new to MODPlug

[RAAAGED]

I was just inspired by a few songs that I heard and the fact that artist composed all of the songs on a Yamaha QY70. Now I want to get into making my own heavy metal style songs like these: http://www.muzie.co.jp/cgi-bin/artist.cgi?id=a026193 scroll down the page and download St. Scarhand it is already one of my favorite songs without vocals.

I was wondering if the modplug tracker is the right program I should be using. The only kind of music I want to make is heavy metal like AKIMONOID or 8-bit music similar to the music in the megaman games because a lot of it reminds me of metal or grindcore. I love heavy metal without vocals so it would be awesome if I could make my own tracks.

I already did the beginner tutorial and read the wiki, everything seems easy enough. Do I just need rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass, drum and synth samples now? How do I make samples? How should I get started?

[LPChip]

Yeah, Modplug is your friend here.

I recommend in addition to samples, to also use a VST. It will allow you to get much better overdrive and such on your guitar.

There are nice VST's you can download, but I personally still favor this one: http://files.lpchip.nl/temp/g-amp_classic.7z

Put a guitar sampled instrument behind it, and even if the quality of the guitar is not that good, it will sound great.

Add some drums, and 80% of the song is done XD (ok, not exactly, but it really helps)

[RAAAGED]

What is a VST again? I have no idea what the common abbreviations for tracking are so if there's a faq or list of abbreviations a link would be nice.

[LPChip]

What is a VST again? I have no idea what the common abbreviations for tracking are so if there's a faq or list of abbreviations a link would be nice.

A VST effect is a plugin that you can load in OpenMPT. I'm not entirelly sure what VST stands for, but it is being used as a term on its own.

I googled for the meaning of VST and it means: Virtual Studio Technology.

Basically its an external program (plugin) that allows you to modify any sound using a few knobs/sliders and give the sound a new meaning.

The plugin I mentioned above, is an amplifier plugin, which will simulate electric guitars. I use it myself, and the best power will come when you play 2 or more notes together (too much will destroy the sound though).

I usually play a D and a G together to get that familiar rock sound.

Note, even on a saw or square waveform, this will sound nice.

[Sam_Zen]

ModPlug is a fine tool for this indeed.
BTW: In fact there are two categories for plugins afaik : VST and VSTi. THe 'i' stands for instrument.
The difference between an effect module, needing an input source, and a 'synth' as a sound-source itself.

Of course VST offers a lot more possibilities and control. Working (almost) exclusively with samples is a different situation.
So if one wants to start working with OMPT, it's quite important for the development, to make a choice how to start.
Do you want to start with complex hitech apps, or start at the basic, and going on step by step ?

As basics, here are two examples, you can play around with.
1) A 'primitive' MOD file, only 4 channels and lofi-samples : Hevtest
2) A more complicated (it uses loops of sounds, instead of one single sound) XM file, 12 channels, still lofi-samples : Fear Facts 5
Playing around :
~ Solo a Channel, play and check the pattern-codes which are used (how it's done), in connection to what you hear.
~ Loop a pattern of the row. Play around with muting/unmuting channels.
~ Change playback speed, duplicate or remove patterns, replace or modificate samples.

[Harbinger]

Think of VSTs as pedal effects for guitars except they can be applied to any instrument, and alter digital data rather than acoustic data. I've gotten pretty good at using and VSTs (and VSTi's) so if you need help, look thru the forum threads and if you don't see a clear answer, just make a new thead with a detailed question.

VSTi's are usually used instead of samples. They give you the ability to have your own synthesizers within your tracking program and most of the parameters in the synth can be attenuated with Zxx FX (which i'm sure you'll learn about later).

One thing to keep in mind about MPT, it's not a SEQUENCER, like you see in Cakewalk, Master Tracks Pro, or internally in many hi-end synths from Korg and Roland. With a tracker like MPT, you bring in the samples you want to use. There are two advantages to this: one, this makes a tracker file (like .it's, .xm's and .mod's) self-contained -- all you need is the software to play that format that it's in. Secondly, you can alter the playing of the sounds within each note using Note Effects (different file formats have different Note Effect commands, though most are shared).

I have used many programs in both Mac and Windows, and for a free, open-sourced application, ModPlug outshines them all. Still room for improvement, but you can do a lot with it (i'm still learning new ways that MPT can handle my inspirations!).

[Dictator]

Beware of making metal music with MPT: it isn't that easy. It was a lot harder than I had thought when I embarked on that road.

Guitars are perhaps the hardest part. LPChip already recommended G-Amp and it is a good amp, if limited in effects. Other amps I would recommend you to try are FreeAmp (different versions available, 1.5 SE and 2.0), SimuAnalog Guitar Suite (contains also other tools but the JCM amp is excellent), VoxengoBoogex and Extremist (both found on VSTPlanet. If you are a guitar player, you should already have experience in using amps but otherwise it's just a matter of trial and error (and good samples) to get the right sound out of them.

For the samples, you can look around here on the forum and may find some. Be sure to check this archive, it has some guitars. There are also some VST instruments for guitars.

For the drums, there are threads around here on the forum. Bass should be easy to find. For synth you can use VST instruments or get samples, but I haven't yet looked into that much.

In case you are not familiar with heavy metal music theory, you practically only get the right sound out of the guitars when playing power chords, i.e. chords which are perfect fifths, for example C and G together. Sometimes an octave is added to this. If other notes are played than the ones assiocated with power chords, the distortion ensures that the chord will sound... rubbish. All this is different with lead guitar because it doesn't always play chords.

Remember to ask around here if you need more information. This is a friendly community.

[Sam_Zen]

Yep, Dictator, nice tip about perfect fifths.

As Harbinger states, a tracker isn't a sequencer.
And with samples, tracker-modules are not only self-contained, but the filesize is also 99% independent of the duration of the song.

If you choose for using samples from the web, don't expect them to be perfect. There are a lot of sloppy-made samples around.
So even if you don't make the samples yourself, you could have work to do, to enhance the quality.
I wrote some pages about this here.
Where one can find a small collection of several kinds of samples as well.

If you do want to make your own samples, a small wav-editor like Sound Engine is sufficient.