I was in the same situation a few months ago. Basically, I got started by looking at other people's stuff that I liked and seeing what they did. For me, the trick was quantity over quality - I learned to move on to the next piece rather than spending hours trying to fix a crappy old one. Of course, as you improve you want to spend more and more time perfecting your pieces. (Although, I'm not one to talk since I'm still no expert tracker or anything.)

Out of curiosity, What kind of music are you looking to make?

>>4066
Oops, I just realized that I started in October 2005, so it's actually been about a year.

VC: reepe (You gonna get reeped)

First, you find a program you like and stick with it. If you keep swapping programs, your chances of becoming better decrease, since you'll be in a perpetual state of learning programs.

http://muchan.org/stuff/tracker-tutorial.rar

Well, it really depends on what format you want. If you want to make some old 8-bit music, I suggest FamiTracker: http://famitracker.shoodot.net/ (it's soon to have the VRC6 expansion chip emulated! :D)

On the other hand, if you want MIDIs, you could try Anvil Studio ( http://www.anvilstudio.com/ ) or Midget 3.5 ( http://www.silverblade.co.uk/software/midget/ ). Midget's a tracker program, Anvil Studio primarily isn't, but it does have a piano roll.

Then there's MODs, where I recommend Impulse Tracker (beware — all but two of the song links on the download page are dead: http://www.lim.com.au/ImpulseTracker/ ).

Or you could do what ClownStaples did — make a Windows sound masterpiece entirely with Sound Recorder. :D (attached)

（ ´∀｀ ）＜ As for me, it's Piston Collage-chan!

Download it at at hxxp://homepage2.nifty.com/rochet/storage/pxtone_0719.zip, delete or rename the file "japanese.ico" to make the program english. It is easy to use and wonderful.

I remember when I was in your shoes OP. Modplug was where I got my start. Here's some various things that I wish someone had told me on the nitty gritty level:
-Modplug is what I started with, I used it to make my additions to the theme song. Use it for now because it's very low frills on the surface but can be used to do great things so it leaves room for learning and expansion.
-Get some square or sine sounds to use as samples. Those things aren't built into most programs (I wish I were)
-For most trackers, after choosing a column and row, press a letter key on the keyboard to choose a pitch/frequency for your selected sound. All the things I looked at and advice I got never said this and I discovered it by accident.

• Try not to get too hooked. Days dissapear while you are tracking and you will only be half done with the song, believe me. It's also just plain addictive, I for example just bought a $500 korg synth sequencer with square, saw etc. capabilities so I can do chiptune rap remixes live at my sets. This can get all consuming so watch yourself (i.e. do not ignore girlfriends, health, pets, urges to use bathroom, anything else videogames tend to cause)
• You will have a LOT of unfinished projects. Look at the experts like coda and nobu~ with all of their stuff in the unfinished project thread. I also have thousands of tunes that end right after they get good because about after 20 seconds of music I decided it wasn't going anywhere and I dropped it. Don't get discouraged!

-Finally, like in all forms of music: copy the experts. Not like Jet and every rock band from the 1960-70's but literally ctrl-c. If you find yourself wondering "how did he make it warble like that?" this is kind of like open source music in that you can open it up and see exacly how. ctrl-C that effect and use it for yourself. Then play with it, you'll be surprised what you'll be able to do.

--------------
You know, I think it would be cool if this board had a N00B doc. I've seen a few threads like this in my time and I think it would help the shy gain the courage to try this themselves. There are plenty out there but usually by one or two people, this way they'd have a whole board's input in a beginner's doc.
Coda? Nobu? Anon? Oontz Oontz Oontz? anything you guys could say to help?

(Un?)Suprisingly, I daresay that it's not a bad idea to try out tracking in craptracker first, and play around with pxtone for awhile to see which method of input you like better; tracker notation or piano roll. I started out with a piano roll based thing (FL Studio), so in order to track, I've got to mentally divide the columns into beats so I can figure out where to start and end notes.

Trackers do have the perk of awesome/unique arpegiating, portemento (note slide) and vibrato (warbling) functions built in, while pxtone doesn't have all of these (it lacks an arpegiate and a vibrato function). Fancy pants sequencers typically have all of these, but finding them is a son of a bitch. Fancy sequencers also typically cost money. Not that that will stop Anonymous from getting them, but still...

Every platform has its benefits, its downsides and its crazy quirks that you get to know and love if you use it for long enough. I must agree with >>4068 and say regardless of what you pick to make stuff with, once you find a program that you like, stick with it, learn its intracies and you'll do fine. With the technical part, at least. Inspiration - you're on your own for that one.

>>4068

agree

I reccomend modplug tracker if you're getting into tracking because it's the easiest one to use and doesn't require you to use DOS.

Also, piano rolls aren't for everyone. I hated how most of them force you to try and imagine beats as just one big sheet instead of split into logical cells, but that's just me.

So far this is good stuff, but what do I do in the way of samples for Modplug?

Yeah I'm pretty new myself.. I've been using renoise for about a week now.. making random crap.. but I fail to find good samples.. you guys have any links?

I just discovered the joy of vsts.. I'd still like some samples though..

okay here's the deal. to get samples with modplug you can either use samples from your MIDI bank (check the left panel) or copypaste them from other tunes. You got my permission to use a few samples I made for my own tunes as long as you don't use a bunch! Either that or give credit. 8)

(someone out there who I knew basically took all the samples I made and made songs out of it without giving credit so that rather annoyed me cause I knew who they were lol)

or of course you can make your own samples, that's easy enough right?

taking samples from other songs is pretty common, and not giving credit maybe is a little more common than not. old amiga songs often use stuff from the "ST-xx" sampledisks to the point that those samples are essentially public domain. lots of other samples are taken directly from keyboards, and it's not as if the person who ripped the sample now owns that keyboard patch.

stealing too much from one song is kind of rude and newbish (for lack of a better term), but i consider modules to be 'open source music' :)

>>4103
ok heer u go
http://djsamples.com/
http://www.oneshotsamples.com/
http://www.analoguesamples.com/
http://www.guraydere.com/soundfonts/
http://www.ts-central.com/sounds.php
(lol)

>>4112 >>4103
http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/
http://ccmixter.org/

vc:poutch

>>4102

If you buy renoise, you can make your own samples within the program. works wonders for workflow. renoise is my choice 'virtual studio' program.

Woo, lots of links.. and I will mention you if I rob you of your samples nobu <3...
I feel bad I pirated renoise, but I'm so broke...
I've been playing with the editing abilities of it, its great that I dont have to switch to audacity or something when I'm chopping beats out of drum samples...
Thanks for the tips guys.. I'll be sure to post something when I actually start getting the timing factor down.. I normally smash buttons on my synth until it sounds nice... the change from physical to mental/digital is odd to me.

I can give you a hint with that, too. Unlike sequencers, trackers made sense to me because getting timing down is a snap. It's all about dividing numbers. Say you want a generic drum beat? make a hi-hat every frame, a bass drum every 4 frames, a snare every 8. There you have it. Want to add generic strings? Change chords every 16 frames. Bass? Okay, up and down in the octaves every 2 frames isn't THAT generic.... or is it? XD

Here's an example mod I made demonstrating this. Looking at its simple construction might inspire you to try your own thing. (warning: song is incomplete!) :B

http://humblefool.net/music/src/NOBU_MODULE.IT

That helps ALOT, thanks... I'm working on a track now... happy-chillout kinda thing.. which is odd for me because I'm usually a hardrave/trance/breakbeat/IDM person...

I should stop rambling now.. I feel like my writing is all over the place...

>>4124
Enabling row highlighting helps a lot.

Bump in shallow mockery of this being stickied.

Secondary age for usefullness' sake.

i don't know if anyone gave a shit but >>4069 is now at http://bad-end.org/stuff/tracker-tutorial.rar

>>4117 whah, renoise can make samples? in what way? ft2-way or fancy hitech generation?
gotta get over that it's ft2-based and start using it.. revisit seems to take awhile before fully usable anyway...

this thread is a useful thread

a useful thread to read

read this thread

Age, this is useful.

Nobu, NOBU_MODULE.IT isn't working. 404 error. Could you please reupload?

Personally, I use the tool NO ONE uses to make my tracks, but I like it, Madtracker 2

http://madtracker.org

A windows imitation of FT2, with vsts and tracks automation, some samples offered and some other cool shit, and you can export in OGG directly in the non-paid version, making your name as mine heh!

how doyou do that

see this spreadsheet?

i use it to make the music

>>7253
hello ryoji ikeda