a history of tracking software - A trip down memory lane

[Exhale]

For anyone who would like to take a trip down memory lane with me, I am getting all the nostalgia fuzzy feelings while watching this...
I hope you enjoy it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roBkg-iPrbw

Video name : Trackers: The Sound of 16-Bit
youtuber : Ahoy

ps - yeah there might be some wrong things in this video too, so if you want you can discuss them here or even on the comments for the video

[Saga Musix]

ps - yeah there might be some wrong things in this video too, so if you want you can discuss them here or even on the comments for the video

In fact, this video is really accurate and well-presented, probably one of the best on the topic for a more general audience.

The only thing I kinda missed at the end is how tracker music can still be beneficial in games even today, allowing things that are impossible or difficult to achieve with streamed music, thanks to direct access to the individual notes and channels. But then again this is rarely done, so I can see why it wasn't mentioned.

[Exhale]

yeah there are still some amazing advantages to tracked music in a game and in general, things like the distinct sound of tracker music with the arpegios for example - the whole chiptune scene is still somewhat popular and vaporwave has a lot of distinctly tracker stuff, and of corse the demoscene still exists to a degree I think...
idk I love modplug so much, the nostalgia of this whole vid, especially the part about 32 min in where he talks very shortly about impulse tracker and plays one of my favorite demo songs that came with it, had chills going down my back because of how much I loved impulse and how important it was to my young teenage years...
I was pretty reluctant to move to modplug because of my love for impulse, but then with dos becoming less and less a part of the pc scene I was eventually forced to move to modplug and I started learning it... and loving it... anyways... nostalgia overload...
I really needed that today.

[Saga Musix]

yeah there are still some amazing advantages to tracked music in a game and in general, things like the distinct sound of tracker music with the arpegios for example - the whole chiptune scene is still somewhat popular and vaporwave has a lot of distinctly tracker stuff, and of corse the demoscene still exists to a degree I think...

That's not an advantage of using tracker music in a game though, that's the advantage of writing the music in the tracker. There are definitely many more games still using music that was written in a tracker but then exported to streaming format than there are games directly using the tracked music in the game itself, which was the point of the video.

[Exhale]

I admit I come from a non programmer perspective and am just thinking about the world of sound and those things I love about tracked music from a purely sounds perspective, the things that make tracked songs sound unique. I dont mean to undermine the theme of the video if that is what you mean. For me it was mostly a trip down memory lane, all the wonderful steps along the way and the sounds... it was a good history.

[Saga Musix]

What I mean there is plenty of retro-sounding music in games even today (obviously not in your typical AAA shooter game but there's so much more games out there), and you will hear many arpeggios in them, but 99% of them won't use actual tracker music for playback. that was the point of the video. One recent example I can think of is "Baba Is You", which has a soundtrack completely tracked in OpenMPT, but the game plays the music as streaming files for the sake of simplicity.

[The Muzykant]

Oh amazing! it is nice that others here also know about that video! I was so astonished by it! It was as if someone took my interests and gave it an excellent comprehensive documentary covering all the little aspects of them.

[Relabsoluness]

Great video, hardly would have stumbled upon it without this topic.

[Saga Musix]

Back to the BBS - Part 7: The Music Tracker Scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xswbw18DPWM

Including interviews with people such as Skaven, Purple Motion, cTrix, TDK and others!

[Exhale]

Back to the BBS - Part 7: The Music Tracker Scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xswbw18DPWM

Including interviews with people such as Skaven, Purple Motion, cTrix, TDK and others!

Ooo that one looks good, thank you
I insta subbed

[dem1]

The only thing I kinda missed at the end is how tracker music can still be beneficial in games even today, allowing things that are impossible or difficult to achieve with streamed music, thanks to direct access to the individual notes and channels. But then again this is rarely done, so I can see why it wasn't mentioned.

My imagination has failed me. Can you give some examples of these difficult or impossible things that require individual note access?

[Saga Musix]

You can change the pitch and tempo of background music individually without ugly time-stretching artifacts, and any granularity you desire. You could even just change individual notes if you wanted. Direct synchronization of on-screen events with the pattern data is trivial to do without having to incorporate any additional synchronization data. Individual instruments can be added and removed without any increase in asset size - so technically that is also possible without modules but comes with a cost. Same for rearranging individual parts of the song in any order you want, without having to create a stream for each possible combination. All of these are not theoretical, but I only know of a single company experimenting with this in recent years (Audiomatik).

[dem1]

Right, those are all pretty nice to have. Thanks!