For the most as i can i use the sample editor for lead and bass but how can i sound like all those beautiful synth used in .mod or .xm ? I like so much those sound that come from old tracker and i know that they do not use vsts and this is why i wonder why am i not able to sound like they do ? Is there somebody out here that could explain to me how to sound like those old school sounds ? (And by the way excuse my ignorance)
If you do not understand what sound i look for go check this youtube channel :
I read a a lot on sound wave and experienced a lot for drawing them in renoise but my square, saw and ect still does not feel as beautiful as old trackers !
The details take more practice. I assume that you were able to create the basic waveforms, especially square waves of different widths?
Turn interpolation off on all of the samples and experiment by:
Layering different waveform types
Effects such as phase, chorus, and delay
Copies of the waveforms with different envelope shapes
While what was done on FT2 and IT was a bit different from what we are able to do with Renoise (and if you have specific questions about a particular sound, many of us may know how to create it,) with experimentation you’ll come up with your own versions of those sounds.
another technique is to make the synth sound you want using synth1. render to sample the patch’s c-4 (or sometimes c-5 even) note for the length of a pattern. / optional: build any envelopes in the instrument editor and/or create any sample loop points for sustain time. /
then use the sample as your instrument and enjoy using any column commands renoise has to offer.
Some of the best lead sounds I’ve heard in old tracker files are built on the single synth sample.
Those sounds come from the SID-chip used in C64 and other old computers. I reckon there has to be software emulating this chip, otherwise Elektron made the Sidstation a few years back when they found the last remaining (I think) SID-circuits available.
They’re not in production any more, and go for around 800 dollars. But Elektron also makes the Monomachine which has a really good SID-emulation going on. I use it tons…
But I guess if you wanna stay with software try downloading a bunch of wavetables (PM me if you want some .zip-files with a bunch of them) and apply bitdegrading effects, Lo-Fi-Mat in Renoise for example.
Be grumpy and self important. Complain about lack of Octamed import in Renoise. Talk about the tracks you had in a subfolder on the Maz Sound compilation, volume 1.
Yes this is a great idea to analyse old mod and xm ! I forgot that i could use renoise to open them (Sorry for this newbity) with this i will sound like beautiiful old sounds
I suggest Schism Tracker for all your old-style tracker needs. It’s a remake of Impulse Tracker, but cross-platform, and over the years has become a quite mature project
A good compromise, perhaps, but as I recall it the hardware was actually using an independant 28khz sampling rate for each channel? So, you’d most likely use 44.1khz mono samples (such as those featured on the ST disks), but they would be resampled to 28khz on the fly. So I guess full-on emulation mode would then have a lofi-mat device set to 28khz/8bit on each track, since this is the final stage before output.
I believe the (low quality) resampling and the lack of interpolation accounts for much of the characteristic crunchy sound and aliasing artifacts - which is also why I’d suggest to disable interpolation on your samples - especially when doing glides, or up/down pitching, there’s an obvious difference.
I don’t agree. It’s the actual sample rate of the instrument that is more important. As a general guideline, most samples used in Protracker should have their “normal/original pitch” at C-4 (or was it C-3), being about 16khz if I recall correctly. Just putting a general lofi filter on a channel most likely won’t give the same result.
I’m pretty sure the standard basenote was C-4, yeah. And you are right that the sample rate depend on the rate (pitch) being played, as well as the source material.
Being a bit anal-retentive about this (I’ll admit somewhat to that as a personal trait), I always made it a point to sample sounds on the Amiga with an as high rate as possible, sometimes even slowing down the sound source (when sampling from vinyl) to squeeze a few extra khz out of the original sounds. But, I guess that’s not what we’re talking about here
Like you say, a sample being played at a lower pitch could easily be 16khz, or even less. That is why I propose disabling sample interpolation, because otherwise you’d loose out on all the interesting artifacts that come with such a degraded sound. And in Renoise, it actually sounds pretty damn close to the original thing, IMO.
Now, when I talk about sticking a Lofi-mat device at the end of the signal chain, I know perfectly well that this is almost overkill, even if it theoretically would be closer to the final signal on the Amiga. Why? Well, the Amiga sound chip did a pretty amazing job at DA converting, with lots of presence and sparkle. The Lofi-mat device simply doesn’t have the same characteristics, and won’t sound the same. Although some samples does sound awfully nice around the 12-bit point. So, apply it or don’t - to me, the most important characteristic is the (lack of) interpolation
Well, now I’m nit-picking and should be talking about composing tracker style music instead. Substance over technique
Holy crap, a technical production thread that I’m actually qualified to chime in on. First time since 1998!
It’s honestly easy to make that old tracker sound. I might sound like I’m joking but I’m totally not:
Limit your samples to 8 bit mono, 64k max size (scream tracker style)
Only using forward looping.
Understand that the samples have to sound really crappy. You basically have to have not enough samples. That is honestly and completely the truth of it (at least for me). I used to squeeze so much out of about 12 sounds (give or take).
Most trackers used to OVER-use the vibrato constantly. I don’t now why, everyone else liked it. I thought it sounded silly but use tons of vibrato.
For pure authenticity, limit your patterns to 64 lines. I think it’s really about limiting yourself. Take away stereo. Take away compression. Take away sample selection. Take away sound quality. Defintely no effects. (Copy your main sound, paste it 2 lines down and reduce the volume to 10% for the classic tracker delay/reverb sound).
Pick a side in our Impulse Tracker vs Fast Tracker war between Conner_BW and myself from 1997.
WOw… i’m actually an expert in something!
Back to 2013. How do I use sidechaining again? I don’t understand how to use massive. What’s all this EQ nonsense about fitting things into the mix? Send buses? Shoot, i just got overwhelmed again. Time to watch youtube.
