Acid-like programs?

KikyoMerc · n00b Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 61

Im looking for programs like Acid, some kind of music making program. If anyone knows any that are free (preferably) and good, please tell me.
Thanks,
Kikyo

PS. Incase anyone is curious I am going to be making lucid dream trance (its for a school project).

FishB8 · l33t Joined: 17 Mar 2003 Posts: 820

Well Acid uses loops IIRC, and the problem is I don't think there are many loops available with an open license. So even if there is was program like Acid, it wouldn't do much good. You can use a regular editor to work with loops anyway, although it's not as easy.

Most people create their own loops and samples with softsyths. There are plenty of those available if you do a little looking.
_________________
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KikyoMerc · n00b Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 61

Can you reccomend anything to me? I would be ery thankful. I have been looking through the portage database, with not much luck so far.
Thanks,
Kikyo

hw-tph · Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 6:19 am Post subject:

Skale is a new tracker - basically a FastTracker II clone with an updated interface and a few new features. It worked fine for me on Gentoo when I tried it.

Håkan

KikyoMerc · n00b Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 61

What does it do? What exactly is a tracker?
Thanks,
Kikyo

KikyoMerc · n00b Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 61

Ok, sorry for this and the last question being so stupid. How do I get it to install, what do I use to unzip a file with linux. I also dont see any install instructions, and am still pretty new to linux in general. I have been using portage for most of my stuff. Could you offer me some help.
Thanks,
Kikyo

hw-tph · Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 9:07 pm Post subject:

A tracker is an oldschool sequencer. Think Fruity Loops, but oh so many years before.

Basically you use small samples - usually *very* small - and manipulate them with simple effects such as increasing or decreasing the speed it is played in order to change the pitch (to produce a higher or lower note).

Everything takes place within a given number of tracks. One track can only play one sample at any given time (think very old synthesizer) so in order to produce chords you must use several channels to play the same sample at different pitch. Also, most effects are "hand made" - chorus effects being produced by playing two samples side by side (so to speak), only with one slightly delayed.

This may sound weird or inefficient but it's very smart and you can produce good sounding songs from incredibly small resources.

Here is a screenshot of the venerable DOS program FastTracker II, the most graphical of the trackers of the (g)olden days. Other ones included SoundTracker (the original tracker, I believe), ScreamTracker and also the perhaps most potent one - Impulse Tracker. cheesetracker in Portage is a QT/Linux clone of the latter. modplugxmms in Portage (or modplug-bmp) allows for playing back different module (or mods) formats created by the programs mentioned above (.S3M - Screamtracker file, .IT - Impulse Tracker, .XM - Fast Tracker-compatible).

Here are a two of my favourite mods:
- Atomic Playboys by Screamager, from 1996. 10KB unzipped and this is including the samples! The samples are actually simple one-sine waves drawed in Fast Tracker II.
- Protonic Reversal by Scirocco. Very pleasant song in my ears and one of my all-time favourites.

Also check out the artist Octoque, particularily Nocturn 1 + 2 and Psychoanalytic Sessions. Brilliant soothing stuff! I have lots of these burned to audio CD's or converted to mp3's so I can play them in my mp3 player. One last thing: This entire scene - known simply as "The Scene" - came out of the game cracking scene. In fact, when it all started it was the *same* "scene" but the music/coder guys split from the cracking people somewhere along the way. This is why you'll see group names that sound like cracking groups or ones that are or were cracking groups, like Razor1911 (cracking and music/coding) and Night55 (music only).

Google up the Zen Of Tracking by Jeremy Rice and get started!

Håkan

FishB8 · l33t Joined: 17 Mar 2003 Posts: 820

brianhearn · n00b Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 72

hw-tph · Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 1:24 pm Post subject:

Octoque's Nocturn 1997 music disc
Octoque's Psychoanalytic sessions

Also, check out the 1999 Stage 9 music disk to which Octoque donated his song La Doleur.

I noticed just now that there is a "Return to Stage 9" as well. I have never heard of it before, but it sports familiar names like Scirocco, Screamager, Skaven and Lizardking. I'm downloading it right now.

Håkan

CyD · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 23 Jul 2004 Posts: 117

Hi. If you're new to linux and planning on using it for audio development, you should maybe back up a bit. First of all, you won't need to be unzipping any programs for a little while. There is a plethora of music software in portage.

First thing you will need for music production is jack audio connection kit. This is the sound server that allows your audio software to communicate between each other, and with hardware. Of course, you must be sure ALSA is working correctly first. Jack can be installed with >

KikyoMerc · n00b Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 61

Thanks for the help, I really had no idea where to start, just kinda trying to figure it out as I go lol.

Thanks again,
Kikyo