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Amiga Music Tracker in JavaScript

stef.be

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Re: Amiga Music Tracker in JavaScript

#21

Post by PavlovsCat »

akx wrote: post #17
snvzz wrote: post #13

Since it plays modules made for the Amiga, linking this is mandatory: https://bel.fi/alankila/modguide/interpolate.txt

This bit made me go "wat" out loud. > Additionally, it is possible to engage a low-pass 12 dB/oct Butterworth filter tuned at approximately 3.2 kHz by turning the Amiga power LED brighter with a special protracker command.

That would be E00/1 for filter on/off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8d_OInQkLc&t=8m36s

IIRC when the machine crashed while playing sound, with the well-known blinking of the Power LED, you could hear the filter going on and off, too. And most games that had polished music turned the filter off.

Re: Amiga Music Tracker in JavaScript

#22

Post by tgvaughan »

zellyn wrote: post #14
bibac wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I messed around with the Amiga trackers back in the day. When I look at the software available today, e.g. on my iPad, I have a hard time getting anything useful out of it. Which software are you using now?

SunVox is a fantastic modern tracker that runs on pretty much anything.

True, but SunVox is so much more than just a tracker. In my experience with (PC) trackers they rely mostly on modifying pre-recorded samples. SV on the other hand allows you to chain together a crazy array of synth modules to produce sounds "from scratch".

Re: Amiga Music Tracker in JavaScript

#23

Post by zellyn »

tgvaughan wrote: post #22
zellyn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SunVox is a fantastic modern tracker that runs on pretty much anything.

True, but SunVox is so much more than just a tracker. In my experience with (PC) trackers they rely mostly on modifying pre-recorded samples. SV on the other hand allows you to chain together a crazy array of synth modules to produce sounds "from scratch".

True. I think SunVox is a superset of what normal trackers can do: you're fully able to limit yourself to samples.

Re: Amiga Music Tracker in JavaScript

#24

Post by drhayes9 »

bibac wrote: post #12
harel wrote: post #9

I graduated from Amiga trackers to a full fledged studio, with hardware mixers, synths, effect racks etc. And then, years later, back again to just a computer. Full circle.

I messed around with the Amiga trackers back in the day. When I look at the software available today, e.g. on my iPad, I have a hard time getting anything useful out of it. Which software are you using now?

My favorite tracker-like DAW is Renoise: https://www.renoise.com/

Cross-platform, can use VSTs and samples, lively community, lua scriptability. It's pretty awesome all the way around.

Re: Amiga Music Tracker in JavaScript

#25

Post by PavlovsCat »

general8bitso wrote: post #2

This is great. I remember listening to Axel F, and attempting to make my own mods, but basically just changed the instrument samples.

I did that for years, too :) On the Amiga, that's all I did music wise, rip modules (I still miss that) and listen to / look at them, first in trackers and then with EaglePlayer and DeliTracker and their visualizations. Then on the PC, I made painfully short stubs, like 10-30 seconds, for a long time, with FastTracker (painful because I just didn't know how to make them longer, they were little rhythmic or melodic figures I guess). Then I got into Renoise, and I guess for the most part sampled and looped things I liked, and added speech samples to that. If I count from the first moment I fell in love with Protracker at age 11 or so, and me making something I would call a song in my 20s, it took me over a decade to even begin sucking at music, before that it wasn't even music. And I feel I owe so much to the Amiga, and the people who made music for it, and cared about playing back music for it.

Re: Amiga Music Tracker in JavaScript

#26

Post by PavlovsCat »

tgvaughan wrote: post #22
zellyn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SunVox is a fantastic modern tracker that runs on pretty much anything.

True, but SunVox is so much more than just a tracker. In my experience with (PC) trackers they rely mostly on modifying pre-recorded samples. SV on the other hand allows you to chain together a crazy array of synth modules to produce sounds "from scratch".

Well there's Renoise, there's Jeskola's Buzz (the changelog starts at 2008 but I'm sure I used it well before that), Noise Trekker had a synth as early as 1999. Adlib Tracker? You're still right in that for the most part, for a long time, tracking on the PC meant FastTracker or ScreamTracker, and those just used samples. But we've come a long way since then in the early 2000s.

Re: Amiga Music Tracker in JavaScript

#28

Post by pjc50 »

akx wrote: post #17
snvzz wrote: post #13

Since it plays modules made for the Amiga, linking this is mandatory: https://bel.fi/alankila/modguide/interpolate.txt

This bit made me go "wat" out loud. > Additionally, it is possible to engage a low-pass 12 dB/oct Butterworth filter tuned at approximately 3.2 kHz by turning the Amiga power LED brighter with a special protracker command.

This is a classic "you ran out of pins / wanted a convenient debug feature, didn't you" design indication.

I'm slightly unclear on what the Paula pulse train would have looked like; is it what would normally be called a "1-bit DAC", or is it PWM at the PAL frequency?

Re: Amiga Music Tracker in JavaScript

#29

Post by exogeny »

Oh man, this is amazing. I'm teary-eyed with nostalgia, too.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the demoscene and tracker music, here are some recommended old-school tunes to spin up to get a feel for the art at the time. (Someone more in touch than me will have to lead you to the new school!) Just keep in mind the technological limitations on some of these songs: 4 channels, maybe 100k all-in for such wonderful music. Truly amazing.

My recommendations, running from 1986-1993ish: Karsten Obarski - Crystal Hammer Firefox - Galaxy 2 Uncle Tom - Poseidon Jester - Elysium Captain - Space Debris Tip + Firefox - Enigma Mantronix - Act Of Impulse 4-mat - Red Sector Theme Romeo Knight - Cream Of The Earth Greg - Odyssey Part 2 Jugi - Onward Ride Laxity - Desert Dream

I'm sure others can add more. What amazing times!

Re: Amiga Music Tracker in JavaScript

#30

Post by MentallyRetired »

exogeny wrote: post #29

Oh man, this is amazing. I'm teary-eyed with nostalgia, too. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the demoscene and tracker music, here are some recommended old-school tunes to spin up to get a feel for the art at the time. (Someone more in touch than me will have to lead you to the new school!) Just keep in mind the technological limitations on some of these songs: 4 channels, maybe 100k all-in for such wonderful music…

Yes! I miss the tracking scene. Some amazing music came out of that format.
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