Which Tracker to use

Deth good · Post by **Deth good** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:48 pm

Hello,

I've made this nice little scramble remake. When you have the time, please check it out and tell me how it runs on your system.

Now I want to put some music in the game and I saw that it is possible to use modules. I don't have any experience with modules but I read that you have to get a Tracker.

My question is: What's the best and easy to use Tracker?

Thanks!

Trond · Post by **Trond** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:51 pm

You only need a tracker if you want to make the modules. You don't need it to simply use the modules. And trackers takes some time getting used to.

Deth good · Post by **Deth good** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:05 pm

Thanks for the reply,

Yes I want to make the music/modules but, like I said I don't have any experience with these 'Trackers'. So I like to try one out and when it turns out that it's to hard then I will use OGG instead.

Best regards,

traumatic · Post by **traumatic** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:16 pm

Wikipedia offers quite a good overview:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackers

Apart from tracked music just not being of any big use nowadays,
my personal recommendation would be Fasttracker, Impulsetracker
or any of the newer incarnations, like Buzz or MadTracker.

They all do work the same so it's mostly a matter of personal preference
and the engine you're about to use in order to play the tracked music
later on in your program.
The classic .mod-Format for instance is being played by every player,
.xm (Fasttracker) or .it (Impulsetracker) are different (more channels,
more effect-instructions, etc.).

Once you know how to track, it doesn't really matter what tracker you're
using.

Deth good · Post by **Deth good** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:22 pm

Thanks a lot!

I will check them out now.

Hatonastick · Post by **Hatonastick** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 6:19 am

Modplug Tracker. I believe there is now an opensource version.

KarLKoX · Post by **KarLKoX** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 12:07 pm

Why not using a modular soundtracker ? Oldschools soundtrackers were very good but now, we could do much without breaking the compatibility with the old ones.
What is a modular soundtracker ? Keep the gui/layout of old soundtrackers and add vst/vsti plugins support, better sound rendering, more midi control, more effect, kickass filter (lpf, hpf, biquad and so on ...), asio/dsound, better resampling (fir, polyphase, spline ...) ...
Just to name a few :

- Psycle : this is the one i use, very easy to use when the concept is understood, it will have a very good module import soon through sampulse (a native plugin),
- Buzz : the father of modular soundtrackers, i don't like it's sequencing mecanism but buzz machines are very goods !
- Skale : a copy of Fastracker (at least, it's spirit), well programming and rock solid stable, it also works with linux,
- Renoise : the dark side of Skale, it is the "same" thing but you will have to pay to get advances feature ...,
- Buzzle : a wip project wich is meant to be a buzz replacement with the better sound ever heard and a lot of other things,
- BeroTracker : not very popular but a very good piece of tracker, it is something like modplug tracker but with a very good sound reproduction (at least with modules).

Hope this helps.

Post by **Dare2** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:04 pm

Hi KarLKoX,

If you're using Psycle that is all the recommendation I need. Or would you recommend another of those as a beginner's piece and Psycle later?

Thanks!

KarLKoX · Post by **KarLKoX** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:59 pm

Hi

Psycle is very easy to use, the basic concept is just to interconnect module between each other using the SHIFT + LEFT MOUSE to a gear (wich can be a vst(i), native plugin), after that, another thing to know is the tweak command wich is only a command effect telling Psycle to move the knob number x to the value y of the z gear.
If you know that, you know how Psycle works

va!n · Post by **va!n** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 5:31 pm

may favourite PC tracker is still MadTracker !!

Tranquil · Post by **Tranquil** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 6:00 pm

RENOISE! + VSTi! ROXX! No more samples needed. This is the way of creating music.

the.weavster · Post by **the.weavster** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 6:46 pm

It amazes me how much interest there still is in trackers. I would have thought programs like Orion, FruityLoops and Making Waves would have killed them off.

There is something quite hypnotic about watching the patterns fly by on the screen, especially with a really good-looking tracker like Renoise. I think I enjoy that more than the music...

Psychophanta · Post by **Psychophanta** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 9:37 pm

Ohhh!, I stoled lots of coins of my mom's bag to play Scramble :roll:
I was a blind vicious with that Arcade game!

By the way of trackers, i strongly advise ModPlug, it is totally free and it catch all the Karsten Obarsky brothers and clones: SoundTracker, Impulse Tracker, FastTracker, etc.
You must pay to use some Psycle features, but ModPlug is easy, simple, totally free, and veeeeery powerful.

KarLKoX · Post by **KarLKoX** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 11:28 pm

Psycle is totally free, better, it is under GNU GPL.
I don't like the view of Modplug Tracker, it is so much "a la windows" and break MOD/S3M/XM/IT by adding it's own feature like stereo samples and others things.

Psychophanta · Post by **Psychophanta** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 11:32 pm

KarLKoX wrote:Psycle is totally free, better, it is under GNU GPL.

I tried to use it, but it needs VST plugins which are not free.

KarLKoX wrote:I don't like the view of Modplug Tracker, it is so much "a la windows" and break MOD/S3M/XM/IT by adding it's own feature like stereo samples and others things.

Because it improves a lot