Autechre trackers

[o00o]

trackers won't improve one's ability to make dope beats

 

not the ability but the possibilty

[ten fingers ten toes]

the cool mrx way: change the finetuning/ basenote until the loop syncs with the rest of the track

 

LOL that's the oldschool "god fucking damnit" way. Used to have to type that shit in by hand. In hex. Oi...

[mcbpete]

LOL that's the oldschool "god fucking damnit" way. Used to have to type that shit in by hand. In hex. Oi...

Yep, classic days. Nowadays I can't even remember how I did it in Fast Tracker, I just use C#5 11 40 on a Matilde Tracker pattern in Buzz to fit it into a 64 pattern length loop. Cuh, takes the fun out of it !

[ten fingers ten toes]

LOL that's the oldschool "god fucking damnit" way. Used to have to type that shit in by hand. In hex. Oi...

Yep, classic days. Nowadays I can't even remember how I did it in Fast Tracker, I just use C#5 11 40 on a Matilde Tracker pattern in Buzz to fit it into a 64 pattern length loop. Cuh, takes the fun out of it !

 

Hah, yah I guess it kind does. In Impulse Tracker you'd have the same on your f3 page and you'd have a little box of hex for a "finetune" value. You'd take a blank pattern, then play around with whole notes until you got to something close to where the loop point was, then you'd leave it looping, go over to your f3 page, and start editing the finetuning number by hand. This sounds really elite and all but fuck that shit! Sync to 64, thanks!

 

Although if you're just starting out on trackers and you aren't using hex and typing everything in you're a fucking puss who didn't do it the right way!

[acid1]

0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,a,b,c,d,e,f,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,1

9,1a,1b,1c,1d,1e,1f,20,21,22....

 

Hex isn't brain surgury guys come on

[Chris Moss Acid]

my opinion i think trackers are best for sidtype music and gabba/Drilln'bass

 

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 30 048

D#3 2 20 048

D#3 2 10 048

 

 

drill Nbasss

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

 

 

2.1

---

Already when choosing the samples for a chiptune the quality of your finished chiptune is set. In spite of the fact that chipsamples are very small, each of them has its own timbre, so select them with care.

 

There are various possibities of attaining chip samples:

 

1. Ripping from "normal" wave files

Using a wave editor (e.g. CoolEdit, Goldwave, etc.) you can remove very short snippets from audio files. While doing this, pay attention to always only cutting out one "waveform". (Most sounds possess a characteristical waveform which repeats itself all the time. In the case of naturally created sound that waveform changes all the time, of course, but basic characteristics remain the same.)

While cutting out the waveform, you should also try to make beginning and end of the waveform have the same horizontal value (preferably one of 0).

 

2. Creating sounds by yourself

With the help of soft synths, self-written software (you can even use QBASIC for that) or an audio editor which allows drawing waveforms "freehand" you can create waveforms suitable for all your chippy needs. Please notice that when you draw them that you should keep them either at the same length or at lengths that are multiples of each other. I.e. you can make sure that all your hand-drawn samples are perfectly tuned by tweaking their length to 8, 16, 32, 64 etc.

Some people even prefer to create chipsounds by typing some words into notepad. You can then open the file as a normal wave file with your tracker.

A thing that you might want to take care of is the DC offset of your chiptune. DC offset is what the 0-crossing of your sample is called (the middle of any wave, horizontally). In some samples, this middle is shifted upwards or downwards, and in general this is said to be detrimental to sound quality. There are various audio editors available which can fix this problem.

 

2.2 Chipsounds and their Characteristics

----------------------------------------

Chipsounds that you can easily create using the aforementioned ways are:

 

Sine-Wave:

Highly versatile, but don't overuse it. Good for subbasses, soft lead sounds or high, shining bells. Looks like the sine function that I am sure you know from maths.

 

Saw-Wave:

Has got a kind of raspy sound, a good choice for basses. Looks roughly like a saw:

 

| | | | | |

| | | | | |

| | | | | |

 

Triangle:

Comprises features of sine and saw-wave. Looks like this:

 

/ / /

/ / /

/ / /

 

Square-Wave:

A good choice for leads and great for detuning.

 

___ ___ ___

| | | | | |

| | | | | |

|___| |___| |___|

 

A few more words on the waves themselves. I'd like to draw your attention especially to the following: You can not use all chip samples for all the pitches that there are (just as the case with non-chip samples)! Each chip wave has got its individual sound and has to be used accordingly. Here you'll need to experiment from time to time - for example, playing chip waves at unusually high pitches can yield surprising results.

 

Another thing which is incredibly important is that you should use as many different chipwaves as possible in your chiptune. This is because the same chipwave, played at different pitches at the same time, will naturally interfere with itself and cause unwanted side effects. Additionally, chiptunes are already minimalistic enough, so try to bring some contrast into it by using many different timbres.

 

 

2.3 Drum Samples in Chiptunes

-----------------------------

In principle, everything is allowed. Of course, a classical chiptune needs short samples with a small file size. In order to create those yourself, just take normal drum samples, cut out parts of them that you think are unnecessary, and lower the sample quality if you like (this will not also make the drums sound like they were created in 1988, it will also remove high pitches which tend to be unneeded in chip drums).

 

 

3. Mixing

---------

As in any other tune, try to have your chipsounds cover as many pitches as possible, i.e. have a bass line, a high lead, some chords in between, or however you like it, just make sure you create a "full" sound. (I'm not saying that you have to do it this way. But it's just the easiest approach to creating a pleasant mixing.) Some old tracking tutorials say that you should try to use as few channels as possible, or at least try to erase anything remotely unneeded from your track. This might have been true in the days when those tutorials were written, the mixing quality being 8-bit and 22.1 khz.

 

But these are the days of 32-bit mixing, so you will not have to worry about quality decreases anymore. Moreover, when making "newschool" chiptunes you are more of an engineer actually, having 64 channels at his/her disposal to synthesize the best sounds possible. And notice: Chipsounds are weak, they cannot be played alone. So, try to avoid doing that too often.

 

4. Techniques

-------------

 

4.1 Layering-techniques

 

4.1.1 Detuning

 

The easiest way to make a simple chipwave sound better is playing it on 2 channels at the same time, having the two waves slightly detuned (you will have to figure out yourself how much "slightly" actually means:). Using this technique, you can achieve a very "fat", C64-like bass sound and basically improve any kind of dull-sounding lead.

 

There are two ways of realizing this technique:

 

a) Load the sample a second time, and change its playback speed (i.e., change the hertz rate). Then, just have the melody to be detuned run in two channels, using the two detuned waves.

 

b) Just copy your channel to another channel, and add fine volume slide up/down to one of those channels, like:

 

1 2

|C-5 01 64 FF1|C-5 01 64 000|

 

Please notice that this technique is not as clean as the other one. The moment the wave starts playing, it is not detuned yet. Also, this technique might get you into a mess when using pitch slides (Gxx) (you will have to enter the effect again after this, and also each time the wave is retriggered). One last point against this technique is that you cannot finetune the amount you detune your wave so exactly with it.

 

4.1.2 Octave-Layering

 

You can make a wave sound more full by playing it on two different octaves at the same time.

 

4.1.3 Layering different waves

 

Have two different chipwaves play exactly the same melody - it can yield interesting results.

 

4.1.4 Echo

 

Echoes are one of the most important means of giving chiptunes (and tracked tunes in general) more depth. Use them on especially on leads and wherever they seem to sound well. Echoes are easy to do: Just copy the channel to be echoed into a 2nd channel, shifting the content some lines downward. The contents of this echo-channel need to be less loud, of course - you can decrease this channel's volume either by using the Mxx-command (channel volume, only in Impulse Tracker) or by selecting the whole channel and pressing alternate-j (automatic volume adjustment). To my experience, using the Mxx command has proven to be more precise (after all, there are also volume slides, left completely untouched by the alt-j command), but also more confusing since sometimes one forgets to reset channel volumes. If you're somehow limited in your usage of channels or if you want to save disk space, you might want to put an echo, or even more of them, into the same channel that the lead is being played in.

 

4.2 Envelope Techniques

-----------------------

Envelopes are - at least for me - an essential tool when creating chiptunes. Do not neglect them!

 

4.2.1 About using envelopes

 

Volume envelopes can help you imitate the behaviour of real instruments, for example a piano:

 

 

 

_______

______

 

 

As you see, a piano starts at a high volume which decreases quickly and fades out slowly.

 

This envelope is fine for background chords:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starts at a high volume and fades out quickly.

 

An envelope for a constant background sound:

 

___-___

_/ _

/

 

An envelope which slowly fades in and out.

 

Next time you use a volume slide command, think twice about whether an envelope might have been more helpful!

 

4.2.2 The "Supersine-Technique"

 

Ok, I admit it, I coined that term. This technique has been in use for a while by various artists.

 

It's done like this: Take a sine wave (or a similar-sounding one). Create an instrument for it with an envelope looking like this:

 

 

/

*___/____/ ___/__*

 

The * signs stand for loops points. It might look a bit weird here, and you do not need to do it exactly like this, of course. Set "Continue Playing" or "Note Fade" as a Note-Off action, and you're set. You can use this instrument as some kind of background bell. In case you're using Fast Tracker or some other program not supporting advanced note off commands, you can try to emulate them by just using more channels, e.g. like this:

 

Channel: 1 2 3

c-4 ... ...

... e-4 ...

... ... g-4

 

4.2.3 The "Superpad-Technique"

 

This technique was probably invented by Reduz/Fromage, at least I heard someone from Fromage say that :)

 

It works this way: Create a volume envelope which slowly fades out the sample on note-off, or switch the note-off action to volume fade. Now try something like this:

 

c-5 01 .. Z50 e-5 01 .. Z52 g-5 01 .. Z54 b-5 01 .. Z56 c-5 01 .. Z58 e-5 01 .. Z5A g-5 01 .. Z5C b-5 01 .. Z5E

 

This is supposed to emulate a filter-sweeped pad chord.

 

4.2.4 Annotations

 

To my experience, you should not work too much with envelopes when making leads. Instead, try to use the techniques described below. (Some people would disagree on this, though. There are quite a few who work with note off to "switch off" their leads).

 

4.3 Melodies

------------

In today's music, melodies are still (imho!) the most important element of music, and that's why you will want to make your lead as expressive and virtuous as possible.

 

4.3.1 Rhythmic Leads

 

If you want to make a very rhythmic lead, use an abundance of note-off or volume commands, e.g. like this:

 

C-5 01 .. ...

^^^ .. .. ...

D-5 01 .. ...

... .. .. ...

^^^ .. .. ... (instead of a note cut, you could also have entered a

... .. .. ... very low volume, which would have made your lead a bit

E-5 .. .. ... softer though)

 

4.3.2 Lyrical Leads

 

If you want your lead more to sound like a human voice singing or in general something softer, you will have to use various effects:

 

Gxx - Tone Portamento (Slide to Pitch) with speed xx.

This effect slides the pitch to the note you designated with a speed of xx. Try using small values for xx if you want those wonderful slow oldschool pitch slides.

 

Hxy - Vibrato with Speed x and Depth y

An important way to accent your leads. Use them in places where the tone has been playing relatively long already or if a dramatical part is just ahead. Another fun thing you can try is just having the effect on your sample all the time (you can either do this manually or select it in the sample screen)

 

Uxy - Same as Hxy, but weaker. It is especially of use if you want to do chiptunes in an old format (e.g. MOD) where only "Amiga pitch slides" are supported. I do not want to into detail here, but Amiga pitch slides are not too sensitive, so you'll need Uxy probably.

 

Kxy - Want to fade out your lead and have some vibrato on it at the same time? This is how. Works like Dxy, except that it executes Hxy with the values from the last Hxy command that was set.

 

Exx/Fxx - Portamento (pitch slide) Up/Down

You can do various things with this, and sometimes you will need to experiment. However there is one trick which is easy to apply:

In some places, just before a lead place a new tone, enter some Exx commands with a relatively high value for xx. Even if you might not be able to imagine what this sounds like, it yields quite a cool effects, especially with echoes, and you should really try it out. Just because it fits in with this effect, here is another trick that you can do using fast slides down:

 

C-7 01 .. E40

^^^ .. .. ...

 

Try this is out with an appropriate waveform, and it'll sound like a drum.

 

4.4 Rhythm Techniques

---------------------

Give your track a funky swing rhythm by changing the speed all the time, like this:

 

1 A07

2 ...

3 A04

4 ...

1 A07

2 ...

3 A04

4 ...

 

(Axx is the Frames per Row Command and determines how many internal steps (frames) the tracking program makes per row, and hence determines the speed. Theoretically you could also use Txx, but Axx is firstly more practical as it clearly shows number relations (e.g. 8 - 4 is your typical triolic swing rhythm, while findin

[Guest mrx]

in my opinion i think trackers are best for all types of music

[Chris Moss Acid]

in my opinion i think trackers are best for all types of music

 

but thats your opinion.

 

:shade:

[Guest dnoyes]

my opinion i think trackers are best for sidtype music and gabba/Drilln'bass

 

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 40 048

D#3 2 30 048

D#3 2 20 048

D#3 2 10 048

 

 

drill Nbasss

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

 

 

2.1

---

Already when choosing the samples for a chiptune the quality of your finished chiptune is set. In spite of the fact that chipsamples are very small, each of them has its own timbre, so select them with care.

 

There are various possibities of attaining chip samples:

 

1. Ripping from "normal" wave files

Using a wave editor (e.g. CoolEdit, Goldwave, etc.) you can remove very short snippets from audio files. While doing this, pay attention to always only cutting out one "waveform". (Most sounds possess a characteristical waveform which repeats itself all the time. In the case of naturally created sound that waveform changes all the time, of course, but basic characteristics remain the same.)

While cutting out the waveform, you should also try to make beginning and end of the waveform have the same horizontal value (preferably one of 0).

 

2. Creating sounds by yourself

With the help of soft synths, self-written software (you can even use QBASIC for that) or an audio editor which allows drawing waveforms "freehand" you can create waveforms suitable for all your chippy needs. Please notice that when you draw them that you should keep them either at the same length or at lengths that are multiples of each other. I.e. you can make sure that all your hand-drawn samples are perfectly tuned by tweaking their length to 8, 16, 32, 64 etc.

Some people even prefer to create chipsounds by typing some words into notepad. You can then open the file as a normal wave file with your tracker.

A thing that you might want to take care of is the DC offset of your chiptune. DC offset is what the 0-crossing of your sample is called (the middle of any wave, horizontally). In some samples, this middle is shifted upwards or downwards, and in general this is said to be detrimental to sound quality. There are various audio editors available which can fix this problem.

 

2.2 Chipsounds and their Characteristics

----------------------------------------

Chipsounds that you can easily create using the aforementioned ways are:

 

Sine-Wave:

Highly versatile, but don't overuse it. Good for subbasses, soft lead sounds or high, shining bells. Looks like the sine function that I am sure you know from maths.

 

Saw-Wave:

Has got a kind of raspy sound, a good choice for basses. Looks roughly like a saw:

 

| | | | | |

| | | | | |

| | | | | |

 

Triangle:

Comprises features of sine and saw-wave. Looks like this:

 

/ / /

/ / /

/ / /

 

Square-Wave:

A good choice for leads and great for detuning.

 

___ ___ ___

| | | | | |

| | | | | |

|___| |___| |___|

 

A few more words on the waves themselves. I'd like to draw your attention especially to the following: You can not use all chip samples for all the pitches that there are (just as the case with non-chip samples)! Each chip wave has got its individual sound and has to be used accordingly. Here you'll need to experiment from time to time - for example, playing chip waves at unusually high pitches can yield surprising results.

 

Another thing which is incredibly important is that you should use as many different chipwaves as possible in your chiptune. This is because the same chipwave, played at different pitches at the same time, will naturally interfere with itself and cause unwanted side effects. Additionally, chiptunes are already minimalistic enough, so try to bring some contrast into it by using many different timbres.

 

 

2.3 Drum Samples in Chiptunes

-----------------------------

In principle, everything is allowed. Of course, a classical chiptune needs short samples with a small file size. In order to create those yourself, just take normal drum samples, cut out parts of them that you think are unnecessary, and lower the sample quality if you like (this will not also make the drums sound like they were created in 1988, it will also remove high pitches which tend to be unneeded in chip drums).

 

 

3. Mixing

---------

As in any other tune, try to have your chipsounds cover as many pitches as possible, i.e. have a bass line, a high lead, some chords in between, or however you like it, just make sure you create a "full" sound. (I'm not saying that you have to do it this way. But it's just the easiest approach to creating a pleasant mixing.) Some old tracking tutorials say that you should try to use as few channels as possible, or at least try to erase anything remotely unneeded from your track. This might have been true in the days when those tutorials were written, the mixing quality being 8-bit and 22.1 khz.

 

But these are the days of 32-bit mixing, so you will not have to worry about quality decreases anymore. Moreover, when making "newschool" chiptunes you are more of an engineer actually, having 64 channels at his/her disposal to synthesize the best sounds possible. And notice: Chipsounds are weak, they cannot be played alone. So, try to avoid doing that too often.

 

4. Techniques

-------------

 

4.1 Layering-techniques

 

4.1.1 Detuning

 

The easiest way to make a simple chipwave sound better is playing it on 2 channels at the same time, having the two waves slightly detuned (you will have to figure out yourself how much "slightly" actually means:). Using this technique, you can achieve a very "fat", C64-like bass sound and basically improve any kind of dull-sounding lead.

 

There are two ways of realizing this technique:

 

a) Load the sample a second time, and change its playback speed (i.e., change the hertz rate). Then, just have the melody to be detuned run in two channels, using the two detuned waves.

 

b) Just copy your channel to another channel, and add fine volume slide up/down to one of those channels, like:

 

1 2

|C-5 01 64 FF1|C-5 01 64 000|

 

Please notice that this technique is not as clean as the other one. The moment the wave starts playing, it is not detuned yet. Also, this technique might get you into a mess when using pitch slides (Gxx) (you will have to enter the effect again after this, and also each time the wave is retriggered). One last point against this technique is that you cannot finetune the amount you detune your wave so exactly with it.

 

4.1.2 Octave-Layering

 

You can make a wave sound more full by playing it on two different octaves at the same time.

 

4.1.3 Layering different waves

 

Have two different chipwaves play exactly the same melody - it can yield interesting results.

 

4.1.4 Echo

 

Echoes are one of the most important means of giving chiptunes (and tracked tunes in general) more depth. Use them on especially on leads and wherever they seem to sound well. Echoes are easy to do: Just copy the channel to be echoed into a 2nd channel, shifting the content some lines downward. The contents of this echo-channel need to be less loud, of course - you can decrease this channel's volume either by using the Mxx-command (channel volume, only in Impulse Tracker) or by selecting the whole channel and pressing alternate-j (automatic volume adjustment). To my experience, using the Mxx command has proven to be more precise (after all, there are also volume slides, left completely untouched by the alt-j command), but also more confusing since sometimes one forgets to reset channel volumes. If you're somehow limited in your usage of channels or if you want to save disk space, you might want to put an echo, or even more of them, into the same channel that the lead is being played in.

 

4.2 Envelope Techniques

-----------------------

Envelopes are - at least for me - an essential tool when creating chiptunes. Do not neglect them!

 

4.2.1 About using envelopes

 

Volume envelopes can help you imitate the behaviour of real instruments, for example a piano:

 

 

 

_______

______

 

 

As you see, a piano starts at a high volume which decreases quickly and fades out slowly.

 

This envelope is fine for background chords:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starts at a high volume and fades out quickly.

 

An envelope for a constant background sound:

 

___-___

_/ _

/

 

An envelope which slowly fades in and out.

 

Next time you use a volume slide command, think twice about whether an envelope might have been more helpful!

 

4.2.2 The "Supersine-Technique"

 

Ok, I admit it, I coined that term. This technique has been in use for a while by various artists.

 

It's done like this: Take a sine wave (or a similar-sounding one). Create an instrument for it with an envelope looking like this:

 

 

/

*___/____/ ___/__*

 

The * signs stand for loops points. It might look a bit weird here, and you do not need to do it exactly like this, of course. Set "Continue Playing" or "Note Fade" as a Note-Off action, and you're set. You can use this instrument as some kind of background bell. In case you're using Fast Tracker or some other program not supporting advanced note off commands, you can try to emulate them by just using more channels, e.g. like this:

 

Channel: 1 2 3

c-4 ... ...

... e-4 ...

... ... g-4

 

4.2.3 The "Superpad-Technique"

 

This technique was probably invented by Reduz/Fromage, at least I heard someone from Fromage say that :)

 

It works this way: Create a volume envelope which slowly fades out the sample on note-off, or switch the note-off action to volume fade. Now try something like this:

 

c-5 01 .. Z50 e-5 01 .. Z52 g-5 01 .. Z54 b-5 01 .. Z56 c-5 01 .. Z58 e-5 01 .. Z5A g-5 01 .. Z5C b-5 01 .. Z5E

 

This is supposed to emulate a filter-sweeped pad chord.

 

4.2.4 Annotations

 

To my experience, you should not work too much with envelopes when making leads. Instead, try to use the techniques described below. (Some people would disagree on this, though. There are quite a few who work with note off to "switch off" their leads).

 

4.3 Melodies

------------

In today's music, melodies are still (imho!) the most important element of music, and that's why you will want to make your lead as expressive and virtuous as possible.

 

4.3.1 Rhythmic Leads

 

If you want to make a very rhythmic lead, use an abundance of note-off or volume commands, e.g. like this:

 

C-5 01 .. ...

^^^ .. .. ...

D-5 01 .. ...

... .. .. ...

^^^ .. .. ... (instead of a note cut, you could also have entered a

... .. .. ... very low volume, which would have made your lead a bit

E-5 .. .. ... softer though)

 

4.3.2 Lyrical Leads

 

If you want your lead more to sound like a human voice singing or in general something softer, you will have to use various effects:

 

Gxx - Tone Portamento (Slide to Pitch) with speed xx.

This effect slides the pitch to the note you designated with a speed of xx. Try using small values for xx if you want those wonderful slow oldschool pitch slides.

 

Hxy - Vibrato with Speed x and Depth y

An important way to accent your leads. Use them in places where the tone has been playing relatively long already or if a dramatical part is just ahead. Another fun thing you can try is just having the effect on your sample all the time (you can either do this manually or select it in the sample screen)

 

Uxy - Same as Hxy, but weaker. It is especially of use if you want to do chiptunes in an old format (e.g. MOD) where only "Amiga pitch slides" are supported. I do not want to into detail here, but Amiga pitch slides are not too sensitive, so you'll need Uxy probably.

 

Kxy - Want to fade out your lead and have some vibrato on it at the same time? This is how. Works like Dxy, except that it executes Hxy with the values from the last Hxy command that was set.

 

Exx/Fxx - Portamento (pitch slide) Up/Down

You can do various things with this, and sometimes you will need to experiment. However there is one trick which is easy to apply:

In some places, just before a lead place a new tone, enter some Exx commands with a relatively high value for xx. Even if you might not be able to imagine what this sounds like, it yields quite a cool effects, especially with echoes, and you should really try it out. Just because it fits in with this effect, here is another trick that you can do using fast slides down:

 

C-7 01 .. E40

^^^ .. .. ...

 

Try this is out with an appropriate waveform, and it'll sound like a drum.

 

4.4 Rhythm Techniques

---------------------

Give your track a funky swing rhythm by changing the speed all the time, like this:

 

1 A07

2 ...

3 A04

4 ...

1 A07

2 ...

3 A04

4 ...

 

(Axx is the Frames per Row Command and determines how many internal steps (frames) the tracking program makes per row, and hence determines the speed. Theoretically you could also use Txx, but Axx is firstly more practical as it clearly shows number relations (e.g. 8 - 4 is your typical triolic swing rhythm, while findin

 

 

 

now do a tutorial on drill & bass just like this one.. just kidding-sort of

[Guest Assembler]

great topic i was asking myself to switch to a tracker recently to improve my beats

 

wtf dude i totally thought that u were using t3h renoise for like always

 

editos: yeah fucking buzz is greatest. even if you're having a writer's block you can still play with it and do all kinds of stupid fucking trackz. in my previous setup i used to have weird anomalies which maed everything pretty random, possibly caused by overusing teh effects (yeah no ufos i'm sceince guy). still getting a goodenoughformainstreamrelease sound kuality is fuckin' hard and never really achived it. it's always fight to decide if use only n3ightiv-generators or fucking vst's.

 

saturn is pretty fuckiong amazing effect for everything. i soemtimes have boring pad, but coinnecting it toh sverb (crank up to long-ass reverbh) makes fucking awesomeness. im fucking drunk for summer solstice/jussi/juhannus but yeayh

 

edit 2: fuck i thought that my cellular is wibr8ing but it wasn't and thought that eta carinae exploded like 7500 ly ago

[Guest mrx]

great topic i was asking myself to switch to a tracker recently to improve my beats

 

wtf dude i totally thought that u were using t3h renoise for like always

 

lol, forgot to put quotes around that...I've been gay for renoise since version 1.2 i think

[Chris Moss Acid]

now do a tutorial on drill & bass just like this one.. just kidding-sort of

 

 

i dont do drill and bass..

 

[Guest tv_party]

now do a tutorial on drill & bass just like this one.. just kidding-sort of

 

Tempo 450, spd 3, chop break/amen into 1 bar pieces, lots of 09xx and 0Exx, 0B0x.

For tempo matching and maximum break modularity, chop all breaks uniform length, use the that tempo matching function set to 64 and put in a C note. Hit play. Adjust root key while turning the matching on and off til it's close or exact. Turn it off when you're done. Finer tweaks can be had in the pitch section.

Do that with all the breaks you have in the tune. That way you can drop different ones in or out just by changing an instrument number and they'll match.

[Celatid]

now do a tutorial on drill & bass just like this one.. just kidding-sort of

 

 

i dont do drill and bass..

 

yeah he does breakcore

[Chris Moss Acid]

no U do

[Guest panga]

i dunno - trackers detach you from the visual elements of waveforms - so you have to use your ears rather than eyes to line stuff up (unlike ableton or cubase). i mean, i use ableton everyday now... but im starting to get back into my trackers. I grew up on Buzz so i suppose im biased, but i tend to make weirder compositions on trackers than i do on software like albeton or sonar.

[Celatid]

no U do

well the highest bpm on my last release was 130 so i don't know what to say about this

[Chris Moss Acid]

no U do

well the highest bpm on my last release was 130 so i don't know what to say about this

thats too fast for breakcore.

 

anything below 115bpm isnt good

[Celatid]

no U do

well the highest bpm on my last release was 130 so i don't know what to say about this

thats too fast for breakcore.

 

anything below 115bpm isnt good

yeah you gotta hit that newschool 37bpm shit up m8

[kanarie]

First post! Hi all!

 

Anyway, trackers. Been using Buzz tracker since '98, so yeah, that's kinda my thing. The Machine view layout is very visual, but that's just to build the setup you're going to use. Entering notes is just like programming, nothing visual, just factual. I like that.

 

I guess the tracker/non-tracker question is simply a matter of preference. I remember when the Buzz scene was still alive, there was a discussion going on about whether it should be equipped with a more visually oriented (Cubase-like) interface. The idea didn't make it, and i didn't really care for it much. I've been using Cakewalk too, entering notes and drum tracks by clicking and dragging in a grid. I prefer entering data through KB, less chance to get RSI (not that i produce that much anyway, but still:) The only "fundamental" difference is the timing element. The midi-style timing is more flexible, the tracker-style is easier i guess.

 

After almost 10 yrs of using Buzz, and not having finished a track in 2 years now, i'm wondering whether i should try something else though.. Been looking at Reaktor, i'm dazzled by its possibilities, but the complexity scares me off a bit. And the alternative.. hardware..?

[Guest Adjective]

First post! Hi all!

 

Anyway, trackers. Been using Buzz tracker since '98, so yeah, that's kinda my thing. The Machine view layout is very visual, but that's just to build the setup you're going to use. Entering notes is just like programming, nothing visual, just factual. I like that.

 

I guess the tracker/non-tracker question is simply a matter of preference. I remember when the Buzz scene was still alive, there was a discussion going on about whether it should be equipped with a more visually oriented (Cubase-like) interface. The idea didn't make it, and i didn't really care for it much. I've been using Cakewalk too, entering notes and drum tracks by clicking and dragging in a grid. I prefer entering data through KB, less chance to get RSI (not that i produce that much anyway, but still:) The only "fundamental" difference is the timing element. The midi-style timing is more flexible, the tracker-style is easier i guess.

 

After almost 10 yrs of using Buzz, and not having finished a track in 2 years now, i'm wondering whether i should try something else though.. Been looking at Reaktor, i'm dazzled by its possibilities, but the complexity scares me off a bit. And the alternative.. hardware..?

well if you're having trouble finishing a track in a comfortable environment, then going deeper into making instruments from scratch probably isn't going to solve the problem (i'm assuming that's the point of reaktor, haven't used it in depth personally) . unless you're viewing the writer's block as an opportunity to focus on alternative aspects of music, then yeah go for it. i do agree though that a change of scenery can be helpful and inspiring. when a new environment suddenly clicks and flows in your head it can provide a great rush of ideas and enthusiasm.

[kanarie]

well if you're having trouble finishing a track in a comfortable environment, then going deeper into making instruments from scratch probably isn't going to solve the problem

 

Yeah that's exactly what worries me about reaktor too.

 

(i'm assuming that's the point of reaktor, haven't used it in depth personally) .

 

I guess most reaktor users just use the presets/ensembles out of the box and fiddle with them.

 

unless you're viewing the writer's block as an opportunity to focus on alternative aspects of music, then yeah go for it. i do agree though that a change of scenery can be helpful and inspiring. when a new environment suddenly clicks and flows in your head it can provide a great rush of ideas and enthusiasm.

 

Yes i'm looking for new concepts. Actually i've been trying to cook up a chaotic-oscillator synth (in Visual Basic :dizzy: ) but so far it's produced nothing more than a couple of .wavs with some noisy high-pitched harmonics. Reaktor could be a nice environment to play in with this kind of stuff in real-time. Otoh, it's far from having anything to do with making music.. and that's what it was all about i guess.

[Guest panga]

Yes i'm looking for new concepts. Actually i've been trying to cook up a chaotic-oscillator synth (in Visual Basic :dizzy: ) but so far it's produced nothing more than a couple of .wavs with some noisy high-pitched harmonics. Reaktor could be a nice environment to play in with this kind of stuff in real-time. Otoh, it's far from having anything to do with making music.. and that's what it was all about i guess.

 

If youre frustrated that you cant get decent sounds out of sw synths, then hardcoding them can get some mental results (ive done DirectSound with C++ in the past - got some strange sounds :P) failing that SynthEdits always fun - ive not really played that much with it though, and ive heard some people slagging off its interpolation and sound quality (something that Buzz always suffered from too, imo)

 

Reaktor is definatly worth a purchase too...

[kanarie]

If youre frustrated that you cant get decent sounds out of sw synths, then hardcoding them can get some mental results (ive done DirectSound with C++ in the past - got some strange sounds :P)

 

sounds like fun :)

 

failing that SynthEdits always fun - ive not really played that much with it though,

 

interesting, never bumped into that! Bit of a shame that it will only run on xp, as i'm desperately clinging to 98... ah well, should let go of that sometime soon anyway i guess.. and with a flip of a switch i'm booting xp, so i'll give it a try for shure.

 

and ive heard some people slagging off its interpolation and sound quality (something that Buzz always suffered from too, imo)

 

That's more a matter of bad plugin coding than sound quality limits of Buzz itself, which has decent internal sound processing. It's hard to make most synths in Buzz sound warm, but using the right effects and mastering properly, it can surely be done. It's just that the mastering can be a bit tedious if you just wanna make music.. My hunch is that in a lot of software products, a bit of compression/limiting is built-in, giving a better sounding mix instantly.

 

Reaktor is definatly worth a purchase too...

 

probably, but i'm afraid of wasting money on a piece of marvellous software that will just collect dust on my HDD.

[Guest Adjective]

for making vsts there is also http://synthmaker.co.uk