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c1MUSICGROUPS - A REPLY

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c3BY MAKKE/VISUALE
as
c6Comments on Ghandy's article

c5As I read Ghandy's article about the c2musicscene c5I figured I had to, as a
musician, state my point of view and comment a few things. First let me
correct a thing here. Ghandy said: Not to forget that compared to play MP3
songs from the charts collecting those modules is legal as there`s no
copyright for this kind of freeware.
All music c2IS c5copyrighted (unless other is stated). If you decide to distribute
your music free, that's up to you. But c2you own the music. c5If someone else is
making money of your music without your knowledge and approval, you have the
right to sue him/her. The problem is you have to prove the music is yours, and
that you made it first. And that's the tricky bit.

Now there's too c2much music on the internet. c5Yes. Too much. There's no way in
HELL you can keep track of everything. There's only a slim chance the c2wide
masses c5will ever hear your work. Just take me as an example. How many of you
have heard songs by me, apart from the ones that have been featured in Hugi?
Not many, still I have a pretty well established name. Even if very few of you
have heard my non-Hugiwork there are a lot of musicians who hardly no one
listen to. And that's very frustrating. And that's in my experience the first
reason for joining or forming a group. To have some steady listeners who gives
you feedback. It's not as c5easy c5as Ghandy makes it sound to join a wellknown
group and people will leech your music. If you're not really, and I mean
c2REALLY c5good at what you do there's no chance you'll be accepted into an
established group. That's why so many groups are formed. Because it's hard to
get attention as a musician these days, and frankly it's because there're c5too
many musicians!
c5If you take a look on the charts you'll see the same names as you did five
years ago, which kind of proves that it's only the really good and big
musicians we remember.


Shit and crap

c5When I was as most active about a year ago I downloaded so much music I
thought my modem would blow up. And even I, as a very dedicated member of the
c2musicscene/demoscene c5didn't keep very good track of the names the musicians
had. Because I couldn't! It would be like memorizing random words in a
dictionary and associate each with a different person. It's hell. I had my
favourites which I checked out regularly, and many of them were the ones on
the charts as they were the established ones. They were the easiest to find,
and you knew you'd get c2quality music. c5Something you can't say about many
trackers. The web is flooded with low quality bullshit, which for a long time
made me hesitate to download new artists (as 50% was absolute rubbish). That's
why I started to stick to party compos and artists I knew. Which is kind of
sad, as you miss a lot of good music that way. But at the same time you don't
want to filter out all the shit to get to the good stuff. I'm not interested
in hearing a 13 year old kids FiRsT MoDuLe EvErRrRrR!!!!!!!!! For gods sake,
please! Compare your music to what can be considered average, and don't spread
it in public unless it can qualify as that. If you want c2feedback c5ask friends
or people you meet on IRC. Also ask them to be honest, and don't get pissed
off if they say it's shite. Ask them what to change to make it less shitty.

c6Talking about tracker GUI's

c5I can't really understand what c2Ghandy c5means when he says the looks of PT on
amiga is better than on FT. It's a matter of taste, but personally I prefer
FT. And I've worked a lot with PT as well, it's all about what you're used to.
That's why I'm not changing to IT, because I find the GUI terrible. Even if IT
is a better program than FT, I still prefer FT.
I can agree with Ghandy that a music program that is older than any operating
system anyone is using on PC these days (and was coded long before many of us
even had pubic-hairs) is scary. But that only shows how superb the program was
when it first was released. Still we cannot live in the past. c2Even a tracker
has to move on sometime. c5But until I find a program that suits me better,
I'll keep FT. No matter how old it is, it still does what it's supposed to. Produce
cheap and small music.


As a final touch to the article I'm going to answer the same questions as
Assign did.
At the beginning, typical for my interviews, please introduce yourself to
the public with your name, age, job, hobbies etc.

c4Makke: c5My real name is c2Marcus Nilsson, c5I'm 20 years old and I live in Sweden.
Right now c6(well, not anymore Ed.) c5I'm in the army (Until the 8th December 2000),
and I'm also just
about to move from my parents. After the army I will study and hopefully
become a computer engineer. When I'm not in the army or hanging with my
friends (which nowadays is what I do most of the time) I sit in front of the
computer doing nothing, music or writing.

How did it come that you`ve started to make music on your computer?

c4Makke: c5I got a copy of FT for c2Amiga c5sometime in 93/94 by my good friend
Wolk. I played around for a few years and didn't become very active in the
scene up until late 97. I've always been interested in music.


The list of MusicGroups in the net is endless. What does a new crew have to
do to be part of this circle??

c4Makke: c5Getting established in a small circle of people first. Get a bunch of
c2steady listeners c5and do not c2expand c5too fast. You don't want to push your
stuff on people, and when they finally download it, it's crap. They won't
download any of your stuff again. What I mean is, don't get lots of people to
download your music unless you're sure it's something they'll listen to more
than once.
Could you please introduce us a bit into the music Scene?

c4Makke: c5Check out c2The Good Stuff. c5Can't really remember the URL right now, but
sites like that is a good start. That way you'll be sure to get high quality
music.


How did the foundation of TDR take place and which people are members of
this crew?

c4Makke: c5I don't have the slightest idea and at least no me.
What do you think about the highly discussed MP3`s in Demos or at
music-compos at parties??

c4Makke: c5I used to think it really sucked, but I've changed my mind a bit. I
still think modules are to be preferred. But as I myself have released a few
songs in MP3 I know the c2good sides c5of MP3's (you're able to mix the track
better, add c2real c5reverbs etc.). The most disturbing thing with music in
demos these days is the use of commercial music. My idea of a demo-production
is to do everything yourself, a true c2in house production. c5It's even more
disturbing when it's the elite groups who do these kinds of rip-off. The ones
who really shouldn't have to do that. I read an interview with c2Made
c5somewhere was it in Static Line or was it Orange Juice? Don't really remember.
He said something about there being to few good musicians in the scene, and
that no one can produce music professional enough. Bullshit. You just have to
look. And even if you get an idea for a demo from a commercial track you can
ask a musician to make something similar and in the same style, and then make
the demo from that song.



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