************************** ** ** ** The Bureau ** ** ** ************************** Ahh, hello, welcome. Write to me here for my personal opinions on just about anything from the weather to the current state of affairs in er... Dudley. You can also send letters to Chris at the ModSpot which is a rather seedy place on the wrong side of town so we won't go into that. Basically, if you've got something to say, well, you can say it here... as long as you don't mind me chipping in from time to time. The first letter I can see in my "Ins" tray today is from the man known as Tom simply because this is his name.... Hi Folks! ....he begins his rather unorthadox letter. He then goes on to say... Haaa!! I am here to terrorise you with a boring letter. Here we go! Ask yourself : What AMIGA music is the most entertaining? You may like all kinds of music, but don't you think that mods with speech samples in are much more interesting than those without? Well Tom, it all depends on what the samples have to be saying in your module eh? Can you give me an example? For example : You make a great module. In the middle of it you fade the melody line, keep the backing up and then introduce the melody line again. Wouldn't it sound better if you included a "'ere we go again!" sample? The tune plays, it fades, the backing plays for a while and suddenly.... "'ERE WE GO AGAIN!" and the lead melody smashes back in. It sounds great, believe me! Um, I'll take your word for it I think Tom. I think maybe "'ere we go again" sounds a bit like a Timmy Mallet single but a few well placed speech samples every now and then keeps some people interested in your mods. If someone else makes modules with speech samples, please send them to me. (my address is below). Now can I take up more space than necessary and include a little greetings list? No. Oh, At the moment, I'm listening to techno ( U96 to be more precise). Yes, you read right. I am actually listening to TECHNO ! And this makes me start to think......... Many guys in the demo-scene nowadays say that techno is not music, techno is crap and so on. Why the hell can't you accept techno as music, all you guys ? What's so wrong with techno, man ??? Techno freaks don't go around and say that trash metal is not music, just because it is built up by simple riffs, just like techno. Yeah, there we have it. Trash is built up of simple riffs ! Listen to techno and you'll find out that techno also builds up on simple riffs. So the point is : You loose, techno haters !!! I've never heard for example Jester of Sanity who hates techno say anything about trash/speed metal !! Hah hah hah HAH HAH!! You L O O S E, techno haters !!!!! Hah HAh HAH H A H H A H !!! You loose! YOu loose !! YOU loose !! YOU Loose !! YOU LOose !! YOU LOOse !! YOU LOOSE, LOOSE, L O O S E !!!!!! Hah heh hih hoh !! This proves that you only say that techno is crap, because other people say it !! You have made yourselves fools !! I can accept that people don't like to listen to techno, but don't go around and say that techno has nothing to do with music !! Techno IS music !! You have made fools out of yourselves !! But, don't get me wrong trash/heavy/speed/death/black metal fans! Metallica is actually my favourite band !! Metallica RULEZ !! I like fights, so techno haters, please find an argument against what I said, write it in to TI, and so the fight between techno freaks and techno haters has started !! So, all of you that think that you have heard techno when you've just heard crappy songs like 2 Unlimited / Magic friend, you're completely wrong ! Techno is much more than such crap as 2 Unlimited ! Check out "Techno Cop"! Now there's a group ! I hate that people tell me : Techno is not music. Aaaaargh ! What a great tune !!! "U 96......We are back !". Dom cha dom cha dom cha. Yeah ! U96 !! do da do da do da !! Oh.....What a GREAT tune !! "I wanna be a kennedy!...I wanna be a kennedy......I wanna be a kennedy... Kick it! two three four....."!! Oh !! "We are back !.....U96 !!..." !! Go to your local music store and listen to "I wanna be a kennedy" by U96 NOW ! How much are U96 paying you then??? Personally my opinion of Techno is that it's one of those things which is going to pass over pretty soon. What ever happened to Punk, Disco, Hi-NRG, etc? Techno will also go to the great styles in the sky sooner or later. Sure you'll have revivals (Abba for instance) but that only reminising over something that happened in the past. The point I'm trying to make is that songs with a verse, a chorus, a middle eight (i.e A TUNE!) are never going to go out of fashion whereas passing fads are always going to be well, passing fads. Long live Jive Bunny (NOT!) Oh, OK... If for any reason you'd like to contact me (for swapping mods, sending me bombs which is explode when the letter is opened, or any other reason... I can think of a couple... ...try this address: Tom Cozzolino Nedkvitne 571O SKULESTADMO Norway Well, there's a letter from a majorly psychologicly disturbed guy. Can anyone else do any better? Write to me and tell me your troubles, now what is the next thing that I can find.... Ah, a few handy tips from over the water in Cardiff... 1. When dealing with split channel mode, it is always the HiHat that suffers the most... here's the best way around the problem. Use the HiHat sample (included in the samples drawer of this disk - Ed) and select the HQ setting bearing in mind that this only works with up to 6 channels on a 68OOO processor (i.e. A5OO's + A6OO's). Put the HiHat down at the pitch of E-3 and fine tune it to a factor of +6. This should give you a really clear HiHat sound. 2. In split channel mode the FFE instruction crashes the computer when played through OctaMEDPlayer and gets completely ignored when played through OctaMED. The easy way around this is to put a blank block at the end of the mod and make it loop itself forever. ...actually, the easier way around it is to get OctaMED V5 as this bug has now been fixed. See the amazing offer saving you pounds on the new version of OctaMED elsewhere in this mag! 3. If you want a bit more memory to play about with when loading OctaMED make a COPY of your disk and alter the startup-sequence so it just says OctaMED This will not load the workbench and thus give you more memory. It also makes the programme load a lot faster. You can also turn off the GFX (in the MISC panel) this saves memory as GFX are only loaded in when they are needed, close anything running in the background (such as Virus Checkers), turn off ALL the equalisers, and delete ALL entries in your sample list. It's surprising the difference it makes. (Thanks Ian!) 4. Finally, here's a good tip for a fun friday night.... 1. Get your friends round your house. 2. Get out any old MED cover versions and delete the lead track. 3. Get drunk and have your own Kareoke night. Well, er, thanks for that Mr. Robert Moseley, er, I think I'll pass on that one if you don't mind. Well, that's all from the Bureau for now. Send your letters, tips, points of view and (above all) abuse to... Total Irrelevance, 6, Glevum Road, Stratton St. Margaret, SWINDON, Wiltshire, SN3 4AF, ENGLAND. ...Marking your letter BUREAU if at all possible. We'd like everyone who's grabbed themselves a copy of the new OctaMED 5 to write with their opinions. REMEMBER : for your FREE save dis-abled copy, send a blank disk and SAE to MUG at the address given above. MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG MUG