Mod Archive Forums

Music Production => MilkyTracker => Tracking => MilkyTracker Feature Requests => Topic started by: leondustar on August 30, 2022, 07:35:54

Title: new milkytracker features in the making
Post by: leondustar on August 30, 2022, 07:35:54
Make no misstake, milkytracker is still being maintained, like receiving bugfixes (thx SagaMusix) and features are being cooked as we speak.

dev brainstorm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as9Ii0pt8dE

screenshots: https://gist.github.com/coderofsalvation/7e932c3f777b845f5974386c42632264

info here: https://github.com/milkytracker/MilkyTracker/pulls
Title: Re: new milkytracker features in the making
Post by: theorize on August 31, 2022, 08:53:58
This is very good news! I'll check it out immediately! I haven't logged on to the mod archive in a very long time, but I came here specifically because I remembered that there was a dedicated board to MilkyTracker here. I'm so glad to see that it's still in development. I just installed it for the first time in ages and on this huge monitor I'm using (TV actually) it's interface looks AMAZING. I just spent like an hour setting the colors.... in the next month I'll fill all the preset slots for sure. 
Title: Re: new milkytracker features in the making
Post by: leondustar on August 31, 2022, 09:09:47
good to hear!

> I just spent like an hour setting the colors....

I know this rabbithole haha  ;D

> I just installed it for the first time in ages

There seems to be more interest in trackers these days.
I can't really explain it, perhaps it's because the loudness-wars are over (better soundsystems/headphones/audiolevel metering) in combination with audioplugin-fatigue..
At least, that's what's got me back into milkytracker.

ps. dont forget that the current build has a new feature, just press ctrl+shift+v in the sampleeditor (this opens up an awesome way to generate unique instruments using the pattern editor).
Title: Re: new milkytracker features in the making
Post by: theorize on August 31, 2022, 09:16:23
Oh that's cool I'll try it when I get the chance... didn't oh man I'm drawing a blank on the name I've been so dopey all day... the big competitor to FT2 back in the day... didn't that have a similar feature?

That's great that there's more interest in trackers now... I fell in love back in like 2012 or so with Protrekkr... but I haven't really been active for a while but I'm getting back into it bigtime I've been buying HW synths to sample with, exactly like you say plugin fatigue. Oddly enough though I've been using plugins more lately with renoise... it just depends what tracker I load up... I've been loving using my Roland JD-08 with the FT2 clone because the JD has a decent onboard FX section so I don't have to edit in another program (well still edit for drums). But it really is great to hear it's coming back in style it really is a better way, I hate being married to a track in something like bitwig, just being able to use instruments and tracks in such a whimsical way is reason enough to switch... people who are stuck on Ableton have no idea what it's like to set up 3 tracks with different effects and use the same instrument in all of them for different sections. It's an efficient way to go if you ask me... anyway i'm rambling now sorry.
Title: Re: new milkytracker features in the making
Post by: leondustar on August 31, 2022, 10:55:38
>  the big competitor to FT2 back in the day... didn't that have a similar feature?

Possible, but in those days I wasn't aware of it haha :)
In fact, thanks to my plugin-fatique I'm starting to understand how to properly track/mix music...no more excuses :)

> I fell in love back in like 2012 or so with Protrekkr.

Really loved the soundengine & features.
Iirc there's a guy on this forum who generated gigabytes of instruments for it.
I settled with milkytracker for various other reasons, but definately Protrekkr has some unique things going for it.

> ... it just depends what tracker I load up...

Right, some trackers I use for pure sounddesign, some I use for composing (for example, sunvox allows awesome sounddesign, but milkytracker really gets me into composing-mode).
Luckily the .xi .wav .xm fileformats are somewhat of a gold standard across sample-trackers.

> Roland JD-08 with the FT2 clone

Right, the deadsimple "synth and sampler"-combi can be shockingly productive compared to an  average Bitwig/Ableton plugin-jungle.

ps. if you use milkytracker, then 'modular music' might be interesting for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_music
Milkytracker allows opening multiple modules at the same time without hogging the cpu, therefore it's one of the few 'album'-making environments (instead of a single track-environment like most daw's).
Title: Re: new milkytracker features in the making
Post by: theorize on September 01, 2022, 15:29:09
Hey thanks for the reply I really enjoyed reading it, I think we have very much in common, I'm very happy to have run into you here. I keep on forgetting about SunVox, I've bought it on every platform I could, I think I remember it being on my Palm Pilot back in the day, scratch that I think what was on PP evolved into SunVox... not sure it's been so long. Right before I took an extended break from tracking for years and years I vowed to make it my main tracker. If I hadn't bought Renoise earlier this year I bet I would have been using it for months now. I'm going to go and download it right now, I never used enough to really become comfortable with it... but it does have everything I wanted now that ADSR envelopes finally made it in after all these years, I know the sampler enverlope trick but that seemed like a lot for what usually would be simple stuff. I really need to give it some love because I think with time I could really set up modules that could save time. I agree on it being a great sound design playground... I wonder what great recording chains I could come up with heck even foley might be great in it.
I think I can see exactly where you are coming from with milky making you want to compose I see that as it's greatest strength, I haven't composed in it yet but just loading up a module I started recently in the FT2 clone made me want to, and the layout of everything just is so handy even for looking at other people's modules I really like how there's plenty of room for the sample editor and the tracking window and browser. It really does it for me, like I say especially using this TV as a monitor it sections off everything perfectly. I wish Sunvox had a similar sample editor I always hated the floating window. With a passion actually.
It's a pipe dream, but the ultimate to me would be to have Orangator (or something like it) as a part of Milky... but as a page like the instrument editor and have it render right to an instrument where you could edit and loop the samples all without leaving the tracker... man that would be great. If only I could code.
Your comment on the "synth and sampler combo" and productivity thing was exactly the whole reason I ever bought a HW synth... I found myself never getting anywhere in VST land, often I would sit down and end up on KVR looking at more plugins... there's something inherently anti-productive there for me at least. when I have a tracker running full screen and just my HW and mixer there isn't any room to dick around with anything else. Plus I find myself trying things I normally wouldn't and using the blofeld just begs to make layered sounds which I will often shy away from with plugins because of the way you often have to go about it. not just the blofeld, with any HW all you need to do is just change the MIDI channel on something and boom you have another layer. But I have to admit right now I'm not even using most of my stuff or mixer because of space issue that hopefully I'll have at least majorly improved this weekend when I finish a custom stand I'm building for my desktop units and mount this TV on the wall it should make everything much more accessible. I'm looking forward to sunvox too in a modular environment I for sure layer stuff up all you have to do is connect the dots lol it's so much more comfortable.
Damn I'm rambling again ok have a good one. I ramble on posts a lot. always have. I think I like to write. later.
Title: Re: new milkytracker features in the making
Post by: theorize on September 01, 2022, 16:47:31
Just wanted to say I watched the video and I really like what you are doing with it. The random sample generator is really cool and I really like the addition of the filter in the sample editor, vocoder is a great idea, the master section seems great. It all is awesome actually. Definitely please keep going, I don't know how much I have to donate at once but I'll make a donation this weekend once my bills come out of my account. Anyway I'll shoot you whatever I can this weekend. I gotta say I'm excited to see what's in store for MilkyTracker I like what you've done with it already!

PS please let me know when you want to send out a beta I'd be happy to test it.
Title: Re: new milkytracker features in the making
Post by: leondustar on September 04, 2022, 08:15:16
> I'm very happy to have run into you here.

Likewise, I'm very to have run into YOU :)

Thank you very much for looking into all these things.
I hope you will make some progress with your custom stand, because I know a good physical environment really helps to stay motivated, and tricks the body into all kinds of good stuff.
Many years ago, when I convinced myself to ditch my herculean tracker muscle-memory in favor of 'plugins', I was also going down the KVR rabbithole..always looking for...something..to complete some illusionary emptyness inside me :)
I've learned a lot, but I guess the biggest lesson is that eventually I didn't need all that anymore.

> Orangator (or something like it) as a part of Milky

Yes exactly this! Again, the synth and sampler approach. In that sense I think renoise went a bit too far by becoming a pluginhost..which immediately pushed out the 'zen' of a synth-and-sampler workflow.
On the midi-side I think renoise is great, as well as http://miditracker.org (a very interesting experiment, though I still prefer the sort simple non-floatingwindow grid-ui layout like ft2/milkytracker.).
Title: Re: new milkytracker features in the making
Post by: theorize on September 05, 2022, 04:25:23
I sent you a little something on Gumroad, don't quit your job or anything but like I said I can make it a regular thing... I'm happy to support your work in whatever small way I can, and happy to see Milky back in active development. Maybe it can get some scene use if they are even still using trackers for not 4k stuff. I hope so I find that one of the most fascinating things about the demoscene and it's history. I saw an xbox game a year or so ago that used XM modules, that was REALLY cool, I hope to see more of that kind of thing in the future.

I bookmarked the miditracker I'll have to look into it later I have a special project I'm working on the next couple days I have a deadline.

I'm actually happy about the plugins in renoise, it provides a very convenient way to sample VST's and make multisamples... I really like Tone2 plugins and not sure I could ever really give them up, especially Nemesis.

I've been playing with SunVox the past few days a little, I completely forgot how to structure everything and having to relearn a lot of connecting up the modules and how to make them play with each other, but I really like how you can package everything up in a SunSynth and just drop it in a project later, and I really like having an FX chain pre-sampler that's one of my favorite bits about it.
Title: Re: new milkytracker features in the making
Post by: leondustar on September 05, 2022, 15:56:30
Thank you very much. Haven't checked yet, but already thanks upfront for the support!

>  I saw an xbox game a year or so ago that used XM
Awesome, I can totally imagine.
I've recently created a small VR experience which also uses XM.
It's one of those few formats which is light enough on the CPU and still allows plenty of realtime features (muting channels, changing patterns) etc.

> it provides a very convenient way to sample VST's and make multisamples..
I do agree that the plugingrabber is definately amazing.

While I will keep contributing to milkytracker, I will start a sideproject called 'MilkytrackerX'.
This will be an opiniated (Xperimental) milkytracker with all the latest features & ideas, without having to worry about stepping on anyone's toes (People like trackers for different reasons).
Title: Re: new milkytracker features in the making
Post by: theorize on September 07, 2022, 07:00:46
I think that's a great idea on starting the side project for your modified Milky, I can imagine there might be some purist kind of thinking that wouldn't want it straying too far from FT2. But I think what you're doing is great we need an alternative to Renoise that still feels like FT2 but doesn't run VST plugins. SunVox is great and all, and I've recently realized that my biggest gripe with it (that you can't have unused patterns that you can put off to the side while you try something new) is actually not true, I didn't realize you could just throw patterns you don't want to play to the left of the start position. So that's cool. But SunVox just doesn't have the same feel. So yes I think it's awesome and can't wait to see what you come up with.

BTW how can I get the latest build? I've be poking around in GitHub but I don't see anything. I don't have a compiler set up on this computer and not really wanting to at the moment... Are there binaries available? I would really like to try out the new features and try to write a script so I can sample my hardware from it... actually I'd like to try and see what else I can come up with as far as scripts go I've never done that kind of thing before so I'll have to learn but it will be very worth it especially I'd like to come up with scripts I can run in the sample editor for things I do often or things that would be hard to do in general... like I'd love to make a script that puts just one sample at zero amplitude at the end of a sample, for those oddball samplers that require it, like any of the sound blaster ones I have an AWE 64 gold card that I need to find a computer to stick in... if you make custom soundfonts using padsynth samples OMG the best pads I've ever made. Run through it's analog filters and then it's chorus and reverb... the absolute best. And the fact that you can layer up practically as many as you want since you have 64 channels to work with. If you use it as just a synth and don't try to make songs only in it (which you can do but I like just using it as a HW synth) it is an AMAZING piece of gear. It needs just one blank sample at the end of the sample, I've never found an efficient way of doing that, it would be amazing if I could make a script for that. Anyway I'd really like to try out the new features especially that random sample generator I think I could really make use of that and edit the hell out of them to make some cool instruments. A pointer in the right direction would be very appreciated. If I have to I'll compile it though. Have you even posted the code yet?
Title: Re: new milkytracker features in the making
Post by: leondustar on September 07, 2022, 09:59:13
Agreed, I've send you a reply (as private message).