MULTITRACKS
THE OFFICIAL PLAYSTATION MAGAZINE DEMO DISC AND HOW IT CHANGED MY LIFE | Jesse Schaefer
The year was 1997 . I didn ’ t have a PlayStation , but my best friend Gabriel did . I can remember staring at the screen and thinking “ There is no way graphics could ever get any better than this .” It was as if I was watching the actual X-Games when we played Tony Hawk ’ s Pro Skater 2 . I felt like I was really driving on Grand Valley Speedway in Gran Turismo , and even though I wouldn ’ t admit it , I was a little freaked out after playing Castlevania . But all of that fear subsided after a few rounds of Crash Bandicoot or Spyro the Dragon .
Almost every Friday we would stay over at Gabe ’ s house , eat pizza , watch cartoons , and play video games . Did it rot my brain a little bit ? Probably , yes . Did it create a lasting friendship and memories I ’ ll never forget ? Absolutely . But today , there is one detail that sticks out to me that I feel like we don ’ t see much of anymore . You guessed it , the Official PlayStation Magazine Demo Disc .
I think in total there were over 50 of those things , each with 3 or 4 playable demos of popular games at the time . While this seems flippant , we ’ d play every single one of them and really get a feel for the game . Often times we would discover a game we thought we ’ d love was actually not that enjoyable . But every now and then , a game we thought would be a dud would turn out to be amazing ! We would demo that game to its fullest extent until we knew we just had to save our pennies and beg our parents to get it so we could have the full experience .
These days , Demo Discs have largely been replaced by App Store descriptions , online reviews , and even unboxing videos online . While many of these give great insight into what they ’ re showcasing , they don ’ t give that tactile hands-on experience that Demo Discs once gave . When I buy a guitar , I absolutely have to play it before making a purchase decision . I don ’ t buy a car without kicking the tires and taking a test drive . So why would I do that when it comes to resources and production ?
Magazine ” to distribute Demo Discs through , we wanted to capture that same tangible experience for our ecosystem of resources . It ’ s easy to read reviews and manuals , but actually setting up our tracks app , Playback , in your space and setting is the most practical way to get a feel for how to integrate tracks in your context . That ’ s why we created a Demo Setlist in both Playback and our charts and rehearsal app , ChartBuilder .
In Playback , Demo Setlist brings you a full setlist of five songs along with the ability to experience everything Playback can do . That includes customizing song arrangements and transitions between songs , as well as editing songs keys , bpm , and even start and end time for each song . It also gives you access to Pad Player , which can play a pad underneath and in-between your songs so that you no longer have awkward moments of silence between songs or underneath spiritual directions .
But for me , the real fun comes when you experience the MIDI capabilities . This takes