What are the best amiga music tracker?

[lordofchaos]

The best? Hmmm. Your mileage may vary I guess. For me personally it's Octamed Pro V4.0, it's so damn stable, versatile, easy to exploit, with some nice little tricks that can be used for unique sounds..

I think for most people it's usually the one you click with.

[pink^abyss]

Originally Posted by h0ffman

Not sure that's the right term to use here. Protracker allows you to hit notes which are in the dodgy upper frequency range where the dma starts dropping. So it's hitting the maximum the amiga
can do already. That is unless you've got some trick to push more dma out?

PreTracker uses a software trick. It automatically changes samples resolution to fit on the highest octave. Imagine playing a bassline in ProTracker on note A2 and A3. A2 will sound worse, because it only plays with half the sample rate. In PreTracker you can pitch down your basenote and play on note A3 and A4. A4 is only virtual, its still A3 but the sample is different. So you get always highest samplerate. That's the reason PreTracker instruments can sound much cleaner then what you are used to on Amiga. Of course, the musician can choose to play on the low octaves too, and get the usual aliased sound if he wants that.

[no9]

In Protracker you just use multiple samples per instrument and play C3+ notes when you need to avoid aliasing. Very nice it is automated in PreTracker but nothing "unheard on Amiga".


For the topic, I vote for Protracker 2.x.

[A500]

I'm really interested in Pretracker but having only made music with Protracker & samples so far (and some with SID), I have to say it's a bit of a steep climb to understand how to create sounds with it. Haven't found any tutorials yet so I guess it's time for more experimentation

[h0ffman]

Originally Posted by pink^abyss

PreTracker uses a software trick. It automatically changes samples resolution to fit on the highest octave. Imagine playing a bassline in ProTracker on note A2 and A3. A2 will sound worse, because it only plays with half the sample rate. In PreTracker you can pitch down your basenote and play on note A3 and A4. A4 is only virtual, its still A3 but the sample is different. So you get always highest samplerate. That's the reason PreTracker instruments can sound much cleaner then what you are used to on Amiga. Of course, the musician can choose to play on the low octaves too, and get the usual aliased sound if he wants that.

Ahh OK. Clever trick.

[pink^abyss]

Originally Posted by A500

I'm really interested in Pretracker but having only made music with Protracker & samples so far (and some with SID), I have to say it's a bit of a steep climb to understand how to create sounds with it. Haven't found any tutorials yet so I guess it's time for more experimentation

Yeah, some good tutorials would certainly help.
In general the instrument creation in PreTracker is twofold:

1. You need to create a wave (Press on the "Instruments button", then press one of the 31 wave buttons. For instance '3'. You now edit wave '3').
These waves are the building blocks of your instruments. A wave consists of a short sample, and a loop.
In difference to ProTracker, the loop is not static but the start and endpoint can be modulated while the sample is being played. This allows to 'modulate' the wave. Its a kind of wavetable synthesis, like in PPG Wave, Korg Wavestation or TFMX.
When you are finished with your wave press BACK (or ESC key) to return to your instrument.

2. In the "Instrument Pattern" you select and play these waves.
Image the "Insturment Pattern" just like a single voice pattern in ProTracker. Whenever you play your instrument then this pattern will be played internally, transposed to the currently play note.
To play, the edited Wave '3' you type this into the pattern:
C-0 003

The first entry is the base note, the 2nd is the command + value. Just like a pattern in Protracker. The command to choose a wave is "0". You can see a command list at the bottom of the screen. With Space you toggle between EDIT/PLAY mode. When you are done editing, press SPACE to play your instrument on the keyboard.


I hope this helps a bit

[Photon]

Originally Posted by deimos

So, what's the best tracker for composing on original hardware (A1000 with KS 1.3, no extra memory or expansions), with the intent of using the results as music within a game?

This risks changing the topic from that of the original poster. Consider posting a separate thread for your use case.

[systmcrsh]

the answer is octamed soundstudio the nsm patched version is even better, way ahead of it's time

[JJ__]

+1 for Octamed SoundStudio. I also like the fact that it plays a lot of different types of mod files. I feel confident it will play a music file when I load it up.

[pink^abyss]

Originally Posted by A500

I'm really interested in Pretracker but having only made music with Protracker & samples so far (and some with SID), I have to say it's a bit of a steep climb to understand how to create sounds with it. Haven't found any tutorials yet so I guess it's time for more experimentation

PreTrackers wavetable synthesis is alien to most musicians, so its hard to understand the general workflow...
For PreTracker 2.0 i have on my list making instrument creation more accessible

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by pink^abyss

PreTrackers wavetable synthesis is alien to most musicians, so its hard to understand the general workflow...
For PreTracker 2.0 i have on my list making instrument creation more accessible

Do you think the way Sonix does it is a good UI? Was pretty understandable to me

[Adropac2]

I found Octamed to be excellent. V5 was the last version I spent a lot of time with and it was very intuitive. Couldn't say if it was the best because I simply wouldn't know but by the time Octamed became Sound Studio I imagine that was pretty fliipin good and possibly unmatched

[pink^abyss]

Originally Posted by saimon69

Do you think the way Sonix does it is a good UI? Was pretty understandable to me

The Sonix instrument UI is certainly very easy to use, but its also quite limited.

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by pink^abyss

The Sonix instrument UI is certainly very easy to use, but its also quite limited.

Still better than AmigaKlang, though; is hard for me to put numbers and understand what is going on, not even was a sysadmin [actually i did webmaster too] ^^

[pink^abyss]

Originally Posted by saimon69

Still better than AmigaKlang, though; is hard for me to put numbers and understand what is going on, not even was a sysadmin [actually i did webmaster too] ^^

I understand Well, from a coders view AmigaKlang is perfect, as its stack based operations are simplified to the max while they still allow a lot of expression. However, users must really know how sounds are synthesized in general to be able to use it... and of course it would be much more accesible to have the sample creation within the tracker..

[DanScott]

aklang is more "modular" in the way sounds are created, in that the outputs of previous operators can become the inputs of subsequent operators.

Yes, it does require quite a good knowledge of how sound synthesis works, and some of the demo patch sounds from Virgill are pretty amazing!

[pink^abyss]

Originally Posted by DanScott

aklang is more "modular" in the way sounds are created, in that the outputs of previous operators can become the inputs of subsequent operators.

Yes, it does require quite a good knowledge of how sound synthesis works, and some of the demo patch sounds from Virgill are pretty amazing!

Yeah, Virgill is king when it comes to sounddesign!