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Los Angeles
Subway Sonicbeat wrote:

And yes it is, in a broader sense of making music.
Or you can say sheet music is not sequencing notes?

Yes they all sequence notes but different interfaces can yield different results. Like composing using a guitar vs a piano. There are many differences between a tracker and a pianoroll, both have good points and bad.

As for LSDJ & Piggy, they are trackers, mostly simular to MODs than xm/it due to stricter channel limitations.
The learning curve on any of these programs is pretty much identical, coming from a tracker background I picked up LSDJ quickly.
If anything Gameboy might be harder due to obtaining a cart and transferring the gb rom- though I guess its easier now a days. damn kids *shakes fists*

Anyway, for those who argue for sound's sake, I'd suggest giving a listen to a list of MODs, but maybe someone should start another thread for that.

Last edited by Trash80 (Jul 13, 2011 8:03 pm)

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New York City
e.s.c. wrote:

im kind of sad if really most of you dont use live mode on your stuff for gigs
how does that not bore the fuck out of you as an artist while performing live?

Live mode was actually a fucking nightmare and didn't let me enjoy any set. I stopped using it because it made no sense and did not ADD anything to my set. I also had to sequence at least 2 other devices live. The end result, was stress. People stressing out while performing communicate that to their audience and that is not my purpose.

There are many more things to live electronic music performance than sequencing live. You have to embrace the way your tools work and find a new way to use them in a live environment, instead of sticking to old precepts of the like of "I MUST be playing, touching an instrument in real time for my music to be live".

Did you not perform a live before the existance of LSDJ and live mode? Does your music have any sort of very recognizable structure you have to maintain to keep its essence alive? Because from what I gather you are not a "song" person, so maybe your work allows more sequential improvisation, while others need certain form that live sequencing just makes a mess of. I instantaneously think of people chanting the chorus of a Bit Shifter song in Blip Festival and that is an example that supports my point of view.

Last edited by akira^8GB (Jul 13, 2011 8:21 pm)

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Sweden
Subway Sonicbeat wrote:
boomlinde wrote:

No.

And yes it is, in a broader sense of making music.
Or you can say sheet music is not sequencing notes?

The granularity and what is possible to represent in either program (or music sheet, tablature etc) is different, and that has an impact on your approach. I really don't get the logic behind your idea. Are all the languages of the world exactly the same, too? I mean, in the end they are all there to express the same thing.

If you think that sheet music has the same function (or even intended function) as trackers, I really don't know what to tell you.

Last edited by boomlinde (Jul 13, 2011 8:38 pm)

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Brazil

In that way, yes.

But actually you guys are taking it TOO serious. I am healthly trolling.


It takes different aproaches, as in the example of languages. Yes.
They keep the same basic function? Yes.
What does that brought into giving something good to this thread? Nothing.

It really matters that much in which software you make music?
I can make the same stuff - forget the fiters - in milkytracker that I can in LGPT?

And most important: why there are so few new MOD/XM artists?

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Cartoon Bomb wrote:

The assumption by Huesudo that we would make modules if our "idols" (who is that?) made them is ridiculous.

That was not actually an "assumption" as it was more of a reply to µB's post:

µB wrote:

My take on [GB and NES being the 'mascot' platforms] is that most of the 'new' wave of popular, live performing artists (Nullsleep, 8BW, Bitshifter, Bubblyfish, Sabrepulse) use GBs, and newcomers to the scene are far more likely to stumble upon their music via Google than, say, Joule. Just look at the 'how can I start' posts by new members, everyone is asking where to buy and how to pro-sound a GB. I think wanting to emulate the sound of something new you fell in love with down to the instruments is fairly normal...

By "idols" I was exaggeratedly referring to people like:

µB wrote:

(Nullsleep, 8BW, Bitshifter, Bubblyfish, Sabrepulse)



Cartoon Bomb wrote:

I'm inclined to agree with him on the point of playing live as opposed to DJing, but I have to say that I think there is a grey area.  What is dub?  It's pretty live, yet it involves many elements of a DJ set.

As I said, I'm old-fashioned when it comes to live music. Where I live there is little to no dub.

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São Paulo, Brazil

actually the guys who make .xm and .mod songs exclusively should be glad they're not in the game boy circle jerking business. They have an AUDIENCE of their own!

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Sweden

In that way, yes.

In what other way do you prefer I interpret "And using any sequencer is exactly the same as any tracker."?

It really matters that much in which software you make music?

Doesn't it matter to you? I use several different pieces of software and tools to make different types music because I know how much control the interface, sounds and layout has over my output. More often do I feel like the tools decide what I do than the opposite.

The software most likely matters to you as a composer. Should it matter to you as a listener? Ideally, maybe not, but believing that people only listen to music for the sake of what they hear is naive. We have all kinds of weird preferences that have nothing to do with the final output. Is it wrong of me as a listener to prefer music made in Protracker just for the sake of it being made in Protracker?

I guess that in a scene that is based mostly on computer fetishism, the approach actually matters a lot to people.

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New York City
Subway Sonicbeat wrote:

And most important: why there are so few new MOD/XM artists?

Few? There are a gazillion. You mean here? I think it's pretty clear by now this is not the place. Linde makes an excellent point about platform fetishism. I suppose music in the demoscene (where most mod artists "live") is more result/functional-based than here where it seems to be more platform-based. It seems someone can be "extra cool" for using an obscure platform, regardless of what the result of this practice is.

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e.s.c. wrote:

im kind of sad if really most of you dont use live mode on your stuff for gigs
how does that not bore the fuck out of you as an artist while performing live?

Alcohol.

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hardcore, Australia

I was pure live mode until i picked up my bass and that caused some problems in having to learn to write my songs ahead of time.

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Sydney AUS
akira^8GB wrote:

People stressing out while performing communicate that to their audience and that is not my purpose.

an0va wrote:

Alcohol

Just fucken let loose!! I don't know about you guys, but to me live music is about having fun, not trying to change the world.

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Ciudad de méxico, MX

it's art, i don't know how does it work, i just find myself more comfortable with some instruments at certain time doing it. there isn't a fixed rule for this.

different personalities, different ways to aproach results.

... and i suck at milkytracker smile

Last edited by Analog (Jul 14, 2011 4:00 am)

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Los Angeles, CA

When I first became interested in making chip music, I started with modplug tracker.
I love modplug. It is still the easiest tracker for me to get my ideas down in. If writing an NES song, I would MUCH rather use Modplug than Famitracker, Nerdtracker, NTRQ or Pulsar. My NES samples are perfect (most of them are stolen from Virt and Norrin Radd for fucks sake, how more authentic can it get when sample based) and I know the program so well that it's really easy for me to throw down ideas in it. I've also used a ton of other samples and styles in Modplug with similar success; I especially like writing c64 style stuff with it.

Why don't I use it live? Well, in the first place, I don't have a laptop. If I did, I might. In all reality, when I'm playing LSDJ "live", there is very little I'm actually doing with the Game Boy. Sometimes I get a cool idea and go into live mode and change stuff up. Normally I'll edit parameters of instruments and tables, fuck with the sync command like Nullsleep was doing for a while (such a cool trick that can psych people out)...but mainly my performance comes from manipulating the songs on my Mini-KP, which I could just as easily do with modplug. Hell, my last show I actually played a song from my iPod because someone kept requesting it so much, and realized while playing with the mini-KP I was basically doing the same thing as I would with a game boy.

But my other reasoning for favoring the Game Boy, is that I like the sound it produces. It's just that simple. And there is the added benefit when playing live, that I'm playing using a couple of GBCs, instead of just hooking a laptop up like any other electronic artist. I want people to know I'm doing something different. You can hear it in the sound, but I want them to see that this isn't just me running some program on a computer and making "video game sounding music", I'm using actual Nintendo hardware to create some dirty and hard as fuck dance music.

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San Francisco

have we successfully concluded why mod/xm arent that fun to use? that is what i am here for. I like to talk shit.

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uhajdafdfdfa

but squash is the shit!

i wonder how this thread got to six pages

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Liverpool, UK
e.s.c. wrote:

im kind of sad if really most of you dont use live mode on your stuff for gigs
how does that not bore the fuck out of you as an artist while performing live?

It's reet hard to play live mode whilst singing/shouting down a microphone, bro