NEWS MESSAGE ARCHIVE

11-Dec-2002

The wait is over! MindCandy Volume 1: PC Demos The best PC demos remastered - 10 years demoscene history on Video-DVD Two and a half years in the making, this double-sided Video-DVD contains 42 of the greatest PC demos of the past 10 years, all remastered and scene by scene framerate-optimized. Also included are audio commentary from the MindCandy crew (ex-Hornet members) and the demo creators, a 16-minute featurette on the history and making of demos with exclusive interviews, a color booklet, menu music by demoscene musicians and more. Side 1 contains modern "eye-candy" demos with lots of color and 3D effects, who will impress everyone, demo sceners as well as people who just want to sit back and watch cool computer animations from their couch. Side 2 provides an overview of classic "oldschool" PC demos. These are the demos you just can't get running anymore, or never got running properly due to a "wrong" sound- or graphiccard. Price: 15€ + shipping Tip: Mindcandy-Earcandy-Bundle: Mindcandy DVD + "tracked worx 2k" double-CD for 30€ (10€ saved)

07-Dec-2002

VSampler Back In Time Edition - save $150+ against the individual prices! MAZ and Back In Time Records present an outrageous good deal for all undecided people: VSampler Pro bundled with an extensive sample-library in AKAI S-1000 format, 1.1 GB ready-to-play instruments on 4 CDs. [ More ]

26-Nov-2002

Bad news :( Mekka Symposium RIP. Due to irreconcilable personal differences within the main organizer team, Mekka & Symposium 2003 WILL NOT TAKE PLACE. The good news: the organizers of several german demopartys (Evoke, Dialogos, Underground Conference ...) have teamed up with a huge part of the ex-MS-organizing to create a new party on easter - Breakpoint, moderated by Steeler and XXX Location will be Bundeswehrdepot Bingen, 80 km to the west of Frankfurt/Main, the location of the UC6

22-Nov-2002

Madtracker compo started: Everybody is welcome to send his/her Madtracker song, the deadline is 31st of January 2003. Those who never heard about Madtracker, check www.madtracker.org, the free version is all you need to take part! The entries will be reviewed by a jury of 14 people, "reviewed" means written opinions, not just numbers or ranks! Always wanted to know what other musicians think about your song? Your chance! The results will be published on the 28th of February 2003. The prizes for the winners are not defined yet, but there are already audio- and sampling-CD's sponsored by Ashmore, MAZ and x-pert Media, more to come! Sellout: there are 6 copies of the 10-CD-pack "12000 Soundclips Vol.1" left ...

25-Aug-2002

German language only: Die Zeitschrift c't führt einen öffentlichen Ogg vs. MP3 vs. MP3 Pro vs. AAC vs. RA vs. WMA Hörtest durch, an dem sich jeder beteiligen kann! Die Dateien liegen jeweils als dekomprimiertes WAV vor, Ziel des Tests ist es, das klanglich beste Verfahren herauszufinden, und zwar nach subjektiver Meinung der Hörer, nicht nach Auswerten von Frequenzspektren. Der Test endet am Donnerstag, dem 29. August, die Ergebnisse werden in der kommenden c't vorgestellt. Ihr persönliches Testergebnis erfahren Sie nach dem Ende der Umfrage per E-Mail.

18-Aug-2002

Check out the DemoDVD project aka "MindCandy Volume 1: PC Demos", it's a DVD compilation of some of the greatest scene PC demos which will impress the hardcore demo scener and those who just want to sit back and watch cool computer animation from their couch. It's done by ex-Hornet (Trixter, Phoenix, and Stony, with Snowman offering suggestions and moral support) and Fusecon (Dan Wright, creator of the original Hornet Archive).

21-Jul-2002

First public VSampler 3 preview online at www.vsampler3.com, incl. alpha version for free download. Betatesters wanted!

03-Jul-2002

In reaction to the end of Emagic's Windows-productline: crossgrade your EXS24 to the award-winning VSTi/DXi/Standalone VSampler Pro now! This timelimited offer will end September 30, 2002. Just 40 Euro. Never be limited to a certain host sequencer again. Side-effect: you enter the VSampler 3 upgrade path this way. For all VSampler 2 users reading that: the upgrade price to VSampler 3 will be *lower* than the price difference between version 2 and 3 to thank you for all the support over the years. Another 100 copies of the CD's of the 10-CD-Samples-Bundle for VSampler, HALion and EXS24 will arrive tomorrow (Thursday). The worldwide last copies of this incredible value-for-money bundle. First come first served.

01-Jul-2002

Hard to believe but true indeed: Apple acquires Emagic, Emagic's Windows-based product offerings will be discontinued on September 30, 2002.

04-Jun-2002

There exist many P4 mainboards with onboard soundcard, now AOpen released one with a twin triode TUBE PREAMP (Line level) onboard, the AX4B-533Tube. The ultimate board for case modders! Enjoy the warm sound of bus transfers!

17-May-2002

MAZ shipping 10-CD-Samples-Bundle WAV + VSampler/HALion/EXS24: Produced by Masterbits and being a megaseller in Germany already (the WAV version), the 10 CD's are a collection of loops (4 CDs) and multisampled instruments (6 CDs), synthesizers as well as nature instruments, please check the detailed content description at the MAZ online-shop. The CDs can be ordered in WAV format or in software sampler format, packed into about 1600 ready-to-play multisampled instruments for VSampler, HALion and EXS24. The incredible prices: 10-CD-Pack, WAV 35 Euro, VSampler/HALion/EXS24: 50 Euro. An alle, die die CD's bereits besitzen ("12000 SoundClips Vol.2"): die Software-Sampler-Instrumente können auch separat nachgekauft werden, was den Nutzwert der CD's deutlich erhöht. RC2 of ReNoise released today. You did like NoiseTrekker? Better check www.renoise.com immediately. Based on Arguru's NoiseTrekker, everything except CSynth rewritten from scratch. FastTracker-like interface, sampler, synth, mixer, DSP, multichannel ASIO support, MIDI support incl. synchronization by MIDI clock as master or slave (Renoise in sync with Cubase or your synth!), support for VST plugins. It's pure sex.

08-May-2002

Soundforge 6 available, update for SF 4 .. 5 users is 129$, which is a bit weird if you bought a fresh 5.0 for 99$. The news: nondestructive audio editing (ala Wavelab), multitasking background rendering, modeless Audio Plug-In Chainer (unfortunately still with a special "preview" button, not ala Wavelab), DirectX Plug-In Manager, Preset Manager, 32-bit/64-bit float/192kHz file support, support for files >= 4 GB, enhanced time zoom (24:1 ratio), fully customizable toolbars, customizable DirectX Favorites menu

24-Apr-2002

interesting soundcard review at Tom's Hardware: Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 vs. Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum another one, also contains interesting bits (or better: missing bits) about the SB Audigy: Creative Labs Extigy, looks like a great deal, but obviously not for musicians: no SF2 support, latency 40 ms, no ASIO drivers (the next driver revision from usb-audio.com will support the Extigy ... adding another 45$ to the price), plus: "Yet it has been confirmed, even by Creative Labs' own technicians, that neither the Audigy nor the Extigy are capable of recording or playing 24-bit sound at 96 kHz. There is actually entry-level support that the card automatically downmixes to 16 bits / 48 kHz to process the sound." I just can confirm that, the SPDIF input supports 16 bits only as well. Would have been to good to be true. A possible (stereo-only) alternative as a true low latency / ASIO / 24 bit USB card (same price as Extigy) might be the USB ONE, works great at my laptop. and just to mention that again: the APS hack is dead, long live the The kX project, it's a set of alternative WDM drivers for EMU10K1 and EMU10K2 based cards (Live!, Audigy and E-mu APS), independent from Creative, already having an impressive number of features, including ASIO, support for any number of EMU10K1 or EMU10K2 based cards in one computer, full DirectSound and partial DirectSound3D support, a kX mixer which includes a DSP control panel, allowing editing, loading, patching and unloading of custom DSP effects.

28-Mar-2002

It's mekka/symposium-time again! The m/s is a (or better: THE) demo-scene party that is organized annually at Easter. Roughly 1400 young Multimedia artists gather here for four days in order to meet similarly-minded people, to exchange ideas and to participate in the competitions, in which individuals and groups show off their talents in an electronic art called Demos.

05-Feb-2002

This year, the fifth edition of Dialogos is coming to you. Dialogos 2002 will be held 4th to 6th of october 2002, most probably in Jena's Holzmarkt Passage, Germany, as in the past years. The compos will be shown at a modern cinema with luxory french seats :) The location got a bar, an ice café, an italian restaurant. In the past years Dialogos always had a great atmosphere. Be there are be square.

21-Jan-2002

Welcome back www.maz-sound.com. It was down for 4 months because the previous US hoster didn't release the domain name when I requested it and never gave his YES to agree to move the domain to another hoster. So I had to do it "manually".

18-Jan-2002

CREATIVE launches "Extigy" - their first external soundcard, could be an interesting alternative especially for notebook users (simple USB connectivity), estimated street price US$150. A nice picture is here.

10-Jan-2002

news about Impulse Tracker 3 and FLAW: the IT3 team is no longer part of DSPaudio (or vice versa). DSPaudio now concentrates on FLAW exclusively, and the Unreal team (e.g. authors of Pulse Player, *not* related to the game "Unreal") around Ray will continue developing IT3 with the help of a new (and obviously big) sponsor. Read Ray's statement for details and progress info regarding IT3. Both projects sound very interesting, provided they will ever become reality.

06-Jan-2002

Happily arrived in 2002, all the best for the new year to everybody reading this and those who don't found at Live! center: the APS hack is dead, long live the The kX project? The kX project is a set of alternative WDM drivers for EMU10K1 and EMU10K2 based cards (Live!, Audigy and E-mu APS), independent from Creative, already having an impressive number of features, including ASIO, support for any number of EMU10K1 or EMU10K2 based cards in one computer, full DirectSound and partial DirectSound3D support, a kX mixer which includes a DSP control panel, allowing editing, loading, patching and unloading of custom DSP effects.

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