ptn Posted March 18, 2014 Posted March 18, 2014 Info about releasing Symbiote EP reminded me of guys releasing under Ultrabeat umbrella. Bunch of the tunes were incredible, made on trackers with all those limitations they still sounded better than some of the tunes one can find on well respected compilations. I used to have plenty of their tracks and now I can't find them anywhere (the site is still active, but the downloads are not). Does anyone have them or can point me in the right direction to get them back? Quote
Dolmot Posted March 18, 2014 Posted March 18, 2014 I should have quite many of them, freshly downloaded since 1996. It was one of the sites to check regularly. Good times. Although can you remember the hassle of downloading, transferring and storing those files that could be several megabytes?! Didn't even fit on a single floppy! Madness, I say... Quote
ptn Posted March 18, 2014 Author Posted March 18, 2014 I should have quite many of them, freshly downloaded since 1996. It was one of the sites to check regularly. Good times. To me Internet in '96 was something Asimov or Lem could write about. Although can you remember the hassle of downloading, transferring and storing those files that could be several megabytes?! Didn't even fit on a single floppy! Madness, I say... Yeah, I remember one of my friends saying 'Mp3? This won't pass, the files are too big.' I've searched through all my old, dusted CDs (no floppy in my PC) and no sign of Ultrabeat goa... Quote
mars Posted March 18, 2014 Posted March 18, 2014 I have most of them. Dogether with Dolmot I'm sure we would be able to dig them all. But where to store them ? Do we even have the right to spread them ? Quote
mars Posted March 18, 2014 Posted March 18, 2014 I checked: I had rebuilt the XM releases from some module archive (so there may be discrepancies) and the only one I don't have amongst the MP3 releases is Mindprobe - busted EP. Dolmot, any help here? Else I thought about it, I put what I had on http://www.psynews.org/files/misc/Ultrabeat/ Quote
Ormion Posted March 18, 2014 Posted March 18, 2014 Awesome mars. Just listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MODhks0ROsg Insane!!! Quote
ptn Posted March 19, 2014 Author Posted March 19, 2014 THANK YOU Mars, now I'm a teenager again . Some of those guys with the right equipment could reach hall of fame easily. About the spreading, as far as I'm concerned, in the golden computer scene days, just before Internet has rocketed, it was the essence of it, so maybe by extension this could be used in this case especially the tracks were available for free so many years. Nevermind, it's a great find and I hope some of psynews members who never heard those names before will have a listen and enjoy pre-VST era producers. Quote
Guest antic Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Mars, you're the best! I remember being knocked off my feet when I first heard pr0teus' stuff - will d/l immediately! Quote
Dolmot Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 I still listen to various mods regularly. (It used to be an unambiguous term meaning a tracker file and nothing else...) Actual goa or even any electronic CDs were rare as hen's teeth where I used to live, and mp3 trading was slightly hindered by 14.4k speed, <1 GB hard disks, and the first clunky real-time mp3 players (that is, real-time assuming you had a mighty CPU dedicated to playing only) appearing in 1995. The demo and tracker scene was something awesome and genuinely free in every sense. Picture this: you could take any track, produced by anyone in the scene, load it in an editor and start tweaking. There was no need to release a "remix kit". Everything was there, fully open from the very beginning. I spent vastly more time on that stuff than on commercial releases. Obviously there were endless poor attempts but plenty of gems too. M^3's Robotik still sort of defines psytrance as in "psychedelic trance" to me, because that's exactly what it is. Why did that term come to mean extremely formulaic fullon? Oh well, let's load a bunch of XMs and enjoy the sound which definitely wasn't compressed to hell and back. Another benefit of low tech. By the way, for playback I heartily recommend XMplay or something using the BASS libs. There were dozens of tracker formats back then, and they were quite complex to implement accurately. Some of them were even poorly documented or relied on some specific, unexpected behaviour of the originating tracker. Even if your random player software can nominally load a tracker file and produce some sound, it doesn't mean it's playing correctly. Get a good one and write out your own wavs or something for wider use. Quote
Paul Eye Posted March 19, 2014 Posted March 19, 2014 Recently I've been touching up my old Impulse Tracker stuff from 1998-1999 for a (possible) future release. Running the original final version of IT 2.14 in DOSBox Funding for mastering, artwork (and perhaps distribution although I plan on releasing it for free) is still a bit of a question mark though... May 18th this year would mark the 15th anniversary of my last IT track, although I probably won't have enough time to get the music to be released on that exact date (with all sorts of life-changing stuff going on right now). Not that I've been in a hurry so far anyway... Kinda OT I know, but trackers <3 Quote
ptn Posted March 20, 2014 Author Posted March 20, 2014 The demo and tracker scene was something awesome and genuinely free in every sense. Picture this: you could take any track, produced by anyone in the scene, load it in an editor and start tweaking. There was no need to release a "remix kit". Everything was there, fully open from the very beginning. Yes, I can't imagine better way to learn producing than step-by-step 'autopsy' of a great tracker tune. When trackers were leaving the production field for the benefit of Cubase, FL or Reason it was an end of a great era . I'm glad there's still Renoise . Aural Planet consists of some of the best polish tracker musicians (Sundial Aeon too). I've heard IM started producing on trackers aswell, can someone verify this plus add more names to this list? Quote
mars Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 I'm adding Mindprobe - Busted EP to the archive. Thanks to Dolmot Ah yeah you noticed most of the files are 128kbps mp3. Well, that was the standard 15 years ago when we didn't have so solid internet connections... if anyone has them in higher quality, I'd be happy to update the archive. http://www.psynews.org/files/misc/Ultrabeat/ Quote
Rotwang Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 I've heard IM started producing on trackers aswell, can someone verify this There you go (via Wikipedia). Quote
ptn Posted March 20, 2014 Author Posted March 20, 2014 There you go (via Wikipedia). Thanks, I didn't think this one was so easily achievable fact. The part: [...] he started making music at his late grandmother's house with an impulse tracker and had no clue that the music he was producing was, in fact, trance. He simply referred to it as impulse music [...] astounded me a bit. Imagine thinking You've invented a lightbulb. Quote
Dolmot Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 Aural Planet consists of some of the best polish tracker musicians (Sundial Aeon too). I've heard IM started producing on trackers aswell, can someone verify this plus add more names to this list? http://www.discogs.com/artist/18906-Shidapu Quote
Blubber Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 thanx for the effort people, curious to listen through the list Quote
Basilisk Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 Mars, you're the best! I remember being knocked off my feet when I first heard pr0teus' stuff - will d/l immediately! Yeah, me too! I liked his work so much that I gave him a $300 advance on a release. Then he disappeared. Quote
Penzoline Posted March 20, 2014 Posted March 20, 2014 Yeah, me too! I liked his work so much that I gave him a $300 advance on a release. Then he disappeared. lol wow Quote
JISNEGRO Posted March 21, 2014 Posted March 21, 2014 Awesome mars. Just listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MODhks0ROsg Insane!!! I love this track! And don't forget this! Quote
Penzoline Posted August 21, 2014 Posted August 21, 2014 Mindprobe live at alternatiba is wicked good! Check it out guise. Quote
draeke Posted October 17, 2014 Posted October 17, 2014 pr0teu was paid for a release and never did it?! woah... that blows my mind! Recently I have been contacted by another of the Ultrabeat producers who sent me his music but for me the apex always was Symbiote. Then there were other tunes who were freaking good, especially this one that i would release: https://soundcloud.com/mantis-innerverse/mantis-makara-mantra-mix cheers and good job with the archiving Quote
Manuser Posted May 12, 2020 Posted May 12, 2020 Mantis - The Mother Hive was a terrific track but it disappeared from Youtube... however Mantis released a full album in 2015 that went unnoticed! All tracks produced between 1997 and 1999 https://mantis98.bandcamp.com/album/innerverse Quote This one is special to me. I met Ra'anan in 1998 in Eugene, Oregon. On a shady street called Garden Way in a gorgeous old house lived Seth Miller, website creator for Cosmosis, Chris Haines, the prolific graphic artist, and Ra'anan, a small South African punching out MIDI sequences in FastTracker. He was the Mantis. And together they were The Fluoro Circus. They put together a CD of their music called "Innerverse", of which I still have in my possesion! Mantis's track, Chromium Wing, appeared on the Innerverse CD. This is real Goa Ultrabeat Trance. 100% legit. And a HUGE thanks to Ra'anan for this (ironic!) opportunity to release his excellent music. Released September 24, 2015 Quote
BogzBinny Posted August 10, 2020 Posted August 10, 2020 On 5/12/2020 at 5:15 AM, Manuser said: Mantis - The Mother Hive was a terrific track but it disappeared from Youtube... however Mantis released a full album in 2015 that went unnoticed! All tracks produced between 1997 and 1999 https://mantis98.bandcamp.com/album/innerverse Tracks were released unknowingly by the artist. They are also fake lossless, most are converted from 192kbps. Quote
Tsotsi Posted August 12, 2020 Posted August 12, 2020 On 8/10/2020 at 5:27 PM, BogzBinny said: Tracks were released unknowingly by the artist. They are also fake lossless, most are converted from 192kbps. What are the ethics behind buying this album? Is the artist getting any of the moola or is this just an illegal download scenario. Quote
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