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--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  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


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