TrackerMusic

Let me take you back to a time where computers had disk drives :) A very brief history:

The Commordore C64 was a grand machine and produced some great tracks. I just love the Ocean loaders, but this story doesn't start there.

The Atari ST was one of the first dedicated music machines. It had MIDI "ins" so it made many fans with the music industry. However many indi/ bedroom musicians had little money.

So some coders got together and designed SoundTracker created by Karsten Obarski. This was revolutionary as it was simple to use and one of the first "step-by-step" music making option (an advanced adaption of this is the Roland drum machine step-sequencer).

People could sample their synth machines and sample every day sounds and then load in the sample to be used in the sequencer.

The sequencer was made up of patterns with 64 lines (00-63). You then place the sounds in any position you want to make a tune. By adding patterns you then increase the length of the tune.

Due to that the Atari St had technically 4 channels to use, there was 4 channels to place sounds into. There was no VSTs.

Then the Amiga came out, with its advanced sound chips (but still 4 channles) it quickly took over the Atari ST and then the tracker market, with Protracker becoming the tracker of choice.

Now there was a huge explosion in music making. This was coupled with the demo phenomena. This is where coders, graphic artists and musicians made demos to show off themselves...an advertisement of their coolness/ skills.

There was demo parties (which still run today) and demos prodcued which dwarfed the computer games in style and techniques.

All this was done (usually) with 880k disks. A great feat of coding and packing.

More trackers started to appear, NoiseTracker and musician specific trackers. There was also a 8 channel tracker called TFMX which famously was used in the Turrican games. It was very complicated and cost money, so it did little well. Then there was OctaMed (still going today) which did better. There was even Bars And Pipes which tried to have a go at being a sequencer and even Cubase.

And that was the point, the trackers were of choice because they were free, musicians and the artists of the time had little money to spend on big music packages.

The Amiga then made way for the A1200 and the strange CD32. The Amiga hung on, but eventually it left us as technology developed and Commodore didn't catch up.

The PC era became technologically advanced with music making and musicians flocked to the new 32 channel FastTracker. Also with the dawn of the Internet and CDs, the demos grew in size, bceoming bigger and better.

The trackers still became the music of choice, but then music software was being to introduce paid software.

This is probably the dawn of the "end" as the technology increased then people swayed to paid software.

Reason came in, Cubase, Ableton...great "all in one" software systems that had everything you wanted for a musician...but they were expensive.

Now we have a minor resurgence in Trackers. For the Beginner, trackers offer a whole host of new features that can be found in specific music programs. Sure you can pay for some, but others are still free.

It all comes down to the user. For example, Michael Schumacher was great in a Benetton and was great in a Ferrari. It doesn't really matter what you have, it is up to you to make it work at its best.

The designer of Fruity Loops (FL Studio) stated that all music sofware is roughtly the same. It has to be, it is just the extra bells and whistles that make it look good.

Calvin Harris (with "Acceptible In The 80s" success) uses an Amiga to make tunes. Some of the PS2 games use Madtracker (a PC tracker).

Urban Shakedown with Some Justice in the 90s made their top 40 hit with Octamed.

Computer Music Magazine is quoted as saying:

"[Tracker] are seen as serious contenders in the home music production arena, with plenty of producers using them as a highly efficent, no-nonsense way of getting ideas down, perhaps avoiding some of the unwanted visual cues associated with time line based sequencers"

Find out how to make your own tracker music, professionally here.

1-How did your interest for computers start? Which year was that?

I think it was 1986

2-What machines did you previously have? What did you do with them?

i had a C64 i played games with it !!, then i got an amiga 500
that is when i started writing music

3-For what specific reason did you end up making music rather than gfx,coding?

thats what i was into , i did a little bit of gfx work but it was crappy

4-Which composing programs have you been using? Which one in particular?

Cubase VST i have used cubase for 7 years now.

5-With which module did you feel you had reached your goal?

I never reached my goal BUT, my wonderdog music is my best module work.

6-In your opinion, what's the value of a music in a demo, game?

50% along side the graphic content

1-How did your interest for computers start? Which year was that?

Must have been around 1985 when I got my C64 - my first computer.
It fairly much continued with the Amiga and the PC from there.

2-What machines did you previously have? What did you do with them?

I used to have a C64, as mentioned above. It was mainly used for games,
later I did some rather unspectacular demos. With the change for the Amiga
I lost interest in games, tried myself at coding and graphics which I didn't
really like. Music seemed like a good alternative, particularly since I found
the Soundtracker (K. Obarski cannot be thanked enough!) to be a really handy
tool. I still use the Amiga for creating music these days, even though I don't
do mods anymore. It serves its purpose as a MIDI sequencer - running OctaMED
by Teijo Kinnunen. I know this is a really unorthodox method of working with
MIDI but I feel that I do get along with it very well. My PC is mainly used
for my studies, writing documents, doing graphics, creating CDs, archiving
and administrating things. I haven't done any music with it until now.

3-For what specific reason did you end up making music rather than gfx, coding?

Purely by chance. I have never had a proper instrument training, except for
the flute when I was nine or so. But I guess that doesn't really count.
The one reason probably was that I found it to be profoundly more fun than
graphics or code. I must say, though, that I envy coders and graphics-artists
for the fact that they can listen to whatever music they like while they're
working.

4-Which composing programs have you been using? Which one in particular?

I started out with Sonix which I soon left behind when I got my hands on
Soundtracker. I continued using this type of grid-edit program when
Noisetracker and later Protracker came out. For some reason I never liked
Octalyzer, Startrekker, TFMX, Jamcracker and all the other tools that there
used to be. Protracker definitely was the most handy and easy to use of them
all. For MIDI sequencing I was and still am very much into OctaMED because
it's the same type of editor as Protracker. I cannot stand Cubase, Notator etc.
because I find the classical notation to be of little use for electronic music.
But to be fair, I have to say it all boils down to what you're used to in the
end. Someone who has been using Cubase all his 'musical life' will be just as
comfortable with it as other people with grid-edit-programs.

5-With which module did you feel you had reached your goal?

I dunno if I really had a goal in the first place. I simply liked doing music
and as long as I found it entertaining that was alright. In retrospect, I'd
say Cyberride was a good demo-module so I suppose it served its purpose in the
Pygmy production 'Extension'.

6-Is there a tune you would like not to remember? For What reason?

'Still Moving' - it's just really, really bad.

7-In your opinion, what's the value of a music in a demo, game?

You mean value? (ed.that is!) Or importance? I think it makes a demo
watchable for non-coders. Try looking at a nice demo with the music turned
off - it's not half as cool as it is with the music blasting away through the
speakers. Music can add dynamics to a demo, it can support certain effects
in a very subtle way, it can fill spaces left by lousy effects. Probably one
of the best examples for the function of music is, in my opinion, the old
'Substance' demo by Quartex - without Moby's 'Knulla Kuk' mod the demo would
be a pile of boring crap but the tune really does make it entertaining to
watch.

8-At present, are you still composing? For professional or leisure purposes?

I'm still composing but it's all very different from what I used to do on the
Amiga. I have worked for various professional productions like theatre-plays,
commercial presentations and such but I had to drop that when I entered my
first state exam for law. Having passed this exam I am now working for a
law-firm plus writing a dissertation which does not leave much time for music.
For this reason I am not working commercially anymore, just composing for
leisure.

9-Could you tell us some of your all times favourite tunes?

There are many. Examples would be 'Cream of the Earth' by Romeo Knight,
'Knulla Kuk' by Moby, early stuff by SLL (song x.xx), 'Banana Split' by Dizzy,
'Sainahi Circles' by Heatbeat, '3d demo II tune' by Julius,
'Occ-San-Geen' by Uncle Tom, 'B.S.T.' and 'Uralvolga Fine' by Bruno and
so on and so forth.

1. How did your interest for computers start? Which year was that?

Aueeeeeeh...about 1985. C64 of course. How ? I don't really remember.

2-What machines did you previously have? What did you do with them?

C128: Listening to Rob Hubbards Themes and after that making music with
Chris Huelsbecks Soundmonitor

Amiga: This story I think you know

Atari ST: Cubase for sequencing with a few synthesizers/samplers
(that was around '91 - '95)

Now I have a G3 Mac, but not using it for any specific musical interests.

3-For what specific reason did you end up making music rather than gfx, coding?

That I can't really explain. I'm not the type of man for coding and used to
have a classical musical education (on clarinet besides), but wasn't really
interested in music yet. But I think it was that I discovered that with music
you could influence and generate feelings very easy - especially from the time
on when I was able to compose my first own tracks.

4-Which composing programs have you been using? Which one in particular?

As already mentioned (the standards on any machines): Soundmonitor; then
Aegis Sonix, Soundtracker/Protracker, later for MIDI-sequencing Cubase 3.1
or whatever on Atari; and now, since I am a professional recording engineer
in the advertising business, I'm a specialized ProTools-operator
(of course Mac).

5-With which module did you feel you had reached your goal?

None. As I'm some kind of perfectionist, I am not really fully satisfied
with the result of any track I ever did. Of course when it is new, you like
it very much, but if you keep listining to it or listen to it after a long
time there are so many things you would have done different. And better.
Sometimes it almost embarrasses me. An exception may be the
Boesendorfer-module, but this song is an exception for itself, because it
just simulates a piano player.

6-In your opinion, what's the value of a music in a demo, game?

Nowadays, games are becoming more and more complex and movie-like. The best
movie is nothing but shit without music. That means that the music is
becoming more and more important in the same way and has to be adjusted to
the mood of the game and its situations. Just listen to the latest games
Chris Huelsbeck was involved in and you know what I mean - I think it's
OBVIOUS.

7-At present, are you still composing? For professional or leisure purposes?

Yes, more than ever but very different because I'm playing guitar in a
steady Metal/-Rock-Band for now almost 5 years and composing songs with
my bandmates (dr/git/b/voc -standard setup) We've already done a few
recording sessions over the years and recently have been in the studio
recording an 6-Track EP-CD. Our new drummer used to play in the known
german Band "Sun". You find us in the web on www.mp3.de: "Panama Speed"
still with old material, but I hope to have it updated soon.

8-What do you think of today's pieces of music such as mpeg,wave,midi,etc...?

Today MIDI is crap. Because of its serial protocol the timing is crap.
It's a child of the 80s.

Mpeg is great, because it enables you to put your music on the web or send
it via e-mail and still have an acceptable quality at special bitrates.
It's the future. Just like Firewire for connecting sound modules and
multimedia equipment of any type.

9-Could you tell us some of your all times favourite tunes?

Computer ? Almost all 64-Hubbard stuff. No one ever reached the standards
he set on such a "cheap" system.