Hornet
The demoscene archive and group behind "Demonews", the newsletter traxweekly was modelled on and spun off from; TraxWeekly was "a HORNET affiliation", distributed from ftp.hornet.org and www.hornet.org (sources: s-traxweekly-archive, s-tw106-a-little-panning). trixter (Jim Leonard) wrote as "Trixter / Hornet" (source: s-tw039-chord-theory-debate).
Maelcum's "Truth… or Bullshit?" (TraxWeekly #25, September 1995) attacked Demonews #100's policy of deleting uploads rated below *** after a month and the inconsistency of its four reviewers' ratings — "listen for yourself, don't let anyone else control you" (source: s-tw025-loops-and-extended-samples).
The archive and its ratings#
- Where. In 1995–96 the archive was at
ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/—music/disks/classic,music/songs/indexed by format (source: s-tw011-how-to-enhance-your-music-collection) — and Snowman (Christopher G. Mann) hosted the 20-minute-chip-compo's packs under/demos/incoming/music/20mc/(source: s-tw032-20-minute-chip-compo); by 1997 TraxWeekly was distributed from ftp.hornet.org (source: s-tw106-a-little-panning). - Volume. "Over 30 megabytes of music are uploaded every two weeks, on average" (January 1996); Hornet called itself "the most regular magazine on the demo scene … since 1993" and "the world's busiest archive of demos and scene music" (source: s-tw044-hornet-ratings).
- The stars. Demonews and the archive's
00indexfiles rated uploads on a five-star scale (Popcorn: "most of the files have been rated by Hornet in the late issues of demonews and 01Files"; source: s-tw011-how-to-enhance-your-music-collection). Hornet's position, stated by trixter in #44: the ratings are "a service", "completely subjective", "not compo ratings"; fewer than 10 songs out of thousands ever got*****; raters are "other musicians and composers"; they exist so that people with little time can download only the**or***categories (source: s-tw044-hornet-ratings). Critics: Maelcum (#25, above) and Light of kosmic (#43), who said the stars make weaker trackers give up — "it can still be a 5 star effort" (source: s-tw044-hornet-ratings). - On theory and techno (#45): rhythm is taught in the first theory class; techno "is practically governed by" theory, and "20+ channels of 100% percussion" will not rate well (source: s-tw044-hornet-ratings).
- On channels and compos (#33): writing as "Trixter / Hornet", Jim Leonard held that fewer channels demand more skill, that the four-channel compos of Assembly and The Party "require more skill" than the 20-minute-chip-compo's "bare-metal" chip tracking, and that "some of 'today's best PC music' is still 4-channel MODs" (source: s-tw033-4channel-lives-on; see mod-format).
- Proposals and verdicts from the musicians. #trax's ideas for the ratings (December 1996): rate by style category first, designated raters per style, at least two reviewers per tune plus a public vote, decent headphones (source: s-tw080-trax-mass-interview). basehead in 1995: "their ratings are kind of fucked most of the time … it depends on the reviewer" (source: s-tw027-interview-basehead-lotus-position). A 1997 beginner's advice: "Don't upload to hornet 'til you're experienced!" (source: s-tw105-newbie-interviews).
- Staff seen in the sources: trixter (Jim Leonard), Snowman (Christopher G. Mann), Popcorn (Chris Campbell — "TraxWeekly Editor / Hornet / Epi" in May 1995; source: s-tw011-how-to-enhance-your-music-collection; "being TraxWeekly Editor and being in Hornet", June 1995, and signing "Hornet.TraxWeekly.MC3" in July 1995 — sources: s-tw013-interview-big-jim, s-tw017-interview-amusic), GraveDigger (signed "[Hornet]", gd@ftp.cdrom.com, June 1995; source: s-tw015-interview-sv). Snowman was at NAID 1995 (source: s-tw006-naid-opinion-interviews).
In the interviews (1995–97)#
- The archive as the scene's shelf. perisoft "uploaded to hornet" his song Arbitrary in May 1995; leinad once had a directory "at wasp/hornet" (sources: s-tw011-interview-perisoft, s-tw002-interview-leinad). Directory layout as printed in the "Faces in the Crowd" release boxes of autumn 1995:
/pub/demos/incoming/music/songs/{s3m,xm,mtm}/,/pub/demos/music/songs/1995/s3m/<letter>/,/pub/demos/music/disks/1995/<letter>/,/demos/incoming/music/disks/,/demos/incoming/music/songs/s3m/(sources: s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness, s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-smeghead, s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-esper-division, s-tw030-interview-ender, s-tw030-interview-paganus, s-tw031-interview-vicious, s-tw031-interview-fred). ryan-sprott (1996): Cubic Player "fuxors up most of my tunes" (source: s-tw063-interview-ryan-sprott). - FITC as a counterweight to Demonews. kal-zakath's premise for traxweekly's "Faces in the Crowd" (September 1995): Demonews reviews "do little to help the no-name composer" (source: s-tw026-faces-in-the-crowd-intro); the column planned to list "notable tunes" without a
k_orfm-prefix (source: s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness), and its reviewers "listen to most new music uploads to ftp.cdrom.com" but "will not actually rate the songs" (source: s-tw030-interview-paganus). populus (June 1995): the new Demonews is "just an email message written by many people … no style anymore" (source: s-tw016-interview-populus). - Verdicts on the stars, 1995–97. smeghead: "four guys voting … ain't exactly a precise measurement", though a one-star rating is right 90 % of the time; master-of-darkness had received "a 1 1/2" (source: s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-smeghead). Master of Darkness, himself a Demonews reviewer, in January 1996: "just because the other reviewer gave it lower doesn't mean he's wrong or biased against dance"; pariah: a rating comes "from ONE person" (source: s-tw043-interview-pariah). ganja-man: the reviewers suit demo-style music only — sort by style (source: s-tw052-interview-ganja-man). vadimvs: ratings are "a good idea… honour" (source: s-tw050-interview-vadimvs). scirocco claimed "the only XM on ftp.cdrom.com with a rating of 5 stars" (source: s-tw054-interview-scirocco). vegas (1996): reviews should be done by at least two people; Demonews ratings are "guidelines only" (source: s-tw062-interview-vegas). Ryan Sprott claimed the Demonews record for one-star ratings by a single composer and wanted the tunes deleted (source: s-tw063-interview-ryan-sprott). Cosmic/RR (1997): "i dont think that it is a good way to release stuff and hope to get a lot of *" (source: s-tw090-interview-cosmic).
- Music Contest. MC3 (summer 1995) was organised by "snowman, dan and floss" (source: s-tw022-interview-jase; whether this is Hornet's Snowman is not stated). MC4 (1996): the "player controversy" over impulse-tracker entries — no standalone IT player existed; liam-the-lemming entered as a veteran and applied to judge (sources: s-tw063-interview-ryan-sprott, s-tw066-interview-liam-the-lemming; see compos).
To verify#
- (unverified) The archive closed in 1998; its music section was the main distribution point for tracked music. (Its ftp.cdrom.com location is now sourced above.)
Related#
traxweekly · trixter · kosmic · 20-minute-chip-compo · tracker-scene-history · kal-zakath · compos
Sources#
s-traxweekly-archive · s-tw106-a-little-panning · s-tw039-chord-theory-debate · s-tw025-loops-and-extended-samples · s-tw044-hornet-ratings · s-tw032-20-minute-chip-compo · s-tw011-how-to-enhance-your-music-collection · s-tw080-trax-mass-interview · s-tw027-interview-basehead-lotus-position · s-tw105-newbie-interviews · s-tw033-4channel-lives-on · s-tw015-interview-sv · s-tw006-naid-opinion-interviews · s-tw013-interview-big-jim · s-tw011-interview-perisoft · s-tw002-interview-leinad · s-tw026-faces-in-the-crowd-intro · s-tw027-faces-in-the-crowd-master-of-darkness · s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-smeghead · s-tw029-faces-in-the-crowd-esper-division · s-tw016-interview-populus · s-tw017-interview-amusic · s-tw030-interview-ender · s-tw030-interview-paganus · s-tw031-interview-vicious · s-tw031-interview-fred · s-tw043-interview-pariah · s-tw052-interview-ganja-man · s-tw050-interview-vadimvs · s-tw054-interview-scirocco · s-tw062-interview-vegas · s-tw063-interview-ryan-sprott · s-tw090-interview-cosmic · s-tw066-interview-liam-the-lemming · s-tw022-interview-jase