[Trance-ish] Something New (.mp3)

[EarthBound015]

Something New

Yes, the name of the song is indeed Something New, the reason being, I am new to trackers and am trying my hand in it.  This is the second song I am making the first is almost finished, but I'm having no problems with it.  

This one on the other hand is driving me crazy, I do not know what VSTi's I should use to go with what it sounds like, it seems no matter what I try, it sounds strange.  I really enjoy my bass-line and would rather not change it, but we'll see.  

I was wondering if you guys would give it a listen, it isn't very long as of now, and maybe give me a few pointers?

Edit by Mod: Fixed title

[Rakib]

If you are new to trackers, maybe you should skip the vst-part at first and just work with samples/instruments. There are several guides for vst's if you really want to dig into the secrets chamber of vst.

http://openmpt.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome
This is the wiki for modplug

The song:

Do you have a version with better quality? This version is not so good. If you dont have a better mp3 encoder, may I suggest the open source codec ogg.

The song is very short, and is basically just a bass line. How about having other instruments and melody? If you need free samples, how about check out this page. http://www.vengeance-sound.com/
I use samples from them on my songs.

But if you a willing to use some money for samples, I suggest buying some of the samples from this page http://www.vengeance-sound.com
I use samples from them on some of my songs.

[Harbinger]

If you are new to trackers, maybe you should skip the vst-part at first and just work with samples/instruments. There are several guides for vst's if you really want to dig into the secrets chamber of vst.

I wholeheartedly agree. VSTi's are really great but get well accustomed to working with MPT first, especially using the Note FX (like Ixx for tremolo and Yxx for Panbrello). Do a search on these topics as they've been widely discussed in this forum. There are also pages devoted to describing Note FX and channel FX.

VSTi's are a little more complicated but if you're new to MPT you'll just end up pulling your hair out trying to figure out how to make them work. I've evolved to working almost exclusively with VSTi's instead of samples, but there are downsides which aren't obvious:

1. VSTi's are like having your own keyboard synthesizers that you stick into your computer (but without the keyboard). This means they hog a lot of CPUs, so if you have anything less than, say, 400 mHz speed, you may have difficulty listening to your own compositions thru MPT (altho MPT will record the song to .wav just fine). If you have one of the newest machines that run at least 1Ghz clock speed, you'll hafta work to get your computer to have problems running even several VSTi's -- you shouldn't have any problems until you start trying to run several high-end VSTi's simultaneously.
2. Many Note and Channel FX do not work with VSTi's, so you have to learn to use the Zxx FX, which turn the knobs and switches on your VSTi, so to speak. This is a little complicated but it's documented in these forums (just search under the term "Zxx").
3. Whenever you use VSTi's in a mod format, such as .it or .xm, they will not play if you listen to the song in a player like XMPlay or even the ModPlug Player. They will only be heard by trackers like MPT that can use VSTi plug-ins. So if you want to always hear your song with the VSTi's, you need to export to .wav (good idea) or .mp3 (poor quality from MPT).

But the benefits far outweigh these few disadvantages so train yourself well with using samples and instruments to make music, then graduate to VSTi's when you notice the quality of your tracks increasing.... :wink:

[LPChip]

Hey EarthBound Good to see you here.

I know you found the wiki already cus you told me that you liked my tutorial.

Now about the song:
Not bad for a 2nd song. You might want to try adding a melody to it, and if you did a direct export to wav, and thus not getting higher export settings than 56kbit (which I can understand, cus thats the default) then try to download the lame mp3 encoder dll file and place it in your directory. That'll allows you to exprt to mp3 in higher settings.

[Saga Musix]

3. Whenever you use VSTi's in a mod format, such as .it or .xm, they will not play if you listen to the song in a player like XMPlay or even the ModPlug Player. They will only be heard by trackers like MPT that can use VSTi plug-ins. So if you want to always hear your song with the VSTi's, you need to export to .wav (good idea) or .mp3 (poor quality from MPT).

"trackers like MPT"... you can strike the "like". OpenMPT is the only tracker that supports VSTs. Also, MPT does not generate "poor quality mp3s", it's just that you need something else than the Fraunhofer "advanced" mp3 encoder that's built into windows. the only thing that's advanced in this version is that its maximum encoding rate is at 56kbit. Downloading LAME and putting it into MPT's directory will work, but I suggest rendering to WAV and then to OGG anyway.

say, 400 mHz speed

i wouldn't be so sure about that either. Many VSTis will eat all your CPU even if you have a GHz machine.

[Relabsoluness]

3. Whenever you use VSTi's in a mod format, such as .it or .xm, they will not play if you listen to the song in a player like XMPlay or even the ModPlug Player. They will only be heard by trackers like MPT that can use VSTi plug-ins. So if you want to always hear your song with the VSTi's, you need to export to .wav (good idea) or .mp3 (poor quality from MPT).

"trackers like MPT"... you can strike the "like". OpenMPT is the only tracker that supports VSTs.

Just to avoid misunderstandings: that statement should not be taken out of the context; generally speaking OpenMPT is not the only tracker that supports VSTs.

[Saga Musix]

I am talking about files created with MPT, though.

[EarthBound015]

Thanks for all the quick replies!  I will take your advice and work on the samples side of things for a while to understand more about MPT.  When my first song is done, I'll upload it and show it off .  I do have LAME, but I didn't think of copying it to the MPT directory instead of Audacity .  

Thanks again m'new friends!  I'll be sure to check out your songs and take notes and come back with something all my own with what I have learned!

[uncloned]

nice for a first try - I agree it could use some development.