Audio / Tracker / SID question

[novaburst]

I need some information on this stuff. I've been a drummer since the 80s and been into Amiga stuff since then. But for some reason I never put the two together.

The release of Hively Tracker got me thinking. Especially since I have a brand new Roland TD-3SW drum kit sitting here.

I was thinking about recording some of my stuff. But I know nothing about these trackers. Do I need to know Assembly to mess with these trackers? I love listening to sids, but I know nothing about them. Can I record my stuff into an audio file and then convert it to a sid?

I have Amiga Forever and AROS running under Windows/Linux. I don't have sound working in AROS as of yet. That will take some tinkering that I haven't done yet. I receive a gfx library error when trying to run Hively Tracker in Amiga Forever.

I use the VICE C64 emulator too. But this may not be the place to ask about it. But I know it is still popular with creating sids. If anyone has any info on this, that would be great too.

I guess I'm basically wondering if I can create drum tracks to be used in demos and how to do that? Like Amiga demos or C64 demos.
Be gentle, I'm a total newbie at this stuff.

[Piru]

Do I need to know Assembly to mess with these trackers?

no (not with HivelyTracker at least)

Can I record my stuff into an audio file and then convert it to a sid?

no

HivelyTracker isn't SID tracker, it's just a tracker for format that can generate SID-like sounds.

The original C64 music (SID modules) were created manually programming your own replay routine (and often a simple editor, too). This indeed required programming skills. These days there are "trackers" for SIDs too, but still it's much harder work than using some higher level tracker app that allows you to produce something that just sounds "SIDish". I hope this makes any sense...

The question is: do you really want to create genuine SID tracks (as in C64), or just music that sounds like SID? If you want to do real C64 stuff then HivelyTracker won't do.

[novaburst]

@Piru

Wow, you have helped me already.  :-)
Well, if I have to learn the programming required to do actual c64 sid stuff, then no, I won't go that route. I don't have the time to give for that.

So music that sounds like SID would be good enough for me.

[Piru]

wiki: Tracker has some basic info about trackers. I guess that's what you need to take a look at first.

It's a bit like sequencer but rotated 90 degs.

[novaburst]

Will do, thanks!

[SamuraiCrow]

Enhanced Sidplayer is an editor to create .MUS files with.  There is also a Stereo Sid editor that requires the Enhanced Sidplayer to install itself (or did originally).  These were the most popular music format on the C64 if you want to use them under VICE.

Sidplayer is not a tracker file format but is simple to learn.  I've written several SIDs but when Q-Link shut down and its equipment became America Online I kind of quit the SID scene also.  I liked .MUS files better than AHX/Hively Tracker, though.

[countzero]

*resurrecting the dead* there's something called goattracker which you can use to create sids I guess ? not the best user friendly interface, but it works allright.

[LoadWB]

SamuraiCrow wrote:

Sidplayer is not a tracker file format but is simple to learn.  I've written several SIDs but when Q-Link shut down and its equipment became America Online I kind of quit the SID scene also.  I liked .MUS files better than AHX/Hively Tracker, though.

Stereo SID Editor rocked.  I still have a copy somewhere.  OT: have you heard of Q-Link Reloaded?

[neuroflip]

You can make a try with Prophet64 if you want to make a trip into the sid chip. It's a modern style sequencer, a drum machine like 909 and a bass line machine like 303. You only need to be familiarized with synths and drum machines, no need to use hexa values or other things to sequence a track or program your instruments.

[Oliver]

Hi Novaburst,

I think you probably know that Amigas don't use SID chips, only the C=64, and C=128. Thought I'd mention it just in case.

Trackers are really a quite limiting way to make music, but there are other more modern means of accessing SID sounds. Using your V-Drum setup connected to a MIDI sequencer/digital audio workstation, you can control a SID based synthesizer. There are several of these around, which use the original C=64 SID chips, with a modern digital control interface. My favourite is the MIDIBox SID, which can be found at midibox.org (navigate to micro C apps, then midibox SID). This page also provides links to other SID based synths. Some of these require some electronics skills, and some are pre-made commercial products.

You may also enjoy the midibox FM synth, which I really like for ambient music, and I think it's a lot more versatile than most commercial FM synths.

If you are interested in the Prophet64, I suggest you have a look for some experimenters who have incorporated variable audio feedback into their double SID C=64's. Some pretty wild sounds from those old beasts.

If you are more interested in Amiga sounds (not really SID), then there are other options available for you to control Amiga audio with your drum kit. Other people here can advise you about interesting Amiga audio software and hardware (I don't actually use Amiga any more). I used Music-X 2 for many years on Amiga, which I really liked, but it was time to move on, for me.

Good luck. Hope you enjoy the retro sounds.

Oliver