MP3s in Demos

Written by Makke

When I heard that Adok was going to talk about MP3 files in demos in his editorial I felt I had to say my opinion on this topic.

For a start the MP3 format is really cool! I like MP3s but not as much as some people do. I have this friend who lives for trading MP3s. Why? Sure, MP3s are cool, but not that cool! The only thing this guy does is downloading MP3s all day long. When he's at school he brings his ZIP-drive and occupies a computer the whole day. He doesn't sit there all day, he just logs on to an FTP, starts downloading and then places a paper-sheet on the screen that says "Don't touch!". Wow! Nice life.

Now back to the original topic, MP3s in demos. I don't really know what I feel about this. I don't like when people MP3 their modules, 'cuz I like to see how they made them. But MP3s in demos is quite another thing. Of course, the scene is changing, I know that. We need to do new things, but do we need MP3s for our demos?

I don't know. I don't think so. I think we're only fooling ourselves to think that we need it. The scene provides the world with many great musicians, and they sure as hell are able to do masterpieces without using MP3 technology. And XMs are in general smaller than MP3s (MP3s might be smaller than .WAV, but they ain't "small" either). Perhaps not if you use lyrics in the demo-song.

Another thing that makes me think that MP3s in demos are a not too good idea is the way that MP3s can be made. Yes, they can be made in ANY WAY you like, as long as you can save the music as a .WAV dump. In my opinion demo-music is tracked music. Music made in a tracker. If we start using MP3s in demos we might encounter music made with MIDI (NOO!!! NOT MIDI ;) ), RIPPED from professional musicians (which is really bad from a moral view, and in my opinion not very scenish) or we might get recordings from some demogroup members band. It's not as bad to use your own band's music as to RIP the music of course, but this way demos will more or less turn into nothing more than electronic music-videos and cannot be made by a small team.

To make the recording of your band you'll need a few people. You need the band (2 to 6 persons) and somebody recording it (could be done by one of the bandmembers). I myself have a band in which I record myself, but I'd never use one of our songs in a demo! (And that's not because we stink. ;) ) I just think that MP3s are not demo scene. We've developed our own music-formats, and I think we should stick to them. MP3 is not a music format like MIDI and MOD-formats are. It's just audio compression. And I hope to god that MP3s never EVER will be allowed in a demo-party music competition, because then I don't know what I'd do!

I'd probably get pissed like hell, make a lot of new enemies and quit the scene. Yes, I really hate the idea of having MP3s in a music-compo that much. I don't even think that the idea of a special "MP3-music-compo" is good. IT'S NOT SCENE TO DO THAT!

So what have I said here? I don't really know, I wrote a lot of bullshit here. :) But I can say so much that I don't "love" the idea of MP3s in demos. I think it's wrong, seen from a scene perspective, to do that because:

1. MP3s are big.
2. It's not a music-format.
3. This way I can't see how the music was done and hence not learn anything new.
4. MP3s in demos can lead to that... on some parties, it will be allowed to enter MP3s in the music compos. (ARGH!!!)

The only time I think it's ok to use MP3s in demos is when it makes a GREAT DEAL of size saving. But use modules as long as possible... please...

Hope I made my point,

- Makke / Comic Pirates / Hugi