Yes, we are no longer using tracked music in games. But we are also not using Cubase project files in games!
We
should be using tracked music in games and demos. Especially demos. But you only find synths in 64k demos these days. I don't think soft synths should be a gimmick, it should be embraced as an intricate component of the software. So many good games and demos gain character by having dynamic real-time sound engines, etc. Not some MP3 player to include in your demo/game.
Trackers have exactly the same future as sequencers and any other type of DAW when you look at it from that standpoint.
[...]
Tracks have just the same right to exist as any other DAW in this scenario. They don't even need sophisticated synth engines, because most sequencers don't have them either. Plugins are the answer to that, and have been for the last 20 years.
[...]
With plugins, you can just use whatever synth sounds best or is the most powerful, and you can keep switching at any point in time without having to re-learn your workflow.
I'm not insulting trackers or saying they have no right to exist. Obviously trackers now compete with DAWs, and share the same VST plugins. That's their future. Renoise is really just a DAW that spits out WAV/MP3/OGG, using the same plugins and concepts as any other DAW. OpenMPT doesn't escape from this fate really.
I'm talking about "Module files" like MOD, S3M, XM, IT. There's simply no true successor to them. MPTM and XRNS aren't successors because they no longer act as standalone modules, they're just project/session files.
I like synth VSTs more than most people, but there's nothing interesting or cool about them. They're not suited to precise control offered by trackers, we can't even do perfect pitch slides like we do with samples! They're the same tools mainstream producers use. 4k synths have no problem with these limitations, because they don't adhere to crappy corporate standards. VST3 is also pretty hated by many devs. No one gives a crap about LV2 or LADSPA, since they're not multiplatform or just not important enough.
I like the 'tidiness' of a music module, where everything is self contained. I miss the whole scene of sharing mods, swapping samples. VST ruined this spirit and soul of mod music. Because it forced everyone to distribute in MP3. XRNS and MPTM files have no place in Modarchve. There's less than 1% available such files on the net vs what the MOD/XM scene has built. That says a lot about post-XM tracker communities.
The question then becomes, was it a mistake to release everyone's PT/FT2 source files?! Or are we being held back and alienated by our tools?
I use a DAW primarily, I never got into 'track editing' first. But I appreciate tracking for the precision it offers. But VST has no real precision. You are limited to the controls exposed by the plugin, and often don't have the range of pitch bend you want, or this or that.
I've used many 'synth trackers', 'chip trackers', that allow for incredible variation and dynamics of synth instruments. OctaMED, AHX, Musicline Editor, and modern niche things on Github - Klystrack, FMComposer, SunVox, Patatracker... you name it. but that's the problem, they're niche, experimental. There's no true successor to XM/IT. No 'one true format'.
IT had filters... Modplug added built in FX... all supported by libopenmpt. but where's the built in synths?! That's the obvious missing thing.
There's no reason why someone can't code minimalist clones of Albino, or Synth1, or this or that, really nicely optimized, and have it built into a tracker, playing nicely with FX inserts and all this - and making it work through libopenmpt in mediaplayers and browsers.
I am tired of the same old rendering to WAV, encoding to MP3... Obsessing over mixing and mastering, just for 10 views on SC/BC. I want to
build my music, engineer it - carefully build instruments and drumsets around tiny Opus encoded samples, use real synth engines - and have a <100KB 'new mod' file, sounding just as good as any DAW, to share and collaborate around. I miss those days of 'sizecoding music', 4k chip files and such. I can already make my project files in my DAW quite tiny, and still sounding good, but no such thing exists in the tracker world.
Edit: Don't take this as some sort of feature request.. I'm only saying that in an alternate future, maybe if Renoise was designed a bit differently, like with real time in mind, maybe it would have its own 'plugin spec' or open source sound engine.. and we'd have Renoise support in Xmplay, foobar, see Renoise in demos with really impressive synth sounds... see renoise files being created and shared rapidly like in the old days, on sites like modarchive etc.