a tambourine, Channel 2 the hihats and channel 3 holds the snaredrum. Notice that Snaredums and Claps (sample 6) already have been mixed at a 100% source level/100% destination level ratio. Block 1: Notice that nothing has been mixed yet but the samples used in channel 2 and 3 are now only one line long. The OpenHiHat (OH, sample 2) has been split into OH1 (sample 3) and OH2 (sample 7). The Sd sample (9) has been split into Sd1 (4) and Sd2 (5). Claps+Sd (6) has been shortened to make Claps+Sd1 (B). We don't need a Claps+Sd2 sample because that's exactly the same as Sd2, The Claps sample is only a line long. The hardest job is to find the length in bytes of one line. The size of the sample has to be exactly as long as a line, because otherwise you'll be hearing clicks (Increase the speed of the demo module and you'll hear them) This also is the main disadventage of this technique, you can't make modules with tempo changes. To find the length, use a OpenHiHat as sample 1 and make a short block like this: F-3 10000 -> Plays sample. --- 00C00 -> Silences it, so it is only played one line. --- 00000 --- 00000 etc... Play this, record it to tape, sample it back, crop the unused space and see how long it is, you now have the length of a line in bytes at the given tempo. When using that length, you mostly still hear a few clicks, specially in HiHat lines, than decrease the length of the samples by small amounts untill the clicks are gone. Block 2: Now the Tambourines are mixed to the HiHats at a 50%/50% ratio. Block 3: And now everything is mixed, again at a 100%/100% ratio. You can now make more than a million variations using these samples and they take just as much memory as two 16 lines long sampled drumbeats! Note: Only OctaMed V5 features mixing at different ratios, in older version of OctaMed and in ProTracker you can do the same by mixing samples together and then doubling the volume, only you then will get a slightly distorted sound. - Demos: Acid/AcidDemo.Chime.PP --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Block 0: Just a short loop (16 lines long) using one sample. Block 1: More samples have been used now to create some 'depth'. Block 2 -> 4: Now each 16 lines the samples change one up to create the same effect as slowly turning up and down the resonance control on a synth. This creates some sort of wave. Block 5: Samples have been randomized. Note: There is a lot more possible, just try! - Samples: And now finally, the list! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- All samples are saved in raw format except the looped ones. All sounds are sampled on C3 unless stated. -- Bad (Very noisey/Clipped/Hissey, Hardcore!) - Average (A little background hiss) + Good (Just good) ++ Very Good (Is this really 8bit?) Name Quality Comment ---------------------- -- ------------------------------------------------- - Acid In the Acid drawer you will not only find samples but also Med-modules. This is because the actual acid sounds consist of 8 to 11 samples, all sampled with different resonance filter settings. To use these sounds in your own modules, just add a new song in OctaMed (create a MultiModule), load one of these modules, and -presto- there are your sounds. Protracker users do not have this nice feature so they have to think of something else... For an example on how to use these acid sounds, listen to the AcidDemo Module. All acid sounds are sampled on D#3 but to hear a C when you play one, for each sample, set Transpose to 3 (This only works in Med i think). MOD.AcidDemo.Chime.PP - 10 Sounds, This also is the demo Module. Beep.1 -> .3 + (C3) Different beeps that are actually the same. MOD.LowRange.PP - 8 Sounds, Low and squelchy. Noisey.1 -> .3 -- (C3) Hardcore. ShortAcid.1 -> .4 + (C3) Short bass sound. ShorterAcid.1 -> .6 + (D#3) Shorter bass sound. MOD.UltraSonic.PP - 11 Sounds, Pulsating LFO. - Bass FatDubBass - Very fat bass sound, good for ragga lines. FreakedBass + Strange punchy bass sound with some acid in it. LoopedTechBass + Detroit! Beautiful techno bass with looped end. NoiseyBass - Squelchy acid bass sound. OverBass -- Good example of effective Clipping. WoodBass - Forest! - Drums All drum sounds are sampled on F3 unless stated. Live. samples are recorded from an acoustic drumkit. R8. samples come from the Roland R8 drum machine. TR727. samples come from the Roland TR727 drum machine, the latin drum machine, now e.g. used by Quazar together with the TR909 and TR808. TR909. samples come from the Roland TR909 drum machine, the house machine. ATTENTION: In the next Dancedisk issue a special article about the Roland TR series, and more samples from the TR909, TR808, TR707, TR606 and TR505. I am still looking for more information about them (esp. pictures), so if you have something, send it to me!) *Boost samples to brighten up HiHats, Snaredrums etc... DanceKick - (D#3) Boem! Boem! Live.BigBD + Hardrock bassdrum. Live.BigSnare + Hardrock snaredrum. Live.FunkyBassDrum + Funky bassdrum. Live.FunkySnare + Funky snaredrum. Live.Kick + Bassdrum. Live.Snare + Well, It`s all in the name actually. Live.SideStick + No comment. PunchKich - (D#3) From The art of noise. PunchSnare - (D#3) From The art of noise. R8.ClosedHiHat + Well, a closed hihat actually. R8.CrashCymbal + You do know that you can brighten up these... R8.OpenHiHat + samples a lot when you boost em, huh? R8.PedalHiHat + Just a bit different from the closed one. R8.Tambourine + TickaTickaTickaTicka. TR727.AgogoHigh + Does anybody know what this is? TR727.AgogoLow + Sounds nice anyway. TR727.CongaHigh + Oh yes, I know how this looks... TR727.CongaLow + Don't you? TR727.MetalHigh + All those combined High/Low sounds are good... TR727.MetalLow + use in house tracks I think. TR727.PadDrum + Nice. TR727.Quijada + Isn't it what they always use in reggea music? TR727.Shaker1 + Well, no comment TR727.Shaker2 + Again not. TR727.TimbaleHigh + I get boring writing these comments. TR727.TimbaleLow + Very boring. TR727.Whistle1 + Why am I doing this? TR727.Whistle2 + Help! TR909.BassDrum1 + The most kickin bassdrum ever! TR909.BassDrum2 + Another setting, more decay now. TR909.BassDrum3 + More decay and less attack. TR909.Claps + Yeah! TR909.HiTom + We've got three of them, a high one... TR909.LoTom + A low one... TR909.MidTom + And one that fits in between. TR909.RimShot + Tick. TR909.SnareDrum1 + Low snappy, low tuned. TR909.SnareDrum2 + Low snappy, mid tuned. TR909.SnareDrum3 + Low snappy, hi tuned. TR909.SnareDrum4 + Hi snappy, short decay. TR909.SnareDrum5 + Hi snappy, longer decay. TR909.SnareDrum6 + Hi snappy, long decay, low tuned. TriangleCL - Two triangle sounds that should be combined... TriangleOp - in one loop. TribalTick1 - Tribal woodblock drum sound. TribalTick2 - You are supposed to use these together. WendalBassDrum -- Don`t know why I like this one so much... WendalDrum -- Both from: Arrested Development - Mr. Wendal - Noise Brt + Well, that's actually the sound it makes. DistortedOrgan - Distorted organ playing a major chord. DownLead + Deep, Low and Dirty. GoGoGoGo + (D#3) Yes! NoiseyBlow - Pure Pink Noise. ShortBlast - Short and punchy. ShortStroke - Also short and punchy. StrangeBeep + Deep, Low and Dirty. TechnoLead - (C1, Finetune -3) Use slides on this one. TeknoTeknoTeknoTekno + Yes! Zrrt - (D#3) Yes! - Orchestral BrassBlow + A lot of brass gives you one blow. Clave + Well... Flute + Flute with looped end. OrchHit + Full orchestral hit. Trumpet + Stupid. - Synth Beep + Low beep. FluffyChord - Dreamy major chord. GoUp - Noisey appear effect, loop end and slide pitch. Hit.Chord1 + Some sort of piano/organ hit with fased end. Hit.Chord2 + The same, but with other chord. StaticTick + The shortest sound on this disk. Vocoder.AA + Short talken phrases. Vocoder.Oh + Use these three sounds to create a sort of... Vocoder.Ah + vocoder-like rhytmic sequences. That's all folks... See you next time! Fox.