Nectarine Demoscene Radio
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Currently, there are 18 Active FAQ's:Q. What are the basic upload rules?
Q. Which file formats can I upload?
Q. Where can I change my flag?
Q. How can I upload a new song?
Q. How can I add a new artist?
Q. Allowed song encoding: Anything*
Q. Did you know, that..?
Q. What happened to the old Nectarine? Where is my old account?
Q. What are the requests' rules?
Q. I want to download that tune!
Q. I wanna chat!
Q. Is it possible to move a song up or down the queue? I gotta go to a meeting!
Q. I have found a song with incorrect/missing information, what can I do to correct this?
Q. What do these song statuses mean?
Q. Where can I find a current list of all smilies?
Q. I heard that there are some flags which are not mentioned in ISO 3166...
Q. Where can I find a list of all BBCode commands, along with examples?
Q. HE MAN? Ding alarm alarm alarm? I am not an atomic playboy? What the hell does it mean?
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Q. What are the basic upload rules?
Here are some things to keep in mind when you decide to upload a track:
- We don't need each and every tune of an author, no, not even from Skaven. 
Don't upload whole collections if they vary in quality, just keep the best tracks.
- You can directly upload most popular module formats (mod, mtm, s3m, xm, it, etc...). If your module is rejected, upload it as ogg or mp3 file. See also: 
Allowed song encoding: Anything*
- When encoding to a lossy codec, use at least 192kbps or higher. See also: Allowed song encoding: Anything*
- Looped tunes have to be faded out after the loop point. Short tunes (shorter than a minute or two) can be looped twice before fading out.
- Check if the tune already exists in our database. Try to use as few keywords as possible when searching, so that you don't miss possible alternative spellings or incomplete song titles.
- Don't upload a tune again if it just needs re-encoding. Get in touch with the moderators to resolve this issue: Sending a PM can be the best way to do that. You will need to give the reason of the reuploading, with the information that you want to see on the song page (if something has to be changed) and finally a link to your song (even in temporary storage website) to let the moderator reupload it on Nectarine
- Fill out as many fields as possible. Try to find out the song platform, release year, if it was used in a demo, etc... All this normally doesn't take longer than a few minutes and helps us keeping up the database integrity!
- Decrease the stereo separation of hardpanned tunes (f.e. Amiga MODs)
- Normalize your tracks (when rendering modules in XMPlay, choose "WAV Writer - Normalize" as output device)
- Cut off silence at the beginning and the end of the tracks. If your source file is MP3, use something like mp3DirectCut to prevent re-encoding (and thus quality loss). When rendering modules in XMPlay, enable the "trim ending silence" option. An alternative to mp3DirectCut is musiCutter - although it just has a very non-visual and basic GUI, it has the advantage that it can also be used to join several files and it also works with Ogg Vorbis.
- Always use the latest version of the player / plugin you're encoding from (f.e. always use the latest version of ASAP to encode POKEY tunes or the latest version of XMPlay to render IT modules) and your encoder (f.e. LAME).
- Also have a look here for some more information: 
Upload & other fancy stuff
- And last but not least: Do not upload commercial tracks! We need the permission of the original author and if we get it, we only accept commercial tracks by renowned scene musicians that are still somewhat related to the scene (f.e. Purple Motion's Musicdisk). However, just because a person is an (ex-)scener, that does not automatically mean that we want to have all their music from commercial side projects on nectarine.
All this together can be done in less than 5 minutes and helps us improving the quality of this radio station!
Added by
Saga_Musix (Last Updated: 1 month, 3 weeks) [Top]Q. Which file formats can I upload?
".mp3", ".ogg", ".mp2", ".mp1", ".wav", ".aiff", ".xm", ".mod", ".s3m", ".it", ".mtm", ".umx", ".mo3", ".fst"
Added by
Elrinth (Last Updated: 1 month, 3 weeks) [Top]Q. Where can I change my flag?
You can change you flag by going into the menu called 'Edit My profile' located at the top right of the webpage.
The flags code is a 2 characters code, that is corresponding to this table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2#Officially_assigned_code_elements
Added by
LittleWhite (Last Updated: 1 year, 12 months) [Top]Q. How can I upload a new song?
So, you want to upload a new song? No problems, here some tips on what to do:
1) Check if the song already exits in the Nectarine database. Be careful with soundtrack from demo: sometimes the name of the song is not the same that the name of the demo (e.g.: soundtrack from "Lifeforce" is called "Memento Mori". Please research both, demo name and music file name.)
2) Search for the artist in the Nectarine database (Search page)
3) Once you have reached the artist page, you will find a "Upload a new song for the artist" link.
4) Fill the form (Allowed song encoding: Anything* can help)
5) Wait for approval from a moderator. You will receive a PM when a moderator will have checked your upload. If your upload is rejected, you can always ask more information to the moderator who reject your tune.
Note: If the artist of your song does not exist, please look at: How can I add a new artist?
Added by
LittleWhite (Last Updated: 1 year, 2 months) [Top]Q. How can I add a new artist?
Just as before adding a new song, please check that the artist you want to add doesn't exist in the Nectarine database. Sometimes the same artist is using different nicknames: try searching for all of them you know. Especially for MOD artists, AMP is a nice help here.
Once you are completely sure that the artist doesn't exist in the Nectarine database, go to the artist list ("Artists") and scroll to the bottom of the page: there you will see a link to suggest an artist.
Fill in the form, and wait for a moderator to accept or reject your suggestion.
Remember that the artist must be connected to the Demoscene (wrote music for a demo, took part in a demoscene music competiton, wrote music for an old demoscene-related game, etc).
Mind also that if you intend to upload some game music or contents of an audio CD created by an artist, you must ask his/her permission. Joy is sour when it's not fair.
If the artist doesn't fit our requirements, he might still be suitable for our sister radio CVGM.
If you are too lazy to go on the artist list, the link is the following:Suggest new artist
Added by
LittleWhite (Last Updated: 1 year, 1 month) [Top]Q. Allowed song encoding: Anything*
*= unless rejected
The streamer can handle pretty much all popular audio formats. Re-encoding lossy audio formats will not improve sound quality, in fact, it will create even more compression artifacts. So don't do it. Preferred bitrates are from 192 kbps to 320 kbps.
EXPERIMENTAL support for popular module formats (.mod, .s3m .xm, .it, etc...):
If you want to upload a module, you can check if it plays correctly with XMPlay. If it does, just upload the module as is. Module looping is detected, and will be handled by the streamer.
If you convert it to a lossy format, use Ogg Vorbis, AAC or MP3, minimum bitrate is 192 Kbps.
If you have problems with the format or looping detection send a PM to 
maep or post in the forum.
Added by
Danger (Last Updated: 1 year, 5 months) [Top]Q. Did you know, that..?
- You can see user's role
If you move your mouse over user link such as this Danger, you can see if it's "user", "staff" or "admin".
(Note: It doesn't work on user links in "The team" section. Those are special links.)
- You can connect user's profile with artist's
Just contact any moderator to do it for you!:)
Added by
Danger (Last Updated: 1 year, 12 months) [Top]Q. What happened to the old Nectarine? Where is my old account?
In the past, Nectarine was coded and maintained by Chris "Yes" Le Sage, the platform was resurrected several times after hard disk failures. In mid-2008, a script kiddie decided to hack the last incarnation of Yes' work, Nectarine v6, abusing a security hole in one of its components. That way, the whole server was wiped out. Sadly, Yes' backup HDD also died a few days before this, so all backups were lost. Luckily, most of the data from the HDD could be restored by professionals, however this only includes the song database. Hence, your old accounts, statistics, etc. do not exist anymore. Additionally, after this incident, Yes decided not to work on Nectarine anymore, so a completely new and fresh team is bringing you the best of demoscene music now!
Added by
Saga_Musix (Last Updated: 1 year, 12 months) [Top]Q. What are the requests' rules?
You can request 1 song per session. That means: you can add only 1 song to the queue at the same time. Once your request is played, you can request other songs.
When a song is requested, it will be locked for >3 weeks. During the lock time a song can't be requested or played by random even if you bribe arab (not tested).
Added by
LittleWhite (Last Updated: 7 months, 4 weeks) [Top]Q. I want to download that tune!
Many tracks are missing download links. There's a little guide on finding good download links for many tracks in less than five minutes: A lesson on download links
If you've found a good download link, you can use the "Edit Information" link that is on every song page to submit the download link. Please put the download link in the Comment field (not the Info field!).
Added by
Saga_Musix (Last Updated: 6 months) [Top]Q. I wanna chat!
We also hang out on IRC! 
Check #nectarine on irc.esper.net.
Added by
Saga_Musix (Last Updated: 1 year, 6 months) [Top]Q. Is it possible to move a song up or down the queue? I gotta go to a meeting!
No. 
But you can always miss your meeting. 
Added by
Saga_Musix (Last Updated: 8 months, 3 weeks) [Top]Q. I have found a song with incorrect/missing information, what can I do to correct this?
We do not pretend that all of our database is correct at 100%, and some information on song/artist/group can be missing or wrong. If you have noticed some errors, you are welcome to help us to get it right.
This can be done in multiple ways:
- For song info, you can edit the info yourself using the "[Edit information]" link. It will be checked by a moderator later.
- Post in the Correct Songinfo! dedicated thread.
- Send an PM to one of the moderators.
Please, avoid to post it as comment of the song, because moderators are not checking every comments for every songs (so the update will be very delayed)
When reporting such error, if possible, please show us the original web page where the information can be found.
Thank you very much for your support 
Added by
LittleWhite (Last Updated: 1 year, 2 months) [Top]Q. What do these song statuses mean?
They determine whether the song can be queued and why (or why not).
Songs that can be queued have these statuses:
Active - Everything is okay with this tune!
Needs Re-Encoding - This tune can be queued, but somebody told us that it has bad quality.
Songs that cannot be queued have these statuses:
Inactive - The tune was disabled for some reason, and the moderator who disabled it was too lazy to state the actual reason.
Uploaded - This tune has just been uploaded, and its fate is yet to be decided.
Not verified - This is a fairly rare status. Used during mass uploads (when we restore a back-up from the early Nectarine, in example).
Rejected - A moderator rejected this tune during the approval stage.
Removed By Request - The musician who made this tune asked us to disable it for some reason.
Banned - An administrator decided that this once approved tune does not deserve to be here. The decision is usually final and irreversible.
Moved - The tune was moved to an other radio station (CVGM, for example) and is inactive here.
Dupe - This tune is a clone of an existing one.
Jingle - This tune is a jingle, and thus cannot be queued.
Kaput - The radio engine cannot parse the music file correctly. Something is wrong with it.
Added by
MyO (Last Updated: 1 month) [Top]Q. Where can I find a current list of all smilies?
The list of smileys can be found on this page. Have fun
Added by
LittleWhite (Last Updated: 4 months, 2 weeks) [Top]Q. I heard that there are some flags which are not mentioned in ISO 3166...
Yes, there are some.
Some country codes are available for countries which do not appear in the list mentioned above or for those who want to look cool:
hh
eu
fam (uses the colors of famfamfam site)
wales
england
scotland
catalonia
ninja
pirate
Mind that for these codes you need to use the name which is placed by the flag, not any abbreviation (example: if you need Catalonian flag, type "catalonia" in the Country code input field).
(from Koekenbakker's profile)
Added by
MyO (Last Updated: 4 months, 1 week) [Top]Q. Where can I find a list of all BBCode commands, along with examples?
You will find the list of tags in this thread: New BBCodes & Stuff!
Added by
LittleWhite (Last Updated: 1 year, 12 months) [Top]Q. HE MAN? Ding alarm alarm alarm? I am not an atomic playboy? What the hell does it mean?
You might find some answers in this thread: Enlighten an ignorant newbie, perhaps? [catchy quotes and memes of Necta]
Also you might try skimming through the Pouet.net's Enlighten the ignorant newbie, perhaps? thread, too.
Added by
MyO (Last Updated: 11 months, 2 weeks) [Top][Back To Top]