From: crunch@hogbbs.scol.pa.us (Travis Prebble)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.audio
Subject: Re: Huge MODs
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 09:06:18 EST
Organization: The Heart of Gold BBS, Lemont PA

gruel@midiline.la.ca.us (Nick Salvatico) writes:

> From: jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers)
> Subject: Re: SmartPlay - Don't waste your Time On This One!!
>  
> > In any case, most of the huge MODs I've seen are exactly the type
> > of massively sampled trash that people have been complaining about
> > here. You can hear what those are worth just by using play590 to
> > play the entire file as a single sample... :)
>  
>  Sick isn't it?  After having collected MODs for a while, and after
> having started out thinking that a larger MOD was likely to be
> better (through some form of twisted logic), I've since found that
> the largest MODs are most often impressive ONLY in their size.  I can
> only think of a few MODs weighing in at ~350K+ that are not only NOT
> just batches of sampled beats, but also damn good tunes in their own
> rights.  I'm thinking of Beyond Music (432K), Face Another Day
> (449K), and Space Debris (347K)...I'm sure there are others, but
> percentage wise they'll be extremely few.
>  
> > The module "hitmen" is a perfect example of this. 612KB, and it
> > sounds fine played as a single sample.
>  
>  That kind of tripe is only a MOD by virtue of format.  Feh.
>  
>     o   .
>  o .  o   o
>    o .   .
>   __:__:_
>  ( gruel )
>   \_____/
> 
> -----
> gruel@midiline.la.ca.us (Nick Salvatico) 
> MIDILine BBS (midiline.la.ca.us) - Altadena CA - (818)797-3285

Thanks for being offended.  I have recently been guilty of uploading to 
amiga.physik a collection of techno remixes that I cranked out in the 
past few months, many of which I believe sound quite good.  Then again, 
so do the people who put them on cassette and distributed them (sure, 
they were only fellow students, but they liked what they heard).  I admit 
that it takes very little talent to sit down and chop up a song just to 
rearrange it and hope it all sounds okay, but this, for me, is the first 
step to learning how to compose.  I know nothing about music, simple as 
that, but I am learning through my remixes what fits and what doesn't.
As I continue to do them, I continue to experiment (the first remixes 
were simply the same thing on all four tracks, now they're split 2 and 2 
and, occasionally, contain some "original" additions by me).  You can 
gripe all you want, but I enjoy what I have been doing.  However, you 
*can't* say that this form of music isn't just as difficult.  I spend 
hours getting my samples cut perfectly, selecting which ones will be 
utilised and which won't.  It isn't just a walk in the park.

Oh well, at least I blatantly state in my .readme files and my file 
descriptions that the files are simply remixes.  Then you know not to 
download them.  Of course, this doesn't explain the e-mail that I have 
been receiving that says, "Hey, I just downloaded your remixes and think 
they're great!  When are you going to make more??"  Another comment that 
I received said, "It's good to see that you're not afraid to use big 
samples in your mixes, no matter what the guys in c.s.a.audio bitch 
about.  If the bass thumps, that's all that matters!"  Which, for techno, 
is absolutely true.

Please, this is by no means an introduction to discuss why techno is or 
is not "music."  I'll say right here: no, it isn't.  Perhaps some of the 
stuff by Moby could be classified as music, but little else could pass.



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