Mod Trackers

[skirmisher]

Oct 7, 2020 9:55:54 GMT -5 arillius said:

Oct 7, 2020 2:45:12 GMT -5 garvalf said:

There are some fundamental differences in trackers. Some are using samples (like the one designed for .MOD, .IT, .XM formats), some others are using "calculated" sound generation, typically the trackers designed for soundchips on old 8-bit computers. Famitracker is targeting the Nintendo NES chip, Deflemask can handle several chips (sega genesis, gameboy, arcade...). I especially enjoy FM synthesis we can find on Genesis/Megadrive. And some simple square sounds can truly fits in the Dungeon Synth style, like in old video games.

I've made an article with comparisons between a few sound trackers:
garvalf.online.fr/index.php?page=articles_trackers

skirmisher I'm also using zx spectrum to render some Vortex Tracker tunes, even though it's quite tedious (even is quite fun as well). It's also possible to play vortex tracker tunes on Arduino, like on this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzpGbokxwZ4

I love Deflemask because I'm a huge fan of the Genesis sound. I have a few tracks I'm working on using this tracker. But ultimately with the subtle differences in how they look and work, I'm slowly going at it. I grew up using Impulse Tracker, so I generally use Schismtracker for my stuff because it's the modern version of IT.
it is quite amazing how many different trackers there are.

It sure is amazing. It seems to me that most of them are based on the two archetypes that are impulse tracker and fast tracker. I grew up on Pro/Fast Tracker so that's what I'm going for. I heard that Fast Tracker 2 has been ported to run natively on modern windows systems. That's cool. Right now I'm checking out Milkytracker which is essentially the same thing with some handy conveniences. It seems pretty nice so far, might be what I'm sticking with for sampling. Either that or just slap in the fast tracker since that's what I'll be using on my old computers.
I like the Genesis sound a lot too, I need to check Deflemask later on.

[skirmisher]

So even though my roots are in fast tracker II I decided to go with Schism Tracker which is essentially just a port of Impulse Tracker (which in itself was a modded Scream Tracker) for modern operating systems. I wanted to use a tracker that I can also use on my DOS-computers and since I'm old school and I think that using the mouse gets in the way of the flow I decided to learn the Impulse style UI. And I'm very happy I did. Originally I though that having "pages" was silly since you can just have everything you need on your screen at all times but now that I've learned the basics I think it's better this way. The UI is clean, it forces you to learn the shortcuts, you absolutely cannot use the software without them etc. It works great for me. I sampled some patches I've made for my romplers and conjured up my first tune. It came out nice and I very much liked the experience. I got the hang of it surprisingly fast. It's actually a pretty fast and powerful piece of software once you get used to it. Next up I'm gonna sample some more of my stuff, especially my analogue synths and go from there. It's very likely I'm sticking with trackers for a long time.

I highly recommend Schism Tracker to everyone. It has everything you need and most likely lacks the options you don't need. Perfect.

[arillius]

A very wise choice, my friend.
Feel free to hit me up on social media or Bandcamp and I would be more than happy to collaborate on a track or two.

[skirmisher]

Oct 19, 2020 15:35:43 GMT -5 arillius said:

A very wise choice, my friend.
Feel free to hit me up on social media or Bandcamp and I would be more than happy to collaborate on a track or two.

Sure! This sounds interesting. I'll message you in Bandcamp when I feel I've got my shit together since I don't use any social medias. I'm getting the hang of this but I still feel a bit wobbly. So far I've done a few tracks of something completely different but I've been sampling all of my hardware synthesizers for a couple of days now, will probably get into more dungeon synth oriented stuff very soon. 

[arillius]

Bumping this older thread -
I started to make the tutorial video for this stuff in relation to creating DS or DS adjacent material. I'm thinking about possibly doing separate videos and covering some other topics about tracking... let me know if there's any specific thing you'd like covered.

I'll be using Schismtracker for the tutorial and will upload the .it file with the video so people can play around with it or add to it.

Thanks!

[crystallogic13]

Arilius you could try to make/create some playlists in your good channel, I see you have none so for example you could create these new tutorial videos in a playlist "xyz" then the gems you discover on playlist "yzx" and so on Maybe you already have thought of it, but anyway just wanted to mention it As always great and thankful for the work you're making for all of us unearthing/digging these gems !!

p.s. I'm not a musician but if I have any plans to create some RPG sounding stuff at some point, only tracker software which is programmable is what I'll look for so I'll certainly watch them and try to apply at some point Regards!!

[arillius]

Thanks for the input Mr. Manilla Road.

I do have plans for playlists on that YouTube channel, if people care. I haven't been doing a good job promoting it or using hash tags or anything; just been posting updates here on this forum. There is a multitude of things I can do to make that channel better, lol. It's pretty bare bones.

This, I think, will be on my music page. I'm hoping it will make sense and people take an interest in this stuff. In a world where midi controllers and plugins are what everyone uses now, I feel that mod trackers are kind of forgotten. There's a lot of uniqueness with this, which can't be replicated with midi, no matter what anyone has said to me online whenever I talk about this.

[freknur]

Hey arillius,
I would be totally happy about a tutorial on tracker. I've tried to get into renoise a few times, but never really had the time. Maybe your tutorial would give me new energy to deal with it, especially if it takes reference to DS.

[madrayken]

Hi! (First post!) I'm writing a retro RPG (after making AAA RPGs for too damned long) and have been writing all my tunes using MilkyTracker and find its parallel view of all tracks and all voices *very* useful for simple counterpoint-style composition. If anyone wants any help of tips, please let me know!

soundcloud.com/madrayken/dungeon01-1
soundcloud.com/madrayken/titlescreen

- Madrayken

P.S. Also, if I've done this the wrong way and there's a more appropriate way to share this stuff, please let me know! I'm new at this, so I'm sure I'm going to mess up somewhere...

[aurgelmir]

Hey, all, first post here. I'm glad to see trackers being discussed. Got interested in the .mod scene in the late 90s, started making music with Impulse Tracker in the early 00s. I worked overnights at a gas station and hauled an entire desktop PC in with me each night to work on music during the down time (which was most of the time). Started with hardcore techno and jungle music.

Been using ModPlug for a while now, running in Impulse Trackker emulation mode. It has emulations for several popular trackers and is lightweight. Can't recommend it enough. openmpt.org/

Recently revamped my DS alias Bandcamp and only has one more ambient/experimental song there which doesn't really showcase what a tracker can do. I'll be sharing some of my works in DS on ModPlug as I finish them up.

Just makes the old heart happy to see this scene getting some love.

[freknur]

I have now made my first dungeon synth track with the Renoise tracker. I now understand the basics of the program, but I still need to get to grips with the finer points. I think for sample-based music, trackers are the way to go (at least I get along better with the samples here than in other DAWs). The basis for the track are the two awesome Dungeon Synth Sample Packs from Erang.

[arillius]

Excellent stuff everyone. 
Great track, Freknur. I love the sample packs Erang has put out. Do you have plans to make your own samples or try to scour the internet for more samples? Also, apologies on never uploading a tutorial. I may be doing a live one soon on the Northeast Dungeon Siege channel in July. I suppose I should stop dragging the feet on it but by the looks of it, you don't need one!

Please, please keep the DS made with trackers coming. I just find it refreshing for some reason.
Renoise seems like the most modern and comprehensive tracker; I'm just not sure the learning curve associated with it. All trackers have a small learning curve but once one gets beyond that, the sky is the limit.

I'm taking a short break from making DS for my main project but am still tracking music and even picked up a Polyend Tracker (which is amazing!).
This is not DS by any means, but here is an Amiga-Mod inspired 4 channel module I finished the other day. The song and samples are under 200kb, simply because they're all old, dated, 90s samples.

[arillius]

As corny as this is, I'm just going to go out and say it:

I would love to see a DS compilation of tracks from artists who used trackers to create the music.

We are in the minority in a world where VSTs have taken over (yeah they're cool too, don't get me wrong.)
But sample-based composition is unique and sounds different to me, and allows for different technique and approach.

[freknur]

Thank you arillius. I really like the track you posted. It reminds me of the games I used to play on my dad's computer in the 90s.

First I would scour the internet for samples, or I have, but haven't found anything that really satisfies me yet. Do you happen to have any tips where I could look for samples that match Dungeon Synth? I have to say that Erang's sample packs are also sufficient for now.

I won't dare to create my own samples for the time being. I feel like I'd be opening up a whole new can of worms that I don't really have time for at the moment. But I will definitely look into it at some point, because I find it interesting in any case!

I'd be happy to see some sort of tutorial from you on mod trackers at some point, but please don't stress. I'll get it done with a little training and being proactive.

I think I'll stick with trackers for my music production for now. I find the whole subject very fascinating at the moment. I just need to find the program that suits me. I find Renoise very cluttered at the moment. In contrast, I've found some trackers that emulate old Amiga(?) trackers and only use a certain type of samples, which must also not be too large. For this, again, I would have to delve into topics I don't have time for. As an in-between thing I have now come across OpenMPT, which I will try out next.

By the way, I wouldn't find a tracker dungeon synth compilation corny at all!