Tracker (music)
top right : sample list
top middle : channel curves
top left : general track properties (BPM etc.)
middle left : master list
middle right : pattern editor, command list for the channels (along the Line) and the course of time (along the columns), the white bar cursor marks the current point in time
below : sound effect selection and parameterization
Tracker or grid sequencer refers to a class of music sequencer programs that emerged in the 1980s around the Commodore Amiga computer . In this computer environment, they were used to create pieces of music for computer games (e.g. Pinball Dreams , Unreal , Deus Ex ). In the 1990s, trackers and the associated file formats were taken up by the demo scene and further developed. The tracker concept with compact file sizes and good quality of its music pieces was attractive for the creation of computer demos , which at that time still had to fit on floppy disks . In the 2000s, with the increase in computer performance, trackers were expanded to include advanced synthesizer features and were therefore also used for professional music production, e.g. B. the electronic music scene. At the same time, mobile devices with limited hardware equipment , such as B. the Game Boy Advance , now able to generate completely sample-based tracker music instead of using simple tone generators.
Trackers and other music sequencer software
Unifying feature of trackers over other Musiksequenzersoftware (z. B. Cubase or Logic Pro ) or the notation , is the representation of the time course from top to bottom instead of left to right. In the case of non-tracker sequencer software, when a piece of music is published, it is usual to export it in a lossy , no longer editable music format ( WAV , MP3, etc.). It is common for trackers to distribute music in a compact, editable tracker format. The free accessibility of the original samples and the sequence programming in the tracker formats corresponds technically roughly to the open source concept in computer science for program code , which is reflected in an extensive culture of remixing tracker modules.
Since the 2000s, the differences between trackers and other music sequencer software have been increasing. For example, in 2007 the British Computer Music Magazine presented third generation trackers such as: B. Renoise or Jeskola Buzz , as a professional and inexpensive alternative to other music studio software.
use
A tracker allows the user to compose pieces of music with several instruments, this is done by gradually distributing them on a timeline over several unison channels / (sound) tracks (English tracks , hence the name tracker ). The instrument properties can be adapted: pitch, volume or other sound effects . These effects are defined by entering representative instructions with parameters or, in the case of third-generation trackers, also graphically ( notation ) or GUI-supported . A complete piece of music then consists of several polyphonic sections, so-called "patterns", which are linked one after the other using a master list .
Pieces of music created in this way are saved and exported in tracker module files. In addition to the instrument samples, tracker modules contain a sequence list that indicates which notes are to be played on which instruments and when , as well as the effects defined by the musician , such as B. Vibrato or "Volume Slide". The use of a single basic sample per instrument, the definition of all pitch and effect variations via instructions and the temporal definition via a sequence list can be viewed as a very effective coding in terms of information technology while avoiding almost all redundancies in a piece of music. This effective coding and any subsequent data compression lead to the very compact tracker module storage formats.
The tracker technology scales very strongly, i.e. H. On the one hand there are trackers that can process samples of up to four gigabytes on computers with the appropriate RAM , while other trackers can be used to make music within certain limits even on the Sinclair ZX80 , the Gameboy Color or similar low-performance systems.
A major advantage of using patterns is that pieces of music can be restructured in a short time by copying or moving individual patterns or entire pattern blocks. In music programs, on the other hand, which only display sound tracks as waveforms , it is often necessary to first zoom out in the case of longer sections and many tracks. This makes it more difficult to select precisely or to scroll to the corresponding areas or tracks. In addition, new spaces have to be created by selecting and moving, into which the selected sections can be copied precisely. Any gaps created by cutting can also be closed again by selecting and moving. The processing effort for this is usually considerably lower with trackers.
history
Origins of trackers on home computers in the 1980s
above : general track properties
in the middle : patterns, command list for the channels (along the line) and the course of time (along the columns), the white bar cursor marks the current point
in time middle-bottom : channel list with samples
left-bottom : current volume per channel
right-bottom: stereo separation per channel ( panning )
The Ultimate Soundtracker was the first tracker for the Amiga and was programmed by Karsten Obarski in 1987. The overall concept of outputting samples with a timed and numerically controlled sequencer can be traced back to the Fairlight CMI Sampling Workstation , a software forerunner is Chris Hülsbeck's music software Soundmonitor from 1986 for the C64 .
The Ultimate Soundtracker was originally an in-house development tool for EAS (a German software company), which might explain its programmer-friendly interface. The company released eventually as a commercial product, although advanced Shareware - and freeware - Clones as NoiseTracker, MED and Protracker were not long in coming. Many of these clones were based on the original program, which was subsequently expanded through reverse engineering . With the great popularity of these versions, the commercial success of the Ultimate Soundtracker also ended. Later trackers (well-known examples: OctaMED , Octalyzer ) supported eight or more channels, while 16-bit playback was also possible with special hardware or tricks.
The editing window of a tracker resembles the roll of paper on an automatic piano , which moves from bottom to top across the screen. The first trackers only allowed four channels (limited by the Amiga Paula sound chip), although, since the notes represent samples , these restrictions are less severe than with synthesizing music chips (such as Commodore's SID or one from the General Instruments AY series) because the user can also sample chords and play them in a single channel. A saved tracker piece usually contains all sequencer data as well as the samples; and so at the height of the format it became almost a sport to create long, complex .mod or .sng files that are still smaller than 880 kbytes (the size of an Amiga floppy disk). Typically the composer has immortalized his pseudonym in the sample list.
1990s and the demo scene
The machines running tracker software were inexpensive, especially in the UK , where the Amiga and Atari ST were the home computers of choice in the early 1990s. So tracker music became something of an underground punk phenomenon, especially because so much of the contemporary hit parade music at the time was sample-based electronic music, a genre that was relatively easy to create using time-gridded sequencing. Tracker music was a fantastic playground for a generation of electronic dance musicians, many of whom saved on an Akai sampler, multi-effects processor, mixer, and microphone to hit the charts.
But there was also a downside to all of this, namely that the expression "tracker music" became an expression of ridicule for stereotypically rave-ige pop music in the "computer game style", because of the difficulty in "swinging" the mechanistic sequencer style lend, resulted in many pieces in 4/4 time with four-measure sections that often used similar samples. Since it was instrumental, tracker music required characteristic foreground instruments, of which chimes, howling guitar tones and rave piano were used excessively.
In the course of the 1990s, home computer tracker musicians switched to IBM-compatible PCs , and it was there that the demo scene discovered and developed the tracker concept with compact but high-quality music files . For example, the Scream Tracker , one of the most influential PC trackers, was originally developed by the Future Crew for use in their own demos. The tracker's close connection with the demo scene, which quickly gained popularity in the Scandinavian countries , also spread the tracker among young artists, one reason for the large number of well-known tracker musicians from Northern Europe and Great Britain. With U. a. Track music, the demo scene became one of the driving forces behind the development of the PC platform towards multimedia in the mid-90s, which was also recognized by the hardware manufacturers and to support demo events (e.g. the assembly ) by companies such as Gravis or AMD led.
It established its own tracker sub-scene within the demo scene with its own online publications such as B. TraxWeekly a tracker and tracker music magazine, with 119 issues up to 1998.
For computer games of this time, trackers and their tracker formats were also used, for example Pinball Dreams or the Unreal series.
Third generation trackers and the 2000s
At the end of the 90s / beginning of the 2000s, 3rd generation tracker software was created, the properties of which are equal to those of other sequencer software: Impulse Tracker , Buzz , ModPlug Tracker , MadTracker , Renoise , Sk @ le , Chibi Tracker, BeRoTracker - high quality output, Automation, support for VST plugins, internal DSPs and multi-effects, support for multi-I / O cards, etc.
In the 2000s, tracker files also became popular for devices with limited hardware ( mobile devices, etc.) such as the Game Boy Advance . Similar to the adoption of tracker formats for the PC in the 1990s, mobile hardware also began to have just enough computing power to play multiple samples at the same time ( software mixing ). Here, too, the advantages are the quality of the sampled tracker music , which is considerably higher compared to the built-in tone generators , as well as the low storage space requirement compared to other music formats such as. B. MP3 .
In 2007 the British Computer Music Magazine published a major review entitled “ Tracker! The amazing free music software giving the big boys a run for their money. “Out about current trackers. Trackers were presented as a professional alternative to expensive commercial software, e.g. B. the free and free ModPlug Tracker was chosen among the top 5 free music trackers .
Well-known artists who used or are using trackers include: a. Nosebleeds, Noisekick Andrew Sega and Deadmau5 .
technology
Essentially, a tracker consists of two functional parts: a sequencer with a time grid and a simple synthesizer , a so-called sampler .
Sound generation by means of a sampler
So-called samples are used to generate the sounds . These are recordings of natural sounds in which the output voltage of the microphone was measured with a specified sampling rate (" sampling rate "). This rate is typically between 8 kHz (common in telephone systems) and 48 kHz (common in motion pictures). The sample is converted back into a voltage curve for output.
There are two important ways to manipulate the sound of the sample (see drawing):
left : change of the pitch by manipulating t
right : amplification or attenuation of the voltage U representing the volume
- The volume changes by stretching or compressing on the voltage axis (U) .
- By stretching or compressing on the time axis (t) the pitch changes (English pitch shifting ).
The change in pitch of a digital sample can be implemented by adjusting the sampling rate of a sound output channel on the sound hardware or by resampling the sample to the fixed sampling rate of the sound output channel. With resampling, however, the sampling theorem can be violated, especially when raising the pitch ( high pitching ) and disruptive aliasing effects occur. There are many algorithmic approaches to mitigate these effects. The quality that is achieved here by trackers and players is one of the most important distinguishing features of quality .
The disadvantage of the first method, hardware mixing, is that there has to be an output channel with an adjustable sampling frequency for each sample played; in software mixing using software samplers , one can theoretically manage with a single output channel, but the computational effort is significantly greater and there are aliasing effects can reduce the quality.
Two other manipulations commonly used with the tracker are looping and panning :
- When looping , parts of the sample are repeated several times.
- When panning , the volume is set differently on the left and right channels.
The sound chip of the Commodore Amiga , Paula , had four channels , so it could play four samples at the same time, each with an independently set sampling rate and volume. This hardware property also defined the number of channels in the original MOD format to be four. The tracker software did not need to recalculate the samples ( resampling ) and mix them together, but only to pass them on to the sound chip. A panning setting that controls the position of the sample between the channels was not yet available - only channels 1 and 4 could be heard on the left, only channels 2 and 3 (“ LRRL ”) on the right.
On a platform like the IBM PC of the early 1990s, which did not have a specialized multi-channel sound chip but only sound hardware (e.g. Sound Blaster , Covox Speech Thing or system speakers ) with one channel for left or right, it is necessary to have the Mixing tracker module channels in software ( software mixing ). Although this costs a lot of computing time, different quality levels are possible, which means that tracker music is still possible on even the smallest home computers. An important advantage of a software mixer is that it can work with sample accuracy : a 1/96 note is then e.g. B. at 125 BPM and 44.1 kHz sampling rate always exactly 882 measured values, even if the sound card or system timer is completely inaccurate.
The PC sound card Gravis Ultrasound , which was released later, offered hardware mixing with up to 32 hardware output channels and panning, but as computing power increased, software mixing with the cheaper Sound Blaster card established itself and hardware mixers have been for use since the mid-1990s unusual for the personal computer.
(Grid) sequencer
The sampler, which was the subject of the moment, is controlled by the sequencer or " player ". At regular intervals, this transmits to the sampler which sample is to be played or stopped on which channel, with which sampling rate , volume and panning setting the sample is to be played and which section of the sample is to be looped if necessary . In the case of a hardware-based sampler (Amiga, GUS), the sequencer routines are regularly called up by timer interrupt and transfer new instructions to the hardware. With software-based mixing, on the other hand, it usually works the other way round: The sampler calculates the "recording" into a FIFO memory from which it is played. After a certain number of calculated values he asks the sequencer routines what he should do next.
In contrast to MIDI software, trackers usually use a strict time frame, the so-called primary timing . One tick of this time grid corresponds to the duration of a 1/96 note, which can be determined by the BPM value - "Beats (quarter notes) per minute". For traditional reasons, the default settings are usually 125 BPM (1/50 s) or 150 BPM (1/60 s), because these values were advantageous for Amiga games. However, the value can be changed at any time during the piece by means of an effect command.
The primary timing is primarily used to implement effects such as volume or pitch gradients. For the actual composition, however, such short notes are usually not required, and the entry in table form would be very confusing with such a short time frame. This is why the speed setting can be used to divide the primary timing down to a lower rate, the so-called secondary timing . The default value is 6, which means that each table line lasts 1/16 of a note. This can also be changed at any time within the piece using an effect command.
The composition is entered in table form. The columns represent the channels and the rows represent the secondary timing. Each of the channel columns contains a further subdivision into a column for the pitch , one for the number of the instrument to be played (see below) and one to three columns for the effect commands to be executed .
Reproducibility of the tracker tune sound
Since the tracker pieces are mathematically precisely defined, they sound - in contrast to MIDI files - regardless of the software and hardware used (practically) always the same. In the MIDI format, which does not contain any samples, only commands such as B. Note on / Note off, the missing instrument samples are replaced in an undefined way (e.g. with a hardware-dependent wavetable synthesis ).
However, there are several reasons why the sound of tracker modules can also vary:
- Concept of the sampler implementation, which adjusts the pitch of the samples. In extreme cases, these can differ significantly in terms of sound. B. due to aliasing effects or different interpolation algorithms (linear, polynomial, cubic spline etc.).
- Another reason can be the vague definitions of the effects in the complex tracker module formats , which are then implemented differently by players.
- Rounding errors can lead to slight timing errors, which are noticeable with long samples.
- Or simply through bugs in trackers / players that interpret effect commands or exotic effect sequences in a non-conforming way.
Tracker terms
- A module or MOD is a file format in which the notation, samples and other data of a piece are summarized.
- With the value BPM - "Beats (quarter notes) per minute" - the duration of a 1/96 note is determined. This smallest note duration serves the tracker as an internal time grid and is mainly used to create effects. Since the value is an integer, there are steps of 0.4 Hertz . The default settings are usually 125 BPM (50 Hz) or 150 BPM (60 Hz), because these values were practical for Amiga games. The value can be changed at any time during the piece using an effect command.
- The Tempo value determines the relationship between the internal time cycle (1/96 note, see above) and the external time cycle, which corresponds to a table line in the editor. The default value is 6, which means that a line lasts a 1/16 note.
- A pattern is a section of the piece, typically 64 lines (16 quarter notes, i.e. 4 bars) long. The order of the patterns is determined in the pattern editor .
- A sample is a sound recording, usually a single sound, but it can also be a more complex recording, e.g. B. Be singing.
- In older trackers the term instrument is synonymous with “sample”, in newer trackers it describes an abstract structure in which different samples can be used for different pitches in order to obtain a more realistic sound. An envelope is also possible.
- The C-4 frequency is the sampling rate of a sample when playing the note C-4, slightly different between the individual tracker standards. Fasttracker II defines z. B. a standard value of 8363 Hz. The C-4 frequency is changed either by "tuning" the instrument (see RelNote and fine tuning) or - z. E.g. with Digitrakker - by directly entering the desired frequency (e.g. "44100 Hz"). With some trackers (e.g. ModPlug Tracker ), C-5 serves as the basis, not C-4, whereby the same note is meant here - the entire keyboard is only shifted up an octave.
- The RelNote and Finetuning values offer the possibility of tuning the instruments in semitone steps or 1/128 semitone steps. This effectively changes the C-4 frequency of the sample.
- Depending on the frequency model , the pitch is shown internally either (type “Amiga”) as a quotient of a very high frequency or (type “linear”) as an exponent. The latter model always has the same number of intermediate steps between two semitones. Some effects (e.g. sliding) sound quite different depending on the model, which is why some trackers can be switched.
Formats
Depending on the editor used or the requirements that the piece of music had to meet, a large number of file formats were created primarily through the "community" of the " demo groups ". For some (also current) programs such as B. Winamp , XMPlay or XMMS , there are plug-ins from third parties to play these formats. The particularly popular MOD, XM, IT and S3M formats can often even be played directly without the need for plug-ins. Especially when it comes to post-processing, the modules have the decisive advantage of containing all the necessary information and also being editable. In parallel to the jungle of file formats, there is a consensus when it comes to importing foreign formats. This includes above all the support of the original Amiga MOD files, as well as (later) the well-known PC formats XM , IT and S3M .
| format | description |
|---|---|
| * .669 | 669 composer by Tran / Renaissance (8 channels). |
| * .BRT | BeRoTracker (256 channels, extended capabilities and effects from sound plugins). |
| * .DBM | DigiboosterPro module (4–128 channels). Amiga module format, which can also be loaded by Modplug (PC). |
| * .DMF | d-lusion Digital Music File. Format of X-Tracker (32 channels). |
| * .FAR | Farandole tracker module (16 channels). |
| * .HSC | HSC tracker module (9 Adlib channels). Module format that was used (not only) in games by neo Software. |
| * .AMD | Elyssis Amusic tracker module (9 Adlib channels). Module format, which was mainly used in intros, demos or Adlib Music Disks. |
| * .IT | Impulse tracker module (256 internal channels, 64 directly editable). |
| * .MED | OctaMed modules. |
| * .LIQ | Liquid tracker module (64 channels). |
| * .MDL | DigiTrakker (functionality similar to * .XM) |
| *. MOD | Protracker module (4 channels). Original module format used in the Commodore Amiga. Some variations, e.g. B. those of the FastTracker allow up to 32 channels |
| * .MT2 | MadTracker 2 module (64 channels and effects from sound plugins). |
| * .MTM | Multitracker module (32 channels). |
| * .AST | All Sound Tracker (32 channels for sound cards with EMU8000 chipset, Soundblaster AWE32 / 64) |
| * .NST | Soundtracker or noise tracker module (4 channels). This is also an Amiga format. |
| *. OCT | Octalyzer module (8 channels). |
| * .PSM | ProTracker Studio module. |
| * .PTM | PolyTracker module. |
| *. S3M | Scream Tracker 3 module (32 digital and / or 9 AdLib channels). Very widespread next to MOD. |
| * .SFX | SoundFX 1.3 module (4 channels). This is a slightly modified soundtracker format. |
| * .STM | Scream Tracker module (4 channels with 8 bit). This is the predecessor of the * .S3M format. |
| *. TFX | TFMX editor module (up to 7 channels). It is mainly used on the Amiga, e.g. B. for Turrican II (Amiga version). |
| * .ULT | Ultra tracker module format in connection with the PC-ISA sound card "Gravis Ultrasound". |
| *. XM | FastTracker2 module (32 channels, maximum 16-bit instruments with attributes). One of the most important formats. |
| *. XRNS | New free file format for tracker modules based on XML , ZIP and FLAC . |
List of trackers
For an overview of current and historical tracker implementations, see List of Trackers .
literature
- Rene TA Lysloff, Leslie C. Gay (Eds.): Music and technoculture. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown CT 2003, ISBN 0-8195-6513-X , pp. 37-38 , pp. 50 , p. 58 .
Web links
- Claudio Matsuoka: Time diagram about the development of the tracker - helllabs.org (English)
- The Tracker's Handbook v0.5 - January 10, 1999, Matthew Coulson (English) MS-DOC format
- Andrew 'Necros' Sega : Taking Tracking Mainstream Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5 Presentation at the notacon conference, April 27, 2007
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Claudio Matsuoka: Tracker History Graphing Project . helllabs.org. November 4, 2007. Retrieved January 29, 2011: " Tracker History Graph "
- ↑ a b Information about IT files and unreal games . Alexander Brandon , epicgames.com (1999, English)
- ↑ Interview with Alex Brandon. deusex-machina.com, accessed on January 15, 2011 (English).
- ↑ Sean Davidson: Trance Mushrooms to Infect Pune ( English ) In: The Times of India . January 3, 2003. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
- ↑ a b Andy Jones: From a Distance: The Virtual Collaboration that Helped Score The Sims 2 DS / GBA ( English ) In: Gamasutra . January 10, 2006. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
- ^ Andrew Leonard: Mod love . In: Salon.com . Salon Media Group. April 29, 1999. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved on May 17, 2010: “ [Tracker musicians] […] see an affinity between the" seeing the music "aspect of tracking and the code accessibility of open-source software. [...] free music, free software, free advice. I think it's [the tracking scene] a close cousin of the Linux scene. The parallels are striking. "
- ↑ a b Top Trackers . In: Future Publishing Ltd (Ed.): Computer Music Magazine . No. 113, June 2007. Retrieved in 2007. “ Tracker! The amazing free music software giving the big boys a run for their money. "
- ↑ IGN Staff: Nanoloop - Game Boy Color Review. (No longer available online.) IGN, March 8, 2001, archived from the original on April 28, 2009 ; accessed on November 27, 2011 (English): " IGN Ratings for Nanoloop (GBC): 9 of 10, (" Amazing ") " Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Karen Collins: Game sound: an introduction to the history, theory, and practice of video game music and sound design ( English ) MIT Press . S. 58. 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
- ↑ Karen Collins: MIDI and MOD format ( English , PDF; 524 kB) gamessound.com. June 2007. Archived from the original on August 6, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
- ↑ Mark Wright: Retrospective - Karsten Obarski ( English ) textfiles.com . March 1998. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
- ↑ Martin Walker: PC Music Freeware Roundup ( English ) In: Sound on Sound . July 2004. Retrieved on May 29, 2010: “ Way back in 1987, Karsten Obarski came up with his SoundTracker software for Commodore's Amiga platform, which provided hardware support for playing back up to four samples simultaneously at differing sample rates. "
- ↑ Martin Walker: PC Music Freeware Roundup ( English ) In: Sound on Sound . June 1, 2004. Retrieved on May 29, 2010: " When PCs first came of age for music making in the mid '90s, ScreamTracker was one of the first music software packages to appear with sample support [...] "
- ^ E. Vincent Young: The Best of TraxWeekly ( English ) novusmusic.com. May 31, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2011.
- ↑ TraxWeekly, the complete archive 1995–199 ( English , zip; 2.0 MB) MilkyTracker. Retrieved February 17, 2011.
- ↑ Nasenbluten Discography at Discogs ( Memento from October 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Noisekick Discography at Discogs ( Memento from April 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Taking Tracking Mainstream Part 1 on youtube.com (English)
- ↑ Todd L. Burns: Deadmau5: It's complicated ( English ) residentadvisor.net. September 30, 2008. Retrieved September 3, 2014: “ I was in my Mom's basement tooling away on Impulse Tracker on a 386 just doing Nintendo music until some Loop Library company hired me as a producer. "
- ↑ a b Simon V .: Sampler anti-aliasing and pitch-shifting comparison ( English ) www.simonv.com. May 8, 2001. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
- ↑ a b Matthias Ziegs: Resampling quality in comparison . MAZ sound tools. 2005. Archived from the original on March 8, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
- ↑ Stefan Göhler: 1991 - competition! - (Advanced) Gravis Ultrasound . In: Phonomenal! . crossfire-designs.de. P. 9. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
- ↑ Player abuse tests ( English ) schismtracker.org. August 1, 2009. Archived from the original on June 23, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 6, 2011.
