ooooo a a o48888P"""78 8b. ,p q8 88a 48K 8 ,poo888ooP' ,oo88o o' q. d8b d888b 78888oooo. dP' `888' d8"' `88 `8888888q 48b 48P' `88 `""""8888 Y88 ,8' 88 d88 7 d88P d8P 8oo oo88 V88. `88o. ,o888 88 Y88b Y88. ,8D / / `5488888"' `78b. `"88888'`8o q888 `88m `Y88888P / / 8888 / / \------------------------- 88 8D --------------------------------/ / \ \---------------- o ,d888888 ----------------------------------/ \ \ September `888 888 888 \ \ 1998 888 `"' d8888oo, \ \ 888 `888' Y88P,d888b. dP' `88 42 \ \ 888 q8b 88P 8888'`888 88b,,,,, 88 subscribers \ \ 888888 7b 88' 888' `88 88'`"""78P ---------------\ \ 88 88888b dP ,88. 88; 88, 78b, .,p --------------------\ 7888P 88888P ,8888b. a888. a888 `888888P' --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Table Of Contents ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Opening: Message From the Editor Columns: In Tune -- Stote's "Days at a Time" Monthly Software Review -- ModPlug Tracker 1.00.beta2.1 Features: Beat me up, Scotty -- Percussion Tips, Part I Closing Credits: --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Message From the Editor ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Welcome back to our third issue of Static Line. I must admit, I am quite proud of the response I got from the last two issues. We're already up to 42 subscribers -- 12 more than last month. I am, however, disappointed in the fact that no-one has written to tell us anything. Send us feedback, we'd be glad to hear it. Well, the educational year is well under way -- at least it is here at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, that means that I am starting to get busy. The bad news: This month's issue is kind of short. The good news: It is my senior year, much less active than last year. I imagine that next month and all the following months will yield grand issues. Moving on with this month's issue. Setec is back with the first article of a series dealing with percussion in tracking: Beat Me Up Scotty! This month, Louis reviews ModPlug Tracker 1.00.beta2.1. See what he has to say in his Monthly Software Review. SiN is writing again, and he and I bring you the music of Stote in this month's In-Tune. I'm still looking for columnists and guest columns. If you have an article or topic in mind -- anything having to do with the scene -- please contact me so that we can get you started for next month. We especially need someone to review demos for us. Thank you for Reading. --Coplan --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- In Tune Stote's "Days at a Time" By: Coplan and SiN ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- This month, we will be reviewing a titled "Days at a Time" by Stote of Noise. With the closing of the music section of the Hornet Archive, we have had quite a difficult time finding a song for this months review. You can help make it easier for us by letting us know of songs worthy of a public review. Now that everything is back to the so called "norm," let me explain a litle bit about how we do this column. Typically, SiN and I will take turns selecting a song to review. The chooser's review will be shown first. The main reason for doing this is to develop the point, counter-point type reviews that we provide to you. As you may have already noticed, SiN and I have very different tastes in music. By alternating song choices, we are able to bring to you a well rounded picture of a larger variety of music available to you. Just something that a good review should provide. Now, on with the show... -=- SiN -=- The tune starts off setting a quite dark mood with an ambiant pads sample offset in chns. 1 & 2 with a wide stereo separation... immediately creating an open, encompassing sound. With a jump in song speed comes a stuttering tap sample that skips along in a irregular, fast-paced pattern. It is soon joined by a couple of other irregular percussion samples and a kick drum. At order 15 the main beat comes in in a striking, unexpected manner that works very nicely. The first thing that strikes me is the complexity of the percussion, it is very interesting to listen to because the beat is NOT boom-tis boom0tis in the least, AND the rythm is created by many samples playing their roles and working together to make the beat. The beat varies at transition-points and doesn't change much as a whole.. but because there is always a new element that your ear can latch on to I find it effective. The panning used in the percussion illustrates a good point that EVERYONE should watch for... the tap sample bounces around to a different panning position with every hit.. but it doesn't do it to the extreme.. I think (more in IT mods than FT2 mods) that tracker get caught up in what the panning LOOKS like, rather than how it benefits the song... every tracker should check the song with headphones because extreme panning can make the listener not only annoyed but uncomfortable too... Various different pads come in to accompany the percussion at different point because in the first part of the song, the percussion is the lead. There is a mood change at order 57 where it feels like the song it is building into something.. which it is. At order 65 a synth pattern joins the fray.. now, I WILL say that musically this new pattern fits in nicely (in tune and timing) but the mood of the piece now swings from dark to almost hopeful... (the synth pattern actually reminds me of Axel Foley's theme from Beverly Hill's Cop 1, note I said reminds me of, not sounds _like_)... After this synth comes in, the percussion fades and we have a lead change... with some nice accenting pads in the background... this percussionless section then fades back to the dark ambiant samples that started the song.. and it nicely loops back onto itself again to restart... Technically this song is well done... good quality, well chosen samples, but I would have liked to have seen a little more variety in some sections... like ords. 33-36 where basically the same pattern is repeated four times... if as a tracker you vary the 3rd pattern out of the four, I find that just when your brain is falling into the mindless groove that small change will prevent it from completing its journey... listen to your tracks when they're done, if you EVER find your mind wandering at any point, put some variation in there.... Overall, I loved this song, its the style of music I like, it reminds me of the Canadian Industrial group Download in the sound, but not in the chaotic nature of Download's sense of timing and sample use... There are comments of a somewhat graphic yet philosophical nature in the Song-Text section, but I am reviewing the tune, not the tracker.. I'll let you make your own opinions about those... The last thing I am going to mention is how it is balanced not only right to left, but frequency-wise too, be careful using alot of bass or treble or one pitch, the song quickly becomes messy and muddy sounding, losing definition and impact... Well that's it for now, if you are a fan of non-mainstream music I would suggest giving this one a download... SiN, out. -=- Coplan -=- First off, the opening sequence to the song tends to be slightly redundant. Though it is common in many mainstream songs, as well as scene songs, long introductions aren't always something to be desired. The goal of the introduction is to lure a listener into the song. That doesn't necessarily hold true here. On the other hand, the percussion is done very well. Its obvious that some thought has been put into the dynamics of the song since the kick base has a very unique style. TECHNO and DANCE WRITERS -- this is proof that you can do more with the kick base than a steady monotonous beat. Try it, it works. I agree with SiN that the transition at order 15 is very well done. If you notice, not a whole lot has literally changed with the song. The cymbol crash is the most obvious, as well as the addition of two kinds of snares. But notice, it isn't just that. The emphasis on the base drum changes as well as its volume is increased. Do be aware of this very common oversight -- one instrument, same note in two channels. Notice the base drum is placed in two channels with the same pitch, and the same panning position. For sample quality reasons, the sample amplification feature isn't always good. When you must use more than one channel for a given intrument with the same note, you must pan the channels seperately. Pan them to opposite ends of the spectrum. I've said this many times before -- GUS and Interwave based sound cards will actually change the sound of an instrument slightly when played twice at the same pitch. Don't overlook this, even if you use a Sound Blaster. As with the opening, I found the closing of the song to be much longer than it needed to be. In fact, I don't know exactly where the closing began. In traditional styles of music, the closing often has a completely different feel than the rest of the song -- a non-musician listening to the song should be able to tell where the closing begins. Think of that when you work on your closings, as well as your openings. Overall, I found the song relaxing. It was good to play in the background as I cleaned my room. However, when I sat down to analyze it, I found that the song lacks a lot of things. For one, it lacks a definative climax. It also lacks variety. A song this long should allow several mood changes, something to keep the listener listening. I personally had to struggle hard to listen to the whole thing through. I'm not saying that I didn't like the song, because I do. But when you get down the the technical aspects of the song, and overall aesthetics, I have heard better songs. When you read my reviews, you must keep two things in mind. First, all my background deals with traditional instruments and traditional theory -- many of you call it Classical or Orchestral music. Second, I judge a song mostly on its aesthetics and technical methods; in that order. In my opinion, I think that they are two completely different things. However, in a review such as this, often times only the technical aspects of a song come out. Until next time... Coplan Listening Info: Coplan: IT 2.14 useing default Interwave drivers; Koss Standard Headphones and his home stereo. SiN: IT 2.15 useing MMX PNP drivers; volume ramping (@48kHz); MikIT; Senheiser Studio-Reference Headphones and his home stereo. Song Information: Title: "Days at a Time" Author: Stote Filename (zipped/unzipped): no-dayz.zip / St-dayz.it File Size: 1,050k Source: ftp://ftp.noisemusic.org/pub/users/wnoise/1998/no-dayz.zip "In Tune" is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general rating system. SiN and Coplan's opinions are not the opinions of the Static Line Staff. If you have heard a song you would like to recommend (either your own, or another person's), we can be contacted through e-mail useing the addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you! --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Montly Software Review ModPlug Tracker 1.00.beta2.1 By: Louis Gorenfeld ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- In addition to BuzzTracker, there's another serious Windows 95 tracker. ModPlug tracker doesn't try to do anything spectacular, it's just your basic tracking program. It saves in IT, XM, S3M, MOD and WAV and loads in MOD, S3M, XM, IT, MTM, OKT, MDL, 669, FAR, WAV, MID, ULT and WOW. There are plenty of problems with this program. The first is the interface. It looks nice, but is very hard to track a real song in. The main problem is that the pattern editor screen isn't big enough and takes up less than half the screen, which makes you have to scroll around too much. This can be adjusted but after a while of flipping screens and readjusting the windows, it gets to be too much of a pain. My suggestion is to disable the toolbar and free up a little bit of space. My next complaint are the tracking controls. It's lain out in 3-octave style, and there is no way to disable the 3rd octave besides assigning the notes to controls not in use. Luckily, it comes with presets: Linear 3-octaves (default and pretty useless), Impulse Tracker and Fast Tracker 2. Oh yeah, and the interface is a little slow when switching screens. Now for the reasons why you should download this program: It supports MIDI in (if you happen to be better at keyboard than tracking), it kind of (not really) supports filters, it has a fairly nice graphical sample and instrument editor (in which you can normalize, amplify, resample and reverse the sound, zoom in and out, and cut and paste chunks of the sample), it will automatically clean up unused patterns and samples to save space, and it has a built-in wave writer. After you do a lot of adjusting settings, this isn't really that bad of a program. If you're looking for a windows tracker, I would go for this one for now since it saves all the popular formats and is more finished than Buzz. Rating: 2/4 Min. Req: P90 or better and 8 MB RAM Rec. Req: 486dx4 or better and 16 MB RAM Platform: Windows 95 Homepage: http://www.castlex.com/modplug Louis Gorenfeld --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Beat me up, Scotty Percussion Tips, Part I By: Jesper Pedersen / Setec ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Percussion is too often a topic that is regarded as being one of the easiest things to track. Something that just needs to be taken care of. The truth however is that a proper drum section is just as important as the melody line or the chord progression. If done poorly, it can drag an otherwise great tune into something that is less remarkable. On the other hand, if the percussion is well-handled, it can be a major factor in creating a great tune. I will try to present you with some basic tips on percussion as well as some ideas on how to improve your beats. Some of these things might have been said before, but they can never be repeated too often. This first part will be very basic, for trackers with little experience in tracking percussion. There are still some tips that could be valuable for experienced trackers as well, though. BEAT ME UP, SCOTTY PART Ia - Adding some flavour (Basics) Most of this part will be about adding some flavour to a very basic beat, providing you with various ways to add more feel to it. Attached to this issue of Static Line should be three of my drum samples. These are used in the following example, the file "drum01.smp" being the first instrument and so forth. If you want to use your own samples instead these are the proper assignments : sample 1 - Bass Drum sample 2 - Snare sample 3 - Hihat Note that using your own samples might make some of the later tips sound wrong. But more on that later, on with the first chapter... Imagine this rather basic and generic drum track (ft2-style) : 00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 07 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 08 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 09 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 0A --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 0D --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 0F --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 (this, and all following examples, is ment to be played at 125bpm and speed 06) Now hopefully you are all thinking that you would never ever create a beat as simple and generic as this. Not to say dead boring. First of all, this is probably the most overused rock beat ever. Also, the hihat line is sure to make your ears hurt. So what can you do to impro- ve this? For starters, let us change that horrific hihat line. A good place to start is to add different volumes to some of the notes. The easiest approach would be this : C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 20 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 20 000 And so forth. Even though this is quite simple it is still a lot better than the previous. The next thing I would do is something that might make a lot of you twist your faces. Because this is one of the things that is regarded as a no-no for a lot of trackers; playing the hihat at different notes. I would do it like this : C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 This makes the downbeats feel more accented and basically just makes it sound more like a real hihat. Just do not overdo the tip of playing the hihat at different notes. The maximum should be a range of three semi- tones and no more. A hihat sample has a very narrow range of "playable" frequencies. Crossing that limit will only make it sound bad. Okay. Now the hihat is a little less generic, but the percussion is still dead boring. Before improving further on the hihat let us take a look at the rest of the beat. If we count "1 & 2 & 3 & 4" we have the bass drum hitting at each 1 and the snare at each 3. This is as boring as it gets. For just a little bit of flavour we have added that extra bassdrum at the first 4. But this is far from enough. First of all, let us try not to have the bassdrum hit at each 1. First off, try something like this : 00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 07 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 08 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 09 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 0A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 0D --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 0F --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 See how simply delaying the second bass drum two ticks makes the beat much more funky and less generic? This is because that even though being the standard, simply placing the bass drum at each second downbeat is very(!) boring. Well now we have spiced up the bass drum just a bit, let us try to add some flavour to the snare : 00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 07 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 08 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 09 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 --- -- 000 0A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 0D --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 0F --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 --- -- 000 Once again; more flavour, less generic. Look at the snares we added. They are positioned at points where nothing is playing, not even the hihat. If you take a look at the previous examples we might as well have halfed the length of those and played them at half the speed. Because we only used each second row. This way, adding snares in between, we make the beat sound faster and much richer in sound. But try to listen to it once more. Those snares at 0C and 0F sound wrong in some way, right? Because they are not on downbeats they should not have this much accent. In other words, we need to lower the volumes of these. Try this : 00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 07 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 08 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 09 --- -- 000 C-5 2 20 000 --- -- 000 0A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 0D C-5 1 20 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 0F --- -- 000 C-5 2 10 000 --- -- 000 Much better. It sounds much more like a real drummer playing now. See the extra bassdrum that I added at 0D? This compliments the way the snare hits a lot of upbeats. It is a good idea to make the bassdrum hit a few upbeats as well. Otherwise you get a percussion where the two of them do not compliment eachother and this is something that they should. PART Ib - Accents So what is important to be aware of, when tracking the percussion, is which notes are to be accented and which are not. If you simply make all notes accented you will get the kind of beat that we started out with. The more variaty you put into the accents, the better percussion you will end up with. So how do you alter the amount of accent on a note? Well, we have looked at the simplest way of doing it; by changing the volume of the note. But even though being the most used method, it is far from being the only one. One way that I think is very useful (but too rarely seen) is doing a volume slide on the note. For example, in the above I would maybe make the last snare at 0F look something like this instead : 0F C-5 2 20 A0A For all you Impulse Trackers the "A" is "D" in IT. I think this is a much better way of doing it. Some trackers I have seen using the cut note command instead, but this makes it sound rather rough. I personally find this method much more useful. This is one tip that depends very much on the sample. Some other samples than the one I have used might require a faster or a slower fade, and maybe the volume needs to be altered as well. You will easily be able to figure this out though. It is just a matter of experimenting really. So by using voluming and volume slides you can get almost the excact accent you want, and you can even have two kinds of low accents; low volume or a fast cut. But there is yet another way of doing it. The offset command is a very powerful tool when it comes to getting the most out of your samples. Try doing this with the two upbeat snares : 09 C-5 2 -- 905 ... 0F C-5 2 20 907 (The IT command for offset is "O") What you accomplish by this is making it sound like you actually use more than one snare sample. The effect can be rather amazing if applied properly. Note that I removed the voluming on the snare on 09. When you do offsets like these you will most likely get a sample of lower volume, since most snare samples fade rather fast. So both applying the offset and the lower volume would make the snare much less accented. You can still apply a mix of the two commands like I do with the last snare though. This is also a very sample-dependent effect, some snares might not sound good like this. Once again, experiment, try different values. So you actually have three different ways of adjusting the accent of a drum. This is a very powerful tool that can really improve your percussion once you get the hang of it. It will actually make the listener think that you used many more drum samples or some sort of drumloop. Variation is the key word once more. A real drummer is not able to hit a drum at the exact same way over and over again. PART Ic - The final touch Take a look at the beat from before, spiced up further : 00 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07 01 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F05 02 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 10 000 --- -- F07 03 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05 04 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07 05 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F05 06 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 10 R01 --- -- F07 07 --- -- 000 C-5 2 10 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05 08 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07 09 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 905 B-4 3 10 000 --- -- F05 0A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07 0B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05 0C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F07 0D C-5 1 20 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05 0E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07 0F C-5 1 -- 000 C-5 2 20 907 --- -- 000 --- -- F05 10 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 10 000 --- -- F07 11 C-5 1 10 A06 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F05 12 C-5 1 30 000 C-5 2 10 R03 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07 13 --- -- 000 C-5 2 10 903 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05 14 --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07 15 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F05 16 C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 10 R01 --- -- F07 17 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05 18 --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07 19 --- -- 000 C-5 2 20 A08 B-4 3 10 000 --- -- F05 1A C-5 1 -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 3 -- 000 --- -- F07 1B --- -- 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05 1C --- -- 000 C-5 2 -- 000 --- -- 000 --- -- F07 1D C-5 1 20 000 --- -- 000 B-4 3 20 000 --- -- F05 1E --- -- 000 --- -- 000 C-5 -- 000 --- -- F07 1F --- -- 000 C-5 2 20 906 --- -- 000 --- -- F05 (note : R01 equals Q01 in Impulse Tracker) First take a look at the hihat line. This has really changed. Instead of a single B-4 note before each accented hihat I have put two of rising volume. And on some of these I have applied a retrig command to the first one (This command should be used carefully, some samples will sound very bad when applied to such a fast retrig. Anyway they should only be used with low volumes, unless you are going for a very different sound). Furthermore the hihat doesn't hit each fourth row anymore, look at row 0C. There used to be an accented hihat here, but now there is nothing. This is to compliment the action of the snare and bassdrum at this point. Listen to it and you will (hopefully) see... The snare has been spiced up even more, with a small crescendo at row 12. All of the action here should make sense to you by now. The new bass drum track is rather interesting. Where the bass drum used to hit at row 10 it has been moved to strike at 0F instead. This is rather unexpected and really adds to the inventive sound of the beat. Also note how the snare and bass drum compliment eachother, especially around rows 0F-14. Note that I do not use any offset commands on the bass drum. You should normally avoid this, since it will sound wrong and probably also click quite a lot. Just to add to the funkiness I threw in the extra channel with the variating 7/5 speed. This is a very easy way to spice up the percussion, but it should only be used when it fits the atmosphere of the tune. This is miles from what we started out with. You now have a beat that has depth, variation (I could have thrown in even more) and most impor- tantly it is no way near being boring. And this has been accomplish with only three samples! Imagine what you could do if you threw in a second sample for some of the snares as well as a soft bass drum. Now go and experiment on your own with your own samples. Try out all of the tips and ideas that I have granted you with. Open one of your tunes, one with a generic percussion, and try to spice it up. Experiment... Setec / Immortal Coil This is the first part in a series of percussion tips and ideas. Later articles will discuss panning, drumloop usage and how to adjust your percussion to fit the progression of your song. Comments and ideas on topics to discuss should be mailed to me at: setecjp@hotmail.com --=--=-- ----=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------ Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@thunder.temple.edu Assistant Editors: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@ironweb.com Subliminal / Matt Friedly / sub@plazma.net Web Manager: Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@kosmic.org Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@thunder.temple.edu Darkheart / Zach Heitling / darkhart@san.rr.com Louis Gorenfeld / gorenfeld@vrone.net SiN / Ian Haskin / ian.h@sympatico.ca Staff Writers: Acell / Jamie LeSouef / jlesouef@melbpc.org.au Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@kosmic.org Setec / Jesper Pederson / setecjp@hotmail.com Technical Support: Draggy / Nicholas St. Pierre / draggy@kosmic.org To subscribe to the Static Line mailing list, send an e-mail message to "majordomo@kosmic.org" with "subscribe static_line" in the message text. You will then be asked to confirm your addition to the mailing list. To unsubscribe from the mailing list, send an e-mail message to "majordomo@kosmic.org" with "unsubscribe static_line" in the message text. Your subscription will then be removed. You can also get Static Line from the Hornet Archive's info section (http://www.hornet.org), or from the Static Line web page (http://nimbus.temple.edu/~dnorth). If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware that we will format your article with two spaces at the beginning and one space at the end of each line. Please void foul language and high ascii characters. Contributions should be mailed to Coplan (coplan@thunder.temple.edu). See you next month! -eof---=------=--=------=--=--