Re: [LAD] 100% Open Source Music

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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Received on Wed Jan 1 02:16:33 2020