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XGC Newsblog
The longest collaboration ever made, part II
Monday 28th June 2010
Hi everybody,
Last week I told you about the longest collaboration production ever made... But the longest production isn't "First Contact" (17:19) but "Static Emotions" (18:48)...
The production "Static Emotions" was a collaboration between two giants: Cryogenic Emotions and X-Static. It was the Dawn of a new Era... The collaborated composers were: MU-L8r (CE), Crackhead (X-Static), Instinctiv8or (CE), N-Traxx (X-Static) and XGener8or (CE).
And the winner of the original XGC t-shirt is XGener8or. He wrote me: "Hey. Cool that you put up the First Contact collab. BUT!! It's not the longest. Longest is STATIC EMOTIONS..."
So that means that we have a new Top-3:
- Static Emotions (18:48)
- First Contact (17:19)
- For Our Cybert's Friend (14:55)
OK, that's it for today, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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The longest collaboration ever made
Thursday 24th June 2010
Hi everybody,
Today I recorded the longest collaboration production ever made into mp3. This production, "First Contact" (17:30 min), was made by Cryogenic Emotions (CE). CE was a collaboration between Apokalypz (Gerald Nisperos), M4U (Mari Yahigato), MU-Lator/Franma (Francis Joseph Cabugao), XGener8or (Christer Holm) and Instinctiv8r (Sascha Henken).
Talking about collaborations, there was also another beautiful collaboration called "For Our Cybert's Friend" (14:55 min), which will be 2nd in the list of longest collaborations ever made. You can find that song on Paul Fiction's page. The song was made by MrRED, mRqS, Ranz, Soundpool, Aleksey and Paul Fiction. The song was part of a CD double-pack, called "The Tribute to Bert Koning", which was a (30th) birthday present for Cybert...
And which collaboration will be 3rd in the list "longest collaborations ever made"?
Please give me your answer and he winner will receive a very nice original XG-Central T-shirt for free!
So it looks like we're back! Talking about collaborations and winning prizes, how do you think about a new XGC Contest? Cause the last one was in 1999... Please write me your comments!
OK, that's it for today, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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New release of X-Static
Tuesday 22nd June 2010
Hi everybody,
Great news, Crackhead aka DJ Scratch released his latest music production under the label/group X-Static. The song is called "Shadows of love" and the style is rave/techno. It has some nice leads and vocals. You can find the song under both names and on YouTube.
In the song Shadows of Love you can hear a girl saying "I miss you baby, like a shadow in the night". It look likes ModeXG used the same girl in his song Best Moments in Life...
Our friend Dexus from Russia updated his bio. Thanks Denis! And check also JD Harding's page, cause now you can find some interesting mp3-files and some of them aren't on the XG-MIDI list.
Other news: more and more composers would like to compose again after many years. That's great, isn't it? So come on guys, take your chance and create a worldwide collaboration!
OK, that's it for today, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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MP3 Top 5
Sunday 20th June 2010
Hi everybody,
Did you already visit our MP3 Top 5? On that page you can see the most downloaded songs of XG-Central. I hope to find a script that will tell the visitor how often a song is downloaded, so till then you have to guess... By the way can somebody send me a good manual of phpBB? I already installed the forum on XGC (yes I did), but I don't know how to configure it... (Cybert is getting old... 40 in September...)
Friday I got a message of Crackhead. He will release a new song in July. The working title of the song is called "Cool Shit", so it must be great :-)
OK, that's it for today, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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The Resurrection of X-Static...
Friday 9th April 2010
Hi everybody,
10 Years ago there was a group who made XG-MIDI music with Yamaha XG related hardware. This group was named X-Static and it was a group of online friends, who made music seperate and together (the well known collaborations). They released these songs under the group name X-Static.
After 10 years X-Static is back with 2 old members: Crackhead also known as Dj-Scratch and X-Gener8or. We now use other hardware but still we have the same spirit and inspirations as back in the old days.
And last but not least; we have a new composer on XGC and his nickname is Joul from Malaysia. Joul is composing since 2001 and he creates different kinds of commercial music.
OK, that's it for today, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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New Release of X-Static
Tuesday 2nd March 2010
Hi everybody,
More than 10 years ago there was a collaboration group called X-Static. The members of this group were Crackhead, ViReX, XGener8or, Scars, ZeN, Maniac and N-Traxx. That was 10 years ago...
But times are changing and now they're back with a new up-tempo track called Move Your Body...
This new track was made by Crackhead aka DJ-Scratch. Here's the link to the new X-Static release.
Did you already saw our new poll question: "Should Yamaha continue their support for the SW1000XG?"
It was created by Sad-City and me, cause we're don't agree with the software policy of Yamaha. And we're not the only one, cause if we do nothing, nothing will change.
What's our point?
Less than 10 years ago there was a beautiful piece of hardware called the Yamaha SW1000XG soundcard. It was the most powerful music production gear in history. Everybody was talking about the great specifications of the card (and they still do)... and suddenly the worldwide Yamaha Music department dropped the driver support for the whole line of XG Products... Not only the driver support was gone, also the XG-related sites, like www.yamaha-xg.com, www.xgfactory.com and www.dspfactory.com, were removed...
Speaking for myself, I still don't know why Yamaha ended their support for my (expensive) SW1000XG. It feels like I bought a good car of a well known brand, including perfect warranty. And when I needed spare parts (read drivers 32/64-bit) there weren't any available.
There are still thousands of people who use this great soundcard. But they can't use the card anymore because the Yamaha Music department dropped the driver support. We all bought good expensive gear and now they letting us down. Do you accept that? If you do nothing, nothing will change. So the whole XG-community must do something, cause they don't. So please give your vote in our new poll.
OK, that's it for today, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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Still searching for XG composers
Friday 12th February 2010
Hi everybody,
Last week I received a message of Gustavo from Spain. He isn't a composer, but he enjoys listening to the old XG songs. Great isn't it? And he likes to help XG-Central with searching for old composers and I can say there is still a lot to search...
Does somebody know where we can find the following XGC-composers: Bassman (Robert Jagiello, USA), Conga (Chen Guoshun, China), Earl (Andrew David Irwin, Australia), Ediel (Ed Hernandez, USA), Gash (Gareth Hall, UK), Kelani Larethian (USA), Meistro (David Oliver, USA), MidiMan (Piotrus Gornicz, USA), OnNTwo (Dale Aston, USA) and Starman (Alan Gordon, UK)?
But there is also other news; the jazzy song "Travel Revisited", made by Sad City is recorded into mp3. Soon more about this composer, because I still have to listen to some new files of him.
I also added some well known composers to the XGC-archive: Geert Huinink from the Netherlands, Dexus from Russia and Andre Boule from the USA. I'm very happy to have these composers and their compositions back on XGC. Thanks for searching Gustavo. Keep on the good work!
OK, that's it for today, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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New MP3 updates
Tuesday 19th January 2010
Hi everybody,
Yesterday I updated XGC with 13 MP3 songs of my friend Filippo Vicarelli, also known as Hunt. Silver (ModeXG) recorded Hunt's music into MP3, so now everybody without XG-hardware can listen to these compositions too.
And that's an advantage of MP3 on this site.
I also updated the page of Sascha Henken with a new MP3 file, called "The Lost Worlds". The song gives me a very relaxed feeling, so I set Winamp (it finally plays XG as it's meant to be) to play the song in a loop. After hearing it 6 times, it's still beautiful :-)
And the last MP3 song of this update you can find on Franma's (aka MU-lator) page. The song is called "Dreams in Teknosys" and was created for XG-Central (long time ago).
One last thing; I'll put some information of the good old MU128 Tone Generator on the hardware page. Besides information of the products, you can also download manuals there. And those manuals are all on the XGC site.
Safe for a next generation :-)
OK, that's it for today, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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Information about the t-shirts
Monday 11th January 2010
Hi everybody,
Just updated XG-Central with a new composer called Zitos. Some of you already know this composer, because he was already member of the old XGC site. Zitos lives in Portugal and he's creating music since 1997. On his page you can listen to several styles of music in XG-MIDI and MP3.
I also added a very nice t-shirt... you can view this collector's item on the page merchandise.
OK, that's it for today, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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Best wishes for 2010
Friday 8th January 2010
Hi everybody,
OK I know, 2010 is already a week old (51 weeks to go till 2011), but I still wish everybody a good 2010!
Let's make it a good year with lots of new compositions! I like to thank everybody who visited the new born XG-Central in 2009 and I hope you will tell everybody that XGC is back online.
A small wishlist for this year: guestbook, forum and non-commercial XG-Central t-shirts. So every composer and visitor can wear a nice XGC shirt this summer!
Something fun in this newsupdate; the Yamaha DX7 in action during a scene in the movie Monsters vs Aliens:
OK, that's it for today, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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Searching for XG-composers and their files
Tuesday 22nd December 2009
Hi everybody,
Just updated the following pages with new MP3 songs: Crackhead, ZeN, ViReX, N-Traxx, Soundpool, MrRED and JRG.
I also added the following great composers in the last two weeks: Bob Gaynor (USA), Dan West (USA), Gregory Jones (USA), Holger Kapela (Germany), James Burton (UK), New Nader (Iran), Spear K (Denmark), Terma (Japan), Trond Olsen (Norway), X-TendR (UK) and Zephyr (Armenia). As you can see XG's still alive!
But I still need your help to find some old composers of XG-Central and their XG-MIDI files. If you have files of composer Maniac and Q-TeK, please leave in message in our feedback form.
And if you have the following XG-MIDI files of these composers Andre Boule, Bassman, Conga, Dexus, Earl, Ediel, Elemental 121, Gash, iStyle, Kelani Larethian, Meistro, MidiMan, OnNTwo, Starman and Zitos, please let me know by submitting the feedback form, because these composers were all members of the old historical XGC.
Christmas is coming, so I wish you a Merry X-Mas and a very good and healthy 2010!
OK, enough talking, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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Update completed!
Monday 7th December 2009
Hi everybody,
It took me more that a week, but finally the biggest updates of November and December are completed!
All compositions of the more than 140 XG-composers are visible now and they're ready for download (zipped as rar).
Also there are some new MP3 files online and they were created by my friend ModeXG. Thanks Silver, cause I don't want to fight to the systems anymore :-)
Short explanation: I wanted to help the composers to record their "old" xg-midi files into mp3. But it didn't work.
I can't record anymore with my SW1000XG (I tried 2 different cards)... I guess there's something wrong with my motherboard settings. Maybe I must upgrade my ASUS M2V motherboard? Or shall I buy Windows 7? Anyway, Silver (ModeXG) and I do a mp3 collaboration :-) I upload the files and he does the recording of the files!
Back to the new updates, take a look on the site, cause I think we're the most completed XG-MIDI website in the world now. And if you're still miss files, don't hesitate to give me your feedback.
I also got some nice statistics for you:
July 2009 (after 7 years back online with a new domainname): 39 visitors.
August: 267 visitors, September: 349 visitors, October: 715 visitors, November: 1696 visitors.
At this moment - the first 7 days of December: almost 500 visitors.
OK, enough talking, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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The biggest updates of November and December...
Friday 27th November 2009
Hi everybody,
Before telling more about the updates of today, I like to thank everybody who's visiting the new born XG-Central. It seems XG's still alive :-) So to everybody a big THANK YOU! That's gives me enough spirit to continue XGC after 7 years. And thanks for clicking on the blue "Vote Now" button! We're on the 4th place now. But we need a lot of votes to be on top.
This week I updated the menu: now you can choose for composers sort by country and composers sort by name. This makes it easier to browse through the site. You can choose what you like best!
The biggest updates of November and December will be the individual composerpages: at this moment the XG-MIDI compositions are not visible for the visitor. So you can't see and download the files piece by piece. You can only download them as a rar-archive. So I will bring the situation back as the old XG-Central site. With one exception: you can't listen to them directly, because Yamaha ended the support for the MidPlug 7 years ago...(strange, because I ended the old XGC also 7 years ago...) But if you open the rar-files you can import the XG-files into XG equipment and listen to the files, or import the files into WinAmp.
And here is an example of the new "download" and "listen" layout: Crackhead. Thanks for all the feedback! With your suggestion and comments we can make XG-Central better and better!
Did you already see the new XGC logo? It's based on Yamaha's XG Lite logo ;-)
And what about the new XG Fun page?
OK, enough talking, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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Still searching for XG-composers
Monday 23rd November 2009
Hi everybody,
We're still searching for the XG-composers with the addition "nomids" (see the composer overview page) but it's getting very slow :-( So if you know/knew these composers or you have their XG-MIDI files on your harddisk drive, please mail me your feedback.
There are new XG-MIDI updates of Beathoven, Sascha Henken, NTONYX (aka Fanatic), MAX (great Italo disco sounds) and Fish. You can download these updated XG-MIDI files as a rar-archive. We (ModeXG and I) updated also a few files of Fish; now you can listen his compositions in MP3.
OK, enough talking, go visit some composerpages, listen to the music and spread the XG-word :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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Amazing sounds with VSTi
Thursday 19th November 2009
Hi everybody,
This morning I updated the software page with several small reviews and links to VST tools. These tools are so great! You have to listen to the sample sounds of the Audjoo Helix and the LennarDigital Sylenth1. They get the "award" Cybert's choice :-) I also updated the hardware page with links and manuals (PDF) you can download.
Cya,
Cybert
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Searching for XG-MIDI files
Monday 16th November 2009
Hi everybody,
This morning I finished all composer pages with adding flags (the countries they live in). I will use this geographic information (flags) for redesigning the page where you can find an overview of all composers. As you can see, I go further where I stopped in 2002. I have many ideas with the site and one of them is to be the biggest archive of XG-composers and their songs. So please help me with that idea. There are still a lot of composers with no XG-MIDI files, marked with the words "No MIDS". And I know the files were there before my Harddisk drive crashed in March 2002... So if you have files of these composers, And if you're still miss files, don't hesitate to give me your feedback.
This weekend I was redesigning/programming the old XGC Guestbook, but that wasn't easy because the ASP-script was too old (10 years..). So I will ask my programmer of he can create a new one made in PHP. But you can view the old entries here!
Sunday was a bad day... I was learning how to record XG-files to audio (wave-files), but it looks like my SW1000XG has recording problems. It's not possible to record audio with my soundcard. What a shame. So my idea, help the composers to convert their XG-files to MP3, is not possible. But my friend and composer ModeXG came with a wonderful idea: a sort of collaboration :-) I will send the XG-files and he wil record them into MP3. I can't believe it! But it works for me. I don't have to fight to the systems anymore, so I can create new ideas for XG-Central.
Our first "collaboration", a song of my Dutch friend JRG (The Grid), called "Breaking Waves". The song keeps playing in your head after you turned off the music player. It really blows your mind away!
Today I will also updates the XG-files (funny I almost wrote the X-files) of Sascha Henken, cause I saw few files are missing.
Cya,
Cybert
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Updated files of Jim Dierking
Saturday 14th November 2009
Hi everybody,
This morning I updated XGC with a poll application: Question of the week. This week the question goes about the browser you prefer to use. Each week I create a poll question, but it's also possible to mail me your poll question/answers.
Jim Dierking send me various mp3 files. The received zipfile was almost 90 MB; the complete XG-Central website in the late '90's was 90 MB... Please turn your speakers ON and LOUD, because in the background you can already listen to this new Jim Dierking update. I'm a fan Jim! And I guess most visitors can say that too!
Cya,
Cybert
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Updated files of PHAZE-1
Friday 13th November 2009
Hi everybody,
It's the 13th and it's a Friday. Just saw a very black cat, but I hope it won't be bad today :-)
Just updated the amazing XG files of PHAZE-1 (aka Dance Cube). In 1998 I listened often to his music and my speakers ended in the garbage... They didn't survive it, but the music of PHAZE-1 is still alive, just as the various great songs you can find on XG-Central.
At this moment, while I make this newsblog, I'm listening to a very beautiful XG file of Sascha Henken (aka Flubber) called "The Lost Worlds". The song gives me a very relaxed feeling, so I set Winamp (it finally plays XG as it's meant to be) to play the song in a loop. After hearing it 6 times, it's still beautiful :-)
I just finished the new RSS feed! So please join the newsfeed! This weekend I will also launch 2 new applications on XG-Central: the first is a poll and the second application will be the original XG-Central guestbook (including all the old messages...). As I said in an earlier blog, "the site will be a memory to all my dearest XG friends. So nostalgic memories will be combined with some new applications ;-)
OK, that's it for this moment. I think I will play another XG-file now :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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New composer updates
Tuesday 10th November 2009
Hi everybody,
Just updated the pages of ModeXG (great files I heard long time ago), Happs (files I never heard before), ZeN (finally found his old XG-files), 1ID (I was searching for his files and found them), Turu-G (3 new MP3 files), Crackhead (lots of old XG-files) and Jim Dierking (found some stuff I never heard before).
I also made a start with the download of MP3 files. Check here for an example!
You can still send me updates of your old XG-MIDI files and if you can create them, your MP3 files. Maybe it's time for a workshop? How to record my old XG-files into MP3? Anyone interested?
By the way, you can also send me your non-XG music files! As long as it is original music (read: made by yourself). So don't send me music of Jean-Michel Jarre (unless you are the composer...)
OK, that's it for this moment. I'm still busy, so new updates are coming.
Cya,
Cybert
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A blog in a blog...
Monday 9th November 2009
Hi everybody,
Just read the newspage of my Italian friend Filippo Vicarelli (aka Hunt).
He wrote the following blog:
....."Oh boy! I'm glad to announce that XG Central is back! XG Central was the first international music community I ever joined and composing for. The webmaster and friend Bert Koning (aka Cybert) decided to create a comeback after 7 years! The new version of the site is a memorial to all the XG composers. Of course you can find my music too, altough it's getting pretty old - I was only 15 that time! My nickname was 'Hunt', derived from an XG midi file I was listening one day - I discovered later that one was composed by David Kelly (aka Sonic) one of my dearest friend and XG composer. Another good news is that you can listen to all the compositions without having Yamaha XG gear, as they come in mp3 format, so you really gotta check this out!"......
Filippo, thanks for this great message on your newspage! It makes me happy to see and hear all those positieve messages about XG-Central. It's good to be back!
Today I also got a message and several MP3 files of my Japanese friend Turu-G. After XGC was closing their virtual doors, he was searching many times for the site. Turu-G wrote: "I believed in a XGC revival! And at last I found your site. I am very happy!"
Cya,
Cybert
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Just launched the new XG-Central website!
Thursday 5th November 2009
Hi everybody,
Nearly one month after starting the new XG-Central with the tool WordPress, we go further with a non-WordPress site.
Maybe you've read the old messages on the old WordPress site... If not... here we go:
Monday morning I was doing an upgrade to the latest version of WordPress and after installing everything looks fine. But it wasn't. I couldn't upload *.rar and mp3 files anymore. It had nothing to do with the read/write permissions; they were good. It checked it more than twice a time. So I had to Google for the answer. That was a hel of a job and I saw I wasn't the only one with that problem. So I spend a lot of time searching for the answer(s). How to solve the problem. Yesterday, Wednesday, I still didn't find the right solution. I already did a degrade of the software, but that didn't solve the problem too.
So yesterday I made a start with this new site and here's the result. I don't like to change things quickly, cause "If It Works Don't Fix It". But after that bad upgrade I had to do it.
OK there's stil a lot to update and new things to add, like a forum (messageboard), forms and guestbook. But now I need a real Coca-Cola or something stronger...
Cya,
Cybert
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XG Central (tags, keywords and other...)
Friday 23rd October 2009
Hi everybody,
I was searching on Google's searchengine for the name "XG Central" and I saw a lot of sites with information about the old XG Central.
But what I like most is my new "sponsor": http://hyundai.partsgateway.co.uk/hyundai-xg-central-locking-motor.html. This one is also very cool: http://twitter.com/XGCentral/favorites .
OK, that's it for today :-)
Cya,
Cybert
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Download XG-MIDI files in rar-format
Thursday 22th October 2009
Hi everybody,
This morning I made a start to upload all the old XG-MIDI files of the old XG-Central website. Now you can download these files in rar-format. Check the XG-MIDI composer of your choice and you can find a download-link. In the rar-archive you can also find a text file with information about the composers and songs. And there's still a lot to update: 63 xg-composers (members of the old XGC site) to go... So check this site every day.
Cya,
Cybert
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XGC 2009, The Story Continues...
Sunday 18th October 2009
Hi everybody,
As you can see on the title of this newsblog, we're back and the story continues! So to every composer who was member of XG-Central in the late '90's please send me your XG files in MP3.
I already received files of ModeXG and Christer Holm (aka XGener8or), but there is a lot to update and there are still files missing.
This week I'll update the site www.xg-central.com with the complete composerlist of 2002. If you see somebody who was/ is on the list, please contact him and let him know XGC is still alive and the story continues.
This site will be a memory to all my dearest XG friends (the composers of XG-Central.com) and maybe we can make the site better than before.
Cya,
Cybert
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Join the XGC revival!
Friday 9th October 2009
Hi everybody,
On Tuesday 28th July 2009 I registered two new domain-names: www.xg-central.com back my orginal domain) and www.xgmidicentral.com. I wanted to put that good old site back online, like a memory and a decication to all the worldwide xg-composers who supported me in the late 90’s.
At this moment I will redesign the whole XG Central site. New on XGC is MP3 audio-streaming. MP3 will become the new standard besides XG-MIDI. I'd like to ask you to check your excisting memberdetails:
- Nickname
- Real name
- Country
- Composing since
- Music style
You can update your member (bio) information by using the "Join XGC form".
Cya,
Cybert
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We're back!
Monday 3rd August 2009
Hi everybody,
Yes we're back! Still strange to write new entries after almost 8 years. At this moment I'm updating the composer pages: I'll delete birthday, website and e-mail address information (privacy rules) and also the information about the used gear (very old stuff). So please update your bio!
Cya,
Cybert
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My first newsblog after 8 years...
Wednesday 29th July 2009
Hi everybody,
After almost 8 years these are the first words I write in this newsblog. Strange! But it feels good to be back!
There is a lot to update and many links to Yamaha sites are broken; they don't excist anymore. But I will remove the broken ones, so there will be actual information on this site ;-)
Would you like to join the XGC revival? Maybe we can bring XG to life. Because there are still thousands of people making music with Yamaha gear. As a community we are strong. So lets start the XGC revival now!
Cya,
Cybert
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