C64,Trackers, Amiga computer and history.....Straight from users mouth!

[JorgeG]

I am very interested in learning about Trackers and I feel the best information comes from the actual users of the product themselves.

If any DHP member has had experience with any Tracker program, knows about the history of Tracker programs or has a lead on how to fimiliarize myself with the background of Trackers please do not hesitate to assist me on learning what this program designed to compose music- from day one- was and is all about. :D

[Guillaume]

Hi There,

Wow! And me who thought I was the only one who was familiar with the old "Tracker" programs. I bought my first Amiga computer around the same time I really started getting into the house thing, it was around 1989.

At the time there was a really cool "Tracker" progam called SoundTracker it was a freeware so you didn't have to pay for it and I must admit it completely blew me away. It only had 4 audio channels and was using 44Khz 8 bits - samples. But basically, it worked pretty much like an Akai MPC. The later versions had a built-in sample editor so if you had the appropriate Audio interface you could just connect any audio sources to your Amiga computer and sample away, edit your samples and then program your own tracks. You had lots of control over the samples and it was dead easy to get going! I think the first version were quite limited and you could only use something like 16 or 32 samples. It was pretty amazing actually given that the Amiga 500 computer I owned had 512Ko Memory but still the results were pretty dawn good.

The actual software, evolved rapidily and it started supporting MIDI, the number of channels was extended to 8. The interface was extremely user-friendly and it was very easy for someone who really wasn't familiar with music software at all to do things very quickly. As the time went, "SoundTracker" became "Protracker" I think and I believe the last version was released in 1994.

You could probably compare those programs to things like Fruity Loops and maybe Reason today.

I still have that Amiga computer somewhere at home and in fact, our first track that went to be pressed onto plastic was made using an Amiga computer as the sequencer. Scary Hey??? smile.gif

Guillaume*

[O'love]

i started out with tracker software on the C64 using a self-build 8bit sampler cartridge...we mainly made beats/loops to mix with accapella's.... mad fun ;)

Olaf

[<DLoop>]

Originally posted by Guillaume:
Hi There,

Wow! And me who thought I was the only one who was familiar with the old "Tracker" programs. I bought my first Amiga computer around the same time I really started getting into the house thing, it was around 1989.

At the time there was a really cool "Tracker" progam called SoundTracker it was a freeware so you didn't have to pay for it and I must admit it completely blew me away. It only had 4 audio channels and was using 44Khz 8 bits - samples. But basically, it worked pretty much like an Akai MPC. The later versions had a built-in sample editor so if you had the appropriate Audio interface you could just connect any audio sources to your Amiga computer and sample away, edit your samples and then program your own tracks. You had lots of control over the samples and it was dead easy to get going! I think the first version were quite limited and you could only use something like 16 or 32 samples. It was pretty amazing actually given that the Amiga 500 computer I owned had 512Ko Memory but still the results were pretty dawn good.

The actual software, evolved rapidily and it started supporting MIDI, the number of channels was extended to 8. The interface was extremely user-friendly and it was very easy for someone who really wasn't familiar with music software at all to do things very quickly. As the time went, "SoundTracker" became "Protracker" I think and I believe the last version was released in 1994.

You could probably compare those programs to things like Fruity Loops and maybe Reason today.

I still have that Amiga computer somewhere at home and in fact, our first track that went to be pressed onto plastic was made using an Amiga computer as the sequencer. Scary Hey??? smile.gif

Guillaume* The old Urban Shakedown "Some Justice" track was done on Soundtracker on an Amiga.

Used to use them myself to do music for computer demo's. Great fun!!

[kniffter]

I used to use Fast Tracker II for MS-Dos. Pretty much all you need to write decent beats.
And it's still evolving:

www.renoise.com (http://www.renoise.com) (for Windows and soon OSX)

[JorgeG]

Originally posted by kniffter:
I used to use Fast Tracker II for MS-Dos. Pretty much all you need to write decent beats.
And it's still evolving:

www.renoise.com (http://www.renoise.com) (for Windows and soon OSX) Hello Kniffter, Renoise is exactly why I created this topic. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

[<liquid boy>]

nice, renoise. other trackers on the same kind of level are buzz (freeware) and psycle (open source) they're fairly similar in layout, except that psycle uses a traditional tracker sequencer. i think (people say anyway) that psycle sounds alot beter than buzz. but buzz has wwaaayyy more generators/effects.
you can use vst's in psycle (and buzz).

[JorgeG]

Originally posted by &lt;liquid boy&gt;:
nice, renoise. other trackers on the same kind of level are buzz (freeware) and psycle (open source) they're fairly similar in layout, except that psycle uses a traditional tracker sequencer. i think (people say anyway) that psycle sounds alot beter than buzz. but buzz has wwaaayyy more generators/effects.
you can use vst's in psycle (and buzz). graemlins/thumbsup.gif Thanks Liquid Boy for the info on Buzz and Psycle... graemlins/respekt.gif