Common Music-creating Software (read if interested)

[Hydlide]

In the period around 2001 till 2004 I have been using music software that are based on 'trackers'. Just to name a few: modplug tracker, impulse tracker 2 and madtracker.

Personally, I don't know what happened to madtracker though. I only used it once or twice since I kind of liked the quality of the sound output compared to impulse tracker 2 (good old dos version). But after that I kinda found modplug trackers sound engine pretty much insane when comparing that to other tracking software. I have been using modplug tracker since that.

Modplug was initially being produced by one developer (Olivier Lapicque) but quit because of time issues and such. Also the main site, modplugcentral, which was hosting the complete thing had certain changes due to certain issues.

After that, the whole modplug tracker thing went to sourceforge.net. Where I personally think it went down hill with this awesome tool.

Main specs of Modplug:

- supports up to 64 channels, 256 channels could use releases at the same time
- used cut off frequencies up to 11 khz (which isn't much when you compare that to professional music tools since most go up to 22khz or 44khz)
- supports VST since version 1.16
- supports most of the tracking extensions (.Mod, .IT, .XM, .S3M)
- used advanced envelope settings when using the IT format. You can create your custom made envelope (this was one of things I could not find in any other music program since most use a Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release setting).

Downside of modplug track though would be: it uses the tracker notation. not the midi sequence notation (like cubase, sonar, fruityloop and reason). It goes more like entering the notes like "c 4", "d 4" etc... rather then using bars on a keyboard lane.

Modplug appears to have a wiki btw..

Modplug wiki

And their current website (this was the original place where modplug was hosted):
IpChip Modplug tracker

The sourceforge project:
SourceForge

In addition:
I have seen progress reports on development of an Impulse Tracker 3. This started with a group called Unreal64. They have moved to DSPAudio, but their funding was cut in the late 2006 (orso). After that they moved to another company called orcave. As of today its not sure if they will still release IT3, because it seems they seem very busy working on a sound engine called Paradime Enigma, and also released a thing called PulseMp somewhere in the beginning of 2007.