N.B. If you wonder why this is wierdly formatted, it's because this page has to work as an email too....

Hello there, music lovers!

This is Master Zap Newsletter #1/97. You are recieving this because you have either: a) explicily said so in my feedbackform, b) am a regular email friend of mine or c) wrote me a message or guestbook entry saying something positive about my music.

In these days of mindless spamming, I humbly apologize if you receive this in error, or simply don't want it. Just send me an email telling me this, and you will never see this mailing again!

If you are worrying about the frequency of these mails, well, this is the first one of 1997. So you won't exactly be showered with them. :-)

[Beware of my corny sense of humor, although jokes are often marked with the "smiley" :-) face emoticon]

This mail is available online in HTML form with live links and everything at http://zap.base.org/newsletter/1-97.html

In this issue

NEW URL

You think it's hard to remember the URL of my webpage? It was something with lysator, ~-squiggles and a zap in it? Fear not, you will never have to wonder again.

Although my "real" address is still http://www.lysator.liu.se/~zap, I have gotten a "redirector" URL, which is far easier to remember:

http://zap.base.org

Yep, it's zap.base.org, no more, no less. No www in front either (don't you think all those www on the web are a bit redundant?). Maybe I'll even print t-shirts with the URL on it, and sell on the web? :-)

SECURE ONLINE ORDERING OF MY MUSIC TAPE

As most of you already know, all this year you have been able to buy my "InSaNiTy" tape (90 minutes of insane technotrach dance trance 303 acid funka-beat chill-out from outer space music). But the procedure has been a bit awkward, involving putting cash in envelopes and whatnot.

Well, things have gotten easier. Through the magic of on-line ordering, it is now possible for you to order my tape using creditcard (and a few other payment methods) on-line ordering. This is an SSL-Secure order form, and is handled by the Kagi (http://www.kagi.com) payment processing agency.

For detailed information about the tape, and how to order (both in the "old" and "new" styles), go to:

WORKING ON MY CD!!

Yes, you heard me! There will very soon be a "Master Zap" CD out. It is independently released by me, and I have done every piece of the production myself! This is a joy to all those of you who preffer CD over the tape I've been offering until now! (and there are lots of you, according to my on-line surveys!)

The status is this: The songs are on my harddisk. The cover is designed. I'll get a CD burner within a couple of weeks.

The next steps are: I'll burn a few copies to test. Run around to friends and try it so it plays right everywhere. When everything is fine and dandy, It'll go off for pressing of x copies!

That means, that within a few weeks, there will be CD-R "home-burnt" green-and-gold versions of my CD available (in a very limited supply, that is :-). Within a couple of months, there will be a real, pressed shiny aluminum CD!!

The release of the CD will naturally be announced in this newsletter!

** Plans for the CD

I plan to make it a mixed-mode CD, with both audio and data. An hour+ of music you can play in any audio CD player, and then a set of bonus tracks as RealAudio files, in the data area! So you'll get more music than fits a normal CD!! The preliminary price is US$20 worldwide, including shipping!!!

For those of you who already bought the tape - the CD contains material from the tape, but also new material. And the tape contains material that will not be on the CD, unless maybe as RealAudio files.

** I need your input!

I have to decide fairly soon how many copies I should press (500, 1000, 2000, 10000, a million :-), and that depends on how many orders I can get. So those of you firmly interested in buying the CD, please email me (zap@lysator.liu.se) and tell me so. This is not binding, but I would like to get a rough idea of the level of interest. Tell all your friends too!

**To track the progress of the CD....

I've set up a webpage about the CD (http://zap.base.org/cd1.html). Any news on the CD will be posted there. Register at the bottom of that page to be notified by the URL-minder when the page changes! I might start a system for accepthing pre-ordering of the CD.

THE JAVASCRIPT JUKEBOX

Some of you might not have visited my site recently or heard my latest music. I suggest those who would like to do so to try my new JavaScript jukebox!

It requires Netscape 2.2 or newer, or Internet Explorer 3.0 or newer (although netscape works best!). The address is:

Those of you with other browsers, can go to my main page and find the old-style listings of the music by clicking around. It's easy 'nuff to find :-)

STOMPER ULTRA HAS BEEN RELEASED

Since it's of little interest to this newsletter, I'll just briefly mention that my drum-sound synthesizing program just went through a major upgrade, and is now known as "Stomper Ultra", instead of just "Stomper". (The next version after that will probably be called "Stomper SUPER Ultra" :-)

More details found at the stomper site:

COOL MUSICAL THINGS ON THE NET

Last but not least, I'd like to share a couple of worthwhile websites with you all, full of music of different sorts:

SIGNING OFF

Thank you for your time. Stop by my web anytime, feel free to order my tape, let me know your interest-level on the CD, or just say hi!

To end this, how about this little interesting exercise to remember my new URL:

Wear a swimming cap, or whatever attire allows you to fully pretend that you are Jean-Luc Picard. Now recite:

Zap dot base dot org,
Zap dot base dot org,
I fly in space -
I fight the Borg,
Zap dot base dot org!!
While saying "zap", point your hand like firing a phaser. While saying "base", move your hand like a spaceship docking with a starBASE. When saying org, just shake your org a little. That should do it :-)

Bye now. Surf Safely!

/Z

[End of Newsletter #1/97]

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