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- SiGnAlS -
Issue III Volume I
July 24, 1993
"Dedicated to all the coderz and their insane delusions..."
Executive Editor: Necr s, The PsYcHiC MoNkS
Greets to: Pxyll, Dominor, PM, and special thanks to everyone
whose called tochat.
I---
Welcome to the third issue of SiGnAlS, the magazine for the
modern mod coder.Issues come out approximately every five to six
days, or when I run out ofthings to say, an often occuring
situation. Thus your support is needed! Keepthe letters and
responses coming. I promise that all will be answered. Inthis
issue, some more basix, another edition of 'Tricks and Tips', and
other
extras. We hope you will continue to help us enlighten those
would-be's outthere and service the existing net as best we can.
Please feel free todistribute this magazine to any smaller FTP
sites we may have missed. Keep thetext as is, though, so as to be
consistent. ;)
II : Basix----------
Ok, where are we? Let's assume you have a tracker and a player
and know whatthe hell a MOD is and et cetera. Let us also assume
you have some samples towork with. The next step is to create
songs. MODs use a simple format to storenote data. (If you've
worked with MIDI files or CMF data, you will find itquite similar.)
Modules divide songs into 'tracks', with each track having 64
spaces in which to enter data. As in normal music, a track is
roughlyequivalent to a measure, and a space is similar to a beat.
Usually there are 4side-by-side tracks, each capable of playing one
sample at a time. To create asong, you fill the tracks with data,
and string tracks together to create'patterns'. A pattern is a
group of 4 tracks that play simultaneously. Thus,the pattern is a
measure of sorts that includes all the instruments at thesame time.
A pattern looks something like this:
Beat #-> 00 C-2 01000 C-1 03000 G-3 04000 F-3 0700001 ---
00000 C-1 03000 --- 00000 F-3 0700002 --- 00000 D-1 03000 --- 00C30
F-3 0700003 C-3 02000 C-1 03000 --- 00C20 F-3 0700004 --- 00000 D#1
03000 --- 00C10 F-3 07000
05 --- 00000 C-1 03000 --- 00C00 F-3 0700006 --- 00000 F-1 03000
--- 00000 F-3 07000
Note EFX ...etc.
The first column (00,01,02) is the beat number for that pattern.
The secondcolumn consists of the notes being played: C-2, C-3, etc.
Please remeber thatthe music moves DOWNWARD, not to the right as in
normal sheet music. The first
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horizontal line is the first beat; the second horizontal line
the second beat.All the notes on the first line happen
simultaneously in the first beat.
The third column, the EFX (effects) column, specifies two
things. The firsttwo digits state the instrument sample number.
This is the number of thesample currently being played. The last
three digits hold any special effects.You can see an example of
effects on the third track, about halfway down. TheC30, C20 effects
are volume changes (more on that in later issues), but the
important thing to know at the moment is that they are effects,
not notes.
To compose a song, you simply enter data downward on each track
at a time.Simply put the appropriate note on the beat at which it
should enter, andyou're all set. Rests are simply the absence of
note data. However, to createa true rest (needed if your sample
sustains), you must lower the volume of thetrack to zero using the
C00 effect at the appropriate beat.
Now, once you have a pattern or two done, you can work on what
is called the'playlist'. Your patterns are numbered internally as
0, 1, 2, etc., but youdon't neccessarily have to play them in that
order. A playlist specifies theorder in which the patterns in a
song are to be played. For example, I maywish to play my patterns
in the order 4,1, and 5. I would then create a
playlist of length 3 with the order 4, 1, 5. Most trackers do
this by a masterposition indicator. The indicator starts at zero
and climbs by one. For eachindicator number, you assign an
associated pattern to be played at the sametime. For example, the
tracker starts at master pos 0. You then click on thepattern button
and change the associated pattern to 4. Then you move onto thenext
master pos, and set a 1 there. Easy, huh. (Yeah, I know, you're
lostalready. Well, don't worry, things should become clear soon. If
not, then justplay around. That's how I figured all of this out
myself! ;))
The length of the playlist determines the length of your song.
You can haveextra unused patterns (with note data and everything)
in a song that are neverplayed. Wasteful, but possible. Try to make
sure every pattern in your song isused in the playlist at some
point. Else you're wasting disk space.
Whew. Well, my fingers are about to fall off. More in the next
issue.
III: Tricks and Tips w/ Necr s
Today we'll differ a shade from the planned agenda, and delve
into theintricate art of the drum track. Yes, many coders think
they can get away witha lame bass and snare sample for a whole
67-pattern mod. Well, they're right.In module programming, what
counts is size. Every byte you can chop off of amod, the better. 90
percent of most mods is taken up by samples. The less drumsamples
you can use in a mod only works to your benefit. I understand that
thepurists out there (I'm one of them) don't like to degrade
intrinsic musicalquality in the name of memory, but sometimes you
can get away with it without
really hurting your MOD quality.
'How dost we achieve this noble goal?', they ask. Well, one of
the best iswriting a good drum track. First, let us analyze a
typical pattern. We'llassume you're writing a modern rock/ techno
mod, since that's the majority ofwhat's out there. (Don't worry
ballad coders, I have something special for yatoo in a few
issues.)
Go back to the analog world for a sec. Think about your favorite
rock albumand what the drummer is actually doing. Most likely he's
using a combinationof bass drum, snare, toms, hi-hat, cymbals, and
possibly shaker or tambourine.
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Now obviously you can't put all of these in your mod. That's at
least sixtracks right there. You can compromise, though, and do it
with a minimal lossin sound quality. Let's examine the following
riff.
crash cymbal
OOOOoooooo......------------------------------------------------hi-hat
xxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXxXxxxxxxxxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXxXxxxxxxhi
tom
----------------------------oo----------------------------o-oo--low
tom
------------------------------oo------------------------------oo
snare
----X-------X-------X-------X-------X-------X-------X-------X-XXbass
drum
X-------X-------X--X----XX------X-------X-------X-------XX------
1 16 32 48(A dash = a 64th of a measure, like a mod track.)
A pretty basic 4 beat drum riff. We have a 16-beat hi-hat riff
over a basicbass/snare combo with a few tom fills and a big crash
at the start. How do wetrack this without using the needed six
tracks? Easy. This is how:
Many drum sounds are short in nature. Bass drums, some toms,
hi-hats, all ofthese take about a click and a half at moderate
speed (--F06). This means thatwe can put more than one sound in a
track. By using overlaid sounds, we canaccomplish our goal.
This is how I would convert this pattern to a two track drum
riff:
00 C-2 01000 C-3 05000 | 20 C-2 01000 C-3 04000 Samples:01 ---
00000 --- 00000 | 21 --- 00000 C-3 0400002 --- 00000 --- 00000 | 22
--- 00000 C-3 04000 1 - Bass Drum03 --- 00000 --- 00000 | 23 ---
00000 C-3 04000 2 - Snare04 C-2 02000 --- 00000 | 24 C-2 02000 C-3
04000 3 - Tom05 --- 00000 --- 00000 | 25 --- 00000 C-3 04000 4 -
Closed HiHat06 --- 00000 C-3 04C10 | 26 --- 00000 C-3 04000 5 -
Crash Cymbal07 --- 00000 C-3 05C30 | 27 --- 00000 C-3 0500008 C-2
01000 C-3 04000 | 28 C-2 01000 C-3 0400009 --- 00000 C-3 04000 | 29
--- 00000 C-3 04000
0A --- 00000 C-3 04000 | 2A --- 00000 C-3 040000B --- 00000 C-3
04000 | 2B --- 00000 C-3 040000C C-2 02000 C-3 04000 | 2C C-2 02000
C-3 040000D --- 00000 C-3 04000 | 2D --- 00000 C-3 040000E ---
00000 C-3 04000 | 2E --- 00000 C-3 040000F --- 00000 C-3 04000 | 2F
--- 00000 C-3 0400010 C-2 01000 C-3 04000 | 30 C-2 01000 C-3
0400011 --- 00000 C-3 04000 | 31 --- 00000 C-3 0400012 --- 00000
C-3 04000 | 32 --- 00000 C-3 0400013 C-2 01000 C-3 04000 | 33 ---
00000 C-3 0400014 C-2 02000 C-3 04000 | 34 C-2 02000 C-3 0400015
--- 00000 C-3 04000 | 35 --- 00000 C-3 0400016 C-2 01C20 C-3 04000
| 36 --- 00000 C-3 04000
17 C-2 01C30 C-3 05000 | 37 --- 00000 C-3 0500018 C-2 01000 C-3
04000 | 38 C-2 01000 C-3 0400019 --- 00000 C-3 05000 | 39 C-2 01000
C-3 050001A --- 00000 C-3 04000 | 3A --- 00000 G-3 030001B ---
00000 C-3 04000 | 3B --- 00000 C-3 040001C C-2 02000 C-3 04000 | 3C
C-2 02000 G-3 030001D G-2 03000 C-3 04000 | 3D --- 00000 G-3
030001E C-2 03000 C-3 04000 | 3E C-2 02000 C-3 030001F G-1 03000
C-3 04000 | 3F C-2 02000 G-2 03000
Track 1 hold the bass and snare parts. We take advantage of the
fact that a
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rock drummer rarely hits the bass drum and snare drum at the
exact same time.We use track two for an accented hi-hat and the
crash cymbal.
Comments:
- Note that we included the crash cymbal even at the cost of a
few measures ofhi-hat. The crash cymbal usually distracts the ear
so it misses the high hat.Don't use this in two consecutive
measures, though, for then the missing
hi-hat becomes more obvious. To create the open hi-hat sound, we
use a veryshort crash in place of the closed hi-hat. This is
moderately effective. Atruly effective replacement is to replace
the crash cymbal with a ride-typecymbal sound. This technique then
works perfectly. Of course, you sort of losethat big crash intro.
Oh well.
- The tom is overlaid with the snare part, but the snare part
takesprecedence. If you cut a snare to replace it with a tom riff
on importantsnare whacks, it is very noticeable. Thus we use the
tom as a fill during thebreaks of the drum beat.
- Certain instruments have been faded in using the volume CXX
command. We dothis a lot for off-beat snare and bass hits. This
works really well for snare
fills and such, so that the repeated hits don't become somewhat
monotonous.Fading in drum rolls also works quite well.
As you can see, we achieved this conversion with a minimum of
headache. If youcan somehow put yourself in a conservatory mindset
before you begin, that iseven better. Try to squeeze in the parts
as you compose, not after.
Ok, a few more things.
Sometimes you want to use a beat that really isn't in 4/4. Most
hip-hop beatsand some techno fall into this category. The most
common is a techno beat withswing-type hi-hats. Sometimes you can
do this by using a three-beat measure.
hi-hat x-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xsnare
------O-----------O-----------O------bass kick
o----------oo--o----o---o----------oo ... etc.
(for 48 beats)
Some beats, though, don't fall into either of these categories.
A lot of rapbeats are like this. They'll use a hi-hat pattern that
isn't straight 16-beat,but yet isn't swung eighth-note triplets.
It's somewhere in the middle. How doyou represent this duality?
Well, either use a 96-beat measure or getyourself a drum loop
sample. Honestly, there isn't much way to fix thishi-hat problem.
You can try to use the --EDX (delay note) to slow the hits alittle,
but different trackers interpret this differently. Your best bet?
;)
Use the sample.
Next time, more random stuff. Maybe some chordal arrangement
tips. Keepcomposing!
- Necr s(Does my name work in normalASCII? Probably not ;O)
IV: Visualizations
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Does changing your name to a sexual symbol raise your musical
libido?
Can Billy Idol read one William Gibson novel and transform
himself into a truehacker? Doubt it! Master DEBUG and call me back,
Billy.
Is alternative alternative anymore?
Answers to these and more stunningly penetrating questions in
the next edition
of SiGnAlS!
(yeah, right)
Anyways, onto more interesting stuff. I have often wondered why
MODS sound so-modlike. I know the samples contribute to the
clunkiness, the rigid timestructure doesn't help, and the
prevalence of techno isn't the greatest thingfor humanist music,
either. But then the real answer hit me. It is impossibleto add
serious vocals to a MOD. I don't mean vocals as in 'Whoo!', and
'Yougot it!', and even 'House! Techno!'. I mean serious singing. It
is hard tocreate ballads and even good rock songs for this reason.
To sample a vocaltrack would require a staggering amount of memory.
Unless you LIKE mods thatapproach 1 meg and more, full vocals are
not an option. How then, do you
create a lead voice in your music? Instruments are one option.
Flutes, synthtrumpet voices, pianos, even guitar sounds, all of
these I have tried, andseem to work well. It is even possible to
create the lead out of the chordsthemselves. This is tricky, but
possible.
Maybe if you used a really low sample rate and repeated a lot of
vocal parts,you could add a full distinct vocal track .... well,
maybe not. It seemshopeless. Don't let this stop you from creating
ballads and rock songs,though. If nothing else, program every part
but the vocals and let the restring in your head. The best mods
suggest something more than is actuallythere. As long as the music
moves you, who gives a shit about everyone else?In any case,
there's bound to be someone out there that'll hear it too.
Sorry for the meager wisdom. ;)
More in the next issue.
V : Conclusions
Yep, a 15K issue. Hopefully they'll grow even bigger. However,
after writing15000 characters, your fingers feel a bit sore. May
delay the next issue ...ah, wouldn't want to keep your manical
soul-devouring taste for good mod docsunappeased. Until the next
time: We out!
e-mail: [email protected]
turtle-express: Necr sre: Signals
The PsYcHiC MoNkS7958 State Route 69Oriskany, NY 13424
