TW #77 — General Tracking Tips (Generic Blues)

Ten tips for a beginning tracker.

Key claims#

1. Don't release your first tune.
2. Learn your tracker thoroughly — Impulse Tracker, FastTracker II "or even the now-archaic Scream Tracker 3.x"; print the docs (ft2.doc ships with current FT2; get it from ftp.cdrom.com) and practise every function.
3. Listen to and analyse music you like; 4. track what you like; 5. get a second opinion and separate constructive criticism ("Ack! Bb/F!") from rudeness; 6. track in spurts — leave a tune for a day or two and return fresh.
4. TUNE YOUR SAMPLES: route the sound card's line-out into a guitar tuner, play C-4, adjust the sample's C4spd (or FT2 sample tuning) until it reads in tune; do it for everything but percussion.
5. Choose good samples: samples whose text starts with ST-01 are 8-bit 8 kHz Amiga samples; 22 kHz 8-bit is fine most of the time; make them, rip them (with credit) or use synth patches (Kurzweil, GUS patch, SoundFont).
6. Announce releases within netiquette (IRC, TraxWeekly reviews, ftp.cdrom.com, your web page); 10. track for yourself — "it is an artform".

Relevance#

Sample tuning and selection for instrument-design / chip-samples; tool names for impulse-tracker, fasttracker-2, scream-tracker-3.

Pages touched#

instrument-design, chip-samples, fasttracker-2, scream-tracker-3, impulse-tracker.