TW #62 — Interview with Vegas (Kal Zakath and Kleitus)

Kal Zakath (jtown) and Kleitus interview vegas of Mystique, an IRC capture from "several weeks" before NAID '96; the preface adds that his NAID entry "The Path Taken" was selected by the jury and finished 15th, and that he had co-written "Rugiada di Montagna" with Fred of Terraformer.

Key claims#

• T.J. Lerner, 18, Agoura High School; musician of Mystique — "You know what Mystique has in common with Epinicon? We both have more members than fans." Mystique: founded at the new year of 1996, "we do a musicdisk every month", leader Ragnarok, 2 artists, 2 coders and "like 14 musicians" (FutureAssassin, Loki, Phaze, Chakra, Taurus, Ded Silence…).
• History: collected MODs from local BBSs for three years; ModEdit ("I sucked"); Scream Tracker and a cover of "Stones" from Ultima ("It sucked"); on the Internet from about October 1995, where leviathan and Inner Vision taught him the basics of theory — "Thats when I REALLY started".
• Influences: Leviathan, necros, Lord Pegasus, Stalker ("I just wish he'd write more"); outside the scene Enya, Front 242, "war-ish" classical, the Braveheart soundtrack, Genesis.
• Strengths: harmony ("I track what the human ear wants/expects to hear"), drums, catchy leads, mood, working under pressure. Weaknesses: sample quality — both of Kal Zakath's reviews of his songs said so ("that trumpet sample was just plain lame") — and predictability.
• Reviews: "all reviewing should be done by at least TWO people. I think an opinion of one person is inherantly biased"; Demonews ratings are "guidelines only" (hornet). NAID '96's jury ratings would count for about 80 % of the vote, public voting 20 % — "the jury has TOO much power".
• Own songs: "The New World Medley" and the jazz tune "Don't Stop Now" (Mystique's April 1996 disk myst0496.zip), "The River Eternal" (v-river.zip), "Mario Goes to the Jungle" (his CrapCompo winner), first release "Inner Turmoil". His NAID tune — "a rockish techno piece called Feel the Night", eerie like "The River Eternal", electric guitar and piano leads, no "techno BOOM BOOM BOOM base drum" — is, per the preface, the entry that placed 15th as "The Path Taken". Lyrics: live vocals were not allowed at NAID, "they have to be sampled and tracked into the music. And tracked lyrics are shitty."
• Favourite tracked songs: Necros's "Metroplex" ("my personal favorite") and "Point of Departure", FutureAssassin's "Neptune Ballista", Spyder's "To the Sky", skaven's "Catch that Goblin", Ded Silence's "The Why Complex", the XMs "Kingdom Skys" and "Respirator".
• Goals: music stays a hobby — "If I have to use my computer to make money, thats not the way to do it"; would love to score a demo. Ripping: "I'll rip samples if they've been ripped already" — a song with no original samples "might as well be public domain" (sample-ripping). The new IRC compos (CrapCompo, BlahCompo, SpurCompo, AnotherCompo): "all in the name of fun... good practice" (compos).
• Overrated: basehead ("well-tracked, but boring and often too unconventional for me to enjoy") and Mellow-D; underrated: Phaze, Ded Silence, Fred.
• Theory: four years of clarinet — "You dont learn shit about chords on a clarinet"; after learning the basics "my music improved tenfold"; "It simply gives structure to one's creativity"; he had taught "well over a dozen newbies and not-so-newbies"; still tracks by ear, "but now Im alot better trained in doing that". Kal Zakath's own method: chord theory for the progressions, leads by ear (chord-progressions).
• Three tracking tips: (1) "Dont use a ^^^ to kill a note in the lead, just drop the volume to 10, 15, or 20 and volume slide the rest away. It leaves a reverb-ish effect thats really good on flutes, piano's and violins"; (2) "Keep your bass and drums panned near the center. the ones that are supposed to draw attention should be closer to the extremes"; (3) "Use EVEN speed values like 2, 4, or 6, to make your retrigs sound smoother."
• Tools: no longer scream-tracker-3 — "I use IT, but Ill be saving the files as S3M's until .IT's are supported by a couple popular players"; FT2 has no advantage over impulse-tracker "other than interface preference. 32 channels or 64, whats the difference. :) I DO like Nibbles tho."; sound card a Pro Audio Spectrum 16 ("Piece a' Shit"), so he cannot judge the claim that NNAs reduce GUS quality; does not use NNAs but "they're definitely not useless" — FutureAssassin's NAID entry used them well (new-note-actions).
• Scene: "alot more jazz/symphonic/easier music style composers"; "flooded with musicians, and ... having a shortage of artists and coders", so coders look down on musicians (an argument with Kiwidog). Legitimacy: "Music is music... the stuff that spews from my tracker is music"; realism will come from "high quality samples, good reverb and panning effects in trackers, and talented trackers" — tracked jazz by Necros and Spyder was "sounding pretty damn close" (realism-in-tracked-music).
• Releases: ftp.cdrom.com /demos/music/songs/1995/s3m/v-*.zip, .../1996/s3m/v-*.zip, .../disks/1996/m/myst*.zip; group details at www.datex.ca/trax; e-mail vgs@loop.com.

Practical takeaways#

• The volume-tail trick (tip 1) is the cheapest fake reverb for sustained leads — see lead-articulation and volume-slides.
• Bass and drums centred, colour to the sides (tip 2) — the rule on stereo-panning.
• Retrig intervals of 2, 4 or 6 ticks divide a speed-6 row evenly (tip 3) — see retrigger.
• Saving IT work as S3M for player compatibility was normal practice in mid-1996 (it-format, s3m-format).

Notable quotes#

• "I can't understand why some people are 'against' music theory. That just baffles me. It simply gives structure to one's creativity." — Vegas.
• "Dont use a ^^^ to kill a note in the lead, just drop the volume to 10, 15, or 20 and volume slide the rest away." — Vegas.

Relevance#

Three concrete tips with values, a mid-1996 IT user's file-format compromise, a pro-theory testimony with a before and after, and the NAID '96 jury rule.

Pages touched#

vegas, lead-articulation, volume-slides, stereo-panning, retrigger, impulse-tracker, scream-tracker-3, new-note-actions, leviathan, necros, basehead, skaven, hornet, compos, sample-ripping, realism-in-tracked-music, chord-progressions, traxweekly.