Monthly Contest / Back on Track / April 2021

Last edited by timex_cme on Sat Apr 03, 2021 1:21 pm, edited 5 times in total.

Back on Track!

BackOnTrack.png

In the last few contests, we hardly had any restrictions. So I think it's time to get you focused again. With limited hardware, some great songs were made. In the era of 16 bit computers, mostly sample based music was used. The technique was to play samples at different pitches and add effects like vibrato, tremolo, pitch slides to it. In this contest we get back to those times and experience how it was like to produce music with a sound tracker. But don't worry, it won't be too hard. You don't need to write everything in assembly language, but can still use your favourite music creation tool.

Here are the main rules for this month's competition:

* Create a track of any genre
* Provide your entry as a zipped loop package containing all used samples
* The maximum file size for the Zip is 880k (the size of an Amiga floppy disk). This is more than enough (see below).
* Only samples may be used by using the various Sampler plugins. IE Sampler, Slicer, SliceX, FPC, Playlist samples, And Direct wave.
* Samplers which are themselves effects, such as Wave traveler, Fruity Granulizer, are excluded from this list.
* No synths!
* You may use every feature of the Sampler plugin to sculpt your sounds.
* Automation clips and controller plugins, like Formula Controller and alike (the plugins that don't generate or modify sounds on their own) are allowed
* You may use a static EQ (no automation) and/or a reverb2/delay2 (automation allowed) on every channel. We don't live in caves anymore. Filter slides may be done by automating the Sampler filters.
* Only (uncompressed) wav samples may be used. No MP3 compression or other sorts of compression except the compression done by the zipping process.
* You may record your own samples, use preinstalled ones or use royality free samples. You may convert any synth sound, sequence, even full arrangements to a sample.
* You may play up to 8 samples simultaneously. Yes, this is more than enough (see below).
* You may add a limiter to the master channel

* The minimum track length is 1:30 minutes
* Deadline for the entries is Sunday at 11:59 pm (Greenwich Mean Time), on April 25th of 2021.

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To get you in the mood, I've linked some remarkable both in quality / originality and file size examples from the tracker era:

Pinball Dreams intro Music - 4 voices - file size 158Kb

Phenomena - Enigma - 4 voices - file size 183KB

Apidya End Scene - 7 voices - file size 230kb

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If you run out of space, you may use this simple resample trick from within edison. Also great for creating awesome lofi sounds:

* Within Edison, right click the waveform, select Format->Edit Properties

Resample.png

* Set Sample to Mono, 11KHz (or lower), activate Resample, click Accept

Sample properties.png

Take this funky loop for example, which I converted using this technique:
original:

Funky Aw Yea.wav

resampled:

Funky Aw Yea_resampled.wav

The file size shrunk from 217kb to 55kb. By boosting the heights, it will still sound crisp.

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I wish you good luck and lots of fun. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Christian

Can I just make one request for a rule change? ...

Are automation clips and controller plugins, li...

miles_t3hr4t wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 2:54 am C...

BinaryBorn wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 6:22 am Are...

No restriction to the classic Protracker effect...

Bruellbart wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:46 pm No...

* You may play up to 8 samples simultaneously. ...

I mean 8 voices polyphony. You can play a chord...

timex_cme wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 6:04 pm I me...

donkeytugger wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 6:43 pm ...

timex_cme wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 7:20 pm *th...

..and one more very quick question.. The effec...

I won't blame you if you use them. But - keep i...

Any word on using basic stock effects like chor...

Hey uh... Quick question, you said we can't aut...

Oh, My last concern before I start out. 8 voic...

Last edited by timex_cme on Wed Mar 31, 2021 6:04 pm, edited 4 times in total.

miles_t3hr4t wrote: Oh, My last concern before ...

...and of course PEQ2 will distort and clip if ...

I have got absolutely no experience with this a...

Bruellbart wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 6:53 pm I h...

donkeytugger wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 6:02 pm ....

donkeytugger wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 6:02 pm ....

Ah, I assumed it was PEQ2, but seems like this ...

This is not my submission So, using only stati...

What are we saying about the master? Limiting ...

donkeytugger wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 10:52 am ...

So, I was inspired by the "Flipper" idea, to ju...

Hehe, all in with 64k to spare (should have inc...

miles_t3hr4t wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 3:11 pm S...

donkeytugger wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 11:11 pm ...

timex_cme wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 10:16 am don...

Ok I had some spare time! Hope everything's wit...

MvR wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:21 pm Ok I had s...

timex_cme wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:54 pm MvR ...

MvR wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:54 pm timex_cme ...

donkeytugger wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 11:11 pm ...

timex_cme wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 10:13 am mil...

miles_t3hr4t wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 9:59 am d...

donkeytugger wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 1:40 pm H...

timex_cme wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 5:20 pm donk...

This is very complicated. 8 samples at the tim...

I'm also wondering how voices are counted for t...

audiosabre wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 6:34 pm I'm...

If some sounds overlap even slightly, FL counts...

audiosabre wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 6:34 pm I'm...

Last edited by timex_cme on Tue Apr 06, 2021 8:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Yeah relax! Don't use the voice counter. It's ...

Well in that case I made this waaaay harder for...

MvR wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 8:43 pm Well in th...

I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one struggli...