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Tracker beats
Posted: 21 May 2020
by Paralytik
So, I guess some of us are tracker users. I started using MadTracker 2 back in the day, and have now returned to
8bitbubsy's modern clone of Fasttracker 2 due to a temporary relocation of my main desktop and gear.
It's great fun, albeit having a quite lofi workflow. I find that writing expressive melodies and rhythms is easier in trackers than in DAWs because of the possibility to input pitch up/down, portamento and vibrato per note, rather than drawing a ton of automation in a DAW to achieve the same things. The limitations inherent with using trackers can also boost creativity.
Here are a couple beats I've made with it during the past months.
If you also have tracker beats you want to show off to the world, don't hesitate to post them in this thread.
Questions or tips and tricks are also welcome.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 21 May 2020
by Jackjackdaw
Nice work. I have been meaning to check out Renoise. Trackers are not really used to create the kind of music i make so i thought it would be interesting to see what comes out when i load my samples in.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 21 May 2020
by Paralytik
Jackjackdaw wrote: ↑21 May 2020
Nice work. I have been meaning to check out Renoise. Trackers are not really used to create the kind of music i make so i thought it would be interesting to see what comes out when i load my samples in.
Thanks. I've dabbled a bit with Renoise in the past and I have a license, but it was a while since I used it. It's very powerful, I'm gonna give it a go again when my main desktop setup is up and running again.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 21 May 2020
by Marc64
A tracker layout would be nice in reason as an option to the normal sequencer
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 23 May 2020
by OverneathTheSkyBridg
All we need is VST3 support in Renoise and we can have the Rack inside! Looking forward to that for sure.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 24 May 2020
by TheDragonborg
I do it old school style... though I really need to figure things out as it's been a while since I used Adlib Tracker II.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 24 May 2020
by Prosper Mind
Hi ,
Seen the topic and thanks for that, It's nice that trackers are still in use nowadays and from what I listen to very cool things are done, congratulations TheDragonborg and Paralytik.
Also for those who are interested in new gear which refers to trackers i think Polyend Tracker it`s worth to check , is already available to pre-order.
I just remembered the old days and decided to refresh and export a few songs that i did in Fast Tracker II long time ago (btw I also recommend the Windows version that is free to download) so would like to share with You guys :
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Thanks
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 29 May 2020
by Paralytik
Very cool stuff dudes, I like what I hear.
TheDragonborg that's proper old skool, haha. I have an old Atari, would be cool to try to track something on that.
And Prosper Mind, I really like the Up Relax track. Smooth liquid dnb feel.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 29 May 2020
by fullforce
Jackjackdaw wrote: ↑21 May 2020
Nice work. I have been meaning to check out Renoise. Trackers are not really used to create the kind of music i make so i thought it would be interesting to see what comes out when i load my samples in.
Renoise is the bomb. Seriously.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 29 May 2020
by MannequinRaces
Anybody use Renoise Redux inside of Reason? I’m waiting on Renoise to be able to use RRP.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 30 May 2020
by adfielding
Ooh! I'm going to jump in here - it's been an awfully long time since I tried writing something original using a tracker, right up until a couple of weeks ago when I wrote some 90s-esque jungle and decided to write it using something a little more "era appropriate". I ended up recording it playing and stuck it on YouTube here.
Was a lot of fun, definitely something I'd like to revisit a little more often.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 01 Jun 2020
by Paralytik
Very cool stuff adfielding! Checked out your album Unforgotten too, proper producing skills there. Was it made with Reason?
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 03 Jun 2020
by miscend
Very cool stuff. Seems like Drum n bass is really suited to tracker interfaces.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 03 Jun 2020
by Paralytik
miscend wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020
Very cool stuff. Seems like Drum n bass is really suited to tracker interfaces.
That's where it started basically. The RXX fx (with the Xs being 00 in the fx column before you input a value) is very much suited to dnb and breakcore. I think Venetian Snares used trackers a lot for his earlier stuff, maybe for newer stuff too.
EDIT: RXX is repeat note, per note. So you can make some seriously glitchy stuff with that.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 04 Jun 2020
by Prosper Mind
Thanks Paralytik . yeah , one of the genres of drum and bass i like , track is too short now but maybe in the future will do some kind of remix inside the Reason.
FullforceI - I am curious about the Renoise software , someday will have to try it , probably a whole new world compared to the Skale Tracker and FastTracker for Windows but I guess it's worth the money.
The Dragonborn - respect for the equipment and skills , nice chip tune , what computer did you use for that ?
AdamFielding - great track, Your skills are obvious but nice surprise with the tracker song.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Prosper Mind Music
https://soundcloud.com/prosper_mind
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7LsPt ... xDjIWQYahw
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 04 Jun 2020
by TheDragonborg
It's just an old MS-DOS PC... with a Sound Blaster Pro 2.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 06 Jun 2020
by Paralytik
TheDragonborg wrote: ↑04 Jun 2020
It's just an old MS-DOS PC... with a Sound Blaster Pro 2.
Nice, hehe.
Checked out your album on Bandcamp, nice work. Proper dark vibes. Clean production, but damn dirty at the same time.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 21 Jul 2020
by Creativemind
Paralytik wrote: ↑21 May 2020
So, I guess some of us are tracker users. I started using MadTracker 2 back in the day, and have now returned to
8bitbubsy's modern clone of Fasttracker 2 due to a temporary relocation of my main desktop and gear.
It's great fun, albeit having a quite lofi workflow. I find that writing expressive melodies and rhythms is easier in trackers than in DAWs because of the possibility to input pitch up/down, portamento and vibrato per note, rather than drawing a ton of automation in a DAW to achieve the same things. The limitations inherent with using trackers can also boost creativity.
Here are a couple beats I've made with it during the past months.
If you also have tracker beats you want to show off to the world, don't hesitate to post them in this thread.
Questions or tips and tricks are also welcome.
Can you use VST's in the Fasttracker 2 clone?
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 28 Dec 2020
by Djeroek
OverneathTheSkyBridg wrote: ↑23 May 2020
All we need is VST3 support in Renoise and we can have the Rack inside! Looking forward to that for sure.
This will be a reality soon, have been alpha'ing / now beta'ing Renoise 3.3 which will support vst3 and Reason rack works great here on it in windows 10. I think there are still some issues on the mac, but I'm sure these will be ironed out soon.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 29 Dec 2020
by willy_dinglefinger
Djeroek wrote: ↑28 Dec 2020
OverneathTheSkyBridg wrote: ↑23 May 2020
All we need is VST3 support in Renoise and we can have the Rack inside! Looking forward to that for sure.
This will be a reality soon, have been alpha'ing / now beta'ing Renoise 3.3 which will support vst3 and Reason rack works great here on it in windows 10. I think there are still some issues on the mac, but I'm sure these will be ironed out soon.
This is interesting, thanks for updating the thread. I recently got a licence for Renoise purely because I wanted something snappy to use on my old shit laptop so I can dabble with sound while the baby naps etc. Currently I just use samples and stock plugs / airwindows plugs, but having one or two instances of the rack shouldn't be too taxing...
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 07 May 2022
by Paralytik
Creativemind wrote: ↑21 Jul 2020
Can you use VST's in the Fasttracker 2 clone?
2 years later, haha. No, there is no VST support for the FT2 clone, it is as faithful to the original as possible.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 07 May 2022
by Creativemind
adfielding wrote: ↑30 May 2020
Ooh! I'm going to jump in here - it's been an awfully long time since I tried writing something original using a tracker, right up until a couple of weeks ago when I wrote some 90s-esque jungle and decided to write it using something a little more "era appropriate". I ended up recording it playing and stuck it on YouTube here.
Was a lot of fun, definitely something I'd like to revisit a little more often.
Pretty good that. Good ol'Amen Break. It just needs some real deep bass-ness on it (unless there was and I couldn't hear it on my phone as I did see Sub Bass in the sound list there) and a couple of vocal samples, maybe 3. Will have a listen through headphones tomorrow.
What tracker software is that and we're you triggering hardware on that track?
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 08 May 2022
by Paralytik
The software is
Schism Tracker, it says right there at the top in the video.
From skimming through the documentation, it seems this tracker supports MIDI out, but I doubt adfielding is triggering external gear in that song. Can't say for sure though.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 09 May 2022
by adfielding
Creativemind wrote: ↑07 May 2022
Pretty good that. Good ol'Amen Break. It just needs some real deep bass-ness on it (unless there was and I couldn't hear it on my phone as I did see Sub Bass in the sound list there) and a couple of vocal samples, maybe 3. Will have a listen through headphones tomorrow.
What tracker software is that and we're you triggering hardware on that track?
Thanks! As Paralytik mentioned, it's Schism Tracker which itself is an open source clone of Impulse Tracker. There's no hardware being triggered, everything came from the tracker. As for the bass - yeah, it's pretty low and I used a sinewave sample that, in retrospect, was far too clean to really translate to anything particularly well.
Re: Tracker beats
Posted: 10 May 2022
by Creativemind
adfielding wrote: ↑09 May 2022
Creativemind wrote: ↑07 May 2022
Pretty good that. Good ol'Amen Break. It just needs some real deep bass-ness on it (unless there was and I couldn't hear it on my phone as I did see Sub Bass in the sound list there) and a couple of vocal samples, maybe 3. Will have a listen through headphones tomorrow.
What tracker software is that and we're you triggering hardware on that track?
Thanks! As Paralytik mentioned, it's Schism Tracker which itself is an open source clone of Impulse Tracker. There's no hardware being triggered, everything came from the tracker. As for the bass - yeah, it's pretty low and I used a sinewave sample that, in retrospect, was far too clean to really translate to anything particularly well.
