On 2019-10-24 01:06, Louigi Verona wrote:
Hey everyone!
My music "career" started with mod music. Nope, not the music and
fashion
subculture from the late 1950s, but this mod music
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Module_file>, when people used programs
called "trackers" to produce stuff. It was either this or buying
expensive
hardware.
Although people associate MOD music scene mostly with chiptunes, it was
much more than that, and has its own pantheon of musical gods
<https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_chart&query=topartists>
who
produced tracks ranging from synth pop
<https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=35280>
to
jazz
<https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=135135>,
from orchestral
<https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=120901>
to
realistic folk instrumentals
<https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=155605>.
Immersed in this music, I severed my link to the mainstream idea of
songs
with their standard verse/chorus, and endless drivel about
relationships.
That link has not been restored. My mind was opened to music that was
so
unlike anything I'd heard before that it felt a bit like walking
through
that door in the wall. (Is this H.G. Wells reference
<https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/door-wall>
too obscure? :) )
My heroes were Elwood, DRAX, Awesome. Who even knows these names? I
once
created a Wikipedia page for Elwood and it stayed up for many years,
but
recently I discovered that it was removed. And yet Elwood
<https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_artist_modules&query=69004>
is a legendary musician and producer in the MOD scene, who has inspired
and
awed several generations of fellow tracker musicians.
Some names have gotten enough traction to stay on Wikipedia. Purple
Motion
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonne_Valtonen> is one clear example.
Several producers, famous today, started out using trackers. Here is
an incomplete
list <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Tracker_musicians>. It
mostly
lacks artists who made their names in the tracking scene, but did not
become notable outside of it.
It's been a while since I went on a nostalgia tour, but due to my
recent
project of putting out an album of old tunes called "Only Slightly
Embarrassing"
<https://louigiverona.com/?page=projects&s=music&t=slightly_embarrassing>,
I decided to cross further into the continent of "back in my days",
which
brought me straight to ModArchive <https://modarchive.org/>.
Eventually, I
was convinced that I should try making more tracked works, at the very
least because my early works were so shitty that I felt I had to make
up
for that.
Long story short, I realized that MOD music is the true Open Source
Music.
I mean, think about it. The most widely used software today is GPLed (
OpenMPT <https://openmpt.org/>). The modules you release are open
source
too, just like JavaScript. You open your XM or IT file and inspect how
the
tune was created. And you learn.
And there is surely stuff to learn. Not all of it is even
tracker-specific.
People had no EQs, no compressors, no reverbs. And yet so much of
tracked
music sounds just incredible
<https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=134387>.
How did they do it? It turns out, there are ways.
Of course, all of that leads to a bit of self promotion. I would like
to
draw your attention to the two tunes that I've written in the past
month
with OpenMPT and which you can download and see how they were made. (Or
don't. You can instead explore ModArchive's Top Favorites
<https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_top_favourites>.)
- Lid
<https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=186854>
- Twizzy II
<https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=186855>
You can just use an Online Player to listen to them in a browser, or
you
can use almost any modern player to play them. Audacious, VLC, for
example.
An interesting thing is that the MOD scene has its own cultural
backdrop:
it is primarily melodic oriented, and having melodies means a lot. If
you
don't like melodies, you go for trance. I am putting out minimal house,
rominimal even. So, I am sure I will get little love.
But for those of you who enjoy this style of music, I think you might
like
these. I am personally very happy with the sound and how both of these
turned out. And yet - no EQing, no nothing. Just volume envelopes,
volume
levels and panning work. **a little proud**
It's somehow interesting to me that this is open source minimal house
music. Not a lot of those out there.
p.s.: fuck my tracks, listen to this
<https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=34427>
Thanks for this overview Luigi, that's nostalgia at its best!
Another blessed artist from the time was Frédéric Motte (Moby).
Check the tune "Knulla Kuk", still sounds amazing given only 4 channels.
I've tons of Amiga Disks (Sample Disks named ST-01 ... ) and Modules
archived. If anybody has the tools to read them back and eventually
convert to 21st century, I'd happily provide these disks.
Greetings from an 1992 "The assembly" attendee :)
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