The Process of Learning to Track

A Generic Guide to Your First Tracking Experience

Introduction

Tracking can be a scary thing to learn, especially if it's your first introduction to making music on a computer. This tutorial intends to be a VERY generic guide. It should be read ALONG WITH the manual for your particular tracker. It tries to break the process of learning tracking into manageable steps that you can follow with as much tracking software as possible. All trackers have common functions, and therefore learning the PROCESS of learning tracking will make your life easier. It assumes a fairly rudimentary knowledge of music (ie: what an octave is, that the 12 notes are named from A to G, etc) is known by the reader.

Choosing Your Software

Choosing your tracker is a deeply personal choice. In past, arguements over "Which Tracker is Best" have occurred with near religious devotion. The outcome almost invariably comes down to "The best tracker is the one that does what you want, as easy as possible". Therefore, You should find a few things out about what you want to do. Do you want a classic or a Modular Tracker? Do you know what the difference is? Do you want to start with a barebones tracker, or do you want to use something designed to put every last function imagined at your fingertips? What Operating system are you using? Will your tracker work on your hardware? Do you need DOS/Soundblaster emulation software? Are other people using the software to write music similar to what you want to write?

Once all this is sorted out, and you have found a piece of software that you THINK will meet most of your needs, and you can get past the first step of getting sound out of your tracker, stick to it like glue until you have got a decent song under your belt. DON'T GIVE UP!!! Once you have written a song, only then decide whether this tracking software is right for you. Give yourself a chance to learn what you like and dislike about the software, so you can make a more informed decision should you switch software later on.

Loading Sounds

All trackers support samples in one way or another. The first thing you need to learn is how to load them into your tracker. Whether this is by loading an "Instrument" file, or a WAV file, it makes no difference. Some trackers might require you to create an "instrument" file in order to play back samples. If this is the case, consider it an alternate loading process. If you don't feel like learning how to build an "instrument" yet (This document won't teach you), then search the internet for some pre-made instruments. At this stage it doesn't matter if your samples/Instruments sound perfect. They just have to make sound. Use default Windows "ding" sound if you can't find anything else.

Note that each loaded sample or Instrument has a number (either in decimal or Hexadecimal) assigned to it. This is how you select your instrument in the grid.

Decide on a "Hello World!" song

Programmers have a concept when learning how to program. Almost every programmer, when learning a new language will start with a simple program that prints the words "Hello World!" to the screen. It usually consists of 1 to 10 lines of code. In other words, it doesn't do much, but it gets you familiar with the bare basics, and the "syntax" of the language.

My point is, start with something EASY. a single melody or a simple beat. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is simple enough. Don't try writing a symphony for your first tracked tune. You'll only frustrate yourself. Here is how Twinkle Twinkle goes to music (Notes are above lyrics. All notes are quarter notes except the last note in each line, which is a half note):


C    C    G    G    A  A G 
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

F   F E  E   D    D   C 
How I wonder what you are.

G  G F   F   E     E  D
Up above the world so high,

G    G F  F    E  E   D
Like a diamond in the sky.

C   C    G   G    A  A   G 
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
 
F   F E  E   D    D    C  
How I wonder what you are!

Twinkle Twinkle has been reproduced here as I am not aware of any copyright licensing issues. If you find one, leave a comment with the copyright info, so I can switch songs.

Learn the BASICS of your Tracker's patterns

Once you decide on what you want to start with, go to your pattern view. it should look like a grid, or spreadsheet of some sorts. It will have rows (Some of them may be highlited at regular intervals). It will also have large columns (called Tracks). Each Track will be divided into smaller columns (referred to as Columns in the rest of the document). Each filled intersection of a column and a row, is either a note or command.

By default in most trackers, Every 4 rows is a quarter note, or a beat. therefore, every row has the timing of a 32nd note. Notes played on the same row are played at the same time.

If your tracker supports beat/bar highlighting, then every 4th row, starting with the first row, will be highlighted, whereas every bar (every 16th row/every 4 beats, starting with the first row) will be highlighted in a different colour. This is how you can keep time. This is all adjustable in most trackers, but for now we won't worry about that right now. Remember, start small!

Each column of a track has a different use. It depends on each tracker, as to what each column does. Right now we need to worry about 2 things: Which column holds the note, and which column holds instruments. For many trackers (Impulse Tracker, Fast Tracker, Modplug Tracker), the layout is as such:

nnn-ii-vv-eee

nn=note
ii=instrument/sample
vv=volume
eee=effect

Keep in mind that each tracker could have a potentially different layout. This is where it pays to have your Tracker's manual handy.

Most trackers' default pattern length is 64 rows long. That means you can put 4 full bars of music to each pattern.

Learn how to Edit Patterns

Well, we now know the parts of the pattern area. Lets see how it works. 99% of all trackers deal with note entry the same way - They turn your computer keyboard into a piano or organ keyboard. when you hit a key, you are placing a "note" into a pattern. For those of you with no piano theory, I will show you all you need to know for tracking:

A piano keyboard looks like this:

| U U | U U U | U U 
|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_

The Big keys are white, whereas the smaller keys (The U's) are Black. The keys (and thus notes) follow a repeating pattern:

Black Keys:   C# D#    F# G# A#    C#  ...
White Keys:  C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C  D ...

That's how the notes are laid out on a Piano. On a tracker, you have 4 rows of keys. Therefore, the numbers and the "home row" of a standard US 101/104 key QWERTY keyboard contain the Black keys, and the white keys are on the second and 4th row.

Thus, the note entry keys for a tracker are usually as follows:

Higher Octave(s):

Black Keys:  2 3   5 6 7   9 0
White Keys: Q W E R T Y U I O P

Lower Octave:

Black Keys:  S D   G H J
White Keys: Z X C V B N M

Note how the pattern corresponds? Good. So, if we want to play "Twinkle Twinkle" in the key of C, the first note will be a C (press the letter Q to enter this C). Start punching in notes on every BEAT (4 rows). Your first few notes should look similar to the following:

C-4-01-..-...
...-..-..-...
...-..-..-...
...-..-..-...
C-4-01-..-...
...-..-..-...
...-..-..-...
...-..-..-...
G-4-01-..-...
...-..-..-...
...-..-..-...
...-..-..-...
G-4-01-..-...
...-..-..-...

Note columns are usually layed out as follows:

NSO

N=Note
S=Is the note Sharp(#) or Natural(-)
O=Octave

Therefore, C Sharp in the 5th octave will look as such:

C#5

As you can see, you are not just limited to 2 octaves. However, you will have to consult your Tracker's manual to find out which keys are used to change the "Base Octave" in order to go higher or lower than the default octaves.

Next, we need to start a second pattern. Place the notes from "Up Above..." through "...In the Sky" in the second pattern, just as you entered the notes in the first pattern. As an excersise for the reader, use the lower octave to add a simple Bassline to your "Twinkle Twinkle" rendition on track 2 of both patterns. Once you're done, it's time to move on to sequencing.

Sequencing: Putting the Pieces Together

Most trackers these days still have a simple list-style single pattern sequencer, or order list. This Tutorial assumes you have the same. Basically, a list-style sequencer lets you put your patterns in order. In this way, you can re-use parts of your patterns, if you need to repeat a part.

First, find out where your pattern sequencer is. In Modplug Tracker, it is a scrollable list going across the middle of the pattern window. In Impulse Tracker, it is a list going up and down the Left side of the screen when you hit F11. Once there, it should be blank. Some trackers automatically place new patterns at the end of the list. Regardless of what you have, we are going to fill the pattern sequecer with our own order.

Pattern sequencers/Order Lists usually have an order number. Using Impulse Tracker as an example, you will see the following:

000:---
001:---
002:---
003:---

Basically, your patterns will start at the top. when the first pattern is finished, the second begins, and so on. So assuming you've edited patterns 0 and 1, you will place the following to make the complete song.

000:000
001:001
002:000
003:---

From here, save your song, then play back. You should have "Twinkle Twinkle" playing in perfect time. If you decided to add a bass line, you'll hear that too. This also demonstrates the ability to repeat patterns. Remember though, Knowledge is power, and power can corrupt. Too much re-use can turn a good pattern into a boring repetitive song. Good songs take work. No one wants to hear to the same thing over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and ov... Have I made my point yet?

Where to go from here?

By now, you should understand the very basics of tracking. There's a whole lot more though, let me tell you.

First, there's creating your own instruments. Instruments are basically multi-sample libraries. For instance, if you have a single piano sample, it may sound tinny if you play it too high, or might sound sloppy if it's played too low. What Instruments allow you to do is take multiple Piano samples and put them together in a single file. You define Which sample and which pitch each sample is played at for a given tracked note. Or, you can create a drum kit. Instruments provide more realistic sounds, and easier usage, provided their made right.

Then there's effects. These may be Portamento/Glissando (Pitch bends), Sample delays(playing back a sample a split second late), Sample Offset (Playing back a sample a split second into the sample - Useful for guitar hammer-ons and the like) and many more... These are all controllable by your effects column in the track. Play around with these to make a better song.

Then there's the art of sampling and sample hacking. Record you own sound bites, or your own instrument notes. Chop them up. Reverse them. Write the next "Tommorrow Never Knows" by experimenting with backwards instruments. Build your own "Chip-like" samples.

As well there's VST and VSTi. Use a next-gen/Modular tracker to use dynamic effects and instruments. Learn the art of Synthesis!Learn how to use your own set of effects!

That's the trick really though - You'll always be learning!