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11

The Lobby / Noise!

« on: March 04, 2017, 19:52:20 »

I'm wondering, are there any modules that are just noise? I don't mean "rhythmic noise" or hardcore...I just mean soundscapes of sampled noises without melody, rhythm...Perhaps droning as a cacophony of sampled noise. I know that effects available in more modern DAWs facilitate this type of noise making better than trackers, but perhaps there are some interesting noise tracks? BTW, what is ModArchive's policy on noise, musique concrete, etc. Is it even accepted here?

12

Mobile Phone Players / DroidSound E on Pixel crashes

« on: December 18, 2016, 04:03:45 »

Hi, I recently got a Pixel phone and my favorite music player for Android stopped working. Basically whenever it tries to access the broader local filesystem it crashes; it can access the example mods fine, but if I try to mount my Download directory it crashes before the directory selector dialog appears.

I'm using Android 7.1 and I know that more recent versions of Android require apps to request permission to access the filesystem, not sure if that's the problem though.

The behavior is the same in the original DroidSound that's on the Play Store.

DSE is my favorite player. No other player for Android uses OpenMPT, treats folders like playlists, and supports Bluetooth so well. I'd really like to be able to use it.

13

Tracking / Triangle waves

« on: December 05, 2016, 14:00:51 »

Lately I've been using triangle waves, and my thoughts are:

They have a nice timbre to them, but you have to be careful or something like a square wave at full blast in the same mix will bury it easily. Due to the fact that many sound chips featured tri waves with square and other oscillator choices that are louder than tri waves, tri waves aren't used to their full potential because of the hassle involved with volume levels.

Infamously, the NES/Famicom had tri waves available, but no volume setting. Thus they were underutilized on that system. On C64 its a challenge as well, but at least you can use an ADSR envelope for volume.

Now with modern trackers we can draw triangle waves and use them in more advanced ways, but the characteristics of the wave still require care in the the mix. If I have a triangle wave at v64, a square will drown it out unless its about 28 or under, but making it work can have interesting results.

Try a tri wave for a flute solo with quieter square waves providing a harmonic framework for the solo.

What do you think about triangle waves?

14

Tracking / Making a module sound better across different setups

« on: July 16, 2016, 15:28:18 »

Hi, when making modules I've noticed that some .ITs I make sound pretty consistent across different speaker setups, and that some of my modules sound absolutely horrid on some speaker setups, but pretty decent on others. It's jarring to get in a car to listen to the latest song you've made and discover it sounds really bad. Now of course some speaker setups are really bad in and of themselves, but some of the bad ones I've played them on still play other modules well. I was wondering, if anyone had some tips on how to make modules more "universal" or consistent across audio setups, so someone won't listen on one pair of speakers and say "This is really badly produced" when they could listen on another pair and would say "this sounds decent"?

15

Tracking / We can't use compressors or limiters on modules, but...?

« on: March 17, 2016, 13:30:35 »

Sort of a weird question, but when I make a module I find that it's...quiet as a mouse. So, turn up the sample volume, you'd say, right? Well, no, because then there's parts of the song that peak too high and the peaks get cut off. So, use a limiter you'd say...well, yeah, but I don't want to use VST plugins

Anyone have any tricks they want to share to deal with this? Being able to use compression would be really nice, but nope...can't do that. I got a few songs that are pretty good I think but they're just too quiet. When they come on I have to turn the volume way up to get a decent thunk in my ears.

16

The Lobby / Chiptune aesthetic not just for nostalgia?

« on: January 31, 2016, 09:15:05 »

I was thinking that I don't really value the chiptune aesthetic for nostalgic reasons. Maybe a little in some cases, but I find that the waveforms express pure geometric beauty in sound which is valuable for all times and ages to come. So really a chiptune is using waveforms in their purest, most archetypal form to make music. And that's some powerful stuff that will probably be around in future generations too. Thoughts?

17

The Lobby / Free music

« on: January 02, 2016, 22:20:52 »

Speaking as someone who offers most of his music for free only as IT files, and also has some available for whatever price people are willing to pay, including nothing, I was wondering what people thought about free music? The idea of free culture is big here I've gathered. We all need to eat, but should maybe music become something that people do just because they want to, to make others feel good, unveil forms through art, explore the imagination, impress the opposite sex, etc, without money being a factor? I can't sell music anyways because you have to not be afraid of humans to sell music and sell yourself, so I make free music by default partially.

I was making music with FL Studio and got pretty good at it but I went back to tracker music because as I got older I stopped using stuff I didn't have the legal right to use and I can't afford a modern DAW. So I went back to OpenMPT, which I started using back when I was a young teenager and it was called MODPlug Tracker. And I've used the other trackers and it's the best tracker then and now, hehe. So I guess my modus operandi is free, but legit.

If you make music for free, what do you think?

18

The Lobby / Japanese computer music scene?

« on: September 20, 2015, 19:54:14 »

Hey, I was wondering...there were some computers with interesting sound chips that were produced and used almost exclusively in Japan in the 80s and 90s...surely a computer music scene must have existed for these...anyone have any info? What I could find was sparse.

19

Look what I made! / ModTomIT - Single Sample EP

« on: May 15, 2014, 08:43:14 »

Hi, I made some chiptunes with the goal of making an EP-length work that only uses one sample throughout it. The sample is a pulse-wave repeated with descending volume. I'm uploading the IT files to modarchive so all the tracks will be free when they're up (one track is already up), but here's the link to my bandcamp page, where it can be listened to in-browser for free or downloaded for $3. I have many other tracks I've made, some only with trackers, and others with trackers + VST plugins and effects.

http://modtomit.bandcamp.com

20

Help Support Topics Archive / Question about submitting a module that repeats...

« on: May 14, 2014, 09:20:14 »

Hello, I was wondering about whether I should submit this module or not, because...well, here's the story.

I'm making an EP where all the songs use only one sample, and this will kind of be what makes the EP "special" and cool, if indeed it does (I'm working to see so, and that it doesn't fall flat on it's face!). It's not even a break-beat I'm using, with tones you could manipulate out of the mix and use as instruments between the beats or anything, I'm using a plain-old, unadorned chip pulse tone, for the whole EP which will be 6 or 7 songs probably about 2 to 3 minutes each.

I don't think there would be anything wrong with this, according to the rules for submission, to release the source Impulse Tracker files on Mod Archive, but one track, which I think sounds cool, even if it's probably been done before (if it has, give me a link please, I'd love to hear) is basically an arpeggiated chord progression which starts out slow, and repeats, with an increase tempo command at the beginning of the pattern (it only uses one channel too...), so the whole song is this one channel playing in this one pattern, repeating ever faster, faster, faster...until it's as fast as a really fast chip arp at the end. I know stuff that repeats over and over without changing is rejected, but on this the tempo changes and builds and builds...giving at least some semblance of development to the song, even if it's really just some cool notes repeating slow at first and then fast. I may not actually use it if it's been done to death before and is therefore tacky, but I thought it might make a cool out-tro to the EP, and if I made it that way, I'd want all the tracks to be up on Modarchive too.

So if I go ahead and use this track should I submit it, or keep it to myself?