Thursday, September 29, 2005
Trackers.. more nostalgia
Yesterday one of my emacs friends at work tried to introduce me to the .s3m file (Scream Tracker module). I dont know what I felt (coziness, warmth, envy... kinda wierd). I remember using those trackers to make an X-Files .s3m (unsuccessfully, coz it needs more than the software to make music you see) I had tried out most of the tracker programs (Impulse, Fast tracker/XM, Protracker, even the linux program sound-tracker which kinda creates most of the tracker mods). These files are a cross between midi and pcm files in that they have musical notes in them and pcm samples corresponding to instruments. The player streches and shrinks the samples depending on the note.
I remember Thomas K. John (one of my college mates and a good hand at the keyboard) telling me that just one sample is not enough for wave table synthesis. He also explained that for every fourth note you need a fresh sample otherwise the music would start becoming unrealistic (wonder why). Any ways I had a certain pride in kinda having known about the olden days cool thing. Most games used it for game music. There are songs with claps, cries (in general many things being said/sung) as samples and notes referring to them. I had once come across a small executable (dos) which plays a tracker module wired into it over the PC speaker (using the speaker old inertia trick).
Talking of old time music, if you are an old PC person check out Old School (for some nostalgic moments). Was just going throug these pages. I am not a true old PC guy but I've seen a couple of
games and programs from that era (thanks to PC quest magazine) and have written a few programs in GW-BASIC as well ;) Some times you wish to say a lot (the way I felt when JP introduced s3m to me) and just cant say a word or just start blabberring about all the stuff (with your brain pushing too much out of your mouth).
[Screeeeeeeeeeeeech]
Phew.. I broke the chain of thought. It rained heavily this morning and my pants were all wet.
