Response to THE MIX publicising our e-mail address last week has been fantastic, with mail flooding in within minutes of the issue hitting the newstands. There's not enough space to print them all here, but just to give those of you who are still deliberating whether to take the plunge, here's a taster of life on the net, with selected replies from some of our avid readers. The first up calls himself Snail, a reference to the slowness of terrestrial post versus e-mail perhaps?

From: Snail aka Stephen Kellett
To: themix@musicmak.demon.co.uk
12/12/94

Hello THE MIX,
After seeing this month's the mix, I thought I'd drop you a line.

I've been watching the trials and tribulations of the various competitors to THE MIX. Pretty soon, they were up there with MT, and outgunning you with their tape and CDs. I was still buying both, but rapidly getting disenchanted (and I still am) with their pro-dance editorial.

Now I wouldn't mind, except they claim to cater for all musical tastes, yet time and time again the demos, readers demos and product demos feature dance-related music. So why mention this in a letter to THE MIX? Simple, THE MIX states it has a wide range of tastes to cater for. The difference is that THE MIX does cater for them, with currently no discernable bias (although I note a lack of industrial music), plus plenty of kit reviews (monitors etc). Add to this the mixed-mode CD, which others have followed.

If you're constructing WWW pages, the first thing you should do, if you haven't already planned it, is get all the Netscape, Win32s, Ws_ftp, Trumpet and other software, and put it on your CD the month your WWW goes online. For people who're new to computers, especially Unix-boxed, FTP is unfriendly, and finding these files can be a pain.

Finally some net groups to read....

alt.music.* - General music groups discussions
comp.sys.atari.st.tech - This can be useful for speedups for ST users
comp.sys.ibmpc.soundcard.music - Obvious uses for this group
rec.audio.pro - Quite funny with some serious rubbish being spouted amongst the good advice. Mackie pulled out of the group last week.
rec.music.makers.synth - Good problem-solving group for any synth you want.
rec.music.promotional - Never seen anything in here!

Hoping to hear from you, Keep up the good work.

To: Stephen Kellett
From: themix@musicmak.demon.co.uk
13/12/94

Hello Snail.
Thanks for your e-mail and all the votes of confidence. The tip about putting net software on the CD-ROM section of Re:Mix is a good one and I'm on the case. As you quite rightly point out, it's still not a complete doddle setting up, and we shall be putting together the best software package we can to make logging on and accessing the WWW a piece of cake. Keep the news of those interesting sites coming! Oh, and watch out for some interesting industrial music soon in the pages of THE MIX and on Re:Mix!

Roger 'Network' Brown



From: John
To: themix@musicmak.demon.co.uk

Subject: Hello....
I've recently become a subscriber to the mix and I'd just like to say hello. The 'net page' could be interesting (even 'though some of the WWW addresses aren't *quite* right!!). You're right about the hype 'though, it gets a bit much when everything you read is talking about the 'information superhighway' and its impact upon modern living...

Well, that's it really. Keep up the good work, I'll be looking out for your WWW page....
Seeya!

To: John
From: themix@musicmak.demon.co.uk

Thanks for your feedback John... Yes, the e-mail addresses did get a little altered from writing to subbing. I'm afraid our art room isn't familiar with the format yet, but rest assured, we'll be making every effort to educate them in the intricacies of ftp and http protocols.

Roger 'Netman' Brown



From: Neil Mansfield, University of Southampton
To: themix@musicmak.demon.co.uk

I appreciate that you probably get asked this all the time but....

I have e-mail but (as yet) no access to the WWW. It would be jolly spiffing if you could send samples and stuff as file attachments over normal e-mail, as well as setting up your WWW site. Alternatively is it possible to access WWW as a guest somewhere?

You may also be interested in list called: makemusic@mainbase.ac.uk

This is mostly classical stuff bu involves sending MIDI files around the world for corporate composition, where each person adds/edits a bit of the file. It does not really work very well at the moment, but is potentially quite interesting!

Neil Mansfield.

To: Neil Mansfield, University of Southampton
From: themix@musicmak.demon.co.uk

Don't worry Neil, anything we do post to our planned WWW pages will also be available from an ftp (file transfer protocol) site. With regard to your lack of access to the Web, why not download a copy of Mosaic or one of the other WWW browsers from the appropriate ftp site? We are planning to include Web browsing software on the CD-ROM section of Re:Mix, so watch this space for further details... Thanks for the details on makemusic, keep 'em coming!

Roger 'Netman' Brown

Just a screen shot of the World Wide Web listing to open this month. The address was printed wrongly last month and the screen shot didn't make it into the magazine, so here is another chance to see just some of the listings available.

It was that dodgy little item the 'tilde' (~) which confused our subbers last week, so don't forget to include it when you log on. The correct address is: http://www.cc.columbia.edu/~hauben/music-index.html

Checking out the latest news from those doyens of noise, the Beastie Boys, on the address as printed last week, I uncovered news of this rare release. The In Sound From Way Out, or Le Son Hip du Monde Hop, appears to be a promo-only jobbie, and is apparently well sought-after by B Boys fans.

Access this and more exclusive stuff such as The Beastie Boys screensaver (another piece whose ownership wins social cachet) on their WWW page on: http://www.nando.net/music/gm/BeastieBoys